Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
I really start to struggle with finding good light for taking my food photos this time of year, when the days are getting shorter and the sun is finding its way differently in the sky.
It always takes me a few weeks to adjust to it all. I find myself having to cook my food much earlier in the day. These days of adjustment are not my favorite days! Oh well!
I hope you won't let poor photography dissuade you from baking what is a really lovely cake. I adapted the recipe from one I found on a site called Once Upon a Chef.
It looked really nice and I had picked up a couple of punnets of purple plums at the shops as they were on offer.
I adore plums, they are one of my favourite fruits. I was quite disappointed in the plums we bought the other day. They were mealy.
I hate mealy fruit. It is so disappointing. The only way to really use them was to cook them, hence the cake.
I'll be honest here and say I think its really bad that you should buy punnets of mealy fruit at this time of year when fruit is so fresh and readily available!
Bad. Bad. Bad. Shouldn't happen! I don't understand why it is so difficult for our shops to get in perfectly grown and ripened fruit? How do they do that!
Mind you, checking the label, upon closer inspection I see that they came from Spain. Why are we importing plums from Spain??
Especially at a time of the year where fresh plums are ripe and ready for the picking and eating here in the UK? So disappointing! Again, it shouldn't happen!
I shake my head when I think of it all. It is such a disappointment. We are a country that grows beautiful stone fruits, especially down south.
Cherries, plums, apricots. Admittedly we don't get the sunshine for good peaches, but our plums in the UK are gorgeous.
When we lived down South in Kent on the Manor Estate where I worked there was an abundance of beautiful deep purple plums. The trees in their orchard drooped under their weight.
It was a rush to get them picked before the wasps took over. Wasps really love ripening plums. I can't say that I blame them!
Anyways, this is a really lovely cake. I am afraid I over-cooked mine a
tiny bit. The skewer kept coming out looking like it wasn't cooked in
the centre.
I kept popping it back in for a few more minutes. So my edges got a bit crispy, but not in an unpalatable way at all!
It was actually quite nice . . . the crisp finish on the edges.
As my husband was eating it he kept mumbling all the while, this is a really good cake . . . love this cake . . . more cake please . . .
He could not get enough of it. Served warm with lashings of cold cream.
He is a very lucky man. He can eat cake until it comes out his ears . . . and pour cream all over it when he does.
And he never has to worry about any of it sticking to his thighs, like I do.
Or anywhere else on his both. I swear to God the calories in anything just slide off him. Not like me.
I only have to sniff things like this and I gain ten pounds. Seriously.
He can eat and eat and eat and none of it sticks to his bottom, or his neck, cheeks, arms, etc. . . . I really don't think its fair, but it is what it is!
I am sure there must be a simple reason for this, but I am damned if I can figure it out. If I could I would be a millionaire!
This is a beautiful cake . . . filled with the lovely flavours of cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom and that almost jammy fruit, which is tart and sweet at the same time.
For brunch or for dessert, this is one cake you won't want to miss out
on . . . and the perfect way to use up less than perfect plums!
If you are a fan of cooking with plums you might enjoy these other recipes I have shared through the years:
PLUM & HAZELNUT CRUMBLE SLICE - This slice has a nutty buttery base almost like a pastry, and then a layer of hazelnut cake, stogged full of lovely plums. The whole thing is topped with a crunchy nutty streusel. Moreishly scrummy!!
PLUM FUDGE PUDDINGS - Delicious single serving puddings made with simple ingredients. Fresh bread crumbs, thinly sliced fresh plums, butter, cream, honey and a bit of brown sugar and spice. After making a very simple fudge sauce of butter, cream and honey . . . you simply layer everything up in little ramekins . . . and then bake.
