Meandering, Cakeless

Please excuse the lack of blogging action recently. Normal service may be resumed shortly, but in the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture of somewhere I wish I were going...

And somewhere I've been recently....

She sells seashells on the seashore, 
The shells that she sells are seashells for sure.

Random Recipes... the Cookbooks

This month Dom has challenged us to do something a little different for his random recipes challenge. Instead of the usual making of a random recipe he has invited us to share the collection of books from which these random recipes come.

I am the first to admit that I am not a complete regular when it comes to entering the random recipes challenge. I always, always look up and see which recipe I would have got according to the rules of the challenge that month, but the recipe is rarely something I have either the time, ingredients or inclination to make, and so despite my best intentions I end up skipping month after month. But not this time. With no cooking involved I thought there was no way I could miss this one.... although the amount of time it has taken me to get photos almost made me too late. The problem is not the photos so much as the gathering of the recipe books from far flung corners of the house into their home the bookshelf. Yes, I have had to tidy up! (I really hate tidying up!)

So here you can see my collection. They live on two bookshelves in my bedroom, one large one small and although there are still a couple scattered around the place this is the vast majority. None in the kitchen or living room here - just the bedroom.

I don't know if anyone else has this problem but I have no idea how to organise my books - you can perhaps see that there are a number of different attempts going on at categorisation. There are some books categorised by author - you can probably see some spines you recognise (Nigella, Delia, Hugh F-W, Jamie Oliver) etc and then there are some that are organised by genre - vegetarian for example, or baking (there's pretty much an entire shelf dedicated to those ones!) or by publisher - a series of books published by Ryland, Peters and Small, and a series of BBC Good Food 101 books. But what to do with the BBC 101 Cakes and Bakes - with the series of the same publisher or with the baking books? The series above is one I particularly enjoy looking through - the recipes are great and the photography is fab.

These are the newer acquisitions - no logical order at all. And a couple of old ones thrown in for good measure. 

Needless to say I do not cook from all of them regularly. To my shame some of them have barely been opened, but in my defence some of them are regularly opened and read, even if they are not used as much as they might be. Inspiration comes from many sources. Anyway, above are some of my most used ones. Nigella had a bit of an accident with a halogen ring that was still hot, although off, so is looking rather the worse for wear. It's not a particular surprise that my most used books are baking ones is it???

These are the newest ones - yet to be delved into thoroughly. I am rather suggestible though - someone out there (one of my particularly lovely blogging friends!) is responsible for one of these.... but I don't regret buying it!

A few of many magazines...

I confess to being one of the world's worst hoarders - I hate throwing things away and have years and years worth of various magazines on subscription that I cannot bring myself to chuck out. However, I frequently re-read them and so justify keeping them to myself. I also am lucky enough not to have any space issues - it's just storing them tidily that's the problem!

The second set of shelves - much smaller!

So there we are, a little peek into the world of my cookbooks. I've really enjoyed seeing everyone else's collections, so I hope you've enjoyed seeing mine too!

Hit or miss? Madeira Cake

I wonder if I'm the only one with this problem? I sometimes think that there are little kitchen fairies that you have to please in order for your baking to work out. I must be on and off the 'in favour' list because sometimes a recipe will work really well for me, and on other occasions the same recipe will be a bit of a failure. Not catastrophic, just a bit disappointing in small ways.

The example that springs to mind for me is Nigella's Madeira cake. I first made this recipe many, many years ago in a dodgy oven when I was at university. I was using the correct tin, but something went wrong and a large lump of my cake had overflowed and ended up on the base of the oven floor. I avoided the recipe for a long time after that incident.

Then a colleague asked for a Madeira cake just before Christmas and I thought it would be good to oblige. I thought of the Nigella recipe and having successfully made her rosemary madiera recipe which is almost identical I decided to give this one another chance. Complete success. Rose beautifully, gorgeous crack along the length, crusty with caster sugar. (No picture, sorry).

Decided to make the cake again, emboldened by the memory of the pre-Christmas success. Slightly disappointing. The cake did rise, but not very well, and the lovely crack of the previous cake wasn't evident. This loaf rose a little, but spread a little too, along the sides of the tin. As I said, just a little disappointing. It still tastes just as good, but I wonder why these things happen. Is it just me, or are there recipes that you use and just accept that the results are variable compared to your expectations. As for me and Madeira, I'll be trying this BBC Good Food version next time (substituting plain flour for the almonds) to see how it compares.

