Half Baked Diary

  

I thought I would tell you all what I have been up to lately. I have been trying different recipes some with good results some with not so good results. One was an old recipe for sweet coating batter which worked really well. Another thing I have done is collaborate with radiationtube.blogspot.com on a blog about TV cookery shows. So if you have the time why not go over there and have a read. I will post a new blog/recipe soon, keep cooking.

Whoopie Pies

This is the first time I have made them, they came out good. If you find another recipe that is also good please get in touch.

1 ¼ oz Cocoa powder

10 ½ oz Plain Flour

3 ½ oz Butter

1tsp Baking Soda ( bicarb of soda)

1tsp Baking Powder

6oz Dark Muscovado Sugar

1 Egg

1tsp Vanilla Extract

4fl oz Milk

2 baking tray ( I put greaseproof paper on them)

Pre heat oven 150c, 170c fan, gas mark 3

This makes 12 Whoopies so 6 whole pies

Sieve the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder into a bowl.

Cream together the butter, sugar and egg. Mix the milk with the vanilla extract. Now start adding the flour mixture to the butter mix and then add the milk mix and beat until smooth.

Spoon the mixture on to the trays (I used a ice cream scoop but they quite big.) and smooth down with the back of a knife (dip the knife in hot water this will stop it from sticking to the pies)

Leave enough room for them to spread and rise.

Cook for 15 minutes until they are firm, then let them completely cool on a wire rack. Then fill with what ever you like I did a peppermint butter cream, sandwich together and you can even put icing on top, or dust with icing sugar.

Enjoy

Half Baked Diary + Flapjack Goodness

Well it's been a while since I last wrote anything due to illness ( not from my cooking) and recently we have been baking a lot. So from now I’m going to be updating The kitchen more regularly, while I was away you should all have been entertained by reading The Radiation Tube (see link)

So now for a recipe.

Yummy Flapjacks

Pre heat oven to 350 f or gas number 4, 176 c

Saucepan

Shallow pan

¼ lb English or Welsh butter

3 oz Golden Syrup

3 oz Soft brown Sugar

½ lb Rolled Oats

Plus whatever else you want to put in, dried fruit, chocolate chips, lemon peel plus juice.

Put butter, syrup and sugar into a saucepan and stand over a low heat until melted, take off the heat (this is important because if you add the oats while still on the heat the flapjack will harden like concrete). Add the oats and anything else your putting in. Make sure they are coated in the melted butter syrup. Spread the mixture into a shallow tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

You can melt down some chocolate and spread over the top of the cooled flapjacks before cutting creating flapjack bars.

Wait till cool and cut into bars and enjoy.

SIMPLE COOKIES

Sometimes life gets a little bit hectic that's why I haven't written one for a while. So this recipe is perfect for these situations, as it's simple and fast.

4oz Butter

4oz light muscovado sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

6oz self raising flour

and what ever you wan to put into them.

Pre heat the oven to 180oc/ 110 in an fan oven

We put Smarties into them but they didn't taste that good, why not try fruit or chocolate chips.

Beat the sugar, butter and syrup into a bowl, stir in half the flour and add whatever your putting in to them.

Stir in the rest of the flour and work the dough together with your fingers.

Divide into 14 balls and put onto a tray with greaseproof paper but do not grease the top. Leave enough room between each ball for the cookie to form, do not flatten down the dough.

Put into the oven for 12 minutes until pale but golden on the edges. They will still be soft when they come out but will firm up when cooling down.

It doesn't matter what sugar you use they come out the same.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie

So here we go, this serves 10-12 people or in Dave's case just him, don't get me wrong he didn't eat it in one go but he did eat it all.

7oz Crushed Chocolate cream biscuits (bourbons)

1 ¾oz Unsalted butter( melted)

7oz Cream Cheese (Philadelphia)

3oz Icing Sugar

3 ½ oz Smooth Peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

9floz Cream whipped to firm peaks

for the decoration

2floz cream

½ oz butter

1 ¾oz grated dark chocolate

honey-roasted peanuts chopped if you want

Put the biscuits and melted butter in a bowl and mix now press into a pie dish I used a glass dish. Refrigerate for 15mins until firm.

Beat the Philadelphia and icing sugar with electric beaters until smooth, add the peanut butter and vanilla and mix together. Stir in a third of the whipped cream until smooth then fold in the remaining cream. Pour on top of the biscuit base and put in the fridge for 2 hours, until its firm.

Put the extra cream and butter in a saucepan and stir over a medium heat until the butter has melted and the mixture just comes to a simmer. Take off the heat and add the chocolate and stir until melted.

Cool a little then drizzle the chocolate over the top of the pie to create a lattice pattern now put back into the fridge for another 2 hours or until the pie is firm. Remove from the fridge and scatter over the peanuts if your using them and enjoy.

Half Baked Diary 2

Essential Equipment

I'm going to tell you the items that I think are essential to baking.

You can use a mixer or any number of other appliances if you want, if not here are the basics you will need to start.

Large Mixing bowl

wooden spoon

scales normal or digital

measuring spoons/cups

metal spoon

cake tins round, square

Cup Cake tin

Muffin tin

Things do not have to cost the earth, at poundland yeah I said poundland they have small scales which are fine and they also have a good range of silicone bakeware which I have used myself.

Recipes to come over the next couple of weeks include, for Nikki Peanut butter and Chocolate Pie, lemon drizzle cake, flapjacks and Ice cream cone cupcakes. Plus more

Chocolate Orange Fudge

Baking isn't just about cakes, that's why this time I’m going to give you a recipe for chocolate fudge. Dave made this a few months a go and loved it so I hope you all do to.

395g Can of sweetened condensed milk

1, 3/4 oz butter

7oz finely chopped orange flavour dark chocolate

7oz finely chopped dark chocolate

We used two bars of Bournville chocolate, one orange one plain

Line the base of a square cake tin or a square tray(a flat foil flapjack tray will work) with baking paper.

Put the condensed milk and butter into a saucepan, stir over a low heat until the butter melts and the mixture is smooth. Make sure you don't let it boil you just want it to start simmering making sure you stir it regularly. Take it off the heat and leave to cool slightly for a bout 5 minutes then add the chocolate and stir until it has melted.

Now pour it into the tin or tray and smooth the top down and put it into the fridge for about 4hrs or until it is firm, once it has set remove from the tin this should be easy as you have put baking paper in the tin. Now cut it into squares and it's ready to eat this makes a nice little present for someone just put it into cellophane bags.

Half Caked Diary

I'm not going to give you another recipe yet, I thought I'd write a bit instead. Baking is a science but once you master it then you can try anything you want. The important thing is making sure you have the right equipment as in the right size tins for the mixture you have made. This is one thing I didn't do, I was asked to make a couple of cakes for my nieces, the one was fine it was perfect, the other we had problems with from the start. Me being me bought a tin which I thought was ideal but I hadn't measured it before hand and it didn't fit in the oven. I found another tin which fitted perfectly we made the cake and was ready to decorate it when I realised I didn't have enough icing so we had to improvise using a few well placed sweets. That's the joy in baking if it goes wrong, it goes wrong, don't give in just try again. I would love to be able to decorate at a professional level but you need two things, skill and money and I lack in both so I will keep doing it as a hobby with the sweets on stand by.

Melting Moments

So here's another one for you, everything I am writing is tried, tested and are easy to do.

Theses are the quint essential afternoon tea treat.

Makes 20

For the Melting Moments

6oz Self Raising Flour

4oz Corn Flour

2oz Icing Sugar
7oz Butter

1tsp Vanilla Extract

For the Filling

2oz Butter

4oz Icing sugar

½ tsp Vanilla Extract

Jam of your choice

Preheat oven to 160oc gas mark 3

Place flour, cornflour and sugar into a bowl add the butter and mix until it all comes together. With your hands roll into balls the size of marbles you should do about 40 which will make 20 biscuits. Place onto a baking tray and flatten down with the back of a fork.

Cook for 10-15mins or until still pale in colour but slightly firm to the touch.

Leave until cool and sandwich together with the butter cream and jam

For butter cream-

Place the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract into a bowl and mix until its creamy. Now it's ready to use.

You can do chocolate ones, just add coco powder into the mixture and into the butter cream.

Cupcakes

Everyones favourite Cupcakes, there are too many varieties, styles and flavours to mention so I'm going to give you the basic recipe, then it's up to you to experiment as thats what baking is all about.

8oz Self Raising Flour
8oz Butter                               
8oz caster sugar
4 eggs

you can use 8oz plain flour with 3 level tsp baking power if you dont want to use self raising flour.  if you want chocolate cupcakes then to the self raising flour add 1 level tablespoon of coco powder to the flour.

Pre heat oven to Gas mark 6 or 150c

Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl, add one egg and a tablespoon of flour into the butter and sugar, repeat until all the eggs have been used, at this point use a wooden spoon.  add the rest of the flour and use a metal spoon to fold it in, by doing this it adds air to the mixure which will make it rise. 

Now put the mixture into cases in a cupcake tray, if you want the same size cakes then use an ice cream scoop.  cook in the top of the oven for 20-25 mins until cooked .

Tip 1, if doing chocolate use a tablespoon of golden syrup in the mixture as this will keep them moist.
Tip 2, try not to keep opening the oven as this will make the cake sink
Tip 3, if you think they are done then press the top if it springs back then they are done.

Now for your toppings,

Again there are so many, here is one i used the other day,

If you have any chocolate spread then melt it down until it's slightly runny put it on the top of the cakes as an alternative to frosting (also some of the nut flavour will be taken on in the cake)