Normal Service Will Be Resumed As Soon As Possible!

My fibromyalgia is currently making me feel quite ridiculously tired at the moment.  Baking the batch of cookies in the last post has left me exhausted!  Yes it is pathetic isn't it?

So I won't be posting pictures of current baking unfortunately, but hopefully I will still be posting recipes, tips and suggestions of useful equipment and products.

Karen Lizzie
xxx

Almond Drops

I think these would probably call themselves St Clements Drops as they are flavoured with both orange and lemon.  I made them as a little something to take to a friend's barbecue.

Not quite sure why these are described as a drop cookie, as drop cookies are quite literally spoonfuls of dough dropped straight onto the baking sheet, whilst these are gently rolled into balls like my basic cookies although you wouldn't always flatten them.  Despite being called almond drops they are made with ground almonds rather than being flavoured with almond, although you can choose to flavour them with almond if you like!  You will often find this recipe called lemon drops or raspberry drops, because they are made by pushing the end of a wooden spoon into the ball of dough and filling the hole with lemon curd or raspberry jam.  Recipes often also have them topped with a few flaked almonds.  I tend not to bother as using the flaked almonds as they are quite expensive and the ground almonds already make these a more expensive than average cookie.  You can sprinkle the tops with granulated sugar or those pretty little sugar shapes to add colour and a nice crunch.  You can make them plain if you choose, in which case you would want to flatten them a little before baking, then you could make a buttercream to sandwich them in pairs to make a sondwich biscuit, although if you do they are probably best eaten the same day as the buttercream will soften them if they are left too long.

The recipe uses egg yolk, which means you have an egg white leftover, which you can use to make meringue - the white will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, or you can even freeze it.  Pop it into a little pot and put it straight in the freezer.

I once tried a recipe which made another type of almond cookie, which conveniently used an egg white.  However the recipe used so much ground almonds I concluded that it would have been cheaper to throw away the leftover egg white!

I usually find that the cheapest source of ground almonds, and several other types of nuts is Aldi.

Ingredients
90 grams butter or full fat spread
75 grams caster sugar
1 Egg yolk
A little natural flavouring to suit, I used lemon
30 grams ground almonds
120 grams self raising flour
I used orange curd for the filling
I sprinkled the top with orange crunch pieces which I found amongst the bakery bits and bobs, but you could crush some boiled sweets

Set the oven to
gas mark 3
electric 170°
fan probably 150°

Line a baking tray with baking paper (not ordinary greaseproof) or use a non-stick reusable liner

Method
Beat the butter and sugar until it is well combined and looks lighter in colour

Beat in the egg yolk

Mix in with a round bladed knife or spatula the ground almonds then the flour

Divide the mixture into 10 equal pieces and gently shape into balls

Place the balls on the baking tray, spacing them to give room to spread. If you are leaving them plain flatten them a little but don't make them too thin.

If you are filling them then don't flatten them quite so much, use the handle of a wooden spoon to make an indentation in the dough, make it quite deep but be careful not to go through the bottom.  Wiggle the spoon around a bit to widen the hole you have made.

Fill the indentation with the jam or curd of your choice, (I use Orange Curd) less than half a teaspoon, you don't want it too full or it gets messy.

Put your almonds or sprinkles round the edge of the cookies

Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes rotating the trays half way through to ensure even baking.  They should be golden rather than brown.

If your baking tray isn't quite big enough to hold 10 cookies then use two trays and swap the shelves half way through cooking as well asd rotating the trays.

Allow the cookies to cool on the tray for 10 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

These will store in a tin for a couple of days.

Enjoy

Karen Lizzie
xxx

Brownies with added Oreos

Little Girl has been baking!  It's her and Handy Boy's second wedding anniversary today so she decide to bake these lovely looking brownies.  I'm glad she was baking today as I'm still not really feeling up to baking myself.  Normal service will resume as soon as possible.

She was inspired by a recipe from Lorraine Pascal, but chose use my basic brownie recipe as it is cheaper because it uses cocoa rather than chocolate, and because it uses store cupboard ingredients, with the only addition being Oreos.  The Oreos were broken into chunks and just dropped into the mixture just before baking, simple but delicious.

