biscuit experiments...

I've been doing a spot of homework today, researching a recipe for rolled out cookies which can be made healthier. It would seem that my job's not so bad after all!

On friday night I tried out a readers' recipe from the October issue of Olive magazine: Mark Scott's Ginger Shortbreads (see recipe below) which tasted good and were simple and quick to make - a must any recipe made in 1 hour by the year 7's!

After a spot of shopping this morning to restock the baking cupboard I had a go at tinkering with the recipe to reduce the fat content or increase the fibre content and came up with 3 very pleasing but different results:

Coconut Biscuits - made with a combination of plain and wholewheat flour and dessicated coconut with 1 tsp of vanilla extract which was a little overpowering but helped to disguises the taste of the wholewheat flour.

Lemon Biscuits - I substituted the butter for margarine and added a combination of plain and wholewheat flour and flavoured the mix with the zest of 1 lemon. This mix was a bit looser than the others due to the margarine and although they were fragrant the lamon didn't pack enough of a flavour hit to disguise the robust taste of the wholemeal flour. They also were a boring colour.

Fruit and Oat Biscuits - made with a combination of plain flour and rolled oats, dried cranberries and chopped dried apricots. These aren't ideal for cutting with a cookie cutter as the mixture is more lumpy due to the fruit but they are deliciously short, crumbly, sweet and colourful.

Let's just hope they go down well with the students when they make them....
And I hope you enjoy them too:

Mark Scott's Ginger Shortbreads
Recipe
50g Golden caster sugar, plus a little extra for dusting
100g Butter, softened
1tsp Ground ginger
1 tsp Root ginger freshly grated
170g Plain flour
Crystalised stem ginger to decorate
Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees c/ Gas mark 4.
2. Beat together the sugar and butter.
3. Add the ground and grated ginger to from a smooth paste.
4. Slowly add the plain flour to form a dough.
5. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to 1cm thick.
6. Cut the biscuits with a round pastry cutter.
7. Place on a lined baking tray.
8. Slice the stem ginger and put a small piece in the centre of each biscuit and sprinkle with sugar.
9. Bake for 10 mins or until the short breads are just starting to colour round the edges.
10. Cool the biscuits on a wire rack before serving.

Coconut Biscuits
Recipe
50g caster sugar, plus a little extra for sprinkling on top
100g butter, softened
3 tbsp dessicated coconut, plus a little extra for sprinkling on top
100g Plain flour
70g Wholewheat flour
1/2 Tsp vanilla extract or 1tsp vanilla flavouring

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees c/ Gas mark 4.
2. Beat together the sugar and butter.
3. Add the vanilla and dessicated coconut and mix well.
   
4. Slowly add the plain flour first then the wholewheat flour a little at a time until the mixture forms a dough. (This may not take all the flour)
   
5. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to 1cm thick.
6. Cut the biscuits with a round pastry cutter.
7. Place on a lined baking tray.
8. Sprinkle each biscuit with a little coconut and sugar..
9. Bake for 10 mins or until the shortbreads are just starting to colour round the edges.
10. Cool the biscuits on a wire rack before serving.

Lemon Biscuits
Recipe
50g caster sugar plus a little extra to sprinkle on top
100g butter, softened
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated.
100g Plain flour
70g Wholewheat flour

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees c/ Gas mark 4.
2. Beat together the margarine and butter.
3. Add the lemon zest and mix well.
4. Slowly add the plain flour and then the wholewheat flour to form a dough.
5. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to 1cm thick.
6. Cut the biscuits with a round pastry cutter.
7. Place on a lined baking tray.
8. Press a fork into the top of the biscuits and sprinkle each one with a little sugar.
9. Bake for 10 mins or until the short breads are just starting to colour round the edges.
10. Cool the biscuits on a wire rack before serving.

Fruit and Oat Biscuits
Recipe
50g caster sugar plus a little extra to sprinkle on top
100g butter, softened
40g Dried cranberries
6 dried apricots chopped into small pieces.
100g Plain flour
50g rolled oats.

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees c/ Gas mark 4.
2. Beat together the sugar and butter.
3. Add the dried fruits and mix well.
   
4. Slowly add the plain flour first then the rolled oats. The mixture should form a dough, add a little more plain flour if the mix is too wet.
   
5. Divide the dough into 15 equal pieces, roll into a ball and press flat on a lined baking tray
6. Place on a lined baking tray.
7. Press a fork into the top of each biscuit and sprinkle with a little sugar
   
8. Bake for in the oven for 10 mins or until the shortbreads are just starting to colour round the edges.
9. Cool the biscuits on a wire rack before serving.

