Sweet Bread Rolls

Ingredients

550 grams of flour of which one cup is made up of mąka tortowa [around 125 grams], a Polish cake flour and the rest with Allinson bread flour - just over 4 cups of flour in total. Four cups of flour would have a weight of about 520 grams.

2 medium size eggs plus 2 medium egg yolks

100 grams or half a cup of caster sugar

113 grams or a stick of butter or 4 oz of butter - melted

3/4 cup or 6 fl oz or three quarter cup whole milk - full fat milk

2 tsp vanilla paste 

50 grams fresh yeast

half teaspoon of Himalayan salt

I place the yeast into the warm milk [around 40 C] and when the yeast starts to bubble, I pour the mixture into the bread mixture which has all the rest of the other ingredients. 

I hand knead all the ingredients together and allow the dough to rise and double in size. I then knead the dough and divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and knead each portion again and allow the rolls to rise and double in size in my silicon bun tray for a second time.

I then bake the bread rolls in a preheated convectional oven [fan switched off] at 200 C for 20 minutes until the rolls are cooked. 

Preparation and baking time = 3 hours

I turned the rolls out of the silicon mould and baked them upside down for 3 minutes to give the bottom a good browning. 

Evaluation:  The bread rolls are light and fluffy and not sweet.  The vanilla flavour is not over the top and I think adding some orange flavour into the dough for the poppy seed roll will make it taste delicious. 

Gingerbread House

Well at last I have finished decorating my Christmas gingerbread house.  I have been taken by the Americans decorating gingerbread houses and it started in Germany in the 1800's.

It is really fun decorating this gingerbread house.  It is nothing artistic, it is just fun and I can do whatever I want.

Here are the pictures of the gingerbread house which I have decorated today.

First decorate the panels of the house and other objects and allow the icing to dry.  When the decorations of the panels and objects have dried then glue them together. 

I have given you the gingerbread recipe already. What you need now is the icing recipe.  This icing is called Royal Icing and it is a wonderful icing for gluing things together.

Royal Icing

50 grams or a quarter cup of egg whites - from about one and a half eggs

up to 500 grams of sifted icing sugar = those without cornflour or egg whites or glucose - just pure icing sugar - you will use less but just in case

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Whisk the egg whites until foamy and then add the cream of tartar.  Continue beating the egg whites at full speed [and do use an electric beater - I used a handheld beater].  You really need to whisk the egg whites and icing sugar until firm peaks.  You keep adding the sifted icing sugar until this stage. Then store the icing as needed in an airtight container.

For piping decorations such a pearls or door or window frame - use soft peak consistency.  For gluing the panels together, use stiff peak consistency.  When you pull the icing it actually stands firm - and this is stiff peak consistency. 

I will retake pictures of the gingerbread tomorrow when there is enough sunlight to give it a natural look and repost the pictures. 

And finally a big thank you to Dr Marie for providing all those sweets on the gingerbread house.  

The preparation continues for Christmas

I heard last night when I went to Sunday Mass that during this time of Advent we are waiting for the second coming of Christ.  Fr Darius said the Jews did not believe Jesus was the messiah just like the way we could not believe Jesus would be coming again.  I thought what Fr Darius said was true.  So today during silent prayer, I prayed "Come Jesus Come!"

I really like Sunday as I do not have to go to Mass and this means I can get up to no good early in the morning until all my ideas got to pot.  LOL  So here is where I am at the moment with my Christmas cake.

I have a dilemma about to do with the side of the cake.  The cake is so elegant and I really do not want to do anything stupid on the side and ruin the cake.  So I ask Dr Marie and get some ideas from her - you see she is a rather classy lady and she would know.  Dr Marie has been on this surface of the earth for nearly 83 years, still going strong, have parties practically everyday, and still working as a GP - imagine!  

So I took the cake with me and brought it to her home this early afternoon and she told me to leave the side of the cake blank. 

That gold leaves on the cake came from Dr Marie.  I gave her some of the Christmas biscuits and while eating the biscuits yesterday, she asked me about the possibility of putting gold leaves on the Christmas cake.  I have a "нет" mentality - said as 'nyeht' - and I would always say no initially regardless!   Don't you think Dr Marie's idea of gold leaves make the cake look like a million dollar cake?  So I will follow her advice and leave the side blank.

While playing in the kitchen, I have tried to make some leaves for Owen's birthday cake for January 2015 and I came up with these leaves.

I believe in having a simple life and use as few tools to make beautiful cakes.  So I dry my sugar craft flowers, leaves and other items on any thing I can find in my kitchen.  You see I dry these leaves on my bundt baking tin to give the leaves some "movement".  There is no need to buy those drying mats you see in cake craft shops or the Internet. The gum paste will not stick to metal objects such as baking tins or silicon baking trays.

In addition, I do not buy any silicon veiners, which cost an arm and a leg, but use a Dresden tool to make the veins on the leaves. This means every leaf is different, like real leaves. 

And now these leaves have dried and I am trying them out for size on the same cake tin which will be used to make Owen's cake.  

I love those large extravagant leaves which seem so outrageous.  Dr Marie thought I should make shamrocks instead of these large vine leaves.  

Do you like the green colour?  

I went to Lakeland and bought their Christmas colours sugar paste at about nearly £5 for a set of five colours.  I then dropped off at Waitrose around the corner and saw they were selling five colours for £2.  So I bought the Waitrose coloured sugar paste and returned the Lakeland colours.  I then mixed the green, yellow and blue sugar paste together and add a little of my Wilton leaf green gel to get the above colour. To turn the sugar paste into gum paste, I added more than a teaspoon of gum tragacanth to the mixed coloured paste as the combined weight of the three colours was 300 grams.  You would normally add one teaspoon of gum tragacanth to 225 grams of roll fondant icing [also known as sugar paste] to get gum paste.

