Great British Bake Off - Florentines - Mary Berry Recipe

Well, the temperatures are heating up in the Great British Bake Off tent, but today's offering is Mary Berry's Florentines from Week 2 - Biscuits.  Here, they formed the Technical Challenge for the bakers, but it seemed the most important thing to know was how to temper chocolate.  That and correctly measuring out your ingredients.

Firstly, prepare and weigh out the nuts, flour and fruit.  I had some flaked almonds to use up, so used these instead of chopped almonds.  I chopped them into smaller pieces so the mixture would adhere together.  As I didn't have the amount of almonds required, I just used extra hazelnuts.  It is, however, just as I am typing this up, that I realise the recipe called for walnuts, NOT hazelnuts.  Ooopps.  Oh well, still tasted great.

Gently heat the butter, golden syrup and demerara sugar until the butter has melted.  The sugar does not need to dissolve.

Add the flour, fruit and nuts and combine.

You then need to divide the mixture into 18 portions and place 6 on each lined baking tray.  I have quite large baking trays, so will just use 2 next time.  The important thing is they need space to spread.

Pop into a preheated 180c static oven and bake for 8 - 10 minutes.  Mine took 8 minutes on the top shelf and 9 minutes on the bottom.  They need to be golden brown.  Just cooked enough, so they have a crunch as you bite in, but a chewy centre, but not undercooked, so they flop when picked up once cooled.

I don't think I would have won any prizes for equal sizing, but hey, I can work on that!  Whilst they were cooling on a wire rack, it was time for the chocolate layer.  The recipe is also found in Mary's Baking Bible, and here she suggests melting all the chocolate together, then spreading over the base of the Florentine and allowing to cool.  On Bake Off, the chocolate needs to be tempered, so half the chocolate is melted in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until it reaches 53C.  The remaining chopped up chocolate is then added to the bowl (now removed from the simmering water) and stirred until it melts and then cools to 26C.  For this you really need a proper sugar thermometer (now on my shopping list!!) as mine only went down to 50C.  So basically I judged it by whether I could make a zigzag in the chocolate once on the biscuit.

 Simply delicious served with a proper posh tea, in a not so posh but lovely mug!

I shared a few, but most got nibbled straight from the tin as they were so moreish.

I've also been making the most of the late summer fruit harvest. 
Damson Gin, which will mature until Xmas ......... hopefully!

 

 

 

Plus Cinnamon Baked Plums which I found on a great website - The British Larder.

Perfect with yoghurt, rice pudding, ice-cream.

 

 

 

Happy Baking!

Great British Bake Off - Cherry & Almond Cake - Mary Berry Recipe

So in a week I've managed to bake 4 cakes.  Luckily for the waistline, I've only tried a slice or 2 of each.  This weeks offering came from watching Week 1 of the Great British Bake Off .  As it was Cake Week, Mary Berry's Cherry Cake was the choice for the Technical Challenge. 

The technical side of it was knowing what to do with the cherries as Mary DID NOT want them all to sink to the bottom.  To prevent this you quartered each glace cherry (reserving 5 cherries for decoration), rinsed them under cool water, drain and dry well, then toss in 2tbls of the required flour.  Its a new tip for me and might also work when you put fresh fruit in a cake batter as it often sinks.  Removing the glaze and tossing in flour helps them stick to the batter, rather than 'slipping' through it whilst baking.

 

The remaining batter ingredients are placed in a bowl and blended together for 2 minutes until smooth.

Then gently fold in the prepared cherries and scrap into a buttered Bundt tin.  The recipe asks for a 23cm tin, but mine is 25cm, so will create a wider, but not so deep cake.

Pop it in a pre-heated 180c static oven.  Now time to pour a G&T and sit back and relax while it bakes.  Wouldn't do that on Bake Off would you!

35 minutes later it came out the oven nice and golden.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tin before turning out to cool completely.

The icing was a simple mix of icing sugar and lemon juice, though as the recipe states the juice of 1 lemon, don't add it all at once.  Lemons vary in size and juiciness. My icing could have been slightly thicker, but I'm happy with it.  Also a good tip is put a plate or kitchen paper under your cooling rack to catch the icing that inevitably drips off the cake!  Adorn with the remaining cherries and flaked almonds and voila!

