Stash Avalanche

Two!

Stashlet's birthday hedgehog cake looks a bit worst for wear (the buttercream would not cooperate) but judging by a small sample this morning (eaten purely for research purposes, you understand), it should taste fine.

How time flies...

 

 

If you want to make your own hedgehog cake, it's very simple:

• make a 3 egg sponge (that's 6oz butter or margarine beaten with 6oz caster sugar, then add 3 eggs (one at a time) with 6oz self-raising flour and 3 oz ground almonds)
• pour into a 9" sandwich tin and bake till a sqewer comes out clean in the middle, then allow to cool
• cut in half (so you have two half circles) then slice through the middle of each (so you have 4 half circles)
• sandwich together with jam or butter cream* (or whatever you like, really) then carve off the corners on one end to make a wedge-shaped head
• cover the whole lot in chocolate buttercream (or ganache if you're feeling fancy), and stud with halved chocolate buttons
• do a better job on it's face than I did

I used a double quantity of Pam Corbin's buttercream recipe (from the River Cottage Handbook no8: Cakes) which made just enough to stick the sponge slices together and cover the beast: beat 125g soft unsalted butter until pale and creamy, then mix in 200g icing sugar and 50g cocoa (that's the total weight) in three lots beating well after each addition. My butter was too cold and it was a total bugger to get it to stick to the cake, so be warned.

 

I made a cake

Sometimes I get a real craving for that pink iced sponge (known to my mother and I as 'pink cake') that Broomfields bakery used to sell - or perhaps they still do. Just a plain sponge with a pink glace icing. The sponge was moist and dense, and the icing was crispy on the outside but a bit soft underneath. Heaven.

I usually try to resist these sorts of cravings but yesterday was not a day for resistance so I baked. And on a whim I threw in a carton of yoghurt. And you know what, I don't know if it was the yoghurt or what, but I think it's the best sponge I've ever made, which of course means that even if I replicate the recipe to the letter, I will probably never achieve such perfection again.

I always measure in ounces when I make sponges, and I would say that if you do make this and convert to grammes, do it accurately and don't work on the 1oz = 25g round down. It just isn't the same.

7oz butter (I used a mix of salted and unsalted coz that's what I had)

6.5oz caster sugar

a good glug (probably 2tsp) vanilla extract

4 medium eggs

150g yoghurt (I used a carton of Lidl's probiotic vanilla but it probably doesn't matter)

8oz self raising flour

4oz ground almonds

Preheat the oven to 175 C (which for my uncooperative fan oven means about 150C), and line a 17 x 27cm (or thereabouts) baking tin with parchment.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together til pale and creamy. Add an egg and a spoonful of flour and beat in, then repeat the process with the other three eggs. Add in the yoghurt and the rest of the flour and beat until thoroughly combined.

Tip into the baking tin and spread out to fill the corners. Bake for around 30-40 minutes and test with a warmed skewer before taking out (cake mix on the skewer means it's not cooked yet, a clean skewer or a few crumbs means it's done).

Mine cooled in the tin for about 15 minutes before I took it out (due to an emergency nappy change) and was left to cool completely on a wire rack.

The sponge had risen quite high when it came out of the oven, and then sank again which had me worrying about nasty solid bits in the middle but it was all fine when I cut it.

The glace icing was a bit of an ad hoc mix, and colour-free (but only because I don't have any food colouring). I used about half a box of icing sugar (so around 250g) and perhaps a couple fo tablespoons of water (or you can use lemon juice).

The tricks to getting a good glace icing seems to be 1. you always need more sugar than you think, 2. you always need less water than you think, 3. use water just off the boil, you get a better set (and hence that crispy soft toothsomeness that makes a perfect Bloomfields pink cake) and aim for a paste - if it's runny it just won't set.

Delish.

 

Banana muffins

(Every time I type 'banana' my fingers seem to want to go on and on. Bananananananana...)

