Vintage Glory!

It is easily overlooked that what is now called vintage was once brand new.

Tony Visconti

I think I've mentioned a few times my great love affair with vintage doodads (don't you just love that word?) and this doesn't cease when it comes to my kitchen.

One day, I dream of having a 1950's inspired kitchen, with raised counter tops just like Julia Child had because I happen to be a bit taller than the standard counter accommodates. I want a lovely old Libra cast iron scales. My mam has these and I adore them so much, sure they aren't as accurate as the modern digital ones but isn't that some of the charm?

I also dream of a gorgeous 6 burner stove, oh how I'd bake the hell out of one of those babies!

If this were a 6 burner I would be in heaven!

Even the aprons I adore, I personally think they looked better and covered better, after all - isn't that their purpose anyway?

Obviously this kitchen of mine is still a dream, for now at least, but I do have some cute little knick knacks already stashed away waiting for the day when we have our very own place and I can go nuts in the kitchen! For an example (and one I'm very proud of) of my knick knacks, here's my salt and pepper shakers...well not my actual ones, but I have the exact same set :)

Aren't they adorable?

I know, I know, I'm making you all jealous so I won't put any more examples up or tell you how devilishly difficult it was to source them or the good deal I got on them when I did find them...Ok! You bent my arm! It was £15! How good was that?!

Anyway, I digress, my main point of this article is to ask if I should post more vintage recipes on here? What do you guys think? And also to tell you I have started another blog Vintage Daub to get some of my addiction out of my system. I hope that you go check it out and look out for the vintage kitchen paraphernalia reviews and tips!

Happy Baking!

Related articles

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• Vintage ventures 3 (themuseumgirl.com)
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• Country Roads Christmas (cubbyholes.wordpress.com)
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Pizza and pudding update

As you (hopefully) read on Friday, I was in the throws of creating pizza and a pudding. The latter of which turned out to be babka. I adore baking babka - the steps you have to take, the patience involved, timing is crucial, and last but not least...the smell, that wonderful warm, childhood memories, sweet but delicate smell that emits from the oven after about 15-20 minutes of it going in.
As for the pizza - it came out, thankfully, just as expected and on time, I have posted photos of it here to inspire and make you hungry! Hey, don't hate the cook, hate the desire ;) It's a simple recipe that can be adapted to suit anyones tastes or even if you have people who have allergies, this recipe works very well for them too. Although it is made with wheat flour so isn't applicable for coeliac suffers.
Here's the recipe for the pizza :
For the Base:
500g (and a little more) strong bread flour
25g fresh yeast
260ml water
15g salt

40ml olive oil
Mixed dry Italian herbs
Garlic powder
For the topping:
Tomato puree (use as much as you need to cover your pizza, or to taste)
Fresh garlic
Fresh onion
olive oil
Peeled plum tomatoes
Salt
Black Pepper
Mixed herbs
Method : 
1. In a bowl mix together 200g of the flour with the yeast, then add 160ml of the water and mix. Cover and set aside for 2 hours to rise.

2. Now mix in the remaining flour and water,adding the salt and olive oil. I sometimes find, depending on the brand of flour I'm using (or the country in which you live in), the dough mix remains a little too sticky at this point. If you find this too, just add some more flour before adding the herbs and knead in.
3. Now, take your garlic powder and mixed Italian herbs and sprinkle them around the edge (so in between the dough and the bowl) of your mix, and knead them in. This creates a lovely, fragrant and tasty base once cooked).

4. Set the dough aside in its mixing bowl to double in size.

4. Preheat the oven to 220ºC

5. Roll out the dough into a large circle and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Note : This also works in a square shape and I regularly bake my pizza on my oven tray (you know, the ones you get with your oven).

6. Bake the dough base for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven.
7. Meanwhile, chop the fresh garlic and onion finely (leaving some nice onion rings for topping) and add it to the oil, puree, tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper in a saucepan and gently warm through on the hob.
8. Spread over your pizza, making sure to leave enough room on the edge so you can retrieve it from the oven without dirtying your oven mitts :)
9. Bake for a further 10-15 minutes, pull out just before the tomato mix starts changing colour.
10. Add your choice of toppings - cheese, onion, ham, pineapple, etc etc and return to the oven for about another 5-10 minutes, just until your topping is warmer thoroughly and cheese has melted.
Note : If you are having meat on top of your pizza that needs to be cooked, such as beef mince, chicken strips, pork cuts (yes, I have seen that) then please cook this prior to the oven stage. I probably don't need to specify this but just in case you're having 'one of those days' :)

So here's a couple of photos of my creation, I did a nice simple one on Friday.

The pizza in the tray, fresh from the oven 

Ready to eat, with pickles at the ready (of course) and cold cola - yum!

Now, onto the pudding! Babka wouldn't be babka for me unless it was chocolate inside, and in a loaf tin. Maybe that's because I'm a purest and being part Lithuanian probably doesn't help decrease that. My nan would probably hate me if I did my babka any other way. 

