My latest loaf is somewhat akin to a fruit and nut bar in bread form, although the chocolate is subtle and comes from cacao nibs baked into the loaf.

Cacao nibs are little pieces of unrefined chocolate, the main ingredient that is used with the addition of cacao butter, sugar and other ingredients to make bar chocolate.  They are hard, crunchy and bitter, with an intense hit of pure chocolate, my little pot came from Hotel Chocolat.  The baking somewhat softens and mellows them; I was surprised at just how well this loaf worked.

Delicious thickly spread with speculoos or a black cherry jam for breakfast or at tea time.

Recipe: Almond, Raisin and Chocolate Loaf

Makes 1 medium loaf (lasts the 2 of us 2 days)

Ingredients

300ml warm water
1 heaped tsp yeast (dried active – I used the one for hand baking)
300g strong white flour
175g strong brown bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbs oil – olive / rapeseed / hemp etc.
Generous handful raisins
Generous handful almonds – roughly chopped
Heaped tbs cacao nibs – or coursely grated chocolate

Pour the water into bowl, add the yeast and swirl to it is dissolved.  Add the other ingredients.

Knead with the dough hook attachment of your mixer on the lowest speed for about 4 minutes until a smooth stretchy dough has formed (if you knead by hand it will take longer).

Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for a few hours or  in the fridge overnight. It should more than double in size.

In the morning turn out onto a floured board and gently knock the dough back. Shape the loaf,  lace in an oiled and floured 1lb loaf tin.  Leave somewhere warm until doubled in size again.

Place in a preheated oven at GM7 / 220C / 425F and bake for about 40 minutes.   For a crustier loaf place a small dish of water in the oven under the loaf.

When it is done it should turn out of the tin and sound hollow when tapped.  It always takes longer to bake than you think it will, so my general rule of thumb is that if you are unsure give it another 5 mins.

The very pretty tea towel in the photos is from the Hope & Greenwood Homewares Collection.

Thanks to both Hotel Chocolat and Hope & Greenwood for samples.

Sending to this month’s We Should Cocoa where the theme is almonds, hosted this month by Laura at How to Cook Good Food.

And to Yeastspotting…

I rather suspect that the UK baking-blogsphere is going to go into overdrive with red, white and blue bakes for the Queen’s  forthcoming Diamond Jubilee celebrations.   I will certainly be whipping out the food colouring at some point, but here is a more natural bake, with the red, white and blue provided by raspberries, white chocolate and blueberries, and flavour from rose water.

The long Jubilee holiday and celebrations are actually marking the start of the 60th year after the actual Coronation, held in 1953, rather than the date of HM’s 60 years on the throne.    (She actually became Queen on the 6th February 1952 and the Coronation was 16 months later).

I am a huge fan of the humble, and under rated madeleine, almost invariably the ones you make at home taste far better than the ones that you buy – they are best consumed within 5 minutes of leaving the oven – they are highly photogenic (as better demonstrated in this post) and as you can make the batter in advance and leave it in the fridge for several days, it enables you to make fresh madeleines in the time it takes the oven to heat up and then to bake.

I was hoping that it would be clear which madeleines were which flavour, but of course the blueberries, raspberries and white chocolate drops sank into the batter, leading to a game of Madeleine Roulette with the finished cakes.   If you want the fillings to be visible then poke a few berries and chocolate drops onto them after 8 minutes in the oven.  If you do not have a madeleine tray then make them in fairy cake cases instead.

Due to a lack of kitchen cupboard space I “caster” my own sugar from granulated using a tip my mother taught me.   Simply put into your (clean) coffee or spice grinder and grind for the length of time it takes to say “Caster Sugar” or, I suppose, “Abracadabra”.

Recipe: Red, White and Blue Jubilee Madeleines

Makes 24

2 large eggs
90g caster sugar
100g plain flour
½ Tsp baking powder
75g butter – melted and cooled
1 tsp rose water
Pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)

Raspberries, Blueberries and White Chocolate drops

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they have doubled in size and are light and fluffy. Slowly fold in the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the rose water. Slowly add in the melted butter, gently folding all the time. When mixed cover the bowl and put in the fridge for at least 30 mins, the batter should be foamy and full of air.

Cover and leave in the fridge for at least an hour to chill.

Put a dollop of the mixture into a well buttered madeleine tray, each mould should be about 2/3 full.  Sprinkle with berries or white chocolate drops.

Place in an oven at 375F/ 190C/ GM 5 for around 10 – 12  minutes until risen, golden and shrinking away from the edges of the mould.

Leave for a few minutes and then turn out.

The Madeleines are best enjoyed when still warm and crisp on the outside. They can be stored for a day but will lose that just cooked crisp outside.

The fantastic I Love UK Cake Stand, place mats and bunting are all from Premier Housewares.

I am sending my red, white and blue madeleines to Fleur’s Jubilee Baking Competition (sponsored by Appliances on Line (link))

And to Tea Time Treats where this month the theme is floral, hosted by Karen.

One of the most frightening books that I have ever read is John Christoper’s The Death of Grass, which describes a future world in which a new strain of virus kills off grass.    It does not sound too bad, until you realise that rice, wheat and barley are all types of grass, and with the death of grass comes famine, the complete breakdown of civilisation and survival of those willing to kill.

As part of my degree I studied crop science, and was told that a huge percentage of rice grown in the world is from just a few strains.   I am all for selective breeding of crops; drought resistance, saline resistance and shorter stems can all be desirable characteristics, but creating a monoculture also increases the risk of one variety of a crop being susceptible to, or decimated by pest or disease.

The topic could easily take up several blog posts, and is something that I would like to return to in the future, but I was reminded of The Death of Grass, and associated potential problems of monocultures when I bought a packet of Doves Farm Einkorn flour.

