Home made buttery croissants

This is another 2 day job!  I've always wanted to have a go at making croissants and have to report it's a real faff - much easier just to buy them, especially fresh from the bakery.  I wanted them for breakfast but this recipe doesn't allow that, and so they were a little stale for next day breakfast.  I checked in my Aga cook book and Mary's recipe says all the folding and chilling is done one day, dough is put in a plastic bag in the fridge overnight so shaping and rising can be done first thing in the morning (need to get up early though!) and hey presto you get just-cooked croissants for breakfast.

I did sample one when they came out of the oven and they were lovely - crisp outside and doughy inside.

Quick Apple Tarts

Have not been doing any baking for a couple of weeks due to illness and the need to get on with the garden and allotment.  However, this morning I made these tarts using bought ready rolled puff pastry and they turned out well - quite professional looking.  Incredibly easy to make and you could do any shape or size out of scraps of puff pastry.  David had his with ice cream as suggested and it was difficult for us to stick with one - they are very moreish and really light.

Quick Apple Tarts

Cooking with the twins

Over the last few weeks I have been doing some baking with my twin grandchildren, Lucie-Mae and Sam (aged two and three quarters).  We have made chocolate crispy cakes, carrot cake muffins, fairy cakes, butterfly cakes and jam tarts.  Like all children, they enjoy taking part in mixing and licking out the bowls and of course eating the end result!  I'm trying to get them interested in cooking from an early age.

Warm Chocolate Mousse Cake

It was my turn to cook a meal for my ex-Lloyds Bank longstanding friends (including one current disgruntled employee!)  We started with caramelised onion tartlets with salad leaves from my pot in the greenhouse, then it was Salmon Teriyaki on a bed of noodles and vegetables, followed by the mousse cake.  This was really good - very light and chocolatey and it was still nice cold the next day.  As the recipe says, loads of bowls (therefore loads of washing up), and I found it took one and a quarter hours to set but maybe my oven is a little slow and also my tin was slightly less than the 23cm stated.

Warm Chocolate Mousse Cake

I would have liked a picture in the book to see if mine was OK because it sank and ended up a bit like a baked cheesecake.

A Good Rustic Loaf

More like a bad rustic loaf!  Another disappointing experiment with yeast.

A good (?) rustic loaf

Texture

I used a special artisan stoneground spelt flour but the results were disappointing, a very dense loaf albeit moist.  It seemed to go wrong from the beginning - I accidentally measured out 3 times as much flour than I needed for the starter dough so had to add more yeast and water which made enough starter for 6 loaves!  Began it about 10.30 one night and it took all the next day to go through the various rising stages, one of which I caused because I could see the loaves were spreading on the baking sheet and would have been more like flatbreads so I re-shaped them into 2lb loaf tins and they obviously had to rise again.  I was told the final result resembled a couple of house bricks and maybe the local builder would like them.....


PS my bread machine is the easier option - open a packet of mix, add water and press the button!  But that's not what Bake Off is all about.


A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER

I used one of the extra starters that I had in the fridge and just used ordinary strong bread flour, kneaded it in the food processor, proved it, knocked it back, shaped it and proved it again.  Then baked it and hey presto I got a half decent loaf!

A good rustic loaf!

Walnut Crumbles

I made these biscuits to have with coffee before playing Scrabble yesterday with friends - Pat, Marilyn, Crid and Marilyn's lovely Dad Jim.  We declared them delicious; buttery and crumbly, the flavour of walnuts was very evident.  The recipe did 24 and there weren't many left........  Regarding the actual making, when it said "flatten the balls with a fork" I wasn't really sure how much to flatten them and I think I should have been a little firmer as they turned out quite thick.  Ah well, next time!

Walnut Crumbles

We all get together at each other's houses to play Scrabble every few weeks followed by lunch, sometimes deli-style, other times a hot meal.  Yesterday it was Moussaka, garlic bread and salad (leaves from my greenhouse) followed by Gooseberry Fool.

Cherry Bakewell Cup Cakes

Made some more cup cakes over the weekend but these were a little different to last week in that the recipe uses the "all in one" mixing method.  I had too much mixture so made a couple extra - they appeared to be rising too much but then sank back down to allow enough room for the topping which is glace icing rather than butter cream.  They are like little Bakewell tarts without the pastry.

Cherry Bakewell Cup Cakes

I tried them with a nice cup of freshly ground coffee and they are gorgeous - really gooey and sweet but with the tang of lemon juice in the icing.  David also really enjoyed them and said how pleased he was that I was baking my way through a cake book!!

Rich Vanilla Cup Cakes

Something quite easy this week - cup cakes.  Years ago, we used to call these fairy cakes albeit they were smaller; cup cakes were similar but icing was poured over them very generously so you couldn't see any of the cake.  The Bake-Off book refers to them as "the glamorous big sisters of fairy cakes".

Rich Vanilla Cup Cakes with Easy Vanilla Frosting

I topped them with Easy Vanilla Frosting and they turned out really well - very heavy on the butter though!  It's fun to use all the different pretty cake cases, colourings and decorations so I'm looking forward to making the next batch.