Hello again!

It's been too long - I know! Every time I thought I'd post something it felt like there was just too much to say, but for some reason at this moment I feel it is acceptable to post only the briefest of summaries, so I shall take advantage of that feeling and post something quickly!

For those who don't know, shortly after my last post I was offered a post doc here in the UK, so I'm now working in Plymouth, and it's lovely!! Still by the sea, still at a university, still working with soil, and all is well with the world. I am happy :)

It's been a fantastic year - found a great flat here in Plymouth (I can see the sea from my kitchen window!), some really great trips to Vienna, Iceland and Cornwall, I did my first bit of proper lecturing (which was both terrifying and a lot of fun - until the assignments came in for marking, that is), and, of course, there's been a fair bit of baking. 

I've decided to give the sourdough starter another try, so I'll keep you posted on any by-products of that endeavor, but I'm also going to try and perfect macarons this year. A friend and I had a good go of it for Thanksgiving - I think we did alright!! The first couple batches were complete and utter disasters, but then these came along and we knew we'd done it. We must have looked crazy, staring into the oven for the entire bake, waiting for nice little macaron feet to appear...but appear they did! Once I've figured out exactly the recipe I like (I think the method itself is absolutely key here, as timings and the order of additions really seemed to make a difference to the outcome between batches) I'll post it, but for now, look at this happiness!!

Just so you can see the disasterous apple macarons...

The winners! Hazelnut macarons with maple buttercream filling!

The other great baking/cooking craze to sweep my kitchen is this - my very own, very excellent, waffle maker!! My rather super boyfriend (groan, I know, but please forgive the gushiness just this once) bought it for me for Christmas this year after hearing ONCE (in passing, I might add!) that I wanted a heart-shaped waffle iron, a) because I love waffles (who doesn't?!), and b) because all the women in my family own heart-shaped waffle irons (it's a Scandinavian thing), so it reminds me of a lot of great family times while I was growing up (See why I feel the gushiness is waranted in this instance?). I used the waffle iron over the weekend when I had some friends visiting (with my gorgeous goddaughter! Another exciting event from the past year!), and the cast iron seasoning is finally starting to kick in - no sticking at all this time! A great success indeed!

Sour cream waffles - note my Hudson Bay cookie tin! Go Canada!! :)

Whenever I've asked my either of my grandmothers for waffle recipes, the reply is along the lines of 'if I have X in the fridge I'll take some of that, but if not I'll use Y and Z', and 'you want a bit of X and some of Y, but I never measure...I'm not really sure how much I add. However much you want is fine'. I wish I had their skills - I need a recipe in front of me to follow... so for those of you who are like me, here's the closest thing to my grandmother's waffle 'recipe' I can give you. They're lovely and light, good warm or cold (served with jam if you're properly Norwegian), and taste best when heart-shaped (obviously). Enjoy!

Sour Cream Waffles
1 c. full fat milk
1 c. sour cream
2 eggs
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 c. plain flour
1/2 tsp cinammon (or 1/4 tsp cardamom) - optional

Combine wet ingredients together in a medium bowl. Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the wet ingredients and mix until well combined - there will be some lumps, but it doesn't matter - they'll disappear during cooking.

I won't put instructions for the actual waffle making...I'm assuming your iron is different to mine (as mine is a cast iron stove-top one) so I won't pretend to guess on cooking times! 

Lavender Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

These are perhaps my all time favourite cupcakes - lavender and lemon work so very well together, but you could just as easily leave the frosting off and have a lavender muffin, if you'd prefer. The recipe is adapted from another Canadian blog, Patent in the Pantry, and was made with earl grey tea. But I am a lavender lover, and am always looking for a good recipe to use lavender in (also, I bought what appears to be a neverending bag of lavender on amazon for £5 and so I have to try and use it up).

Lavender Cupcakes
Makes approximately 18 regular cupcakes (or 12 regular and 12 mini)
 
1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 c. caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. plain flour
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk
1 tbsp. lavender (more for sprinkling over frosted cupcakes, if desired)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine lavender and milk in a small saucepan and heat on low for about 5 minutes, so the lavender can infuse the milk. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, combining between each addition.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and stir until just combined. Add the cooled lavender and milk and the remaining dry ingredients, and stir until just combined (the more you stir, the more dense your cupcakes will become, so if you want more of a muffin texture, stir more, but if you want light, fluffy cupcakes, try to stir as little as possible).