You could give it another twist by making the cakes in paper bun cases and using a single mini Oreo on top of each one.  It does mean a special hunt for the mini Oreos though.  I'm sure you can think of your own ideas of things to add to the brownie mixture to make what appeals to you.  If it is something that is already in your store cupboard, so much the better.

Enjoy

Karen Lizzie
xxx

Know your oven

When we were first married, in the 1970's, we lived in a flat and the cooker looked very similar to the picture up there!  Actually it was a remarkably good cooker.  It had a lovely blue-grey mottled enamel finish.  The only bit that wasn't great was the grill.

I am sure many of you have found things that you cook all the time do not cook as you expect when you use a different oven.  This is why times and temperatures are just a guide and you need to get used to how an oven behaves.

I grew up always using an ordinary gas oven and in many ways still prefer them to any other, particularly as you can cook different things at slightly different temperatures just by choosing their position in the oven. Even gas ovens however can vary quite a lot.  My mum's oven at home tended to be hot, so we usually set the temperature one number lower than the recipe recommended.  I currently have three different ovens I can use and they all need different treatment.  My cooker has a double oven and the little top oven needs setting one number higher than the recipe says.  The main oven however seems pretty accurate.  I have just had to buy a new combination microwave and am sti!ll learning about that.  The fan oven settings are generally considered to be 20°c lower than a normal electric cooker.  For the life of me I can't see why they can't be set to cook at 200° and the cooker just run at the appropriately lower temperature instead of me having to do the maths.  This cooker seems to get a bit too hot so I may have to set it a further 10° lower to avoid burning things.

I don't have as much experience with electric ovens, but generally find them less co-operative, I find they often take longer to cook things, but turning the heat up cooks the outside but leaves the inside under done.  My sister in law has lived in lots of houses with more expensive fan ovens, but she says that she finds them no better than any other oven, so you really have to learn by experience.

Many people swear by the halogen ovens that sit in your kitchen impersonating a dalek.  I've never used one myself although I have been tempted to buy one on many occasions, but have so far resisted!  Again I think you have to learn as you go.

Don't be disheartened if you don't get the results you want straight away, it does not mean you can't bake merely that you have to understand the vagaries of your oven and work round them.

Karen Lizzie

Too good for kids, or Auntie Dot's Rice Krispie Cake

Sorry there is no picture today, I haven't baked for a few days because I haven't been feeling too well, so I haven't been baking.  I will post a picture when I have one.

Everybody thinks that rice krispie cakes are for kids, but that is because you have never tasted these.  I have never found a recipe for these anywhere on the net, so if you want to publish it in your blog, that is OK but please acknowledge where you found the recipe and link back to my site (I will be watching you!)  The source of my recipe was my favourite auntie who passed it on to my mum about 50 years ago.  In those days you only shared recipes by post or by writing it down for your friends, no photocopying, no internet and very few phones.  I'm guessing that my auntie found it in a magazine or had it passed to her by a friend at the hairdressers.  So if anyone from Horwich in Lancashire knows anything about the recipe I'd love to hear from you if not then I claim all rights to it by inheritance from Auntie Dot.  I don't think mum will mind as she doesn't make it any more.

This can be made in almost any tin or flat dish you have to hand, round, square, oblong, even a bun tin if it is all you have, if you tin is very small you might need two if it is very big then you might have to only use on half of the dish.  You don't want to make it thinner than about half and inch and no thicker than about an inch.  Again it is best to line the tin with a paper case or some baking parchment so that you can get it out of the tin.

100 grams of butter - you can't use any kind of soft fat for this or it won't stick together

75 grams of caster sugar

75 grams of rice krispies or similar cereal

About 150 grams stoned baking dates, the cheapest you can find, not re-plumped like they sell in snack bags, not fresh just the most basic you can find

1 tablespoons of dessicated coconut

A bar of milk chocolate probably about 120 grams, depends on how thick you like your chocolate and what size your finished cake is

Chop the dates in smallish pieces and put in a largish saucepan with the butter, sugar, coconut and dates and heat gently stirring all the time until the sugar had dissolved, the dates have softened and everything comes together into a soft sticky paste.  Keep the heat low and keep stirring or it will burn.