The Pampered Chef

In September my friend took me to a fellow school mum's house for a Pampered Chef party.
http://www.pamperedchef.com/

The Pampered Chef is a "direct seller of premuim kitchen tools" and their goods are available through their website or from direct sales (much like the old fashioned tupperware parties)

I was fearing the worst spending the evening being trapped in a strangers living room with an overly pushy saleslady. However she turned out to be much less pushy but twice as chirpy as i'd first feared. I guess it's difficult not to come across as slightly deranged and anorak-y when you're enthusing to a room full of strangers about kitchen implements.

During the party the lady from Pampered Chef demonstrated the products by cooking us dinner: Chicken Tortilla Lasagne (straight out of the Rachel Ray school of fusion cooking) She also got the opportunity to showcase her silicone muffin tray by cooking some Cranberry, White chocolate and orange muffins (recipe below) which turned out slightly crispy on the outside and crazily moist on the inside. I'm not sure if that was the result of cooking in silicone but I'm definitely going to dig out my silicon muffin tray and give it a try.

The Pampered Chef is apparently best known for it's Stoneware which can be cooked on without grease and gives and even spread of heat. I would have loved to have bought one to test the claims but they were slightly too pricey for an impulse buy and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to lift them!

I did make two small purchases:

1) A Santuko knife which is plastic coated and due to the shaped edge doesn't cling to the food you chop. I've used it mostly for veg prep and so far it's been good. The only draw back is that it has to be handwashed but I can overcome my inner lush to wash by hand occasionally!

2) A heavy duty baking tray which is "professional quality heavy-gauge aluminised steel". I've used it for baking cookies and it's performed fine - I dont know that I will be able to tell any difference from my other baking tray - but it doesn't twist or warp with the heat so manouvering it in and out of the oven is nice and easy.

All in all the Pampered Chef Party was an experience and although both products I bought are good I think their products are aimed at much more the mum cooking for a family with little time than the keen cooking enthusiast with time on their hands....

Cranberry, Orange & White Chocolate Cupcakes
175 g butter (do not substitute margarine)
50g dried cranberries
70g white chocolate
zest of ½ orange
½ teasp cinnamon
175 g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
175 g light soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sifted icing sugar, for sprinkling (optional)




1. Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/Gas 4. Spray Silicone Floral Cupcake Pan with sunflower oil using Kitchen Spritzer; set aside. In Small Batter Bowl, microwave butter, loosely covered, on HIGH 1-1 1/2 minutes or until melted, stirring after every 30-second interval; set aside to cool slightly. Chop white chocolate on Cutting Board using Food Chopper. In Classic Batter Bowl, combine cranberries, choc, flour, baking powder and salt; zest orange into mix; mix well and set aside. Add brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract to melted butter; whisk until smooth and well combined using Stainless Whisk.
2. Add butter mixture to flour mixture; fold together using Classic Scraper just until combined (do not over-mix). Using Large Scoop, place one scoop of mixture into each well of prepared pan, dividing mixture evenly. Bake 18-22 minutes or until edges of cakes are golden brown. Remove from oven; cool 5 minutes in pan. Carefully invert cakes onto Stackable Cooling Rack; dust with sifted icing sugar, if desired.

The Cambridge Food, Garden and Produce Show

Last weekend I met up with my mum and sister to go "truffling" around the stalls of the Food, Garden and Produce show on Parkers' Piece.

After much drooling over the unique handmade silver jewellery stall I managed to prize the girls away from the non edibles and browse the food stalls proper.

I had a venison sausage roll as a snack whilst browsing some artisan pies which resulted in the purchase of a large slice of woodpigeon and plum pie which I shared with the boy for supper, it was really rich and gamey with thick pastry which put up a good fight when i tried to saw it in half...

I also picked up some Californian dried strawberries which are like capsule of solid jam that burst with gorgeous sweet jammy flavour. They weren't cheap at £2.25 for 100 grams but I'd love to source some more to use in baking - I think they'd be lush in cookies and cupcakes.

I bought some beef stewing steak made from the cattle that graze on Cambridge's common land and some beef sausages with ginger and spring onion which I have stashed in the freezer or a rainy(er) day.

The real find of the fair was 'Green Cuisine Food's' dry dip mixes. £3.50 for 57 grams of powder which when mixed with yoghurt or soft cheese makes up to 2 kilos of dips. The neat thing about these dip mixes is that you can make up exactly the quantity that you want so no more dips going out of date and being wasted. We bought them in 'Thai', 'Tikka' and 'Blue Cheese' flavours which we've already tested with breadsticks and red pepper slices and am looking forward to trying as a topping for baked potatoes (Tikka) and a dressing for salad (Blue cheese). Hopefully we'll be enjoying them for a while to come, the powder mix lasts for up to 2 years stored in the air tight pot they come packaged in.

After all that shopping we stopped for a drink (them) and a slice of lovely moist lemon drizzle cake (me) from Cafe Mobile in the september sun. A perfect gastronomic Saturday.

We be Jamming!