So. I thought I'd posted about these long ago. Turns out I hadn't, and they're so good, you really ought to make some. They're from the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook (no surprise there) and are sugar free. I make up a batch every couple of weeks and stick them in the freezer for Stashlet's afternoon snack. Stick one in the microwave on defrost for about 1½ minutes and it's pretty much ready to eat. 

I haven't tried this, but apparently you can save up over-ripe bananas but putting them in the freezer until you have as many as you need.

*******

Banana muffins

from The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook

150g (5½ oz) self-raising flour (white, wholemeal or half and half)

½tsp ground cinnamon, nutmeg or mixed spice (optional)

60g (2oz) butter (preferably unsalted) plus extra for greasing

4 large very ripe bananas

2 large eggs, beaten

Pregaet oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 and lightly grease a muffin tray or line with paper cases.

Sift flour and spices into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas to a smooth thick puree consistency using a fork or potato masher. Add the eggs and melted butter, and mix well.

Pour the banana mixture ino the flour and fold together lightly, then spoon the mixture into the muffin tray.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown and springy, then remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before turning out.

Baking notes:

• I use muffin cases, it saves on trying to gouge cake out if it sticks
• I melt the butter in the microwave then mash the bananas in with it - saves on washing up!
• this amount of mixture fills 12 large muffin cases reasonaly full but the muffins don't rise much so don't worry too much about over-filling the cases
• you could also use mini muffin cases
• these freeze well and can be defrosted in the microwave

Happy bananaing!

 

One!

(It's a crap photo and a pink candle, but you get the jist...)

Hard to believe it, but a year ago today the (not so) wee Stashlet arrived on the scene. A week late and reluctant to make his appearance to the very end, the threat of a Cesarean finally got him moving. I never wrote that post about the whole labour-experience-thingy, mostly because I never had time and it would have been far too long to keep anyone's interest apart from mine. Suffice to say, I came out of it with a bouncing baby and the knowledge that apparently I have very good pelvic geometry.

Anyway, we're here today to talk about birthday cake, so let's do that, shall we?

I wasn't going to make a cake. We don't really do birthday's here at Stash Towers, and I know this makes me sound like a bad mother but Stashlet is far too preoccupied with throwing saucepan lids around the kitchen and freaking out the cat to notice that it's his birthday. But then my aunt phoned out of the blue all the way from Zambia to wish Stashlet happy birthday and said "you must send me photos of his party", and with no party and no cake I was suitably emotionally blackmailed into baking. That really makes me sound like a bad mother.

Moving swiftly on...

It's another recipe from the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook. One that I hadn't tried before, and was a bit dubious about because I'm not a big fan of banana cake, but then I said that about the BLW muffins and they turned out to be a total winner (and in trying to find the post about them to add a hyperlink, I've just discovered that I never blogged about them, so I'll have to add them to the to-do list...).

This turned out to be good too. Be warned it doesn't rise much, and it possibly doesn't keep very well (it's very moist) but you only get a small cake so easy enough to eat in one sitting. The rest of ours has gone in the freezer so that my mother can have some when she comes to visit next month.

 *******

Banana Cake

from the Baby led Weaning Cookbook

butter or oil for greasing

100g (3½oz) self-raising wholemeal flour (or use plain flour and add 2 tsp baking powder)

½tsp ground mixed spice

50g (2oz) butter (preferably unsalted)

75g (2½oz) raisins (or chopped figs)

200g (7oz)  ripe bananas (that's pretty much 2 bananas)

50g (2oz) walnuts, ground or finely chopped)

1 egg, beaten

Topping (optional)

200g (7oz) cream cheese

50-100g (2-3½oz) 100% fruit spread or jam

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4, and lightly grease a 450g (1lb) loaf tin.

Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the spices. Cut or break the butter into small cubes and add it to the flour.

Using your hands, a pastry blender, or a food processor, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the raisins (or chopped figs) and make a well in the centre of the mixture.