Fill muffin tins 3/4 full and bake at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre of a cupcake. Allow cupcakes to rest for a minute or two before removing from pan to a cooling rack. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting them.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting
1/2 c. unsalted butter
2 c. icing sugar
zest and juice of one lemon

Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Add lemon juice and zest and beat again, adding more icing sugar if necessary, to reach the desired consistency. I prefer my icing a bit stiff so it can be piped rather than runny, so I tend to add an extra tablespoon or two as I go along.

Adventures with Sourdough (I)

Sourdough has long been one of my absolute favourite breads (tied with dark rye, if you're interested). Give me a couple slices of sourdough, some cheese and a cup of coffee, and I am a very happy girl :) If forced to choose my last meal, it would probably be something along those lines (a bold statement, but one I stand by, nonetheless). So when I saw the sourdough recipe in my new favourite bread cookbook, Paul Hollywood's 'How to Bake', I knew I had to try it.

I've been wanting to experiment with bread starters for ages, but have always been put off because they seem like so much extra work, and rather time consuming. I'm not going to lie - they are a bit of extra work, and they are more time consuming, but definitely not enough to have warranted my prolonged hesitation. I've also long been wary of steaming my home oven, which bread bakers always suggest for the nice crusts you get on baguettes. For some inexplicable reason, I'm always waiting for things to explode in my face (even when I'm not in the kitchen - it made the chemistry bit of my PhD extra challenging...), and steaming my home oven has always seemed like a recipe for disaster.

Making the starter and using it in the Sourdough Baguette recipe that follows was a really great learning experience - it was just difficult/fiddly enough to be challenging without being stressful, and I felt the finished product was supposed to be rustic enough looking to be forgiving of little handling failings. All in all, it's definitely given me the confidence to bake more with starters and to steam bread, which is what I really wanted out of this (as well as a rather amazing sourdough, which this also, fortunately, provided).

*This is a multi-day process, so give yourself a week(ish) from creating your starter to baking the bread at the end. None of the steps in themselves are particularly time consuming, it's just lots of waiting, so don't be put off by the time frame!

Day 1

Sourdough Starter
1 kg strong white bread flour
360 mL lukewarm water
1 apple, cored and grated
(make sure your apple's organic/clean - you don't want any craziness in your bread!)

Day 1: Mix 500 g flour, water and the grated apple together very well in a bowl. Store in an airtight container, marking the height of the mixture on the outside (so you can monitor its growth). Cover in a tea-towel and leave in a cupboard for 3 days.

Day 4: Your starter should have grown if not twice, then at least a third bigger, and have some great fermenty bubbles at the top. It might stink (the fermenting apple smell is initially rather awful, but I promise it goes away by the time you use the starter). It will also be very runny, almost like a pancake batter consistency at this point. Give the mix a stir, and then discard half of it (I know it hurts to do this - it took me a while to come to terms with it too). Feed the mix by adding 250 g strong white bread flour, 170 mL water and mix well. Seal and cover again, leaving it in the cupboard for another 2 days.

Day 3

Day 4

 Day 6: Your starter should have grown again - if it doesn't look any higher than the mark level, check the sides for evidence of smearing dough, as it could have already risen and sunk back. Give the mix another stir (again, forgetting about the smell!) and discard half of it. Add another 250 g strong white bread flour, 170 mL tepid water and mix well. Seal and cover again, leaving it in the cupboard for 1 day.

Day 6

Day 7: This time, when you open the container, your starter should smell more like apple cider. If you don't see bubbles or evidence of rising and sinking, your starter may not be fully mature yet. Add some more flour and water to return it to a thick pancake batter consistency, mix it well and let sit, covered, for another 24 hours. If there are bubbles, or evidence of rising/sinking along the sides, your starter is ready to use! Congratulations!

Day 7

Day 7 - ready to use!

From this point on, you can store the starter in the fridge, as that slows the growth and you don't have to feed it as much. If you have friends interested in sourdoughs, you can give them some of the starter now too, as it's mature and ready to use. Just keep in mind that you'll need between 250 - 500 g starter for many recipes, so make sure you keep enough in there. Also, bring the starter out of the fridge about 24 hours (ish) before you plan to use it so that it can come completely to room temperature prior to use.

Sourdough Baguettes (makes 3)
250 g sourdough starter
375 g strong white bread flour (plus more for dusting)
175 - 225 mL lukewarm water
7 g salt
olive oil for kneading

1. Combine starter, flour and water in a large bowl, mixing until a sticky dough has formed and pulled in all the flour from the sides of the bowl.

