Half-term day 1 – Pancakes and Pumpkins!

Hooray hooray for holidays!! Abbie and I decided to have a pyjama day today and laze around at home.. believe me a rest was needed after the half-term we have both had. Abbie said there was only one way to start a lazy day (after we had stayed in bed, reading books and chatting for an hour!) and that was to have pancakes. I found some Bisquick at the back of the cupboard and decided that these would be about the laziest pancakes I could make… besides buying them ready-made!

Just add egg, milk and water

Abbie was keen to make the mix herself, so I can honestly say these were so easy to make a child could have done it! They were actually very decent pancakes – more English style than American and they definitely fanfared that we were on holiday.

Abbie making her way through the first of many!

I wrap the rest in greaseproof paper and pop them in the freezer for impromtu snacks

Then it was out to the garden to see how our pumpkins were doing…. Abbie picked the best of 9 and we carried it back inside like the prized possession that it was.

This one!

When will this fashion catch on??

She remembered just what we had to do to prepare the pumpkin for carving and set to deseeding by scraping, turning and banging the seeds out… although making her own pumpkin hat was probably her favourite part! Then it was up to me to hollow the pumpkin out, placing all the flesh into a deep baking tray, a little water over the top and into the oven for 40mins at 160C. This roasts/steams it – I then make pumpkin puree to use in scones, muffins and pumpkin soup – see later…

Friendly, not spooky was my brief...

We started making bread (sponge stage), did some jobs around the house and then started getting ourself ready for our Movie lunch. I decided to make ‘Beanie Nachos’ as they are a favourite, and easy to eat in front of the TV. All I do is fry a little garlic in a pan, add a can of ‘Taco Beans’ which are mixed beans in a chilli/tomato sauce and a couple of handfuls of frozen sweetcorn and a little grating of dark chocolate (1/2 square). I put a couple of handfuls of lightly salted tortilla chips in the bottom of a pie dish, top with the beans and a couple of handfuls of grated light cheddar. Pop under a hot grill until the cheese melts and then serve with a dollop of sour cream for dipping (and pickled jalapenos for me). Delicious…. feels trashy but convince myself that the beans make it healthy!

Movie lunch - all polished off!

We made bread in the afternoon – I gave Abbie her own handful of dough to knead, rise and bake; using the rest to bake our loaf. She was delighted with her finished bread (baked for 10 mins at 220) and also loved our Autumn pumpkin soup, made with the innards that I roasted earlier.

• Dry fry a packet of cubed pancetta (don’t add oil) and when crisy, add 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped clove garlic and 3 chopped carrots – cook until onion is soft
• Add stem of fresh sage, 3 tsp Marigold veg bouillion and cover with boiling water, stirring to dissolve the stock. Simmer for 20 mins
• Add roasted pumkin and simmer for another 20 mins. Remove sage and blitz in a blender.
• Add back to the pan and reheat when needed. Serve with homemade bread.

Jon described this as the best soup I have ever made…. and asked how many more pumpkins we had. Think I know what I’m going to be doing with the remaining 8!

A World Cup breakfast…..

I neee no crystal ball to forsee our family viewing for the next 6 weeks. Gone is children’s tv, much to the annoyance of Abbie….. enter the Rugby World Cup. So it was coffee with Ireland v USA and breakfast with Wales v South Africa. I made a spelt loaf using Doves Cottage flour, using the usual sponge method. The resulting loaf was very reminicent of French bread.. fluffy inside, a soft crumb and a crusty exterior. Perfect with both lemon curd and homemade loganberry jam.
Now all that needs to happen is for Wales to win…..

Lone Star Chilli and Cheese Bread – yeehah!

Jon has been nagging me to have a go at this idea since we left Houston six years ago…. we used to go to this amazing supermarket called ‘Central Market’ and he used to buy a loaf of this bread each week, without fail. They baked it fresh on the premises and it was incredibly yummy. Now that I feel more competent at making bread I thought I would have a go!
Lone Star Chilli and Cheese Bread

I used the same method and bread ingredients as in my previous ‘Breadilicious’ post: http://kidandkitchen.com/2011/08/20/breadelicious/ ;apart from I used 100% white bread flour, no granary this time

I added 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar and 1 large jalapeno from our garden (deseeded and finely chopped) to the main mix – not the sponge.

I now have a very happy husband (and daughter)…. although a fantastic result at Weight Watchers is looking less likely now! Have frozen the rest to help resist temptation and to prevent the scales from breaking!

Lone Star Bread

A slice of pure heaven!

My latest attempt at a loaf – now sandwich ready!

Breadelicious!

Hooray for handmade bread – it is addictive to make as well as to eat! This week we made 1/2 granary, 1/2 white flour. Abbie and I are loving making our weekend bread and this lazy method fits in well with our routine…..

1.30pm – made the sponge (bit of the flour, water and yeast left to rise) and it in the airing cupboard – then it was off to Glee 3D and to drop Jon off at the station for his boys’ weekend (or Geekfest as they are calling it!).

Click to print off recipe

5.00pm – continued to make the dough, adding the remainder of the ingredients and did a good bit of kneading before putting the dough in the airing cupboard to rise.

We kneaded through 3 Warblers' songs

8.00pm – with Abbie in bed, I started on the next stage – thumping the dough down and shaping it to make a loaf. I spray the top with a little water and dust with flour – I use a shaped stencil to decorate. This takes a few minutes and then it’s onto a baking tray, cover with a teatowel and leave for the morning.

7am – Couldn’t believe that I was up before Abbie this morning – must have been the excitement of baking! I heaated the oven up to 200C (fan) and baked the loaf for 35 minutes. The delicious smell of bread had roused my daughter by then who came down with the words “I’m hungry”…. Neither of us are particularly patient people so we ate the bread, still hot with butter and jam. I broke into my rose petal jam, bought last year in France – heaven!

Can you smell it from there?

Here are the remainder of the instructions for the sponge method…

Baking Sourdough at Denver Windmill

There's something incredibly romantic about baking bread inside a working windmill

Happy Birthday Mummy….. we finally went on Mum’s birthday treat 7 months after her birthday, to Denver Windmill. My mum is the best baker that I know, bakes all her bread, rolls, ciabattas and focaccias by hand and all taste amazing. BUT she has been stumped by Sourdough, even with the help of Hugh Fernley-Whistingstall’s ‘foolproof’ method. So being the determined woman that she is, she asked if she could have a class learning how to make the bread that has eluded her, for her birthday and the best bit was that I got to come along as well. I have had mixed results with bread… don’t think that my KitchenAid is particularly good at kneading, so I was keen to learn as well.

Martin (our teacher) was fantastic, explaining secret tricks to making better bread (any bread) which I shall be trying out this week – it’s called the ‘sponge method’ – too long to write in detail- you put a little of the flour, water and yeast to ferment over night, before adding to the rest of the mix and making bread as usual- this is a good link: http://www.videobread.com/tips8.htm

Anyway – we discussed the 2 methods to making the ‘sponge’ for sourdough – this is the bit where you attract ‘wild’ yeasts to your mixture and lactobacillus bacteria which provide the sour taste. We used a sponge from an accelerated method in which a small part of baker’s yeast is also added to kick start the fermentation. I also learned that it was important to add a bit of lemon juice to any breadmix as this adds ascorbic acid (Vit C) which helps the bread to develop a wonderful crumb.

I am going to make my sponge this week – so I will write how I do this later…

Martin gave us our ingredients and we got going:

Strong white flour – 375g
Salt – 10g
Warm Water (few drops of lemon juic added) – 300g
Rapeseed oil – 28g

Mix first, then add…

The leaven – Mixture of…

Wheat sourdough starter – 100g – (this is the bit that has fermented over days)
Strong white flour – 125g
Warm water – 75g

Mix all together and knead (pummel and stretch) on a floured surface (to stop the dough from sticking) for 10 mins – this seems like ages – put some music on to sing along to – should be 3-4 songs

Mum kneading...

Cover the dough and leave for 1 hour

Knock the dough back – punch it! – form the dough into the shape required – place onto a baking sheet coated with baking parchment, coer again and leave in a warm place for 3-5 hours until the dough has expanded. Dust the loaf and bake for 35 mins at 220C.

All the loaves ready to go into the oven.... how cool is the floured windmill logo!

I was so pleased with my loaf, especially considering my past attempts at bread….. Mum’s unfortunately cracked, as did many of the rye loaves, but I am sure that she will have another go this week.

Incredibly proud of my handmade loaf...

The best bit - taking home our bread...

Mum and I picked up some beautiful taramasalata from Waitrose and a new lemony Bistro salad that they were doing… a perfect late lunch after our wonderful day!

A celebration - sourdough bread and toast (even better), taramasalata and salad

Baking bagels far too early and after very little sleep!

Only had about 4 hours sleep last night – went to bed angry about changes to our holiday – thanks Thomson! and couldn’t sleep.  Abbie awoke bright and early, Jon was still ill so…. what else to do!  We had been meaning to try out this recipe for ages and I did find it very easy, started at 6.45 and we were eating bagels with all kinds of sweet and savoury toppings 2 hours later!

Bagels from How to be a Domestic Goddess – I did half this for us

• 1 kg of white flour, plus more as necessary for kneading
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 7g of easy yeast or 15g of fresh yeast
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for greasing
• 500mL warm water, plus more as needed
• 2 tablespoon of malt or sugar, for poaching the bagels
• 2-3 baking sheets, oiled or greased

1. Combine the flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl, add the sugar and the oil to the water. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the liquid, mixing to a dough with a spatula or wooden spoon.

2. Knead the dough either by hand or with dough hook, trying to add more flour if you can, dough is better drier than wetter, the dough will be stiff and hard work, even with the dough hook it takes 10 minutes.

3. Form the dough into a ball and put it into an oiled bowl, turning once to coat all around, then cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave it to rise for 1 hour. It should be well risen, and when you poke it with your finger , the impression should remain.

I made the dough in my KitchenAid and then popped it in the airing cupboard. Then I beat it down imagining that Thomson had a face!

Abbie loves making bread and any kind of baking really so it was no suprise that she wanted to help making doughy sausages and then rolling them around her hand and squidging the ends together!

Then you leave them to rise for 20 while you boil water and add sugar….

Then poach the bagels for a minute, turning in the water.

I baked them at 220 for 10 minutes – not bad I thought!

YUM!

YUM!