cooking – Page 2 – CraftyGuider

Great British Bake Off – Pastry

I’m playing catch up a bit with my Great British Bake Off bake along. Last week was pastry week and the bakers had frangipane tarts, flaounas from Cyprus and vol au vents to contend with. As I was hosting a family buffet dinner, I decided that vol au vents would make a perfect finger food and found a Hairy Bikers recipe that looked tasty.I used Mary Berry’s method for puff pastry but struggled a bit with the forming of the cases. I had to use a sharp knife to cut along the baked score lines to make the shells ready for filling.I adapted the recipes a little bit making chicken and mushroom as well as this smoked haddock and prawn version. They went down really well so a success. Not beautiful and regular, but very tasty which is the most important thing.

And if you didn’t click the link for Mary Berry’s puff pastry method above……well she thinks that life is too short to make puff pastry too!

Great British Bake Off – Alternative Ingredients

I’m a bit behind with blogging my bake along. There is so much going on at the moment with going back to school, starting all my Guiding and WI commitments and having family over, it’s all getting a bit hectic!

When I heard that there was going to be a ‘Free From’ week, I got excited. After all, I do so much gluten free cake baking, I should have something in my repertoire that would cover one of the challenges. Er, no.

The gluten free element was Paul Hollywood’s gluten free pitta bread technical challenge. I Googled a few recipes on some US websites and came up with a long list of specialist ingredients like psyllium husk powder, various rice flours, arrowroot powder etc. which I knew I’d have to pay a fortune for from my specialist supplier and I’d only use them once before they’d fester in the back of my cupboard until they went out of date. Asking Mr CG, the gluten intolerant member of the family, if he actually liked pitta bread, he declined the opportunity so I was let off the hook.

With no ice cream maker to make a dairy free Arctic roll (yes, they may have said dairy-free ice cream roll, but we know what they really are), I went for the sugar free cake (gluten free of course).

I chose a sugar free carrot cake recipe from the BBC Food website and adjusted it slightly to make it gluten free. All I can say is, never again.

On the Bake Off, the bakers were all using sugar substitutes like honey or syrups and my recipe had none. The topping was cream cheese with orange zest. How was that ever going to taste like anything other than cheese on a cake? Husband was bravely trying to eat it, youngest was picking out the raisins and eldest was turning her nose up completely. The relief when I told everyone they could leave it was obvious.

The next day I served this. A lemon meringue roulade full of sugar and cream (although gluten free!) which went down really well.Lovely and soft, marshmallowy meringue, beautiful lemon flavour and indulgent cream. We restrict enough ingredients in this house without cutting things out unnecessarily. The sugar stays!

I’m catching up with pastry this weekend. Think I’m attempting the vol au vent. Eep!

Great British Bake Off – Desserts

Dessert week and a tale of two halves for me and my Great British Bake Off bake along.

Having been out of the country last week, I didn’t have much time to research the recipes featured in the programme this week. The Spanische Windtorte, a Spanish wind cake (?!!!) from Austria made with French and Swiss meringue – the United Nations of desserts – was the technical challenge, with a stacked cheesecake for the showstopper.

I made the signature challenge of creme brulee and used Mary Berry’s party size brulee recipe and halved it for our family. I didn’t try adding fruit or alcohol, so having watched the programme, I think my job was easier (freeze your berries first advises 2011 Bake Off winner Jo Wheatley).My custard set well with the requisite wobble in the centre. I initially adjusted my cooking time down as my brulee was smaller than Mary’s, but I ended up cooking for longer and even bumping up the temperature slightly to get the right consistency. Stage one successfully completed and put to chill overnight in the fridge.Mary’s recipe then said to grill with the demerara sugar topping for 20-25 minutes before chilling for between 5 and 10 hours. Although she says to keep an eye on it, I thought to start checking around the 15 minute mark. Eldest Craftyguidelet noticed the burning first after about 8 minutes. Oops! Despite some obvious burnt bits, it was still very nice, and the custard was smooth and creamy. Definitely one to try again, perhaps with the control of a blow torch.

Next week is Alternative Ingredients week with sugar free cakes, gluten free pittas and dairy free ice cream rolls. Gluten free baking is supposedly my home territory so the pressure is on! Time to find a recipe.

