Monthly Archives: Oct 2012

Week Ten – Orange Wholemeal Victoria Loaf

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Week ten, so what to choose to bake this week?  Well, I know one of my previous posts told the tale of the scalded hand……well this week has been influenced by the fact that I have strained the collateral ligaments in my thumb.  It doesn’t sound much but I couldn’t even take the plastic screw lid off the milk without excruciating pain so I took myself to get it looked at and it needed to be strapped and I have to take regular ibuprofen and try not to use it.

SO with this in mind, I sat with a cup of tea and Mary Berry’s Bible and looked through to see what I could make where my mixer could do all the work and this is what I came up with. The only bit I needed help with was grating an orange for the rind and that’s where my angel of a hubby came to the rescue – what a star!

So, I (carefully) weighed everything out, stuck it under the mixer and hey presto – one mix with no fuss. I put it into the tin, Mary does say it doesn’t look like it will fill the tin and she was right!

 

 

Timer on , 40 minutes later, this is what came out. I must say, it rose beautifully, was a great golden colour and the aroma wafting upwards was lovely.

 

It needed a topping when it was cool, of softened butter, icing sugar and marmalade. I think even Paddington Bear would approve of this recipe!

 

 

 

I am going to start looking now at other recipes i can use the mixer to do all the work as I get the feeling my hand will need to heal for a while yet……..sigh.

Week Nine – Blueberry Muffins AND American Chocolate Chip Muffins

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Week nine already, and because of work commitments, I only had Sunday to clean shop and cook so decided to go for the muffins recipes as I thought “Oh, they’re easy”…….. but I was wrong………..

 

 

 

 

I decided to do both the blueberry and the chocolate chip muffins as the mix was pretty much the same at the beginning and thought as I was tired and time was short, to halve the recipe and do half the batch as blueberry and half the batch as chocolate chip. I also found at 5pm that I only had enough muffin cases for half of them and decided (oh silly me) to just use normal cake cases for the others but a few more……

Well, we all have baking disasters and Sunday was mine. The muffins didn’t really rise, they were heavy and all stuck like glue to the cases. I decided that I would make them again, but on Monday after a good night’s sleep and a quick dash around Morrison’s to get more cases…blueberries…chocolate chips…etc, think you might be getting the picture….

            

SO Monday came and I got home from work, took the hairy hoolies for a quick dash in the rain , dried them and got out Mary Berry’s Bible. I read the recipe instructions more carefully and off I set. I had googled the muffins sticking and came upon this blogger who also had the same issues with Mary Berry’s recipe, so I was pleased I wasn’t the only one.http://risingtotheberry.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/chocolate-chip-american-muffins.html

Ok, batch one – the blueberry muffins seemed to go well and so did the second……set the timer and into the oven they went. The result?…………………….

Well they look much better than the first batch, but the test will be- do they stick to the case? Well, they need to cool totally so watch this space….

Week Eight- Fast Flapjacks- with chocolate chips!

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Week eight and I have adjusted to mum living at a distance again.

I didn’t want to cook anything too taxing this week so chose flapjacks. Mary Berry’s Fast Flapjacks with the option of adding chocolate chips sounded like it fitted the bill.

Since I have started this challenge, I have 2 avid fans in the kitchen watching my every move and if I drop anything, well, they make sure it’s cleaned up quickly!

Ok, the recipe seemed simple enough, golden syrup, butter, Demerara sugar and porridge oats– vaguely healthy too- well the porridge oats say they are a “super food” any way!

The syrup, butter and sugar all went in the pan and melted together.

Then in went the porridge oats, a thorough stir in and left to cool for 10 minutes before adding the chocolate chips, then pressed into a tray bake tin and into the oven for 35 minutes.

 

All in all, another success, quick and easy and no hidden extras- such as preservatives that you get in shop bought things. I am also beginning to think more about buying things in the supermarket, before I stop and I think- ” I can make that!”.

Week seven – Cheese & Olive Scone ….and a bonus..Chocolate Crispies!

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Week seven…and it’s a bit late in publishing, my mum went home and I didn’t feel like baking ….or blogging…but now I’m back in the saddle, so where were we?

I fancied a savoury challenge this week and thought that Mary Berry’s Cheese & Olive Scone fitted the bill. It isn’t like your usual scones in that you don’t cut them out into neat little rounds, the recipe suggests you press it into a rectangular tin and mark it out into sections and bake. That’s what I did.

It mixed easily enough, no hiccups with making the dough and into the oven it went.

I also decided to do a “bonus” recipe, Mary’s bible has a children’s section and there were the old favourites of Chocolate Crispies recipe. Now, I am no “great shakes” in the cooking department, but even I thought that I would feel like a fraud if I devoted a week’s blog and challenge to chocolate crispies on their own…….!

So while I waited for the scone to bake, I mixed up the chocolate crispies and spooned the mixture into the cases. I then put these into the fridge and took out the scone bake.

The recipe said to take it out of the oven after 15 minutes and sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over it and return it to the oven for 5 minutes. I did this and got out the cooling rack ready.

I was really pleased with the way the scone turned out. I allowed it to cool and cut it into sections and put it in an airtight tin. We sampled it the following day with a little butter and even if I do say so myself, it wasn’t half bad!

So what to do next week? Back to something sweet I think………..

Week six – Mary Berry’s “My Mother’s Bread and Butter Pudding”

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Week six here already, I seem to have settled into this challenge lark and am gaining confidence in my cooking abilities too.

I now look forward to sitting with Mary Berry’s bible to choose the recipe I fancy tackling this week.

 

I had quite a lot of a tiger loaf left over this week that was not fresh enough for sandwiches but I didn’t want to waste it so the bread and butter pudding fitted the bill!

The last time I tasted this pudding was when my own mother made it so it also brought back childhood memories too.

The recipe was very easy to follow, and in no time at all the pudding had been put together, I took a little time to layer the bread and as it was a tiger loaf, the pieces of bread were not a uniform square that was easy to cut into sections. Once made, Mary recommended leaving it for an hour to stand before putting it in the oven for 40 minutes.

I had the time, so sat with a nice cup of tea and reminised with my mum on her memories of making bread and butter pudding. then the pudding went in , timer on and waited.

The finished result looked good to me and Mary says in her book that although it tastes good hot, that it is just as nice cold…..well, we dug into it while it was hot and I enjoyed it very much, I am actually beginning to enjoy my own cooking, something I don’t usually do.

The rest of it? Well hubby had some later in the day and his parents took some away today. The only thing I would do differently? My mum recommended serving it hot with clotted cream ice cream……..naughty but nice….and mum always knows best!