Yield: 8
Spiced Plum Cake
A beautiful cake that is perfect served for brunch with hot cups of coffee or as a dessert with scoops of vanilla ice cream.
ingredients:
- 210g plain flour (1 1/2 cups)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp each ground nutmeg and ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 115g butter softened, plus more to butter the pan (1/2 cup)
- 190g white sugar, plus 2 TBS, divided (1 cup + 2TBS, divided)
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 120ml whole milk (1/2 cup)
- 1 pound fresh plums, pitted and quartered
instructions:
How to cook Spiced Plum Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 inch spring form pan really well and dust with flour, shaking out any excess. Set aside.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom. Stir in the salt. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and 190g/1 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla, adding a spoonful of the flour mixture if it starts to curdle. Add the milk alternately with the flour mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, levelling it off. Scatter the plums over top decoratively. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 TBS of sugar.
- Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until golden and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake.
- Run a knife carefully around the edge of the cake to loosen, and then loosen the sides of the pan. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Cut into slices to serve. You can dust this with icing sugar if you want to pretty it up a bit!
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My mother made beautiful bread and rolls. She used to make them weekly before she started working full time, but only ever very infrequently after that.
You knew you were in for a real treat when you got home from school, and just outside of our house . . . and the air was filled with the smell of baking bread. Oh boy, but my heart did skip a beat with joy!
I am not so great at making bread. My ex husband used to make all of our bread. With five children we went through a lot of bread and so he took it upon himself when he was home to make it all. He made big beautiful big fluffy loaves.
He would dance our kitchen table across the floor when he was kneading it, flour would be everywhere . . . a huge mess for me to clean up, but I never minded because his bread was flawless. He would bake six loaves at a time.
One loaf used to disappear almost as soon as it came out of the oven. Everyone had to have a piece . . . hot and spread with cold butter. My favourite bit was always the middle fluff from where the sides of the double loaf would be stuck together . . .
I found this little Fleischmann's Yeast Leaflet the other day when I was going through an recipe box of mine. I can't tell you how old it is, but I reckon it is pretty old.
Its Canadian for one thing, the design screams 1960's to me, and all of the measurements are in cups not grams, so it predates Canada going metric with all of its measurements.
I never did cotton on to metric you know . . . I still always think in cups and ounces, quarts and miles . . . you can't teach an old dog new tricks in some respects.
And yet in many ways I am quite modern. I guess I am what they call a bit of an enigma!
Anyways, this White Batter Rolls recipe comes from that little leaflet.
There are a couple more recipes in the leaflet, for Waffles, Pan Rolls and Cinnamon Bun Loaf, plus an offer of a full sized book, "When You Bake with Yeast" for only 25cents.
Those were the days when you could trust putting a coin in an envelope along with your return address, and you knew that what you were sending for would eventually come.
Nobody would steal your coin.
I am sitting here now wondering why I didn't send for the full book.
Probably because when this came out 25 cents was a full week's allowance for me and I didn't have money for a stamp on top of that.
These White Batter Rolls sounded simple and very do-able. Quick to make as well. They were very easy to make I have to say and came out perfect.
Shortly after they came out of the oven, I rubbed the tops with some softened butter just like my mom used to do . . . old habits die hard.
There are times when you just crave a fresh bread roll. Today was one of those days . . .
These are not huge. They are just a small sized roll, but they are light and fluffy and delicious!
And they went really nicely with our dinner. What more could you want!
Yield: 12
White Batter Rolls
Simple to make and oh so fluffy, light and delicious!
ingredients:
- 180ml of milk, scalded (3/4 cup)
- 3 TBS sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 TBS shortening
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 2 additional tsp. sugar
- 4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (2 packages, NOT instant yeast)
- 280g strong flour (2 cups)
instructions:
How to cook White Batter Rolls
- Stir the 3 TBS sugar, salt and shortening into the scalded milk to melt the sugar and shortening. Stand aside to cool. Add the sugar and yeast to the lukewarm water. Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then stir well. Stir in the lukewarm milk mixture. Stir in the flour until well blended, about 2 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside in a warm place until double in size, about 40 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Grease a 12 cup medium-sized muffin tin well. Fill 3/4 full. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
I almost forgot to show you how nice and fluffy they were inside! Here you go. Spread with butter of course. Try not to lick the screen!