In a separate bowl, mash the bananas, add the walnuts and stir in the egg. Pout the banana mixture into the flour mixture and fold in.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and put it in the oven. Turn the oven down to 160C/325F/gas mark 3 and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove the tin from the oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Serve plain, with creme fraiche, or natural yoghurt, or covered with the topping. To make the topping, combine the ingredients thoroughly (using a blender or food processor if the jam is lumpy) and spread evenly over the cake.

*******

Baking notes:

• I hardly ever grease tins these days - I'm a total parchment convert. It's brilliant stuff  - if only you could use it in ring tins
• I soaked the raisins in milk for about 15 minutes because they were a bit on the dry side (drain the milk before you put them in the cake though)
• It's fine to use salted butter if you're not feeding babies or young children
  
• I used ground hazelnuts because that was what I had
• I used extra coarse wholemeal flour, again because that was what I had, but it also adds a nice nutty texture
  
• The idea is that you grind the nuts if your baby can't manage lumps but I think I would grind them anyway because a) I don't like pieces of nuts in cakes and b) I think the overall flavour wouldn't be so uniformly nutty with pieces
• I made a bit of glace icing with icing sugar and orange juice to drizzle over the top rather than the cream cheese topping, and was glad I did because the cake is very sweet and would, I think, be total overkill with cheesey-jammyness on top
• As I said it doesn't rise much so spread the mixture out neatly before you put it in the oven because any peaks or troughs will likely remain so after baking
• This cake probably keeps ok in the fridge for a couple of days but it is very moist so it should be eaten sooner rather than later
  

It was delicious. Much better than expected. Not overpoweringly banana-y, in fact it reminded me of a coffee cake I once had. Stashlet loved it so for a non-birthday birthday, it was a roaring success. Definitely one to make again.

 

Baked risotto

And while you have the oven on...

A while back, Alicia at Posy Gets Cosy wrote a post where she mentioned making her first risotto and I commented that I do mine baked (most so that I don't have to hang around the cooker for half an hour), and kind of promised to post my recipe.

I must say that I too am a latecomer to the world of risotto. The idea of slimey creamy rice with cheese just didn't do it for me but I must have been having an extra optimistic day when I was looking for something to feed Stashlet and I thought I'd give it a go. Turns out the rice is not really slimey, and the cheese actually works, and Stashlet likes it too, so it has been appearing regularly on the Stash Towers menu in a number of variations.

So here, belatedly, is the recipe.

*******

Oven-baked aubergine and courgette risotto

from the Baby-led Weaning Cookbook by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett

serves 2 adults and 1 baby (generously) (or 3 normal sized adult portions)

500-600ml (18-21 fl oz) vegetable stock

2 tbs olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 small aubergine

1 medium courgette

250g (9oz) risotto rice

knob of butter

60g (20z) grated parmesan

freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200C/ 400F/gm6 and put the stock on to heat in a pan.

Heat the oil (preferably in a flame-proof casserole so you don't have to transfer the food at the next stage). Add the onion and fry until soft. Add the garlic and after a few seconds, add the other vegetables. Cook until they start to soften. Add the rice and stir to make sure that all the grains have a light coating of oil. Add 500ml (18fl oz) of the stock and bring to the boil. Cover the dish (or transfer the mixture from the pan to an oven-proof casserole) and put it in the oven for 30 minutes, then stir gently and add more hot stock of necessary. Bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, check the texture of the rice: if cooked add the butter (if using), parmesan cheese and black pepper, and stir again. Cover the dish and leave it to rest for a few minutes before serving.

*******

A few notes:

If you're using this for baby weaning, cut the vegetables into sticks so that the baby can hold one end and eat the other. Otherwise, cut the veg however you want it.

Use a bigger pan than you would normally use to cook rice in - my first attempt had bits of veg sticking to the lid when it came out of the oven. Veg takes up more room than you'd think.

It seems to me that you can do pretty much anything you please with risotto. I've done several variations, the nicest was chicken and mushroom (3 chicken breasts sliced and browned with the onion, and 3 or 4 big portobello mushrooms cut into slices).

