25 Jacket potatoes

I came home early from work yesterday as I have been fighting off a sore throat and runny nose all week. I knew that it must be serious when I didn't even enjoy the cake I had from the macmillan coffee morning at work. I am never normally off my food! And so I came home at lunchtime and fell into bed for a couple of hours before rousing myself to deal with the scout camp food.
I cooked 25 jacket potatoes , grated cheese and mixed up tuna and sweetcorn, and at 5.15pm I waved off my little family for a night of camping whilst I settled down to watch a film with my doggy and had an early night.
It's amazing what an early night can do as I feel loads better today and have managed to do piles of washing, walk the dog, do the Tesco shop( I got myself a little digital timer to help me with my timing in the oven at college as I use the timer on my kitchen oven all the time and am quite likely to forget about something baking away and cremate it and I also got some more fresh yeast!) so I made fresh bread and rolls to go in the freezer for next week, baked an apple pie with some of the apples from my garden, and had a nice glass of red wine at a beautiful pub in Dedham, Essex called the Sun.
For dinner we are having pasta with a spicy tomato sauce and have just had some of the focaccia bread which I made at college in week 1 with some Olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Going to do some research into the different types of bread tonight as I have my first assessment at college on Tuesday.
Enjoying myself thinking about and planning my baking bucket list.

Oopps....

I'd like to say all went well but I can't really. Dough looked fab going into the oven 190C thought 10 mins would be ok. But a fan oven and no window to see in and although they are still beautifully soft they are a little darker than I would have liked. Next the icing which to be fair I was unsure about remained quite thick even on warming so it was tricky to dip them and get a nice even coating.  I would definately try using normal icing sugar next time when I am at home. It was my icing I wanted to perfect so a little disappointing. I have posted a piccie for you to see. However the buns have a delicious delicate lemon taste so the addition of the zest was a good choice.

Shopping for the scout overnight trip also brought with it 2 vital ingredients for my evening. White bread flour and fondant icing. Tonight is a practice night to see if I can manage to get my icing in a nice straight line on the top of my iced fingers! also I have decided to experiment (not too wildly) with a lemon flavour bun by incorporating a little lemon zest into my bun dough and I plan to add a little juice to the icing. So current state of affairs is that the shaped buns are proving whilst I make the packed lunches for the kids for tomorrow, still waiting for husband to return from work (haven't seen him for 2 days) hopefully he will be home soon bringing with him a bottle of wine.
Off to pop them in the oven now, my only concern is that my fondant icing looks a little different to that what we used in college on Tuesday (less shiny), hopefully as I warm it a little with the lemon it will gloss up. I will report back later.
Quick question tho, lots of  other recipes use icing sugar so why aren't we?

Sweet enriched dough

Great night at college doing sweet enriched dough. We made chelsea bun and iced fingers which the kids had for breakfast!! Chelsea buns looked good but I am unable to do them in a round for the assessment next week as you can only present 4 buns and I had 7 in the round. So next week I will do 4 joined together and 4 single buns and just decide on the night which ones to go with. The iced buns wer delicious but much to the kids delight I need to practice getting my icing staighter along the edges! So tonight I will have a rest as I am exhausted and I will catch up with last nights bake off and tomorrow I need to go and get some fondant icing to practice with.

