Tom's Biscuit Dinosaurs

Some time ago I was given a three-piece biscuit cutter which supposedly could make a 3D dinosaur! I decided it was sufficiently mad to have a go for the Mad March theme.

I had a look around for something which would be structurally sound and taste nice, and came across a recipe for "Pryanik", which apparently is Russian gingerbread. It turned out quite well, out of the cut pieces we made a few stable dinosaurs:

Plus lots of odds and ends - which we managed to make light work of.

Pryanik

200g Sugar
2 eggs
100g unsalted butter
6-7 tbsp of Honey
1½ tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
½ tsp Nutmeg
1tsp baking powder
250g plain flour

Heat honey + butter in a pan over a low heat (stir regularly). Whilst it is heating beat the eggs and sugar together. When the honey & butter are melted and just starting to bubble slightly, add the beaten eggs and sugar. Leave on the heat (still stirring) until it's pretty hot to the touch, but not sizzling. Then remove from the heat and fold in the dry ingredients bit-by-bit.

Now allow the mixture to cool - I left it over night, but an hour is probably plenty. Roll out to about 5mm thickness and bake at 180°C for 10-12 minutes.

The shapes for the dinosaur had to be quite precise (for biscuit shapes!) to get a structurally sound dinosaur. I got best results from cutting the shapes immediately after taking the biscuits out of the oven, but this leaves lots of odds and ends - so if your shapes aren't so demanding then it's probably easier to cut before baking.

Tom's Autumn Apple Cake

I copied this recipe down a long time ago, and I think I forgot to halve the apples along with the rest of the ingredients.  If you like apples a lot use the full amount (I did for my bake, and it works), but it turns out very apple-y!

It's gluten free, but probably also works fine with normal plain flour. But then obviously wouldn't be gluten-free.

Ingredients

1lb peeled, cored and sliced apples
1½ cups GF flour (or Polenta)
½ tbsp GF baking powder
Pinch salt
1¼ cups granulated sugar (I used brown)
½ cup oil
2 large eggs
1½ tsp Vanilla
Zest and juice of 1 small orange

Method

Put the everything except the apples in a bowl and mix it together well.
Line a 8" square tin and pour in half the batter.
Layer on half the apples.
Pour on remaining batter.
Layer on remaining apples.
Sprinkle some brown sugar and little pinch of cinnamon over the apples.
Bake for around 1½ hours at 180°C/GM4.

Tom's Honey and Spice cake

This month's theme was April's fool.  I'm afraid my cake wasn't really a fool at all, even though I did make it in a torus shape.  Instead I made a card jester's hat to go in the middle!  You could add some colouring to the icing to make it a bit different.

Ingredients:

8oz plain flour
4oz butter
3oz caster sugar
3oz clear runny honey
2oz finely chopped mixed candied peel
1 egg, beaten
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
grated zest of an orange
grated zest of a lemon

Method:

Butter a 7" square cake tin.

Sift the flour and spices together, then add the sugar and zest. Rub the butter in to form a crumbly mixture. Mix in the egg and honey (if the honey is not very runny then warm it in the microwave for 30s or so). Dissolve the bicarb with 3 tablespoons of cold water then beat into the mixture until it is smooth. Stir in the mixed candied peel, and spoon into the tin.  Bake for about 30 minutes at 170C.  Leave to cool for 10 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.

The Icing:

4oz sifted icing sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons warm water

Sift the icing sugar then mix in the water and juice to make a thin icing. Put a big plate under the cake and pour the icing over the top, letting it run down the sides a bit.

Tom's Oven Scones

This month I decided to have another go at oven scones, something I've never had much success with.  I tried a different recipe from the one I usually use, this one is from the Good Housekeeping cookery book (1978 ed.).  Makes around 10-12 scones.

Ingredients

8oz self raising flour
1-2oz butter or baking margarine
¼ pint milk
1tsp baking power
pinch salt

This will make rather dull plain scones, you can add various flavourings with the flour - I added some chopped dates and almonds. The Book recommends adding 2oz of your flavouring.

Method

Pre-heat oven to 230°C, and warm a baking sheet or two in the oven.

Sift together the flour, salt, and baking power (it does make a difference!), then rub in the butter or margarine to make a fine breadcrumb texture.  Add enough of the milk to make a soft dough.  Turn out onto a floured surface and knead very lightly until it forms an reasonably evenly textured lump.  Roll out to about 2cm thickness and cut into rounds with a cutter or triangles with a sharp knife - don't twist the cutter or use a knife which you have to saw at the dough to cut it; this will stop the scones from rising well.  Place on a warmed baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 230°C until well risen and browned.