Apologies for the naff photos - I wasn't going to blog this so I didn't make any effort when recording how this cake turned out.

2011 - the highlights

It's been a pretty tasty year round here (as far as baking goes!), so I thought that I'd recap some of the best bits of the past year in one post (yes, another of those 'here's what I made last year, wasn't it great!' posts!!!). These are my favourites of 2011, roughly one a month, but with a couple of bonus ones I just couldn't leave out.

January

Roasted potato olive bread

This was such a tasty bread - perfect to eat with soup, it was filling and I loved the roasted new potatoes in the bread, great with the olives.

February

Cornish Fairings

For a recipe that I stumbled across accidentally, these were extremely tasty. I do love a good old fashioned biscuit, and these are gently spicy and nice and crunchy.

March

Sour Cream bread

This one has made it into the regular rotation - if I ever have spare soured cream in the fridge, this is one of the most delicious ways to use it up that I have found. I do think that it needs to be baked as a loaf in a tin though, it just doesn't seem to work with more crust.

April

Dark Chocolate mud cake

What would Easter be without a celebratory chocolate cake, and this cake was certainly good for celebrating! Moist and fudgy and rich with a delicious chocolate icing and yummy chocolate mini eggs. There is one thing about it being the new year now - surely the mini eggs can't be far from the shops now! (I usually hate most of the commercial eggs and rubbish that is marketed, but mini eggs are the exception!)

May

World Peace Cookies

If only world peace were so easy to come by. 2011 sadly hasn't been the most peaceful year, but thanks go to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for introducing me to these cookies and countless other delights through the year.

June

Soda Bread

Another bread that has been added to the regular rotation. In fact I enjoyed this bread so much that I didn't really eat much else in the way of bread for a couple of months - slack times for trying new breads, but that's what happens when you stumble across a gem! After making it in a round tin a few times I eventually decided it was better in a square tin - easier to cut into even pieces. Goes perfectly with cheese, and is great for breakfast too. An all round winner, and very adaptable to the variety of flours I have used in it over the months.

July

Spelt and corn batch rolls

I had a lovely holiday and although I did some baking it wasn't as prolific as other months. These spelt and corn batch rolls are worth a revisit now the weather is colder and I am wanting a slightly heavier bread. They were delicious and I remember thinking how good they'd be with a soup or stew.

August

Ricotta scones

I never thought I would find a scone recipe to replace my old trusty standby, known by heart and well practiced. This is that replacement recipe. I have made this so many times now, with lots of variations and I'm in love with all of them. My love of scones may have gone unnoticed, but it is a true love and I am so happy to have found this recipe. Citrus, cherry vanilla, double chocolate, chocolate chip, vanilla raisin, however they come this recipe is always moist, light and utterly delicious. These are mine, all mine!

September

Peanut butter Chocolate flapjacks

A really inspired idea led me to substitute the tahini called for in Dan Lepard's halva flapjacks with peanut butter. Adding chocolate and cranberries created a real winner!

October

Chocolate and raspberry marble cake

A simple recipe, but this reminded me how good a basic cake can be. The raspberry flavour came through well, the chunks of chocolate in the chocolate cake were delicious and I really enjoyed eating this one.

November

Slider buns

These were so delicious. I haven't remade them yet, but they are certainly going to be made very soon. Just looking at them makes me sad that they're all gone. A stunning recipe from Dan Lepard.

Another excellent recipe from November

Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes

These were utterly stunning. So light and fluffy and moist. I'm definitely going to make them again and explore vegan baking further in the future!

December

Raspberry and Blueberry soured cream cake

Such a simple cake, but so delicious. And still a couple of pieces left in the freezer. This makes me happy.

And my final recipe, also from December:

Rudolph's Flapjacks

These were a surprise hit - so moist and delicious, Christmassy but also suitable for other times of the year too - I love flapjack (with two in the round up of the year you've probably guessed this!) and this was a great twist on the humble oaty slice.

A good year for new bread recipes, very much inspired by Dan Lepard and a few good cakes, flapjacks and cookies in there too!

