Baking – Eat Bake Blog GB

Anzac Biscuits; easier to bake than going to the shops

Oct 23, 2016Oct 25, 2016Leave a comment

It was an autumnal Sunday afternoon and after watching Super Sunday, which was a disappointing match (that goal was never offside) I decided we needed cheering up with a cup of tea and a treat. I could not be bothered to go to the shops for a pack of biscuits on this wet and chilly day so I reached for Mary Berry’s bible to find inspiration.

The first one I turned to was Anzac Biscuits. It was fate as these are childhood favourites of mine and Mum used to make these moreish biscuits on a regular basis. I probably have not eaten these since I was in primary school. These biscuits are now all about comaraderie and the were originally baked in Australia and New Zealand to honour the soldiers from the battle of Gallipoli. They were great to bake during rationing as the binding agent is syrup instead of eggs and they are super easy to make without any kitchen wizardry.

I fired up the oven and greased my fabulous Bake-Off baking sheet; I love this adonised aluminium baking sheet and really regret not buying another back in 2015.

The ingredients you will need are:

150g (5oz) butter cubed (to speed up dissolving)
1 dessert spoon of Golden Syrup
1 dessert spoon of Maple Syrup
175g (6oz) Sugar (split between Demerara and Golden Caster)
75g (3oz) Self-raising flour
75g (3oz) desiccated coconut
100g (4oz) porridge oats
Equipment you will need are 3 baking sheets, small or medium pan, cooling racks and small palette knife or spatula.

The method is so simple, it’s easier than going to the shops to buy biscuits – just follow these steps:

Turn your oven on to setting 160°c fan or gas mark 6
Lightly grease 3 baking sheets
Melt the butter, sugars and syrups in a pan and melt until melted / dissolved
Add the dry ingredients (SR flour, coconut, porridge oats)
Mix your dry into your wet ingredients and stir until combined well
Spoon a heaped teaspoon onto trays (about 9 per tray) and pressing each one with the back of a spoon to flatten slightly.
Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
Once baked (edges will be a golden brown) leave for 2 minutes to cool slightly before moving onto your cooling racks.

Store in an air tight container if you can resist eating them all before they have cooled.

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Louise x

MacMillan Bakeathon

Oct 14, 2016Oct 20, 2016Leave a comment

I never need an excuse to hone my technical skills so this the MacMillan Coffee Morning was a great opportunity to practice and develop my baking skill. As I was away on the Coffee Morning I decided to bake twice a week leading up the worlds biggest coffee morning.

The first offering was a classic Victoria Sponge, which turned out better than I expected for a first attempt.

I did the all in one method using

225g self raising flour

225g Stork

225g golden caster sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

I was unsure as of my bake mixture and in my panic and added an extra egg yolk.

It was layered with fresh strawberries and a white chocolate topping.

However I would say there is no other jam to use than the delicious Tip Tree Raspberry Seedless Jam.

So the next Victoria Sponge was baked and this time ensured all the ingredients weighed 225g using only Tip Tree as a filling. It still was good but personally I think the extra egg in the first bake really stole the show – others thought not.

As I had chocolate icing left over I made fairy buns to use this up. I loved these little sponges I just wished I’d put some jam into the centre.

Next two bakes were my signature bake Banana, chocolate & Pecan Loaf, with my twist of adding Maple Syrup, I usually add 2 tablespoons this time I added 4 of Clark’s Maple Syrup.

Banana loaf with Lindt Chocolate — Victoria Sponge

Over two weeks and four bakes we raised fifty pounds sterling, and probably added a few to our waistlines but I’m sure all who contributed feel good for donated to MacMillian.

This also helped me decided that from now on when baking is taken into the office I will ask for a donation with every slice

Thank you for all your support and if you like my blog or just love looking at food you can follow me on Twitter #EatBakeBlog or Instagram.

Louise

NB : Funds are registered under number 32734220

The Great British Bake Off is back and I can’t stop baking

Aug 24, 20161 Comment

It started last week when my countdown was at 7 days. First to be baked was Lemon Drizzle which was a first. Little did I know Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood were about to set the same challenge. Not content with my first attempt at Lemon Drizzle I baked it again, this time making the drizzle a thicker consistency, achieving this by using smaller lemons which of course gave less juice and giving me a great crunchy zesty topping.

Then I spotted the #GBBOTwitterBakeAlong run by The Baking Nana and Robert Allen and that just got me inspired further. The first challenge was a Victoria Sponge – a cake I had not baked since 2009; so I was a little bit rusty. The timing for this was great, as Linda my colleague had baked a recipe that I had been threatening to copy it for weeks. I dusted off (well not literally) my cake tins and warmed up the oven.

The cakes went in and I waited impatiently starring into my oven waiting for that moment they looked that beautiful golden colour.

The baking part was easy but the icing was tougher. It was a white chocolate icing which despite following the recipe to the gram was too runny.

I added more icing sugar and reached a consistency I was happy with and hey presto. This cake was sold at work slice-by-slice to raise money for MacMillan’s Coffee Morning which I plan to bake for every week until the 30th.

