Wholemeal Cheese Scones

As promised, here are some yummy pictures of the cheese scones I made. I decided to change them to whole meal  as opposed to white. I actually prefer brown/granary/whole meal breads to white, and the fact they are healthier make me feel like I can eat more of them!!!

As these are a savory snack, I coated then in egg wash prior to putting them into the oven, I know that egg wash tends to dry harder than coating them in milk, the egg resulted in them looking almost like pork pies, with a gorgeously brown glossy colouring.

The scones came out after 18 minutes in a hot oven, and they sounded hollow to the tap. They have a delicious little crunch to them, which gives way to a spongy fragrant centre which is divine.

The recipe below calls for chives to be added, but I didn’t want these in my scones so I didn’t add them….simple. The fact this recipe is so diverse really appeals to me, you can add almost any ingredients you want. I think the next time I make these, I will add sundried tomatoes….not only will the splash of colour look visually great, but the little bursts of flavor will make these little scones pop. Add some blobs of feta cheese and these little gems could go all Mediterranean.

If you attempt the recipe below, let me know how yours turn out and what quirky combinations you decide to go for….. the options are endless.

The recipe below is by Kerrie Sun and you can find it on the following website -  www.taste.com

 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
• 1 1/2 cups plain self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 50g butter, chopped
• 1 cup grated vintage cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 tablespoons finely-chopped fresh chives
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• butter, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Combine flours, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Using fingertips, rub butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in cheese and chives. Make a well in the centre.
2. Combine 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup cold water in a jug. Pour milk mixture into well and stir with a flat-bladed knife until dough almost comes together. Turn onto a lightly-floured surface. Knead gently for 1 minute or until smooth (do not overmix).
3. Roll dough out to a 2cm-thick, 20cm x 26cm rectangle. Cut dough into 16 squares.
4. Place scones 1cm apart on tray. Brush tops with remaining milk. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until light golden and hollow when tapped. Serve warm with butter.

 Happy Baking

Toni – T - Cake

Peanut Butter M&M's - Genius

So, I’m sat here in work munching on peanut butter MnM’s, flown lovingly over from the big ol’ U S of A. There is something about salty chocolate that just work so well, these little bad boys are addictive. Once i get my baking order’s out of the way, i want to work with peanut butter and chocolate or salty caramel and chocolate – both combinations sound delicious to me.

If you know any good recipes let me know and I’ll give them a go..........

Happy Baking

Toni – T - Cake

Bakers Bowl - Week 2

This week i have decided to take on the scone –and not just any scone, oh no a cheese scone. For the next couple of weekends i have cupcakes and novelty cakes to bake so i wanted to try something savoury (for once).

The recipe calls for mustard and cayenne pepper to be used, which hopefully should give it a spicy little kick.

I'll bake these little pud's over the weekend and let you all know how i get on. Pictures to follow.....

Happy Baking

Toni – T - Cake

Macaroon Attempt 2

I tried to put my failed macaroons out of mind, but those French little buggers just wouldn’t leave my thoughts, I looked on YouTube to see if I had done something wrong, and to see what other tips I’d be able scramble together. That being said, other than the recipe listed previously, nobody else mentions placing the almond and icing sugar into a food processor………maybe this is just one of those things, different people, with different baking opinions.

Not wanting to be defeated by these chewy meringue blobs I took to the kitchen once more to try my second attempt. I whizzed the almond and icing sugar together in a processor, and if I’m being totally honest, the consistency didn’t alter much from my first attempt – although, that being said, it was a little less chunky.

The overall look of the batter was a lot smoother this time around and came out of the piping bag at a rather alarmingly fast pace, I tried to keep my piping method the same for each mound, keeping them to the same shape and size…I didn’t manage to completely make them all identical, but it’s the thought that counts.

These macaroons were coloured ‘Party Green’ with Halloween being nearby, I thought I’d in keep with this theme and go for an almost ghoul like look. These were piped onto a baking tray lavished with butter (id ran out of baking paper and didn’t have the chance to replace it yet) and placed into a low oven for 15 minutes as before.

The colour on these didn’t fade as much as last time, they faded slightly, but overall they popped more than my first batch. Still with Halloween on the forefront of my mind, I opted for a rich brown chocolate ganche (250g good quailty dark chocolate/250g double cream). I wasn’t overly impressed with the butter cream in my first attempt, so wanted to take a different direction, I already know that mascarpone works wonders. The good thing about ganche, is you can create gorgeous little truffles with the left over’s….not good for the waistline, but I find with real baking, it never is.

I’m a lot happier with my second attempt at these delicious little goodies, but again they weren’t velvety smooth……as you can see from my pictures, the air bubbles from the batter are extremely visible, very annoying I can tell you. I would love to know how to create the silky look of a successful macaroon. This is my new mission.

These little green gems tasted amazingly good, they had a perfectly crisp shell and a chewy middle, I’m told this is the correct consistency for a good macaroon. I’ll have to work on the ‘feet’ and the size – but all is fair in love and baking!!

Happy Baking!!

Toni – T - Cake

Macaroon Attempt 1

So, the ingredients were brought and the method was firmly attached to a wall in my kitchen but still, my little debut macaroons failed to shine.  I followed the recipe almost to the book, the only step I didn’t do was putting the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor prior to sieving….which I think was the one step I NEEDED to do. I also added a pink paste colour to the macaroons but they faded dramatically in the oven.

