what have you baked today?

[Zosherooney]

Doncha feel good when you clear bits and bobs and create another memorable meal !

[TeresaFoodie]

I made a pizza. Not particularly inspiring, but I used up (a) a pot of fresh tomato sauce (b) a chunk of Buffalo mozzarella and (c) some cooked artichoke hearts left over from Tuesday´s artichoke balls!!

I think you've just convinced me that making pizza with some shop bought peshwari naan given to me a few days ago is the order of the day. All I need to do is defrost my tomato sauce, slice up some mushrooms and green chillies and pile them on! For cheese it will have to be mature Cheddar.

[Zosherooney]

Cheese onion and tomato flan, mince (with marzipan tops) pies, Mums Malt (less) loaf, chocolate nut cookies, sausage rolls. Enough to keep us fed for some time to come.

[suffolk]

Comfort food ... fruit scones

[smitch]

So far I’ve made a 3 layer chocolate cake and I’ve got a buttermilk pound cake loaf in the oven. I’m also planning a gin drizzle cake and some maple syrup & bourbon cupcakes. All for a family party on Saturday. Was meant to be making it all tomorrow but I’ve swapped my day off cos of the weather.

[Seatallan]

[KC2]

Fruit scones.jpg

Comfort food ... fruit scones

suffs, those scones look fantastic!

I've never managed to make successful scones although most people seem to be able to knock them off without a second thought! I don't know what I do wrong but they're inevitably tough and solid!

[suffolk]

Have a look here ... viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7904

Scroll down to my post giving Tamasin Day Lewis' recipe for plain scones. The 'leaving for 10 mins before baking' is important

[KC2]

Thanks suffs, found it, I think I probably overwork them. I also use the magimix as I have arthritic hands and I avoid doing things by hand - such as rubbing in butter for a crumble mix!

[suffolk]

To save your hands do it like this ...

Freeze the butter then grate it into the flour ... add the rest of the dry ingredients and the buttermilk ... combine with a fork, tip out onto a floured surface, knead gently just a couple of kneads so it's a regular shape, roll gently so it's still a good couple of inches thick, cut out, place on baking tray and leave for ten mins before baking.

The grated frozen butter works for a crumble too ... it's easier to hold a lump of frozen butter than to 'work it' with your fingers ... or so DD tells me.

[KC2]

Brilliant, thanks very much

[aero280]

We had a pastry tart that I knocked up out of what we had.

I unroll a sheet of Jus-roll puff pastry. Fold over the edges to form a raised edge.

Cover with a layer of onion softened in the microwave. Cover that with halved cherry tomatoes. Cover again with grated cheese.

Bake for about half an hour at Mk7.


In the past I have used peppers and a few olives instead of tomato. But it's easy and versatile.

[Seatallan]

I make something very similar Aero, with goats cheese, tomatoes and olives. I think mine is a variation on a Delia recipe if I recall correctly.

[KC2]

This is wonderful and made with half a bottle of ready-made sundried tomato paste instead of making your own is a doddle!
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... ottolenghi
We always make one from a whole sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry so it takes a bit longer in the oven and we usually use half a block of feta, or whatever goats cheese we have around.
I also marinade the feta cubes in oil from a jar of sundried tomatoes with loads of extra dried oregano. The fresh oregano from our pot outside in the garden looks nice enough but doesn't have much flavour, I'm afraid.

[aero280]

This evening I baked another batch of the Dan Lepard Spelt Crackers. I make them quite often, but ths time I used some stoneground spelt flour from Guedelon in France. It's a lot finer than the Dove's Farm spelt that I get from Sainsbury and Tesco. The crackers have turned out much crispier than before. With the Dove's flour they are more like Digestives. With the finer grade French flour, they "snap".

[suffolk]

As it's Pie Week OH requested chicken and leek pie with rough puff pastry ...

[KC2]

As it's Pie Week OH requested chicken and leek pie with rough puff pastry ...

chicken and leek pie.jpg

Fab!!! Looks totally scrummy and yummy

[suffolk]

There's a little left ....... if you're quick ........ but OH has just gone into the kitchen to wash up so it may not be there for long ... even if I say so myself the pastry was especially fab

[KC2]

Thx! Next time ....

[Zosherooney]

Looks (ed) lush Suff.

Today I baked a lot of pastry blind pastry cups to be filled next week together with some dried out choux buns. I filled some of the pastry cups with a cheese and chive, eggy mixture to take to the Red Lion tomorrow when I will be collecting a starter of sourdough mother. They will be a thank you to the dough chef.

