Help! My Scones Won't Rise

First of all, I'd like to say thanks to my brother, who wrote my first ever guest blog! His photos were amazing and from here on, he will be taking photos for my blog when he can!

On a sadder note, I made a batch of scones today that, once again, didn't rise! I've tried everything from cutting them smaller/bigger/thicker, Delia to BBC Good Food, adding more/less cheese, the lot!

Here, I used the recipe from the BBC Good Food channel and I followed the recipe word for word and yet mine look nothing like theirs do! I did get 20 out of a recipe for 8-12 but this surely cannot be the reason as mine were cut out at 2cm thick like instructed!


Someone PLEASE help me?!

Guest Blogger: Baking Bread with Brother

There's something that has always fascinated me about bread - the fact that a few simple ingredients can be combined together to become one of the tastiest, most comforting and popular foods in the world is in no small part why bread is a true food icon.

Unfortunately, bread that you buy is often far from the ideal loaf. Full of preservatives, often flavourless and stodgy - it’s a wonder why people don’t just bake their own.

As a direct result of the success of Ray's Sundried Tomato Bread from a few weeks ago, I have been inspired to get my hands dirty and bake some of my own bread - as such, Ray asked me to write this guest blog spot to chart my success.

So today I am making two loaves - a classic white bread loaf, and a second sundried tomato loaf. Unlike the last sundried tomato loaf however, which was baked according to a modified recipe for sundried tomato bread rolls from the Great British Book of Baking - this time I would be using a classic white loaf recipe from the BBC Good Food website, and into one of the sets of ingredients be adding a good handful of chopped sundried tomatoes. Now, it is fair to say that despite having been making bread for similar amounts of time, my sister is the better baker out of the two of us. It wasn’t until after following through with this risky bread baking method that I learnt adding extra ingredients to a standard bread recipe can drastically alter the consistency, texture and composition of your final loaf, unless preventative measures are taken. However, as luck would have it, there were no bread-based culinary disasters to report.

Adding extra ingredients may be tasty, but can also ruin your loaf if you aren't careful!

 I'm sure I am not the only one who finds baking bread a great stress reliever - not only is kneading a great way to vent some steam, but at the end of the day you have a delicious, warm, freshly baked loaf to look forward to. 

However, with much excitement on my behalf, and under strict instructions not to break it, Ray allowed me to use her beloved Kitchenaid to mix and knead the dough for our two loaves. While using a Kitchenaid with the bread dough attachment may not be as effective at stress relief as kneading by hand, it is certainly quicker, less tiring and generally more fun - especially when baking two separate loaves!

After around ten minutes at "Speed setting two! Nothing more, nothing less!" the bread dough was smooth and elastic, the equivalent of a good twenty minutes or more of hand kneading.

Smooth and elastic, in only half the time!

 From this point on, I was back in classic bread making territory - place the well kneaded bread dough into an oiled container and cover. Place in a warm area (a difficult thing to find in our house!), and allow the dough to double in size - usually around an hour's time.

Once your mixture has grown, it’s time to 'knock back' the dough - essentially, this process undoes all the work that the yeast has done in the last hour, causing the dough to grow. To knock back the bread, lightly flour a clean and dry surface, and begin pushing out the pockets of air that have grown within the dough. While you may feel the last hour of waiting has gone to waste, it is a vital process in getting that perfect loaf texture! Be sure to get all of the air pockets out, otherwise when your bread bakes you will have large holes within the body of bread itself - not so good when you want to slice your loaf and put butter on it!

Looking good so far.

 Once you are satisfied your dough is knocked-back enough, unfortunately it is time to play the waiting game again. Once you have grabbed your loaf tins, and have greased them, shape the dough into rugby balls and place it into your tins. Stick on your oven, but don’t be too hasty to put the bread in just yet - it needs to prove first. To me this is the worst part about making bread - you are so close to that delicious, warm smell of freshly baked bread - and yet you have to hide your bread away for another half an hour before you can even think about putting it in the oven, Just as well really, as our oven takes a life-time to warm up!

Not long to go now, but it feels like an age!

 Once the bread has proved for the final time, after around thirty minutes - it is finally time to bake! This is, without doubt the best part, other than the eating of your loaf of course! The smell fills the house, and I have to admit, a certain feeling of pride is not uncommon at this point - even if you bake bread every single day, each loaf is always a special thing!

What you have been waiting for!

 When your loaf is cooked allow it to cool and enjoy, you deserve it!