2. Tip the dough out onto an oiled surface and knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Lightly oil the bowl, return the dough to it and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to sit at room temperature for 5 hours, or until doubled in size.

3. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently fold in half repeatedly, until the air is gone from the mix. Divide into 3 equal portions (each will be about 300 g), and gently shape each into sausages about 20 - 30 cm long. *This is a runny dough, so I suggest you flour your hands before handling it, and don't press too hard - the dough doesn't bounce back as quickly as, say, a whole wheat dough.

4. Cover a large cutting board/baking sheet with a tea towel and apply lots of flour to the towel. Transfer the baguette to the covered board (don't worry too much if it doesn't keep it's shape - you can fix it on the board), then place the board into a large plastic bag (I used a clear recycling bag). Fill the bag with air and then clip/seal it to keep the air in. Then let the bread prove for 12 hours, or until doubled in size.

5. Fill and boil a kettle and preheat your oven to 210C (410F), with a rack in the middle and a large empty roasting tray on the bottom. While the oven's heating, transfer your baguette to a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

I found this part rather tricky, to be honest, as evidenced in my first photo here - the dough is runny and difficult to handle without pulling and causing it to lose its shape entirely. So what I ended up doing for baguettes 2 and 3 was gently rolling the sides in, and then roll the dough right off the board onto the baking tray. By first rolling the sides in, I was able to a) minimize the exposed unfloured/sticky surface area, b) reshape the baguette into a tighter roll, and c) get flour all over myself and the counter. It was a win-win, really!

6. Just before you put the tray in the oven, fill the roasting pan about 2/3 full with hot water. Make three large diagonal cuts along the top of the baguette, and then put the tray in and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

*After 5 - 10 minutes, check that the water hasn't evaporated completely from the pan. If it has (only after 5 minutes, don't open the oven door in the first 5 minutes), carefully open the oven (it's full of steam, so don't burn yourself!) and fill the pan 2/3 full again. Keep an eye on the water level throughout the bake, filling when necessary.

And that's it! I know it seems fiddly and time consuming, but I promise that it's worth it - the crust on this bread was exactly, exactly right, and the sourdough taste was perfect. Thank you Paul!!

New Look / MIA

For the last year or so I've tried to figure out exactly what I want to get out of this blog...I still have no idea if it's worth doing, but I'm still enjoying it (on those rare occasions that I actually post something), so I'll keep at it. But I felt it needed a change - hence the change in title and overall appearance.

Tilfeldigheten is a Norwegian word meaning randomness, which I think, a) is a great word, and b) better sums up this blog than the previous title. Since I still can't decide exactly what direction to take this, 'randomness' seems appropriate! Also, I'm learning Norwegian, and this is one way I can use it :)

My family is Norwegian, and I visited Norway for the first time in May and fell in love with the whole country! I'm determined to go back as soon as possible, and when I do I want to be able to communicate in Norwegian (even though everyone I met spoke better English than I did).

And just a quick update on my MIA status, which will hopefully change soon - I'm in the last month of writing my thesis. This craziness is almost over, and I can't wait!! So the MIA status is partly because I'm busy, and also partly because I've not really done much worth writing about for the last couple of months (unless you want to read about me staring at my computer screen trying to figure out the physical reasons why two datasets are statistically different from each other). I am very ready to move on!

I've got some good recipes / baking posts coming up though (because while there's not always time to write them up, there is always time to procrastinate with baking). I've just made a sourdough starter, so we'll see where that goes, and I've got amazing recipes for cinnamon rolls and foccaccia!

In the meantime, here's a photo from the aforementioned trip to Norway (at a bakery. Obviously.).

Oatcakes and Veggie Soup

I've been eating a lot of soup lately - partly because it's cheap to make and partly because my kitchen, while technically stocked, is not really stocked for people who like to cook or bake much (fair enough, many don't). So I have two medium saucepans and two frying pans and a massive tart dish. But that's about it, really, so I'm somewhat limited in what I can make. 

Now this hasn't been an issue so far, really, because I should be working most of the time. But every once in a while I need to make something with flour and butter or I'll go out of my mind. Today that madness resulted in these: oatcakes. Perfect, because they require no rising agent (which I've not bought because I knew I wouldn't be baking much), you only need a griddle, and they're great with soup!