Up Tomorrow: Frank-ly Chili (A real family pleaser!)
I always like to bake my husband a treat at the weekend. Because we are both retired, the weekend can easily blend into our weeks, so I like to do something which marks these two days apart from the other five.
It is so easy to lose your weekend when you are not working any longer. I try to mark Saturday and Sunday as still being special days in our lives.
For the most part (with a few exceptions) I only bake at the weekend. Sunday is set apart because that is the day we go to church.
We don't shop on Sundays or order takeaways, we have designated Sunday as our day of rest.
I usually try to make my husband something special to enjoy with his early morning cuppa. I am not one much for hot drinks, but he is so British . . . . he really needs his morning hot cuppa.
That can be a barley cup, or a hot chocolate, sometimes an herbal tea.
So long as it it wet and hot, he is happy. Adding a tasty bake into the mix increases his joy factor two-fold!
Especially when it is something as delicious as these Apple Pie Danish! Yum yum!
These quick and easy drop Danish are bound to become a real favourite of yours as well. I confess they use a prepared Baking Mix.
I make my own from scratch and keep it in the freezer (as it is sometime I don't use really often.) You can find my recipe for that mix here.
If you are not keen to make your own from scratch, you can use Bisquick or Tea Bisk, which is what I used to use many moons ago.
Do they even still make it? Or has Bisquick taken over?
You add some sugar and cinnamon to the baking mix and then you cut in some butter. Milk is stirred into give you a thick yet still drop-able mixture.
Not as thin as cake batter, but not so thick that you feel the need to roll it out.
You then drop the dough by heaped dessert spoons onto a lined baking sheet. If you look at these spoons above the second spoon from the left is a dessert spoon. (The others are from left to right, Soup, Tea and Coffee spoons.)
I use a small damp teaspoon to make a dip in the centre of each mound of dough. I dampen it so that the dough doesn't stick to it. Makes it a lot easier.
The centre is filled with chunky applesauce. I make my own but you can use any good store brand chunky applesauce. If you want to make your own you can find my recipe here.
I like it to be a bit chunky so I don't mash the apples up too much. It is lightly sweetened. You can add cinnamon and nutmeg to it, but I like it just plain.
You spoon a bit of this applesauce into the hollows and then you bake them. Don't be overly generous with the applesauce, but don't be stingy either.
Bear in mind that sauces like this can expand when baking, especially if they have sugar in them.
You bake them for about 15 minutes, until they are puffed and golden brown all over and especially on the bottoms.
Scoop them off onto wire racks to cool just a bit and then glaze with a cinnamon glaze. Easy peasy.
Todd really REALLY enjoys these. I think apple anything is his favourite thing!
Yield: 12
Apple Pie Danish
ingredients:
- 280g of baking mix (2 cups)
- 1/4 tsp each cinnamon & ground nutmeg
- 2 TBS sugar
- 65g of butter, softened (1/4 cup)
- 156ml milk (2/3 cup)
- chunky applesauce (about 1/4 cup)
- 1/4 tsp each cinnamon & ground nutmeg
For the glaze:
- 90g icing sugar (2/3 cup confectioners sugar)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
- 1 TBS warm water
- few drops vanilla extract
instructions:
How to cook Apple Pie Danish
- Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Lightly butter a baking sheet.
- Measure the baking mix, sugar and spices into a bowl. Whisk to combine. Drop in the butter and using a fork, cut it in until crumbly. Stir in the milk. You should have a nice stiff but drop-able dough. Drop by rounded dessertspoons onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each one. Using the back of a damp spoon make a well in the centre of each. Drop one heaped teaspoon of applesauce into each well.
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown, and browned on the bottoms. Remove from the oven. Whisk together the glaze ingredients until smooth. Drizzle this over top of the danish while still warm and serve immediately
I confess that I really enjoy them also, even if I really shouldn't. I know . . . . Me<----- little="" nbsp="" no="" or="" p="" willpower.="">
Up tomorrow: Pork Fried Rice and Chicken Tenders with Oriental BBQSauce.
Ever have one of those days? I am having one today. I have had a recipe for Homemade Molasses Bear Paw Cookies bookmarked to bake for quite a long time now. You can find it here. After my last fail at making similar cookies, my sister had shared this one with me, thinking that it might be a better option.
I love molasses cookies. My mom made wonderful ones. We never went home for a visit but what a tin full of molasses cookies was waiting for us. I will always equate mom with those special treats, and I strongly suspect that I will never ever be able to bake any as good as the memory of the taste of hers, especially now that she is no longer with us. By the way, these first two cookie photos are not the Bear Paws . . .
By then I was wanting a cookie . . . but a good cookie, and so I baked these Lemon Oaties instead. The original recipe comes from Everyday Diabetic Recipes.
I love oatmeal cookies almost as much as I like molasses cookies, and when you throw the flavour of lemon into the mix I am in like Flynn!
It can be a bit hard to bake Diabetic recipes from a lot of online sites because the ingredients are not available here in the UK. This was a simple recipe, that didn't require anything out of the ordinary.
It did call for stick margarine, but I don't use stick margarine. I use butter. End of. Butter is a natural thing, not mechanically produced. I like natural.
The recipe makes 30 cookies so 5 TBS of butter divided by 30 means not a lot in each cookie. If I am correct, there is not a lot of difference in fat or calories between butter and margarine, although butter might have slightly more cholesterol. At least it is produced naturally, not chemically. That's my story anyways, and I'm sticking to it!
There is some sugar in these, 45g each of white and light brown sugar (1/4 cup) each, so 1/2 cup altogether. I am not sure a sugar substitute would work or not. but at only 3g of sugar per cookie, I don't think these are overly bad.
They are low carb, low GI . . . with only 70g/1/2 cup of flour in the whole recipe and 80g (1 cup) quick cooking rolled oats . . . oats are very low GI and contain fibre, which is a good thing. You could probably use white whole wheat and make them even lower in the carbs if you wanted to. We don't have white whole wheat flour here in the UK. At least not that I am aware of.
There are two egg white in the recipe, which help to give the cookies a bit of lightness and volume.
The lemon flavour comes from the addition of finely grated Lemon Zest. One full TBS. I use my microplane grater to grate it.
They are not huge cookies, but they are really delicious, and to be honest a Diabetic shouldn't be eating huge cookies anyways!
One of these cookies makes for a delicious oaty, buttery, lightly sweet, lemony treat. I think they are quite fabulous actually and I will be putting them into my regular rotation!
Yield: 30
Lemon Oaties
Crisp cookies with a delicate lemon flavour that are quick and easy to make and very diabetic friendly.
ingredients:
- 5 TBS butter, room temperature(or stick margarine)
- 45g soft light brown sugar (1/4 cup, packed)
- 45g granulated sugar (1/4 cup)
- 2 large free range egg whites
- 1 TBS finely grated Lemon zest
- 80g quick cooking rolled oats (1 cup)
- 70g plain flour (1/2 cup)
instructions:
How to cook Lemon Oaties
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line several baking sheets with baking paper. Set aside.
- Beat the butter, both sugars, egg whites and lemon zest together until light and creamy. Blend in the oats and flour. Don't over mix.
- Drop the dough onto the prepped baking sheets by rounded teaspoonfuls, leaving 2 inches between each.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Let stand on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
- Store in an airtight container.
I am a person who does find it really annoying when I waste ingredients, especially when they are hard to come by. I think I will stick to my mother's Molasses Cookie recipe from now on when I get a craving for Molasses Cookies. It never lets me down.
Up Tomorrow: Apple Pie Danish
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