So what next, well I had white chocolate icing left so on Monday evening I decided to make some Fairy Cakes and top these off with the leftover icing.

My only regret is that I didn’t cut out and insert some strawberry jam. These little cakes went down well at work and helped top up the funds.

Fairy cakes – bargain at 50 pence

Wednesday came and it was GBBO day I thought enough baking I will just enjoy watching but its difficult when you’ve come home to find some less than pert bananas.

Oven on, Kenwood out and banana’s mashed I added some Coconut Flour to my usual recipe.

I loved this new combination and will definitely be experimenting further with coconut and try and make a gluten free cake at some point.

To really push myself I am going to try and make a drizzle loafs as a tribute to a Bounty Bar if you see the standard on #GBBOTwitterBakeAlong you understand why I need to start pushing myself harder.

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Thanks for reading and please leave any comments below – happy baking.

Louise

Lemon Drizzle Traybake – #zestybaker

Aug 9, 2016Oct 11, 20162 Comments

Never baked Lemon Drizzle before yesterday but a dear colleague is moving on to new challenges and this cake is her favorite. It’s taken me a while to find the elusive 30 x 23 cms tray that Mary Berry uses (if you follow me on twitter you may have caught my grumblings). I was tempted to pimp this but i’m playing safe today.

So what next…

Grease and line your 30 x 23 cms tin with baking parchment/paper (remember, if you use larger tin you wont get the same rise). Line your tin I and heat your oven to 140°c (fan) or Gas mark 3 then weigh out and prepare your ingredients but hold on for the crunchy topping.

You will need

225g Softened Butter
225g caster sugar
275g Self-raising flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
4 large eggs
4 tablespoons of milk
finely grated rind/zest of 2 lemons

For the crunchy topping you will need

175g granulated sugar (beware not to use a finer grade or you will not get the crunch)
Juice of 2 lemons (beware to to use large lemons – read on to see why)

Measure the butter, caster sugar, SR flour, baking powder,eggs, milk and lemon zest/rind into your bowl and beat until well blended. Remember your butter must be soft to touch before your start this process.
Turn your mixture into the greased/lined tray and gently level
Place the tray in the oven on a middle shelf for 35-40 minutes – or until the cake has pulled back from the sides of the tin and if you gently press the middle if fingertips you see it spring back
Leave the bake in the tin to cool for five minutes.
When times up, turn it out on a cooling rack and carefully peel the parchment/paper from the base and leave to cool further
Make your crunchy topping by mixing the granulated sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl to give a runny mixture
Spoon this over the cake while it is still warm
Cut into squares once cold.

Lemon Drizzle Tray Bake by EatBakeBlogBG

Lessons learnt

My oven was slightly too hot – school girl error – always check your temperature or expect that doming.

The lemons, despite being fabulously juicy, produced a lot of juice which is never a bad thing. However I think the amount of juice they produced took the crunch from the topping – too much juice to sugar. It could also have been that the bake was too warm and melting the sugar . What I do know is that baking is a learning curve and next time I will measure juice to try and find that perfect mix and use a more averaged size lemon. In the meantime a cheats sprinkle of granulated the morning after gave these the crunch they deserved.

Big juicy lemons – too much juice to sugar for the topping

Every cloud has a silver lining as these lemons gave me an incredibly zest and moist lemon drizzle and I look forward to baking this again but next time with some savory thyme.

Hope you like this and my pictures and if you try this with a twist then please share your thoughts.

If you like my blog why not follow me on Twitter or Instagram.

Louise x

EatBakeBlogGB

Banana Loaf #badboy

May 3, 2016Aug 24, 20162 Comments

I’m on a roll at the moment or should I say loaf. I’m slowly working my way through Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and adding and changing recipes until I feel I have mastered them or added a twist that leaves me happy. The latest conquest was Banana Loaf.

Luckily for me, my colleagues are not keen on banana’s once they are showing signs of ripening which also gave my the perfect opportunity to try out my new tin liners. I love baking and I think I’m doing okay, but lining tins is not my area of strength so theses are a welcome addition.

This bad boy is perfect (it’s no secret any great banana loaf needs really ripe bananas). My first loaf was plain banana. My next bake had chocolate (a handful of chopped up dark chocolate) then I added Clark’s Maple Syrup and finally maple syrup and pecans which became the office favorite. The balance of Maple syrup was a learning curve and after 3 attempts and feedback from the office I think I have the right balance.

Clarks Maple Syrup and a handful of Lindt Dark Chocolate

So what next….

Line your tin. Now you’d think this is straight forward but be careful choosing your tin. For this recipe you needs a 2lb /900g loaf tin; if you’re not sure measure out and this size tin should hold one litre of water.