For the middles, I gravitated away from the recipe, the recipe calls for the butter cream to be made up of 175g butter, to 75g of icing sugar…..this seemed a lot of butter and was not how I usually make my butter cream, so I swapped the measurements around and used a small knob of butter to a lot of icing sugar, diluting it with vanilla extract (usually I would use milk as well). I coloured the butter cream a vivid pink (this was the shade of pink the macaroons were prior to being put in the oven, so judging from the pictures you can see just how much these faded).

To mix it up a bit I thought id also try a mascarpone filling, which I coloured a vivid green. I mixed a small amount of caster sugar into a tub of mascarpone and added this to the middle of the macaroon shells.

I didn’t pipe the fillings into the shells; these were pressed on using the back of a spoon. The next time I attempt this I will probably go for chocolate ganache which will be piped; I will also use the food processor.

Overall I’m abit deflated with how these have turned out, and I almost didn’t upload these pictures BUT this is a beginners baking blog and I am starting from the bottom so any mistakes I make I will share with you!! Looks like this will have to be added back into the bakers bowl and a second attempt is definitely needed.

Please find this Delicious recipe below.........if you give it a go yourself, please let me know how your's turn out!!

Happy Baking

Toni – T - Cake

Ingredients

1. 175g icing sugar
2. 125g ground almonds
3. 3 large free-range egg whites
4. 75g caster sugar

For the filling

1. 150g butter, softened
2. 75g icing sugar

·         As mentioned above I swapped around the measurements of the filling.

Method

1. 1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan140°C/gas 3. Whizz the icing sugar and ground almonds in a food processor to a very fine mixture, then sift into a bowl.
2. 2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks, then gradually whisk in the caster sugar until thick and glossy. (At this point you can stir in flavour extract, such as peppermint or lemon, and corresponding colouring such as blue or yellow, to your meringue mixture, depending on what kind of macaroons you want – see chef's tip. Or divide the meringue among different bowls if you want to make more than one colour.)
3. 3. Fold half the almond and icing sugar mixture into the meringue and mix well. Add the remaining half, making sure you use a spatula to cut and fold the mixture until it is shiny and has a thick, ribbon-like consistency as it falls from the spatula. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle.
4. 4. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Pipe small rounds of the macaroon mixture, about 3cm across, onto the baking sheets. Give the baking sheets a sharp tap on the work surface to ensure a good ‘foot’. Leave to stand at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to form a slight skin. This is important – you should be able to touch them lightly without any mixture sticking to your finger. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool.
5. 5. Meanwhile, make the filling/s (unless making chocolate macaroons – see chef's tip). In a bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, then beat in the icing sugar. (You can now add flavouring or nuts, and colour – see chef's tip.) Use to sandwich pairs of macaroons together.

Bakers Bowl - Week 1

So, I’ve decided that my aim is to try and bake something once a week; it will probably be on the weekends when i have more time on my hands. The challenge out of my baking bowl* for this weekend is Macaroons!! Multicoloured macaroons lovingly packed with butter cream to be exact.

I’ve found a good little recipe by Lizzie Kamenetzy posted on the Delicious website. This particular recipe (to be posted later) has a three out of five star rating, so seems like a winner.

Macaroons are coming back into fashion in a big way, so this seems like something i should start working on!!

*Baking Bowl – I have asked for people to suggest recipes/goodies for me to make. My tooth is stubbornly sweet, so anything savoury seems to pass by me unloved. Some of the suggestions from today are cherry or cheese scones, millionaire’s shortbread, and chocolate crunchy/chewy caramel slices......this seems like an old school goodie and will probably send you right back to your primary school days......if only i knew what the actual cake was called.

Chocolate Peanut Crinkles

The other day i actually ventured out into the big world of baking and made some ‘Peanut Chocolate Crinkles’. These biscuits were a mix of cookies and brownies, but truth be told, mine were edging more towards the cookies (due to a few too many minutes in the oven, Doh!!!)  They were a rich, but not bitter, chocolate biscuit, with roasted peanut scattered throughout.

These little gem's are dropped into a bowl of icing sugar before being baked for 10-15 minutes. Meaning that when the biscuit cooks it bursts open creating a cracked layer of icing sugar with rich chocolaty centre which visually looks really impressive.

I stumbled across this recipe on Edd Kimber’s food blog, where he advises that he originally took this recipe from Bill Yosses ‘The Perfect Finish’.

If you want the recipe for youself, please visit Edd’s page http://www.he-eats.com/ (Edd was the well deserved winner of The Great British Bake Off, for those who recognise the name but can’t quite place him).

I’m thinking of adapting this recipe slightly, purely for my own tastes. I want to add more peanuts than recommended, and i want to also try dropping the mix into the chopped nuts as opposed to the icing sugar. We are hosting a pink day in work on the 29^th to promote/raise money for breast cancer – it is, after all, breast cancer awareness month. In keeping with this theme of pink all items on the day will need to have some element of pink in them. I’m going to be baking cupcakes (chocolate/vanilla, pics to follow) and these crinkles. I will again be tweaking the method of these by letting the chopped nuts soak in pink food colouring prior to being rolled on the outside (i also found out rather excitingly, that if you freeze the batter, they don’t freeze solid, and if you fancy a sneaky treat you can eat the batter raw out of the freezer....obviously the mix has raw egg in it, so not appropriate for pregnant ladies).

Happy Baking!!

Toni - T-Cake