This stuff reheats well, and you can also make aranchini, which is basically cold risotto (with any big lumps cut small) rolled into little sausage shapes, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried until crispy and golden. Haven't tried this yet but it sounds interesting.

I am bad and use stock cubes. My home made stock usually tastes crap. If you're feeding this to babies, make sure you use a low salt (or preferably no salt) stock.

Apple Sharlotka

Foof! A belated Happy New Year to everyone.

I haven't mentioned cake in a while but this weekend saw me baking a new cake, and baking it twice at that!

One of the blogs I read is Smitten Kitchen and on Saturday Deb posted a recipe for Apple Sharlotka which her Russian mother-in-law makes. It is so simple and so full of fruit that I went off there and then to bake it, and trial it on Mr G's friend Mr C.

This is what was left:

I'll take that as a positive response.

On Sunday, we had another visitor so I made a variation of Deb's recipe. I have to say I prefer my version but it is probably not very Russian anymore.

Deb's original version is here and mine is below.

*******

Apple Sharlotka - the probably-not-very-Russian variation

7  large Granny Smiths apples

4 medium eggs (or 3 large depending on what you have in the fridge)

120 g caster sugar

80g muscovado sugar (or dark soft brown)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour

about ½tsp ground cinnamon

small handful of flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 9"/23cm springform tin with parchment (not greaseproof!). Butter the  sides of the tin. Peel, core and quarter the apples, then cut each quarter into slices about the thickness of a pound/euro coin. Sprinkle the apples with the ground cinnamon, turning as you sprinkle to coat all the slices. Tip the apples into the tin.

Make the batter by beating the eggs with the sugar (break up any lumps in the brown sugar before you start) and vanilla essence until thick and you can lift the beaters out and make a trail in the egg mixture. Fold in the flour until just combined (a bit like making brownies) to end up with a very thick batter.

Pour the batter over the apples making sure they are all covered with the batter. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top. Bake in the preheated oven until a skewer come out clean (about 55 minutes). Cool in the tin for 10 minutes or so then turn out onto a plate, peel off the parchment and turn the cake right side up again onto a second plate. Eat warm or cold with a dollop of cream.

*******

A few notes:

Deb specifies Granny Smiths and that's what I used with my variation. For the first cake I used Pink Lady apples. I think Cox's Orange Pippins would be better than both of these, and will try that next time.

Deb descries this cake as a bit like a cloufouti although the 'sponge' reminded me more of British trifle sponges, but don't let that put you off!!

Both times my cakes came out well browned but with slightly crispy apples. Rereading Deb's recipe I see that she cuts her apples into little slivers rather than slices; also my oven runs ridiculously hot so even though I compensated, perhaps I should have turned it down further.

Happy baking.

oh. Ps. I finally added a photo of the cut Canadian fruit cake to the post from a while back. So full of cherries - heaven!

 

I baked...

(an embarassingly half-hearted attempt at food styling...)

Firstly apologies. I'm having a blogging-like-buses period. You wait for hours and then three turn up at one. My excuse is pregnancy lethargy and lack of decent light to take photographs, but guilt has give ne a kick up the backside so today you get three posts to make up for things.

So. Baking. Somewhat surprisingly, given the speed at which I move these days, I had a really productive weekend. For starters, I baked a cake and two lots of shortbread, having had a decent-kind-of-biscuit craving all last week.

I'd been having minor sponge cravings too. The kind you used to be able to buy at Broomfield's (or was it Bloomfield's?) Bakeries - a 4" square of sponge with thick pink icing on top. So why I made an orange sponge is beyond me - I'm not really that keen on orange cake, but I have to admit it looked pretty. It was just a bog standard sponge recipe with a couple of teaspoons of orange oil thrown in and a clementine zest for interest. It has not satisfied my craving at all but we're working our way through it (oh! what heroes we are!).

More satisfying was the shortbread. Both recipes (with minor adjustments) were from Cookies, Biscuits and Biscotti by Linda Collister (ISBN 1841725331) which is currently my main source of biscuit recipes.