When you paste is ready take it off the heat and stir in the rice krispies, stir gently but thoroughly until all the krispies are sticky.

Turn the mixture into your prepared tin and press it down firmly, but not too hard, with the back of a metal spoon, if you press too hard you will crush your krispies!  Don't do this with your fingers, this is hot fat and sugar you are handling!

Leave to one side to cool and set.  When it is completely cool you need to melt your chocolate, either in a small bowl over a saucepan of hot water,avoid splashing the water into the chocolate or you will get a nastly claggy bmess that won't spresd.  You can melt it very slowly, with extreme care, in a microwave on a low setting.  Which ever way you use, remember to stir it now and again as it can be almost melted but still look like squares of chocolate.  Take it off the heat before it is completely melted as it will continue to melt for a while after you stop heating it.  Overheating is very bad for your chocolate, it will go unpleasant and lumpy, so be careful.

When the chocolate is thoroughly melted, pour it over the krispie base and spread it with a spatula or pallette knife.

Leave it to set then remove it from the tin.  Cut it into squares, slices or wedges depending on the shape of your tin, using a good sharp knife.

It will keep in a cake tin for a couple of days, if you can resist it.  If the weather is very warm then it is best to pop the tin in the fridge to store it.

Enjoy
Karen Lizzie

You can't do that with a yogurt! Or what is life without blancmange?

Yogurt is all very well if you like that sort of thing, but blancmange is just wonderful!  I grew up in a world before yogurt, they hadn't invented Angel Delight although there was a similar thing called Instant Whip which tasted very artificial.  The best children's parties had a pink blancmange rabbit surrounded by green jelly grass.

Very few people make blancmange these days, indeed you can't always find it in the shops.  The good news is that you don't need to!  The boxes of blancmange that my mum used to buy said on the front "Brown and Polson's flavoured cornflour" and that is just what blancmange is, cornflour.  With a packet of cornflour, a pint of milk and the sweetener and flavour of your choice you have a simple, delicious, softly wobbling pudding.  You can add colouring if you choose, but part of the fun in this house is to play guess the blancmange by not adding colour, or if I am feeling perverse I make yellow blancmange that tastes of strawberry or blue that tastes of caramel!

The way the ingredients are written look a little strange, but they are based on historical tradition.  Blancmange was always made with a pint of milk which translates to exactly 568mls and because I took the original weight of cornflour from a sachet of blancmange after they started to use metric measures the cornflour is 37g.  Measurement is rather precise for this recipe as you want your blancmange to set, but you want a gentle wobble rather than bounce and just 1g either side can affect the texture quite considerably.  So I always weigh my ingredients on a digital scale, weighing the liquid as well as the dry ingredients.  Conveniently for milk and water millilitres and grams are interchangeable so it is easy to weigh.  I use electronic scales for accuracy and convenience, as you can re-set them easily to zero.

So
568mls of milk
37 grams of cornflour
4 teaspoons of sugar or more to suit your taste
Natural flavouring of your choice follow any guidlines on the bottle for jow much to use, or start out with a small capful and check for taste.
Colouring if you want, used sparingly if you don't want it fluorescent!

I make my blancmange in a jug in the microwave.  It is very difficult to give timings for this as microwaves vary so much.  If you do decide to try it in the microwave then you will need to use a microwave proof two pint jug to avoid it boiling over and until you are sure of your timings I would recommend standing it on a large microwavable plate to avoid a horrible mess on your turntable.  If you make it in the microwave you will need to stir it every thirty seconds after you have added the cornflour.  Do read the traditional method before embarking on it in the microwave as the steps are the same.

I'll give you the old fashioned method here.

Measure your milk and pour all but a couple of tablespoons or so of it into a saucepan and bring it to a boil.  Keep an eye on it as you measure out the other ingredients as burned milk stinks and cleaning the cooker top is a nuisance.