Doves Farm have devoted a great deal of time and resources into growing Einkorn and turning it into a commercial crop.   Einkorn was the original wheat, first developed over 20,000 years ago.   Its yield is lower than modern wheats, and consequently it costs more.  It is a golden colour, and the flour smells of fresh hay.  Who knows what properties are locked into its genome that could benefit modern wheat and farmers?   I feel we should be profoundly thankful to Doves Farm for resurrecting this grain and making it available to us.

Einkorn Flour Bag - Photo from Doves Farm

I have to confess that I did not get on that well with the einkorn the first time I made bread with it, I used 100% and the loaf was heavy and vaguely worthy.    This time I mixed it with some standard bread flour and the resulting loaf was a huge success – full of substance without being heavy, an even crumb, and a lightly nutty toasted flavour.  I am a convert and will be trying it in cakes and a pizza base.

I am rarely taken by surprise by a product, but the Natural Selection Californian raisins did just that.  On the packet I was promised “deliciously sweet jumbo raisins with a beautiful crimson colour”, and in the manner of Ronseal doing exactly what it says on the tin, they did exactly what it said on the packet and more.   These raisins really are jumbo; I would venture to say woolly mammoth sized  – most are larger than my thumbnail – and are indeed the most glorious crimson colour and totally delicious.  A handful was perfect to add to the loaf.

Recipe: Heritage Einkorn Loaf with Crimson Raisins

Makes 1 medium loaf (lasts the 2 of us 2 days)

Ingredients

300ml warm water
1 heaped tsp yeast (dried active – I used the one for hand baking)
275g strong white flour
175g einkorn flour
1 vitamin C tablet – finely ground with a spoon of the flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbs oil – olive / rapeseed / hemp etc.
Generous handful raisins

Pour the water into bowl, add the yeast and swirl to it is dissolved.  Add the other ingredients.

Knead with the dough hook attachment of your mixer on the lowest speed for about 4 minutes until a smooth stretchy dough has formed (if you knead by hand it will take longer).

Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight. It should more than double in size.

In the morning turn out onto a floured board and gently knock the dough back.  Place in an oiled and floured 1lb loaf tin.  Leave somewhere warm until doubled in size again.

Place in a preheated oven at GM7 / 220C / 425F and bake for about 40 minutes.   For a crustier loaf place a small dish of water in the oven under the loaf.

When it is done it should turn out of the tin and sound hollow when tapped.  It always takes longer to bake than you think it will, so my general rule of thumb is that if you are unsure give it another 5 mins.

Sending this to this month’s…

Bake Your Own Bread – hosted by Girlichef…

.. and to Yeastspotting.

… and this month’s Fresh From the Oven where the host is Sarah, with a challenge of Fruit Breads.

… and Alphabakes, run by Ros and Caroline, this month the letter is H (hosted by Caroline), which fits perfectly with heritage wheat

In the Fuss Free kitchen we are not food snobs, I have been known to eat in chain restaurants (like everything in life they vary in quality – both from chain to chain and location to location) and I shop in the supermarket – although I mainly buy the (relatively small amount of) meat I eat from the butcher.

I also frequently bake with baking margarine.   It is good enough for Mary Berry and it is good enough for me.  Some baking really is better with butter (and I always use it in buttercream), but often there is not a huge difference in taste, and regular Stork is less than half the price of butter and can be mixed straight from the fridge.

So when I was offered a sample of the new Stork Easy To Mix Baking Liquid I was curious enough to say “Yes please!” and to try it out.

The premise behind the baking liquid is that it is easy to mix, does not need softening and can be poured from the bottle to the bowl.  There is a handy measurement guide down the side so you do not even need scales.  Simply pour 100g or 110ml of Stork liquid for every 100g of butter in the original recipe.

Unlike Stork in a tub the new baking liquid is dairy free and vegan, once opened it needs to be kept in the fridge.   It is thick and yellow, like a slightly runny salad cream, and smells fairly strongly of margarine.

Cranberry & White Choc Chip Muffins

I made two batches of muffins, one with egg and one without. I strongly believe that if you cannot buy free range eggs, then simply do not buy any and adapt your baking not to need them.

Recipe: Stork Baking Liquid Cranberry and White Choc Chip Muffins

Makes 4

60g Stork Baking Liquid (or butter or baking margarine)
60g White Granulated Sugar
100g Plain Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg (Free range please)
3 dsp Milk
20g Dried Cranberries
20g White Chocolate Chips

Bung all the ingredients into a bowl and stir with a spoon for about 20 seconds.

Dollop into a well greased silicone muffin pan.

Bake at GM6 / 200C for about 25 minutes

To make the egg free muffins omit the egg and add another couple of spoons of milk.

Egg Free Cranberry & White Choc Chip Muffins

Both muffins were rather good, the margarine smell of the liquid disappears and they were light and cakey, with a light crumb.  The egg containing ones rose more.  Both batches were incredibly fragile, it was really hard to get them out of the pan, despite the fact I had greased it well

Review: Stork Easy To Mix Baking Liquid

Pros

• It is so so easy to mix, literally 10 seconds with a wooden spoon, no electric mixer needed
• Baked goods taste just fine with a good texture.
• Dairy free and vegan
• Great for children to use in mixing cakes.
• Great for holidays – weigh the dry ingredients into a jar before you go and add the baking liquid (and egg).

Cons

• Cakes are very very fragile and crumble, you need to use bun cases. A beginner could find this off-putting.
• The top of the bottle gets messy, and there was some drippage.
• Costs 60% more than regular Stork – but is still cheaper than butter

On balance this is not something that I would buy for regular use, but I am pleased to have tried it and can see that it is ideal for some.

Stork Easy Mix Baking Liquid is available from major supermarkets, price £1.59 per 500ml bottle.

Many thanks for the sample of Stork Baking Liquid.

One of the huge bounses of the arrival of Fifi La Firecracker K-Mix is the dramatic increase in the amount of bread that we are baking and eating, and an unexpected side effect is that I now need (knead?) to weigh my ingredients, rather than add the amount that makes the dough “feel right” as I did before, which in turn means that I have bread recipes to blog.

I am sure that some “purist” bakers would argue that there is no substitute for kneading by hand, but for me the Fuss Free ease of weighing everything directly into the K-Mix bowl – then letting the machine do its stuff, whilst I put flour away or load (or unload) the dishwasher – makes making bread a breeze.   I do still knead by hand, but increasingly my wrists hurt, and I hate scraping dough off the worktop.

Personally I love rye bread, but those that are not used to it can sometimes find it a little dark and heavy going; this loaf is made of about 20% rye, making it lighter, and it is a perfect all round bread – delicious warm from the oven, in sandwiches or toasted.

Usually I make the dough last thing in the evening before bed and give it a slow overnight rise in the fridge.  This gives the loaf some sourdough characteristics (without the necessity to keep a sourdough starter alive) and gives the perfect timing for fresh bread at breakfast.    The addition of vitamin C or ascorbic acid strengthens the gluten, and gives a little more “oomph” to a brown loaf, I usually grind one vitamin C tablet with a tablespoon of flour in my coffee grinder – beware that many vitamin C tablets for sale are orange flavoured!

Recipe: “Lighter” Rye Loaf

Makes 1 medium loaf (lasts the 2 of us 2 days)

Ingredients

300ml warm water
1 heaped tsp yeast (dried active – I used the one for hand baking)
250g strong white flour
100g rye flour
100g strong wholewheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbs oil – olive / rapeseed / hemp etc.

Pour the water into bowl, add the yeast and swirl to it is dissolved.  Add the other ingredients.

Knead with the dough hook attachment of your mixer on the lowest speed for about 4 minutes until a smooth stretchy dough has formed (if you knead by hand it will take longer).

Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight. It should more than double in size.

In the morning turn out onto a floured board and gently knock the dough back.  Shape into a loaf and place on a floured silicone mat on a baking tray.  Leave somewhere warm until doubled in size again.

Place in a preheated oven at GM7 / 220C / 425F and bake for about 40 minutes.   For a crustier loaf place a small dish of water in the oven under the loaf.

When it is done it will lift off the sheet and sound hollow when tapped.  It always takes longer than you think it will, so my general rule of thumb is that if you are unsure give it another 5 mins.

Sending this to this month’s Bake Your Own Bread – hosted by Girlichef…

.. and to Yeastspotting.

Easter will be here in a few days and here is a sweet recipe for Easter nests with Jelly Belly “eggs” .

Hop on over to Jelly Belly for the recipe.

Sending this to this month’s Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen and Kate where the theme is Easter.

It can be a hotly debated matter, whether you spread the cream first and top with jam, or the other way round.  The Devonshire way is to put the jam on top of the cream, and the Cornish is to butter, jam, then cream.    I tend towards the Cornish way, but usually omit the butter.   After there is a fine line between greed and sheer gluttony surely?

With some measure of self restraint I adorned my scones with butter and homemade damson jelly.

To make a healthier scone I left out the sugar and added an equal volume of oats in its place.   Oats are pretty good for you, they contain soluble fibre in the form of beta-glucans which can help to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, decrease the GI of the oats, so they fill you up for longer, and keeps everything moving through your gut.    The Fuss Free kitchen gets through a fair quantity of oats; in porridge, cereal and when I remember, I add a handful when baking.   I also use them to thicken smoothies and use oat groats to make soy & oat milk.

With my blog comes a deluge of e-mails and samples, and one of the latest arrivals were some boxes of Mornflake Oats.   Mornflake should know a fair bit about oats, they have been milling in South Cheshire since 1675, making them the longest established miller in the UK.   Nearly 340 years, and 15 generations later, the company is still independent and is run by the descendants of the first miller, William Lea.   That is some impressive milling heritage.

Mornflake are also doing their bit for the planet, and have some top notch sustainable credentials.   Organic for more than 40 years the company has also built a modern wind turbine which powers their mill stones in Scotland and also provides electricity for up to 4,300 homes.   With this they are well on their way to becoming a carbon neutral business.  Hurrah – I love finding out about companies like this!

The Mornflake range also includes quick oats, cereal, granola & muesli, as well as oat bran, oatmeal and some rather attractive homewares.

Recipe: Oaty Scones

Makes 9

225g / 8oz plain flour
2 tbs rolled oats
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
40g / 1.5oz butter
1 large egg
110ml / 4fl oz milk

Preheat the oven to 220C/GM 7 and grease a baking tray  (I usually put a sheet of Cookasheet on the tray).

Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the oats, salt and baking powder and mix well.  Rub in the softened butter.

Crack the egg into a jug and make up to a generous 1/4 pt (150ml).  Pour it into the dry ingredients, reserving 1 tbs for glazing later.    Mix in well.   The dough should be sticky.

Turn out onto a floured surface handling as little as possible, either roll or pat out, until about 1 – 2 cm (1/2 – 3/4″) thick.   Cut with you choice of cutter and transfer to the prepared baking tray.

Brush with the reserved milk and egg mixture.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12 – 15 mins until risen and golden.

Many thanks to Mornflake for my samples.

Sending this to Karen and Kate’s Tea Time Treats where this month Karen is hosting and the theme is scones.

After the success of my green Pavlova for St Chad’s day earlier this month, I risked another green bake with these matcha muffins, flavoured with hazelnut and chocolate.

Instead of regular sugar I used my sample of Tate & Lyle’s Light at Heart, a blend of sugar and stevia, which is twice as sweet as sugar. Tate & Lyle say that therefore you can use half the quantity compared to regular sugar, and therefore have half the calories.    I was little dubious about this, as surely if you halve the sugar in a cake you then need to add some more flour or your solid to liquid ratio will be skewed?  I can see that you will get fewer calories when adding Light at Heart to drinks or on cereal, but surely in a cake, if you take half the sugar out you need to put more of something else in, or you just end up with less cake (which is bad) with the same calories by weight?  (This seems to be bourne out by Suelle in this post).

In the end I made my standard muffin recipe, halving the sugar, but replacing it with extra flour.  These were a great success, just the right amount of sweetness, and the texture was spot on.

If you need to cut down on sugar, or add it to cereal or hot drinks then the light at heart seems to be a good, but expensive (at £2.49 for 450g it is about 5 times the price of regular sugar) substitution.

My muffins were flavoured with matcha (from Teapigs), Cooks & Co hazelnut oil and my old baking favourite Hotel Chocolat’s Liquid Chocolate.   These were delicious with the flavours working really well together.  I am especially impressed with the hazelnut oil, which gave a delicious nutty taste, I am looking forward to using it some more!

Using a mix of plain and spelt flour makes the muffins more “cakey” and short.  I find that increasing the ratio of spelt anymore makes any baked goods too crumbly, although baking with eggs might help with this?   If you do not have soy milk then use normal milk.

Recipe: Vegan Chocolate, Hazelnut & Matcha Muffins

Makes 6

Dry ingredients

100g / 3.5oz plain flour*
100g / 3.5oz spelt flour*
30g / 1oz sugar – I used Tate & Lyle Light at Heart*
1 heaped tsp baking powder
1 heaped tsp matcha
2 tbs Liquid Chocolate  – or finely grated plain chocolate.
Pinch salt

Wet Ingredients

60oz / 2oz hazelnut oil
180g / 6oz milk – soy or diary if you are not vegan

Method
Whisk the oil and milk with a fork.   Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).  Dollop the mixture into your usual muffin pan, sprinkle each muffin with a some chocolate flakes.   Bake at GM5/190C/375F  for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

* If using regular sugar then add 60g / 2oz of sugar and 90g / 3oz of each of the flours.

Thank you to Hotel Chocolat, Teapigs, Cooks & Co and Tate and Lyle for the samples to make these muffins.

And a huge thanks to my friend Judit for the beautiful plate in the photos, which belonged to her late mother, I am hugely enjoying using them!

Sending this to Chele and Choclette’s We Should Cocoa where this month the theme is green!

And another entry month’s Alphabakes where the letter is M.  Thanks to Baking Addict  and Caroline for hosting the challenge.

Don’t forget there are still a few days left to enter this month’s Breakfast Club, over at Makey Cakey, and Frugal Friday at Pigling Bland.

I regard myself as English, and I do not go in for indulging in St Patrick’s day festivities, I simply do not see the need, or want, to use it as an excuse to party.  Anyway, if I desire to paint the town green during  March I have the rather lesser known St Chad, who occupies a special place in my heart.

Like both Oxford and Cambridge, Durham University is run on a collegiate system, although unlike Oxbridge teaching is all done in the department.     Your college is where you live, play and make life long friends.  I am proud to have gone to Durham for 4 years (I stayed an extra year for my masters) and am even more proud to have been a member of St Chad’s College, where the college colour was green.

Not that much is known about St Chad, he was one of 4 brothers, (the other three were rather marvellously called Cedd, Cynibil & Caelin).   He is featured in the works of St Bede and is widely thought to have bought Christianity to the Mercian kingdom.   Chad spent some of his early years at the monastery at Lindisfarne when St Adian was abbot.     He travelled to Ireland and was also abbot of the monasteries of Lastingham and Litchfield.   Chad died of plague on the 2nd of March 672.

The names of these Northumbrian Celtic saints trip off my tongue, and in Durham there are also colleges named after both Adian and Bede.   I wonder how many alumni have more than a scant knowledge of their lives and history.

Being students, St Chad’s day was invariably alcoholic, we started off by drinking and so continued.   The kitchen rose to the spirit of the occasion and provided us with a green breakfast, with copious quantities of green food colouring added to porridge, milk and scrambled eggs (invariably when coupled with the excessive drinking first thing this did lead to some members of the college producing piles of green vomit).

The green meal is a tradition that I have continued with university (and other friends) over the years, and this year I made a green Pavlova.   Green meringue, green cream and green fruit.

Because you cook meringue at a low temperature it keeps its colour well, tint it a shade darker than you want your baked meringue to be.   It is worth investing in gel food colourings, they give deeper and richer colours.

I filled with elderflower cream and topped with green fruit, for a pudding fit for a saint.

Recipe: Green Pavlova for St Chad

Serves 8 – 10

Ingredients

4 egg whites
180– 200g caster sugar – 1.5x the weight of the egg whites
few drops green gel food colouring
edible glitter

200ml double cream
4 tbs icing sugar
4 tbs elderflower cordial
few drops green gel food colouring

Green fruit

Whisk the egg white with 1/2 tsp of the sugar either in a stand mixer, or with a hand held electric whisk until white and frothy.  Add the sugar gradually whisking all the time until the meringue stands in soft peaks.    Add a dab of food colouring, and whisk to check the colour, you want the mix to be a shade darker than you want your finished meringue.

Turn out the meringue onto a sheet of parchment paper on a baking tray and shape into a next about 10″ accross.

Sprinkle with some edible glitter and place in an oven pre heated to GM2 / 300F / 150C, immediately turn the oven down to GM1 / 275F / 140C.  Cook for about 40 – 50 mins.  When the pavlova is hard and sounds hollow when lightly tapped then turn the oven off and allow to cool inside the oven.

Whip the cream, cordial and icing sugar until it holds soft peaks and fill the meringue, then decorate with sliced green fruit.

The unfilled pavlova will keep for a week or so in an airtight tin.

If you must, you could make a green pavlova for St Patrick too.

I leave you with the college hymn, we used to sing cross dresser rather than confessor at the end of the first line!

Sons of St Chad

Sons of St Chad, great Bishop and Confessor,
Called to the Ministry of Christ your Lord;
Sons of St Chad, His love is watching o’er you,
From all eternity the Heavenly Word.

Sons of St Chad! His love is watching o’er you,
As in his worship bright you take your part.
Oh! Let His cross go, all your life, before you:
Bring joy and gladness to His Sacred heart.

Sons of St Chad, while life and health are given to you,
Work: and your minds with sacred learning store.
Through Jesus’ Blood, your sins have been forgiven you;
For you His agony and wounds He bore.

Sons of St Chad! Ambassadors for Jesus,
Ever be firm and true in heart to Him.
From the right hand of the Father still He sees us;
In manhood’s strength, and when the eyes grow dim.

Sons of St Chad! Eternity is dawning;
And soon our glorious Lord shall come again;
Worship and Work; till breaks that wondrous morning
When Chad, and all the Saints, with Him shall reign.

As this is a meringue I can send it to this month’s Alphabakes where the letter is M.  Thanks to Baking Addict  and Caroline for hosting the challenge.

And to Gimme Green at Chef Al Dente

And lastly, I am sending this to Flavours of Russia hosted at Serna’s Garnish Food.  I know that Pavlova is not a Russian dish, but given it was created in honour of Russia’s greatest ever ballerina, Anna Pavlova, I think that it is a suitable submission.

Food politics and choices is a complex issue, is it not?

My vegetable drawer was full of root vegetables, including the ever present swede which comes in my fruit and vegetable bag and languishes at the bottom of the fridge until I crack and put it in the bin.   I abhor food waste, but I have no love for the humble swede, so I tried grating some into my loaf, along with carrots and parsnip.     I’d made tofu the evening before – with my dislike of cow milk I drink soy, and have a soy milk machine which enables me to make fresh tofu in 30 minutes, I’d kept the whey to use in bread.

With a slow overnight rise the resulting loaf was moist, flavoursome with a dense firm crumb.  Delicious oven fresh or toasted the next day.   There was a hint of the vegetables, and the flecks of carrot were visible.    One to be repeated.

Recipe: Root Vegetable Loaf

Makes 1 small loaf

Ingredients

250ml soy milk whey – or water
2 tsp dried yeast
350g strong white bread flour
150g wholemeal bread flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbs rapeseed oil
200g grated root vegetables – I used a mix of carrot, parsnip and swede

Add the yeast to the whey or water and stir.  Add the rest of the ingredients, mixing to a dough.   Knead but had or with the dough hook of your stand mixer until smooth and elastic.    Place into a bowl and cover, place in the fridge for about 12 hours or until doubled in size.

Knock the bread back, shape and place into a oiled 1lb loaf tin.  Allow to rise again.  Bake at GM7 / 220C for about 40 – 50 minutes.

Freezes well.

Sending this to this month’s Frugal Food Fridays – hosted by Gill at Tales of Pigling Bland.

And Breakfast Club where the theme is dairy free – hosted by Ruth at Makey Cakey

And Girlichef’s Bake Your Own Bread

And lastly to Yeastspotting.

Mothering Sunday is fast approaching and here is the first of 3 recipes that Jelly Belly commissioned me to develop for them.

For recipe and instructions hop on over to Jelly Belly!

So the Fuss Free take on the humble wheat biscuit muffin recipe was to adapt my museli muffins made in 2008 from my basic vegan sweet muffin recipe.   My muesli muffin recipe used a mixture of spelt and plain flours, which I also used here. I find spelt flour makes the bake more cakey; I also reduced the sugar and added some maple syrup for flavour.    Throw in some spices and a handful of frozen blueberries ( I first did this in April 2008), and I have my own version of a generic recipe idea that I am free to publish, sell and do as I see fit with.

These were greatly enjoyed on a sunny saturday morning, washed down with lots of coffee.  A fantastic start to the weekend!

Recipe: Wheat (Breakfast Cereal) Biscuit Blueberry Muffins

Makes 6

Dry ingredients

3oz plain flour
3oz spelt flour
1 oz sugar
1 heaped tsp baking powder
½  tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp all spice
1 ½ oz (or 2)  Wheat biscuits – crushed – I used Waitrose Essentials
Pinch salt
Finely grated zest of half a lemon
2oz blueberries (Mine were frozen)

Wet Ingredients

2oz sunflower oil
1½ oz maple syrup
6oz milk – soy or diary if you are not vegan

Method
Whisk the oil, milk and maple syrup mixture with a fork.   Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).  Dollop the mixture into your usual muffin pan, sprinkle each muffin.   Bake at GM5/190C/375F  for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

 

I love the little Chinese Gyoza dumplings.  Both sweet and savoury versions are a regular feature in  my kitchen.      You can make them yourself, but I buy packets of them in Chinatown and keep in the freezer for a quick supper.

Inspired by my homemade tortilla chips I gave the gyoza wrappers the same treatment.    Snappy, crunchy and spicy.  Perfect as they are, or for  dipping, they barely need a recipe.

My latest obsession is chocolate tea make from cocoa bean shavings from Hotel Chocolat, paired with cheese or spices it also makes an excellent gyoza topping.  I am loking forward to further experiments with the shavings.

Recipe: Spicy Chocolate Gyoza Crisps

Place a piece of baking parchment on a tray and lay your gyoza skins out.   Brush with a little olive oil and then sprinkle with your choice of cocoa bean flakes, spices, salt or finely grated Parmesan.

Lightly run your rolling pin over them so the spices stick.

Bake as GM5/ 190C for 5 to 6 minutes until bubbly and crispy.

I made one batch of chocolate, cumin and chilli flakes and another of chocolate and parmesan.

Sending these to this month’s We Should Cocoa where the theme is savoury vegetarian (I know Parmesan is not strictly vegetarian, but substitute with your choice of rennet free Italian hard cheese or just make spicy ones!)

Thanks to  Hotel Chocolat for the Cocoa Bean shavings sample.

I cannot belive how fast the year is galloping past, and we are at the end of January.

Month end also means Fresh From the Oven reveal date, where this month we were challenged by Silvia and Ivan from mushitz, to make bread using the Tangzhong method.

Tangzhong means water roux – and the method was popularised in the 1990s by Yvonne Chen’s book “The 65º C Bread Doctor”.    By making a roux you develop some of the gluten before the bread is baked, and the resulting loaf is very fluffy soft and tender.

The bread was indeed, fluffy, soft and tender and delicious, but was also the stickest dough I have ever worked with, not something that I would have liked to attempt without Fifi, my new and already very loved stand mixer with her trusty dough hook.

I will be making this one again, maybe stuffing the loaf next time.

Thanks to Silvia and Ivan for a fantastic challenge.

Recipe: Tangzhong Bread

Adapted from Christine’s Recipes

For the Tangzhong:

• 30 gr flour;
• 150 gr cold water.

For the Dough:

• 350 gr strong flour;
• 5 gr instant yeast (or 15 gr fresh yeast);
• 55 gr sugar;
• 5 gr salt;
• 1 egg;
• 125 gr milk (buttermilk works too);
• 120 gr tangzhong;
• 30 gr butter, melted and cooled.

For Glazing:

• the rest of the tangzhong – it adds gloss and nice golden colour to the crust during baking.

Prepare the tangzhong. Whisk together cold water and flour (there should be no lumps) and cook over low heat (stirring all the time) until the temperature reaches 65ºC.

If you don’t have a thermometer – no problem – cook until the spoon you’re stirring with leaves a trace. The mixture should have the consistency of something in the middle between crème anglaise and pastry cream.

Leave the tangzhong to cool down at room temperature before using it.

Prepare the dough. Dissolve yeast in the milk. Combine together flour, sugar and salt then add in milk with the yeast, tangzhong and egg. Use your hand or stand mixer equipped with the dough hooks to mix all the ingredients into a soft dough then add in the butter. Let the mixer do the kneading part for 15 – 20 minutes. You can say if the dough is ready by tearing a small piece of it and stretching it to a very thin membrane before it tears. Cover the bowl and leave it to become double in bulk.

Knock the dough down on a lightly floured counter top, give it a quick knead just to let the gas escape, then form it as desired – a loaf or small buns. Transfer to buttered loaf pan or lined with paper sheet pan if making buns. Cover with plastic wrap and let it double in bulk again.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Brush with the rest of the tangzhong and bake for around 30 – 35 minutes until nicely golden.

The first cake of the year, from the Great British Bake Off How to Bake book, and a timely post as the celebrity Great Sport Relief Bake Off is on telly tonight.

A full review of the book is on its way, I am hoping it will have been better edited than the one from the first series which I did not have much success with.

I made the sticky orange cake, using homemade butter (recipe to come) made from greatly reduced double cream.

Recipe: Sticky Orange Marmalade Cake

Ingredients
175g unsalted butter – softened
175 caster sugar
3 large free range eggs – beaten
175g Self Raising flour
pinch salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tbs Seville Orange marmalade
2 tbs milk

To finish
3 tbs marmalade
100g icing sugar
2 tbs warm water

Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / GM4.

Beat the butter with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until creamy.  Gradually beat in the sugar, continue beating until the mixture becomes pale and fluffy.

Gradually add the eggs, beating well all the time.  Add a tbs of flour with the last of the egg.  Sift in the remaining flour, salt and baking powder and gently fold in.   Add the marmalade and milk.

Spoon the mixture into the in and spread evenly.  Bake for about 50 – 55 mins until golden brown and firm to the touch.    Run a round blade knife round the inside of he tin and turn out onto a wire rack.   Warm the second portion of the marmalade and brush over the top of the warm cake.   Leave to cool completely.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the warm water and mix.  Spoon the mix over the cake, letting it run down the sides.  Leave to set before cutting.   Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

I added extra marmalade to the cake, and found that there was far too much icing – halve the quantity.

Recipe reproduced with permission of BBC Books

Sending this recipe to Dom’s random recipes – where this month the challenge is to cook something from your newest cookbook!

I am a bit of a matcha nut, and today am delighted to have some matcha from Teapigs to giveaway.  There is one main prize of a matcha gift set – with matcha, measuring scoop, whisk and shot glass worth £32.50 and a runner up prize of a tin of matcha.

Matcha not only tastes great, but it also contains 15 times as many antioxidants as regular green tea.  Also it is fab for -

• improving condition of skin, hair and nails
• providing a gentle energy boost lasting 4-6 hours
• reducing mental stress and increasing concentration

As well as all that you can use it in baking – try these matcha muffins or madeleines.

Matcha is also great in dressings too.  Here is a dressing from Laura Santtini’s new book Flash Cooking, which was featured in the Sunday Times for their healthy new year’s diet (part 2 is tomorrow).

Far Eastern (Matcha and Lime Yoghurt) Finishing Yoghurt

1 tsp matcha tea
1 tsp chopped chives
grated zest of 1 whole lime and a squeeze of juice
some dried shisho (optional)
3tbsp Greek-style live yoghurt

Try adding a pinch of wasabi for an unexpected ninja kick!

Stir this into soup, or set a dollop in the centre of each bowl, or sit them on the side of a plate to give a refreshing finish to fish, meat, and vegetable dishes. Add the ingredients shown to 3 tablespoons of live Greek-style yoghurt for enough to serve 2-3 people.

Laura Santtini, Flash Cooking: Fit, Fast Flavours for Busy People (Quadrille.£20)

If you want to try some matcha, or anything else from Teapigs, enter FUSSFREE12 at the checkout for a 20% discount.

Win A TeaPigs Matcha Gift Set

How To Enter

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For more prizes see the giveaways page on both Fuss Free Flavours, and Fuss Free Living

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules

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4. There is one main prize of a matcha gift set, and a runner up prize of a tin of matcha.
5. I am running this competition in good faith on behalf of Teapigs, who will be responsible for sending the prize to the winner. Their decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. They reserve the right to substitute the prize for one of a similar type / value if the prize above is not available.
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Good Luck!

Many thanks to Teapigs for the prize and for my tin of matcha.

As a rule I tend not to do trends, and cake pops have only featured on this blog once before.   But I was struck by a, if I might say so, fantastic idea, of a cake pop bauble!

If you google “Cake Pop Bauble” there are bauble cake pops out there, but still on a stick.   I have not seen another hanging bauble non-pop anywhere in the entirety of Foodblog Sphere, which I find pretty darned surprising.

So Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, what I am fairly certain is the first dangling cake non-pop bauble! (Surely the pop is from lollipop – so as there is no stick these are non-pops)

I see all sorts of mileage in these, hearts for Valentine’s day, eggs for Easter, Chinese lanterns.   I am sure that they are probably going to crop up all over the place now, and have probably existed for ages without me noticing them, but, hopefully maybe, once in my blogging life I would have been a baking trend setter.

Firstly make your filling, by mixing up crumbled cake and butter cream, I used Christmas Cake from my Great Supermarket Christmas Cake Taste Test.

Then make your hanging loops, I used bootlace sweets, doubled over and knotted.  Whilst my non-pop baubles were drying 6 out of the 10 snapped.   Doubled up they would work perfectly, or find a slightly stronger or thicker sweet, or make smaller baubles.

Roll a spoonful of cake and buttercream mix into a ball, then poke a hole in it with the scissors and push the knot of the loop in, and roll again the best you can so the loop is sticking out of the top.

Put your naked non-pop baubles into the freezer to chill well before dipping.

For the coating I used red candy melts.   NEVER AGAIN.    I hate candy melts.   I found it really really hard to get the right consistency, and needed to stir like mad after dipping every third pop to get any sort of even coverage.    Next time I will be making a white chocolate ganache and using gel food colouring to dye it.    Works a treat, and tastes far nicer too!

Hang the pops from a dowel to set.   It was at this point that the laces started to break and much swearing ensued.   I was going to decorate them with sprinkles, but had forgotten that I was going out, so ran out of time.

Once set I decorated them using the Mitch Turner Cake Lustres, using a fine paint brush.    I love these lustres, as Sarah said they are like nail polish for cake.   Sadly my artistic skills or the surviving balls and camera I am using  are really not enough to do them justice.

Again, apologies for the photos, my much loved DSLR is at the camera hospital.

Thanks to Baking Mad for the lustres.

sending this to Karen & Kate’s Tea Time Treats, where, surprise surprise the theme is Christmas!

and also English Mum’s Christmas Bakeoff .

I have a bit of a thing for silicone bakeware and I bought the most beautiful petit triskell silicone mould – as well as 4 others -  when on holiday in France in October, but had not quite got round to using any of them.   I had imagined little bite sized madeira cakes flavoured with orange, with white chocolate and pistachios would be the perfect in my new mould.  Sadly, despite copious use of cake release spray, the chocolate drops stuck and my little cakes are not quite as pretty as they could be.

Even so, I love the shape and am quite determined to find the perfect cake for the mould.  Currently I am leaning towards petit triskell madeleines.

They, were however delicious, Ed and I scoffed the entire lot whilst they were still warm.   A 1 egg mix was the perfect quantity for the tray!

Sadly stuck, but you can see how lovely the mould is

The pistachios were a sample from Wonderful Pistachios, as well as the unsalted ones I used, they also come in delicious and very moreish salted, salt & pepper and sweet chilli flavours.   They claim that a visible bowl of shells will make you realise just how many you are eating, which -  in theory at least – means that you do not eat too many.   I am fairly positive that this theory does not work for me.

Recipe: White Chocolate, Orange & Pistachio Petit Triskells

Makes 15 bite sized cakes

Ingredients
2oz / 50g soft butter
2oz / 5og caster sugar
1 egg – free range please
3oz plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder (or use self raising flour)
1 dsp milk
finely grated zest of 1/4 orange
1 tbs white chocolate chips
1tbs roughly chopped pistachio nuts

Method

Preheat the oven to GM4 / 180C / 350F

Using an electric whisk cream together the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy.   Whisk in the egg and 1 tsp of the flour (this stops the mixture curdling).

Fold in the remaining ingredients.

When mixed spoon into well-greased moulds and bake for about 12 minutes, until risen and springy.

Apologies for the photos which are even worse than usual; I dropped my DSLR which is currently with the camera doctor, leaving me praying it will not be too expensive or even terminal.  I am left with using my ancient point and shoot.

Sending this to this month’s We Should Cocoa where the theme is orange.

It has to be said that few people know their own mind as well as a small child, and one particular small child was insistent that he wanted a wolf cake for his birthday party.

6 year old F, who is Ed’s nephew, had already had a bat cake on his actual birthday and the wolf cakes were for his party.   We tried to persuade him to have bat cupcakes, I showed him Sarah’s here, but to no avail.   “But bats are not orange Helly, I want a wolf cake”.  His older sister H, was holding out for the remains of the chocolate orange, but F was not to be persuaded.

“I want a grey wolf cake, but I could also have a yellow or red Ethiopian wolf or a snowy white wolf”.   And apparently Ethiopian wolves do not go grey with age, they stay either yellow or red.

Wolf cakes it was. In a previous year F was equally insistent that he had to have an Easy-jet cake, not BA or any other airline, which required a vat of orange food colouring.

I set to work humming A-Ha to myself.

Given a lack of time I was rather pleased with these, simply pipe a swirl of grey buttercream, then add ears and a nose.   Fangs were cut up mini marshmallows and the eyes gold soft balls from Dr Oetker and the responsibility of my able assistant H.    If I were making these again I would make more prominent eyes using a polka dot with a drop of black food colouring on it.

Both children had a great time practising piping onto a chopping board, we scraped the board clean and refilled the piping bag a good few times.

I have a feeling that with the addition of whiskers these could also work as cat cupcakes?

I have just realised that I do not have a basic cupcake recipe on the site!  Time to write one!

Once again it is the end of the month, and there is another Fresh From the Oven Challenge, this month panettone, chosen by Sarah at Maison Cupcake.   I am doubly proud of myself this month as I have both: -

• Made it on time
• Posted it on time

I am still suffering from the dreaded blog backlog, and despite never learning from my mistakes, already have much of my January content planned (it is a themed month which I am really looking forward to).

Christmas has come early in the Fuss Free kitchen, and I’d like to introduce you to Fifi La Firecracker, who arrived on Friday.

I am already smitten, and the very pretty Fifi (everyone does name their stand mixers surely?) has been put through her paces several times making dough, cupcakes and buttercream.   I am very very lucky, and very appreciative to Kenwood who gave me the mixer for review and extensive testing.

I have already realised that I need slightly relearn making bread, as I up until now I have done it by feel, not appearance.  Already I realise one of the major benefits of a stand mixer is that I can leave Fifi to do her stuff whilst I fill the dishwasher, wash up or put things back in the cupboards.

Back to the panettone, which was delicious, although mine was slightly heavy, caused either by out of date and thus sluggish yeast, or overzealous kneading in the mixer.     Sarah suggested using an Ikea cutlery drainer in place of a panettone tin, I have neither so baked in a standard loaf tin, not as pretty, but does the job perfectly.   I added raisins, chopped dried apricots, and chocolate drops (suggested by the GBBO book).  Usually I am a  fan of chocolate, but it did not quite do it for me here.  Next time I make panettone I think I’ll leave it out.  Sarah’s recipe, directly from the challenge is below.

Recipe: Panettone no.1

(based on involved version from “Great British Bake Off: How to Bake”)

Makes 1 large loaf

Ingredients:

7g sachet dried yeast

400g strong white bread flour

75g caster sugar

2 large free range eggs plus 2 egg yolks at room temperature

3 tablespoons lukewarm water

half teaspoon vanilla extract

finely grated zest of one unwaxed orange and one unwaxed lemon

half teaspoon salt

175g softened unsalted butter

75g sultanas (I made up the weight with raisins too)

50g candied orange, diced or finely chopped

50g dark chocolate chips (or more fruit)

40g unsalted butter to finish

Makes enough to fill a 15cm tall cake tin or panettone mould. Bear this in mind if improvising with smaller round tins.

Directions:

1. Mix 125g of the weighed flour with the yeast and sugar in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer and make a well in the centre. Mix the two whole eggs with the water and pour into the well.

2. Using your hands or a dough hook, mix the flour into the liquid to make a smooth thick batter. Sprinkled a little of the remaining weighed flour over the top of the batter to prevent a skin forming then leave in a warm place for around an hour or until the batter is very bubbly. (Mine expanded but didn’t go bubbly. It was fine).

Missing bit: Stir in the egg yolks, vanilla and grated zest using your hand or dough hook. Gradually work in 175g flour plus the salt to make a soft sticky dough.

3. Next add the softened butter and work in with your fingers or the dough hook on a slow speed. Beat until the butter is incorporated with no streaks.

4. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead thoroughly by hand for ten minutes  (or use the dough hook for 3-4 minutes) working in the remainder of the weighed flour to make a satiny soft pliable non-sticky dough. Depending on the flour, you may not need it all or you may need a little more. (Mine was fine).

5. Cover the bowl with cling film (I used a tea towel as well, mainly because it feels “rustic”) and leave to rise at room temperature until doubled in size, probably 2 to 2.5 hours. Don’t leave in a very warm place as the butter will melt.

6. Next uncover the dough and punch down to deflate. Cover again and let it double in size again (1 to 1.5 hours although I left mine 2 whilst we had Sunday lunch).

7. Meanwhile combine the sultanas with the chopped peel and chocolate chips. Stir in a teaspoon of flour to stop it clumping in the dough.

8. Prepare the tin by lining with parchment paper. The paper should extend 5cm higher than the height of the tin.

9. Punch down the risen dough again and turn onto a floured surface; sprinkle the fruit and chocolate mixture on top and work into the dough gently until evenly distributed.

10. Shape the dough into a ball and gently drop into the prepared tin. Cut a cross into the top. Lay a sheet of clingfilm loosely over the top of the tin and leave for another hour or so until doubled in size again.

11. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 200c / 400f / gas 6. When ready to bake, melt 15g of the butter for finishing and brush it over the risen dough. Put a knob of butter in the centre of the cross.

12. Bake for 10 minutes or until just starting to colour, then brush again with melted butter. Reduce the temperature to 180c / 350f / gas 4 and bake for a further 40 minutes until a good golden brown and a skewer inserted to the centre comes out clean. (My loaf was going very brown after 30 mins and I had to cover with foil to stop it burning).

13. Remove from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack. Allow to cool for a few minutes before teasing it out of the tin. If your crust is fragile allow to cool further before removing from tin.

14. Cool completely before slicing.

If you blog and are starting to think about next year, and new year’s resolutions then why not sign up to join Fresh From the Oven?

And once again, a huge thanks to Kenwood for my shiny stripy Fifi La Firecracker K-Mix!