Roll for the Soul

It has a ring to it, Rooollll for the Soooooul. But that's later.

However, my day started with this yesterday. It was quite warm, I fed my sourdough starter and went to work. Did anyone else love the Ladybird book of "The Magic Porridge Pot" as a child? I did, whoops! 

I mixed up my dough for my second loaf and left it to raise overnight in the fridge. What a calming and therapeutic way to spend Friday night, an hour between each fold and prove, so it fitted in with a lazy end of week evening fabulously. It may become a habit. Me and my sourdough like two peas in a pod.

The oven was pre heated with baking stone in situ fairly early on Saturday and I baked my second ever loaf of decent sourdough (see here sourdough loaf number one) It cooled for about an hour and made just the best ever bacon, mushroom and watercress/rocket sandwich.

After all those calories (bread and butter also!) we needed some exercise, the forecast was so good we decided to go and explore Bristol some more and be a little daring by trying to find the cycle routes in the busy traffic areas. Long Ashton to the Harbourside along the Festival Way is an old friend now, but I didn't know the cobbled section along by the river is called Chocolate Way, as the long section of squared cobbles is very chocolatey! Those cobbles are nothing compared to the boneshakers on Welsh Back alongside the harbour near Queen's Square. I'm not convinced that a) I still have any fillings or b) any bolt is still firmly bolted on my bike. We weaved and wandered and locked the bikes up and found the Corn Exchange and St Nick's Markets. I am slowly working out Bristol geography. I use an app called Endomondo for tracking some rides, it's good to have a history of where you have been, how far, how many miles and how much ascent/descent. I still find it spooky being followed by Big Brother though.

But we rocked up at Roll for the Soul community bike café. In a slightly out of the way location in Quay St but a great industrial feel. A mainly organic and moderately priced middle eastern inspired vegetarian and vegan menu with quality coffee and local beer and cider. They have cake.... we ate cake. It would have been rude not to, brownie and rhubarb tart. The workshop is surprisingly upstairs, but it was a lovely pit-stop with friendly welcoming staff. They have bands, and events and a big screen for biking events. Roll on Le Tour! I loved the poster wall too.

We went back across the harbour and looped off to find the award winning  Pump House housed on the waterside in Hotwells, a Victorian Pumping Station in a past life. Superb setting, and given it is the sister pub of Long Ashton's Bird in Hand we have to return to try the food. Today just a very pleasant chilled Ashton Press cider sat outside watching dinghies tacking and gybing in the harbour.

 We wandered home, a nearly 13 mile trip according to Endomondo, that didn't seem any distance at all.

 I love sourdough bread and cycling.

Sourdough bread

My first successful sourdough loaf

I have made bread for 15 years for my family, in a bread machine. I throw in the ingredients as I go to bed and awake to a beautiful fresh and preservative/additive free loaf. It is quite challenging to make all the lunchbox sandwiches not as doorsteps, as the bread is hard to slice when warm. It's quicker and cheaper than shop bought too, as we don't have a large freezer. I could sit and eat my half white half wholemeal bread all day. However, as the baking resurgence gathers pace, I have had an increasing need to investigate all this sourdough bakery, or bread made with no added yeast. Sourdough is made from leaven, a flour and water batter that cultivates the natural yeasts in the air. Allegedly every culture aquires a different "taste" from it's surroundings. I have had the odd slice of sourdough in a restaurant but I have never bought a loaf, the time invested in a loaf has to be paid for and my home made bread in the machine is just fine. Well that was my excuse.

But the challenge niggled away, as not much defeats me baking wise. Sure macarons were a heck of a challenge but I can  make a passable batch now. A couple of years ago I made a sourdough starter, dividing and feeding it but now I know I was not precise enough, and it obviously went off, or I used too much expired ferment and the taste of the loaf was just revolting, I also didn't feed it enough flour. If that's what home made sourdough tastes like I was not interested. Skip two years and I happen to see Vanessa Kimbell, the sourdough queen, was offering 10 prizes of  her sourdough starter culture on twitter, she uses a starter that is over 100 years old and originated from the South of France. How romantic! I retweeted, commented on her blog and thought of it no more until she emailed me the next day that I was a lucky winner. You would think I had won the lottery. It really made my day.