My scones turned out much better than my previous attempts, but still weren't fantastic - they didn't rise very much - I think I used too blunt a knife to cut the dough up.  Let that be a warning to others!

Good luck with your own scones.

Tom's Piggies in Blankets

This month I went for something classic and simple: sausages wrapped in bacon.
Pick your sausages and buy lots of them; I went with full sized sausages from the local butchers. You'll also need a couple of rashers of back bacon per sausage (or one rasher for small sausages). I made some with smoked and some with unsmoked bacon. Preheat your oven to about 200°C. Oil enough baking trays to hold your sausages. Wrap each sausage in one or two rashers of bacon and skewer them in place. I used a couple of long metal skewers to make a sort of long double kebab for each tray, but anything which will hold the bacon on should work. Put in the oven for about an hour (less for smaller sausages), observing and turning every 15-20 minutes.
Eat! Enjoy!

Tom's Molasses Biscuits

165g softened butter
100g white caster sugar
100g soft brown sugar

Beat together until nice and smooth

1 egg

Beat in

3 big dessert spoons of molasses
Splash of water

Beat in

280g plain flour
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp bicarb
1 tsp cinnamon
1tsp ground nutmeg
Pinch salt

Mix in well to form a loverly very sticky brown dough.

Dollop into about twenty dollops on greased baking trays (for proper sized biscuits), then bake for about 15-20 minutes at 180C.

Tom's Tropical Crumblish

This bake started out as a version of the Tassajara fresh fruit cake, and then veered wildly off course into a crumble.  Beware: these measurements are extremely approximate, and produce a large quantity of crumble.  This is one of those recipes which is will provide a nice surprise from what you have to hand, rather than rewarding careful planning and measurement. So substitute away to form your own version.

For the topping I zimmed about half a large pineapple, a few big handfuls of grapes, and a medium orange in a smoothy maker until they were reasonably pulped but not completely smooshed.  Then throw that in a bowl and add about a cup of oil, a cup of chopped nuts (I just used some mixed chopped nuts I had to hand), a cup of desiccated coconut, two cups of rolled oats, a few drops of vanilla essence, and enough flour to bring the mixture together into a slightly crumbly dough.  (If I was doing it again I would probably substitute at least some of the oil with warm butter).

I then baked this mixture at about 180C for about 30 minutes, and kept it for two days before doing the next part, but the wait is probably optional!

To construct the crumble I chopped up the remaining half of a pineapple, and a couple of large pears into reasonably small pieces, and spread them over the base of a large baking dish.  Sprinkle with a decent handful of brown sugar (and add a little water if the fruit isn't very juicy), and then cover with the baked crumble topping mixture.  Now bake it again for about 30 minutes at 180C.  Hopefully it will turn out as something interesting!

Tom's Swedish Tea Ring

This recipe comes from the Tassajara bread book. All the measurements are in cups as it is an American book. An approximate cup is an almost full 1lb honey jar (not so useful if you're not addicted to honey like me). It's not terribly important as long as you use the same cup throughout.

First; the yeasted pastry.
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast (I used fast action baking yeast)
2 tablespoons honey
1 egg
1½ cups white flour

Dissolve the honey in the water and add the yeast to it. Place the flour in a bowl and add the egg and watery ingredients. Beat well. Leave to prove for 30-60 minutes.

3 tablespoons melted butter or oil
1 teaspoon salt
2-2½ cups sifted white flour

Fold in fat, salt and enough flour to form dough. It should be slightly sticky, but come away from the sides of the bowl easily. Knead well on a floured surface until smooth (about ten minutes). Place the dough back in the bowl, cover, and leave to prove for about an hour. Knock back and leave to rise again. During the final rise make the fruit filling:

1 cup chopped fruit, I used dried prunes and apricots.
½ teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ cup brown sugar
Small pinch salt

This bit can be adapted to your tastes (and what you've got available!), any fruit should work. Simmer with a small amount of water until thickened.

Roll out dough to approx 12" x 14" rectangle.

Spread the fruit mixture over the dough and roll up along the long edge. Curl round to form a ring. Snip into the outside of the roll at 1 inch intervals, most of the way through, then twist each section over so you can see the spiral of fruit, overlapping the sections to form a lovely pattern.

Brush with egg glaze and bake for 30-40 minutes at about 190°C.

