The Technical Challenge: Ciabatta by Paul Hollywood - Recipe

Why didn't I try this easy recipe before?  My inspiration came from seeing Paul Hollywood on TV demonstrating this technical challenge from The Great British Bake Off.  He made it look easy enough, but with his skills, he makes everything look easy.

This is one occasion when you need a mixer with a dough hook, the mixture is so sticky I'd lose patience if I tried to make it by hand. If you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, but haven't used your bread machine for ages, let the dough setting do all the hard work for you.

I'm not in possession of a square plastic container to rise the dough, mine is deep and oblong, it was still okay and sometimes you just have to compromise.  After all, Paul Hollywood isn't about to knock on my front door any time soon to make sure I use a square container.

The dough is really easy to work with and I was more than a bit chuffed with my baked loaves of ciabatta, they don't have to look bakery perfect, but hubby thought I'd bought them!

Fresh from the oven

The bread doesn't take long to make, the kitchen is filled with the heady aroma of bread, it freezes well, can be warmed briefly in the microwave (don't tell Paul), and you can find the recipe on the BBC Food website.

I hope you too will have a go at this challenge!

Back soon with some fab product reviews........including making soup to go with my bread.....

The Perfect Raspberry and Almond Cake - Recipe

Why triple almond? Ground almonds, almond extract and flaked almonds

Hooray! My raspberries didn't sink - joy of joys.  This cake has been very kind to me, it was moist, has a tender crumb, is full of lovely flavours and I used the last of the autumn raspberries.

It's an all in one cake mix, which means less time spent in the kitchen if you have limited time on your hands, and it's a wonderful cake-cum-dessert. For dessert pop a slice into the microwave on a low setting to heat through.

The cake is also delicious dusted with icing sugar and served with either a dollop of cream or creme fraiche.

We liked the cake with a dusting of icing sugar

Recipe:
115g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
2 large eggs beaten
115g softened butter
115g caster sugar
1tsp almond extract
40g ground almonds
175g fresh raspberries
2 tbsp flaked almonds

You will need:  20cm base lined round cake tin, greased with butter and floured.

1. Preheat the oven to 150ºC Fan.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl, add the beaten eggs, almond extract, butter and sugar.  Beat together with an electric whisk for 2 minutes.  Fold in the ground almonds.
3. Dollop the cake batter into the tin.  Level the mixture, scatter over the raspberries and flaked almonds.

All it needs now is a scattering of flaked almonds 

4. Bake for 45 minutes until golden.  Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes.  Remove the cake from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
5. The cake can be cut into slices and frozen.

Easy Strawberry Jam - Kenwood Cooking Chef Recipe

There is something special about homemade strawberry jam which makes it all seem so worthwhile, and you definitely can't beat your own jam slathered on a scone. I used to buy Strawberry Preserve with Champagne at the Good Food Show in Birmingham, but unfortunately they don't exhibit there anymore. Their jam is on another level to mine and I only wish my jam had champagne added to it. 

Strawberries with the sugar and lemon added.

Photographs of my jam being made in the Kenwood Cooking Chef.

Just a few minutes to dissolve the sugar

I made my jam the easy way with my kitchen toy, I find the hardest part of jam making is ensuring the sugar is completely dissolved - the machine does this quickly and efficiently.

Finished jam!

You may think I top my jam with cute cloth hats and put fancy labels on them, how wrong you would be.  It's wash, sterilise, pour jam into jars, top with waxed disc, cellophane held in place with an elastic band and a reused jam jar lid!  I know the jars look fabulous when they are dressed up, and I have seen some lovely photographs on blogs, but somehow I never seem to get past putting a lid on my jars.

The recipe came from Delicious Magazine and here is a link to a previous posting when I made the jam by hand.

Individual Lemon and Blueberry Steamed Pudding Recipe - Steam Combination Oven

Serve the pudding with golden syrup and double cream

Using a steam combination oven is really easy once you get into the swing of things.  When I first bought it my thoughts were that it would be a bit needy and I'd spend ages cleaning it out.  The good news is that once I got used to it this part isn't too much of a chore.

I love steamed puddings, preferably not the ones that weigh you down for a week, and the steam oven will make enough in one go to feed an army, not that I'll be doing that any time soon.

Non-stick Bacofoil is my best friend when I make steamed puddings, all you have to do is cut the foil into squares, pleat and cover the batter with the foil non shiny side down.

Fresh from the steamer

Recipe:

You will need: 8 x 175ml pudding basins

175g self-raising flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
150g fresh blueberries

1. Grease the basins well and place a disc of silicone baking paper in the base of each basin.
2. Add all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat with a hand held whisk for two minutes until the batter is smooth.  Place the blueberries in a bowl and sprinkle over some extra flour to coat the fruit, stir gently into the cake batter.
3. Using an ice cream scoop place scoops of cake batter into the basins. Cover each basin with a piece of non-stick Bacofoil which has been pleated.
4. Place the puddings into the steamer following the manufacturers instructions. I cooked mine for 1hr 15minutes.
5. Remove the puddings from the steamer, remove the foil lids and turn out.
6. Any puddings now used can be turned out onto clingwrap, cool and then freeze. They can easily be reheated in a microwave.

Disclaimer:  My steam combination oven is a private purchase.

Plum Cobbler - Recipe

The hot pudding is fabulous served with ice cream

The leaves are starting to fall off the trees, the nights are drawing in and Plum Cobbler is one of those comforting puddings we will soon be craving for.

This cobbler topping is beautifully light and airy, it is quick and easy to make and is a great alternative to a crumble topped pudding.

The recipe from Baking Mad's Autumn Recipes uses damsons but where I live they are ridiculously expensive and I used red plums with great success, but they must be ripe, otherwise they'll have to be pre-cooked for longer than the recipe suggests.

I placed the cobbler onto the plums in craggy blobs to make the pudding look lovely and homely or instead of one large pudding it can also be cooked in individual ramekins.

It's quite a large pudding and once cooled it can be cut into individual portions and frozen.

Disclaimer:  BakingMad.com have sent me a selection of products for this posting.

Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes - National Cupcake Week 2014

Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes

I doubt anyone could eat more than one of these super indulgent cupcakes, they must be one of the richest cupcakes I have ever made.  Fortunately, I can freeze them and take one out of the freezer to thaw for those days when I need chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate.

It's National Cupcake Week and for once I managed to make some cupcakes and have posted them on the blog midweek - well done me!

My local Italian restaurant posted a Ferrero Rocher Cake on their Facebook page and it prompted me to make these cupcakes.  I know these Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes have been 'out there' for a long time but somehow I have never got round to making them.

The cupcakes I've seen posted on Facebook this year are truly amazing and inspirational works of creativity.

Here's the recipe to make 12

85g self-raising flour
4 tbsp cocoa powder
110g caster sugar
110g softened salted butter
2 large eggs
1tsp baking powder
2tsp milk

You will need:  12 hole muffin tin and cupcake cases

1. Preheat the oven to 150ºC Fan.
2. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a bowl.  Add the remaining ingredients and whisk for a good couple of minutes.
3. Using an ice cream scoop place balls of the batter into the 12 cupcake cases.
4. Bake for 20 minutes until cooked.  Remove from the oven and cool.

For the Nutella Buttercream
225g sifted icing sugar
100g softened unsalted butter
2 heaped tablespoons Nutella
2 tsp milk

To decorate: 4 cubes of dark chocolate melted

1. Beat everything together for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add more milk if the mixture is too stiff.
2. Put the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a 1M nozzle and pipe onto the cupcakes.  Top with a Ferrero Rocher.
3. Drizzle over melted chocolate using a teaspoon.