Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
I saw a recipe the other day for Cherry and Almond Muffins which quite took my fancy. It was on a blog called Pretty Sweet Simple.
They looked right up our alley, however I did not feel that we could eat 12 muffins between us, and I don't have a lot of room in my freezer.
Todd is always complaining that I have our freezers filled to the hilt. What can I say?? Guilty as charged, but it has saved our bacon more than once.
You never know when a calamity is going to arise and having a bit of
food storage to fall back on is pretty helpful under those conditions. When this Pandemic hit for instance.
We were unable to go to the shops and it was really difficult to get a slot for online shopping. Having a bit extra (not hoarding) made all the difference in the world to us and kept us going until we could get a delivery slot worked out.
So, with no room in my freezer, today I decided to small batch the recipe, making only six medium sized muffins. If you want the full size recipe, do check out the original recipe.
I also decided not to add the flaked almonds to the batter. I didn't see where they would add anything to the muffin. I could be wrong of course, but I made the choice not to add them.
I did add a few extra cherries, but not many as I didn't want soggy muffins. I used frozen pitted cherries, which I cut in half.
There is always that temptation to want to add extra fruit, etc. when you are making baked goodies. In most cases however, you will run the risk of ruining your bake. Less is often more in many instances.
I was really suprised when I saw how tall they rose! I think the initial baking at the high temperature is responsible for that.
It gives them an extra boost. Just don't forget to turn the oven down after the initial five minute bake or you will have burnt muffin tops!
The muffin top has always been my favourite part of any muffin, but in a case like that, I highly doubt it would be!
These are nice and moist. They do run just this side of being a cupcake. That's a risk when it comes to muffin making. The difference between the two textures are very different things.
Cakes have a much lighter texture. You don't want many holes in a cake. Muffins are denser and you do want lots of holes in a well baked muffin. These were very close to being cake-like, but thankfully still muffins.
There is yogurt in the muffins, which adds to their moistness and also helps to get that high rise, especially when combined with baking soda.
Anything which is acidic in bakes, such as yogurt, sourcream, or buttermilk requires the addition of baking soda to help them rise. Its a chemical reaction.
There is baking powder as well, but the acid from the yogurt in these reacts with the baking soda to give you the perfect lift.
Nice and tall. It also helps to not overmix the batter. Many people make that mistake and end up with tough flat muffins. You just want to mix until the dry ingredients are uniformly wet.
A few dry streaks are alright and lumps are absolutely permissable, quite acceptable, and absolutely desirable!
This is very different than making a cake batter when you want everything to be smooth and lump free. Where extra beating actually puts air into the cake and helps to lift it.
Unlike cooking, baking is an exact science, that must be adhered to. I hear so many people complaining when recipes don't work out.
In truth it is not the fault of the recipe, but the result of their playing around with things too much. How often have I seen in different reviews. I added this, and I took away that, and I did this and I did that, but they didn't work out. This is a crummy recipe!!! Not so!! This is a crummy baker!
Not the recipe's fault. Pure and simple. Exact science. Baking is an exact science without much room for play.
So many people try to play around with baking recipes and then they wonder why they don't turn out, blaming the recipe, but really . . . its them . . .
I fancied these muffins up with a light dusting of icing sugar to serve, but you needn't do. They are beautiful just as they are.
Its a bit like wearing a petticoat with a pretty dress, however. You don't really need it, but it adds a special bit of something. A certain "Je ne sais quoi!"
Cherry Almond Muffins
Yield: 6 medium muffins
prep time: 10 Mcook time: 22 Mtotal time: 32 M
These delicious muffins are stuffed with fresh cherries.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup all purpose flour (140g)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 6 1/2 TBS sugar (75g)
- 1 small free range egg, lightly beaten
- 3 TBS canola oil
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt (125g)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 3/4 cup of cherries, pitted and halved (150g)
- flaked almonds to top
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 225*C/425*F/gas mark 7. Line a 6 cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside. (Alternately you can butter them very well.)
- Sift together the flour, soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the centre of the ingredients. Whisk together the yogurt, egg, extracts and oil. Add all at once to the dry ingredients and stir together just to combine.
- Carefully fold in the cherries.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cups and sprinkle some flaked almonds on top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 190*C/375*F/gas mark 5. Bake for an additional 12 to 17 minutes, until well risen, golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 8 to 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
- Best eaten on the day but can be frozen for up to two months when properly wrapped.
