It's always time for cookies

I'm off home for Christmas a couple of days before Fiona, and wanted to bake something to sustain her! I'm just baking a double batch of my usual cookie recipe, except for having discovered that we don't appear to have any almond extract, so I've substituted vanilla extract. It's been so long since I baked these cookies, I'd forgotten how good they smell in the oven!

Woo! Baking again!

This term has been pretty manic, so I've not really had a chance to bake. But term's over now, so I finally have a chance. By very popular demand (by which I mean that Fiona was very insistent!), it's a reprise of my cinnamon rolls - with only the minor change that I've substituted out the gin for apple juice. The glaze came out really appley, which was a bit of a surprise, but I think it works really well. And the cinnamon rolls themselves? Every bit as good as we remembered!

Apologies for the potato-quality photos. I couldn't be bothered to get my SLR from upstairs, and the Nexus 4's camera wasn't exactly great when it was brand new...

Not quite "baking" even in the loosest sense of the term

I've wanted to bake something for the last few weekends, but always seem to be lacking at least one out of time, energy or key ingredients. Today is a day where I'm lacking in energy, but I saw this recipe earlier, and thought that it looked like it could be pretty tasty - and it's the sort of recipe for which I think I've got enough energy to do right now!

No-bake peanut butter bars
Ingredients

• 140g Butter
• 150g Brown sugar
• 150g Caster sugar
• 270g Smooth peanut butter
• 180g Darkish (51% cocoa) chocolate

Method

1. Melt half of the butter and mix in the sugars and peanut butter.
2. Press into a foil-lined tin.
3. Melt the chocolate and the remaining butter together and pour over the top of the peanut butter mixture.
4. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours until set.
5. Cut into squares.

Talk about low effort! This might also be *the* most unhealthy thing I've baked made. I've already (fairly drastically) reduced the amount of sugar added (not, I hasten to add, on health grounds), but fundamentally, this recipe is just peanut butter with added sugar and butter!

Here's the peanut butter mixture in the pan.

Ready for the fridge!

The joys of working from home

I've been a bit ill over the last few days and I'm still not feeling back to normal, so I decided to work from home today. It's been the first time I've worked from home for quite a long while, and it's actually worked out quite well - I've been surprisingly productive. I'm doing some programming for work at the moment, which does mean that periodically I need to wait for 15 minutes while my code runs to give me some results for debugging purposes. As I'm home, I thought that rather than wasting that time on the internet, I'd get Aage out and have a bit of a play (yes, I'm a terrible pet owner - Aage does get horribly neglected). I just did a standard, half-quantities loaf of bread (250g wholemeal flour, 150g water, 5g salt, half of Aage), with a handful of chopped up olives out of a jar thrown in for good measure (which is why I left the oil out of the dough), but still a good use of spare time I'd say! I was really pleased with this loaf. The rise was pretty good, and the texture was lighter than my average sourdough loaf as a result, but what really made it was the crust! Not too hard, but developed well enough and with a fantastic crunch.

Cola revisited

Two years ago, I tried doing cola cookies, and it turned out to be one of the more memorable failed attempts for me. The taste of the cookies was fine, as I recall, but the texture was just not right - partly because I tried adding cola bottle sweets, and they just melted and went hard. Since then, I've had an otherwise untouched bottle of cola syrup (for a Sodastream machine), and I think it's time to try something else with it!

I figured cake is probably the safer way to go, and it just so happened that Serious Eats has a cola cake recipe that I can crib. I'm not following it exactly, but it's pretty close!

Cola cake
Ingredients

• 225g Dark brown sugar
• 100g Caster sugar
• 200g Butter
• 2 Eggs
• 3tbsp Cola concentrate
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• 250g Self-raising flour
• 1/2tsp Baking powder
• 1/2tsp Salt
• 35g Cocoa powder
• 200ml Buttermilk*

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl.
2. Beat in the eggs, cola concentrate and vanilla extract.
3. Fold in the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder.
4. Stir in the buttermilk.
5. Pour into a lined, greased pan and bake at 180C for ~45mins.

*If you happen to have a Polish food shop near you, go there for buttermilk. It's called maślanka and is absurdly cheap compared with buying it in a supermarket (assuming, of course, your supermarket even sells the stuff) - a 400ml carton of the stuff cost me 40p from my local one!

Here's the mixture at the end of step 3 (before the buttermilk got added). It's a particularly satisfying looking mixture.

