Week Ninety Three- Mary Berry’s Treacle Spice Traybake & Frangipane Tartlets

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Week 93 and it’s taken a while to find the time to put this blog on even though it was done last weekend! I delved as usual into Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and found these two recipes. It has occurred to me that quite a few of the recipes left for Mary are complicated or rich cakes so i will have to endeavour to find some occasions to bake them! They are not your every day bakes. I started this week with the treacle spice tray bake. I took my new mixer for a “test drive” – and it didn’t dissapoint- it mixed this all in one recipe like a dream. ( Thank you again x) I lined a tray bake tin, poured it in and into the oven it went.

Mary Berry's Treacle Spice Tray Bake

The final bake was a lovely glossy brown with the most heavenly aroma and it is keeping really well under my cake glass dome.

Kim's Treacle Spice Tray Bake

The second recipe was Mary’s frangipane tartlets. I followed Mary’s instructions about making the pastry carefully, lined the mini tartlet tins ad put them in the fridge to chill while I made the frangipane filling. I had decided to make four slightly larger tarts rather than the 12 tiny ones that Mary says her recipe will make. Once the frangipane filling was made, I filled the tart cases and put them in the oven to bake one I had sprinkled flaked almonds on the top.

Mary Berry's Frangipane Tartlets

The tartlets, once cooked needed a final touch with a glaze of apricot jam, warmed through and a sprinkle of ground almonds.

Kim's Frangipane Tartlet

The Great British Bake Off is heating up now, and my initial three names that I blogged about are still in it so far. I must say that one of the bakes this week has again inspired me to attempt a bake I had been putting off in Mary’s book. More of that soon, this week’s bakes will be done over several days. one this weekend as we still have some treacle tray bake left and one roughly midweek-watch this space.

Week Ninety Two – Mary Berry’s Banana & Honey Teabread & Chocolate, Brandy & Ginger Cheesecake

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Week Ninety Two and this bake was being done away from home. Hubby was being watched over for me and I took the opportunity to bake the last banana recipe and another while I was visiting my mum and taking photos of my great niece. Mary Berry’s Baking Bible had one final banana recipe and I started with this.  The recipe was quite an easy mix, but mashing the bananas needed a bit of elbow grease! I lined the tin with baking parchment and put the loaf in the oven for 1 1/4 hours.

Mary Berry's Banana & Honey Teabread

The loaf needed to be covered with some foil about an hour into the bake and Mary does warn you of this in her recipe. The resulting loaf needed to cool for a short while before being brushed with warmed honey and sprinkled with sugar.

Kim's Banana & Honey Tealoaf

The second recipe proved to be a bit more of a challenge. The first part of Mary’s chocolate, brandy and ginger cheesecake wasn’t too bad, it involved crushing ginger biscuits and combining this with melted butter and sugar. Put this in the base of the tin and press down and leave to set.

Mary Berry's Chocolate, brandy & Ginger Cheesecake

After the banana loaf had baked, I set about making the cheesecake middle layer. This proved to be the challenging part. Mary asks you to melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water- no problem there. Sprinkle the gelatine over the water and leave for 10 minutes to sponge- not so good. Beat together the egg yolks, sugar and cheese in a bowl. Add the soured cream and chocolate. Stir in the gelatine. Whisk the egg whites until frothy and fold in to the mixture and add the brandy and chopped ginger. At this point the mixture was very runny and I wasn’t confident that it was going to set. I poured it into the tin on top of the biscuit base and left it in my mum’s fridge. Many hours later it was still runny, with no sign of setting so I put it in her freezer for several hours. Slightly better but not properly set.

I had to leave it for my mum to whip the cream ad sprinkle chocolate over and send me a photo so I never got to taste this one but mum said when she took it out of the tin, while putting the cream on top , the chocolate cheesecake mix was beginning to sag and move so it had to be eaten quickly. All I can think of was that I didn’t do the gelatine properly but who knows? I will chalk this one up to experience.