Enjoy

Tom's Jubilee Shortbread

This recipe is very simple and comes from the 1988 book of National Trust recipes:

4oz butter
2oz caster sugar
6oz plain flour

Beat the butter until soft, then beat in the sugar then flour.  Form mixture into a  ball, then roll out to chunky thickness.  As we were celebrating the Jubilee I cut out crowns, but you can cut out any shape you like.  I just used a table knife to cut, and then pricked patterns into the shapes using a fork.

Put your creations on a lightly oiled baking sheet and throw in the oven for around 45 minutes at 150°C.

Enjoy!

Tom's Bosina and Herzegovinan Apple & Plum Strudel

Filling (this bit is from BBC Food)

5oz Caster sugar
3floz water
8oz Cooking apple peeled, cored and chopped
8oz Plums, chopped
1tsp cinnamon
couple of drops of vanilla essence

I found that if you have not-very ripe plums (which you tend to get around this time of year) you'll want to put them in a few minutes before the apples. It's a bit of a judgement call though; if they're in for too long it starts turning into jam.

Simmer the water, sugar and flavouring for ~5mins, then add the fruit and cook until the apple is just soft.  Drain it well before using or your strudel pastry will get all stodgy.

Dough

8oz plain flour
1 egg, slightly beaten
~4tblspns lukewarm water
2tblspns oil
Some melted butter

I had quite a bit of trouble making strudel dough; having unsucessfully tried a couple of recipes from the internet I nearly gave up. In the end I found a recipe in the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book, which works perfectly.

Mix the flour with a pinch of salt in a bowl, then make a well in the centre.  Pour oil and egg into the well.  Add the water slowly whilst stirring throughly to make a soft, slightly sticky dough.  Once it's binding together remove from the bowl and knead on a floured surface for about 15 minutes.  You really do have to knead it for a long time - It will go silky smooth - don't stop until it does!  Leave to stand under a bowl in a warm place for about an hour.  Don't skip that step: you have to leave it for a while for all the gluten to bind, otherwise it will rip more easily when you're stretching it.  Which is very upsetting.

I did the actual dough stretching in two batches as the it gets quite large and difficult to handle.  If you have a large surface or table which you can  get all around (and don't mind flouring) then you could do one giant lot.

Roll out the dough out nice and thin into an approximate rectangle.  Now take off any rings, watches, bangles or other adornments and flour your hands.  Lift the dough onto the backs of your hands with your hands together in the centre, and stretch it from the centre outwards in gentle pulling motions, trying to keep it approximately equal thickness throughout (well, except the edges, you can trim those off later...).  It's difficult to describe but it's actually quite intuitive once you get some dough in your hands.  Apparently you should be able to read a newspaper through the dough when it is done, it's not too hard to get it that thin if you're careful.  Once you think the limit of thiness is reached then leave to stand for about 10 minutes.  Then chop off any thick edges (you can try ot make it a bit more of a rectangle), and lightly brush with melted butter.  Dollop the filling along near one of the long edges.  Now roll the whole lot up around the filling, a little like a swiss roll, brushing a bit more melted butter on top after each roll.  Throw in the oven on a lightly greased baking sheet at ~200C for ~25 minutes, until the top is nicely browned.  Best served warm.

Tom's (Mum's) Simnel Cake

This Simnel cake recipe is from my Mum's recipe book, looked like it was cut out of a magazine decades ago.

6oz softened butter
6oz soft brown sugar
5oz white self-raising flour
5oz wholemeal self-raising flour
3 medium eggs
A little milk
8oz dried fruit
2oz candied peel
2oz chopped glace cherries
Zest of half a lemon or orange and 2 tblspns of the juice
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp Cinnamon
1lb - 1½lb marzipan (depending on how elaborate your planned decorations are)

Beat together butter & sugar.  Sift flour and spices, beat eggs.  Mix both into the beaten butter a little at a time.  Add the dried fruit, peel, glace cherries, zest and juice, and enough milk to make a dropping consistency.

Grease and line an 8" round tin.  Put in half the mixture and level off.  Roll out about 8oz of the marzipan to cover, then add the rest of the mixture - so you end up with a layer of marzipan sandwiched in the middle of the cake.  Make the top of the cake slightly concave so that it rises flat.

Bake at ~170°C for ~2½ hours.  If your oven is vicious try tying some greaseproof paper over the top of the cake to stop it drying out too much.  Leave to cool for a while in the tin before turning out or the marzipan will still be liquidy and ooze out of the edge of the cake.

Once cooled roll out another ~8oz of marzipan to cover the top of the cake.  Glue it in place with a little jam spread on the cake first (apricot jam is traditional).  Roll out some more marzipan and cut into birds or other eastery shapes and stick around the side of the cake with more jam.  Now you can go crazy with whatever decoration you want on the top of the cake; 12 eggs (representing the disciples) is traditional.