My recipe for this is sort of a combination of my own creation and one I was given...it seems to work out ok and I've had no complaints  I have to say this was my first time cooking babka here in Israel so I was a little nervous about the change in flour, humidity and yeast.
Here's a photo of the babka just before going into the oven -

All risen and looking pretty :)

Now, I have to say I forgot to take another photo after it'd come out of the oven so I do apologise for this but to try and make up for it, here's a photo of a slice of it (before I devour it).

Slices of chocolatey babka goodness

If you want a good babka recipe check out http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/153119#.ULY-GeTFWSo It's a really nice recipe (from the looks of it, I haven't baked it myself) and it's well guided too so if it's your first time making babka, it's a good place to start without feeling overwhelmed!

I hope you enjoyed the photos and this marks my first savoury recipe I have posted! 

Make sure you share your babka and/or pizza stories, I always love hearing from you guys,

Happy Baking

Worth checking out:

This is Pizza

Slice

Foy Update

Pizza Blogger

Shabbat Shalom people

So, today is Shabbat and I've decided (like I do most Fridays) to make dinner as it's one of the few nights I actually can spend totally with my other half.

I'm making pizza :) He loves pizza and says mine is the best so off to the kitchen I go. I thought it would be simple today, make the dough that I could do blindfolded and while it's rising I'll bake something for dessert...sounds simple enough, right?

Wrong! I got up, got washed, made myself a coffee, sorted out the cats (I don't think you need details), cleaned the carpet that one of my cats 'favourites' and washed the floor, then, just as I was putting my cleaning products back while thinking I'd have my coffee and start the process off, my attention gets turned to an almighty crash from the living room. My little boy cat Bali had knocked over not only my coffee but had managed to get it all over the side table, which dripped into the drawer of said table, down through that and onto the base and floor. Everything was soaked inside the drawer, including my glasses (yep, I'm a geeky girl), computer cables, my usb mouse, all the remote controls...everything. I was not pleased. Now I had to clean everything and wash that poxy floor again.

Needless to say, it's now done and everything is in front of my air con, trying to dry out...Bali on the other hand is sucking up to me by cuddling against my leg as I write this.

Now, back to that pizza...

I am thinking of sharing not just sweet baked goods on here but what about some of my savoury ones? Pies, pastries, bread and pizza like things....anyone interested?

Have a great Shabbat and great weekend people :)

Happy Baking!

 

Wedding stress!

In all of the wedding cake, hope is the sweetest of plums

Douglas Jerrold

Ok, so I know I've been gone for...well quite a long time now and I do sincerely apologise for that.

One of the main reasons for this is we are now in the full throws of planning our wedding! When I returned to Israel after my holiday back to the U.K. we started sorting everything out so some things were put on 'the back burner' as we say.

From running around to the venue, photographers, Rabbi, wedding dress shop and trying to organise our friends who are coming from abroad it's been pandemonium here!

Now we have most things sorted, I can get back to baking and writing my blog :)

I've decided not to go with a wedding cake, firstly it's not that common here and secondly, I'm getting one for the U.K wedding so I won't complain, not every girl can say she's getting two weddings :D

What are your thoughts on wedding cakes? And what are some of your favourites? How big is too big for you?

Personally, I think if you have an oversized, or too many tiered, wedding cake it not only looks presumptuous but also...is it really practical? Not just for the baker to get it to the venue but also for you to do that dream 'first cutting of the cake'. I plan to have a smaller designed cake and then a sheet cake of the same sponge flavour to be served to the guests...that way no one misses out, it saves you money, and also - it can cut it easily and even smash it into your partners face if you fancy! :)

*Update* My, now husband, did this to me, but I managed to run away and then to smear it on his face - Girls -1 Boys - 0!

Here's a link to one of my favourites - http://www.perfect-wedding-day.com/image-files/hawaiian-wedding-cakes-1.jpg

Now I promise to add more posts and content in the coming days. If there is anything you want me to focus on, drop me a line!

Happy Baking!!

I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a valentine as you can give.

Julia Child

Julia Child, one of a few chefs I truly aspire to be like. Not only was she strong-willed and talented, but she was also a regular person who loved food - just like you and me, and who decided to make her passion into a hobby which then turned into her profession...so far I have 2 of those down and am working on the third and final one ;)

I think it's safe to say she made a lot people (I won't say just women) really get back into cooking and truly think of what they're eating. I once heard someone say 'If it wasn't for her, I think american cuisine would consist of mash potato and hot dogs'. I can't remember who said this but I have to say I think they may be right.

As many of you probably know, today marks what would have been Julia Child 100th birthday. So in honour of this (and, let's face it, it's as good as any excuse to bake) I went into my kitchen hoping to be inspired to create something maybe Julia would have like.

This normally wouldn't have been as difficult as it was today...I open my cupboards only to realise I've nearly run out of caster sugar, vanilla extract and chocolate! Oh dear! I also didn't have many other options, basically all I had was flour (plain, whole wheat and self-raising), eggs, brown sugar, milk, home-made chocolate chunks (that were incredibly soft even after freezing - must rectify this in the next attempt!), canola oil and butter. Not very conducive to creativity. Still, in true Julia style, I didn't let this deter me.