Kim's Chocolate, Brandy & Ginger Cheesecake

I am still enjoying The Great British Bake Off and my three early favourites are still there. I learnt two things from tonight’s show. Trim your tart pastry once cooked , not before, which I had always done , it looks so much better and if making any kind of custard tart, it’s better to pour the custard into the pastry case while it’s on the oven shelf rather than struggling not to spill it while getting it back into the oven!

Week Ninety One – Mary Berry’s Honey Glazed Walnut Bread & Glazed Lemon Tart

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Week ninety one and I obviously had a bit of a “glazed” feel to this weeks bakes! I dipped into Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and was inspired to try another bread recipe after watching the efforts on The Great British Bake Off for bread week.  The honey glazed walnut bread sounded scrummy and Mary assures you in the recipe that it also makes fantastic toast (If it lasts that long- take note please chief tasters!!) I added all the ingredients into a bowl, added the dough hooks to my mixer and set it off. Mary says allow five minutes mixing/kneading for a machine or 10 minutes by hand. This is where it was all going so well….until plumes of smoke were coming off my machine! The dough was too much and the motor had burnt out so the machine went to the electrical scrap heap in the sky and I finished the kneading by hand. I left the dough to prove and set about getting the other recipe bits together.

Mary Berry's Honey Glazed Walnut Bread

The proving time was done and I put the bread into the oven to bake, the recipe makes 2 good sized loaves. 25 minutes later, they were done and had that hollow sound when tapped on the bottom!

Kim's Honey Glazed Walnut Loaf

The second recipe was the glazed lemon tart. Firstly Mary asks you to make the pate sucree pastry- its a sweet shortcrust pastry. Then line a flan tin with it and chill while making the topping. Add the other ingredients together and beat well. ( with no mixer, I developed muscles I didn’t know I had!) Pour the mix into the pastry case and bake until brown and set.

Mary Berry's Glazed Lemon Tart Recipe

While this is cooling- and Mary says you can eat it like this if you like, thinly slice a lemon, remove any pips, boils some water and sugar, add the lemon slices to this, boil again and leave in a bowl to cool for 2 hours. Then drain the lemons, arrange them on the tart, and glaze with some apricot jam that has been warmed through.

Kim's Glazed Lemon Tart

This looks and smells lovely and we will be eating some after dinner later!

There have been some strange goings on in my garden lately. It has all become a little overgrown with the bamboo I had planted some years ago, pretty much taking over the garden and with the recent rain, you could barely see up my garden through it all. I looked from my kitchen up the garden recently and found that the local wildlife had diversified somewhat from the native species! I know who to thank for this and will ensure that your garden enjoys a similar experience!
image

I was also sad to say goodbye to my trusty mixer- it was the best of both worlds, I could detach the mixer and use it as a hand mixer or attach it to the stand and use with the bowl  which could rotate if I needed it to.

 

Breville Stand mixerI threw it in the chief taster’s trailer to go to the tip ( yes- it went in dirty- it’s going to the tip!) and waved it goodbye.

RIP

 

Eek – I think my fairy god mother is looking after me…..I was telling the sorrowful tale of my mixer and with BIG thanks to one of my chief taster’s. I have a new mixer on the way- YAY!! xxx

 

Week Ninety – Mary Berry’s Pecan Pie & Walnut & Apricot Sandwich Bars

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Week ninety and things had settled a little at home so I settled to this week’s bake with a little less stress than last week. The first bake I chose from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible was Mary’s Pecan Pie. This recipe involved making a shortcrust pastry, allow it to chill in the fridge for a while, roll it out and line a flan tin with it and line the pastry with foil, add beans and blind bake for about 20 minutes, then remove the foil and beans and then bake for another 15 minutes.

Mary Berry's Pecan Pie Recipe

To prepare the topping, lay the pecan nuts in the pastry case and add the other topping ingredients into a saucepan and heat through until mixed, then pour into the pastry case and allow to cool and set. I thought this was a rather yummy pudding but hubby wouldn’t try it as he doesn’t like pecans…..or walnuts…..or most other nuts!

Kim's Pecan Pie

The second recipe was Mary’s walnut and apricot sandwich bars, firstly you need to cut up the apricots and boil them in some water and sugar until soft and squishy (technical baking term!) and then mix together the other ingredients, mainly, butter flour , oats and syrup. Add half the mixture to the square tin and flatten down, add the apricots and again, flatten down and finally the remainder of the mixture and flatten for the last time.

