Melting Moments

Another recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible, and made late Sunday ready for yesterday when a group of knitting friends were coming round.  I decided biscuits were easier to eat if touching yarn, books etc.

With the butter weighed out and at room temperature for an hour, it still was not soft enough.  The recipe says measure the butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract and flour into a mixing bowl and beat together to form a soft dough.  I could see the kitchen covered in flour and bits if I used my hand held mixer, and I did not think the wooden spoon would made an imprint in a month of  Sundays.  I remembered Paul Hollywood getting in there with his hands on one demonstration and Mary giving him the sly look, so divested of rings and watch, hands and nails scrubbed, I went in there, mixed the butter and sugar a little with my hands, then the other ingredients and it was a dream.  Best of all no noise on a nice quiet Sunday evening.

I used half the quantity: 4oz butter, 3 oz golden caster sugar, 1 egg yolk, some vanilla bean paste, 5 oz of self raising flour, and 1 oz porridge oats for rolling, and some cherries for the top.  I still got 21 biscuits.  They are delicious biscuits, melt in the mouth, with the flavour of the butter coming through nicely. 

I watched the biscuits carefully whilst washing up, and then allowed them to cool on the baking sheets till they were firmed up, then transferred them to the rack to finish cooling. 

When Mr S made me some Viennese whirls last year, he kept checking them in the oven for crispness and nearly burnt them, those too are soft even when they are cooked, then firm up as they cool.

Shrewsbury Biscuits

Another recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.  This recipe caught my eye, and since it does not seem long since we were in Shrewsbury, I thought I would give it a try. 

I got my baking sheets out, lined them with baking parchment, and got my cutters and tape measure out of the cupboard.  I took the one which measured 6cm.......

With the butter and sugar creamed, egg yolk, lemon rind, flour and butter, the last thing to add were the currants.

Mary says roll out the dough to a thickness of 5mm.....no I did not use my ruler for this, but its pretty handy that a currant is about this size, so I just let the feel of the currants guide me....then I got cutting.  The biscuits looked a little on the small size, so out the tape measure came again, the size depends on which end one measures the cutter, I had been measuring the smooth size, the cutting edge was narrower, so some biscuits were cut with the larger cutter.

The next instruction is to lightly beat the egg white, with which the biscuits are to be brushed after they have been baking for 8 to 10 minutes.  I wondered just how frothy the egg white had to be.  Some biscuits got the froth and some did not, so there was a variation.  Either way is nice.  The ones with the froth have a certain sparkle about them.

After a further 5 to 8 minutes, a little longer than Mary suggested, which I reckon was because my biscuits got a little cold, as I was a little ponderous with the egg white and sugar sprinkle bit, voila, fresh biscuits.

They were lovely fresh, and after three days, Mr S reckoned they were a little like Garibaldi biscuits, still tasty but not crunchy. 

When we were little in Mauritius, we were friendly with a family a couple of roads away.  The mother was English, the father Indo Mauritian, and they had a very smart male cook who also dressed up as the Butler to serve dinner.  They had two little girls about our ages, and I do remember that we had home made Garibaldi biscuits there, made by their cook.  It was only when I came to England that I understood that people normally bought Garibaldi biscuits ready made.

Date & Walnut Traybake

This deliously nutty and rich traybake is from the recipe on page 188 of Mary Berry's Baking Bible. 

The whole cake has only 40g butter which seemed to be on the low side given that there is 350g flour, and 300g of almonds and walnuts.  I guess this is a nutritious bake.  I cut the cake into two and fronze half uniced.  I cut the iced cake into 12 pieces and stored that in a tin.  It keeps well, and was even  better after the first day.

We both felt that the lemon icing did not add that much.  When the second half was brought out of the freezer a couple of weeks later, I made a small amount of butter icing, using maple syrup instead of the water, and this really went well with the cake.

Halloween Baking

After baking for the morning, then opening the door to all our little callers, I am now having a little sit down.  We decorated the front windowsill with three pumpkins, and had flashing red and white torches pointed at them.  I decided not to carve them as they are culinary pumpkins, and I have a mind to keep them for a few more weeks before cooking with them.  The pumpkins and other decorations are an 'advertisement' that we welcome callers.  Its an unwritten rule here that children call only at houses where there are visible decorations. 

The costumes and make up were very inventive, both boys and girls, toddlers and teenagers were all very enthusiastic about my biscuits, and several parents also came up to the door to partake. We must have had over 70 callers in all.  Each year I try to bake something different.  I have grown to like this new festival, which I prefer to bonfire night with all the fireworks which disturb wildlife and throw pollution into the air.

I tried three types of biscuits from Mary Berry's Baking Bible:  Anzac biscuits, decorated with pumpkin seeds, Yorkshire Gingernuts and Cornish Fairings.  All three types came up really well. 

Great British Bake Off excitement

Yesterday my excitement started to mount up whilst listening to Chris Evans in the morning.  He had Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood live in the studio, and Mary had taken in a Lemon Drizzle Cake......just how suggestive was that.  I wonder just how many Lemon Cakes were baked yesterday after that!  Must be in the hundreds.

Its equivalent to watching a film, and seeing someone have a small glass of something, just how hard is it to resist looking in the drinks cabinet and finding a little tipple.  Even though I may not have a drink for days on end it nearly always gets me.....I guess that is why Product Placement is so influential, at least for susceptible people...

I went through my latest Mary Berry's Baking Bible, and chose The Crunchy Top Lemon Cake on page 72, using golden caster sugar, which MB recommends for flavour.  It fits an 18cm/7inch round cake tin, which I have.  Its the easiest of cakes to make, using the all in one method.  It was after listening a few weeks ago that I realised that what I thought was an 8 inch cake tin was smaller than that and it explained my domed cakes....well I have yet to acquire the 20cm tin, but this is now on order....as well as the New Book covering the show. 


Just as it was ready to cut, a good friend rang the doorbell and brought me some new goats butter as a present, thanks so much Penny, but rushed off before I could offer her a slice....anyway Mr S pronounced the cake delicious. 

My 'signature' lemon cake is a simple tray bake with smooth lemon icing which my son just loves and which I have been making for years and years....I think this one is up to that standard.

The Delamere  Goats butter has a delicious taste, and less salty that St Helen's Farm, and therefore will most probably be the one I use for baking, but sadly I shall have to travel to another town to source it.

The Great British Bake Off has been a very entertaining series, and I still have some episodes to watch again!  I've found watching them whilst doing the ironing is making sure that all the ironing gets done without any pain!!

The final had us on the edge of our seats, all the finalists deserved to be there, the pressure must be immense, and I hope all the bakers who took part enjoyed themselves, and expanded their repertoire.  We watched with a glass of milk and slice of Mary Berry's Cake!