Lovely baking!

 One of my favourite hobbies is baking!  I especially love baking cakes and pies, and I thought I'd share a few of my most enjoyed moments in the kitchen.

One of my most precious memories is making Christmas cakes with my Nana.  Nana is my mum's mum and is very precious - she is my last living grandparent.  

Although I have many happy memories of baking with her, she is no longer able to stand in the kitchen long enough to make a cake.  She is a feisty lady who isn't shy about giving her opinion.  

Unlike most people I know, she wouldn't hesitate to tell me if she thought the Christmas cake I put in her hamper this year could be improved - so when she said how much she enjoyed it, I was really delighted!  My recipe is based on an old Mrs Beeton one, with a few additions.

Before second coat of jelly

Fully glazed

This is how I decorate my Christmas cakes - it's based on an old Welsh tradition that is believed to be linked to 'smuggler's bounty' - heaping dried and glace fruits on cakes when they were available, and glazing with jam to give a 'jewelled' look. I first tried this because I am not that fond of marzipan and white icing, and I've never looked back!  

Traditionally, the fruit and nuts would be heaped in a pile in the centre of the cake, but I like this slightly more, well, Victorian look!  I spread jam or jelly underneath, add the sliced fruits, nuts and candied ginger in rows from the centre or from the corner, then add another thin layer of jam or jelly on the top. It's best to use a light colour so you can still see the fruit's lovely colours.

This year, I also made mince pies. I made my own mincemeat, using some of the mountain of apples from my mum and dad's allotment, using Delia's recipe: Delia's mincemeat.  I have a bit of a tendency to tweak the ingredients to the ones I have available and adjust the spices to taste, but it's an absolutely great recipe and reliably results in delicious mincemeat.  It's well worth making a little in advance.   

These little fruit pies are so tasty.  This year, I made them with a crumble topping, by keeping back about a third of the breadcrumbs from making the pastry and stirring in a little muscovado sugar, and making a rich buttery pastry with the other 2/3, using egg and a dash of milk and a little icing sugar to sweeten.  The self raising flour means the pastry rises slightly and has a lovely texture.

Another of my favourite bakes is these spiced orange cake squares.  I just added a little allspice, vanilla and natural orange essence to a normal sponge batter. I then did a traybake and cut into squares and popped into individual cases.  To decorate, I just cut a rough star out of a clean plastic cocoa tin lid, rested it on the top of each square, and sprinkled icing sugar, caster sugar and a pinch of allspice mixed together while they were still warm. I thought they looked really cute!

A bake I really enjoyed was the 'Emmatines' I made for Emma's birthday.  I did two types - little squares and cupcakes.  Emma loves teal and showed me the cakes she was dreaming of - and I did my best to recreate them!  I was much happier with the cupcakes than the squares, but as it was my first attempt icing cube shaped cakes I decided not to beat myself up too much.  I must admit despite taking the day off work, I was tearing my hair out a little, because I was also trying to get her quilt finished, but thankfully I did manage it all in time to drive to Manchester for the party!  These were in little gold foil cases - which aren't very eco friendly, but it was a very special occasion...

The last bakes I want to share today are some tear and share breads.  I am sure we cake lovers all have that friend who doesn't share our love of cake and sweet things, and in fact prefers savoury - but nonetheless deserves some love and care on their birthday because they are an all round wonderful person.  So the first of these breads was a personalised bread, made of lots of little stars (because this person is a star) with the birthday girl's initials on. This was made using my parsnip tear and share recipe.

Before rising

Ready for the oven

The finished loaf

The second tear and share I loved making was a cheese and onion bread for the work Christmas party, which i made in the shape of a Christmas wreath. I was worried this wouldn't work - and was so delighted when it did. I've included these before photos so you can see the sort of proportions used to make the loaf so that it kept its shape.

Hope you've enjoyed - and I look forward to hearing about your cooking exploits too!. Happy baking, folks....

H
xxx

Red onion & parsnip tear and share

This is a seasonal recipe adapted from, of all things, BBC Good Food's pizza base recipe.  The quantities provide a really great and very forgiving white bread base which is quite adaptable and can be flavoured with just about anything.  I've even done a banana and chocolate bread which was pretty damn good - but I need to test that recipe a few more times before I share it (how will I cope!)

The recipe was basically dreamed up, like most of my recipes, when I discovered a solitary leftover ingredient in my fridge that I didn't know what to do with - in this case a parsnip. I was going through an obsessive bread making phase - I tend to go through obsessive phases with all my hobbies - and decided I would try to find a way to get delicious parsnip and delicious bread to become besties.  I wanted that crispy parsnip flavour, rather than the woody undercooked flavour parsnip can sometimes have, and soft, fluffy bread.

The recipe may seem a little bit fiddly if you haven't made a lot of bread before, and if so, it's probably best to try it on a quiet afternoon, if you ever have one, so you can take your time.  If you are an experienced bread maker this one should be a piece of cake. Except it'll be made of bread.

Makes a 16 doughball tear and share

Ingredients

300g strong white bread flour

1 teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon instant/easy-bake yeast

200ml warm water

1/2 small red onion, chopped finely

1 small parsnip, grated (large gauge)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon uncooked semolina or pasta flour

Put the flour into a bowl, and stir in the salt and dry yeast. In a pan, fry the chopped onion in 1 ½ tablespoons of olive oil until the pieces are soft and going transparent, then add in the grated parsnip.  Stir continuously until the parsnip is soft and starting to brown. Set aside.

Put a handful of flour on your work surface and spread it out a little.

Add all the water (don't be shy) and half a tablespoon of the olive oil to the bowl of flour, yeast and salt. Stir as much as you can with a spoon, and then gather the mixture together with your hands.

Once it is all stuck together, pick it up and put it on the floured worktop. The mixture may be a little sticky, but try to resist the urge to add flour until it is well mixed.

After 3 - 5 minutes of kneading, (during which you can add flour to make it more workable) your dough should be feeling smooth and it should all have the same consistency. It should start to feel a little silky as the glutens are released, rather than sticky.

Flatten out the dough a little on the worktop. Scoop the onion and parsnip from the pan and put it onto one half of the dough. Fold the dough over the veg, seal the edges together roughly and knead again until it’s well distributed (1-2 mins).  You may need to add a little flour as the dough will be a little sticky/oily at this stage.

Sprinkle the bottom of a dish (about 12-15cm square will do, or you can use a large solid bottom cake tin) lightly with semolina. Divide the dough into 4, then each quarter into quarters. Using your hands, roll the dough into balls.  Place in the balls of dough on top of the semolina – they should be just touching.  Drizzle with the last of the olive oil.
Pour about 2 mugs of boiling water into the bowl you mixed the dough in, and rest the tin or dish on top. If the bowl is the wrong shape, use the pan instead.  Cover both with a dry teatowel.  After 20 - 25 minutes or so, they should be nearly doubled in size and all puffed together (and your bowl or pan will be a lot easier to wash up!) Preheat the oven to 200C. 

Grind salt over the top of the bread, and pop it in the oven and bake for about 15 -20 minutes. You may need to turn the dish after 10 minutes to ensure it cooks evenly. It is done when the doughballs are well risen and the tops are all browned.

Really nice served warm with a little butter.  Yes, butter.  Go on - just a little bit.

H xxx