Enjoy!

Tom's Flower Bread

1lb strong flour (I used 3:1 white/wholemeal for this)

Half a sachet dried easy-bake yeast

Pinch salt

2 tblspns Oil

1 very big teaspoon of honey

10 floz warm water

To make it fruity and flowery add a few handfuls of dried fruit (rasins, sultanas are good) and dash of seeds (sesame and sunflower are good). I also grated some marzipan into the mixture to add that extra dash of sugary sweetness (like a flower!).

Dissolve the Honey in the water then mix it all up and knead it well for about 10 minutes.  It should form a slightly sticky firm dough.

Put back in the bowl, cover with a tea towel, and leave to rise for 2-3 hours in a warm place; it should approximately double in size.

Knock back and split into 7 equalish sized parts.  Arrange in a flowery shape; one in the middle and the others arround it in a ring, on a greased round baking tray.  Leave a small gap between all the pieces as they will rise again.

Leave to rise once again for about an hour, until the pieces have joined and the flower shape is obvious.

To make it more like a flower I made a red glaze by mixing a bit of red food dye with some milk and icing sugar and painting the outer pieces (the 'petals') with it.  I also sprinkled some seeds on the centre piece.

Cook in a moderate (about 190°C) oven for about 25 minutes.

The bread recipe is adapted from my Mum's - and has been well tested over the years! For a normal loaf use some molasses instead of the honey to get a deeper flavour, and adjust the white/wholemeal balance to taste (1:1 is good).  Each pound of flour produces a 2lb-loaf-tin loaf.

Tom's Dark Jamaican Ginger-bread

Dark Jamaican Ginger-bread

— From Delia Smith's book of cakes.

Oven: Gas Mark 3 — 325° F — 170° C

I used my trusty 8" round silicone cake tin,

Delia says a 2lb loaf tin.

It's sticky, so line/grease well.

6oz black treacle
6oz golden syrup
6oz dark soft brown sugar
6oz butter
¼ pint water

Combine in a pan,

Stir over a gentle heat: but don't boil;

Unless you're too desperate for sugar

to wait for the cake

and would be satisfied with fudge-toffee-goo.

If you go down that route

stop reading.

You're on your own bake.

Once it's all smooth and glossy:

move on.

12oz Plain Flour
1-2 teaspoons each of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg (to taste)

Sieve, and beat in the warm treacle mix.

I think some very finely chopped fresh ginger would work here.

But that remains untested

as I had none.

2 eggs

Beat lightly,

then beat in,

in dribs and drabs.

1 tsp bicarb
4 tblspn Milk

Add these now

and mix in well.

Place in the middle of a hot oven.

For 1¼ - 1½ hours,

until risen, firm and cooked.

Leave to cool for 5 mins then turn out.

Store for 24 hours in a cake tin.

Yea right.

It only gets the 5 minutes because it's too hot.

Serve as thick buttered slices of sugary, gingery, glee.

Baking Mad! Valentine's Cheesecake

We entered a Baking Mad Valentine's bloggers competition, and were ecstatic to be selected as one of 15 blogs to receive an assortment of Silver Spoon and Nielsen Massey baking goodies with which we had to create a baked Valentine's spectacle. We found out on the afternoon of our February meeting that our blog had made it through to the "final 15", and the very next day the following wonderful goodies arrived:

We had to use at least three of these lovely products to make something we'd love to receive for Valentine's Day, so each of us dug around our recipe books and the interwebs to put forward our suggestions. Everyone in the club was offered the opportunity to vote for the recipe we entered into the competition, and the very clear favourite was a cookie dough cheesecake which included two types of ganache and Oreos; all the trimmings a good cheesecake should have! (We found our inspiration at the Willow Bird Bakery). We chose this because it's a really indulgent treat, which should only be eaten on special occasions, and which we'd all LOVE to receive on Valentines Day! 

The recipe might sound complicated, but that's simply not true; it was fun to bake and contrary to popular belief too many cooks do not spoil the broth, (5 of our club members got together to bake this special treat!) We christened our version the Baking Mad Cheesecake, as it contains a bit of everything, and - just like love itself -  is a bit mad.

You'll need a bit of room in your fridge or freezer before starting, a 6" springform tin - trust us a 6" cheesecake is enough - some tin foil and a baking tin to fit the cheesecake in for when it's in the oven (a lil Bain Marie so it cooks evenly).