My soups have become kind of catch-alls for any vegetables I have sitting in the fridge. Today I had garlic, onions, carrots, leeks, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes and squash (an orange squash they sell in these packs of soup produce here, but I don't know what kind of squash it is). Cook them all in 2 tbsp olive oil until the carrots start to soften and the leeks and onions go translucent. Add 2 cubes of chicken/vegetable stock directly to the vegetables and then add enough water to cover. Season with salt, pepper, and chili (I've been using piri piri since I've been here, which has worked well) and simmer until the squash is soft. Blend with a hand blender until you get the consistency you like and serve!

As for the oatcakes, I made these a tiny bit thicker than the store bought versions, and they came out as kind of a cross between oatcakes and American biscuits. And while they are quite nice all warm and covered in honey or served with cheese, you don't actually need anything with them - they're great just on their own.

 

Oatcakes (from BBC Food)
Makes about 16
110 g (~1 c.) plain flour
110 g (~1 c.) oats (plus more for the board)
55 g   (~1/4 c.) butter
1 tsp salt
cold water (few tbsp)

1 egg
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp milk

Combine the flour, oats and salt in a bowl and mix well. Rub the butter into the dry mixture until it's crumbly, then add just enough cold water to bring the dough together into a ball.

Cover the counter or a board with oats and press the dough out until it's about 1 cm thick. Cut into circles using a scone cutter (or a cup - no scone cutters in a house with no baking sheets!).

Beat the egg, sugar and milk together to make a glaze. 

Preheat an ungreased frying pan over medium heat. Add the oatcakes to the griddle and immediately spread one side with the glaze. Bake, without flipping, until the glaze has turned glossy and the cakes are very light golden brown (about 5 minutes, depending on thickness).

If you've never had oatcakes before, you should definitely try them. I've never noticed them in Canadian grocery stores, but I wouldn't have looked for them before moving to the UK. They've definitely become a staple since living here. Try them with cheese/smoked salmon/cucumber or have them warm with honey - so good!

Procrastinating / Random Baking

I actually haven't done as badly as I thought I would - I expected the working from home and thesis related frustration to bring on a lot more baking than this! But it helps that it's January (aka universal diet month), and so my efforts would have been poorly received. Therapeutic for me, but not for anyone else. So instead I have limited myself to only 3 things since Christmas, and all were baked for company-related purposes: lavender shortbread (the recipe's here - you should try it!), zucchini loaf (my long standing go-to recipe when I want to bake something not too sweet but still treat-ish), and something new! Orange cardamom madeleines! (I haven't changed anything from the incomparable Martha Stewart's recipes, so I've just linked to them here rather than type them out).

The first time I had madeleines was also the first time I had a lavender baked good, and both are now serious baking addictions for me. Anyway, my first madeleine was from the Duchess Bakeshop in Edmonton - an amazing bakery that my friends and I waited in line to get into the first week it opened (a European bakery opening in the land of coffee and donuts is worth waiting in line for!) and then proceeded to linger at our table long enough to try new items as they were brought out. That was a wholly unhealthy but fantastically pleasant day :)

I've since started making my own madeleines, and I've found that they're fairly versatile and really easy. I usually make them with lavender, and I think they're still my favourite, but I've also made lavender-lemon and rose water versions, both of which turned out quite nicely. I came across this Martha Stewart recipe though, and was excited to try the cardamom-orange combination. The orange glaze gives the madeleienes a really nice finish, making them more of a dessert than a biscuit/tea cake, but I think, actually, they'd be just as nice without the glaze and with the orange zest (not the juice - just the zest) mixed directly into the batter. Also, I had some trouble at the beginning finding a proper madeleine tin, but I did end up finding one at Lakeland. Since buying mine though, I've noticed them in fairly random places, like the hardware store in Mumbles. Go figure.

Just out of the oven...

Without orange glaze

With orange glaze

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

I have a confession to make (which won't come as a surprise to anyone who has read more than one entry of this blog) - I am an 'office baker'. That person who bakes high calorie desserts on the weekend and then forces them on her co-workers during the week so that she doesn't end up eating them all herself. From what I've read recently, this can be a controversial role in the office, especially nowadays when everyone is always trying to watch what they eat. However, in my defense, I don't bake for them every weekend (about once a month I'd say), AND I work in an office comprised entirely of men (enough said, I think).