The destination for this cake was for after my Running Clubs Annual Charity Relay Race around Hayling Island.  A bit more crumbly than expected (probably due to the ground almonds in the batter), but pretty tasty, I didn't get to bring much home.  AND the cherries were well distributed throughout the cake I think.  Would I have passed the Technical Challenge Mary???

A variation of this recipe can also found in Mary Berry's Baking Bible using a round tin, instead of a Bundt tin.

Happy Baking!

Frosted Courgette & Lemon Cake

So it begins.  Another season of The Great British Bake Off!  What a mixture of contestants as usual. 
I was tempted to give Mary Berry's Cherry Cake from Week 1 a go, but as I was off to see my Godson at the weekend and his favourite cake is Victoria Sponge, it seemed right to bake Mary's version instead.  The recipe comes from the Mary Berry Baking Bible.

Such a simple cake, you put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and whizz together until blended well.  The only difference in the book from the one I have linked to, is the recommended oven temperature.  In the book its 160c for a fan oven and bake for 25 minutes.  Mine were starting to darken on the top, so I just covered with baking parchment for the last 5 minutes.  I'm still cheating and using cake tin liners, hence the ridged edges.  Mary would not approve!

I did, however, fill it with homemade strawberry jam with a hint of rose syrup.  So I may have redeemed myself.  Lovely and light, it certainly didn't last long.

Always on the look out for more recipes to use up the 'Allotment Glut' of fruit and veg, I stumbled across a recipe for Frosted Courgette & Lemon Cake on the BBC food website.

Again, another simple sponge recipe with the addition of lots of grated courgettes.  This one used a 50/50 mix of white self-raising flour and wholemeal flour.  It meant I got to use some Emmer flour from Doves Farm Organic that my Sister had found me.  Wholemeal, but without the bits!

You use 300g of courgettes in the batter so it makes for a really moist cake.

I baked mine at 160c for 25 minutes, turning part way through so they cooked more evenly.  They look a bit pock-marked, but that's due to all the courgettes.

The first one I made for a friends husband as a thank you for buying us all lunch.  I followed the recipe by filling and topping with the frosting and lemon curd in the middle.

The second attempt just had filling and lemon curd, as I needed to use up the remaining full fat cheese tub.  Just as delicious and a bit more portable if you want to give away some!

I might give the Cherry Cake a go this weekend, but then there's all the biscuits to try from Week 2 of Bake Off.  Oh the dilemma!

Happy Baking!

Paul Hollywood's Chocolate Eclairs

Now, as you probably know I'm a BIG fan of the Great British Bake-Off and watched the recent Comic Relief Bake-Off specials with glee.  Its always fun to see how people react to the challenges set by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood and also to pick up more tips and recipes along the way. 

So I thought I'd better challenge myself to try a new 'Bake-Off ' technique as seen on one of the shows.  Paul Hollywood's Chocolate Eclairs got the vote this time.  OH is a bit of an eclair fan and I have been promising to make these for ages, so at least I wouldn't have to eat them all myself!

I started off making the choux pastry, which involves melting the butter in water over a low heat......

Then you raise the heat until it bubbles and add in the sifted flour.  Take off the heat and beat furiously until it comes together into a ball, then put back on a low heat for a minute to cook the flour a little, stirring so it doesn't stick.  Pop into a mixing bowl to cool.

Beat 2 eggs in a separate bowl.  The recipe doesn't stipulate what size eggs, so I used 2 medium sized eggs, courtesy of my friend Cathy's chickens.  One yolk was so huge, it was double the size of the other one!

Using a hand mixer, you then add the eggs gradually until you get a nice thick batter, suitable for piping and with a lovely shiny appearance.  I got to use my fab new Kenwood Hand Mixer too.  Its so lovely.

See, nice and shiny.......

Spoon the batter into a piping bag - to make this easier try using a pint glass or jug to hold the bag upright.....

