Baking is fun and can be
therapeutic. When I’m not feeling well
or a bit crestfallen baking is one of the ways I lift myself from the
doldrums – creative and aromatic therapy. There’s nothing better than
kneading a lump of bread dough around the table top. You can get rid of all that pent up
frustration by pushing, stretching and throwing the dough around the surface
and a few hours later enjoy the finished result – a doorstep slice of warm
bread, dripping in butter with a slab of cheese on top. The taste buds pop and I drool at the
thought!
It’s the same making a
cake. Doesn’t have to be anything more
than a basic sponge recipe but you can add other ingredients and rifling
through the cupboard gathering the honey, fruits and nuts, essences et al and
lining them up on the work surface is exciting.
All those aromas escaping as you open the packets ... a delight on the
senses as different and wonderful fragrances assault the nose mmmmm! Once their mixed, placed in the oven then the
power of cooking really comes into play.
Even as the cake is baking its enticing aroma wafts around the kitchen;
you sit and wait imagining the moment you slice into it and devour your
creation, alone, just you, the slice of cake, a dollop of cream and a cup of
coffee ... baking bliss!
I have never been much of a
roasting or grilling main meal sort of person.
I much prefer baking cakes and desserts and one thing I have always been
good at is making pastry. Plain old
short crust made with flour butter, lard and eggs and for dessert pastry sugar
too. My domestic science teacher told me
that to be a good pastry cook one needs cold hands otherwise the pastry becomes
greasy and heavy. Way back then I used
to make it the long way, that is crumbling the fats and flour together by hand
but she was right, good pastry needs ‘cool’. Cool fats, cool hands, and cool work surface –
it thrives on being cool (which is more than you can say about me these days)! So I began to make pastry with the food
processor – whizzes the ingredients together quickly and requires less liquid
for binding AND it comes out in a ball ready for resting in the fridge – back
to being cool again!
I love puff pastry but I
reckon making my own is taking dedication to baking a bit far even for my
standards where cold everything is an
absolute must. The constant rolling out,
adding cold butter cubes in between resting the dough makes it time consuming
too. On top of which the end result isn’t
always as expected. So I buy it, organic
naturally, and there’s no shame in that because according to one website’s
glowing recommendation of their product, it is used by all the top chefs! So, if it’s good enough for them ...
I haven’t attempted choux
pastry. I should - I could then indulge
myself and make lots of chocolate éclairs.
I could also say goodbye to the size 12 jeans at the front of the
wardrobe and hello to the larger drawstring things at the back of the wardrobe,
there to remind me of indulgent, larger times!
A year or so ago I started
using organic milled flour instead of supermarket branded and the end results
are very noticeable. The pastry is
lighter, cakes are softer and bread is a totally different texture and more
digestible. The former two were not the
reasons for changing but I’m glad I did and it makes baking far more enjoyable
knowing the end results are better, not only in appearance and taste but on my
health too.
Legislation on ingredients’
labelling means that bags of flour do not have to list everything other than stating
wheat, preservatives, or ‘all natural ingredients’. They do not have to list the breakdown of the
term ‘natural ingredients’ and so now knowing what the contents are I use
organic milled flour.
Previously I hinted that I
don’t much care for savoury cooking, that roasted and grilled meat doesn’t
really do it for me, but wrap it in pastry then you’re talking. At the moment and because it’s winter I’m
rather hooked on a pie containing chicken and leek with chorizo in a cream
sauce. This is a very easy pie to make
as it only has a top crust, no base, so there’s no blind baking to do. Another favourite is pork and prunes with
walnuts. This is a pie with a base and a
top crust so it requires baking blind which is pre-baking the pastry base first
for about for 10 minutes before adding the filling and the top pastry
layer. This really is where your own
personal preference and how your oven operates comes in as not everyone bakes
blind. I do because I like the base to
have a bit of firmness about it and my oven demands it. Basically any meat and vegetable combination
will make a pie and as long as the meat is cooked first you’ll know what size
pie dish to use. It also makes baking
far more interesting and satisfying to adapt recipes to your own and your
family’s needs. Pies and puddings
stuffed to the brim with meat and vegetables provide very filling meals; ones
that make you feel as though you’ve eaten a hearty meal made with the appetite
of a hungry miner in mind!
One pastry dish that you can’t
go wrong with is steak and kidney pudding but it has to be a suet crust. Originally made with beef and oysters in
Victorian times - “Dickens' Sam
Weller remarks, 'Poverty and oysters always seem to go together” – how
times have changed; now we substitute
with mushrooms, unless oysters are within your budget.
Savoury pies – far from
gourmet but ideal winter sustenance, comfort food for the whole family, rich in
calories and taste, to be enjoyed sitting around the dinner table with family,
friends and lots of laughter. With all
their imperfections woofed down with eagerness, the ultimate thanks for all
your hard work – well done!
Of course there is such
thing as overload on pastry-based foods so after all those pies one should
consider a light dessert like fruit and cream, but then again if you want to be
totally satiated nothing less than a fruit crumble or pie or streusel cake will
suffice.
I have been making streusel
cakes with seasonal fruits for the past 3 years. Same flour, sugar and butter based crumble
mixture for the base and topping with different fillings throughout the year -
sometimes with a hint of spice. Luckily
I grow rhubarb, blackcurrants, apples and quinces and all these make excellent
streusel fillings. At Christmas it’s
made with homemade mincemeat. My
personal favourite is the rhubarb version with freshly picked pink rhubarb, the
first of the year being made in February and because having three plants it can
be enjoyed right through to October. I
know rhubarb isn’t at the top of many peoples’ favourite foods but the
sharpness of the fruit compliments the sweetness of any sugar and butter cake
or pie. The blackcurrant and apple
filling is the second favourite – oozing deep red bubbling sugar around the
sides so when it is cut the red runs into the apples changing to pink. It’s colourful as well as full of flavour.
Running a B&B furthered
my baking ability and know-how. I started
off with batches of scones and they are still the main staple of the menu
offered, but the streusel cake is becoming a firm favourite. I stumbled upon a recipe about eight years
ago for something called Angel Food Cake.
It’s dairy free, the raising agents are egg whites and the moistness is
provided by rose water. It’s a lovely
cake to make if you want to impress, finished off dribbled with icing and then covered with
pink rose petals and chopped pistachio nuts; it tastes as good as it looks and
remains moist for a longer period than a Victoria sponge.
Chocolate cakes are always
popular with guests but they never last long as I have a passion for chocolate
and I think more is eaten by me than I sell so it could be deemed a financial
disaster, but the guest’s needs must be fulfilled so a variation on Sachertorte
is my offering.
For me the supreme
satisfaction from baking is seeing empty plates and for that I am eternally
grateful to the appreciative customers that stop for tea and cakes ... thank
you. Of course, me being able to sit
with a slice of cake and coffee comes a very close second.