Anyway, it's doubly bad for them (or good, depending on your views on office bakers) because I am foreign. This means that all British baking is new to me, and, as a baker, I feel challenged to attempt as many new recipes as possible. As a result, my office has consumed more than a few variations on Battenbergs, mince pies, flapjacks, custard tarts, lemon drizzle cake and welsh cakes. However, because I am foreign, I also force them to try more familiar (to me) recipes, often in celebration of North American holidays not celebrated here. In this way, I have introduced them to zucchini loaf, m&m chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, nanaimo bars and pumpkin pie (slightly controversial, by the way. I think it's not as huge a hit outside North America as we think it should be. I won't even try to get them to eat sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping...it might push them over the edge!). 

I've made these for tomorrow in another attempt to celebrate Thanksgiving abroad. No Thanksgiving is complete without something made with pumpkins, and this Martha Stewart recipe looked amazing. The recipe here is for cupcakes, but Martha's has directions for a 9" round cake. Either way, it's a delicious cake. The finished product is very sweet though, just to warn you, so even though you may be tempted to add more frosting, I wouldn't - you'll see. Trust me :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting
Makes ~ 30 small cupcakes

Pumpkin Puree
1 small pumpkin
vegetable oil
cinnamon (optional)

Cake
8 tbsp unsalted butter
1 2/3 c. plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c. caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 c. pumpkin puree
1/2 c. warm milk (110 degrees)

Frosting
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 c. icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 to 2 tbsp milk

Caramelized Walnuts
30 walnut halves
3/4 c. caster sugar

Pumpkin Puree Directions:

1. If you can't get canned pumpkin, make your own - it's easy! Cut a pumpkin into quarters, scoop out the seeds and rub with vegetable oil. 

2. Roast in a 350F oven for 1hr, until soft and lightly browned. 

3. Once cool enough to touch, peel away the skin and puree the pumpkin flesh until smooth.

Cake Directions:

1. Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, mix well. 

2. Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour. Add eggs one by one, beating between each addition.

3. Add pumpkin puree and warmed milk. Stir to combine.

4. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture. Stir to combine.

5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin, filling each cup 2/3 full.

6. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean (these are moist cupcakes though, so don't mistake moisture for wet batter).

Frosting Directions:

1. Heat the butter in a pan over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, or until the butter turns a nutty brown colour.

2. Combine icing sugar, vanilla and milk in a small bowl. Add browned butter to icing, leaving (as much as possible) the burnt bits behind in the pan. 

3. Stir well to combine, then let cool for 5 minutes. Spread immediately after cooling.

Caramelized Walnuts:

1. Heat sugar in a pan over medium heat for approximately 10 minutes *without stirring*, until sugar liquefies and caramelizes.

2. Once the sugar has become a runny caramel, toss in each walnut half one at time, coating all sides with caramel. 

3. Scoop out walnut halves and lay on a piece of parchment paper to cool. 

4. Press caramlized walnuts into frosted cupcakes for an extra bit of crunch.

Enjoy! 

Plum Gingerbread Muffins

Fall, as I've mentioned, is my favourite of all seasons. I love that crispness in the air and the smell of dry leaves - it makes me want to throw on my coziest jumper and spend the day outside, preferably punctuated (frequently) with cups of tea and cinnamon-y spiced biscuits :) 

In Canada this season is usually accompanied by bright, chilly sunshine and pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, but Swansea often lacks the former and has yet to discover the joys of the latter, so I've learned to appreciate different things about fall since moving here. Like blustery walks along the coast (you definitely can't get those in Alberta!) and seeing the first autumn produce from the green grocers. This weekend I discovered that plum season has arrived! There were some gorgeous plums at the green grocer's this weekend and I bought a big bag before I had fully thought through how to use them.

The idea of plum muffins cropped up when I started thinking about my lunches for the week. I'm always trying to find grab-and-go type things for lunch, you see, because I'm usually running late in the morning and I lack the discipline to put anything together the night before. So being able to grab a couple muffins, some carrot sticks and a piece of fruit seemed like a great plan. They had to be filling though, and stay moist enough that the batch I made today would keep for a few days (I'll freeze the rest and defrost them as needed), so gingerbread and plum seemed a good match!

The problem with muffins is that they're usually ridiculously unhealthy, and if they're good muffins, they tend to be even moreso, as you can never eat just one. So I spent some time trying to figure out what I could substitute to make these at least slightly less guilt-inducing, and I think I've been successful (no joke - these, by my calculations, are 2 Weight Watchers points each (if you make the same quantity I did), which, if you know anything about WW, is fantastic)! I'm usually skeptical of some of the healthy substitutions, as they can sometimes sacrifice taste for nutrition, but I think these are alright (but you'll have to let me know if you agree)...

