Spring Double Bill

It's a double-post of baking goodness! I've been setting up for people over later and I love using my friends as guinea pigs for my kitchen/lab experiments.

The two following recipes aren't just my normal alterations of substituting flours or adding nuts. The two below have turned into two different recipes from what inspired me.

The first was a reason to use up a box of chocolates that M's aunt gave us. The chocolates were nice but we just don't eat enough chocolate to keep it around. So I took a whole grain chocolate chip recipe and amended it to fit the Mint Crisps I wanted to use. Turned into lovely after-dinner type cookies. If you wish to use the recipe without mint chocolate, just take out the peppermint extract and use regular chocolate.

With the grated chocolate, try to find something complimentary to the chopped chocolate you're using. If you're using dark, grate some dark. If you're using milk or white, use milk.

One of my work guinea pigs, R, suggested using chocolate orange segments with orange extract or orange zest instead of the peppermint extract. Really want to try those now!

Whole Wheat Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

115g softened butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granualted sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cup oats

1 cup chopped chocolate (dark, light or flavoured is your fancy)

2oz grated chocolate

Process the oats in a blender or food processor until fine, like oat flour. If you aren't able to do this, substitute 1 cup of oats for any type of flour and use 1/4 cup oats whole.

Whisk flours, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and oats together. Set aside. Cream butter with both sugars for 3 minutes, until fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Stir in grated chocolate.

Gradually beat in dry mix to sugar mix. Toward the end, you'll need to switch to a wooden spoon. Fold in chopped chocolate.

Place 2in spoonfulls 2in apart on baking sheet. Bake at 375/gas 5 for 12 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly golden. Let cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Transfer to wire rack to cool completly.

The second recipe was something I found on the Vegetarian Times website. They often have some interesting recipes using very different ingredients, which always piques my interest (if you can't tell by now!) And who doesn't love cheese? So I turned these into cornbread style scones because I had a craving for cornbread and some cornmeal in the cupboard. I sprinkled tabasco sauce on the tops before putting them in the oven. This is optional (I love spicy) but I couldn't taste it enough to warrent being in the recipe. M says he can so maybe I've just spicy-ed off my tastebuds from years of putting tabasco sauce in my morning eggs.

Cheddar Sweetcorn Scones

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup plain flour

1 cup cornmeal

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2oz chilled butter

2oz grated mature cheese

1/2 cup corn kernals

1/2 cup buttermilk (see note)

1 egg

Preheat oven to 400F/gas 6

Whisk baking soda, flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Stir in cheese. Transfer to a food processer and blend in butter until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Alternatively you can rub the butter into flour by hand.

Stir in buttermilk and egg until a dough forms. fold in corn. Pour onto floured surface and pat into rectangle 1/2in thick. Cut out into rounds like scones.

Brush tops with milk or egg wash. Bake 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden.

Add juice of 1/2 lemon to the milk and let sit 5 minutes to get buttermilk. Or you can use plain yogurt.

Cracked Black Pepper Oatmeal Crackers

This recipe is inspired, as a lot of mine are, by Heidi at 101cookbooks.com. I altered some of the ingredients and played with the flour a bit to get this lovely creation. The pepper is perfect and mixed with the touch of sugar, the sweet and the savoury, the topping possibilities are endless. Personally, I loved them with some leftover Christmas cranberry chutney but I think a hearty mature cheddar would be just as perfect.

Homemade crackers are tricky, especially with our little Beko-POS-oven. The most difficult part is rolling the dough out thinly enough to get a crispy cracker, rather than a cakey biscuit. It took a lot of flour and a lot of elbow grease but I think mine came out right.

Either way, I did something right. I brought a batch to work and they were gone by lunch! Normally I have cakes sitting out on my desk all day and have to either bring the remaining home, or force them on people but not today. I'll have to bring in the rest tomorrow.

I think the rye flour is key here. It adds the savoury to the sweet of the oats and mixes well with the pepper. I used a mix of spelt flour and buckwheat instead of wholemeal but when I rolled the dough out, I floured the surface with wholemeal. Go with what you have in the cupboard. Plain would work just as well.

1 cup oats

360ml milk, heated to boiling

55g softened butter

4tbsp demerara sugar

3 tsp baking powder

2 tsp crushed black peppercorns

1/2 tsp sea salt

155g rye flour

190g wholemeal flour
salt to sprinkle

Mix oats with boiling milk. Let cool (you can put it in the freezer if you're short on time)

Stir in all wholemeal flour when the oats have cooled. Mix together well. Add wholemeal flour until a dough forms (you may need more or less than what's called for).

Pour the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until the dough is uniform.

Preheat the oven to 425F/245C/gas 8-9. Roll out the dough as thinly as you can. Cut into shapes of your choice. Sprinkle with salt Big flaky salt is better but go with what you have.

Bake about 9 minutes or until the bottom is just golden. Turn over and bake another 5 minutes or until crisper and golden.

Let cool to crisp up even more.

They were perfect spread with jams/chutneys/nut butter and a cup of Redbush tea for some sunday afternoon blogging!

Four-grain Granola Scones

I bought a bag of buckwheat flour yesterday for Sunday brunch, which is not this post but the next (I promise!) The recipe for the brunch didn't call for much so I started doing some research into other uses for buckwheat. Pancakes and blinis are obvious but I was in the mood for a good scone.

So did some hunting, came out with a good base and made my own little alterations.

These are quite morish and a little on the dry side, which is what you want out of a scone. They are yummy on their own with a little butter or could be piled high with jam or a nut butter of some kind. I have a jar of cashew butter in the cupboard begging to be eaten.

I didn't have any granola so I used muesli, which is sort of similar in my head. If you don't have either, oats could be substituted, with perhaps a little chopped nuts and some dried fruit for added flavour

Don't worry about the variety of flours. Mix and match, as long as you keep the measurements right. This is just what I had on hand to use. Rice flour, tapioca flour, cornmeal, polenta, could all be subbed. And this could be made wheat and/or gluten free if you wish. Worship at the alter of altering recipes.

1/2 cup wholewheat flour

1/3 cup spelt flour

1/4 cup rye flour

1/4 cup wheatgerm

2/3 cup buckwheat

1/4 cup demerara sugar

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup chilled butter, in pieces. (this is 80g butter for the brits)

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup granola or muesli

Mix together flours, sugar and baking powder. Cut in butter with pastry cutter or blender. You can also rub it in by hand. You want it looking like breadcrumbs.

Mix together milk, egg and vanilla. Stir into flour mix until it forms a sticky dough. Pour onto floured surface. Knead in granola until all mixed together.

You can roll the dough out and cut rounds or you can drop the dough by

spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

Bake at gas 6 until slightly golden on the bottom. Due to the nature of the flours, the tops won't turn golden. Mine took about 10-15 but our oven is screwy. So just watch. These are another that burnt bottoms will seriously alter the taste. Be careful! If they are cooking too fast, turn the heat down.

nom nom nom...

Very Berry Mini Muffins

Happy 2011!

Apologies for the long sabbatical at the end of last year. But don't fret. The baking continued, just not the blogging. It was Christmas after all...

You might be thinking January is a strange time to get back to blogging about baked goods. What about the world's obsession with being healthy and fit at the beginning of every year? Muffins and cakes don't fit into any fad or detox diet that I know of.

In light of this, and my ever going resolution to keep healthy, the next few blogs will focus on healthier bakes. Wholewheat, multi-grains, low-fat, low-cal, portion controlled, etc, etc.

One of the best tricks to lighter baking is fruit. It adds sweetness without refined sugars, moister without fat. Berries are good for a tart taste, bananas for a moist bite and orange for a tangy mouthful.

I had some defrosted frozen mixed berries on my pancakes this morning so I decided to use up the last of those in today's muffins. These are a nice little (mini, if you will) treat that look really interesting. M commented that 'you can tell there's no butter but they are still nice.' I agree. Moist and tart.

Very Berry Mini-Muffins.

1 cup oats

3/4 cup skim milk (semi-skimmed is fine too)

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup berries, any

2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup almonds or walnuts (optional)

Combine the oats and milk in a bowl. Set aside to soak for 15 minutes

Combine flour, baking powder and sugar. Mix well. Add the oat mixture and the rest of the ingredients. Stir until the dry is just moistened.

Coat a muffin pan with non-stick fat-free spray (we use Fry Light Sunflower Spray). Fill cups 3/4 full with batter. Bake at 350/gas mark 5 for 12-15 minutes, longer is using regular muffin tray.

Remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before removing from the pan.

If you don't have a mini-muffin pan, the recipes works just as well with a regular muffin pan. Just extend the baking time. They are ready when a tooth-pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

My batter came out purple thanks for the berry mix and the tops of the muffins stayed purple, making them look really interesting. Shout out to my mother-in-law--she bought me the really pretty cake box behind the muffins in the picture.

Multigrain Bread

It's pretty simple. What is one thing no one hates the smell of? Baking bread. It smells of comfort. It also smells of really, really good bread.