And after adding the buttermilk. I don't actually know how thick the mixture was supposed to be, so I was guessing - it's very reminiscent of chocolate Angel Delight in appearance! It was also about this time that Fiona told me that she's not sure she likes cola as a flavour...

Ready for the oven. I think this batter looks particularly good!

It still looks good after baking!

It was slightly underbaked - as you can see in the last photo, it's a bit fudgey in the middle, but not horrendously. Overall, it's not bad - especially given how many unknowns there were and how much guesswork was involved in the recipe itself. I was a bit disappointed that the cake wasn't a bit more cola-ey - really, the cocoa powder turned it into a chocolate-cake-that-tasted-a-little-bit-of-cola rather than a cola cake per se. The flavour did come through somewhat though, which was nice, and the sweetness was about right (which was one thing that I had been a little concerned about). I may have to revisit this recipe at some point, omitting the cocoa powder and upping the quantity of cola syrup - I think there's still a bit more to come from this idea!

Time for a classic

I had a tub of double cream about to go out of date, but happily, I fancied baking today - and what's more, I had Fiona as my glamorous assistant* :o). What better time to revisit a classic that I've not baked in many, many years. Time for a Victoria Sponge!

*By which I really mean Fiona did all the work.

Victoria Sponge
Ingredients

• 85g Salted butter
• 145g Unsalted butter**
• 230g Caster sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 230g Plain flour
• 3 tsp Baking powder
• ~3 tbsp Milk
• 200ml Double cream
• 115g Gooseberry jam***

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
2. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, a little at a time.
3. Sift the flour and baking powder and fold in to the mixture a little at a time.
4. Let down to a dropping consistency with the milk.
5. Pour into two greased and floured sandwich tins and bake at 180C for ~20 minutes.
6. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
7. Beat the cream.
8. Sandwich the cakes together with the double cream and jam.

**No, I didn't run out this time, I was just using up the leftover salted butter from the last time around!

***I probably wouldn't have opted for gooseberry jam specifically, were it not for the fact that I didn't have any strawberry/raspberry jam, but did have a cute little jar of gooseberry jam that had been Phil and Jess' wedding favours when they got married many years ago. It's specially aged, alright?!

 Here's Fiona doing all the work (did you think I was joking when I said that?).

Ready for the oven! As you can see, I didn't really let the batter down enough, so it's rather stiff. That one's entirely my fault though!

Out of the oven, they're a little dark and a little domed, but not too bad overall.

Getting them out of the tins could have gone better though. In hindsight, lining the bases with baking parchment would have been a good idea.

So I won't win any awards for prettiness with this cake. I might have slightly run out of patience while waiting for the cake to cool...

Actually though, the finished product doesn't look that bad really!

It's a Victoria sponge. Not the most exciting cake in the world, but it's become a classic for a reason. I think Victoria sponges get a bit of a bad rep because of the terrible supermarket versions - they're always pretty, but inevitably dry, bland and disappointing. This one is almost the exact opposite - not even remotely neat, but it's almost succulent. The sponge is moist, and the vanilla really comes through. The jam gives a nice zing (the gooseberry gives a bit more interest flavourwise than strawberry would have), while the fresh cream just smooths it all over. A Victoria sponge will never be my favourite cake, but a good edition is still worth baking. This one is a pretty decent one, I'd say!

Bank holiday baking

It's a bank holiday! I've completed my DIY projects for the long weekend, which means that it's definitely time to get baking :o). Today's recipe: Snickerdoodles. It's essentially this one from Serious Eats, but without coconut oil (so in effect, it's crossed with this recipe).

Snickerdoodles
Ingredients

For the biscuits:

• 40g Unsalted butter
• 160g Salted butter*
• 200g Caster sugar
• 100g Granulated sugar**
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 325g Plain flour

For the coating:

• 60g Caster sugar
• 10g(!) Ground cinnamon

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
2. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg.
3. Incorporate the baking powder and flour.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the caster sugar and cinnamon together.
5. Roll the dough into 2-3cm diameter balls and coat in the sugar/cinnamon mix.
6. Flatten slightly onto a baking tray and bake at 200C for 5 minutes then reduce temperature to 175C and bake for a further 5 minutes.
7. Sprinkle with some of the leftover sugar/cinnamon mix. Allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes before moving.

*In case you hadn't already guessed, I ran out of butter and had to make do with what they had in the corner shop at the end of my road, which meant salted butter. Happily though, the salted butter is 2% salt, which means that this is effectively ~3g salt; pretty much what I would have added separately.
**Yes, I ran out of caster sugar as well. How did you know?