Great British Bake Off – Bread

Unfortunately I couldn’t watch the Bake Off live this week so I don’t know how the bakers got on with the challenges. Looking at an episode write up, the 3 rounds were quick breads, baguettes and 3D bread sculptures.

I tend to try gluten free bakes so that Mr CG can help share the calorie load. However I am yet to find a decent gluten free bread recipe that the gluten eating members of the family could enjoy, so on this occasion, the gluten stays. I chose baguettes which was the technical challenge, and consulted Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake book for his recipe.The dough came together well. It was quite wet but that’s what Paul said it should be like so I didn’t argue. I proved it in a square container as suggested, but then it came time to turn it out and form the baguettes. The dough was still very sticky and I ended up with 4 slug shapes rather than baguette shapes. After proving, it was difficult to score the dough, but I managed to ooze the loaves onto baking trays.They may not be perfectly formed, but they were lovely and crusty and great with some butter. Big thumbs up from the Craftyguidelets!

Great British Bake Off – Biscuits

Week 2 of Bake Off and it is biscuit week! As I didn’t fancy biscotti, and arlettes seemed a bit out of my league, it was the biscuit selection in the biscuit box that were this week’s CG household challenge. Time to dig out a couple of books off the shelf that I’ve neglected. I’ve had the Honeybuns book for a while. It isn’t my gluten free recipe book of choice as some of the recipes need flour blends rather than basic off the shelf gluten free flour. However, I managed to find a biscuit recipe using my store cupboard ingredients plus polenta and custard powder.The Craftyguidelets loved cutting out the bright yellow biscuit dough.The resulting gluten free custard creams, sandwiched together with a custard flavoured butter cream were lovely, even for the 75% of the CG household who eat gluten.Next came the box. I bought the Biscuiteers book some time ago but have never used it, however I thought that the recipes would help me with creating a decorated box.The book is set out differently to a normal recipe book. There is a section on dough making over a few pages. I made the basic biscuit dough, although there are lots of different flavours of dough in the book. The next section is on the different royal icing consistencies and how to colour, pipe and embellish the icing. The largest section is on the different themes of biscuit shapes e.g. Christmas, Bridal, Animals etc. with comprehensive icing instructions, and templates in the back of the book.I just made rectangles based on an ice cream tub. The icing was my first attempt and a bit rushed as I had Craftyguidelet assistance and the time pressure of dinner to make – not something the Bake Off contestants have to deal with!The box was roughly glued together with royal icing and held up with various objects until the icing dried.And the final ‘Ta-dah!’. The pink hearts were made from left over dough and iced by the Craftyguidelets.

I’ve learned new techniques, made recipes from two under-used books on my shelf and completed a real personal challenge. It hardly matches the fantastic creations from the Bake Off, but I’m rather chuffed that the whole thing stayed up!

What baking challenges have you given yourself recently?

Great British Bake Off – Cakes

The Great British Bake Off is back! Episode one is over, the first star baker has been crowned, the innuendos have come thick and fast, The Berry has had her alcoholic fix, a new mudslide cake has been invented and the twelve are down to eleven.

I thought I’d try and do a mini bake-along to see if I could try some new things and step out of my baking comfort zone. Having had the stress of a baking competition myself but the great experience of adding to my repertoire, I looked up the three bakes from this episode to choose something to attempt myself.

It was Mr CG’s birthday this week and he mentioned that he liked Black Forest gateau. My favourite gluten free Cake Angels book had a Black Forest roulade recipe so it was a done deal.The cake is baked in a swiss roll tin and doesn’t contain any flour. The ingredients list looks like it would make a sweet, chocolate omelette, but the resulting sponge turned out well. I dutifully followed the instructions and left it overnight covered in baking paper and a damp tea towel.Once constructed the next day, it needs to be left rolled and wrapped up in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. Cue the Craftyguidelets to lick the spoons, scrape sponge off the paper and generally hoover up everything they can.And this was the final result. I didn’t use kirsch as it was going to be eaten by the Craftyguidelets, but it still tasted delicious. We eat dairy so I used whipped double cream rather than the dairy-free equivalent in the book. It was even nicer the following day when we finished it off.