I set to researching online, every recipe and video seemed to demonstrate a totally different method, many totally contradicting each other. For some the sourdough starter needs to be refreshed and used 8-12 hours later when most active, and others say at least 24 hours after being refreshed. I had a week to prepare myself, so I bought a round banneton proving basket from the Kitchen shop in Clifton, Bristol, they are also available at Bakery Bits. I also bought a Mason Cash baking stone and set too seasoning it. Last Saturday this lovely package arrived, wrapped in brown paper and tied with string with a very helpful instruction sheet from Vanessa on how to keep and nurture my starter.

I made a 1:1 starter by refreshing the sample. Mix 200g organic flour with 200g (or 200ml) water, preferably filtered, boiled and cooled or stood for a day and add 2 tablespoons of the culture and stir. I keep mine in a kilner jar or Vanessa recommends a stoneware jar. I put the rest of the culture, labelled, in the freezer just in case. It's best to use rye flour for every other refresh. I put the starter in the fridge after a day, as I wasn't baking until today (Friday). Yesterday morning (Thursday) I refreshed the starter and left to stand for 8-12 hours, ie until after work. I used this Hobbs House You Tube as the basic recipe, adding on and adapting bits I had read from River Cottage Bread book, and Carl Legge has helped me a lot with detailed tips and tricks and patient advice on twitter. Carl is the author of the Permaculture Kitchen. 

How I made my first sourdough loaf recipe:

460g Strong White Bread flour
300g soughdough starter
10g seasalt
230ml warm water

I measured the water and weighed it in the jug and then added the correct weight of starter, which floats when it is active. The rest of the starter went back in the fridge for next time.

I then added the water/sourdough leaven to the flour and salt in a large bowl and worked it together, I didn't have the specialist bread scraper so I used a wooden spoon and then I oiled my hands and delved in. I turned out onto a lightly oiled work surface, you don't want to be adding extra flour. It is sticky, but you just knead as well as you can for 10-15 minutes until the dough is much easier to handle.

Form into a ball and plop into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Place in airing cupboard or warm place for an hour. Remove.

Stretch the dough out and fold into thirds, pinching the edges closed to trap air, form into tight ball and back in the airing cupboard covered again for another hour. Repeat 1-2 times  more and the last time I placed the tightly worked ball of dough (after sprinkling with rye flour) into a very well floured (rye flour again) banneton basket, placed in a plastic bag and left in the fridge overnight for 12 hours until doubled in size, it doesn't matter a bit less or more time. In the morning it looked like this:

I had also sprinkled some rye flour on top.

I preheated the oven with the baking stone in from cold at the maximum temperature 230 degrees in my fan oven, for 40 minutes. At the same time I took my bread basket out of the fridge so the dough came up to room temperature before baking. I carefully turned and eased the bread out onto the stone, and cut the top with scissors, apparantly an authentic baker has a grignette. Don't they look gruesome?! Slashing the dough is important so the steam can escape and the sourdough puff up without restriction. Get the stone (using oven gloves!) back into the oven quickly and bake for 30-40 minutes, some say spray the oven with water but I flicked in some water. Some cover with a large preheated oven proof pan or iron casserole, or a special (expensive) Dutch oven, a baking stone with terracotta dome lid. The ultimate dream is a bread oven.

 My loaf had 35 minutes, I turned at 20 minutes as my fan oven is uneven. It looks fantastic!

 I put it on a wire rack and looked at it cooling and tweeted my excitement for half an hour.

 

I decided to eat my salad I had made for lunch whilst I waited. Some sourdough aficionados say the bread should be totally cold before eating. sorry, that was impossible.

 I dived in. Here is the "crumb" shot. It should technically be holier, but Carl said it was very good for a first attempt. More folding and a slightly wetter dough will give a holier crumb (like the edge holes), but then it is harder to handle. Next time....

I slathered a slice in butter and devoured. It was amazing, a crisp and crunchy crust, tasty and very slightly chewy on the inside, none of the harsh bitter taste of my initial attempts two years ago. The faintest slight tang. Two more slices followed. sourdough is supposed to keep for up to a week, my bread machine bread is best eaten the same day so I will report back, if any of it is left!

I have a feeling I am going to have to substantially up my bike miles, and restrict bread to one loaf a week!

How fabulous is social media? My sourdough has been inspired by the help, generosity and kindness of artisan bakers like Carl Legge, Vanessa Kimbell, River Cottage and the Fabulous Baker Boys amongst others. Thank you all.

