Batter Breads are yeasted breads, but they are mixed with an electric mixer. No kneading involved.  This Light Rye is a perfect example. And one that I love.

Today I decided to try a recipe for Oatmeal Casserole Bread. The recipe comes from a magazine leaflet from Robin Hood Flour and Baker's, published in 1991, Baking Festival recipes.  I always loved those little leaflets.

I don't know if they still put them out, the leaflets. They used to come inside some of the more popular ladies' magazines in Canada. Magazines like Chatelaine or Canadian Living. 

They usually had an assortment of baking recipes.  Recipes to co-incide with the holidays or harvest time. They are usually a mix of indulgent and healthy.  So,  a little bit to please everyone.

 Its hard to believe I have had this little booklet for almost 30 years now! I would have only beenin my mid 30's when it came out. 

It is also very hard to believe that it has taken me thirty years to make it!  Today was the day!

It requires the use of a 2 litre/quart casserole dish, or a large loaf pan. Today I baked it in a casserole dish and I think mine was a bit larger than the requested size. I could not find my regular one.

I was going to use my large souffle dish, but who knows where it is!  Everything is in a but of a jumble at the  moment while I try to decide what I can or cannot take. In the end I may have to leave it all, but I am trying to remain hopeful!

It was very easy to make. You just make a sponge using an electric mixer and then stir in the remaining flour to make a dough. It will be a sticky dough. 

It will rise first in a bowl and then later on in the casserole dish. I loved that it seemed to be a somewhat wholesome bread

 

It is made with oatmeal and molasses. I adore oatmeal bread.  I used to always buy it when I was back home. It was lovely and rich and slightly sweet and went great with baked beans or as sandwiches.

I used old fashioned oats to make this. The large flaked oats. You could probably use regular oats as well, but I do not recommend using quick oats. You want an oat with substance.

 There is not a lot of sugar in it. One teaspoon to help activate the yeast, and only 1/4 cup (60ml) of molasses. In the UK I think you could get away with using dark treacle.  The strength of it will probably not matter in this.

Other than there you will only need water, a bit of oil, some flour and salt. The recipe only calls for 1 1/2 tsp of salt so it is fairly low sodium.

 

  

 

 Anyways after all of that faffing around on the telephone, my light for taking photos was fading fast. I am afraid my photos today are not the best.

I hope that they do not put you off. This recipe creates a beautiful loaf of bread, but then again you should expect excellent results from Robin Hood. They are THE flour people in Canada. Them and Five Roses.

Of course I have not lived there in 20 years, so that might have changed since then. One thing I am looking forward to is the bigger bags of flour!  yay!  No more eensie peensie ones unless I choose eensie peensie ones! 

This bread has a beautiful texure. Not a lot of holes, which is good and it is lovely and moist.  I think it is a bit "fresh" as my mother would say, perhaps a smidge more salt could be used.

 I was sorely tempted to have some jam on this, but I am really keeping an eye on my sugars. The bread alone will be bad enough, although the oats will help with the GI.

Don't look at the butter and judge me!  LOL That was not my slice!

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Oatmeal Casserole Bread

Yield: Makes one large loaf

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 15 Mincook time: 45 Mininactive time: 1 H & 30 Mtotal time: 2 H & 30 M

There is no kneading required to make this delicious bread which gets baked in a casserole dish. You can also bake it in a large loaf tin.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups (425ml) boiling water
• 3/4 cup (60g) oatmeal (not quick oats)
• 1/4 cup (60ml) molasses
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 TBS oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup (120ml) warm water
• 1 package of active dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp)
• 4 cups (560g) all purpose flour
• extra oats to sprinkle

Instructions

1. Measure the oats into a large mixing bowl. Pour the boiling water over it and add the molasses, salt and oil. Stir to combine. Leave to cool to lukewarm.
2. Dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Sprinkle the yeast over top. Leave to proof for 10 minutes, then stir well.  Add along with 1 1/2 cups (210g) of the flour to the oat mixture. Beat on low with an electric mixer  for about half a minute, then increase the speed to high and beat for 3  minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl often.
3. Stir the remaining flour into the mixture by hand, until well blended.  Cover the bowl with a buttered piece of wax paper and a tea towel.  Leave in a warm place to rise until it doubles in size. It should take about 45 to 60 minutes.
4. Butter a 2 quart (2 litre)casserole dish and scatter some extra oats lightly on the bottom and up the sides. (Alternately use a 9 by 5 inch loaf tin and do the same.)
5. Beat the dough for 25 strokes with a wooden spoon. Scrap into the prepared dish. Sprinkle the top lightly with more oats.  Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for a further half an hour or so in a warm place, until the dough has risen about 1 inch above the edge of the casserole/pan.
6. Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5.
7. Bake the bread on a lower oven rac for 35 to 45 minutes until golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. If necessary you can cover it with a sheet of foil loosely if you think it is browning too quickly, or becoming too dark.
8. This bread stays moist, makes beautiful toast and can be frozen.

