Baking Day

So, I've had a lovely day of baking! For the first time in a few weeks I've had the opportunity just to hang out at home and try some new recipes and some variations on more established themes!

First up, sundried tomato and olive bread - a new recipe from a book I've had for a while, Sara Lewis' The Bread Book. My confidence with bread has risen massively over the last few weeks to the point that I ditched the sugar at the outset - my understanding is that bread recipes only contain sugar in an attempt to speed up the rise which, I'm also learning, is something you don't actually particularly want. So out went the sugar and in came a longer rising time. The result was a moist loaf, full of flavour - definitely one to keep! And I've stuck some in the freezer in the hope that it could become another bread that's easy to stop going stale before I can finish it!

Then I made what's become my staple loaf, a white seeded tin that I'll slice, bag and put in the freezer (can you see a theme emerging?!). This one's made with a combination of Claybrooke Mill strong white flour and Allinson Seed and Grain bread flour, about half and half of each.

Up next were Joy the Baker's feta and chive sour cream scones. I've been reading baking blogs for a few months and when I decided I wanted to make something savoury I decided that instead of trawling through recipe books or using random websites I'd have a hunt through some blog archives. These are brilliant! No skimping on either the feta or the chives, and a topping of salt, pepper and paprika gives the whole thing a bit of a kick.

Then an old favourite, Mrs Beeton's scones! In a slight rush of blood to the head, I chucked some mixed tropical fruit in my shopping trolley last night and thought I'd see how they'd work as a replacement for tried and tested (and maybe slightly dull...) sultanas. The verdict? Perfectly pleasant! I'm not sure it's a combo that's going to set the world alight but, hey!, you don't know if you don't try!

And finally, sticky apple maple tray bake from Great British Bake Off: How to bake. This is a really moist, fruity cake with amazing maple syrup icing - definitely needs to be served with a cake fork or a napkin, preferably both! 

But one of the nicest things about the day was that my sister and a couple of friends came over, along with their small children, to keep me company (and eat things as they came out of the oven!).

Happy days!

Cheese and ham muffins

My mum reckons I need to do more savoury baking. The irony, of course, is that it was my mum who taught me to bake and I don't remember ever baking anything savoury with her!

Anyway, with any luck she'd be fairly happy about today's offering - cheese and ham muffins from a Sainsbury's recipe. My sister has made them a couple of times to put in packed lunches, although it transpires that my nephew - who is generally the recipient of said lunches - isn't a big fan! I like them, though, and since I'm in the middle of an economy drive I thought I should add them to my repertoire. They're a freeze-able recipe so with any luck they'll last me a week or so.

Incidentally, I'm experimenting with a slightly different approach to photos today. Although the pictures on my phone are never going to be as great as the pictures on my actual camera, they are more likely to actually make it onto the blog!

Simple white loaf

My track record with bread is pretty poor. A few years ago I asked for a bread-maker for Christmas because I wanted to make my own bread but minus the risk inherent - I thought - in doing it by hand. My machine has served me well.

But then I decided I wasn't prepared to be defeated by something as basic as bread. So I dug out my increasingly trusty Great British Bake Off recipe book, took a deep breath and gave it my best shot. I made sure that all my ingredients were fresh (in the sense of starting with unopened, or only recently opened, packets) - I'm fairly sure that my more recent failures have been largely down to out-of-date or long-opened ingredients.

The GBBO recipe is about as simple as you can get - mix together strong white flour, salt, yeast and water, knead well, leave to rise, shape, leave to rise again, bake.

That's it.

But I've realised using this book that it's all about the detail - the consistency of the mixed dough, the length of time you knead for, the temperature of the place where you leave the dough to rise. I've learnt that if I follow these recipes to the letter it's almost impossible to get a poor result, and this lesson served me well.

This is the best bread I've ever made, miles better than anything that's come out of the bread-maker. To be honest, I'd resigned myself to the fact that the benefit of the machine was limited to knowing exactly what went into the loaf - it certainly wasn't any cheaper than buying even a decent loaf from a supermarket. But this bread is SO cheap - I have friends who are living below the line this week and I wish I'd done the maths a bit earlier in the week as this bread would make a massive difference to someone's ability to stick to spending just £1 a day on food!!

In fact, today I've made this recipe for the second time, and put half of it in the freezer to see how well it survives - if it lives to tell the tale I'm going to seriously have to consider putting the bread-maker on eBay and never buy a loaf of bread again...

Charity China

I've realised how dangerous charity shops are when you're looking for interesting tableware. I popped into my local Oxfam shop a couple of days ago to drop off some bits and pieces and while the lady was sorting my items I had a quick look at the homewares section.