Jonny

A Day at the Beach: Cheesecake Brownies and Choc Chip Cookies

Let me set the scene...

(source)

The above photo is of a row of beach huts in Blyth, a small coastal town in Northumberland. The hut on the far right, fondly known as Lobster, was ours for the day and my full family gathered our deck chairs and picnics and spent the day by the beach. I love an excuse to bake, especially as cake is never fully appreciated in a diet laden household like mine so I jumped at this opportunity.

I've had a Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie mix sitting in my cupboard for ages and knew this was a good time to get rid of it. I did a great job at pretending these were my own recipe and I'm ashamed to say that these went down better than any of my homebakes ever do!

I also chose to make Cheesecake Brownies from The Ultimate Philadelphia Cookbook. Although I like the idea of this book, I feel some of the recipes were put together without any regard as to whether the cream cheese works as an element and it certainly didn't in this recipe.

It's very rare that I don't get to use my mixer when baking but the brownies were made completely in a pan, alike the jumbles I made previously.

The recipe told you to swirl the cheesecake mix on top of the brownie batter but I found that this was inconsistent and some brownies had loads of cheesecake and others none at all. I know it may ruin the idea of the recipe but I feel the cheesecake and the brownie should have been one batter.

Normally, I would never bake two things that have different temperatures and cooking times together at once but, as there were only ten degrees between each and I was short for time, I took the plunge and there were no negative consequences, luckily!

As these were a rushed bake, I had to cut these when they were still warm and they crumbled quite badly as a result. I also found they cooked before the 35-40 minutes and I had burnt edges, so they're definitely a bake to keep your eye on!

The majority of my eatership agreed that, while the brownie was really good, the 'cheesecake' bit was too over powering and was, at times, an unwelcome contrast to the chocolate brownie (my words not theirs!).

In my opinion, Philadelphia has quite a sour flavour and, should I make these again, I'd avoid using it completely. Marscarpone cheese would also work really well as a substitute.

All ready to head off to the beach!

Just to finish, my beautiful cousin Olivia who saw that her brother was on my blog and she wanted to be aswell!

Cheesecake Brownies- adapted from The Ultimate Philadelphia Cookbook

Ingredients:

125g butter- it wasn't specified but I used unsalted

125g dark chocolate, chopped

200g dark muscovado sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

50g plain flour, sifted

50g cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

200g Philadelphia Light- I used regular which may have affected the taste

50g caster sugar- I suggest more than this!

Method:

-Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4 and grease and line a rectangular cake tin or a tray bake pan

-Mix the chocolate, butter and muscovado sugar in a saucepan and stir over a medium heat until the mixture has melted.

-Remove from the heat and whisk in the eggs after allowing it to cool for a few minutes

-Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix until combined.

-Spoon into the prepared tin and level off

-Beat in the Philadelphia and caster sugar until smooth and creamy then spoon randomly over the chocolate mixture and swirl with the tip of a knife

-Bake for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through

-Allow to cool before slicing- otherwise it goes all mushy like mine did!

Enjoy!

Sundried Tomato Loaf

One of my favourite things to bake is bread. I even used to enjoy the exhausting task of kneading before I bought my mixer. When my parents joined up with Slimming World and my brother moved out for university, baking bread became pointless as I was the only one who ate it. So, as sad as it may seem, I was overjoyed when my mum suggested I made some bread!

As my parents had brought a bag of sun dried tomatoes home with them from Nice, and I had a recipe for something similar in one of my books, this seemed a natural decision. Unfortunately, I hate sun dried tomatoes and, despite waiting forever to be able to bake bread, everyone but me got to eat it!

Apologies to those who have noticed that these pictures were not taken in my kitchen, it was a freezing cold day in Newcastle and somebody had left the back door open which made the kitchen almost arctic like and most certainly not 'room temperature'. As you can see, my living room provided a perfect breeding ground for the yeast!

The original recipe for this was from The Great British Book of Baking (surprise, surprise) and was for individual Thyme and Sun dried Tomato Rolls. I had no thyme, however, and I feel loaves are always best as there's more to share around!

As a result, this loaf was very small but it cooked in the same time as the rolls would have done. I've tasted the bits without tomatoes and it's very nice!!