Brioche for breakfast

Brioche for breakfast

Fresh home made brioche for breakfast is so easy with a bread machine. I have had one for 15+ years and very rarely buy bread as it takes 2 minutes to weigh out the ingredients, as I go to bed, so we wake to a fresh loaf in the morning. I always feel like I am cheating, and not an ethical hands-on baker, but we eat fresh preservative free bread that is a lot healthier/tastier and cheaper than bought. Panasonic are the best bread makers, my first/ current one is 12+ years old (Panasonic SD-252), and I really really want one with a raisin dumper but the basic model just keeps on going! Previous to that I had 3 different cheap ones that all lasted 1-2 years, two were replaced twice under guarantee.

I have known Karen for years on twitter, we have never met, but she owns a beautiful award winning Hopton House B&B on the Shropshire/Welsh borders that I'd love to stay at one day. Her tweets, about the funny side of her life as a BnB landlady, keep me amused. However, it is her pics and descriptions of the breakfasts she serves her guests that always make me drool. Karen is kind enough to share many recipes and I stashed away her brioche recipe and make it in muffin tins as she advises. So here is her recipe, with the brands I use for failsafe bread:

Hopton House Karen's Orange Brioche recipe

1tsp Dove's Farm Quick Yeast (the packets are orange and 125g of yeast lasts a couple of months, keep in fridge in an air tight container, sold in Waitrose)
400g White bread flour (Waitrose Essential Strong White Bread Flour gives brilliant results and is reasonable price for great quality)
1 tsp salt
4 tblspn sugar
Finely grated zest of an ornage
100g butter roughly diced
4 eggs lightly beaten
80ml milk
Extra milk or egg yolk for wash

At least 3 hours before bedtime layer the ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order they are given and put into the machine and set the machine going on the regular dough setting , which takes 2 hours 20 mins on my setting. Go off and knit for a couple of hours!

Once the machine has played its part remove the dough and knock back and divide into 10-12 portions. this is easier said than done as it is VERY sticky! Do not be tempted to add too much flour. Shape and fill a greased 12 hole muffin tin. I weigh them out so they are even.

Place the muffin tin in a carrier bag and "puff up" and tuck the handles underneath so the dough doesn't stick and has room to rise without drying out. Place the tin in the fridge or cold place (garage, cellar, larder) to rise, or prove, overnight. This slow proving makes for holier holes and a very light texture.

The first peep at your brioche dough in the fridge the following morning

Brioche ready for the oven

The next morning pre heat fan oven to 180 degrees C. Carefully wash the brioche tops with milk or egg and bake for 12-15 mins. Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack and serve with even more butter and home made jam.

Brioche fresh out of the oven

A lovely variation is to enclose a square of chocolate in the dough balls before baking, and you have your own home made pain au chocolate! Sainsburys Basics plain chocolate is fabulous for baking.

Close up of open brioche crumb

After breakfast the weather didn't seem as bad as forecast, in fact it was clear blue skies if windy, so we jumped on our bikes and pedalled down to Bristol Harbourside to wander through the Harbourside Market to browse the stalls and have a coffee (him) and Earl Grey Tea (me). It was a very quick 4-5 miles downhill with a following wind so we worked a little harder coming home. We even stopped off and got some groceries in the village Co Op on the way back, how green were we?! My new panniers hold a lot! After packing the panniers the rain returned, luckily it's only a few hundred metres home from the "coop." Leek and potato soup was quickly made with the stock I made from last weekend's roast chicken, and a cosy afternoon of blog writing, knitting and 6 nations rugby has ensued listening to the wind howling and the rain lashing, again.

Here is a sneeky peek at a very quick knitted project I started yesterday at Knit and Natter and I should finish today or tomorrow. The yarn is Sirdar Indie and super bulky, and I am knitting in garter stitch, doubled up, on 15mm needles!

Autumnal cycling....and cake

I had last weekend off, and was determined to get out on a decent bike ride, not just my 5 mile each way commute to work. I have really enjoyed cycling this summer. I started commuting back in April and steadily increased from twice a week to 4-5 times a week. Not startling but on top of a 39 hour physical shift work job it has been a sense of achievement to get much fitter. Of course the fabulous weather this summer has made it a lot easier. I have now reduced my hours but getting on a bike at just after 6am in the pitch black is also taking some determination. Especially now that it is regularly raining!! The upside is coming home in daylight at lunchtime, with time to do the cleaning knit in the afternoons, and no late shifts.