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How do you rate yourself as a bread baker? Have you any skill at it? A favourite recipe? Any hints and tips to pass on. Lets share!! 

I have long said that my favourite potato is the humble potato.  That seems kind of fitting I suppose, seeing as I was born on Prince Edward Island, which is the potato capital of Canada! They grow a lot of potatoes on PEI! 

I have never met a potato I did not like.  Baked, boiled, fried, mashed, chipped, scalloped, you name it. The potato is one vegetable I just could not and would not want to live without!

 My oldest daughter does not share my love. I can't understand that! Surely the apple has not fallen too far from the tree?  Alas it has. She does like them as French fries (who doesn't!) and of course potato chips (again who doesnt!) but those are the only two ways she enjoys them! 

I would choose a potato as a side dish over any other side dish on offer.  No questions asked.  That's why low carb does not really work for me.  Maybe its my Irish heritage coming through!

 This potato dish is a littl bit unsual in that you will need to bake the potatoes twice. I adapted the recipe from one I found in an old BBC Good Food magazine from November of 2012. 

It required smallish desiree potatoes. For those of you who don't know, Desiree potatoes are a red skinned potato, probably similar to a Yukon gold. they have a yellowish flesh, and are good for just about anything except for use in salads or steaming.

This potato is awfully hard to beat when used for mashed, chips, boiled and yes baked.  I did not actually have any desiree potatoes today, but I had some smallish King Edwards which my friend Tina and her husband had grown in their garden.  They were the perfect size.

I think in North America you could use a great basic all rounder. You just don't want a waxy variety, of the kind that works best with potato salads.

 These potatoes are baked twice. Once on their own, simply in a very low oven, until they are meltingly tender inside. Because they are smallish you don't want to be baking them for this first bake time in a hot oven.

A hot oven would over cook them, create something far too crisp. You want to be able to gently smash them down a bit into a bit of a cake.

 They are not tossed with anything for that first baking. No seasoning. Nothing. You simply spread them onto a baking tray and bake them at a low temperature for about 2 hours. 

You want them to be really soft in the middle. Not firm. And you don't want the skins to be crisp.  This will happen after.

 Once they are really tender you take them out of the oven. They then get tossed with a mix of olive oil and buffalo sauce in a bowl. The original recipe called only for oil.

I thought that adding buffalo sauce would interject a lovely flavour filled kick to these. I am really fond of buffalo flavours.  It is buttery and spicy hot and somewhat vinegary. It works very well here.

 Along with the sauce there is some seasoning and plenty of spring onions. Sprin onions are also know known as scallions.

I slice them fairly thin. You will need six. Four will be added to the potatoes and two will be reserved for the final garnish.

 Along with the onions, seasoning, buffalo sauce and oil, you will need fresh thyme leaves. I am very lucky I have thyme growing in my garden. 

My mother had thyme growing in her back yard. If you walked across it you could smell it. It was not something she had ever cultivated. I think it was there from whoever had owned the house before her.

There is something really nice about having your own fresh herbs on tap in the garden. I hope that I will always be able to have fresh herbs in my garden, or even in pots on a balcony or windowsil. We will see.

You take the seasoned, herbed, onioned, oiled  potatoes and you smush them gently down into a shallow casserole dish to fill it. You don't want the skins to break open, so do be gentle.

 

 

 Finally they are garnished with a drizzle of blue cheese dressing. Try to use a good one. I used Brianna's which I buy at Ocado. It has a lovely rich flavour and bits of actual blue cheese in it. 

I also threw some additional spring onions on top for colour and a bit of sharpness.  A few fresh thyme leaves add additional fresh flavour and colour as well. You don't need many. You could also use chopped fresh flat leaf parsley.

 I am thinking you could also throw some crisp bacon bits on top as well.  Just a suggestion. From one Glutton to another.

Altogether these were incredibly deliciously satisfying. I would be happy with a plateful of these and nothing else at all! If the potato is your favourite vegetable too, I can promise you that you will fall in love with these!
 

Buffalo Crispy Baked Potatoes

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Yield: 6

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 20 Mincook time: 2 H & 40 Mtotal time: 3 Hour

with their deliciously crispy skins and tangy sauce, these fabulously simple to make potatoes please on many levels.