Chelsea buns with Amaretto and marzipan

Today has been a lovely day, the first morning all week that I have slept until I woke instead of being woken by the alarm clock. Husband made me tea in bed and then we had bacon sarnies using the little loaf of white bread that I made at college on Tuesday (fortunately I am organised enough to have got it out of the freezer last night). Rushed off to Tesco's as got to get the weekly shop over and done with early before the Saturday crowds, and I have plans for the day which involve baking!
round as quick as I can as I can only stand doing this once  a week, have managed to write and more importantly remember to bring with me a shopping list. The most important things  being baking powder, dried mixed fruit and yeast. Now I usually buy the little sachets of instant yeast if I am baking bread unless I am making sour dough bread. But today I am on  the search for fresh yeast.
Having no luck just wondering around I head for the bakery to enquire as to the fresh yeasts whereabouts, I lovely gentleman informed me that I could not buy any but that he would give me some yeast for free!! I was absolutely amazed and delighted, for the first time ever Tesco's felt like a local and friendly shop, with helpful and kind staff. I waited and was presented with a little bag of about 70grams of yeast, which I stowed into my handbag almost guiltily.
I  rush home with excitement (I am obviously easily pleased).
My plan is to make Chelsea buns for the first time ever, and having had out the bottle of Amaretto yesterday I have plans!
And so I am using the sweet enriched dough basic recipe from my course recipe folder, having mixed this up in extra speedy time with my new kitchen aid,a big birthday requires a big pressie,I have a go at making my own recipe for the filling. Having looked at a few cook books I have decided to roll out the dough and sprinkle with 55grams of light muscavado sugar mixed with 2tsp of cinnamon, 125grams of dried mixed fruit which I have soaked in Amaretto for about an hour. On top of all this I cubed some marzipan (very small) and rolled it all up. I have always had a thing about almonds, I love bakewells and the denseness that ground almonds give to cakes and so I thought I would give it a whirl in a Chelsea bun. The results were spectacular ( have you seen the photo?-I am very proud, like a mother of her baby!), 30 mins proving time, 20mins in the oven and with the help of H to transfer them to the cooling rack ( for  some reason we needed 3 hands) we have buns!
Husband arrived back from rugby and was most impressed.
All this baking meant no dinner so we have had a lovely Chinese takeaway,and a delicious bottle of Cote du Rhone, Oh and of course Chelsea buns for dessert!!! Mmmmmm...

Chelsea buns

My first attempt at Chelsea buns, not bad!!!

Doing some research into sweet enriched dough's. I did not realise the difference between iced finger dough and Devonshire split dough is the addition of eggs in the iced fingers.
Kids are at scouts so am enjoying some quiet time alone sitting at my desk with cookery books out and a glass of red wine (well it is Friday night!).
Whilst walking the dog (Tarry) today I stopped to buy 2 enormous bags of Victoria plums from the local commune, plump, purple and perfectly ripe. I demolished 4 on the walk home and the kids finished off another load the moment I walked in the door. I warmed some up for dessert with a little splash of Amaretto (well it is Friday!) and we had a small scoop of vanilla icecream alongside. Simple but amazing. Yum.

First Night At College

All went well last night. We had to do the dreaded quick introduction of ourselves but it was all very informal and light hearted. I felt a little stiff in my very crisp 'whites' but at least my clogs had arrived in time and are remarkably comfy if a little bit groovy. The evening passed quickly once we moved into the kitchen. I think that cooking at college will be quite different from cooking at home, just trying to locate everything in the vast stainless steel kitchen was tricky, however hopefully we will all now know where all the bits and bobs are for future weeks.
We followed our recipes and had a demonstration by our tutor, Adam. We made a starter for our focaccia bread first and popped it into a prover ( wish I had one at home),and then moved on to our white bread. The main difference being that we used a little bit of milk powder in the mix and also fresh yeast as opposed to the usual little sachet of instant yeast that I use. With the white bread mix I made 2 batches of rolls some seedy knots and some larger plaits as well as a small tin loaf.
Scaling the rolls at 50g for the seedy knots and 100g for the plaits, the knots all managed to appear quite even in size and uniform. However the plaits were a little more irregular in size, I obviously needed to measure the length of the individual stands before plaiting ( sounds a little crazy), as  of the rolls were shorter and slightly fatter as others were long and narrow. A minor issue as the taste of the rolls was delicious. Having done some research today into the use of milk powder ( I have previously used  for burger baps) I discovered that it is used to give a softer crumb and can give the bread a better colour so although not a necessary addition quite lovely especially for a breakfast roll. So I will definitely be going for a softer texture again, as anyone who knows me well will know that I am rather adverse to a crusty baguette!!
Next we made focaccia bread using the starter that had turned into a huge gloopy mess, adding more flour, salt, sugar and olive oil and a lovely mix of chopped fresh herbs. On retrieving it from the oven Adam poured an obscene amount of oil over the top which was worryingly swimming! however I needn't have worried as it turned out exquisitely and tasted divine. As I sit here this evening writing this husband is just tucking into his dinner (gnocchi with tomato, basil and bacon), with a large hunk of focaccia.  He has proclaimed it delicious and so has redeemed himself for coming home so late!
All in all a great start to my course, everyone was friendly and I feel more confident, my main aim for next week is to try to remember some of the other students names. Next week is sweet enriched dough's and Chelsea buns. The kids can't wait! and I have a freezer full of lovely bread for the week.