The pastry was a poppy seed, nigella and paprika one, which has given a nice crisp finish. The scrappulings were enough for a small pastry flan dish which I added the end of the eggy cheese mixture. It was nice for a late lunch.

While the oven was on I also experimented with eggs cocotte. Sauteed leeks and garlic at the bottom, broken egg into that, with a circle of cream over and cheese on top with some garden herbs pureed. Slightly over cooked, but I will learn for next time.

[KC2]

Lemon drizzle ... no-one could wait for it to cool down so we ate it for desert after supper, still warm and freshly drizzled. It was gorgeous, like a really, really light steamed pudding!

[KC2]

Squidgy spicy apple cake in the oven as we speak ... we were talking about this recipe on the muscovado sugar thread.
My dark "soft" muscovado was rock hard so I popped it in the microwave initially for 1 minute on medium (it's pretty powerful - 850 or 950w I think) and then gave it another 30 secs. It was fine.

[Herbidacious]

Not sure if this is baked in the sense that the category means, but a brioche and butter pudding. The brioche had bits of orange peel in it and was pretty good on it's own, but needed eating up. I added sultanas and some dried fruit left over from Christmas that included apricot and cranberry. Plenty of freshly grated nutmeg which smelled amazing. It's years since I made bread and butter pudding and was I worried the fruit would burn at temperatures suggested in recipes I found, so I put foil on it for most of it's cooking time - it could probably do to crisp up a bit more but the custard had set. The eggs were our French neighbours' ones.
It's tempting to skip straight to dessert tonight but I am committed to another eggy thing.

[dennispc]

Brioche bread and butter pudding, gorgeous!

Today baked spelt sourdough; starter made last November, after using it for a loaf, put in fridge November 27th. Refreshed 21/3/18 to make a loaf, then life got in the way, so back in fridge until yesterday.

Starter yesterday before refreshing.

And the finished loaf.

[Herbidacious]

That looks very good indeed.

[dennispc]

That looks very good indeed.

Swapsies?

[Prettykiwicrazy]

Gorgeous photos, I live a bread and butter pudding

[Herbidacious]

That looks very good indeed.

Swapsies?

There's not a lot of mine left!

[KC2]

Banana bread - it smells divine

[dennispc]

Everyone says when using a banneton, make sure every mm is covered in flour, because if it isn’t the dough will stick. As I tried to shake it out, it stuck on the far corner and went flat before my eyes.

Tasted fine, the structure was almost perfect - lots of holes - such a shame.

[KC2]

Well, you learn something every day. I had no idea what a banneton was until I looked it up! Thanks dennispc for the education!
Sorry it didn't totally work out for you this time. Have you used one before?

[Rainbow]

Well, you learn something every day. I had no idea what a banneton was until I looked it up! Thanks dennispc for the education!
Sorry it didn't totally work out for you this time. Have you used one before?

I'd never heard of a banneton either!!

[dennispc]

Yes KC2 I’ve used one before - scroll back a few posts on this thread and you’ll see my previous effort plus banneton in the background.

Professional artisan bakers often use a heavily floured cloth in them, OK in a full time bakery not so easy in our domestic setting. The tipping out skill is a combination of speed and gentleness, that’s above my pay scale, particularly when the tray is from a very hot oven!

Not helped by spelt being low in gluten, final proof is a bit weak, difficult to shape - with splet some bakers don’t bother, just drop the dough in and let in find its own level. It doesn’t rise as much as wheat doughs, though this one did. Quite impressive before I knocked back though it stuck to everything!

[patpoyntz]

Dennis pc, I think that bread looks lovely....and even in its slightly deflated state, it is very impressive for spelt bread,. I never get a really good rise with spelt.
I use a well floured muslin in my banneton, it is nice and fine, so doesn’t spoil the grooves, and is easy to rinse out and dry afterwards. I sometimes drape it in the dishwasher after rinsing to clean it well. As I use muslin for a few things, and the culinary stuff is quite expensive, So I buy packs of muslin nappies.

[dennispc]

Thanks for the tip about muslin patpoyntz, I’ll give that a go, do you spray it with water to enable flour to stick?

I leave the mix overnight, knead in the morning, which might help the rise.

Andrew Whitley says the best sourdough is a rye starter and spelt flour for the dough.

[patpoyntz]

No water, just sprinkle the flour on dry...quite generously. Seems to stay put.
I will try a longer rise, thanks for that tip.