Many thanks to all my blogging friends, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your blogs this year, getting inspiration and help from you, and more recently chatting too. I look forward to doing all of these things more and more next year. Happy New Year to all my lovely readers for 2012, I hope that you all have a peaceful and prosperous new year and that it is filled with good things. 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope your day is filled with peace and joy,

happiness and fun

In my (festive) kitchen - December 2011



Using the same format as Celia, of the fabulous Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, I'm going to show you just a little of what is happening in my kitchen this December. I'm probably more festive than you'd guess from my recent posts, it's just that I'm running out of time to blog all the things I've made!

Anyway, to start I'd like to introduce you to Rudolph. As a child I was so obsessed with fluffy animal toys - I saved all of my pocket money until I could buy a new one, and I loved to play with them. Christmas weakens my adult resolve to not buy these toys anymore, and suddenly I found that Rudolph had jumped into my shopping basket and I didn't have the heart to tell him that he belonged with his friends on the shop shelf rather than at home with me, so home he came.

In my kitchen is a big box of clementines - obviously these are only some of them. Christmas for me always means satsumas, tangerines and clementines. As a child I wasn't allowed oranges, but had a special one in my stocking each year. I loved feeling down to the bottom of my stocking and getting that rough skinned fruit out, along with a shiny pound coin, and of course, all the other bounty contained in the stocking!

The card is one made by my gorgeous mum, and I think she's very clever. I love the simplicity, and how it says Christmas, but in an understated way. Thank you J! The tealight holder is a recent acquisition - I think it'll make a lovely festive table decoration for this season, and a great place to put a Christmas scented tealight. 

This year's batch of mincemeat. Made to Delia Smith's classic recipe, but with a few little tweaks of my own. I ought to post this separately, but probably won't get round to it!

Well, this is my most festive baking tin. I can't decide whether it's a snowflake or some sort of exotic flower, or what, but I really like it. There should be an upcoming post making best use of this festive beauty soon.

I recently bought these rather lovely star shaped cutters, perfect for creating festive decorations. I used them to make the peppermint creams below, and have used them for another bake, to be posted soon. I particularly love the little storage tin they come in, which has the shapes cleverley and prettily printed on the base of the tin so that you can fit them back in again without crushing them or resorting to naughty words!

Peppermint creams. The first time I've tried these and they were delicious - well, how can icing sugar combined with condensed milk and peppermint extract not be delicious? But no recipe because I think I got the icing sugar/condensed milk proportions wrong - they crushed rather easily. It's such a shame that I'm going to have to keep making them until they're right....

Chocolate mendiants - so easy to make (although mine aren't with tempered chocolate - a skill I have yet to even attempt, let alone aquire!) and disproportionately well received. They look very impressive when packaged in a cellophane bag with a pretty ribbon. Easy to adapt - just pick your favourite chocolate and your favourite dried fruit and nuts!

Check out what is other people's kitchens at this festive time of the year by visiting Celia's lovely blog, Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, and looking to the panel on the right where there are links to other people's kitchens.

A festive photo for No Croutons Required

As tradition dictates, December is the month for a festive photo for No Croutons Required. Jac has asked for any festive photo. I took this photo of the sun setting last year on Christmas day, with just a sprinkling of snow visible on the rooftops in the foreground. Snow is most unusual for the northwest of the UK, so I doubt I'll get a chance to capture a scene like this again, and on Christmas day itself!

It reminds me of the lovely day I had shared with my family, and how lucky I am to be able to do so.

Food Bloggers Unplugged

Having been tagged twice, by Kate at What Kate Baked and Suelle at Mainly Baking, for Food Bloggers Unplugged, I thought I had better get on and think of some answers. The idea of the ten questions is to learn a little more of the person who writes the blog and it was started by Susan of A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate

So here are my answers....

1. What, or who inspired you to start a blog?

I clearly remember the first food blog I ever looked at - I was searching for a Nigella Lawson chocolate cake recipe that I knew I had seen in a book borrowed from the library, and wondered if I could find it online. I stumbled across A Spoonful of Sugar. It sort of went from there - I read blogs for a while, and then decided to take the plunge and start my own, with some trepidation - I wasn't sure I could keep it up, but three and a half years later I'm still here!

2. Who is your foodie inspiration?

I don't think I really have one foodie inspiration. I think lots of people and things influence me - other bloggers, television chefs, lots and lots really.

3. Your greasiest, batter - splattered food/drink book is?

I do try really, really hard not to splatter my books, but the prize here defnintely goes to Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. I bought this book a very long time ago, after seeing it at my Grans and repeatedly reading it and wishing for my own copy. This was before Amazon and cheap supermarket books on offer so it was an indulgent treat. It was also before I started earning my own money! It has been well used and is a little spattered but it had a rather unfortunate meeting with a hot hotplate and was only rescued when we all wondered what the disgusting smell was.... it's never quite been the same since, but I still enjoy looking through it!