Ingredients

• 3 1/3 pounds (1 1/2 kg) of smallish all purpose potatoes
• 4 TBS olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 1 TBS buffalo sauce (If you like lots of heat use 2)
• 6 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 1 TBS fresh thyme leaves
• black pepper
• fine sea salt
• 6 TBS good quality blue cheese dressing (I use Brianna's)

To garnish:

• additional thyme leaves
• cracked black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 140*C/300*F/ gas  mark 2.  Place the potatoes on a baking tray and bake for about 2 hours until soft in the middle.
2. Increase the oven temperature to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7.
3. Toss the baked potatoes with the olive oil, buffalo sauce, thyme leaves, seasoning and about 2/3 of the spring onions in a bowl. 
4. Have ready a buttered baking dish which you can place them into in a single layer. You will want a snug fit. 
5. Place the potatoes into the baking dish. Using the back of a spatula, squash them into the dish tofill, creating a sort of flatish compact potato cake.  Drizzle them with a little bit more oil.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes until golden and crisp. Drizzle with the Buffalo Dressing and sprinkle with the remaining onions.  Garnish with cracked pepper and some additional leaf thyme if desired. Serve immediately.

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These potatoes are meltingly tender in the middle and moreishly crisp and flavourful on the outside. They are beautiful with roasted and grilled meats, poultry or fish. Why not enjoy them with some roasted BBQ pork and possibly some coleslaw on the side? 

 How could anyone really, when it comes right down to it. I love snickerdoodles.  I love gingersnaps/crinkles.  

The two together in one moreish biscuit/cookie? I'm in!  All in! I can't think of anyone who wouldn't be all in! If they aren't, they're not human. Just my thoughts on that matter!

Snickerdoodles are a vanilla cinnamon sugar type of cookie. The dough is rolled into balls and they are rolled in a mix of cinnamon sugar prior to baking. 

Gingersnaps/Crinkles are a ginger cookie, made with molasses and warm baking spices. They are rolled into balls and rolled in a mix of plain sugar prior to baking.

 

 Once you have done that you mix some molasses and baking spices into half of the dough. You will also need to add a bit more flour so that the dough is not too sticky or loose. Because molasses is a liquid ingredient this is necessary.

If you are here in the UK, it can be very difficult to get molasses. I have always found that a suitable substitute is to mix together half golden syrup and half dark treacle. This works well.

Dark treacle on its own has far too strong a flavour.  Funny story. I know how you like them. Or at least I hope that you do! (Don't burst my bubble!) 

When I first moved here to Chester from Canada back in the year 2000, I was somewhat of an oddity. People were very curious about Canada, the wild West, the colonies. My accent was unsual as were my ways.

 I had not lived here long when I was asked by the Relief Society of my church Ward would I do a presentation for the ladies on all things Canadian.  It would be a great way for me to get to know them and them to get to know me! 

I was very much still finding my way around ingredients here in the UK. I decided to make my Canadian MIL's gingersnaps for them. You didn't get much more Canadian than that!  Or Eastern Canadian for that matter.

 They were always deliciously crisp and moreish.  I spent all day making them, and I used what is called dark treacle over here in the UK. I thought it was the same thing as molasses. I couldn't have been more wrong! 

I dutifully mixed everything up and baked them, only to discover they were inedible.  Dark Treacle is so strong in flavour and just like eating smoke to my tastebuds. Thank goodness I had also made Nanaimo bars and a few other bits which helped to soften the blow of inedible cookies!

 And because I hadn't actually had time to try one myself during the day, I hadn't tasted them before I served them. I was just taking for granted  that they were going to be as delicious as they had always been. 😂😂 

There was a young sister in our Ward who was a bit simple minded and the look of disgust on her face when she bit into one was priceless. You know people like that are always very honest in their delivery of things and opinions.   

"These are awful!" She said. "I don't like them!"  Lesson learnt!  And then of course I despaired. How was I ever going to live without Molasses!

 I come from a place where there is a Molasses jug on every dinner table. We have it for breakfast, lunch and supper and everything inbetween! Its enjoyed on our pancakes, our biscuits, our breads and in many of our foods! 

Thank goodness I was able to find some (however over inflated price wise) at an American supply shop eventually. I also discovered that if you mixed treacle and golden syrup you came up with a very edible substitute!

 Anyways, back to the Gingerdoodles.  The only fiddly part about making these is twisting the two doughs together.  Just do the best you can, roll them into balls and then drop the balls into the sugar.

Onto the baking sheets, and Bob's your Uncle!  Voila.  Delicious cookies that are a beautiful mix of two fabulous flavours!

 

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Yield: 4 dozen

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 10 Mincook time: 10 Mininactive time: 5 Mintotal time: 25 Min

This delicious cookie combines the classic Snickerdoodle with Ginger Crinkles into a fabulously moreish teatime delight!