Ingredients:

350g strong white bread flour
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 x 7g sachet of easy blend/easy bake dried yeast
4 tablespoons olive oil- I used vegetable as I had none and it made no difference
200ml lukewarm water
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped
6 sun dried tomato halves, chopped and drained of oil- I used 6 full tomatoes as I wasn't using thyme

Method:

-Grease a small loaf tray- if making buns, grease a large baking tray

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl or the bowl of a food mixer

-Add the oil and work in enough lukewarm water to make a soft but sticky dough

-Knead until pliable and smooth- this could take around 10 minutes by hand and 5 in a stand mixer. Add the thyme and sundried tomatoes and knead until combined, then cover with cling film until doubled in size- according to the book this should take around an hour at room temperature

-Punch down the dough once risen and turn onto a floured surface. Knead for a few seconds and shape into a rugby ball- if making buns, separate into 9 pieces

-Cover the tray with cling film or a dry towel and leave to double in size- around twenty minutes

-Heat your oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Once risen, cook the dough for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown- this time works for the loaf and the buns

-Leave to cool on a wire rack

Enjoy!

Cake in a Cake

I came across this idea on Bake it in a Cake and was immediately desperate to give it a go. Unfortunately, the website was undergoing construction and there were no recipes regarding how to make this cake. Alongside this, they had made cupcake versions and I wanted to make a full cake.

I googled the idea and came across a version on Butter Hearts Sugar. This recipe was for a loaf cake which was what I was looking for but it used heart shaped cutters that I didn't have. This was the only website which clearly explained the steps in making such a creation, go have a look!

Due to no recipes, no heart shaped cutters and generally no idea whatsoever, this cake became completely about compromise which unfortunately became it's downfall.

I followed a Vanilla Sponge recipe from The Caked Crusader and then adapted it to fit the instructions from Butter Hearts Sugar by splitting 1/3 of the batter and colouring it red. At this point I became confused, the sponge recipe was to be cooked for over an hour but once splitting the batter, I had to cook the red sponge for 20 minutes. Aswell as this, one recipe said 180 degrees and one 160 which I set my oven to. After about 16 minutes, the cake was browning and a skewer came out clean.

Although all of the signs were correct, the cake smelt eggy and to me, that means undercooked. I figured this would be ok as it was going back in the oven and continued...

I used my cutters and got as many as I could from the sponge, which turned out to be just enough for my small loaf pan. I then layered half of the original batter into the pan and started to assemble the circles

I then layered the remaining batter over the top and the secret was concealed!

This went in the oven and, although the recipe said 1 hour 20 minutes, this was for a round sponge and my loaf tin was rather small. After about an hour, a skewer was coming out clean.

The sponge recipe from The CC came with a syrup and a buttercream but I chose not to use these as the amount of buttercream was too much to cover such a small cake and, as it was nearing midnight, I really couldn't be bothered to make the syrup (sorry!).

Having gone to bed with an unfrosted cake (not literally), I decided it needed a bit of buttercream as when I cut into the cake, it was incredibly dry. This may well have been because I chose to ignore the use of the syrup but I genuinely believe it was the fact that some of the cake is baked twice. The white (and cooked once) sponge is tasty but the red sponge is dry and tastes peculiar, obviously not helped by being cooked twice, once undercooked.

I whipped up a buttercream (also from The CC), but put in some strawberry jam to match the reddish theme. This provided a good colour but little flavour. I figured the cake had been so much about compromise that a little more wouldn't hurt and I added 1/4 teaspoon of Strawberry flavouring.

The cake is also too crumbly to cut!

With thanks to Bake it in a Cake, The Caked Crusader and Butter Hearts Sugar for all of their recipes and my complete apologies for ruining what could have been an awesome cake!!

I have provided a link to all of the full recipes above but have written the recipe below in the way that I used them.

Post Blog Update: I allowed the cake and buttercream to do their thing in the fridge over night and the buttercream has matured somewhat into a more delicate flavour. The cake has also moistened completely and has an all round better flavour. Upon reflection, I really like this cake!!

Ingredients:

For the cake:
250g unsalted butter- room temperature
250g golden caster sugar- I used half regular and half golden as I had run out of golden
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla pod- I substituted these with another teaspoon of vanilla extract
5 eggs
85g plain flour
100g full fat Greek yoghurt
250g self raising flour
3 tablespoons milk- I used semi skimmed
A few drops of red food colouring

For the buttercream:
80g unsalted butter- room temperature
200g icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons of milk- I used two
Strawberry jam- I used 3, unseeded is best
A few drops of strawberry flavouring- I found 1/4 teaspoon was far too much

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160˚C/fan oven 140˚C/320˚F/Gas mark 3

Lightly grease a 8 inch square cake tin and a loaf tin

Place the butter, sugar and vanilla together in a bowl and beat until they are light and fluffy; you will also see the colour changing to a pale cream. Don’t skimp on this stage as it’s important to get lots of air into the mix
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. If the mix starts to curdle spoon in some of the plain flour
Beat in the yoghurt
Fold in both flours using a metal spoon; this gives you a better cutting edge than a wooden spoon. I just continued with my KitchenAid flat beater
Fold in the milk
Put 1/3 of the mixture into a separate bowl and colour with red food colouring. I went all out here and used quite a few drops!
Spread the red cake mix into the square cake tin and bake for about 20 minutes or until it springs back when poked in the centre
Allow the red cake to half cool in the pan before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once the cake is cold cut out your chosen shape using a cookie cutter
Pour half of the remaining cake mixture into the loaf cake tin and smooth out. Press the hearts cutouts in a upright line down the middle of the pan
Pour over the rest of the cake mix and smooth the surface
Place in the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean- mine took an hour
Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack until cool
Meanwhile, make the buttercream by placing the butter in a bowl and sieving over the icing sugar. Then, add the milk and strawberry jam and beat until smooth and light. Add the strawberry flavouring to your preference
Smooth the buttercream over your cake
Enjoy!

Toy Story Cupcakes

My little cousin recently broke his collar bone and my brother and I happily obliged to becoming chief babysitters- well sort of! Due to weather and Louie having to wear a sling, we spent too many days cooped up in the house watching Ben10 and I decided we needed to do something different.

Having presumed that measuring out all of the individual ingredients for cupcakes would be rather difficult with a 4 year old, I purchased a Toy Story cupcake set.

Louie happily helped mix the batter and was more than happy to lick the spoon once we had decorated them!

All in all, I was very impressed with these even though they were from a packet. They were light and fluffy and rose nicely despite having a worryingly runny batter! The packet of icing also provided ample for all of the cakes and some left over for Lou...

Yum!

Cranberry and White Chocolate Jumbles

I hate to bore but I have quite a lot to say about these biscuits; some good, some bad and some completely my fault...

I originally planned on putting pecans and milk chocolate in these but the prices of pecans in my local supermarket were completely unjustifiable. For some reason, I cannot abide the taste of cranberry juice and was therefore dubious about white chocolate and cranberry jumbles, which were a suggestion by my brother. I had no reason to worry though as the cranberries remained juicy despite being cooked within an inch of their life and tasted nothing like cranberry juice!

I loved this recipe as, after melting the butter, everything was literally 'jumbled' together in the pan and scooped onto baking trays. This also gave me the opportunity to use the beast of a saucepan that my brother brought home from uni, it's pretty impressive! I'm yet to fathom why he spent £40 on a pan with no lid...

I did have an issue with this, however, as the chocolate began to melt before it entered the oven and, whether this is a coincident or not, there were no lumps of chocolate in the biscuits and therefore nothing to prove that they had any chocolate in them at all...

As you can see, half of my jumbles are on a tray and half on a baking sheet. Having bought a silicone baking sheet a few months back, this was the first opportunity I had to use it. Unless I'm missing something and using it wrong, this is a rubbish invention. The whole oven rack had to come out, to lay the tray on, spoon the biscuits on and put the rack back in the oven, which resulted in a loss of heat.

Although the recipe stated that the baking trays must be greased, my silicone mat was 'non stick' and I took the plunge to put them in without greasing. As you can see, those on the left from the mat are not cooked underneath and those on the right which had sufficient greasing are perfectly crisp. This made little difference but I'm not bringing myself to chuck the useless thing out!

Ingredients:

(adapted from The Great British Book of Baking)

125g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

50g light muscovado sugar- I used light demerara

1 medium egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

175g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Flavourings: up to 100g of each- I did 55g white chocolate and 45g cranberries

2 baking trays well greased with butter

Method:

-Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas 5

-In a pan large enough to hold the mixture, melt the butter gently then remove from the heat and stir in both sugars

-Beat the vanilla and egg in a separate bowl and then stir into the butter and sugar

-Sift in the flour and baking powder, once combined, add your choice of flavourings

-Scoop the mixture well apart on greased baking trays- they really spread!

-Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden and just firm

-Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes then allow to cool on a wire rack

Enjoy!