Cherries can be quite a damp ingredient, so don't go overboard in adding them. I would think that any berry would also work well, like blackberries which are just now coming into season! Things like that you can play with, but again, don't go overboard!
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English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are
reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you
may report it to me at: theenglishkitchen@mail.com
I adore Biscuits, and by that I don't mean cookies, I mean North American style biscuits. Any soup or stew is immeasurably improved by the addition to the table of a nice basket of hot fresh biscuits.
I often have huge debates over the differences between Biscuits and Scones. Some people think that the two are the same thing and interchangeable, but in all honesty, they are two completely different things altogether!
There are some really significant differences between scones and biscuits. Scones typically have eggs in them and biscuits do not. Scones tend to be a little denser, drier, and not as flaky.
Just adding oats, fruit, herbs or anything else to a biscuit dough and cutting them in triangles does NOT make them a scone. Seriously. They may look identical in very many ways, but that is where any similarity stops!
The recipe I am sharing today for Yogurt Biscuits was adapted from the
Book, "Southern Biscuits," by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart.
I was intrigued by the notion that you could make delicious biscuits with only flour, salt and yogurt. I just had to try them for myself.
They were incredibly easy to put together. They are basically just salt, self rising flour and yogurt. Do use full fat yogurt. I have it on the authority of Natalie that low fat yogurt does not work well. I believe her.
I did not try them with low fat yogurt, but when a professional tells you not to use it. I listen. They usually know what they are talking about. Trust me on this.
If you don't have self
raising flour, you can make your own. (For every cup of flour, sift
together 1 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder.) It
works a charm.
If I am making my own self raising flour, I will usually make five or six cups of it at a time. You will always use it up. I promise you it won't be a waste of your time or money. I have plenty of recipes on here that use self-raising flour.
Soft butter goes very well with hot biscuits and if you are serving biscuits on their own, why not make it a flavoured butter. Today I made Honey Cardamom Butter. Honey and Cardamom have a natural affinity for each other.
Both have incredible warmth. Its difficult to put into words, but both feel like hugs and kisses and home sweet home to me.
This natural affinity between honey and cardamom is almost as strong as the one for biscuits and any butter! What is a biscuit without butter? No quite the same.
Look at the height of these biscuits. These rise really, really high. Quite surprisingly high when you consider that there is only a few basic ingredients in them.
That's what you get when you use a very light touch and you don't twist the cutter when you are cutting. So many people end up with lopsided biscuits.
That can be prevented by cutting them out by tapping straight up and down with a sharp edged cutter. Straight up. Straight down. No twisting at all.
I used a 3 inch cutter, patting my dough out to 1-inch thickness. I got 8 lovely big biscuits. Eight big, lovely, fluffy, beautifully textured biscuits.
These are as light as a cloud. They almost float off the plate. Like an angel's wings or an angel's kiss. They are amazing.
If you use a 2 inch cutter you will get more biscuits obviously. I like my biscuits to be a bit of a handful most of the time. They are perfect for filling with things.
Smaller ones also have their uses however. Smaller ones are perfect for grouping on a plate and can trick people into thinking they are not quite eating as much as they would be were the biscuits larger in size.
You can cut biscuits rally small, like one inch in diameter and that size is perfect to be used filled with ham or smoked salmon as appetizers or pre-meal nibbles, meant to be served with drinks
These, however, were perfect just as they are . . . tall and light textured . . . with a beautifully flaky crumb. Mean to be enjoyed.
In short . . . biscuit perfection. Whether you are enjoying them with butter and something sweet, or sitting next to a hot bowl of soup or stew.
Obviously with a soup or stew you may want to leave off the Cardamom Butter, unless it is a creamy soup such as a roasted butternut squash or pumpkin. It might go rather well with those.
In any case, I really hope you will want to bake these. I am absolutely positive that you will enjoy them as much as we did.
Yogurt Biscuits & Honey Cardamom Butter
Yield: 6 - 8 (3-inch) biscuits)
prep time: 15 Mcook time: 15 Mtotal time: 30 M
Make sure you use full fat yogurt for these deliciously light and fluffy biscuits. If your yogurt is especially thick you can thin it with a bit of milk. These are fabulously tall, crisp on the outsides, tender inside, and go perfectly with the honey butter!