Apparently, I've angered the gods of baking recently. Apart from the (not altogether unusual) running out of key ingredients, my usual kitchen scales threw a bit of a fit and started reading around half the correct weight. Happily, I did notice, but not before thinking that I'd been cheated by the corner shop and bought a "200g" block of butter that only weighed 100g... (I've since removed the batteries and put them back in and now my scales are back to normal).

Here are the balls of dough before coating. Obviously, I didn't bake them this close together on the trays. Don't they look satisfying?

Ready for the oven. I thought I'd try a little experiment - the bottom right tray have an extra dusting of the sugar/cinnamon mixture, while the other two trays only had as much as would stick to the dough.

 I have got to get myself some bigger baking trays! But don't they look good? The ones with extra dusting have come out a little darker than the others, but aren't burnt. I think they're pretty gorgeous personally!

But as ever, what counts is how it tastes. While still warm from the oven, I snaffled my first taste - they've got a lovely texture - a great outer crunch coupled with a melt-in-the-mouth soft interior - and the cinnamon tastes great! The actual dough itself is (unsurprisingly) bland though, so it's all about the cinnamon on the outside. There's surprisingly little difference between the ones where I put an extra (thin) layer of sugar/cinnamon on the top before baking, but they're really helped by the post-baking sprinkle.

Truth be told though, I think they're actually too rich. The biscuits are so butter-and-sugar-heavy, you start feeling slightly queasy after only one and a half of them. They're nice - actually a bit better once they've cooled and are a bit firmer - but just a bit too buttery for my tastes. I suspect they'll go down a storm in the lab tomorrow though!

Simple oat raisin cookies

Urgh. I'm ill and feeling a bit sorry for myself this weekend. I also fancy some cookies, but I'm thinking I should branch out a bit from my regular cookies. Of course though, feeling under the weather also means that I can't be bothered to do anything that would require very much faff at all - so simple is the name of the game. The inspiration came from this recipe, though it's hardly anything out of the ordinary.

Simple Oat Raisin Cookies
Ingredients

• 100g Plain flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking powder
• 100g Porridge oats
• 50g Caster sugar
• 75g Sultanas
• 100g Butter
• 1 tbsp Honey
• 1 tbsp Black treacle

Method

1. Mix flour, baking powder, oats, sugar and sultanas together.
2. Melt the butter, honey and treacle together, then stir into dry ingredients.
3. Roll into small, squashed-meatball shapes, place onto a lined tray and bake at 180C for ~15 mins.

Here's the mixture before forming. As you can see, it's rather crumbly, so you need to press the mixture together just like you're making meatballs.

Fresh from the oven. I find it quite hard to tell how cooked oat cookies are, and I think I may have ever-so-slightly overdone them.

I tried so hard to get all of them to fit onto my cooling rack. I think I might need to get a bigger rack!

They do look good though, don't they?

Well, I needn't have bothered trying to cram them all onto the cooling rack - the four that didn't fit (and several more to boot) were devoured in an instant (not just by me, I hasten to add; Fiona did help!). These were just about everything that I had hoped for - slightly crunchy, deliciously chewy and just the right amount of crumbly. There's a wonderful hint of toffee from the sultanas, and a rich, dark after taste from the treacle. These are very good cookies - probably not right up at the top of my list, but when you factor in how easy they are to make, they definitely warrant another go at some point. Perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon in the conservatory with Radio 4 and a cup of tea! We'll see how they are once they cool down, but fresh from the oven, they're pretty wonderful!

Those crazy Canadians

Over the Christmas break, Rachel drew my attention to the fact that Heinz publishes a recipe for a tomato ketchup cake. Naturally, I had to give it a go! The recipe is pretty much as published by Heinz, except for the omission of food colouring and substituting the bicarbonate of soda with extra baking powder.

Tomato Ketchup Cake
Ingredients

• 170g Butter
• 125g Soft brown sugar
• 205g Caster sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 250g Plain flour
• 4 tsp Baking powder
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Ground ginger
• 125 ml (185g) Tomato ketchup
• 125 ml Water

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Beat in the eggs.
3. Incorporate the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, ketchup and water.
4. Pour into two greased 23cm sandwich tins and bake at 180C for ~30 mins.

Looks like any other cake batter. It does smell oddly (though unsurprisingly) ketchupy though...

