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!

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!