Mary Berry's Apricot & Walnut Sandwich Bars Recipe

Bake in the oven and when ready, cut into bar shapes while cooling. I have eaten various breakfast bars in my life and found these to be quite stodgy, I think it was adding the flour to the mix that did this. They weren’t overly popular in our house and the remainder ended up in the food recycling bin.

Kim's Apricot & Walnut Sandwich Bars

I have been watching the Great British Bake Off with interest and now am showing interest in two or three of the contestants- I like Martha, the young girl who seems to have no fear or nerves, Like Luis the star baker of the week and I Like Nancy….lets see if one of these wins, I liked Frances from the beginning last year-and she won!

 

Week Eighty Nine, Mary Berry’s Almond & Cherry Tray Bake & Florentines

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Week 89 took over where week 88 left off, halfway through managing hubby’s leg burn and various trips to hospital for leg dressings and caring for him at home. I used Mary Berry’s Baking Bible as a bit of respite and my challenge as an excuse to do something normal for an hour or two. I chose Mary’s almond and cherry tray bake and the Florentine biscuits. I had caught up on the Great British Bake Off and saw that they contestants would be making Florentine biscuits so thought I would give them a go as they were in the bible and I hadn’t done them yet.

I started with the tray bake which is the usual Mary’s easy recipe of throw all the ingredients in a bowl and mix and pour! I put the tray bake in the oven and sat and read the Florentine recipe carefully.

Mary Berry's Almond and Cherry tray bake

The tray bake baked well and smelt amazing. I left it to cool while getting on with the biscuits.

Kim's almond & cherry tray bake

Mary’s Florentine recipe asks you to put the sugar, butter and golden syrup into a pan and heat gently, allowing it all to melt. Allow to cool slightly and add the rest of the ingredients and stir well.

Mary Berry's Florentine recipe

Add spoonfuls of the mix to the baking trays and bake. Watch the biscuits carefully as they can go from under baked and a bit soft to burnt very quickly- this didn’t happen to me thankfully but Mary adds this warning to her recipe! Once bakes, allow to cool slightly and transfer to a baking tray. Then melt some dark chocolate and spread over the back and make a zig zag pattern with a fork in the chocolate.

Kim's Florentines

I watched the Great British Bake Off this week and thought that they all did a cracking job with the technical challenge of Florentines and was pleased that mine had gone well- the only downside was that hubby and I didn’t like them very much!

 

Week Eighty Eight – Mary Berry’s Come and Come Again Cake

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No apologies for this late blog I am afraid other than life gets in the way and it has been a pretty bad two weeks but I don’t want to get into that now , it will distract you from the bake! We were going away in our caravan with the hairy hoolies and I wanted a bake that I could take with me so Mary Berry’s Baking Bible had this come and come again fruit cake which i decided to make.

Mary Berry's Come and Come Again cake

It’s one of Mary’s easy recipes with the directions of put all the recipes in a bowl, mix and bake! I love these! I set the timer and went off to pack all the stuff needed for our trip. I always have the plan to take minimal stuff and the car is always packed to the ceiling….sigh! The timer pinged and the cake was done. I let it cool down and then cut a quarter for my chief tasters -(after all, they are on strict diets!) and put the rest in a tin to take with us. I must say that although it was a nice fruit cake, some of her other fruit cake recipes have been nicer. It was a great bake for a van though and went down well with a cuppa once we had set the van up!

Kim's come and come again cake

I only managed one bake this week due to …umm I want to put due to our holiday but it turned into a rescue mission. Without going into too much detail, hubby dropped a kettle of boiling water over his leg, major trauma, taken to local hospital to where we were staying, there for about 8 hours, transferred to Bristol burns unit, kept in over night, I had to manage dogs and caravan and then do a 140 mile round trip to collect him the next day, pack up the van and tow home…… I felt like this:-

wonderwoman

But looked like this:- !