 

4. Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?

As a slight understatement, I am not an adventurous foodie. I have been lucky enough to go to some lovely places on holiday (although not far-flung exotics) but am never very adventurous. However, my stand out delicious dish was a pizza I ate in Bologna a couple of years ago. J and I had wandered down some back streets and came across a little restaurant. As we walked past we could see the wood fired oven in the kitchen and made a note to come back for dinner later. I had a pizza with the most sublime aubergine on it, which made me realise just how meltingly soft and delicious aubergine can be, and there was parmesan on my pizza too, which was amazing. I wish I were back there now!

5. Another food bloggers table you'd like to eat at is?

Hmmm, do I have to choose just one? I'd like to eat at Celia's table because everything she produces looks absolutely delicious and I'd love to be part of her family's conversations! But I'd equally well like to eat at Joanna's table, because her food all looks amazing too, and I'd love to verify that her bread tastes as fabulous as it looks (I'm sure it does). And who wouldn't want to meet Zeb?

6. What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)?

Um, if money is really no object would Santa mind an entire new kitchen (to replace the nasty falling apart mess that currently masquerades as a place to cook) please? Or is that just too cheeky? Honestly, I'm not sure, I'm rubbish at asking for Christmas presents!

Random flower to break up my wordy post and remind me of lovely Italian holidays!

7. Who taught you how to cook?

I don't really do cooking; I do bake though. I picked up bits from my mum mostly and then just added other things myself.

8. I'm coming to you for dinner what's your signature dish?

See the answer to question 7! How do you fancy bread for your main followed by cake for dessert? I could run to spreading the bread with some really good butter though... I don't really think I have a signature dish I can be proud of!

 

9. What is your guilty food pleasure?

I don't think it's a guilty food pleasure, because I don't feel guilty, but I eat a lot of chocolate. And I really do mean a lot.

10. Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?

When I was little I wanted to eat honey straight from the jar (well, via a spoon rather than Winnie the Pooh like) and my mum said I wouldn't like it. Well, I did and I do. Quite often. Actually this might have been a better answer to number 9 really mightn't it!

Best pizza ever!

I'm supposed to tag five other people now, but lots of the blogs I visit have already been tagged so apologies if you've already been tagged and please don't feel obliged to participate but I'd like to tag

Lou at Please Do Not Feed the Animals
Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial
Joanna at Zeb Bakes
Katie at Apple and Spice
and... The Caked Crusader (whose identity shall never be revealed!)

Bread rolls and playing with your food

Inspired (and aided!) by Celia, Brydie and Joanna, these are my bread rolls made with my new bread presses a spiral, a kaiser/vienna and a rosette/rosetta (I bought two of them from Bakery Bits, here you need to scroll down) but I need to play around some more with the recipe that I'm using. When I press the rolls they flatten a lot, and my dough doesn't seem to have much oven spring, resulting in rather flat rolls. It's just a straight yeasted dough, a little lower in hydration than my usual, and with a little olive oil added.

I suspect that this is partly to do with the fact that as they proove they seem to develop a bit of a skin, I ought to try prooving them in a moister environment to prevent this and try and get them to spring a bit more. I also think that the white rolls weren't aided by a further experiment in using some quite elderly '00' pasta flour I had hanging around. I don't think it was designed for bread really - not only did they not spring very well, they staled quite quickly too. I ought to try either Joanna's recipe or Celia's sourdough rather than just freestyling.

I also found that if I pressed them immediately before baking I got the patterns you see above

whereas if I pressed them and allowed them to proove a little further, the pattern all but disappeared on baking seen here at the front - I pressed the back one just before baking. All good fun but I do need some more practice before I can emulate the three bakers I linked to at the beginning of this post. If you want stunning pictures, hop through to their blogs!

This one is my best one!

Typically though, the bread rolls I made the morning I was expecting the presses to arrive in the post (and they didn't arrive until after the bread needed baking.... one of those days) sprang much better and were reasonably tasty if nothing special. Just goes to show though, that even if you don't have fancy presses, you can still make pretty bread rolls. I just used my small dough scraper, but any reasonably firm piece of plastic would probably do.