baking & the store cupboard

thriftlady_2

I second Mary Berry for baking books. I have her Ultimate Cake Book and nothing has ever failed from it.

These are really, really easy biscuits -honest They're from the above book.

Fork Biscuits

makes about 16

Grease 2 baking trays

beat together with an electric beater until well combined
4 oz soft butter
2 oz sugar

add
5 oz self-raising flour

continue beating until the mixture clumps together.
Bring it all together with your hands.

pat out into a round lump and divide into 8 with a knife.
Divide the eighths in 2 and roll into balls about the size of a walnut.

Place balls on trays well apart and flatten slightly with your hands. Use a fork to make ridges in each biscuit (this doesn't affect the taste of the biscuit at all but they wouldn't be fork biscuits if you didn't do it )

Bake at 180º c for 15-20 mins. they should be a pale gold colour.
Leave them to cool on the baking sheets before trying to move them.

variaition -chocolate fork biscuits
replace ½ oz flour with ½ oz cocoa powder.

poodlehorse

If you have All Bran or don't mind buying some (supermarket's own of course!) then these are easy and very good, I made 12 full size muffins and they were really filling and would be great for brekkie but otherwise I might make mini ones in future as they are a bit moreish and I can't bear to half them. from recipezaar

Mincemeat Muffins Recipe #149163

3/4 cup oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 cup all-bran cereal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mincemeat

12 -24 muffins Change size or US/metric
Change to: -24 muffins US Metric

40 minutes 15 mins prep

Preheat oven to 350° and grease muffin pan.
In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients; mix well.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin, filling to the top.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Firehorse

"I seem to rifle through unlimited recipes and either they involve something I dont have, so i cant make them..... "



Having been married to a chef, my attitude to recipes has changed over the years. I'm sure many people would agree....recipes are only ever a guideline. A suggestion of something tempting to make.

As long as you follow the "essence", then the rest is ad-lib, so to speak. If I think I have 90% of the ingredients and it would work, I'll try it.

Be brave, dont' always stick rigidly to the guidelines.

poodlehorse

or send off for the Be-ro book, good old fashioned baking recipes in there and good price too.

lynzpower

no we just got sick of flapjacks! I tried every variation - coconut, fruit & nut, cherry etc.

I was able to do black saturns fruit cake- that ones nice & easy .

Cheers for the thoughts, I think its probably because Im not the most patient chef & folding, beating, whisking etc, just takes ages.

Im inclined to buy a food processor- they do this sort of thing dont they. I dont need it to chop stuff, but creaming/ folding/ rubbing, I do find difficult- I thought it might be good to do pastry in as well?

twink

not if you have the fast cakes book lynzpower its bung it in the bowl, beat two mins and bung it in the oven

exlibris

Custard powder

Try mixing it with Birds (the only one we like) Try a third grot powder to 2thirds Birds at first. If you can eat this then increase the quantity of grot to say half. It will soon go!

newlywed

Good food mag used custard powder in fairy cakes - just a couple of table spoons added some different flavour to the cakes. OH and kids loved them.

My favourite is chuck it all in cakes, I don't even use the food processor for it as it's too much hassle to wash up.

Put 100g SR flour, 100g caster sugar (or mixture of what you have got), 100g soft marge and 2 eggs (which is about 100g). Mix all up with a spoon till its all smooth (with soft marge its not too difficult), bung in a greased tin or glass dish and bake (about half an hour) or microwave (about 4 mins or so)

You can put a layer of cherries in the bottom, add chocolate chips, bung in about 20g cocoa powder, put sultanas and syrup in the bottom, chopped pineapple, jam, sliced apples - anything you fancy

You can also spoon the same mixture into paper cases and cook for a shorter time.

lynzpower

exlibris wrote: »

Custard powder

Try mixing it with Birds (the only one we like) Try a third grot powder to 2thirds Birds at first. If you can eat this then increase the quantity of grot to say half. It will soon go!

whats grot? ( apart from what I usually bake :rotfl: )

poodlehorse

lynzpower wrote: »

no we just got sick of flapjacks! I tried every variation - coconut, fruit & nut, cherry etc.

I was able to do black saturns fruit cake- that ones nice & easy .

Cheers for the thoughts, I think its probably because Im not the most patient chef & folding, beating, whisking etc, just takes ages.

Im inclined to buy a food processor- they do this sort of thing dont they. I dont need it to chop stuff, but creaming/ folding/ rubbing, I do find difficult- I thought it might be good to do pastry in as well?

You would love a Kenwood Chef then, does all the hard work for you. My mum has one she now never uses so I managed to get her to give it to me once my kitchen is built. I can't WAIT!! I just need to find out what model it is so I can see what accessories I can get for it, I know she has the mincer already. I was salivating over a new one on Ebay today and the lucky sod got a brand new KM001 for £127 plus delivery. If mum hadn't promised me hers I would have been bidding like a woman possessed on that one. Get thee to a carboot and find one! Or alternatively I will have a Kenwood chefette going begging very soon.:D Old but still in perfect nick