OAP Wonder Woman

Week Eighty Seven – Mary Berry’s Raspberry Meringue Roulade & Date & Walnut Tray Bake

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I really don’t know where the weeks go you know, I plan my bakes for the weekends but sometimes life generally just gets in the way. This is my bake from last week, a little late and no bake from this week so far as I have had a cold, studying to do and a birthday to celebrate so I will try to make something in the week to “bank” for the blog! My delve into Mary Berry’s Baking Bible dug out the roulade recipe and a tray bake. I made the roulade first. It was Mary’s usual whisk the egg whites together and add the caster sugar – but one teaspoon at a time. Really? The amount of sugar for the recipe, I would have been there all day, adding a spoon at  a time and whisking well in between, so I am guilty of not following Mary’s recipe to the exact letter this week- tut tut!

Mary Berry's Raspberry Meringue Roulade

Once I had added all the sugar- and yes it was slowly, I poured it into the lined tray, covered the top with flaked almonds and baked for the recommended time. Half way through, you have to turn the oven down and this needs careful timing. Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly then turn out onto greaseproof paper. While waiting for it too cool a little more to roll, whisk the double cream and mix the fresh raspberries into it. Spread the cream and raspberry mix onto the meringue and use the greaseproof paper to help roll the meringue into a roulade. I thought this would be tricky but I didn’t find it too bad at all. Leave the roulade wrapped in the paper and put into the fridge. The roulade was really long!

Kim's Raspberry Meringue Roulade

The second recipe was the date and walnut tray bake. Slightly more fiddly in that Mary asks you to cut up the dates, put them in a bowl with the softened butter and some boiling water and allow to cool. In the meantime, put the rest of the ingredients into the bowl and mix, then add the date mix when cooler.

Mary Berry's Date & Walnut Tray Bake

Line a tray bake tin and pour the mix in. Cook as per Mary’s recipe. Once cooked, allow to cool in the tin and make the icing topping. I must admit I was a bit dubious about making a lemon icing topping on a date and walnut tray bake but it seemed to compliment it well. Finally decorate with walnut pieces.

Kim's Date & Walnut Tray Bake

I divided my bakes as usual and gave some to my chief tasters ….who have now informed me that they are on strict diets so I may have to half Mary’s recipe amounts or I will have to resort to feeding the neighbourhood by putting a table outside!

funny diet joke

My hubby informs me that our blog has now had over 50, 000 views since we started it – not just for my cake adventures, but also our photography, and Canadian adventure too so thank you all for helping to build up this figure!

Oh and my countdown continues…..93 to go….and having a week’s break isn’t helping…..but on a brighter note- the Great British Bake Off starts next week- I will be there, watching every bake!

Week Eighty Six – Mary Berry’s Mushroom & Garlic Stuffed Picnic Loaf & Cheese Straws

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Week eighty six and I thought I would be a little adventurous this week and attempt something with yeast! I delved into Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and found the mushroom and garlic stuffed picnic loaf and to complete the savoury theme, cheese straws to compliment.

I made the bread dough as per Mary’s instructions and left it to rise or prove for two hour. With the lovely weather we have been having, this wasn’t an issue for me this time! I read the recipe carefully and Mary suggests either making one whole loaf that is stuffed or rolls so I opted for rolls as they are shared more easily.

Mary Berry's Mushroom & Garlic stuffed picnic loaf

The only issue I had was following the instructions for filling and folding the dough which proved to be tricky as it isn’t a sealed loaf. I added the filling and molded, coaxed, prodded and poked the dough until it resembled a roll rather than a wreck and left them to prove for a while longer. Then finally they went into the oven for about 15 minutes. When they came out, I had to brush them with some of the mushroom oil from the recipe and leave them to cool.

Kim's mushroom & garlic stuffed picnic loaf

The second recipe was for cheese straws. This was an easy dough to put together and then wrap in clingfilm for half an hour. Time ran out and the dough wasn’t used until the following day and needed to be worked a bit as it was a solid block!

Mary Berry's Cheese Straws

I rolled it out and cut the dough into straws and brushed them with egg and sprinkled with fresh Parmesan cheese. Into the oven they went for a short while until golden and brown.

Kim's cheese straws.