This weekend I have been mostly rummaging in the bushes in my village and slaving over a hot stove. The product of my labours? Numerous jars of damson and apple and blackberry jam.

On saturday morning, in the unseasonal sunshine we wandered up lanes and over the local golf course picking blackberries, apples and sloes. The bushes were heaving with fruit, so much so that I hope to go back next weekend (possibly with a stepladder!) and get the berries we left behind this time. I learnt the hard way that blackberry picking is one of natures lessons teaching you not to be hasty and greedy. My arms are scratched all over where I got carried away and reached through the thorny brambles for the gorgeous, shiny, onyx-like berries. Yet only when the purple berry juice started mixing with my blood did I decide to slow down... and to take gloves next time.

Today (Sunday) I've been turning the rich pickings into jam, not the sloes though, I left those for my fellow fruit pickers to turn into sloe gin and sloe vodka which I fully intend to sample in the not too distant future.

I also had two carrier bags full (6kg) of damsons donated to me from the tree in my bosses garden. These have proved to be one of the most costly presents i've ever been given as I've had to buy kilner jars to keep the jam in as well as the sugar, wax circles, funnel etc. Hopefully the jam will turn out well enough to be given as presents and enjoyed on toast for many many hundreds of years to come. But until then I ought to go and find somewhere to keep this mountain of jam.

Soup! Super tasty soup!

I don't like cauliflower. Or at least I thought I didn't like cauliflower. The boy bemoaned the fact I never cooked it at home so I decided to man up, buy one, cook it and learn to love it. And it turned out to be no chore at all.....

As I browsed this months cooking magazines I noticed they were full of seasonal cauliflower recipes so, with a soup recipe from the October 2009 issue of Delicious magazine in mind, I picked up a "Lincolnshire Large Cauliflower" when I visited Mr Tesco.

So that was the first step. I had let a cauliflower into my house where it sat in the fridge taunting me for 4 days. Then the weekend rolled around, we enjoyed a lazy saturday breakfast of creamy garlic mushrooms on toast then the Boy reminded me of my cauliflower promises.

I searched out the bookmarked soup recipe and check we had the right ingredients (secretly hoping we did not!). I had to make a couple of substitutions but the recipe was suprisingly minimal and easy....And only required half of the gargantuan cauliflower I'd bought....

I served the soup with wholegrain bread croutons and dry fried Pancetta, lashings of black pepper and a small grate of cheddar cheese, erring on the side of caution that I really wouldn't like the cauliflower taste - much to my surprise it was absolutely gorgeous.

I put 2 portions in freezer bags to save for another day and one didn't even make it into the freezer (just don't tell the boy!)

Now I just have to work out what to do with the other half of the cauliflower.....

Cauliflower Soup
Serves 6 as a starter
Freeze: put the cooled soup into a container, seal and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost completely, then reheat in a saucepan.

Melt 50g butter in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat.
Add 1 chopped onion and cook for 3-4 mins until soft but not coloured.
Add 1 cauliflower cut into florets and cook, stirring for 1 minute.
Add 500ml of hot vegetable stock and 300ml of milk, then bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat to low and cook for a further 5-6 minutes unil the cauliflower is tender.
Using a stick blender, blend the soup until it is smooth, add 300ml single cream *** and heat through.
Season with salt and pepper.

**(I used a combination of half fat Creme Fraiche and milk as I had no cream!)

Back To School

This week I started my new job teaching Food Technology at a Cambridgeshire Village College so I baked some carrot and pineapple breakfast muffins to take with me and eat on the go:

The recipe was from the September 2009 issue of Good Food magazine. I thought they were really tasty, kept well and stayed moist. (I put twice as much mixture in each muffin case than the recipe stated as it said it would make 12 and I wanted to use my 6 muffin silicon and was feeling lazy and not inclined to put two rounds of batter in the oven).

The only fiddle was having to boil, mash and cool the carrots befooe adding them to the muffin mixture, I think next time I'll try grating them in raw. I also put in 45g oats and 40g plain flour as i didnt have the 85g of Wholemeal flour the recipe required, but that didn't seem to matter!

Carrot and Pineapple Muffins
Makes 12 - 239kcals per muffin.

Sift together 140g self raising flour, 85g wholemeal flour (reserving about 2 tbsp of the bran), 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 2tsp ground cinnamon and a pinch of salt.
In another bowl, beat 150ml sunflower oil with 100g golden caster sugar.
Add 200g mashed cooked carrots, 3 canned pineapple slices, cut into cubes, 2tbsp pineapple juice rom the can, 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Mix in 50g sunflower seeds.
Fold the dry mixture into the wet one.
Cut out a dozen 10 cm squares of non stick baking parchment and place in the holes of a muffin tin.
Spoon mixture into tin, sprinkle with bran and a few sunflower seeds.
Bake at 200c/180c fan /gas 6 for 20-25 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool.