Great British Bakealong

So it’s back. Bright blue contacts have been inserted. The pastel hued paradise tent has been erected (I don’t even want to talk about the puns), and my GBBO chocolate and tea stash has been bought.

For me this is as good as TV gets. The GBBO tent is heaven, and I could (and have) watch it on repeat. Just so I don’t miss any jokes you understand.

But seriously, I’ve already watched last night’s episode twice.

So this year I wanted to feel like I was part of the whole thing. It’s not like there’s any shortage of pastel in my flat, so I’m already ahead on that front.

I decided that each week, I would do a new GBBO inspired bake, and then feed it to my poor classmates in our groupwork session the next day.
Inspired by this week’s episode featuring both Madeira cake as the signature bake, and Black Forest Gateau, I put on the quilted apron my mum made me, ran to the shop to get ingredients before it closed, and baked a black forest fruit Madeira loaf. Studded with juicy cherries and zesty with lemon– I’m hopeful for this one.
The batter was extremely thick, but for stopping the cherries sinking this can surely only be a good thing? And this is my first bake in my new (extremely old) oven, so getting a hang of it will take a wee while.
  

I also decided to snapchat along with GBBO and my baking afterwards; add me on mkm27 if you’d like to see how I got along!

Initial impressions of this series- decent contestants, although it is so hard to tell this early on who is going to be amazing. Flora is definitely the Martha of this year- lovely and frightfully posh. Her angst over not preheating the oven because the Aga is always on at home gave me a good giggle. To be fair to her, we have a range at home too, and it’s a bloody nightmare- always flaring up and burning things on one side, and no way of seeing if your bake is done with the solid metal doors. So maybe a depature from the Aga may be no bad thing?
And my heart completely went out for Dorret and her mousse disaster- I’ve cried over much smaller things than a cake going arse up on national television. I think she took it quite well actually. I’d have either done an Iain from last year and thrown it in the bin, or gotten a spoon to it and started comfort eating the gooey mess on the spot.
My fave at this early stage though has to be Sandy- “random with a trendy twist” is basically my life goal.

Anyway, here’s the recipe I used for the Lemon and Black Forest fruit Madeira! Try to make sure your chunks are evenly dispersed…

Ingredients

120g butter

120g caster sugar

170g flour

2 eggs

1 heaped tsp baking powder

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 cups cherries (I used frozen)

Icing sugar

Method- Make sure oven is preheated to 170C and have a loaf tin lined

1. Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

2. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, don’t worry if it looks a bit curdled at this stage

3. Add the flour and baking powder, lemon zest and juice of half a juicy lemon. Fold in cherries and pop in a loaf tin. The mixture will be very thick.

4. Bake for around 45 mins to an hour, depending on the size of your loaf tin. Mine was quite large, so the batter was more thinly spread out and cooked more quickly. And I’m only getting used to my new oven! If it starts to brown too quickly then cover in foil. It’ll be done when a skewer comes out cleanly

Enjoy!

Rosette rolls (kaiser rolls)

 I’ve kind of caught the bread bug.

Kneading is so therapeutic and it’s a kind of magic the way the dough rises. A warm loaf fresh out of the oven with a pat of melting butter is hard to beat.

So I thought I’d share with you my new fave white bread recipe, that turns out loaves or rolls that are soft with a crunchy crust. The bread itself can be used as a plain loaf, or if you have a bit of free time, you can make an 8-strand plaited loaf, kaiser rolls or basically any shape you fancy.

It’s a Paul Hollywood recipe that’s tried and tested- old blue eyes rarely gets it wrong.

I will give you fair warning though, the written instructions for the 8 strand plaited loaf are ridiculously hard to follow, so many numbers and over and unders. I just googled it and found a really brilliant YouTube video of a lady making an 8-strand loaf. If it wasn’t for her I’d still be in the kitchen tearing my hair out and muttering numbers under my breath. Once you get the hang of it you’ll really start to enjoy it!

Decorative bread (from Paul Hollywood’s 8-strand plaited loaf)

Recipe 

– 500g/1lb 2oz strong bread flour

– 7g sachet fast action dried yeast

– 10g/¼oz salt

– 1½ tbsp oil (I used rapeseed)

– extra flour for dusting

– oil for greasing bowl (oil spray is really handy)

– 1 beaten egg

– pinch salt

-340ml/12 floz warm (not hot) water

Method 

1. Place flour in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast onto one side of the bowl and the salt onto the other side (so the salt doesn’t kill the yeast)

2. Add the olive oil and then most of the water and mix together by hand. Add the rest of the water to form a dough.

3. If using a dough hook then whack that on and knead until the dough starts to form a smooth ball. This took around 5 minutes when I did it with the dough hook. If you’re doing it by hand then knead on a lightly floured surface for at least 10 minutes (took me longer-noodle arms) until you form  a smooth soft dough. Don’t be tempted to keep adding flour- it’s sticky for ages but it will eventually come together. Promise 😊

4. Pop in a greased bowl and cover- leaving to rise in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in size.

5. Tip out and if making the 8-strand loaf, weigh out the dough and divide into 8 equal sized pieces on lightly floured surface. Roll each of these pieces out to a 16 inch strand (confession, I guessed it) and join together at the top. Then watch this vid https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RP6j7esQyjk&client=mv-vf-uk&safesearch=always. Scroll to the 8 strand section! Once you’ve plaited the loaf up, leave to rise for another hour, covered.

6. If you’re making rolls then weigh divide into even sized amounts (I made 15 but make fewer or more, depending on how big you want your rolls. Working on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into strand and follow this video  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tU9I1nYS60E&client=mv-vf-uk&safesearch=always. Then leave the rolls to rise, covered, for an hour.

7. For both the rolls and the loaf, use the beaten egg to egg wash the bread, and pop in a 200C oven for either 20-25 minutes for the loaf or 15-20 minutes for the rolls.

Enjoy!

My Favourite Carrot cake

This carrot cake. My absolute favourite. Moist, sweet and ridiculously more-ish (trust me, self control isn’t possible).

Use what you have to hand (I always do), and chuck in whatever takes your fancy- juicy raisins, mixed spice, pecans or some grated orange zest are all ideas.
That’s the best thing about this, even if you have very little in the cupboards you can throw this together easily.

All drizzled with a tangy yoghurt glaze, this moist cake keeps in the fridge for days- if you can make it last that long!

Carrot Cake (based on one from All Recipes http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carrot-cake-iii/)

Ingredients
– 3 eggs
-3/4 cup plus 3 tbsp vegetable oil
-1.5 cups sugar (brown is lovely but use whatever you have)
-1.5 cups flour
-1.5 tsp baking soda
-1.5 tsp baking powder
-pinch of salt
-3 tsp cinnamon (I LOVE cinnamon but reduce if you don’t)
-2.5 cups grated carrot
-3/4 cup nuts or seeds of choice.

Icing
-125ml plain yoghurt (1/4 of a big pot)
-Icing sugar, approximately 250grams, but may require more/less

I used toasted sunflower seeds because it’s what I had in. It’s always a good idea to lightly toast your nuts or seeds prior to baking, to bring out that lovely toasty nut flavour. Do this by placing in a dry pan and heating until they start to become golden and you start to smell them. Sounds strange to be smelling your nuts but you’ll see what I mean!

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 175C.
2, Place the oil, eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk up until they’re all evenly combined.
3. Mix in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and soda, and cinnamon) and stir until the mixture is smooth with no lumps.
4. Mix in the grated carrot and toasted nuts/seeds (and other add ins such as raisins if you wish)
5. Pour this mix into a greased cake tin (I used my lovely new bundt tin) and bake for approximately 40 minutes (less time if using a bundt tin, start checking at 25 minutes), or until a skewer placed into the centre comes out clean.
6. Turn out the cake and let cool completely. Mix enough icing sugar with the plain yoghurt to make a thick icing which drops slowly from your spoon. Drizzle on your cake and decorate however you like. A bit of orange zest in the icing would also be amazing.

Enjoy!xxx

Symmetry Breakfasts

Symmetry Breakfasts.

It’s a phenomenom that swept across Instagram when a fella started photographing the breakfasts he made for himself and his boyfriend, after the breakfast he made one morning was symmetrical by chance. It helps that he’s obviously a fantastic cook, a trained photographer, has an amazing array of plates, cutlery, a fancy coffee machine, and a gorgeous scrubbed wood dinner table.

But all the same. What’s stopping us recreating symmetry breakfasts at home?

At home last weekend, I thought I’d treat the parents to breakfast in bed (I get up earlier than my parents; when did this start happening?). While the food was cooking I was doing my usual early morning Instagram feed scroll. And as usual the symmetry breakfast’s post stood out. The inner OCD part of me loves it.

And so my parent’s bacon sarnie became grilled maple smoked bacon on homemade sunflower seed bread with fig chutney (it always was, I didn’t just chuck out the Denny’s, ketchup and builders baps). And my appetite for symmetry breakfasts was born. Wasn’t all that appreciated though; my Mum after seeing the picture I’d taken, said it didn’t look much like the breakfast she’d eaten. I wonder if Michael Zee (who created the symmetry breakfasts) has the same problem with his partner?

So I’m going to be having a go at making my own symmetry breakfasts in the future- only the weekends though because porridge is all I have energy for during the week.

One major drawback is when your food starts getting a bit cold because you’re standing on a chair jumping around trying to get the best angle- so all the food needs to come together at the last minute. Your lighting needs to be sorted, and your impatient dining partner placated.

Oh and you have bloody loads of washing up to do.

Also, the recipe for the banana coconut muffins which I posted about in todays symmetry breakfast;
Makes 2 large muffins-
1/2 very ripe banana
1 egg
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
Sweetener to taste (brown sugar, maple syrup etc)
A pinch of cinnamon
1 heaped tbsp of coconut flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder
Pinch of salt

1) Mash banana and mix with rest of wet ingredients.
2) Mix dry ingredients
3)Combine wet and dry ingredients until just combined.
4)Pour into muffin cases, top with sprinkle of oats and a slice of banana.
5)Pop in the oven at 180C for 20-25 mins until a toothpick put into the centre comes out clean.
Ps. If the mix appears too dry add a bit of greek yoghurt/ milk to loosen it up to a spoonable consistancy. Also choc chips would be amazing, I just didn’t have any to hand. Serve with greek yoghurt, as it is in the nature of coconut flour to be a tad drying on the palate.

So keep an eye on my Instagram- username is caityskitchen for my meager attempts at symmetry breakfast and just pictures of things I eat (very exciting I know). Also I know the plates in the first one don’t match. Please let me off this one time?

Lots of love,

Caity

xxxxxxx