So the moral of this posting is that you do not need to buy everything you see in the cake craft shops and try to use what you already have in your home.  This is my strategy for living a simple life. 

May God bless you on this 'Pink' Sunday!  Let us rejoice and be glad for our Lord is coming with power and might. Amen. 

Preparing for Christmas - in my kitchen

The Advent season leading to Christmas is such fun for me and here are some of my activities.  I have prepared some flowers to decorate my Christmas cake; covered the Christmas cake with marzipan; making Christmas biscuits etc.  Here are photos to show some of my activities. 

Technically, we prepare for Christmas not by doing kitchen activities or going shopping or buying presents on-line - BUT by getting rid of the rubbish in our hearts and clearing a space for Jesus to be born in us so we can proclaim his love for others.  These kitchen activities are well and good, but if I am unable to do everything with all my heart for the greater glory of God, these activities are all a waste of time.  

With this in mind, I still have loads to do.  I must make some fresh Royal Icing and decorate the panels of my gingerbread house and also finish decorating the flowers by adding details.  The flowers you see in the pictures above are inspired by Mich Turner MBE and I like the way she mixes old and new together to get something better.  Her husband and children must be so trilled to have a wife and mother like Mich.  

Christmas Patties or rather Christmas biscuits

Jamie Oliver wrote in the Sunday Times Magazine on 23 November 2014 about his mince pie cookies [biscuits in English] and shared his recipe.  On the way to Holy Mass at six something in the morning, Dr Marie shared this with me and she called them Jamie's patties.

These biscuits are not patties but isn't it wonderful to call them Christmas patties.  Jamie Oliver wrote in the Sunday Times Magazine that these biscuits could have a good shot at converting people who were averse to mince pies to eating our seasonal food.

I have changed a number of things and these are really no longer Jamie's cookies but just Christmas patties or Christmas biscuits.

Ingredients

250 grams unsalted butter
60 grams molasses sugar
60 grams soft dark brown sugar
1 free range large egg yolk
30 grams of homemade orange peel, diced finely
250 grams 00 flour
50 grams custard powder
1 full jar of a 14 oz [411 grams] mince meat

1. Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy and all the sugars have dissolved.
2. Add the egg yolk and diced orange peel and continue to beat the mixture.
3. Add the whole jar of mince meat and continue to mix.
4. Fold in the flour and custard powder mixture which have been sifted.
5. Prepare 3 large baking trays and line them with parchment paper or silicon sheets.
6. Pipe the biscuit mixture [I use Kaiser 13 mm 39-8 piping tube to pipe these biscuits.] onto these trays.  You could use two spoons to put spoonfuls of dough on the baking tray if you are averse to piping.  One could make 45 of these biscuits.
7. Refrigerate the uncooked biscuits in your fridge for several hours or even over night and bake them when you need them.
8. Turn the oven on to 180 C or 350 F - with the fan switched off.
9. Bake the biscuits one tray at a time for about 15 - 17 minutes, straight from the fridge. Let the biscuits be a little doughy in the middle. 
10. It is best eaten hot from the oven - it is seriously delicious. 
11. Cool the biscuits on cooling trays and store them in airtight containers until required.  These biscuits can be reheated.  However, I would bake them straight from the fridge if I were you. 

So thank you Jamie and I hope you do not mind my making changes to your recipe to suit my taste buds.  

 

Gingerbread Biscuits

At this time of the year, many people are making gingerbread in order to make gingerbread house or gingerbread biscuits. 

I have just made a batch of gingerbread, using an American recipe, with an intention of making and decorating a gingerbread house for Christmas. 

Gingerbread 2014 Christmas

         390 grams 00 flour plus more for dusting [3 cups]

         ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

         2 tsp ground ginger

         1 tsp ground cinnamon

         ½ tsp ground cloves

         ½ tsp mixed spice

         113 gram unsalted butter [half a cup or 4 oz or one stick]

         113 grams Billington’s molasses sugar – for a sweeter biscuit use light or dark brown sugar [a little more than half a cup; 4 oz]

         1 large egg 64 grams with shell – beaten

          250 grams treacle – for a sweeter biscuit use Golden Syrup or Grandma’s molasses [between two third - three quarter of a cup]

1.       Sift all the dry ingredients together twice – flour, spices and rising agent – this is to ensure all the spices and raising agent are mixed in well with the flour

2.       Beat the butter and molasses sugar until it is creamy and smooth

3.       Then add in the treacle and beat until well combined with butter and sugar

4.       Then beat in the egg and continue to mix until well combine and the sugar has dissolved

5.       Then fold in the flour mixture in three batches

6.       Divide the dough into two portions, wrap with cling film and chill the dough in the fridge overnight to firm up

7.       Roll the dough to ¼ inch thick, cut into biscuit size pieces, place these on a lined baking tray and then chill the uncooked biscuits – this will prevent the biscuits from expanding during the baking process

8.       Then bake the biscuits cold from the fridge in a preheated 160 C convectional oven [fan switched off] for 20 minutes on baking trays or baking sheets and when the tops of the biscuits are firm to touch [not burn on the sides!], remove the biscuits from the oven and cool on a cooling rack. 

9.       However, for more crispy gingerbread biscuit, then bake them a little longer.  The more crispy biscuits could be used for hanging on Christmas trees. 

10.   Gingerbread house: I baked the biscuits using a Wilton metal mould at 160 C convectional oven with fan switched off for 22 mins, or until the tops of the gingerbread are firm to touch.  I allowed the gingerbread to cool in the mould for 6 minutes before removing it with the aid of a cooling tray.