Ingredients:

Base:

2 packets of Oreos (28 biscuits in total)

50g butter, melted

pinch of salt

Milk Chocolate Ganache:

300g Silver Spoon milk chocolate cake covering

100ml double cream (or elmlea)

Filling:

500g cream cheese (full fat if possible)

200g caster sugar

75g plain flour

1 sachet Silver Spoon vanilla paste

2tsp golden syrup

3 large eggs

Cookie Dough:

100g butter, softened

150g light brown sugar (although white caster will do)

125g plain flour

Silver Spoon Giant Snownies, broken
white chocolate chips

White Chocolate Ganache:

100g Silver Spoon easy melt white chocolate

50ml double cream (or elmlea)

You'll also need some Silver Spoon duo chocolate hearts and Silver Spoon white chocolate letters for decoration.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and make sure your shelf is in the middle; you don't want it too high up.

It's best to start at the bottom, so crush up the Oreos in either a food processor or just attack them with a rolling pin (I'd advise you put them in a food bag first). Then pour in the melted butter and a pinch of salt, and mix til they're all combined. Press into your well greased springform tin, being sure to make sides for the cheesecake too so you get more of that tasty biscuit base. The Willow Bird Bakery provided a great tip to use a glass to press in the corners of your biscuit base, which worked a treat! Then pop the tin in the fridge whilst you make the milk chocolate ganache.

Break up the Silver Spoon milk chocolate cake covering to small pieces. Heat the cream to just simmering, then pour over the chocolate, mixing until all combined into a smooth glossy goo. Pour over the base, and return the whole thing to the fridge (or freezer) until it's set. This should coincide with when you've made the filling.

For the filling; beat the cream cheese and sugar together with either a wooden spoon or use a food mixer. Then beat in the flour (sifted if you fancy it), and eggs one at a time. Finally add in the Silver Spoon vanilla paste (reserve a little of the packet for your ganache later!) and golden syrup and give it all a good beat. When the base is set; pour this in to just below the top. Wrap the tin in foil tightly, then place into your baking tray (a brownie tin is good). Fill the baking tray with hot water so it goes about an inch up the outside of springform tin. Put it in the oven for an hour and a half, until it comes out with a slight wobble, and is golden all over.

Now you have some time for a cuppa, a sneaky Oreo dipped in some left over ganache, and i suppose some time to make the cookie dough. Cream the butter and sugar together, add in the flour and salt, and some water to get it to a nice consistency. Finally stir in the Silver Spoon snowies and white chocolate chips. Press out into a 6" round on some greaseproof paper, and pop in the fridge until needed.

When the cheesecake is cooked leave it in the tin until cool. You'll need to make the white chocolate ganache while this happens. This time melt the Silver Spoon easy melt covering in a bowl of hot water (as instructed) and pour into the remaining cream, along with a little more vanilla paste. Mix until combined and the place in the fridge to set slightly. Once you're ready to use the ganache remove it from the fridge, whip it up until you have a nice fudge like consistency, and place into a piping bag.

You're nearly done; honest!

Now using the white chocolate ganache, pipe a nice decoration around the edge (or just do some squiggles if decorations aren't your strong point,) and decorate with Silver Spoon duo chocolate hearts and Silver Spoon white chocolate letters. (We also decorated ours with a few sugar roses we had left over from our last meeting!)

Phew, done.

Put the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 2 hours before eating, and if possible overnight... If you can resist!

Thank you to Silver Spoon and Nielsen Massey for providing these wonderful products to for us to play with, even more thanks to Baking Mad for picking our blog to sample the products, and another thank you to all the members of Cambridge Cake'n'Bake Club for taking part!

Impromptu Rose and Lemon Shortbread

We decided to whip up a batch of simple shortbread to try out the rose water & lemon icing that Baking Mad kindly sent us, and to pass the time whilst waiting for the cheesecake to cook!

You will need:

6oz plain flour
4oz butter/marg
3oz caster sugar
A generous splash of Neilson Massey Rose Water
Silver Spoon lemon flavour icing sugar
15ml water
Approx 1 tbsp of marg

1. Cream butter & sugar
2. Add rose water & flour
3. Combine, form into a ball and generously flour your work area!
4. Roll out to approx 3-5mm and cut desired shapes. You may wish to turn the remainder of the mixture into a GIANT HEART.
5. Transfer to a lined baking tray & bake at 170ºC for 10-15mins or until browned to your taste. (Tom and Charlie had very differing opinions on this but luckily we ended up half soft & half crunchy!)
6. Whilst they're cooling, make up the icing as directed on the pack. We used less marg than suggested to keep a relatively thick consistency.
7. Sandwich them together with the icing.
8. Enjoy!