One thing to note is that this is a really wet batter, and could be even wetter if you use over-ripe plums, runnier yogurt than I used, etc. That said, if you think your batter is too runny, add more oats. I added more oats to the batter after the second batch went in the oven because some of the muffins were sinking a bit in the centre, and that did the trick. So these proportions should work, but do use your own judgement as to appropriate degree of runniness! Good luck!

Plum Gingerbread Muffins
215 g packed dark brown sugar
220 g plain flour
75 g porridge oats
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
60 mL (1/4 US c.) black treacle
60 mL (1/4 US c.) runny honey
250 mL (1 US c.) buttermilk*
29 mL low fat natural yogurt
56 g unsalted butter
5 plums, pitted and diced

Preheat oven to 350F/180C and grease/line a muffin tin.

Over low heat, combine the treacle, honey and butter. Stir to combine.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Add diced plums to dry ingredients and mix until plums are well coated.

In a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk, yogurt and egg. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir until just combined. If you think the batter is too runny, add a couple tbsp of oats and stir well.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 25 minutes in preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

This recipe is supposed to (according to the original source, pre-adaptations) to make 12 muffins...presumably American muffins, because I managed to get 34 (hence the need for freezing!). But they are dense and gingerbready and nicely moist.

*If you don't have/can't be bothered to get buttermilk, just use any milk you have and add a tsp of lemon juice to it. The lemon juice will curdle the milk and produces the same effect as the buttermilk.

Food Gifts

Amongst other things, my recent appendix debacle was a not-so-subtle reminder that I have great, great friends :) I think I only told a few people what was happening (of all the weeks, it would happen when I was supposed to bake the cake for a going away party and spend a pleasant weekend in Wootton Bassett learning how to paddle board! So plans obviously had to be cancelled), but I had get well texts, phone calls and visits the whole time I was in the hospital. It helped so much to stave off the anxiety I was pretending not to feel about everything, as well the inevitable boredom and loneliness that comes with spending a few nights in hospital. The friend network is a great and underrated thing...

Since getting out of the hospital I've had a bit of spare time on my hands, and, as usual, my mind has turned to food. Specifically, what food I could make to say thank you to a couple of friends who I don't think I could have managed without during this whole thing. I'd originally decided on a battenberg - I have a great battenberg recipe, it travels well, and it's pretty enough to be a nice gift - and then today I came back from buying the ground almonds and eggs for the marzipan only to discover that, for the first time in my life, I have run out of icing sugar.

So no battenberg.

Then I stumbled across this while looking for alternate food gifts: lavender sugar! As a lover of all things lavender, I bookmarked this immediately. And then, following a thought process I myself still do not understand, I was making shortbread and sprinkling it with the lavender sugar as it came out of the oven.

Shortbread is incredibly easy to make, and homemade shortbread is so much nicer than store bought. The lavender sugar is surprisingly nice on it - not at all overwhelming, but giving it just that slight bit extra that makes shortbread so dangerous :)


So - no healthy food post, but maybe give this a try next time you're looking for a food gift.

Lavender Sugar
2 tsp dried lavender flowers*
200 g caster sugar

Mix the lavender flowers and sugar in a jar and shake well. The sugar will keep nicely for about 2 months, so unless you know you're going to use lots of it, I'd stick to small quantities.

* Dried lavender can, perhaps unsurprisingly, be bought quite cheaply from amazon, in case you're having a hard time finding it!

Shortbread
260 g plain flour
100 g caster sugar
40 g corn flour
pinch of sea salt
200 g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

Lavender (or plain, of course!) sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a 9 or 10" springform pan with parchment paper.

Mix flour, sugar, corn flour and sea salt together in a bowl. Stir well, making sure to break up any lumps.

Add the butter to the bowl and use your fingers to the rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Tip the mix into the prepared pan and use a spoon to press into an even layer. Prick the dough all over with a fork and score lightly into 8 - 12 pieces.

Bake for 25 minutes, until lightly browned and firm to the touch.