I decided to spend a day baking bread not just because it will make the house smell fantastic or because, well, I like bread. Actually I wanted to bake something for our friend's who had a baby the other day. With an infant AND a toddler, sometimes the last thing you want to think about is running to the shop for bread. Add a jar of homemade jam to the bag and they're all set.

I actually doubled the recipe so we can keep a loaf, and as you can see from below, it made more than just a loaf!

1 tbsp active dried yeast

2 0z lukewarm water

70g rolled oats

16oz (450ml) milk

2 tsp salt

2oz oil

55g brown sugar

2 tbsp honey

2 eggs, lightly beaten

30g wheat germ

3oz spelt flour

3oz rye flour

350g wholemeal flour

420-490g strong white flour

Combine the yeast and water, stire and leave for 15 minutes until dissolved and frothy

Put the oats in a large bowl. Scald the milk and pour over the oats. Stir in the salt, oil, sugar and honey. Leave until lukewarm

Stir in the yeast mixture, eggs, wheat germ, spelt, rye and wholemeal flours. Gradually begin to add the white flour until it's a rough dough.

Pour onto a floured surface and knead about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Add more flour if sticky. Put in oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise until doubled. Mine took about 2 hours.

Grease your bread tins (about 2). If making rolls, grease a roasting tin. If making plait, grease a baking sheet. Punch down the dough and knead briefly. Form into desired shape.

If loafs, one option is to divide the dough into quarters. Roll each quarter into a 3cm thick cylinder. Twist together two cylinders. Put the twists into the tins (will make 2 twists, i.e. 2 loaves).

If plaited loaf, divide dough into two first. The divide each half into 3. Roll into long logs and plait together. This will give you two plates (note, if making plates, the bottoms are more prone to burning. Adjust baking time accordingly.)

If making rolls, the entire recipe will make about 20 larger rolls so make sure you have enough roasting tins (or make half rolls and half loafs or plaits). Roll out to long log and cut even pieces. Roll into balls and place into roasting tin. Make sure they aren't touching as they will rise again.

Cover lightly with cling film and leave to rise until doubled again, about an hour.

Preheat to gas mark 5. Bake 40-50 minutes or until golden crust. When you knock the bottom of the bread, it should sound hollow when done. Leave to cool.

Almond Butter Cookies

I'm not sure why I ever think trying to detox is a good idea but every once in a while I think, why not? let's give it a go and see how it feels. No matter what though, every time I end up feeling horrible and have to quit early.

This last time I thought it would be a good idea I ended up making my own almond butter, which is generally allowed during a light detox. After I quit and was allowed actual food again, I thought it would be a good idea to make cookies out of the remaining almond butter.

I took a regular peanut butter cookie recipe and just substituted the almond butter for peanut butter. Simple really. I left the almonds to roast in the oven a but too long originally so the cookies were quite smoky. Other than that, they were amazing. Chewy and nutty and buttery.

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup almond butter

1 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F/gas 5

Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Mix together almond butter, maple syrup, olive oil and vanilla.

Mix dry and wet together. Don't overmix, leave the batter a little dusty. Let sit 5 minutes. Stir together once more.

Drop by teaspoonfulls onto baking sheet. Press down slightly with the back of a floured fork (don't press too hard, it will be sticky). Bake 10 minutes or until golden. Make sure you don't overbake, they will be really dry if you do.

Cherry Marmalade Muffins

Internet is finally back! At first I thought, what a nice excuse to take a break from the kitchen! Then I started dreaming about frosting cupcakes and how to properly layer good rocky road bars. 

Maybe a break was needed. 

But it didn't last long. Earlier in the week I whipped up a batch of indulgent muffins, smothered in (what I'm proud to say is my) homemade five-fruit marmalade. Great for anytime you want a muffin. 

I didn't have any self-raising flour so I used half plain flour, half whole wheat pastry flour with baking powder but I can imagine with self-raising AND a bit of baking powder they would be a bit more fluffy.

225g (8oz) self-raising flour

1 tsp mixed spice

85g (3oz) caster sugar

120gr (4oz) glace cherries, quartered or chopped (whatever fits your fancy)

2 tbsp marmalade

150ml milk

55g (2oz) sunflower or canola oil spread

Preheat oven to 400/200/gas 6. Grease muffin tin. Sift together flour and spice. Stir in sugar then cherries. Mix marmalade with milk. Add to flour. Beat in spread. Spoon into muffin tins. Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and firm. 

I'm hoping for cake-less dreams tonight. I don't like waking up craving a cookie. Perhaps the time will come when I'll need an inter-bake-tion. Until then, more baking tonight! Keep a look out for it tomorrow.