Next week is biscuit week. I’m not a fan of biscotti and I’m not sure I could do a gluten free arlette. A biscuit box with 36 biscuits inside seems a bit of an excess for a family of four so I might scale that down and attempt my first ever gluten free biscuits.

Have you been inspired to bake something?

The Great Girlguiding Anglia Bake Off

I am a fan of the Great British Bake Off. I love baking and come from a long line of bakers. When I heard that Girlguiding Anglia, the Guiding Region I belong to, was doing a Bake Off badge, I knew I had to look into it.

As well as the badge, Girlguiding Anglia is running a baking competition for Guides (aged 10-14), Senior Section (Rangers and Young Leaders aged 14-25), and adult leaders (aged 18+). The idea was to have units find their own star bakers, send them up to the next level to find their local area (District) champion, and then to their wider area (Division), County and finally the Anglia Region final.Our unit competition resulted in 4 cakes coming in from the Guides. They were asked to bake a Victoria sponge at home, and the leader team had the task of tasting them. Sometimes, being a leader is tough. We selected 2 Guides to go through to the next round.For the District round, I was asked to help organise a bake sale to run alongside the bake off to raise money for local Guiding. Our local tea room hosted us one evening and all the Guides, Senior Section members and adults were invited to bake something to sell to parents and friends.

The Guide winners from the two local units had their Victoria sponges judged by 2 members of the WI, the owner of the tea room and Henry the Mercury Newshound from the local paper (the reason why there is a 6ft dog in the background of the photo!). Senior Section and leaders were also invited to enter scones for the Senior Section and a ‘light fruit cake’ for the leaders. I did my duty and several fruit cakes later in a quest to find a qualifying recipe, produced probably the worst thing I have baked in a while for the competition. As the only adult entrant, I progressed to the next round.At the Division bake off round, I was up against 2 other leaders to try and make amends for my earlier failure. One of the leaders was unable to finish, so my new recipe cake was up against this lovely, bunting festooned fruit loaf.Somehow I managed to win by 1 point and fruit cake number 8 (yes, I took this competition seriously!) got me to the County semi finals.At the Hertfordshire County semi finals, I needed to bake Religieuses. For those who are up on their Great British Bake Off trivia, they were Mary Berry’s technical challenge in pastry week of series 4. Do you remember the ugly nuns?

I practised a couple of times as choux pastry is something I’ve only ever baked once before. I asked for hints and tips and managed to get my little practice choux buns to rise into something resembling the cakes they make on the Bake Off (yes, I did watch the episode on YouTube!).Three Guides, Senior Section members and adult leaders competed with apple pies (Guides), chocolate fruit tarts (Senior Section) and Religieuses (adult leaders) following the same recipe.

When the County team gave out comments after judging and included the word ‘dainty’, I knew I hadn’t won. My effort to get a choux bun to rise as much as possible worked against me, and I think they were a bit soft once filled. I also had a few nuns who were a bit wayward so choosing my best ones for judging was tricky.I took the remaining cakes home with me to be enjoyed by the gluten eating side of the family. This cake was my lunch and I really enjoyed it. The Craftyguidelets have said lovely things about my cakes, and they are the only judges I want to impress (well, apart from my Master Baker dad who I have impressed about 4 times in my lifetime with my bakes).

I will now go back to baking for fun and baking lots of gluten free cakes so husband can share in the calorie intake.

The Bake Off is only one of the many varied activities open to girls, young women and adults in Guiding. Come and get involved in the largest youth organisation for girls in the UK today during Volunteer’s week.

Review – How to Bake by Paul Hollywood

I’ve had Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake book since it came out in 2012 and I have used it for simple bread recipes. The problem is that it is a gluten fest and anything I bake from it can’t be eaten by gluten intolerant Mr CG. This means extras for the Craftyguidelets and myself, but that means an expanding waistline for me!To try something different, I used Paul’s recipe for Hot Cross Buns rather than my normal cut-from-a-magazine-and-stashed-in-my-recipe-file one which I’ve used before. I say “used the recipe”, but I follow my Master Baker Dad’s advice and bung in much more dried fruit and spices than normal recipes state.The recipe was easy to follow, and some of the techniques such as piping the crosses on brought back memories of when my brothers and sister and I “helped” in the bakehouse when we were young.It took several hours to keep proving the dough at each stage before I could bake them, but having been brought up in a family bakery with my Dad’s fruity, spicy hot cross buns, I can’t buy the sorry excuses that supermarkets sell these days.They turned out really well and were probably a bit knobbly because I’d crammed in so much fruit, but they were delicious.Warm from the oven and spread with butter. Definitely not Slimming World friendly, but Easter only happens once a year. Unless you count Orthodox Easter of course!

Disclaimer: I own this book and I haven’t been asked to review it, or been paid to review it. All opinions are my own, and I have added some links to the normal Amazon site where I bought my copy. They are not affiliate links and I don’t get any money if you click on them.

Guides do : Chinese Year of the Sheep

On the 22nd February every year, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts are encouraged to think about all their fellow Guides and Scouts around the world. The day is named World Thinking Day and was chosen because it was the shared birthday of both Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting, and his wife Lady Olave Baden-Powell, the first World Chief Guide.Another Guiding tradition is the donation of the Thinking Day Penny. It was suggested that as it was the Founder’s birthday, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts could send gifts in the form of a voluntary contribution. Olave Baden-Powell suggested a penny, and the money has gone to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) ever since to support girls and young women around the world. Even though a penny could have got you much more in those days than now, we still collect pennies to donate to the World Thinking Day Fund. We don’t get the Brasso out and shine them any more like I used to in the 80’s though!For the international element of our meeting, the adult leaders had already chosen China as a theme due to the Chinese new year being next week. We then handed over to the two Young Leaders to choose some extra activities with the Guides, and then I was despatched to Hobbycraft with a list for the following week.As it is going to be the Chinese Year of the Sheep, I’d already decided to contribute this decorated cupcake idea that I’d spotted on Pinterest. See – all that procrastinating does pay off!I’m not sure how many sheep made it home in one piece, so I made sure I emailed pictures to the parents to show them that the Guides had actually done something!Another idea was making lanterns which turned out really well, especially with the battery powered tea lights in the bottom.Not so successful were the fortune cookies. I was a bit dubious when I was asked to provide ingredients, but one Guide told me she’d made them at Brownie Pack Holiday once. If a Brownie can make it, it must be easy. They’d obviously had more experience, or not used the recipe I found online. They tasted nice though and the Guides all swapped fortunes which they’d written inside.Our finale was our Chinese dragon. The Young Leaders asked for boxes and bottles, and I think the Guide parents took the opportunity to lighten their recycling bins this week. Not many were used in construction, but it had a head, body and tail, and every Guide managed to get underneath so a success!

If you think that you would enjoy being surrounded by icing, despairing over cracking fortune cookies and helping to engineer lantern bases, come and join the fun! Click here for more details.

Review – Sweets Made Simple by Miss Hope and Mr Greenwood

Last year I was blown away by the BBC2 series ‘Sweets Made Simple’ with Miss Hope and Mr Greenwood. I loved the variety of sweets and the way the programme was presented. I downloaded the book to my tablet but found that it was neglected. Just before Christmas I treated myself to the hardback copy and was able to appreciate the recipes much better.The first part of the book has some really helpful notes about the alchemy of sweet making: important things to remember when working with hot sugar, what the difference between soft ball and hard crack is, the ins and outs of using chocolate, and how to store your creations when you are done. Who am I kidding? Storing the sweets? They’ll all be gone before they need to be stored!The first recipe I tried was Raspberry Marshmallows. Even from the first stage of making the raspberry coulis (or lovely ruby-red mush as described in the book) I was hooked.You need to devote a good hour or so making it, followed by a couple of hours sitting on your hands, resisting the urge to dig a spoon in and eat your body weight in creamy, sugary loveliness.This marshmallow is GORGEOUS! The raspberry coulis is marbled through the soft creamy marshmallow, and the fresh raspberries are juicy little accents. I think this should be one of your five a day.There are so many recipes I’ll be trying in this book. Next on the list is Penuche which is a type of fudge, and I’ve got enough ingredients in the cupboard to try making Cinder Toffee. Looks like the Slimming World target is slipping further away…