MESSY BAKER

Happy New Year and all that - hope you had a lovely break and ready to face the world after the holiday hibernation. Its my last day of holidays and I've had a bit of a bread from bread baking, so I thought I'll start with something nice and easy to start with. My January GoodFood magazine arrived last week and I finally got around to reading it when a carrot cake recipe caught my eye and I decided to give it a go (with a few modifications). Honey Carrot and Ginger Loaf 1 Tbsp honey 1 Tbsp olive oil 3 large carrots (280g), peeled and grated 1/2 - 1 tsp ground ginger 60g spelt flour 165g white flour 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder 3 eggs 60g natural yoghurt 50ml almond milk Peel and grate carrots in a bowl, add honey, oil and ginger and mix everything together. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and tip the carrots onto the tray, spread out evenly. Heat the oven to 160C (fan) and roast carrots for 15 mins, giving it a bit of a stir half way through. Coo...

A few weeks back I was approached by a member of local WI group asking to come to one of their meeting and give a lesson in bread making. Obviously I jumped at the chance and said Yes, but deep inside I was very nervous – come on, it’s the WI ladies, they are the queens of baking and jams and thing (I promise I won’t mention the Jerusalem :)  To add to the challenge, the class was set up in a pub, with no access to a lot of work bench space or ovens, expecting 20 to 30 members ! What the hell, I love a challenge. I decided to start with two reasonably easy recipes, that are very forgiving in terms on mixing and proving time – a soft focaccia and a milky white loaf.  Ingredients bought, 10kg of dough pre-made, I was ready to roll ! The evening turned out to be a lot of fun – great to see such a range of personalities and ages, wine glasses in hand, chattering, flour flying everywhere :) I was an amazing experience for me, and I think they have enjoyed it too.  Fo...

This is not strictly a bread recipe, but I was so pleased with the result, I decided to write it down for the future.  Last weekend we hosted a Russian-themed party, and what a better way to start a party than with a plate of blini and caviar!  Whenever we have a Russian party - which is once in a blue moon – I get caviar from Caspian Caviar guys – great quality and really speedy delivery. If you are strapped for time, you can get blini from them as well, but they will never be as good as the ones you make yourself.  Russian Blini  Makes 30-35  100 g plain flour  70 g spelt wholemeal flour (mine is from Shipton Mill )  250 ml warm milk  ¼ tsp sugar  ¼ tsp salt  1 tsp dry yeast  2 eggs, separated  Serve with:  Crème fraise  Caviar (black or red) or smoked salmon or cooked prawns  Chive (for decoration)  Now, traditional blini use buckwheat flour, but I didn’t have any in the house – who...

While I am putting finishing touched to my first BREAD-o-lution project, here is something to feast your eyes on - a quick one-day sourdough I’ve made yesterday.  We’ve been eating quite a lot of porridge lately – according to my 3 year old, “porridge is the best!”. We’ve been trialing a lot of different oats, and jumbo porridge oats weren’t such a hit in a porridge form, so I’ve decided to turn them into a bread. And to be honest, my kitchen was getting overran with different bags of porridge – there is only that much of oat you need in your life :)  This is a very easy loaf – I’ve mixed it up around 11am and baked it around 11pm, so 12 hours in total, but the actual involvement is very minimal.  One-Day Honey Oat Loaf 150g 100% wholemeal starter  150ml water  150ml milk  30g runny honey  450g white bread flour  80g jumbo porridge oats (but I am pretty sure you can use any other oats you have)  1 heaped tsp salt  50g but...

This is not strictly a baking post, but I haven't made sourdough for a while, so I thought I'd amuse you with some pancake stories. Pancake challenge (nothing to do with the ridiculous ice bucket challenge doing the rounds at the moment) is a challenge I set for myself - to make the fluffiest and also the easiest pancakes ever known to man kind. I want them fluffy - think American style rather than French crepes, and I want them easy - Ms Rantlet aged nearly three and Rant-a-Baby at 11 month don't leave much time or effort for elaborate pancake-making. We recently went to a wedding in Kent - Buxted Park hotel is highly recommended if you are after a bit of luxury by the way. Post wedding breakfast included made to order pancakes, and thats what Ms Rantlet went for - honestly, she would eat pancakes for breakfast lunch and dinner if I let her. When they arrived, it was a heaven on a plate - a stack of super fluffy golden-brown pancakes drizzled with maple syrup an...