Next thing I knew I was handing over £4.99 for a 16-piece set of fairly kitsch English bone china to add to my afternoon tea crockery collection. I realise it's not to everyone's taste (to be honest it's not really to my taste!) but I thought that diluted with some plain cups, plates and saucers they could be quite fun. We'll see...

In fact, I have afternoon tea news! In a couple of weeks time my sister is having a few friends over and I'll be providing a full-on tea time spread. Actually, it'll be at lunch time but who cares! So we'll see if I have the capacity to make and serve all you'd want from afternoon tea from scratch on my own...

Scones with jam and cream

Scones are essentially my default bake - when I just want to make something, or I need pudding and there's nothing in the freezer, scones are the one thing I can usually guarantee I have all the ingredients for.

I was brought up on fairly thin plain scones and being introduced to the rather mountainous fruit variety was a fairly profound moment! I use a recipe from The Best of Mrs Beeton's British Cookery but - shock, horror! - with a couple of amendments. Yes I realise that a classic shouldn't be tampered with, but hey ho!

For example, I use plain flour and baking powder instead of self-raising flour. I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes, but I did it once, liked the result and stuck with it - four teaspoons of baking powder to every 8oz of plain flour.

Instead of rolling the dough I press it out using the heel of my hand. I like the fact that it gives a less uniform batch of scones and I think it means you press less air out of the dough.

Rather than greasing the baking tray I sprinkle it with flour - you need to then dust the excess off the scones when they've cooled but it stops them developing a slightly fried texture.

And then obviously they're best eaten with good quality jam and clotted cream. I have no strong feelings about which way round the two should go on - just don't put butter on first! Although butter and honey is a great combination too...

Stem ginger shortbread dunked in dark chocolate

This is a great recipe from The Great British Bake Off How To Bake. I've made these biscuits a few times without the chocolate (as per the recipe) and they're amazing - my housemate's a big fan, but I suspect that making them in the run-up to her wedding possibly wasn't the most helpful thing to do!

I wondered what they'd be like dunked in dark chocolate, given that dark chocolate and ginger is a fairly common flavour combination. My conclusion? They're pretty good! The real payoff comes when you hit a lump of ginger, and in fact I'd be inclined to up the spice content next time.

The chocolate is Green & Black's Dark 70% - organic and fair trade! 

Charity shop triumph

Last week I went out on the hunt for nice tableware. I think afternoon tea deserves better than Ikea - I have nothing against mass-produced crockery, but there's a time and a place and this is not it.

So I headed out to my local town centre which, as it happens, is chock full of charity shops and, keeping my expectations fairly low, I had a bit of a mooch. I'm not a seasoned charity shop shopper but I knew I was on the look-out for the kind of stuff that you either can't buy new anymore, or it costs a fortune.

£30 later and I had the kind of haul I could only have dreamt of when I left home. I realise this stuff isn't to everyone's taste, but I like it!

Imagine the blue vase full of summer flowers - pink roses, purple freesias, lime green lady's mantle - and there's great centrepiece!

I think my favourite item is the bowl which would work equally well with roses floating in it or full of pastel-coloured macaroons (not that I've made macaroons before - clearly now is the time to learn!).

So now I just need to host an afternoon tea!

Time for tea

Tea, be it the drink or the meal, is an integral part of British culture. When I was a child our evening meal was tea, in the proper traditional sense - bread and butter with jam, cheese, meat paste (what really goes into those little jars?!), a glass of squash and biscuits or cake. I haven't had a 'tea' like that in years.

A couple of years ago my sister bought me The Best of Mrs Beeton's British Cookery, based on a selection of recipes from the aforementioned Mrs B's Book of Household Management, a comprehensive guide to running a Victorian household. The introduction includes a brief guide to what to serve at breakfast, picnics, the Sunday roast and most importantly - for our purposes - afternoon tea. She gives instructions on laying the table (with linen, fine bone china and small arrangements of flowers) and what to serve to those who don't - heaven forbid - like tea (fresh, iced lemonade or coffee), before moving onto the menu itself.

A whole paragraph is given over to directions for making cucumber sandwiches - butter is essential as it stops the cucumber making the bread soggy and the sandwich should be well seasoned with salt and pepper. All sandwiches should, of course, be made just before consumption to 'avoid limpness'.

Savoury additions to the menu could include cheese straws and scones, smoked salmon on Irish soda bread, Gentleman's Relish and scotch eggs, while toasted crumpets or muffins, pastries, cakes and scones make up the sweet recommendations.

When you consider how much has changed about British culture in the 152 years since Mrs Beeton's masterpiece was published, it's amazing that afternoon tea has seen the revial it's experienced over the last few years. Maybe the advent of all that technology has made us crave a simpler time, or perhaps as a society we've just remembered how much we like cake.