I had initially planned to bake one of Julia's own amazing recipes but with this lack of ingredients that was definitely out.

So what else is left to do but try and make a basic recipe a little more fun?

I decided to make a basic biscuit/cookie recipe and add my home-made chocolate chunks. Deliciously simple, right? WRONG! Because of my chocolate chunks being slightly softer than commercially bought ones they didn't stand up to the test of the Israeli heat and humidity. Just taking some out of the freezer, putting them straight in my cookie dough and returning the rest to the freezer (and as mentioned before, our flat isn't big so all this takes place in about 6 steps/1 minute give or take a bit) made them melt...completely!!! I tried to quickly rescue any remaining solids and mix them in but unfortunately my chocolate chip cookie idea now became a chocolate marbled cookie mix.

C'est la vie as Julia might say. Chin up and carry on (or if you prefer "Chin up, boobs out, it's showtime!" in the words of another favourite of mine - Debbie Reynolds).

So it came to pass that my wonderful idea of giving Julia the birthday celebratory baked goods that she deserved ended up a poor woman's attempt at cookies that just look as boring as they taste. In my defence, they taste good...but for an everyday cookie - not for a celebration of such magnitude!

[caption id="attachment_401" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My sad attempt at honouring Julia today[/caption]

 

So, my final words are an apology, to Julia, for this embarrassing creation and to say Happy Birthday Julia, we all wish you were still with us guiding us through the maze that is cooking and baking but your wise words and legacy will forever be close to our hearts (and stomachs!).

So, in true Julia style I will close with simply saying - Bon Appetit!

 

P.S. If you would like to see a unique inside about Julia, head on over to Sheryl Julian’s dinners with Julia article on The Boston Globe's website, it's a good read.

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The trouble with a baking addiction is...

It's an addiction... and addiction is something I should know something about.

Keith Richards

I am, totally, unequivocally, absolutely a baking addict. It started when I was pretty young and has just got stronger as time goes by.

I first started out, like most people, being taught how to bake by my mum. She used to bake so much! Cakes, pies, yorkshire puddings, biscuits, breads etc etc. Anything she could bake at home, she would. I love this about her and have carried it on, not only does it save you a lot of money (sometimes!) but also it tastes better and is so much fun.
When I first started I wasn't very good - no surprise there. It took me some time to get used to the baking terms and ingredients (and I'm still always learning) but I got the handle on it eventually. So I started trying more and more difficult recipes and that progressed into me starting to create my own recipes.

The thing about this addiction, like any other, is it can be debilitating. For instance, when you're not selling your creations (as I am currently unable to, not through lack of trying but location) you're spending money but not getting anything back. Sure you're making lovely biscuits and desserts but all you get out of that is holes in your teeth and a wider waistline every day.

The other thing is saturation - with this I mean you still love the process of baking, the weighing of ingredients, mixing, folding, sieving etc, but the end result loses more and more of the excitement it once held. You want the process without the outcome or the resulting food that needs to be eaten. Also, tied in with this part of the problem is saturating your friends and family...there's only so many people you see regularly enough to give your baked goods to and they can only enjoy them for so long too.

Today was hard for me to resist baking some more biscuits (my own recipe) as I'd baked peach cupcakes only last night...it's only because the peaches were turning bad....I promise that was the reason ;)

So what did I do instead? Sadly, the answer is nothing. I sat in front of my laptop and played silly Facebook games, talked to a couple of friends back in the UK and tried to waste the hours until I can go to sleep. It's not a great way to spend a day and half of me feels worse for doing it...as if sitting here and avoiding the kitchen has made me more unhealthy and lazy - totally guilt ridden.

It's still too early (and too hot) to go to sleep, so now what do I do? To that, I have no answer but I thought sharing this and the physical act of typing it might take up some time and bring a solution possibly.

The conclusion for this post is - I'm still working on it. I even got fed up with writing my recipe book, I love to type but sometimes there's nothing that'll satisfy you other than doing exactly what you want. Right now I can't do or have anything I want - food, baking and cigarettes - so needless to say, life is annoying lately.

Anyone else have a baking addiction? Or anything similar? How do you deal with it?

Happy baking to anyone able to bake today :)

A really depressing development

It's 2:17am here, I'm too hot to sleep and I'm trying to keep my mind off of wanting a cigarette or those nice biscuits I baked earlier that are sitting in the fridge.

So, what do you do in these times? Trawl the internet of course! After all, isn't that what it's for?

As I do so I keep returning to food and baking sites (I did try to be all organised and started looking into wedding prep but to no avail) along with some awesome blogs about these subjects and I realise a recurring, but utterly depressing theme - stealing of others stuff. Or should I say, people reporting when people's things have been stolen. Then I come across a recipe of mine which I posted a few weeks ago...on someone else's blog and they're claiming it to be theirs! Of course, this has upset me quite a bit, I created this recipe, I took the time, effort (and the calories to my hips) and used my knowledge to make it work and someone else goes and nicks it.

I've been warned a few times of putting up my creations, especially since I'm working on my own recipe book but I didn't want to listen or believe people could be so devilish.

I love making these new creations, and when I add them to this blog I love seeing the response I get from them...but this has really darkened the joy I find in it all. I have no other option than to protect myself feeling like this again, so I will be taking down all my own recipes from this blog and won't be sharing anymore (until I finish my recipe book).

I will, however, still be posting classic recipes that I use constantly (or ones I have tweaked) and recipes I try for the first time from other sources.

I hope you can all understand this decision, and still find my blog interesting and useful.

But let's not dwell on such dark things or pathetic people, let's look on the bright side - this is a very good reason for me to try out other classic recipes and post the results and mouth-watering photos here for you all to enjoy and recreate yourselves!

As always, happy baking...

Red velvet cupcakes

 

Friendship is Sharing a Sweet Cupcake.

Marie Williams Johnstone

An American friend of mine gave me this recipe about 9 years ago and only last year did I manage to get round to baking it. It's quite popular that side of the pond and once you've baked this, had the aroma fill your kitchen and dipped your finger in the wonderful cream cheese frosting you'll realise why!

Ingredients:

310g plain flour
45g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
225g butter (or margarine), softened
400g caster sugar
4 eggs
230g sour cream
120ml milk
28g red food colouring
2 tsps Vanilla Extract

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
224g cream cheese, softened
55g butter, softened
30g sour cream
2 tsps Vanilla Extract
450g icing sugar

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

3. Beat the butter/margarine and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in your eggs, one at a time.

5. Now mix in the sour cream, vanilla, milk, and the food colouring.

6. Gradually add to the flour mixture, beating until just mixed together, make sure not to over do it!

7. Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined cupcake cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.

8. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until springy and a toothpick comes out clean.

9. Leave to cool in the pan for a couple of minutes, then remove (leaving them in their paper cases) to a wire rack for about 5 minutes.

10. Now remove from their cases to cool completely.

11. For the frosting: Beat the cream cheese, butter, sour cream and the vanilla extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Slowly and gradually beat in the icing sugar until smooth.

12. Top with the cream cheese frosting.

Enjoy and I hope to see your versions of these soon

Happy baking!

 

Gorgeous Custard Creams recipe!

 

I don't think anyone can say no to these little naughty treats once they've tried them, I know I'm a total addict!

This is exactly why I had to hunt for a recipe to make them at home. Let's face it, if you love to bake and love any certain baked product then of course you're going to have to find out how they're made!!!!

So here's the recipe I used (from the BBC Good Food website with some tweaking by myself)

Ingredients:

For the biscuit:
100g margarine/butter
100g flour
50g caster sugar
50g custard powder
few drops of vanilla essence
For the filling:
150g icing sugar
75g margarine/butter
20g custard powder

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c-200c

2. Cream sugar and margarine, then fold in your flour, custard powder and vanilla essence until the dough is firm and roll-able.

3. Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out the dough to roughly 1/2 cm thickness. Then cut out with a cookie cutter, making sure to have an equal amount of cut outs.

4. Place shapes on a baking tray covered in grease proof paper (or lightly greased and floured), ensuring that one of each pair is put on upside down (i.e. flipped over, rather than rotated).

5. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

6. Remove from the oven, don't remove from the tray for a few minutes as they'll be very soft. Then cool on a wire rack.

7. Now mix the icing sugar and margarine until smooth, then add the custard powder.

8. Fill the custard creams once they are cool. Place a bit on the bottom (i.e. non-smooth side) of one biscuit, then put the bottom of the first biscuit's pair onto this. Don't force together as this'll just make the filling spill out.

Let me know how this works for you

Happy baking!

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Basic biscuit dough recipe

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"] (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

This is a great little recipe to keep handy as you can adapt it completely to whatever type or flavor of biscuit you'd like.

Ingredients

250g butter, softened
140g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour

Method

1. Mix the softened butter and caster sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon.

2. Add the egg yolk and the vanilla extract and briefly beat to combine.

3. Sift your plain flour and stir until the mixture is well combined, if it's not coming together, this is your chance to get all sticky and dirty just like when you were a kid! Put your hands in there and give it all a good mix and press the dough together firmly.

Note: Now, you'll notice I didn't give an oven temperature or time, this is because it all depends on what you add onto this basic recipe...for that your imagination is the limit! I usually say about 150c-170c is a good basis for about 10-15 minutes.

Let me see and know about your concoctions :)

Happy baking!

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I haven't had the time to plan returning to the scene because I haven't left it.

Mick Jagger

I have to start this post off with an apology. I know I have been absent from my blog and all of you (if anyone is truly out there).

This isn't because I've lost my passion for baking, writing this blog, or sharing things with you all. Mainly it's because I wasn't well and have been crazy busy planning for my trip back to the U.K. as well.

Of course I'm totally excited about going back, seeing my family and friends (and maybe baking a thing or two while I'm there!) but this won't mean I will neglect this blog :)

So I'm sorry for not providing more tasty recipes for you all but I'm back on par now and will make up for this lack of attention by giving you 3 new recipes today! How does that sound?

Also, I want to ask opinions, should I add to this blog savory baking recipes? Such as quiches, pies, pastries and breads?

Let me know what you think,

Happy baking!

 

Peanut butter gluten free cookies - yum!

Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter.

James A. Garfield

My lovely fiancé is seeming to get worse with his (what was a slight) gluten intolerance and of course this bothers me...who else do I subject to testing new inventions?!

Now I have to invent new gluten-free versions of recipes! Woohoo a genuine excuse to bake? I'm all over it.

So my first go at this is peanut butter cookies.

I hope you enjoy these as much as he seemed to!

Ingredients:

2 cups of peanut butter (smooth or crunchy - your choice)
1 cup of dark brown sugar
1 cup of caster sugar
1/2 chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to about 150c

2. Beat the peanut butter with a wooden spoon until it softens up some more and gets a bit creamier

3. Add the dark brown sugar and cream it with the peanut butter

4. Now add the caster sugar in bits, creaming as you go.

5. Finally, add your chocolate chips and you're done!

6. Bake on a grease proof paper lined baking tray for about 10 minutes or until golden brown

7. Let the cookies cool a bit on the grease proof paper and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

8. Store in an air tight container and (if they're not all eaten at once) they should last 5 days

Note: They will spread quite a bit during baking so give a lot of space around them!



Enjoy and let me see your versions of these.

Happy baking!

Dieting starts again tomorrow

Where's the place to put your refrigerator so it causes most problems while still being useful? Right next to the sofa

me

I should probably explain the above 'quote' (if you can call it that).

When we moved, we found a gorgeous 1 bedroom apartment here. Nice flowing layout to it - i.e the kitchen/dining room is sort of attached to the living room.

Originally, our sofa wasn't too near the kitchen but my fiancé wasn't happy with it and kept moving things around (as he always does) until he felt everything was perfect. Now, I love this quality about him, I truly do, but this time there was a slight error in judgement on his part - the fridge is now next to our sofa - where I sit to write this blog a lot of the time!

This would be fine and is fine most of the time if it wasn't for those moments of craving a cigarette, so you reach for the grapes instead and this sometimes works for me totally but sometimes grapes aren't...naughty enough and that's when the fridge is dangerous. You don't have to walk far or even get up to delve into its shelves and splurge out on those last 5 cookies you were saving, that giant green apple or even some of that cookie dough that's yet to be cooked! Agh!!!

I think I should also clarify the other reasons to diet.

I'm not fat and haven't really ever been big, usually weighing in around 56/57kg (and I'm tallish - yep I'm truly lucky, or at least I WAS). however, since moving to such a hot climate AND quitting smoking my metabolism has slowed so badly that I've gain 11kgs in 5 months and I hate it.
I haven't really been over eating all the time we've been here but I admit I have my moments like anyone, and usually it doesn't make a difference, but here, it's like the gravity has been increased and everything contains more calories and fats or something! It's too hot to do any real vigorous exercise so all I get to do is a hour power walk in the early morning and some exercises in front of the air con after that which isn't really enough to get rid of the weight and kick start my metabolism again. So this is why the diet.

I lost 3kgs with the first go at it, have had my recommended break and now I need to go back on it if I want to lose at least a good deal of this weight before going on my holiday back to the U.K.

Now you see the full problem of having our fridge near my comfy blogging seat? Yep, thought so, so this one is coming to you from our balcony instead (Although I'd love to have a ciggie in hand right now as I type).

So once again I'm sorry to say that from tomorrow until Wednesday I won't be creating new recipes. It's too hard not to taste as I go and this diet is too strict for that to be allowed. Instead I'll share other favourite and well practised recipes I already have.

Hope you enjoy it still the same and keep all fingers crossed for me to shift that other 8kgs!

Happy baking!

Hot cookies

The failure or incomplete success of a recipe often depends upon some little detail that has been misunderstood or overlooked in the preparation.

'A Book for a Cook' The Pillsbury Co. (1905)

Do you have problems with your dough spreading before going in the oven or your cookies/biscuits coming out thin, flat and too hard?

Don't worry, so did I when I first got back to baking them over here. Back in the U.K of course I didn't have to worry too often about humidity and although my kitchen did indeed get quite hot when the oven was on (it was a small kitchen), the rest of the house was cooler so it wouldn't ever run as hot as it does here.

Another HUGE  difference here is the oven I'm using. It's quite an old (and well used) one, with a door that doesn't shut totally, wonky shelving and not very specific temperature gauge. However, it was free so I'm not moaning - just stating a fact that it's another learning curve.

I've compiled a list of some tricks I've worked out, always done but had to adjust, or been told to try here for you all to give a go. I hope they help you and your baked goods as much as they've been helping me.

• First of all, something I shouldn't need to say and you probably all do anyway - make sure you always measure your ingredients properly. If you don't add enough flour your little bakes will be flat and hard.


• Chill your biscuit dough if it's a dough to roll out. The exception to this rule is oatmeal cookies - all types should be refrigerated for at least 2 hours before baking but preferably overnight.


• After rolling out and cutting (or if not a rolled dough type of biscuit/cookies - after you've spooned out enough mix) your biscuits/cookies, put any unused mix into the refrigerator.


• Try chilling your oven tray before you even put anything on it.