The (not) Demerara Shortbread came out slightly overdone  and the Chocolate Shortbread came out a bit underdone (mostly because my oven is really unco-operative, and it's really hard to tell (well, for me at least) when chocolate things are burnt). But neither suffered in the baking and both turned out to be rather too delicious. Did I mention that I have put on nearly 20kg in the last 8 months? I blame it entirely on the baby...

One word of advice - these are much easier to make if the butter is at room temperature or even a bit softer.

(not) Demerara Shortbread (original recipe from Cookies, Biscuits and Biscotti by Linda Collister)

200g unsalted butter  (I used salted)

100g light brown sugar (the original recipe calls for golden caster sugar, but I would have used muscovado if I hadn't run out)

splosh of vanilla extract

260g plain flour

40g rice flour ( you can also use ground rice or cornflour)

Pinch of salt (I didn't bother with this)

3-4 tablespoons of demerara sugar (I didn't bother with this either)

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together, then mix in the flours until you have a rough dough. Mine was quite crumbly until I realised I hadn't put enough butter in (duh!). Roll it into a log shape about 7cm in diameter then roll the log in the demerara if you're using it. Chill for about 30 minutes, then cut into slices about 1cm thick. You are supposed to prick the biscuits with a fork but I forgot and frankly it didn't seem to make any difference. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 15 minutes. Don't wait for them to turn brown - as soon as they're vaguely golden but still pale they're done (the book says "firm but not coloured"). I think I got about 18 biscuits.

Did you ever get big plain or pinwheel biscuits at school? These taste a bit like them.

Chocolate Shortbread (original recipe from Cookies, Biscuits and Biscotti by Linda Collister)

200g unsalted butter (I used salted)

100g golden caster sugar (I think I used light brown sugar)

260g plain flour

40g cocoa powder

Pinch of salt (I didn't bother)

half a bar/about 60g dark chocolate (not in the original but what the hell!)

extra icing sugar for sprinkling (I didn't bother)

Well, you pretty much make this in the same way as the Demerara Shortbread. I chopped the chocolate into quite small pieces and mixed it in with the flour and cocoa powder. Instead of making a roll this time, you press the dough into a 23cm cake tin (I put a circle of parchment on the bottom but probably could have done without). Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or so, score it into 12 sections, prick all over with a fork then bake for 15-20 minutes. The book says "do not allow it to brown or it will taste bitter"  - my question is how can you tell when a brown dough has browned, hence it coming out of the oven a tad too early.

Allow the shortbread to cool completely in the tin. The dough is very soft when it first comes out so leave it for 10 to 15 minutes then go over your score lines again with a knife. Sprinkle with icing sugar if you're feeling fancy.

Homestead eggs

Cor, this weather is epic!

We're having a mixture of snow and hail, with the odd bit of sleet and clap of thunder thrown in for good measure. I've never known snow and thunder to go together before now, and the hail, rather than being little pellets of ice,  is little soft balls of snow (I examined some when it came down the cihmney last night!). Perhaps it is the wetter climate of Ireland compared to what I'm used to in the UK; I'm just glad we're staying here for Xmas this year and not trying to get a plane to the out-laws!

I tramped through the slush this morning to the supermarket to buy onions and apples for Homestead Eggs. So much slush everywhere! I love this dish, it's really savory and more-ish, and I'm a soft yolk addict too (although what with the bump I'm having to eat set egg yolks at the moment which is rather disappointing).

The recipe comes from the breakfast section of my lovely Book of Egg Cookery and it makes a great supper dish served with leftover potatoes fried in a bit of olive oil or bacon fat. Yum!

*******

Homestead Eggs (adapted from the Book of Egg Cookery)

3 medium onions

3 sharp dessert apples (I either use Coxes Orange Pippins or a couple of Bramleys)

4 derinded bacon rashers (I generally use a packet of bacon bits)

3oz butter (I think this is far too much butter (but it was the Seventies!) and I generally leave it out because the bacon has enough fat on it)

8 eggs

Chop the rashers and fry gently either in the butter, or in a dry pan (and they'll render out some fat pretty quickly).  Slice the onions and core and chop the apples (no need to peel them).  As the bacon starts to brown a bit , add the onions and allow these to soften for a couple of minutes before adding the apple.  Take off the heat once the mixture is soft and the apples broken down.

