French baguettes

Makes 3 baguettes

400g strong plan white flour

115g plan white flour

2,5 teaspoons salt

fresh yeast

300ml warm water

1 teaspoon cornflower

Stiff the flours and 1,5 teaspoons salt into a large bowl, then stir in the yeast. Add enough water, mixing to form a soft dough.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Shape into a round, then place in an oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Knock back the dough on a lightly floured surface, then divide in to 3 equal portions, shape each portion into a baton abort 25cm

Place between the folds of a pleated tea towel for support, cover and leave to rise again until double in size.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C. Place a roasting tin of water on the bottom shelf of the oven.

Roll the loaves onto the baking sheet, using a sharp knife, cut several diagonal slashes in the top of each loaf at regular intervals. Bake the baguettes for 35 minutes or until the baguettes are brown. Transfer to a wire rack, serve warm or cold.

recipe from The Big Book of Bread, Anne Sheasby

baked doughnuts

Baked Doughnuts  

You can also knead the dough in the evening, refrigerate overnight and in the morning to bake donuts.

Ingredients 16 pieces: 

Dough: 

• 100 ml of warm milk 

• 50 g of fresh yeast 

• 370 g of wheat flour 

• 50 g sugar 

• 3/4 teaspoon salt 

• 3 eggs 

• 170 g butter 

• about 300 g jam or spread chocolate 

juice and zest of orange

Mix the yeast with half a teaspoon of the sugar and two tablespoons of the warm milk. Place in a warm place to rest for 10 minutes, or until frothy.

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in one tablespoon of the sugar. Make a well in the flour and pour in the yeast mix, add the eggs and orange juice and orange zest, mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon.

On a floured work surface, knead the dough for five minutes. At the end of the dough should be smooth. Then add butter and knead the dough for 10 minutes.

Cover the bowl and leave to stand for 45 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Tip the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface, and knock it back by kneading it a few times.

Divide the dough into 16 equal portions and shape each portion into a ball adding jam or chocolate inside.

Place all balls onto a floured baking tray and allow to rise for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C

Bake a tray at a time for 13–15 minutes until the doughnuts  are pale golden brown.

Leave them to cool on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. 

honey oatmeal bread

Bread has been part of the staple diet of many countries around the word for thousands of years and it is still held in high esteem within many cultures. Bread forms an important part of our everyday diet, providing a good, basic food which is both nutritious and delicious.

Anne Sheasby /The Big Book Of Bread/

Ingredients:

550g strong plain brown flour

2 teaspoons salt

15g butter

115g rolled oats

2 teaspoon easy-blend dried yeast

150ml warm milk

2tablespoon honey

about 225ml warm water

Grease or flour a baking sheet and set aside. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl, then rub in the butter. stir in the oats and yeast. Make a well in the centre, then add the milk, honey and enough water, mixing to form a soft dough.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. shape the drought into a round, then place it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Knock back the dough on a floured surface and shape into a round. Place on the baking sheet, cover and leave to rise again for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 230C. Using a sharp knife, slash the top of the loaf down the centre, brush with a little milk and sprinkle with oats.

Bake the loaf for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 200C and bake for a further 20-25 minutes, or until the bread is risen, lightly browned and sounds hollow when tapped underneath. transfer a wire rack to cool. 

Serve in slices.

inspiration by Anne Sheasby /The Big Bread Book Of Bread/

Vegetarian pastries

These tasty little parcels are very good still warm from oven, but let them cool down and they’ll pack a real punch for a picnic, a party or a lunchbox.

For the pastry:

400g plain flour

250g chilled unsalted butter cut into small cubes

100ml cold water

1 egg

For the filling:

300g potato

3 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 teaspoons peppermint

2 tablespoon olive

200g goat’s cheese

2 tablespoon lemon juice

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make the pastry:

Stir the flour and salt together. Add the butter and rub in with your fingertips, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix in the cold water and egg little by little, until the pastry just comes together, then turn out on to work surface and knead briefly to bring it into ball. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

For the filling:

Boil potato’s until soft.

Tip the goat’s cheese garlic, peppermint, lemon juice into a bowl and mash together thoroughly.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment or non-stick liner.

Roll out the pastry to a rectangle about 0,5cm, and cut into circle. Divide the goat’s and potato mixture between the circles, then fold the pastry diagonally to enclose the filling and crimp the edges well to seal.

Brush with milk, transfer the parcels to the prepared baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Eat the pastry warm or cold.

Raspberry-Cream Chocolate Torte

For me, cakes say cosiness and contentment, home, warmth and love. Whatever the occasion, there`s always room for a cake. Most people`s first baking memory is of making a cake, side by side with their mother, helping out but ultimately wishing she would be quick and put the cake in the oven so the could get on with licking that spoon or bowl.

Lorraine Pascale `Baking Made Easy`

Ingredients

6 eggs

100g sugar

100g plain flour

1/2 cup of bitter cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

150 g ground almonds

Cream:

• 600 g whipping cream, cold

• 100g icing sugar

• 200 g raspberries (can be fresh or frozen)

• sideways - grated dark chocolate (about 50 g) or chocolate chips or chocolate sprinkles

Yogurt chocolate sauce

100 g plain chocolate + 4 tablespoons plain yogurt 

Equipment

23cm (9in) deep round loose-bottomed sandwich tin

Eggs are to be fresh and heated at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 170 C.

Grease the cake tin and line base with baking paper.

Sponge

Into a clean bowl, sift flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix.

Put the eggs white in second bowl and beat for about 2 minutes until well foaming. Add sugar beat for a few minutes until they are stiff and glossy. Still whisking gradually add the egg yolks ad beat until combined.

Add a mixture of flour, and mix together. Finally add the ground almonds and stir gently with a spoon.

Dollop the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes.

When cooked, the sponge should spring back when pushed lightly, will be a light chocolate colour and a skewer inserted into middle of the cake will come out clean. Leave to cool for 10 minutes or so, then remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Once it is cool, slice the cake in to 3 tops.

raspberry cream

Put the whipping cream in a mixing bowl and beat for about 2 minutes until the cream is thick

Add raspberries and mix briefly at greater speed until raspberries partially disintegrate.

decoration

Place the bottom of the sponge on the plate. Put a big dollop of raspberries cream on top and, using a palette knife, spread the raspberries cream over the cake. Place the second level on top of the raspberries cream sponge and spread the cream over the cake. Place the top sponge and cover the side cake with cream and spring chocolate.

The top of the cake spread with yogurt chocolate sauce.

Yogurt chocolate sauce: chocolate, broken into cubes, melt, add the yogurt and mix together, spread over the top of the cake. Decorate in any way, fresh raspberries, flowers or chocolate shavings. 

inspiration by http://www.kwestiasmaku.com/

easy and healthy breakfast

granola + natural yoghurt + fresh raspberry

yogurt left in fridge overnight and enjoy at breakfast :)

Bristol Food Conections

Bristol was recently voted the best city in the UK for its great shopping, great scenery and great social scene. But what about the fourth, and arguably most important great: its food?

Bristol food conections festival involving over 200 different organisations, running from 1-11 May. Several key players are helping to shape Bristol`s food culture into one that not only provides delicious artisian produce and top dining opportunities, but also possesses remarkable integrity.

Special guest from Slow Food International are opening a pop-up pizzeria on College Green where Italy`s top pizza chefs created real artisanal pizza with authentic igredients. The adjacent Forgotten Foods Market showcase 25 artisan producers from the UK, selected by Slow Food for their regional representation of endangered to learn about and taste some of the UK`s best and hidden produce.

slow food market

Slow Food Pop-Up Pizza. Gianfranco Iervolino (Pizzeria Villa Giovanna, Napoli - Italy

BBC Stars Kitchen.
See your favourite TV chefs in actions across the two weekends of Bristol Food Conections with cookery demos from Lisa Faulkner, Donal Skehan and Mr Bloom (Stefan Gates).

Lisa Faulkner.
The Celebrity MasterChef winner knows to produce crowd-pleasing plates of food to win over the toughest judges of all - kids! In this demo she share some of her most successful tips for diners that gurantee to get everyone round the table!

Banana Cake

Moist banana cake, easy to make and uses up overipe bananas.

Dough:
2 eggs
200 g brown sugar
300 g banana (about 1.5 Banana)
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
130 ml vegetable oil
190g plain white flour
50g self rising flour

If you are a nut lover, once ingredients are blended add 60g chopped walnuts and blend in to the mixture.

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 130 degrees. The form with a diameter of 20 cm smear butter.

Beat eggs with brown sugar until fluffy foam. Add crushed banana,  bicarbonate of soda, salt and oil and continue to mix on low speed mixer until the ingredients are combined. Sift the flour into a mass, increase speed mixer and mix briefly until the ingredients are combined.
Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes or even longer (need to check whether a stick is dry). As to cool for 10 minutes, then remove a wire rack and let cool completely.

The Cotswold Food Festival 2014

The Cotswold Show at Cirencester Park has announced a brand new attraction for 2014 - and it’s good news for hungry visitors. An entire new food festival will join the line-up on 5-6 July, allowing 100 stallholders the chance to showcase their locally produced fodder across three additional marquees at the summer event.

The festival is being supported by BITE Food Festival and a popular farmer’s market. Cotswold Table, and will bring together food and drink suppliers, as well as artisan potters and kitchen crafts. Taste of the West and its little black book of members is also joining in to help promote the West Country’s fabulous array of produce.

Crumbs No.14Aprill 2014

More info you can find on http://www.cotswoldshow.co.uk/whats-on/food-festival

Hot corss buns

Easter is the perfect time to enjoy special foods – following the traditional prayer, fasting and repentance of Lent, the Easter feast includes seasonal and symbolic Easter foods. One of the favourites in UK Easter baking is the tasty hot cross bun. Perhaps the most-loved of all Easter foods (aside from chocolate eggs of course!)

A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun made with currants or raisins and marked with a cross on the top, traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, South Africa, and Canada, but now available all year round.

The traditional method for making the cross on top of the bun is to use shortcrust pastry, however, more recently recipes have recommended a paste consisting of flour and water.

Ingredients 12-14 servings:

450g strong plain white flour
1teaspoon salt
1teaspoon ground cinnamon
1teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
55g butter
11/2 teaspoons easy-blend dried yeast
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
25g caster sugar
85g sultanas
25g chopped mixed peel
1 large egg
about 250ml warm milk
85g ready made shortcrust pastry




Preparation:

Grease baking sheet and set aside. Sift the flour, salt and spices into a large bowl, then rub in the butter. Stir the yeast, lemon zest, caster sugar, sultanas and mixed peel. Make a well in the centre, then add egg and enough milk, mixing to form a soft dough.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a round, then place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Knock back the dough on a lightly floured surface, then divide in into 12-14 equal pieces. Knead each piece into a ball and place on the baking sheet. Flatten each ball slightly. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut into narrow strips. Brush the buns with a little water and top each one a pastry cross. Cover and leave to rise again for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 190C/375F. Bake the buns for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.