I have been trying to catch up with the Celebrity Master Chef – the episodes are currently stacked up ready to watch but I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Wayne Sleep did and how much he learned in such a short space of time.

I treated my kitchen this week too. I have seen some wall signs where the words are transferred directly onto the wall and found a lovely kitchen sign that reflected my love of baking! It was a bit of a pain to put up but worth it and I love it!

Kim's kitchen sign

Week Eighty Five – Mary Berry’s Chocolate Chip Cookies & Lime Lattice Cookies

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Week eighty five and I delved with my usual glee into Mary Berry’s Baking Bible – I thought that perhaps with less than 100 now to go, that my choices would be getting more limited but not yet. There are I must admit some recipes I keep passing over, yes I know I have to do them all eventually….

Any how, I decided this week would be a bit of a cookie fest and I began with Mary’s Chocolate Chip Cookies. The way Mary describes them is that they should be soft and chewy, a bit like Millie’s cookies was what came to mind. I made the dough which was simple enough and then Mary asks you to put large teaspoons of the mixture on to baking sheets, fairly well spaced apart. I managed this and placed the trays in the oven to cook and set the timer.

Mary Berry's Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Once the timer had pinged, I removed the cookies from the oven and allowed them to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring them to the cooling racks. I was pleased with how they came out and even if I do say so, they were as good as Millie’s cookies.

Kim's Chocolate Chip Cookies

the second batch of cookies were Mary’s lime lattice cookies. Mary’s recipe for this is very simple and the hardest part was finely grating two limes. Mary suggests using a skewer to create a lattice pattern on top of these cookies but I used the wires from an egg slicer instead.

Mary Berry's Lime Lattice Cookie recipe

Mary asks you to add “walnut” sized pieces of dough onto the trays, create the lattice effect on top and bake. These were zesty and tangy, a lovely contrast to the rich chocolate chip cookies.

Kim's Lime Lattice Cookies

I am avidly awaiting the new series of The Great British Bake Off which is going to be shown this summer on BBC1. There was an article in The Metro about there being a spin off series on BBC2 called An Extra Slice to show more of the footage etc so I will have more to watch-yippee!

Week Eighty Four- Mary Berry’s Brandy Snaps & Chocolate Chip & Vanilla Marble Cake

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Week eighty four, or should I say week eighty four and a half as this week’s bake was done in two halves. I actually made the brandy snaps last weekend but didn’t find the time to blog about it so incorporated it into this week’s bake and blog.

Mary Berry's Brandy Snaps

I was inspired to try the brandy snaps after watching one of the celebrity master chef episodes where each celebrity was given the challenge of producing a brandy snap, with quite hilarious results. So I delved into Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and found the recipe and off I set.

On celebrity master chef, the celebrities were given a dough and asked to make it into a brandy snap. Mary’s mix is quite liquid in comparison. So much so that I thought I had done it wrong initially but when I put teaspoons of the gloopy mix on the baking tray, it produced the desired effect and I was able to roll them into a brandy snap and leave them to cool.

Kim's Brandy Snaps

I served mine with ice cream and yes, they did “snap” when bitten into!

The second recipe, made this week was Mary Berry’s chocolate chip & vanilla marble cake which is made into a tray bake. The basic cake mix is one of Mary’s mix everything together all in one mix ….but with a variation. Mary then asks you to place spoons of half this mixture in random places in the tray and then add the cocoa and hot water and chocolate chips to the other half of the cake mix and mix again, then place spoons of this in the spaces left in the tray. I then used a spoon to ripple it all together.

Mary Berry's Choclate Chip & Vanilla Marble Cake

One tip I have learnt with adding chocolate chips is to roll them in flour before adding them to the mix and this should prevent them all sinking to the bottom which has happened to me so many times. It definitely seemed to work this time.  Once the cake was baked, I left it to cool.

Kim's chocolate chip & vanilla marble cake

Mary asks you to then melt some dark chocolate- I substituted milk chocolate for this and some white chocolate and drizzle them over the top to finish the cake. I decided to created a ripple effect on mine and loved the effect

Kim's ChocolateChip & Vanilla Marble Cake

The countdown continues…and YAY! I have now got 99 left to go- down to two figures at last!