• With biscuits/cookies like Sugar cookies you should also refrigerate the cut out cookies for about 10 minutes on the baking tray before putting them in your oven - this means they will keep their shape


• Don't spoon out or add cut biscuits/cookies to a warm oven tray, this will make them spread


• Make sure your butter/margarine isn't too soft before adding it to your sugar. If your recipe calls for blending/creaming the fat and sugar together, your fat should be soft enough to bend but not dripping or soggy.


• DO NOT oil or grease in any way your baking sheets/grease proof paper - they're fine the way they are!
  


• If you're not using baking sheets or grease proof paper, only use a tiny bit of oil/butter/margarine to grease your oven tray - too much fat will add to the mix and make your biscuits/cookies dense and flat.


• Try transferring the cooked biscuits/cookies from the warm baking sheet/grease proof paper to a clean, fresh piece.


• DO NOT mix your batter/dough too much. If you incorporate too much air into your mixture your biscuits/cookies will rise well in the oven and flatten dramatically once removed. Also this causes the butter/margarine to change consistency - making it melt which we don't want.


• Make sure that if you're using baking powder or baking soda that it's not out of date.


• Also, relating to the baking soda - using too much will cause flat, dark biscuits/cookies


• If you're using a standing mixer or hand mixer and are adding such things like chocolate chips or nuts etc - always mix these in by hand.

I hope this helps any of you out there with the same problem :)

Happy baking!

Mamgu cookies

My grandmother was one of the greatest inspirations in my life. She taught me how to be a real woman, to have strength and self-respect, and to never give those things away.

Reese Witherspoon

I became inspired today to invent and bake some cookies that I think my mamgu (grandmother in Welsh) would have liked. She's been on my mind a lot recently and it's now reached a peak (she passed away a year ago today) so off to my kitchen I went.

Here's what I came up with -

Ingredients:

300g Whole wheat flour
Chocolate chips (as many as you think is right)
2 eggs
1tsp Vanilla extract
50g cocoa powder
120g caster sugar
Canola Oil ( to add moisture)
100g margarine
Milk (enough to make a firm dough)
Ground ginger (just a dash)

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 190c and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.

2. Cream the margarine and sugar together.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time and half the flour between each egg.

4. Add the remaining flour with the cocoa powder and some canola oil to bind it all together.

5. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla extract. Add some milk if it's not quite coming together.

6. Add the ground ginger, just about 1 teaspoon and knead in.

7. Form small balls and flatten them with the palm of your hand to make flat.

8. Bake in the centre of your oven for 10 minutes.

This has become a recipe I know will always have a sentimental value for me.

[caption id="attachment_322" align="aligncenter" width="210"] My lovely Nan[/caption]

Enjoy and as always let me know what you think of this recipe.

Happy baking!

My new creation for today - Granola bars

My granola bars before cutting

So I'm one of these people who absolutely loves oats in pretty much any form you can serve them to me - cookies, bread, porridge, savoury dishes and of course, breakfast bars.

I think this endless love comes from my Grandad, who used to, without fail, eat a bowl of porridge every morning. My favourite memories of him are mostly of me dutifully bringing up his bowl of porridge to him in bed and sitting there talking (more than likely complete rubbish) to him until he was finished.

It was thus inevitable that I'd create my own recipe for all the above (still a work in progress to do the whole list so stay tuned).

Here is my granola bar recipe :)

Ingredients:

160g butter, softened
160g packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons caster sugar dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water
About 400g rolled oats

(Optional but oh so good)
1 mashed banana
Bittersweet/dark chocolate chips
Any other fruit and/or nuts you wish

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c.

2. Lightly grease a square tin (about 8x8 or 9x9,no bigger) as you can see in the photo, I had to use my loaf tin which made them too dense and a bit too soft so they were more like flapjacks.

3. Cream your butter and sugar together, mix in the sugar/water combination.

4. Add in your oats (and banana and chocolate if you want too, plus any other fruit or nuts you want). Mix well.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes.

6. Cut into pieces of desired size while still semi warm and leave in the tin to cool completely.

As always let me know what your experiments with this come out like.

Happy baking!

A shout out

Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.
Ruth Reichl

We all know life's better when we share and recently i had some time to peruse and explore the endless amount of wonderful blogs around the net.

I found so many pretty, interesting and informative blogs that I just had to share some of them with you here. I will be doing this every month to add new ones I find or get directed to, and this way you're not bombarded with too many links :)

*My favourite baking/cooking blogs:

Note: these are in no particular order.

Quête Saveur - A lovely blog, covering many types of cuisine and just like me, they bake to relieve stress.

The Faux Martha - This blog ranges through all types of food, with some random thoughts and tips.

My Dear Bakes - Lovely creations for themed cakes. One very talented individual.

Cookie Talk - This blog is so nice because it gives great help, tips, links, recipes and books for you to check out.

Darla Cooks - This is a lady after my own heart haha. We have much in common (not just baking but both having previously been Yoga instructors). She posts gorgeous recipes with the mouthwatering photos to accompany them.

Lily Vanilli - If you don't know about this woman already you seriously have to check her out. She's become a big celebrity baker back in London and her amazing concoctions are definitely worth a try.