Ingredients:
For the Honey Cardamom Butter:
- 1/2 cup butter at room temperature (120g)
- 2 TBS honey
- 1 1/2 TBS icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
For the Biscuits:
- 2 1/4 cups of self raising flour (315g)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup full fat yogurt (245g)
- softened butter for brushing (optional)
Instructions:
- To make the honey cardamom butter, beat all of the ingredients together in a bowl until evenly mixed. Scrape into a serving bowl. Cover and chill until needed.
- Preheat the oven to 225*C/450*F/ gas mark 7. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Measure (280g) 2 cups of the the flour into a bowl along with the salt and make a well in the centre. Add two thirds of the yogurt into the well, reserving the rest along with the remaining (35g)1/4 cup of flour. Use a spatula to mix the flour and yogurt together just until he mixture comes together and the dry ingredients are moisened and a sticky dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If you think the dough is too dry, add the remaining yogurt. If your dough is too wet, use more flour when shaping.
- Lightly sprinkle a board with some of the reserved flour. Turn the dough out and using floured hands, fold the dough in half and pat out to a 1/2-inch thick round using only as much flour as is needed. Flour again and repeat, patting the dough out to 1/2 inch thick for a normal biscuit, and 1 inch thick for a tall biscuit. (I like them tall.)
- Using a floured 3-inch cutter stamp out 8 biscuits. Take care not to twist the cutter or your biscuits will be lopsided. Try to get as many cuts as you can from the first cutting. Gather, pat out and recut the scraps. (These will be tougher which is why you want to get as many as you can from the first patting out.)
- Transfer all the biscuits to the lined baking tray.
- Bake the biscuits on the top rack of the oven for 6 minutes. Rotate the baking pan, back to front and then bake for a further 4 to 8 minutes until well risen and golden brown.
- Brush the tops with softened butter if desired. Serve warm with the Honey Cardamom Butter.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The
English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are
reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you
may report it to me at: theenglishkitchen@mail.com
Thank you for visiting! Do come again!
Are you a fan of crisp and nutty? How about buttery and sweet?
If so, prepare yourself to fall completely in love with these fabulous Sugar Crusted Almond Bars!
Not only are they deliciously crisp, nutty, buttery and sweet, but they are also very quick and easy!
And yes, incredibly moreish. So do be warned, its almost impossible to eat just one. Resistance is futile.
The base for these quick and easy bars is refrigerated croissant dough, but you could also use a sheet of puff pastry if you are so inclined.
I like the croissant dough however. It bakes up beautifully golden brown without having to brush on an egg wash.
You just crack the containers open and unroll them onto a baking paper lined baking sheet.
I can never get them to unroll straight so mine end up a bit wonky. I am not sure about you, but this creates a bit of charm from where I am standing.
There is a great beauty in their imperfections.
The almond topping is equally as simple to make. If you can melt butter, then you can make this.
Its just melted butter, sugar and flaked almonds . . . cooked together in a saucepan until the sugar has melted and the almonds have begun to toast.
You will need to keep a close watch on the mixture as it can turn quite quickly and be burnt before you know it. So watch . . . this gets scattered over the top of the pastry.
Let it cool a bit first as it is quite hot . . . sugar you know . . .
Just look at how crisp and flaky they are . . . mmmm . . . .
Perfect to be enjoyed with a nice hot cuppa!
Nobody needs to know how quick and easy these were. It can be our little secret. Be prepared for the applause!
Sugar Crusted Almond Bars
Yield: 24 bars
prep time: 15 Mcook time: 16 Mtotal time: 31 M
If you are a fan of crisp and nutty, and crunchy sweet, you will love these quick and easy bars.
Ingredients:
- 2 cans of refrigerated croissant rolls
- 1/2 cup butter (120g) (don't attempt to use margarine)
- 2 cups flaked almonds (340g)
- 1 1/3 cups sugar (250g)
- icing sugar to dust
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Line a large flat baking sheet with some baking paper.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Add the almonds and sugar. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently until the almonds just begin to turn golden brown. Remove from the heat immediately.
- Break open the tins of croissant dough and unroll them on the baking sheet, pressing the perforations closed and joining them together.
- Scatter the almond mixture evenly over top of the dough.
- Bake for11 to 16 minutes, until crisp and golden brown. Allow to cool for half an hour then sprinkle with some icing sugar and serve. Cut into squares to serve.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The
English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are
reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you
may report it to me at: theenglishkitchen@mail.com
Thanks so much for Visiting! Do Come Again!!
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