Then pipe onto a greased or lined baking sheet.........

You then bake the pastry in a static 200c oven for 15 minutes.   Without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 170c and bake for a further 10 minutes until golden.  Take out the pastries and make a little hole in each one to release the steam and bake for a further 5 minutes or until golden in colour and crisp all over.

I was so pleased they actually looked right, I nearly squeaked.

Then pipe in some whipped up cream with added icing sugar and vanilla extract.  I put the cream into a freezer bag and snipped the corner off to use as a disposable piping bag - it worked a treat.

Top with melted chocolate and voila!

My sister had got me a handy little chocolate melting pot from Lakeland, which is ideal for melting small amounts of chocolate and made it much easier to get the chocolate on the top of the eclairs and not all over everything else!
Milk chocolate on the bottom of the picture and a rather ingenious suggestion by OH to try Montezuma's Dark Chocolate Sea Dog at the top of the picture.  Lime and sea salt isn't your usual eclair topping, but trust me....... its gorgeous.

Then demolish!  So what will you bake for Comic Relief?

Happy baking!

So how about some Pie!

Just a quickie little blog-post..........

Well then, you know a little about Me, Scubamonkey, likes to knit, bake, spin, run, blah blah blah

..................................you've seen the Socks, (these ones are called Monkey, how apt)

so how about a nice bit of Pie!

Not wanting to sound repetitive, but yup, its another Great British Bake-off recipe !  From the first series, its no ordinary meaty pie, but a rather scrumptious Lemon Meringue Pie.

Please excuse the rather rubbish photos, but it was getting dark and the flash seems to wash everything out.

I can't believe I have never made, let alone eaten a Lemon Meringue Pie before.  Its delicious.  Only downside was the recipe asked for a 22cm flan tin and I only had a 23cm tin.  So the fillings could have been a little deeper.  But oh my, its one to try.  3 days on and we're still getting through it.
I was very hesitant about holding the whipped meringue mix over my head to see if it was ready and thankfully for my hair it was.  Phwew!

A top tip I've learnt if you've stored egg whites in the freezer and perhaps forgotten to write down the correct amount and need them for meringues.........Moi!  Non possible......  weigh the egg whites and then use double the weight in sugar (eg: 100g egg whites to 200g castor sugar).....voila!

And after far too long an absence I finally found got around to using my lovely spinning wheel again.  All the fleece I have stored around is far too nice for just heat insulation despite the cold so it was nice to get going on the wheel again and create something unique.

Mary Berry's Banana and Choc Chip Loaf Cake

So what do you do when you have an excess of over-ripe bananas smelling out your kitchen??????
Well spurred on by the Sport Relief Great British Bake-off on TV recently, I couldn't resist having a go at Mary Berry's Banana and Choc Chip Loaf Cake.  All the contestants had made a hash of it, though this was mainly due to mix-up's with measuring spoon sizes.........not ideal with baking powder and bi-carb it turns out.
I can do better than that I thought!  Being a little too cocky isn't always wise.
Lets just say I didn't have soft enough butter.  Oops.  The recipe says mush up the bananas, then add all the other ingredients except the choc chips and mix up well.  Mine didn't blend quite as well as it should, possible due to un-soft butter, possibly also as I think its best to cream butter and sugar first, then add eggs, then flour, etc etc.  When it was cooking a lot of the butter seeped out, as it hadn't blended properly, causing it to be quite greasy on the outside.  Sitting it on some kitchen towel, soon sorted this problem out and the result was a very moist, tasty cake. 

Needless to say, I had to try it again, to perfect, creaming the very soft butter with the sugar first and then adding the other ingredients in succession.  Only owning a 2lb loaf tin, I doubled the ingredients and cooked the cake for about 50 minutes.  Delicious and one I shall make again.   Surely its part of my "5-a-day" ?  This one was enjoyed with a nice cuppa...... thanks for the tea-set Mum!  So pretty.