Baking Mum - A gorgeous gallery blog showing this mum-of-two's baking creations, very inspiring!

If you have, or know of, a baking/cooking blog that I've missed and should check out, let me know!

Enjoy checking these out and happy baking!

My favourite GLUTEN FREE brownie recipe

As I promised earlier this week, here is my favourite gluten free brownie recipe. It's also lovely and quick and tastes just as good as any other brownie recipe I think.

Ingredients:
100g Butter
150g Dark Chocolate
100g Gluten Free Plain Flour
200g Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Powder

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c

2. Gently melt together the butter and chocolate

3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar

4. Beat in the eggs followed by the melted butter and chocolate mixture
(if you want to add something like nuts or extra chocolate, nows the time people)

5. Pour into 150 x 200mm/6"x8" oiled and lined baking dish

6. Bake in a pre heated oven for 35/40 minutes.

Now enjoy and as always let me know how it turns out for you plus any wonderful substitutes you may have used.

Happy baking!

Freedom to bake!!

Yes! I am free again to bake! Yesterday was my last diet day (for now) and I have to say a big thank-you to everyone who has been giving me encouragement and keeping their fingers crossed for me. It worked for sure! 3 big fat kgs are gone! Woohoo! :D

I start the evil (but working!) diet again on Monday, let's hope I lose the same amount again.

Right, back to the much more interesting task at hand.
In my absence from baking we had a slight hiccup - our oven broke...well actually it was that the socket it was plugged into started to smoke, not good.

Thankfully our lovely landlord soon had it fixed but it did get me thinking of different ways to cook my creations.

Now I'm not one for boiled cakes or other baked goods (not that I'm knocking them but really how can a 'baked' anything taste good being boiled? The clue is in the name haha) so how else to cook biscuits/cookies?

Well we have a toaster oven and a microwave so lets find out shall we?

I was going to have fun playing with the notion today until my lovely fiancé said he's taking me to see a movie and to go to a restaurant tonight (after taking our little Nalu to the vets of course) so I'm afraid I'll have to refrain from that type of fun until tomorrow so I can have fun with my man instead...I'm sure you all understand :)

*Random thought time: imagine what baking would have been like before we had temperature controlled ovens? Interesting to say the least* 😉

I'll post a well loved recipe today and my experiment tomorrow.

Happy baking!

Chocolate Chai Snickerdoodles

I found this recipe a while ago on a website (I think it was recipes.com) and thought it sounded so interesting and tasty that I had to recreate it!

(the snickdoodles are the ones at the front on the left)

Ingredients:

Should make about 42.

2 1/4 cups (411g approx) sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 cup (30g approx) cocoa powder
1 cup butter (226g approx),room temperature
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups (293g approx) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c

2. In large mixing bowl, stir together sugar and spices; set 1/2 cup of the mixture aside.

3. Add butter to mixing bowl and cream with sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in cocoa powder, followed by the eggs and vanilla.

5. Stir in flour and baking powder by hand or at low speed.

6. Form dough into 1-inch balls and roll in reserved sugar mixture.

Note: I like leaving these more as little truffle ball looking things but if you like, flatten them at this point.

7. Bake at 180c for 12-15 minutes or until edges are firm.

8. Cool on wire rack and enjoy!

Let me know what you think.

Happy baking!

Icing in the heat

If the theory turns out to be right, that will be tremendously thick and tasty icing on the cake.

Brian Greene

Working with icing of any type can prove problematic, even back in the U.K I would sometimes have problems (a still warm oven and hot hands are not good for working with fondant!), but here it proves even worse to deal with!

A few weeks ago I made a gluten-free chocolate cake for my fiancé's sisters birthday.
I decorated the cake with fondant roses in blue (her favourite flower in her favourite colour - I wasn't being depressing I promise!), and a horse (yep, you guessed it, her favourite animal...this wasn't in blue obviously).

Everything was going well at first but then my creations started to melt and sweat! (I later found out that the humidity that day was 98%!) and no matter what I did I couldn't seem to make them any better.

This prompted me to search for solutions.

A quick solution if you're doing any buttercream icing, add some cornflour to your mix, but be careful of the amount and only use in buttercream frosting, otherwise it'll make other frostings taste gritty.

As for our enemy fondant (or sugar paste/sugar dough depending on what you prefer) - try some CMC (if you can find it, sometimes it's called supergum or CMC gum) powder, working it well into your fondant.

Adding more icing sugar works for some (although I tried this on aforementioned cake and, as you can see, it didn't work).

Now every cake decorator knows not to put fondant in the fridge and in the U.K. I agree, although here its pretty much a must.

What I've done is refrigerate my cakes for about 10 minutes at a time so not to dry out the cake itself.

Yes, you'll see condensation spots form on your icing but if you're careful and don't touch them at all (it's hard to resist I know) they will disappear in an hour or less.

Have you any more tips or tricks for getting round this problem? If so please comment below or send me a message and I'll update this page, giving whoever provides the tips with full credit.

Happy baking!

My favourite brownie recipe

Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.