Brekkie

Mmmm....great first night at college. Made lots of bread including rolls which we had for breakfast with bacon

Busy busy busy, all my weekends start with the intention of getting loads done but suddenly in a flash it's Sunday evening and no focaccia has been made although I have looked at a few different recipes and done lots of cooking just not baking.
On Saturday I went into Town to get a couple of more bits for my course and some tin foil to carry bits home in, managed to get a run in and a nice dog walk and then I cooked a seafood bake layered with pancakes (a bit like lasagne), and today my sister-in-law came to dinner and I cooked a butternut squash and red onion risotto with roast chicken and for dessert little individual apple and blackberry crumbles.
Looking forward to my course later in the week and I think I have got everything I need except for my kitchen clogs which haven't yet arrived. I have packed up my bag of tools and my uniform ,washed my cloths so they are more absorbent. I feel ready for the challenge, and will keep you updated.
A quick thanks to Rors for the delicious coffee today, and I hope your pie turned out ok in the end!

Autumn Cake

Having picked a large basket of apples yesterday, and loads of blackberries last Sunday whilst D played rugby ( I had popped them in the freezer), today had to be a baking day. After a rummage through some back copies of Good Food magazine last night I found a recipe for an apple and blackberry cake and although the recipe says use eaters I have used my Bramleys as I have found that they are not too sharp.
It's a basic cake mix ratio 125g butter/sugar/3 eggs 100g flour with the addition of 50g of ground almonds. Then gently fold in the chopped apples and blackberries, and top with a mix of chopped toasted hazelnuts, Demerara sugar, cinnamon and little tiny flakes of butter. 55mins later having just  enough time for a quick walk with Tarry between the downpours and the smell in the kitchen as I came back in  delicious!
Packed lunches today were sour dough bread sarnies and flapjack-yum, however tomorrow I must try to go for a run as haven't managed to go at all this week and I feel that a course in patisserie is going to require some serious effort to burn off all the additional calories!
Have a little bit of research to do this weekend and want to have a go at a focaccia as I believe we are making one next Tuesday and also have a look at different flavours for Chelsea buns.
Hubby just in from work so off to microwave a chilli con carni now which I cooked this afternoon  my biggest pot, a vast amount of chilli so as to freeze little ones so they have ready meals for when  I'm not here and am off having fun at college.


 

My first loaf with new sour dough starter

Sour Dough

Well I definitely know I need to invest in a proper proving basket, I think the lack of one was what frustrated me about sour dough previously.
Anyway despite the slightly flatter appearance than I had hoped for the taste maked it well worth the wait! As I mentioned I left the sour dough to reside in the fridge all day in my salad spinner and then on my return from work took it out for a couple of hours to come up to room temperature. The trick is to then gently flop the bread onto the baking sheet which is easier said than done. I am not sure that the muslin was dusted heavily enough with flour as their was a bit of a struggle to get the dough free and then straight into a hot oven with a jug of water chucked into the bottom (into a baking tray of course) for some steam.
We had bread and jam this evening for supper still warm from the oven. D said he thought it had a 'good crust',  I think he has been watching too much Paul Hollywood!
Other bits today have included having a read through my recipe booklet for the course, and writing a list for more things I still need to buy this weekend. Also I have picked a whole basket of delicious cooking apples from my garden. We seem to have a bumper crop this year which is great but rather annoyingly they are all falling off and landing on the driveway which I then keep driving over and squishing into the gravel. I picked a whole load up today shooing away all the wasps as I peeled the crushed fruit from the driveway. So my last job of the evening will be to find a cake recipe that uses Bramley's for tomorrow, and then I might see if I can add a photo of the loaf.