[dennispc]

Thanks again. Here’s my timings - all approximate.

Day 1 around 4pm refreshed room temperature starter. Left on side, covered.

Day 2 after lunch - mixed 150g starter with 250g white spelt and 275g tap water. Left on side, covered.

About 8.30pm, to the mix, added 300g white spelt, couple of glugs olive oil and some salt (10mm?). Left on side, covered.

Day 3 about 6.30 am, knocked back, kneaded, shaped into banneton. About 9am, tipped onto hot tray, baked for 45mins, 230C.

Have fun.

[patpoyntz]

Thanks again. Here’s my timings - all approximate.

Day 1 around 4pm refreshed room temperature starter. Left on side, covered.

Day 2 after lunch - mixed 150g starter with 250g white spelt and 275g tap water. Left on side, covered.

About 8.30pm, to the mix, added 300g white spelt, couple of glugs olive oil and some salt (10mm?). Left on side, covered.

Day 3 about 6.30 am, knocked back, kneaded, shaped into banneton. About 9am, tipped onto hot tray, baked for 45mins, 230C.

Have fun.

Thanks for that. I think I have been having a shorter first rise and a longer second one. My kitchen is not very warm unless I am in there cooking. It is only the spelt mix which I find rises less. My starter is rye and very old. I mostly make white bread as OH prefers it, and sometimes wholemeal. I am not very adventurous!
I often get an influx of unexpected visitors and I have to make ‘ordinary ‘ bread then as I cannot plan far enough ahead. I have great success with Dan Leppards no kneed bread. It’s great if I only have a couple of hours.

[Janet]

Chocolate muffins with a 'blob' of Nutella in the middle!

Janet

[KC2]

DSCF8147small.jpg

Chocolate muffins with a 'blob' of Nutella in the middle!

Janet

[slimpersoninside]

DSCF8147small.jpg

Chocolate muffins with a 'blob' of Nutella in the middle!

Janet

Mmm. I had something like this in mind when I added a jar of Nutella to the online shop this morning .

[KC2]

Boiled fruit cake - I took a pic and wanted to post it but the file is too big and I can't remember how to make it smaller

[TeresaFoodie]

Have you tried accessing your photo and editing it to crop? I did that on my phone recently with a photo of leaves from a tree outside my flat on the Naturewatch thread. There should be an edit / crop function. Just make it a tiny bit smaller, save, try posting it here again, repeat the cropping if still too large. Good luck! Would be nice to see your cake!

[KC2]

Cheers Tezza, will try that in the morning!

[KC2]

thanks for the advice Tezza, it seems to have worked ...

[dennispc]

Made another spelt sourdough, used muslin for banneton and that worked well.

Different timings from before,

Day 1, starter from fridge, refreshed and left on side overnight.

Day 2, 3.45pm, mixed four, water and salt, added starter (as normal)

No knead method, folded three times every half an hour.

5.20pm, formed dough into a ball, left in bowl covered for three hours.

8.20pm, knocked back, into banneton, into fridge, covered

Day 3, 6am, our of fridge

7.45am, onto hot tray, into hot oven for 40 minutes, plus a bit extra.

[dennispc]

Made another spelt sourdough, used muslin for banneton and that worked well.

Different timings from before,

Day 1, starter from fridge, refreshed and left on side overnight.

Day 2, 3.45pm, mixed flour, water and salt, added starter (as normal)

No knead method, folded three times every half an hour.

5.20pm, formed dough into a ball, left in bowl covered for three hours.

8.20pm, knocked back, into banneton, into fridge, covered

Day 3, 6am, our of fridge

7.45am, onto hot tray, into hot oven for 40 minutes, plus a bit extra.

[dennispc]

Done it again, pressed quote instead of edit.

[patpoyntz]

Your bread sounds great ...glad using the muslin was ok.
Hope you can post a photo before you eat all that lovely bread!
Have copied your timings and will follow to the letter!

[dennispc]

Ooops, forgot to take a photo.

These timings came about following a YouTube video mentioning, off the cuff, putting banneton (plus dough) in the fridge for 12 hours. I've made an overnight sweet dough in the fridge, even then the knead was early the following morning, but didn't think it possible for sourdough after knocking back.

Unless you usually get up at 6am, I suggest adjusting things accordingly. That time is rare for me but perhaps I was getting nervous about my bread!

Anyway, all the best to you, look forward to seeing how you get on.