(You can make bulk quantities of this and freeze it at this stage if you like.)

Break the eggs on top of the mixture, cover the pan tightly and leave to cook for 3-5 minutes depending on how firm you like your eggs. You could also do this bit in the oven if it's more convenient.

Serves 4

********

You can use sausages or sliced frankfurters instead of the bacon if you like.

I made a vat of this using red onions this morning and it looks very pretty (but sorry no photo as it's like The Undersea World of Jaques Costeau in the kitchen at the moment). Most of it will go in the freezer, and the rest will go in me for supper tonight! Double yum!

 

Hugh - take two

I made another loaf of HFW bread yesterday. I thought I'd work on my bread learning curve, and there was too much random dashing about to make it to the shops.

I really should do a First Impressions post on the River Cottage bread book but in the meantime, here's what I've learnt from my two goes at Hugh-style bread.

As I've said previously, it was the kneading technique that I was particularly interested in, despite it's initial stickiness, and although the bread came out quite well, I felt that the crumb could have been lighter. I put this down to too wet a dough (there's a helpful little table of what-went-wrong diagnostics in the book) and probably not enough kneading.

So yesterday's brainwave was to do the initial kneading with my hand mixer and dough hooks, then give it a final 5 minutes by hand. I think I spent maybe 10 minutes with the mixer - thinking all the time, please don't over heat and die on me, please...

The book (I keep saying the book and not HFW because he only wrote the intro - but this is not a Bad Thing) says that if the dough is well kneaded you should be able to stretch it thin enough so that you can see light through it. Well, I tried that and it didn't work, but I did do the thumb test I learnt years ago (press a floured thumb genrly into the dough and if it rises back up at you, it's ready) and that worked. Also I didn't want to over-knead the dough.

My second new tactic was to leave the dough to rise inside a bin liner, which I blew into to inflate a little. I don't know which bit of that did the trick but the dough rose like an angel, and was an enormous improvment on the first attempt.

I know I should have taken a before photo too but I forgot. But believe me, it certainly doubled in size and pretty quickly too.

It also got rather enthusiastic once it went in the tin.

The top of the dough was below the edge of the tin when it first went in, honestly.

I think I left it for an hour to prove and then another hour in the tin.

I did worry a bit that it was going to rise so enormously once I baked it that it stuck to the roof of the oven but that turned out to be a bit over-dramatic.

This time I increased the amount of dough I used for the loaf. Last time I used half the dough and made 6 rolls with the rest. Coupled with the fact that the bread didn't rise well, it made for a pretty flat loaf (although the rolls rose for Britain). This time I used three quarters of the dough for the loaf and made 4 rolls (if you're wondering where they are in the photo, I can tell you they'd already been eaten by the time I took it!).

I suspect that the baking technique also helps. You put the bread in the oven at it's highest possible setting then turn it down after 10 minutes. That (plus having a tray of water on the floor of the oven to make steam) gives the dough a final oomph to rise.

But the best thing was that the bread turned out more like proper baker's bread than I have ever managed before. Lots of fine holes, no solid rubbery-ness and a crust which didn't need a chainsaw to get through (both of which I used to get a lot with Grant loaves). I only hope I can replicate it in the future.

Briefly, the recipe went like this:

*******

StashAvalanche's River Cottage bread (adapted from the River Cottage Bread Handbook)

900g strong white bread flour

100g extra coarse wholemeal (I've only ever seen this in Ireland and I like it a lot, but you could use all white flour if you like)

14g dried quick acting yeast (you're supposed to use 10g but I had two 7g sachets so I threw them both in)

10g salt (but I think a bit more wouldn't have gone a miss)

a handful each of linseed, sunflour seeds and pumpkin seeds

600ml warm water

a big glug (about 2 -3 tbs) olive oil

Mix the dry ingredients together then mix in the water. Once you have a rough dough, add the oil and knead it with a machine and dough hooks for about 10 minutes. If you're using a hand mixer, be prepared for a bit of a fight and don't let the motor get so hot that it burns out (StashAvalanche accepts no responsibility for dead hand mixers!).