As soon as the shortbread comes out of the oven, sprinkle liberally with the lavender sugar and cut along the scored lines into pieces. Leave in the tin to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Pleasant Weekends

I'm back! It's been ages, I know, but this weekend was so pleasant that I had to write about it :)

I know this is a completely obvious statement, and I am not unique in this way at all, but I really love weekends. Time to sleep in a bit, read, get to the farmer's market or the green grocers, do some baking, go for a walk...all great, great things! This weekend I even managed to get in some surfing (I am so bad, but it is so much fun!) AND the sun made an appearance, so I headed out to Rhossili on Sunday afternoon and spent some time at the beach. It was absolutely perfect :)

As for this weekend's cooking, I've been trying really hard lately to watch what I eat and keep track of how much I'm consuming, in my efforts to stop eating like 10 grown men and to start eating like a normal single female. I'm not going to lie, it's been difficult! But I love finding recipes that provide good food and are actually fun to make. Especially right now, when there's so much great and reasonably local produce available, it's a great time to be cooking! So this weekend I made ratatouille and Scandinavian Rye bread, both of which will be dinner for the week. In my efforts to create a balanced meal, I added lentils to the ratatouille for protein (I'm a weekday vegetarian, as I'm too lazy and cheap to cook meat every night). If you aren't as lazy as me, and do cook meat regularly, I think the ratatouille (minus the lentils) would go really well with grilled or roasted chicken, lamb or sausage - it's fairly versatile, really, since it's basically vegetable stew!




Ratatouille
2 tbsp olive oil
3 medium onions, roughly chopped
3 - 4 cloves garlic, smashed and roughly chopped
1 medium aubergine (eggplant), quartered and roughly chopped
2 medium courgettes (zucchini), quartered and roughly chopped
1 large red pepper, roughly chopped
1 large yellow pepper, roughly chopped
4 - 5 large, ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
Sea salt and ground black pepper
5 - 6 mushrooms, roughly chopped (optional)
150 g lentils, soaked (if dried) or canned and drained (optional)

1. Heat the olive oil over low - medium heat in a large pot and add the onions, stirring occasionally for 5 - 7 minutes, until onions are soft and transluscent. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.

2. Add the rest of the vegetables all at once and give it all a good stir. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for at least 45 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft and melty.

**If you have time and the desire, you can also roast the vegetables before combining them into the pot to stew - this will allow individual flavours to come through a bit more, but it's entirely up to you!



Scandinavian Rye Bread

175 mL whole milk
175 mL water
2 tbsp soft dark brown sugar
7 g active dried yeast (1 pkg)
250 g rye flour
200 g strong white bread flour
2 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp caraway seeds

1. Combine milk, water and sugar in a small saucepan and heat, stirring continuously, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is lukewarm. Remove pan from heat, add the yeast and let sit for 10 minutes, until foamy.

2. In a large bowl, combine rye flour, white flour, salt and caraway seeds. Form a well in the centre, and add the yeast mixture. Stir until all the liquid is incorporated, and then tip out onto a lightly floured surface.

3. Knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough is soft and consistent in texture, but not sticky. Lightly oil the bowl and return the bread to the bowl, turning once to coat. Lightly oil some clingfilm/plastic wrap and cover the bowl and let stand in a warm, draught-free place for 90 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size. *If, like me, you have no warm draught-free spaces in your house, you can also preheat your oven to 150F, then turn the oven off and put the bowl in there instead. I've had much more success with dough rising since I started doing this! Just make sure the bowl is heatproof, and maybe use aluminium foil instead of clingfilm.

4. Once the dough has risen, knock it back with your knuckles a bit before tipping it out onto a lightly floured surface and kneading briefly. Shape the dough into a round and place on a greased cookie sheet (or greased parchment paper). Deeply score the dough 3 times, then cover in clingfilm and let stand for another 45 - 50 minutes (or until doubled in size).

5. Once the dough has risen again, bake in a preheated oven at 180C/350F for 35 - 40 minutes. You'll know it's finished when the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when it's tapped. Let the dough cool for about 20 minutes before slicing.

Russian Honey Cake

Our department secretary retired this week, and we had a retirement lunch for her on Friday. It took me ages to decide what kind of cake to make for the occasion, because I've noticed that not everyone in the department loves chocolate cake, and someone else had said they'd bring a coffee and walnut cake just in case a lot of people showed up. So, rather than go with perhaps the more traditional option of a Victoria Sponge (which would have been great, but a bit predictable, in my opinion), I found this on 'Time To Cook', a food blog from one of the bakers from 'The Great British Bake-Off' (such a great show!). I was intrigued by the idea of baking a really dry sponge and having it soak up the moisture from the cream filling, and Mary Anne said that a slight caramel flavour comes through as the cake slurps up the creme-fraiche. I was not disappointed! Not only was the cake relatively easy to make, it looked fantastic and everyone loved it! It's definitely more light and delicate than rich and dense, so it's a good option to bring along when not everyone is all for the Death By Chocolate-type recipes. This recipe is a combination of Mary Anne's and some others I found online during my hunting, so I'll just give you mine. Enjoy! Ooh - and google pictures of Russian Honey Cakes! Some people can make them with 15 super thin layers! I don't know how they do it, since I had enough with 6, but it would be worth trying.