Mix the remaining ingredients into the the small amount of milk you reserved, you will need to mix this very thoroughly to make sure that your cornflour has no lumps.  I use those cheap little whisks which look like they have a spring on the end, I find them easier than a ballon whisk and better than a spoon.  If you don't have  a whisk try beating it thoroughly with a fork.

As soon as the milk comes to a boil take it off the heat.  Give your cornflour a final thorough mix as if it has stood for more than a few minutes the cornflour can congeal into a solid lump.

Pour about half of the hot milk into the cornflour mixture beating it all the time, then give it a really good stir to make sure it is well combined.  Then tip this back into the saucepan and stir it thoroughly to combine the remnaining milk.  NB do not use a wire whisk in your non-stick saucepan or it won't stay non-stick!  Use a wooden spoon or a silicone spatula.

Put the saucepan back on the heat and stir it continuously until it comes back to the boil, then reduce the heatu and let it simmer very slowly for a couple of minutes stirring all the time.  It will thicken as it comes to the boil, but you need to continue to simmer it to make sure that the cornflour is thoroughly cooked.  You need to keep the heat low and stir all the time, right into the corners of the pan to make sure it doesn't burn.

Pour it into your serving dish or dishes and leave it to cool for an hour or so before eating.  It will keep for a couple of days in the fridge.

This looks difficult when written down, but it really is very straightforward.  If you get lumps don't panic, pour it into your serving dish through a sieve.

If you want to make it in a mould to turn out on a plate there are a few more steps to it, but I'll talk about that another day!

Enjoy

Karen Lizzie
xxx

Chocolate

Having given you my chocolate brownie recipe, I thought I should talk about chocolate as a flavour.  My brownie recipe is a rare thing in that it only uses cocoa to produce the flavour of chocolate, I think using actual chocolate in cakes (other than choc chips) is a more modern thing, chocolate now is comparatively much cheaper than it used to be, but it does still cost more than cocoa.  Another good reason for using cocoa is that it stays safely in the cupboard, unmolested by passing husbands, offspring or cooks!

As with most other flavours, cocoa can taste different according to the brand you buy, so again you need to find the one that suits your own tastes.  I like Rowntrees best, this surprises me as when it comes to eating chocolate I am a dyed in the wool Cadburys girl.  However the Rowntrees cocoa tastes more chocolatey, which seems an odd thing to say, but I don't know how else to describe it.

There are of course other brands around, but I find that the more expensive cocoas are too bitter for my taste.  There are own brand cocoas available, some are very cheap, but I find that just as I have found an own brand I like, it disappears altogether or suddenly has a change of flavour as the supermarket has changed supplier, but not changed the packaging, so although I try to keep costs down, I have given up wasting money on cocoa that isn't to my taste.

So now I move on to chocolate.  I never buy the stuff that is branded as cooking chocolate as most of the time it isn't actually chocolate, just chocolate flavoured.  They do sell chocolate chips to put in your baking that are real chocolate, but they are so expensive I prefer to chop up a bar. chocolate instead.

Most recipes recommend using the very dark high cocoa percentage chocolates that also are very expensive.  Like the expensive cocoas, I find these chocolates far too bitter, so unless you are a real fan of these types of chocolate save your money!

Cadburys Bournville is a good choice, not too bitter and unlike the cocoa, has a good flavour.  However my baking friend, who made all the cupcakes for both my daughter's weddings, swears by supermarket own brand basic dark chocolate!

I don't use white chocolate in many of my recipes as not everyone I bake for likes it very much.  The only one I would eat is the Cadburys one but it doesn't seem to be easily available.  The only other brand I would choose would be Milky Bar, as most other white chocolates taste strange according to my tasters.  The other reason I don't generally use white chocolate, except as choc chips is because it does not melt well and I find I waste a lot of chocolate.

