Monday 12 September 2011

Heaven Is A Slice of White Bread...

While I was in America, I was forced to realise all over again a horrible fact: American bread is a disgrace. It is sweet, spongy and completely devoid of character. It makes neither a satisfying sandwich nor tasty toast. It is, in a word, minging. So upon my return to the UK I vowed to learn how to make my own bread and prove that the Yanks, in this respect, are being lazy. How hard could it be?

I've started off with a white bread recipe because a) white bread is ridiculously delicious when done right and b) apparently it's easier. This is my first loaf-making outing and so we are learning together. Here's the concoction I used:

Ingredients:

500g strong white bread flour
1 packet (around 2.5tsp) of yeast
300ml water
2 tsp salt
3 tbsp oil

Method:

Get a generous bowl and mix the flour, yeast and salt. Just a wooden spoon is a fine weapon, no need to get fancy. Next pour in the oil and about half the water. Stir and stir. Add more water slowly until the dough is combined enough to get your hands in and start beating in around. You may not need all the water so add it in small doses. Unlike pastry, it doesn't matter if your dough is a bit too wet but it does matter if it's dry. Keep kneading and beating it until it sticks neither to your hands nor the bowl.

Next line the bowl with a drizzle of oil, plop the dough back in and let it rise for an hour. Don't be tempted to shorten this time, no good will come of it. After the hour's gone it should be looking a lot bigger. Flour a surface then beat the dough on it some more. Knead the hell out of it and let it rise for another hour whilst the oven is happily heating itself up to 220 degrees celcius. After the dough is risen, pop it in a loaf tin and shove in the oven for 25-30mins. My oven only took 25 so be sure to check it. You'll know it's ready when you turn it out and flick the bottom to hear a hollow noise. If there's no resounding tap then it's not done.

When you've eaten half of this loaf it will look like this:

Fantastic. Fluffy and light with a chewy crust. If this plus butter and Marmite doesn't do it for you then there's nothing more I can do.


With love,

A x

Sunday 4 September 2011

Yum yum, damson plum

Hello again!

I have always wanted to be one of those incredible people (mostly women, of course) who are ready for Christmas by the time Halloween is over with. To that end, this weekend I have prepared my damson gin. For those of you who hate gin usually, do not be afraid, this is a fantastic sweet tipple that anyone with operational taste buds should enjoy.

First of all you need to locate some damsons. If you don't have your own tree, and none of your friends do either, they are available in fruit and veg shops at the moment. The season is not long so you should be looking for some now. Picking them is good fun. It took my friend Abi and I less than five minutes to pick enough damsons to make three bottles of gin.

Ingredients:

450g damsons
85g sugar
1 small bottle of gin, I think they are around 380ml, you know the ones I mean.

Method:

So simple. Prick a hole or two in each damson with a skewer or similar pointy tool. Pop them into a kilner jar or other airtight container. Pour in the gin and the sugar and shake up well. Then you need to leave it for around three months. Be sure to cover all the damsons with the gin or the top ones will go funny. Shake regularly. Taste the gin after around two months. If it is too tart, add more sugar. And that's it!

Here's how mine looks right now:

Lovely colour ay?

Happy brewing!

A x

Saturday 3 September 2011

Return of the Ash

Well hello!

Oh it's been such a long time since we were last together, surrounded by flour and sugar and chocolate chips! May was filled with moving, and June, July and August with holidays. Oh what a troubled life I lead. BUT I am back now, and I have gathered a lot of baking and cooking ideas in America (land of the free, home of the fat) and I cannot wait to share them.

One thing the Americans really do know how to bake is cookies. They are all over it. They have an entire aisle in their shops devoted to cookies of every flavour, shape and size. Their kitchen shops are packed with cookie cutters and so I stocked up on some unusual shapes. Yesterday, as a present for Sal who is a plane geek, I made some spitfire biscuits. It was my first time making biscuit dough that is stiff enough to roll out- my gooey cookies certainly would not survive in a mould. So let's see how they turned out:

Wow! Those babies are enough to scare Hitler.


The recipe is wonderfully easy and yields a lot of dough so do give this a try.

Ingredients:

175g butter
200g caster sugar
400g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs

Method:

Preheat the oven up to 185 degrees celcius. With shaped biscuits, you don't want the oven too hot or they will swell and lose their shape.  Next cream up the butter and sugar. It sometimes help to dice the butter if it's a little hard and then rub it in to the sugar with your fingers at first. Then get a spoon out and bash it around until it is fluffy.

Next you want to beat in the eggs and vanilla. You can do this by hand or with a mixer if you have one. Don't worry that you've made scambled eggs by accident, it's all good. Combine the dry ingredients then throw them in the bowl with the gooey eggs sugar stuff and mix gently. When it's ready, it should not be sticking much to your hands or the spoon. If it is, add more flour until it's smooth.

Grab some cling film and flour it, then divide the dough into two and wrap the balls in the cling film. Stick one in the freezer- that's your dough for the next time you want biscuits. Trust me, having ready-made dough is a wonderful thing. Put the other one in the fridge and go do something else for an hour. When time's up, flour a surface and roll out the dough from the fridge to no thinner than about 1.5cm. The thicker it is, the bigger the biscuit but they may lose their shape if too large.  Select your favourite cookie cutter and get busy! Make sure you gather up all the offcuts and roll them out again to make the most of your dough. Feel free to eat any that is leftover (particularly good stirred into ice cream...)

Bake for about ten minutes, or until they are starting to go golden brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack then make plane noises as you fly one into your mouth.

Ideal!

A x