Once it looks reasonably handleable and is no longer sticky, turn it out on to a lightly floured board or clean table and knead it by hand for another 5 minutes or so.

Shape the dough into a round and as you do this, try to tuck the sides under, which in turn stretches the top. This is an RC technique for stretching the gluten in the dough (which is what you're aiming for with all that kneading too). Oil your hands and give the dough a quick rub all over (to stop it sticking to the bowl) then put it in a bowl inside a clean bin liner (or something similar) or failing that cover the bowl with clingfilm. I also put a bottle in my bin bag to raise the 'roof' and stop the dough potentially sticking to the bin bag as it rose.

Depending on the room temperature, leave the dough for anything between 1 - 4 hours to double in size. The slower the rise the better, so don't be tempted to sit it over the radiator. You can even leave it somewhere cool over night if that suits you better. Mine took about an hour.

Tip the dough back onto the work surface and gently prod it so that it goes back to about the size it started at. I made a 2lb loaf and 4 rolls, so I cut the dough so that there was three quarters for the loaf and a quarter for the rolls.

Gently shape the loaf dough until it is about 8" long and as wide as the loaf tin, the roll it up (like a swiss roll), tuck the sides under  (all this to stretch the gluten) and put it in the tin. I've found that although I've had to oil and flour the tin when I made Grant loaves, I can just bung this dough in a clean tin and get practically no sticking whatsoever.

Divide the roll dough into 4, and shape into rounds - again tucking the sides under (like you did before proving). Then put everything back in the bin bag and leave it for another hour or so.

When you're ready to bake, put a roasting tray on the oven floor then turn the oven up to it's highest setting. My oven goes up to about 240C. Just before you are ready to put the bread in, boil half a kettle of water.

You can cut a slash diagonally or longitudinally along the top of the loaf if you like before you bake it. This cuts the top layers of gluten and as the top splits, more space is created for the dough inside to expand (more RC wisdom there for you!).

This bit is optional too but spraying the dough with water before you put it in the oven is supposed to help the final rise. Then pull the roasting tray out just enough so that you can fill it with the boiling water, put the dough in the oven and shut the door quickly to keep as much steam in as possible.

After 10 minutes check the bread to see how quickly it is browning (don't open the oven door before this as you want to keep as much steam in as possible). Mine was already quite toasty in places  so I  turned it down to about 175C (if it's only pale-ish keep the oven perhaps 10 - 15 degrees hotter - it will all depend on how your oven behaves). The rolls spent a total of 15 minutes in the oven; the loaf had 40 minutes then I turned it out of the tin and gave it another 10 or so upsidedown with the oven turned off. You're supposed to be able to tell if bread is cooked when it sounds hollow when tapped but this can be misleading and I felt a bit dubious when I checked it the first time.

Allow the bread to cool on a wire rack or propped up so that as much surface asrte is exposed as possible. I left the rolls on the baking tin and the crust on the bottom went all soft from the steam so I had to put them bak in the oven for a couple of minutes to crisp up again.

*******

I know that felt like it went on for ages, but believe me, that was the short version compared to the amount of detail you get in the RC book! I know it sounds like a terrible cop out, but I think I'm sold on the machine-knead-first approach. I just hope it works as well next time. When I am rich and famous (yes, you are allowed to laugh) I will get myself a Kenwood Chef but until then I will have to cross my fingers every time I use my hand mixer and hope the tenacity of the dough doesn't kill it too quickly.

Foof! Now then: lunch and some serious studying...

 

[added 24-11-10)   You can find the original River Cottage recipe here and if you like HFW, also have a look at his other recipies on Channel 4  and the River Cottage website

 

Di's date and nut cake with brandy syrup

Oh dear, my stats are looking droopy. Not so many page views recently , but I can hardly be surprised when I spend all week with my nose in my study notes and have nothing to tell you (unless you're interested in European Directives?) and nothing to show you.