I have tried out the natural chocolate essences that are supposed to boost the chocolate flavour, rather than actually add a direct chocolate flavour.  I haven't noticed a significant difference when I use it, so I won't buy any more.  If I want to add more flavour I tend to use vanilla, although chocolate lends itself to combining with most other flavourings that you can buy.

Karen Lizzie
xxx

Basic Brownies

These little buns were made using a half quantity of my basic brownie recipe and cooked for 20 minutes.  They are filled with the some cream cheese frosting that I had in the freezer, left over from the bbq cakes.  I won't give you the frosting recipe yet, as I'm not entirely happy with the recipe, it came out too soft, so I had to add some more icing sugar but it was still a bit soft.

Basic Brownies

Set your oven to gas 4 180° electric fan oven is probably around 160° but check you manual

You need an 8 inch round or a 7 inch square tin for this recipe
Whatever tin you use YOU MUST USE A PAPER LINER!  I have never successfully removed this recipe from a tin that wasn't lined.

150 grams of butter or full fat butter spread melted and cooled

25 grams of cocoa powder

150 grams of caster sugar

50 grams of plain flour - you do need plain flour for this recipe

2 eggs beaten

Sift the flour sugar and cocoa into your mxing bowl and give it a little stir to combine everything

Using a silicone spatula or a wooden spoon gently mix in the melted butter until it is smooth, but don't beat it as you don't want to incorporate any extra air

Add your beaten eggs and again gently mix until they are thoroughly combined - this is when you will discover what happens if your butter was too warm as you will get scrambled eggs!

Scrape your mixture into your lined tin, this is why I like to use a spatula as it gets all the mixture out of your bowl without dirtying another utensil

Bake for between 25 and 35 minutes turning after 15 minutes for even baking

When it is cooked the top will spring back when gently pressed with a finger, the cake may also be shrinking away from the sides of the tin a little

The top will probably look a bit cracked but that is okay

Allow it to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes then carefully remove from the tin but leaving it in the paper liner and leave it on a wire rack until it is cold

The top of the cake may crack some more and it may sink a little, or look a bit uneven, your paper liner may feel rather greasy but that is normal too.

I normally cut 8 wedges from a round cake, 8 rectangles or 12 squares or 12 triangles from a square cake

This will keep in a tin for around five days if stored in a cool  place.

Enjoy

Karen Lizzie
xxx

Natural Flavouring

As in my previous posts I have talked about trying to use natural flavours whenever possible.  As you can see I have a huge collection, but if you are wanting something a little out of the ordinary they can be harder to find.  I mentioned the Lakeland custard flavour, but they have a whole range available both in the shops and online I have tested some of the range and been happy with the flavours, I intend to work through the rest!

Another brand I found in the foodhall  in Baker's and Larner's of Holt a fabulous shop which will no doubt crop up again as a source of ingredients.  They had a nice range of Uncle Roy's flavours.  However the range in the shop is nothing compared to what is available direct from the company, and the mail order charges are ok if you buy a few.  They are also available in independent deli's so perhaps you can persuade your local shop to stock them.  My greatest excitement was to find maple flavouring, which I have hunted for for years, maple syrup being expensive and not always suitable for some recipes as it is quite liquid.  If I were to have a criticism of these flavourings, it is that the strengths vary.  They say to use six drops, however if you use six drops of the strawberry it is so strong as to be unpleasant two to three is generally enough, whereas with the raspberry it takes around 18 drops to achieve a good raspberry flavour.

This blog is starting to look like some kind of crazed infomercial!  It isn't intended to be, but I do find it endlessly frustrating to read blogs which mention products but don't tell you where to buy them!

Happy shopping

Karen Lizzie
xxx

BBQ cake

Well obviously not literally barbecue cake just cake made for a barbecue!

Little Girl and her husband Handy Boy were having a barbecue to celebrate finishing their garden renovations, including the barbecue that Handy Boy built.  My job was, of course to deliver cake.  I provided three types of chocolate brownie: a simple brownie dusted with icing sugar;  one with a caramel-chocolate fudge topping;  the final one had an American style vanilla cheese frosting.


Basic brownies

Karen Lizzie
xxx