I bought myself a new bike for my birthday back in August as a reward for my staying power. It has an aluminium frame but is a road hybrid. My old one was a very heavy steel mountain bike. My route is mainly tarmaced cycle path but it can cope with grit paths too. I christened her Gertrude Lush, or Gert Lush for short, the highest form of praise in Bristolian slang! Here she is ready for the commute. She cost me the equivalent of three months of posh gym membership, never mind the saving on fuel=more yarn funds and a fitter me!

We live 3 miles south of Bristol city centre and can get there on cycle paths. My route to work is in the opposite direction across the north Somerset countryside. We are very lucky to have such good cycling routes here as mostly in England the roads are just far too busy and dangerous for cyclists. Bristol has just received funding for the first Dutch style cycle lanes in UK too!

Back to the excursion. OH was booked to play golf on Sunday when the weather was to be stunning, Saturday was forecast to be wet in the morning drying up at lunchtime. For once the weather agreed with the forecasters. Off we went.

We set off towards Bristol on Sustrans route 33 and headed off under the suspension bridge to Route 41, following the south bank of the River Avon from Bristol to Portishead. It was fabulous being off road and the autumnal leaves were stunning, but we could hear the urban existence of cars on the Portway on the other side of the river. After a few miles along quite remote forested path we came out  at a stunning angling lake.

Then out into the open and through the village of Pill. Here we are looking downstream to the west to Avonmouth docks and the motorway bridge....

 ....and in an easterly direction upstream back towards Pill and eventually Bristol.

We're cycling over the motorway bridge in a minute!

 Thank goodness for a big barrier separating us from the thundering lorries heading south on the M5!

We then found our way down to the Portway to follow the cycle lane on the north side of the river back to Bristol, admiring the climbers  climbing in the Avon Gorge. A fairly urban ride overall but very enjoyable.

When we got home, 21 miles later, I iced the cherry and almond traybake, I had made the night before, and we devoured a large hunk with a pot of tea, yum! It has grated marzipan in it and I should have used my brain and washed, dried and floured the halved cherries that were placed on the sponge, before baking, as I normally do to stop them sinking. It tastes good though. I am eating a slice now writing this!

Tapping fingers... baking stollen and eating eclairs!

In limbo; waiting waiting, making more phone calls, hassling and waiting with increasingly impatient patience. The final stage of relocation has to happen in the next 10 days otherwise we will be wishing we hadn't recycled the tent when everything went into storage. Hopefully we are moving into our own house a week tomorrow and can start settling in properly to the area.  However, with the hindrance of the stupid English legal system, we still cannot be totally sure it is happening. so we cannot say to the removal company when they will be delivering our stuff out of storage and moving us from the rented house to the new one. Of course they may book up by the time we know for sure.

So in anticipation of the move I have not managed much knitting, no crochet (shock horror) but I have achieved a lot of comfort baking and eating. Last weekend I finally made the Christmas Stollen for Sunday breakfast. I make the rich buttery and eggy dough with sultanas, dried apricots, cherries, mixed peel and almonds in my bread machine from Delia Smith's recipe, and then knock it back, wrap it around the  marzipan (use by October 2012) and leave to prove in the fridge or cold garage overnight. Bake whilst making the morning cuppa, ice with lemon glacé icing and enjoy!  Lovely toasted the next day too.

In the week it was still cold, and the school one had a cold, so I baked  Oaty Banana Nutella Muffins to avoid throwing two very black bananas away, and Nutella was on offer. Smoothies might have been healthier! I "wassaped" the school girl to let her know that after her cold walk home in the snow feeling grotty (I am a rotten mum, I send them to school with sniffles) that warm muffins awaited. She turned up with two friends in tow, it was lovely having 16 year olds sat round eating muffins, drinking tea and chatting after school, just like Primary School days.

Then all week we have enjoyed a short revival of Great British Bake Off for Comic Relief. One night they made eclairs, I haven't made choux pastry for at least ten years so I thought I would see if I still could on Saturday afternoon. The pastry turned out OK but my piping skills are still atrocious. Uneven, different sizes and  knobbly bits but the "bake" was good and filled with whipped cream and topped with lashings of chocolate ganache they certainly tasted good.

Hopefully the colds have been shaken off, the snow has gone and I can get out on my bike again and get some exercise and start packing for the move, rather than eating all the time! However, there are 6 unfilled eclair shells in the freezer...and the top down sweater is just 6 cuff rounds of sleeve ribbing away from being finished.