Russian Honey Cake

3 large eggs

225 g caster sugar

100 g unsalted butter

3 Tbsp honey (either stiff or runny honey is fine)

1 tsp baking soda

500 g plain flour

1 L creme fraiche

4 Tbsp icing sugar

splash vanilla extract

1. Melt honey and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Add caster sugar and eggs, whisking constantly until mixture is smooth and sugar has dissolved. 

2. Add baking soda and whisk for another minute until thoroughly combined.

3. Remove bowl from heat and add flour in batches, stirring well between additions. The dough will become somewhat stiff, either like a putty or a soft rolling dough. Divide dough into 3 to 4 equal portions (you want the dough to be spread thinly in the tin, but the number of portions will depend on the size of your pan and on how many layers you want, so you'll end up figuring this bit out for yourself).

4. Preheat your oven to 180C/350F. Grease and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spoon in one dough portion and spread it to the edges of the pan. You may find that frequently wetting a silicone spatula and pressing the dough into the pan works best.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the sponge is evenly golden brown and stiff to the touch. Let cool for a minute or two (until it's not too hot to touch).

6. Turn the parchment and sponge onto a cooling rack and peel the paper from the cake. Replace the parchment in the pan and spoon in the second batch of dough, pressing to the corners. Repeat steps 4 through 6 until all dough has been baked.

7. Stack the sheets of sponge and cut to desired size. I cut mine in half lengthwise and made 6 layers. Trim all the edges so every sheet is equal; reserve the trimmings.

8. Mix the creme fraiche with the icing sugar and a splash of vanilla until smooth. You want the creme fraiche to be sweet but still to have that tangy bite to it.

9. Lay one sheet on the serving dish and fit 4 strips of foil around the edges to catch any dripping cream. Spread a thick layer of cream over the first layer (be generous - the cake is going to absorb a lot of it!), then lay another layer of sponge over the cream. Continue alternating between sponge and generous cream layers, and finish off by covering the top, sides and ends. 

10. Crush the sponge trimmings in a food processor or by hand. And this next bit is up to you - the other recipe I was using sieved the sponge crumbs over the top of the cake, and it looked very pretty. But I didn't love the sides of mine, mostly because I hadn't kept enough cream back to cover the sides and ends evenly, so I went with Mary Anne's suggestion and pressed the crumbs onto the sides and left the top clear.

11. Once you've finished adding the crumbs, carefully pull the foil strips away from the base, removing all the left over crumbs and dripped cream.
 

12. Et voila! Now cover and leave the cake in a cool place to set and absorb all the creamy goodness for at least 12 hours. I made mine the day before, so it sat for 24 hours, but it was fine - not too soggy or anything. All together, I think the cake took about 1 1/2 hours to make, so it's definitely doable in an evening.

Baking Machine

There's nothing like being without a kitchen for a while to make you appreciate cooking for yourself, and over the past week I've made lasagna, welsh cakes, soup and the following extra special treats...

I had some friends round for brunch over the weekend, for which I attempted Challah bread, a fantastic Jewish egg bread that makes really nice french toast. The Smitten Kitchen recipe makes 2 loaves, so I made one large one for the french toast, one small one for myself, and then used the rest of the dough to make cinnamon buns, as I'm on a never ending quest for the best cinnamon buns in the world! I think the challah dough is actually the top contender, so I'm going to make it again and post step by step photos next time.

We also celebrated a friend's birthday on Monday, and I took advantage of our peanut-allergic friend's absence to make these: chocolate peanut butter mini-cakes. These were adapted from another Smitten Kitchen recipe (I love that blog!), but instead of making the triple layer cake I made a dozen small cupcakes, trimmed the tops to make them flat and then sandwiched them around the peanut butter cream cheese frosting. It worked out really well! And because the cake was rather rich, it ended up being the perfect amount - I wouldn't have wanted any more in one serving.

Up next, baking a cake for the retirement party of our department secretary...I still haven't decided what to make, but I'm debating at the moment between a Russian Honey Cake and a Honey and Lime cake...