As you may have picked up along the way, I love baking my own bread, but I think its always a good idea to go back to basics sometimes and remind yourself of the principles of bread-baking. In my Bake-Off book there is a good section on bread and the science behind it.  You can get carried away with making bread and forget why its all so clever.  There is a recipe for a basic white loaf, which I had a go at, using some different techniques I hadn't tried before.  Putting the risen loaves on baking parchment rather than direct onto the bare baking sheet prevented the loaves from overly browning underneath.  Also having a heated deep tray in the bottom of the oven and adding cold water to it at the same time that the loaves go in created steam throughout the whole baking time.  Rather than my usual crispier crusts it created a lovely soft chewy crust.

I was able to use the bread for sandwiches 2 days later, rather than just for toast, which was a real bonus.   Yum yum yum yum.

On the crafty front I am really pleased with a little tank-top I have finished for niece Ellie.  Think it might be a wee bit big for now.  Could double-up as a dress?? 
Also having fun making a pair of Monkey socks in some rather wacky purple and green sock yarn.  I won't lose my feet in these! Got some funny looks knitting them on the train yesterday though :)

Mary Berry's Tarte Au Citron

What better excuse than New Years Eve to attempt Mary Berry's Tarte Au Citron from my new Great British Bake Off book (courtesy of my lovely Sis!).  Always wise though to make sure you have all your ingredients before the shops shut on New Years Eve.  Totally forgetting I had used eggs the night before, I found out I was one egg short of a Tarte Au Citron.  No sniggers please.  Thank cripes for the local shop!  Disaster averted, preparation could proceed.

Pastry is always so quick and easy in a food processor and avoids warm hands warming the butter too much.  Once I had chilled the pastry in the fridge for a bit, I used a new trick suggested by Mrs Berry to ensure you have the right sized pastry for your tart tin.  Simple really but effective.  Lay a sheet of baking paper on the worktop and place the base of your tart tin on the paper.  Draw a circle around the outside of the tin base 4cm bigger than the base of the tin.  You then dust the tin base with a little flour, pop the ball of chilled pastry in the centre and start rolling out the pastry, turning the paper sheet after each roll, so you get a nice even circle.  Continue until you have reached your pencil mark.  Fold the overlapped pastry back onto the base section of the tin, gently lift the tin base off the paper and into the tin case.  Then you can proceed with pressing the pastry into the corners.  Like I said simple, but saves playing around with the pastry too much. 

Part-baked tart

I definitely need to invest in a shallower pastry tin.  Mine is more for quiches (any excuse to purchase more baking equipment......), hence the pastry stood quite proud above the filling and when baking blind the edges coloured up quite quickly, so I didn't bake the pastry for as long as I should.

Just out the oven

It all tasted lovely, but my slightly soggy bottom wouldn't have won the Great British Bake Off technical challenge.  The filling is delectably tart with a hint of sweetness.  We decided we wouldn't be suffering from Scurvy anytime soon with all that Vitamin C.  It was my first attempt at sweet pastry, so certainly one to try mastering again.

Cracked the filling transferring to the stand!

I confess not my first, but second attempt at making ciabatta also got included in our New Years Eve food consumption.  Using a recipe from River Cottage's Bread book, it was a loaf I learnt on my Bread course at River Cottage.  A very sticky dough with a higher than usual ratio of water to flour, it requires time to make, but is incredibly satisfying to make your own.  You need to keep "lifting" the dough every 1/2 hour for 3 hours and then allow it to double in size before baking, but the recipe makes 6 decent size loaves.

Lifting the dough

Every time you lift and turn the dough it becomes silkier and starts to blister.  Blisters are good.  More air-holes are what you want in a ciabatta.  A liberal dusting of coarse semolina flour and you have a very authentic and super tasty home-made ciabatta.

3 of the 6 ciabattas

Its worth making the full amount as the loaves freeze really well, so handy to go with home-made soup perhaps.  I urge you, if you have the book, to give it a go, just set aside a Saturday morning to make them.
One thing I did think off whilst making the ciabatta is every 1/2 hourly turning left me with gooey fingers.  I must look out for some of those catering gloves that I can slip on each time, to save on sticky hands.

To a productive baked and crafted 2012............enjoy

Served with a snifter of Limoncello