Improvisation

No proving basket always proves a problem! Improvisation has led me to use the spinning basket from my salad spinner lined with a muslin cloth. Gone back in the fridge till this afternoon. Will bake this evening.

Well great excitement as you can see from my earlier piccie. Not only did my new chef outfit arrive today in the post but also some knives, a digital thermometer, a new pastry brush (apparently I need a flat one not a round one), some cloths and plastic scrapers. Who would have thought it possible to get so excited over an outfit that frankly made me look like I was wearing pyjamas.
Been another busy day here, and despite having to help cover yet more exercise books I have managed to get cracking on a sour dough loaf and got around to making the flapjacks from yesterday. I also learnt how to upload a photo to my blog, get an app on my phone to 'blog on the go', and squeeze in 5 hours at work!
Some time ago my neighbours gave me a sour dough starter which I carefully nurtured and fed for about a year, making bread about twice a week. However after a while my bread craze fizzled a little and my starter was sitting in the fridge being sadly neglected and it  suddenly appeared to be taking up too much room in the fridge, so one day in a tidying frenzy I decided in my wisdom that I would throw it out.
3 months later and I regretted my rashness, and so a couple of weeks ago I started  again and this time I have made my own starter! it didn't smell great for the first few days and then suddenly it began to have appley undertones and now it is positively fruity! And so this morning at 8.30 I began  by mixing 150mls of my starter with 100grams of flour and 150 mls of warm water, by the time I got in from work it was frothy and so I have added another 500grams of white bread flour, salt and 200 mls of water to the mix giving it a good kneading and left it sitting in my fridge for a slow overnight proving. I have just had a peek and it is looking good.  My plan is to knock it back in the morning and let it prove again before baking  it tomorrow when I get in from work.
My flapjacks are a family favourite and I made them whilst we watched last nights bake off on catchup tv.
Hubbie just back from a scout leader meeting only to inform me I am in charge of catering for scout camp!!! I have £65 to feed 25 people a light supper, breakfast and lunch. so I am now off to have a think????

Look what came in the post

New uniform!!

In the Beginning

Goodness, where to start.....
my application for the Great british bake-off didn't come to anything so I have decided to enrol on a Patisserie and confectionery course. My own personal Bake-off!!!
A huge challenge and a reasonably hefty financial commitment. I'm excited and nervous, but mostly wondering how I will find time. This evening I was going to just make a few flap jacks but having gotten myself involved in the nightmare that is sticky backed plastic and covering exercise books with kids, I suddenly found myself running swiftly out of time. And so tomorrow the kids will have to make do with a kitkat in their lunch boxes, which possibly they will be more delighted with anyway- so I musn't fret.
Tuesday evening's from now on will be 5 hours in college baking starting next week. Induction yesterday went well with lots of new people, I thought we would have to do the dreaded 'introduce yourself to people' speech, however apparently not. Or not yet anyway.
I've ordered lots of kit, and a uniform that I know will make me look like Andy Pandy, and hopefully all this will arrive in time for next weeks lesson. We are starting with yeast products, breads and buns which is a good place to start for me as I am reasonably happy that I can bake a loaf.
Being a necessity computer user rather than a native, blogging will be a new adventure too. So as I love cooking and eating, and reading about cooking and eating somehow this seems to feel right. Who knows how it will all turn out, we will just have to wait and see....