Whoops. I may have added too much baking powder.

Not perfect, but they look like cakes. It's slightly over-baked on top, but not burnt.

But they were stuck fast to the tins! I really shouldn't have been so lazy - I greased, but didn't flour the tins. Annoyingly, I had thought about it, but decided that it'd probably be okay without it. I was wrong!

Not a terribly pretty result, I'll admit. It looks better if you turn it the other way up though.

So, the important question: How did it taste? First off - disappointingly, the cake really doesn't taste of ketchup at all. (I seem to be in the minority of people in that I think "disappointingly" is the correct word there - a much more commonly held opinion is that "thankfully" would be a better choice...). But it was actually rather good. Nicely spiced, very moist in texture. The over-baked top turned into a wonderful, crunchy, caramelised top somewhat reminiscent of brandy snaps, while the inside was lovely and soft. The non-ketchup flavours (nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger) are a classic combination and that is what really comes through in this cake. The original recipe suggested sandwiching and icing the cakes, but I would suggest that that is neither necessary nor a good idea - the cake is plenty sweet and moist enough on its own.

Overall, it's actually a pretty decent cake - just a little disappointingly normal, that's all!

Verdict: Yorkshire curd tart

Well, overall it was a little disappointing. It came out of the tin easily enough (and surprisingly, intact!) and looked pretty good. It smelt of nutmeg and custard, which all in all is a pretty promising sign too, but in the end it just wasn't quite right. I definitely overcooked it a bit, and overall it was rather reminiscent of scrambled eggs. There was also definitely too much lemon in the filling, so it tasted a little odd too. Not unpleasant, but not nice either. The pastry was pretty good though - nice and crumbly. Having said all that though, we hadn't waited for it to cool fully, so perhaps it will improve when completely cold. An update will follow!

Update: It's much better cold! It still reminds me a little of scrambled eggs, but the resemblance is much less obvious. Definitely overcooked it a bit, but the flavours have mellowed on cooling, and it's significantly better! Still not one of my best, but definitely not as bad as I had initially thought.

Curd cheese != cheese curds

In a moment of idiocy, while out shopping last week, I bought a tub of curd cheese when I really wanted to get some cheese curds (which I still haven't found a source for). Somehow, I managed to do this without registering that it doesn't even remotely resemble cheese curds until I got it home and opened the tub. So I've got a tub of curd cheese that needs to be used, which means that it's time to bake! I've never baked a curd tart before, but I have eaten them and very much enjoyed it before, so time to give it a go. I'm essentially using this Paul Hollywood recipe, with omissions and substitutions as needed such that I don't need to go out to the shops! There were supposed to be sultanas in there (as a substitute for the currants), but I completely forgot to add them :o(.

Yorkshire Curd Tart
Ingredients
For the pastry

• 150g Plain flour
• 2tbsp Caster sugar
• 75g Unsalted butter
• 1 Egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp Lemon juice

For the filling

• 50g Caster sugar
• 225g Curd cheese
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Egg yolks
• 1tsp Lemon juice
• 25g Butter, melted
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• 1/2tsp Nutmeg

Method

1. Rub the butter with the flour and sugar for the pastry together until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add the egg yolk, lemon juice and a tablespoon of water and form into a dough. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 15 mins.
3. Roll out to 3mm thick, line a 20cm tin, weigh down with baking beans and bake blind at 200C for ~20-25 mins.
4. Beat the sugar, curd cheese, eggs, egg yolks, lemon juice, melted butter and vanilla extract together.
5. Pour the mixture into the tart case and grate the nutmeg over the top of the tart.
6. Bake at 180C for 20mins until filling is just set.
7. Allow to cool fully in the tin before removing.

Probably one of my better attempts at rolling pastry out. There are a few cracks appearing that will probably need patching, but not too bad overall!

 The filling isn't the most exciting thing to look at, but it does look like it'll be pretty tasty.

The tart case after blind baking. Not too bad, but I think this illustrates quite neatly why I won't be competing in the Great British Bake Off. In fact, the next time one of my friends asks me why I don't enter, I might just direct them to this very photo!

A little bit of patching later, it's not the prettiest tart case in the world, but hopefully it'll hold together well enough...

Ready for the oven! I very nearly lost my fingertips to the grater, as I finished off a nutmeg. I think it looks pretty nice though!

Ready to eat (nearly - it just needs to cool down). I think I may have over baked it slightly, but I decided that having a slightly solid curd tart would be better than a liquid one.