Well, the good news is that I am slowly trying to get a routine of work in the week and craft at the weekends going, and I managed to revitalise my crafting mojo on Friday, so there will soon be something interesting back on this blog.

But even I need a break occasionally from relentless studying so only 8 days late, here's a cake for you!

This is a recipe I got from a South African colleague years and years ago, and although I don't make it very often,  it is a favourite of mine because it's simple to make, you eat it with cream and has brandy in it (always a winner for me, if I can say that without sounding like I'm permanently sozzled!). 

(this was the last piece and I couldn't be bothered to whip the cream, pah! call me Nigella!)

One quick pre-recipe note here: as you will see, the original recipe is measured in cups. I have metric equivalents scribbled on my copy of the recipe for some of the ingredients but not all. I was going to try to completely metric-ify the amounts for you, but I discovered that firstly there seem to be at least 6 different definitions of what a 'cup' holds (thank you, Wikipedia, groan), and secondly the bits of the recipe I did previous metric-ify don't seem to correspond to any of them! So I'm afraid you'll either have to work in cups (which I am kind of fundamentally opposed to) or decide which version of a cup you like best and work it out yourself. Sorry!

*******

Di's date and nut cake with brandy syrup

the cake

1 cup dates

2/3 cup boiling water

1 tsp bicarb of soda

2 tbs butter

1 cup sugar (I use brown sugar)

1 egg

1 1/2 cups plain flour (I use wholemeal)

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup chopped nuts (I think something strongly flavoured like walnuts or pecans works best)

the syrup

1 cup sugar (I used granulated)

1/2 cup water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs butter

1/4 cup brandy

Preheat the oven to 185 C/ 375F.

Chop up the dates and mix with the water and bicarb of soda. Leave to cool.

Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the egg and beat well. Mix in the dry ingredients and then add the date mixture and chopped nuts.

Butter an 8"/21cm tin (or put a circle of baking paper in the bottom and just butter the sides - I find this a more reliable way of getting a cake to come out of it's tin), and pour in the mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool - you can freeze it at this point if you like.

Before you make the syrup, give the cake a good poke all over with a skewer - this helps the syrup soak in.

To make the syrup, boil the water and sugar together for 5 minutes, then take off the heat and add the butter, vanilla extract and brandy. Pour the hot syrup evenly over the cake and leave to cool before eating with lots of whipped cream. You could also sprinkle some more chopped nuts on the top of the cake if you're feeling fancy.

*******

There is no point working out Weight Watchers Points for this cake. It is far too bad. So either don't eat it, don't diet, or sin and be carefree.

The cake is a doddle to make but I would add a few words of caution about the syrup. It may well bubble up enthusiastically when you add the vanilla and brandy, so just bare this in mind. Also, the syrup can burn very suddenly so don't let yourself be distracted (as I did by Mr G and something 'important' he just had to tell me).

If it burns, start again. You don't want the cake to taste of burnt sugar. Although the recipe says boil for 5 minutes, I'd use some common sense here - you want a clear syrup so if it starts to look like it's colouring, take it off the heat immediately and add the rest of the ingredients.

Solidified caramel is hard to get out of a pan so the easiest thing to do is add some hot water, put the pan back on the hob and bring it to the boil whilst stirring. This will remelt the solid bits and dissolve them in the water, and presto! your pan is saved.

I can't help feeling that as the brandy goes into very hot syrup most of the alcohol evaporates and therefore makes the cake suitable for kids (if you have views on this sort of thing). Alternatively you could just forego the syrup and spike the cake with neat brandy. I ended up making half quantity syrup (because I didn't want the cake to be too sweet) and sloshing in probably more than the  1/4 cup of brandy called for.

And typing this out made me wonder, can you still get thos bricks of compressed dates? I've never seen them in Ireland but surely a proper British supermarket still stocks them?