Ingredients

100g (4oz) softened butter * (very important don’t cheat this)
175g (60z) Caster sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 Ripe Banana’s mashed
225g (8oz) self raising flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons of milk

The Extras

2 tablespoons of Maple Syrup (I use Clarks)
2 tablespoons of pecan nuts, cut in halves.
or 1 handful of chopped dark chocolate (both is too much so I recommend you pick one or the other)

Pre-heat your oven to 160c (fan assisted)/gas mark 4 and lightly grease and line your 2lb loaf tin (bottom and sides).
Measure out your ingredients into a mixing bowl and the mashed banana and if desired the maple syrup mix well for 2 minutes or until well blended.
Next stir in your chocolate and or pecans
Pour / spoon the mixture into your lined tin and level the surface
Bake on your middle shelf for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin on your cooling rack for 5 minutes, then turnout and peel off the parchment until cooled.

Or if like me, why not have slice while still warm with a cup of tea!

If you like my blog you could follow me on Twitter or Instagram

Finished article. Serve immediately with custard, cream or ice cream

All round winner – Jaffa Self Saucing Pudding

Mar 23, 2016Mar 23, 20161 Comment

Made this first for my Mum’s birthday meal. My mum doesn’t have the sweetest tooth in the family that belongs to my Dad. He truly is a pudding / dessert lover…and if he could, he would eat puddings for starters, mains and afters!

They both raved about this pudding, in fact Dad said its the best pudding he’s ever had. Since then David’s parents have enjoyed this and they have requested this for the Ord family Easter Sunday dinner. With this in mind I thought it was time to share this wonderful pudding with you.

I first found on the BBC Good Food website and I have made no tweaks as its perfect.

The Batter

250g self raising flour
140g golden caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
100g soften butter
1 tsp baking powder
Zest and Juice of 1 orange
3 eggs
150ml Milk
100g orange milk chocolate (I use Terry’s Chocolate Orange)

The Sauce
200g light muscovado sugar
25g cocoa
300ml boiling water

Butter a 2-litre baking dish and heat oven to 160°C fan/gas 4 and put your kettle on.
Put the flour, caster sugar, 50g cocoa, baking powder, orange zest and a pinch of salt in a large mixing bowl.
Chop your chocolate into pieces.

I aim for pieces about the size of a Cadburys’ buttons give or take; this means you find lovely pieces of half melted chocolate in each mouthful.
Squeeze the orange juice into a pyrex jug and whisk in the 3 eggs, melted butter and milk.
Pour onto the dry ingredients and mix together until smooth (it takes about 2-3 minutes in my Kenwood)
Stir in the chocolate chunks and then scrape everything into the buttered dish
Mix 300ml of boiling water from your kettle with the light muscavodo sugar and remaining 25g of cocoa for the sauce.

Batter mix before your pour the sauce over
Slowly pour this all over the pudding batter which will look very wrong at this stage!
Batter covered with the bubbling hot sauce mix
The Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 mins or until the surface looks firm, risen and crisp.
Self Saucing Jaffa Pudding

I hope you like this pudding as much as we do and if you do try this please let me know if you make any additions as I’m always looking for new ideas.

Louise x

EatBakeBlogGB

#EatBakeBlog won’t jack on Flapjacks

Jan 14, 2016Jan 14, 2016Leave a comment

It has been a while since I made these sticky oaty bars and in my efforts to use up the sugar in the house and continue with my attempt to remove it from my daily life it seemed like a good use of our cupboard staples.

Why I am doing this today after stepping on the scales since before Christmas is beyond me, as the news was as grimmer than I’d expected. Not since ten days in Vegas back in 2010 have the scales creaked as much.

This time I used this recipe from my recently purchased book Mary Berry’s Baking Bible see page 191 for her Fast Flapjacks. I made same minor tweaks as I had no demerara sugar so I used the following ingredients:

225g / 8 oz Butter (unsalted)
100g / 3.5 oz Caster Sugar
125g / 4.4 oz Soft brown sugar
275g/ 10 oz Porridge oats (organic)
100g (3.5oz) Sultanas

With the butter and sugars melted, the oven hot and ready to go, I mixed in the oats and sultana’s into the greased tin, flattened and popped this sticky buttery mix it into the oven.

Now our favourite baker tells us to cook for about 35 minutes, so knowing our furnace of an oven (which would incinerate you, as soon as look at you) and I took them out at 30. But alas it was too late – the Flapjacks are beyond what I call golden (think the dress – we all have our own colour charts)

Now, I know David will tell me they are perfect (he is too kind plus I am sure worries if he critiques I may give up) but I know better so next time it will be 25 minutes and I will invest in a thermometer to try and seek a more golden offering.

Thank you for reading if you like my blog then please follow me on twitter @LouiseWinder

Louise x

#EatBakeBlog

Like this:

This also helped me decided that from now on when baking is taken into the office I will ask for a donation with every slice

Like this:

Like this:

So what next…

Lessons learnt

Like this:

I’m on a roll at the moment or should I say loaf. I’m slowly working my way through Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and adding and changing recipes until I feel I have mastered them or added a twist that leaves me happy. The latest conquest was Banana Loaf.

So what next….

Like this:

The Batter

Like this:

It has been a while since I made these sticky oaty bars and in my efforts to use up the sugar in the house and continue with my attempt to remove it from my daily life it seemed like a good use of our cupboard staples.

Like this: