The Handmade Bakery

Wow, what a day.....

Yesterday I took part in the Handmade Bakery's Baking at Home course and it was Brilliant.

Dan and Matt led most of the course, and we all learned so much from their experience and knowledge. I came home with an enormous amount of bread, inspiration, excitement and a new apron (Bonus!).

We started the day with bread and butter and discussion about different techniques of bread making and introductions by the class. The class were very enthusiastic to learn to bake better, healthier bread and this enthusiasm only developed during the day as we made a white dough and granary dough by the sponge and dough method, a fruited and spiced dough and came home heavily laden with a baguette, a rosemary fougasse, white seeded rolls, granary rolls, a granary baton and two fruited loaves.

Am on a campaign to get Mr Hungry to let me book onto the next course in June......

Watch this space.

Springtime Ahoy!

As the snow has finally melted away thoughts turn to the hope of Spring and planning out the best use for the humble estate at the Hungry House (by humble I mean miniature). Have ordered seeds and will soon be making paper pots with my Paperpotter (a brilliant wee gadget which helps to make seedling pots out of strips of old newspaper- genius. Take a look at http://www.thegardenersshop.co.uk/paper-potter---seed-pot-maker-75-p.asp).

So I'm waiting on a big parcel from Thompson and Morgan of Broad Beans, Peas, Mangetouts, Nasturtium (first time I've grown these as a salad crop), Courgettes, Chard, Rocket, Shallots, Radish (also my first time*), Garlic and many many more.

Exciting. Now I've just got to wait for Spring to happen (and as today has been one of those days where the sun seemingly comes up but it never gets light- I may be waiting some time).

*My sister one year accidentally managed to grow 17lb of radish.... being an imaginative individual she soon brought round radish wine..... in a big demi john.... 8 pints of it. Peppery. Odd.

Bread Bread Bread!

Am so excited, am going on a bread course at the Handmade Bakery this weekend.... Can't Wait!! Watch this space for photos of my creations!
Check out their website via the link on the right hand side of this page. They make such amazing bread, can't wait to pick up some tips.

Granola

Thinking of toasted oats today so decided to make Granola, seems fitting to the hibernation mode I find myself in.

In a big bowl mix together 12oz Rolled Oats, 5oz Wheat Bran, 5oz Seed Mix (Pumpkin, Sesame, Sunflower, Linseed), 5oz Pecans and 1 oz Brown Sugar.

Then combine in 6 floz Maple Syrup and 4 floz Olive Oil in a jug and pour onto the dry ingredients.

Mix thoroughly and toast under the grill in batches.

Very moreish, great for nibbling as well as having on yoghurt with fruit for breakfast.

School Dinner Nightmares.

I was thinking about the way sprouts were so ruined for me by school dinners. Similar thoughts do come up in conversation occasionally and having made no new years resolutions I'm thinking about tackling some of these ruined foods and reclaiming them. For instance- its taken me a long time to manage to eat a fish cake. Anyone else remember those grey patties of unidentifiable stuff? Grim. Very grim.

My husband loved the 'Chicken' pie (there's no way those cubes were actual chicken....). And I have lovehate feelings towards those enormous pieces of sponge (plain, ginger, chocolate, treacle, lemon) smothered in quickly congealing custard, on special days this might even be pink custard- what was that about- really... Remember cheese pinwheels? And bad bad bad macaroni cheese. Also, cauliflower- why take a wonderful vegetable and boil it to within an inch of its life- why why why do this to us?

I took advice recently to try thinly slicing Spam and frying it, I was told this would be just like bacon. Not true. It is still as bad as you remember- the spam fritter has now been identified as one item I never never never ever need to re visit.

So I may undertake a small project in 2010- to recreate quality versions of those awful foodstuffs eaten off plastic plates in noisy rooms, with not quite clean cutlery, sitting opposite a child who's parents haven't seen fit to teach it how to blow their nose, tottering with a tray laden with runny gravy and toxic orange squash, skidding on trodden on chips and spilled custard.

Any ideas? Anything you think I should have a go at? Fishcakes is easy place to start.... watch this space.

Greens Wonderful Greens, The Answer to the January Blues?

As supplies of Christmas chocolate dwindle so begins the inevitable return to the daily task of cooking for sustenance. Cripes. Have I forgotten how to do this?

So I turn to my old faithful friends the green vegetables- my favourite to turn to in times of culinary crisis.

I love cabbage, any kind of cabbage or related veg (including Sprouts- although I found a love for these later in life- if you hate sprouts try halving them and flash frying them in plenty of butter with a generous sprinkle of pepper. The memories of the mushy grey threat of school dinner sprouts will melt away in the face of these fresh nutty crunchy little morsels of yumminess! Give it a go- it might just change your view of the mini cabbage heroes.)

To give my daily cooking a kick start into the new year a big pan of green soup is on the go, taking advantage of the brilliantness of frozen veg too. I'm going for Onion, Garlic, Spinach, Brocoli, Mange Toutes and the new kid on the block but proving very popular Curly Kale. Yummers.

To go with the green soupy saviour I'm making some cornmeal muffins. Again these are real comfort food for me. My mum was a great believer in keeping up blood sugar levels and would always feed me when I got home from school (to this day my blood sugar is always at its lowest around 3pm and I feed myself a treat at this time of day to get me through the last couple of hours of work) and cornmeal muffins were a favourite. These are also very good for breakfast, alongside a poached egg and some crispy bacon. I love the grittiness of the cornmeal between my teeth.


To make the muffins;
Mix together 100g Plain Flour, 100g Cornmeal, 1 tablespoon Baking Powder, 75g Grated Cheese, Seasoning (i've used Smoked Paprika and Wholegrain Mustard). Add to this 300ml Milk, 50ml Olive Oil (or melted Butter), and 2 Eggs. Mix quickly and pour into 6 large muffin tins. Bake at gas 7 for 20 mins.

Pop open and spread with butter while still warm. Divine.

Christmas treats!

These were brought to us by a lovely friend....

A lot of them got eaten before I could take a photo though.

The epitome of Christmas charm.

Thanks Mate
XXx