Audrey Hepburn

Who doesn't love a big, gooey (yep, I use this word a lot - I love it), chocolatey piece of brownie?
I'm certainly not one who can refuse it and one of my favourite things about brownies is if you cook it for slightly too long you still get a wonderful chocolate cake! Perfect.

I've written down here my favourite brownie recipe. Now this is sadly not one I created but unfortunately I don't remember where I found it so can't give credit. Also with this recipe it's easy to tinker with some of the ingredients, you can easily add more chocolate chips, add nuts or even fruit so you can really personalise it.

Ingredients:
185g butter/margarine
185g dark chocolate
85g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
50g white chocolate chips
50g milk chocolate chip
3 large eggs
275g caster sugar

Method:

1. Position your shelf to the middle of your oven. Preheat to 160c (fan assisted or 180c no fan).

2. Cut your butter/margarine into smallish cubes and put into a medium microwave safe bowl. Break your dark chocolate into small pieces and drop into the bowl with the butter.

3. Cover loosely with cling film and put in the microwave for 2 minutes on full power.

4. Leave mix to cool to room temperature.

5. Prepare your brownie tin with lining it with grease proof paper.

6. Break eggs into a large bowl and add the sugar. Whisk (on high-speed if using an electric whisk) until its thick and creamy. It should double in size.

7. Gently fold in the cooled chocolate butter mixture but go slow.

8. Now add the cocoa powder and flour (at the same time) by sieving and folding in.

9. Stir gently in the white and milk chocolate chips.

10. Pour into your prepared tin and cook for approx. 25 minutes or until the top has a shiny crust and the sides are pulling away.

Let me know how this turns out for you and what new yummy additions you make!

I'll be posting a gluten-free version in the next few days so stay tuned.

Happy baking!

The one who cannot restrain their anger will wish undone, what their temper and irritation prompted them to do.

Horace

It's the 3rd day of my intense diet (one more day to go, thankfully!) and to be completely honest with you I'm already fed up and irritated. I don't feel any lighter although I think I have more 'get up and go' than I have been having. These people (and models) who do this on a daily basis must have so much strength, will power and disdain for food because it's not easy!

Today I get to have in total (brace yourselves for excitement) - toast, a hard-boiled egg, a thin slice of cheese, more disgusting cottage cheese, broccoli, carrots and an apple. How exciting and filling does that all sound? But if it works who am I to complain. I'll see when I'm finally brave enough to stand on those naughty bathroom scales again Wednesday morning.

My frustration over this strict diet has made me sometimes think about quitting it but if I want to see the results promised by the creators (or punishers as I like to call them now) then I have to follow this by the letter...any words of encouragement at this stage will be greatly welcomed!

I cannot wait until I'm done with this (at least for a week) so I can get creative again in the kitchen.

The reason I will be doing this diet once a week, that is if on Wednesday morning I see it has tipped the scales in the right direction, is because I'm going on holiday back to the U.K for a month. I'm really excited to see my friends and family and to eat my mams roast dinner (and of course visit my favourite restaurants and get some naughty snacks you can't have here) so I want to be nice a slim again for seeing them and preparing for the lovely food hehe.

Talking of roast dinners, (yes I know my blog doesn't cover savoury non baked goods but just this once will be ok) did you know you can't get any sort of gravy granules here in Israel? And their stock cubs aren't as powerful as, say, Oxo's are. They have Knorr here but not a great choice and as far as I've found that's the only brand for stock cubes.

This makes it very difficult to have a proper roast dinner (as does the heat), along with not being able to get or make Yorkshire puddings! And what is a roast dinner without Yorkshire puddings?! Oh and stuffing doesn't exist - such as Paxo etc.

Has anyone else found this problem in whatever country you've moved to?

Anyway, enough of my ranting...let's type up another recipe for you guys to try!

Happy baking! :)

My well loved oatmeal chocolate chip cookies recipe

;

Number one, I absolutely love making chocolate chip cookies. I mean, it's fun. It's exciting. Beyond the fact that I love making them, I love eating them.

Debbi Fields

These gorgeous little chewy cookies melt in your mouth and are so fun to make too (hence that particular quote) so I thought I wouldn't be greedy and share the recipe with you all.

Note: I strongly advise you NOT to double this recipe, even if you could get a bowl big enough you wouldn't be able to mix it and it doesn't fit in any standing mixers bowl - believe me.

Ingredients:

225g butter or margarine
200g granulated sugar (important not to use caster sugar)
220g brown sugar (preferably light brown packed)
250g plain flour
245g oats
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda (baking powder works just fine)
1 tsp salt

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 190c

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the granulated and brown sugar with the butter/margarine.

3. Best in your eggs, one at a time and stir in the vanilla extract.

4. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt then sift into the creamed mixture. Stir to combine with a wooden spoon.

5. Mix in the oats (yep this'll give your forearm muscles a workout! Now you understand my note right?)

6. Cover and chill the dough for at least an hour.

7. Form walnut size balls on a baking tray, 2 inches or so apart and flatten with a fork lightly.

8. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Once cooked removed from tray immediately otherwise they'll stick. Cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy and Happy baking!