Ingredients

Cinnamon Dough:

• 1 1/2 cups (250g) sugar
• 1 cup (120g) butter, softened
• 2 large free range eggs
• 2 3/4 cup (385g) all purpose flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt

Ginger Dough

• 3 TBS mild molasses (can use half golden syrup and half dark treacle in the UK)
• 1/4 cup (35g) all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves

You will also need:

• 1/3 cup (65g) of granulated sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Line several baking sheets with baking parchment.
2. Combine all of the ingredients for the cinnamon dough in a bowl. Beat at low speed with an electric mixer, scraping the bowl frequently, until everything is well mixed. 
3. Divide the dough, placing half into another bowl.  To that half, beat in the molasses, flour and spices for the ginger dough, until well combined.
4. Put the granulatd sugar into a bowl.
5. Twist 3/4 inch pieces of each of the doughs together, and roll into a ball. Roll into the sugar and then place spaced 3 inches apart on the baking sheets.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
7. Let cool on the baking sheet for five minutes before scooping off to a wire rack to cool.  Repeat until all the dough is used up.  Any leftover of any one dough can be shaped and baked as above. Store in an airtight container.

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I'm a cookie dunker. Are you? I love to enjoy my cookies with a glass of cold milk more than I do with any other beverage.  And I love do dunk them. Must be the child in me! 

 One of the recipes in the recipe cards was for these Cinnamon Doughnut Puffs.  Delicious buttery muffins, rolled in melted butter and cinnamon sugar after baking. 

The flavour of them is very similar to the favour of a cake doughnut. Cake Doughnuts are my favourite kind of doughnuts!

  

 She was making doughnuts right up into her old age. Mom said however that she would always burn her fingertips in the fat because she had lost the feeling in them by that time.  

The last time we saw her she was suffering from Dementia.  By that stage she was seeing things that were not there and did not know who most people were.  My sister and I spent most of that visit in the field by the house feeding the old white horse that was kept there carrots and apples.

 My sister was horse crazy. She used to say she was going to marry one when she grew up.  She came close. Her first husband was a jack you know what, LOL  Sorry, I could not resist and truth be told she would agree with me! 

Anyways, Doughnut Muffins.  I adore Doughnut Muffins.  You get all of the wonderful flavour of a cake doughnut without any of the faff of frying! 

My mother used to buy a bag of them every now and then for us as a real treat. She would warm them up in the oven in a paper bag. Nothing on earth tasted better than those doughnuts.  She would give them to us as a dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Heaven.

 These have a beautiful texture.  I love the flavour of the nutmeg in them. I suppose that is also what I love about cake doughnuts!  I adore nutmeg!

I have also added some vanilla.  Mostly because I am trying to use it up before I move, but also because I like vanilla and it goes really well with nutmeg.

If I had to choose between a cake doughnut and a yeast doughnut, I will choose a cake doughnut every time. There is something about their texture that I love more than anything in the world. 

When you are making these, do not overmix the batter.  Its okay to have a lumpy batter when it comes to muffins. In fact it is most desirable. Overmixing will result in a tough muffin and they won't raise as high!

I think of all the cake type doughnuts, sour cream are my favourite kind, followed closely by sour cream chocolate (doughnuts!). I can't wait to go to Tim Hortons and enjoy a couple of Tim Bits!

That's what they call the doughnut holes back home. Tim Bits. Nothing of the dougnut is wasted and you can buy the Tim Bits by the box, small, medium and large.  And, if you take your kids there after socker practice, they will give them a free Tim Bit, which to a child is a very big deal!

Cinnamon Doughnut Puffs

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Yield: 12

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 10 Mincook time: 20 Mininactive time: 5 Mintotal time: 35 Min

A breakfast treat with the texture and flavour of cake doughnuts, but much easier to make! They are delicious! Why not enjoy them warm, split and spread with butter!

Ingredients

For the muffins:

• 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
• 1/3 cup (80g) butter, melted
• 1 large free range egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 2/3 cup (225g) all purpose (plain) flour
• 3/4 cup (150g) sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Cinnamon Sugar Coating:

• 1/3 cup (80g) butter, melted
• 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Butter a 12 cup muffin tin really well with butter or spray with cooking spray.  Set aside.
2. Combine the milk, egg, vanilla, and melted butter in a measuring cup.
3. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together in a bowl.  Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients all at once. Stir together just to combine.  Divide between the greased muffin cups.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  They should be well risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean. Tip out of the pan onto a wire rack and allow to cool for several minutes.
5. Put the melted butter in one bowl and mix the sugar and cinnamon together in another bowl. Roll the warm muffins in the butter and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar to coat.
6. Serve warm, split and spread with butter.  Delicious!

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There are a great many versions of this delicious muffin out there. This one is excellent and makes for the perfect weekend breakfast with your morning cuppa!