One-a-Day 8th Jan 13 Tuesdays Tallies

Happy New Year! Yes I know I am a little late with Tuesday's Tallies, but New Year's Day itself was a little too early for a Tuesday's Tallies progress post, unless we were totting up the empties, or in my case ripped out rows due to missing a stitch the night before!

How many of us have started a new project, and how many of us are determined to finish their WIPs BEFORE starting anymore?! I managed to finish my Vintage Granny in time for Christmas and have been immersing myself in a self indulgent project with Drops Merino Extra Fine aka "posh" yarn. It is stripey so hopefully I can say 2-5 rows a day. I have done around 75 rows in the last couple of weeks. Here is my French Stripey Throw story to date.

Add caption

I do have a few concerns, mainly "will I have enough yarn?" but fortunately it is a pattern I can just keep on going until the yarn runs out. It is 110cm wide and measuring about 35cm to date and I have used about 8 balls of my 28 balls. I think I may need more! I am wondering if the wisdom of this dense pattern was wise with my posh yarn but it's too late to rip now as I have sewn in so many ends. I am determined to keep up with my ends this time.

What are you working on? Even if the aim is a square or a strip or a few stitches every day then progress builds over time. all are welcome to join in even if this is your first or thousandth project,  we can all enjoy our projects and be inspired.

I made bagels for the first time at the weekend, it was really strange to boil dough before baking but they turned out OK, if a little misshapen! They tasted great

See you next week. Happy knotting.

Oaty Banana Nutella Muffins

I picked up various recipe cards at the checkout last week. They were on the table and when my 16 yo came in from school she looked hopeful that I had made the muffins. Never mind, I have now managed to procure all the ingredients and planned to make them for after school today, warm out of the oven, but could I find the recipe card anywhere? Of course not! I went back to Waitrose and they had changed the displays so no oaty banana muffins it seemed.. Thank goodness for google, here is the original recipe but I changed it a little so this is my version:

Oaty Banana Nutella Muffins


Makes 12 - 15
Prepare 10 mins
Cook 20 mins

Ingredients:

300g self-raising flour (or plain + 2tsp of baking powder)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g light brown soft sugar
50g porridge oats
2 ripe bananas
285ml low fat plain yogurt
75ml sunflower oil
2 medium eggs, beaten
100g Nutella or similar Hazelnut Spread

1 Preheat the oven to 180ºC, gas mark 4. In a large bowl, sieve together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar, stir in the oats.

2 Using a fork, mash the bananas until puréed in a bowl. In a pyrex jug measure the oil, spoon in the yogurt to the 350ml mark making sure it is level. Beat in the eggs with a fork. Add the banana and oil/yogurt/egg to the flour bowl and stir lightly to mix — don’t worry if it looks a little lumpy.

3 Divide half of the mixture between 12-15 paper muffin cases then drop a teaspoon of Nutella into each one. Top with the remaining muffin mixture then bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden. 

Speed is of the essence for good muffins, both mixing and getting into the oven! Best eaten on the day of making, preferably warm and they freeze well too (ha ha does anyone ever have any left to freeze?)

Very scrum-dilly-umptious....we are now trying to decorate the tree but of six strings of lights only 2 work, disaster! A light party has been dispatched out to buy some more, well fuelled.

A Baker's Dozen of Banana Oaty muffins with Nutella surprise in the middle

Gooseberry Ice Cream with Ginger and Lemongrass Biscuits

Gooseberry, ginger and lemongrass ice cream with ginger and lemongrass biscuits

The last few days we have been trying to paint the few wooden outside windows we have, the weather has not cooperated and it has been a struggle to get them prepared, primer on where needed and one coat of paint on most of them. The second coat required in the last few places will have to wait. It is pouring with rain again!

A couple of weeks ago I managed to miss the few hot days in the south west as I helped my parents move house in Cumbria (see the story of the gingham cushion). Dad’s gooseberry bushes were dripping in fruit and as they were leaving their freezer behind and a new one would be a few days he said I could have as many gooseberries as I wanted. So I braved the prickles and picked most of them, leaving a good crop of small fruit to ripen for the new owners!

As soon as I was home I open froze them on trays ready for crumbles in the winter. It is very easy to top and tail a pound when frozen, they never make the freezer if you do that job first, I find.

It was still hot for another day so I thought ice cream could be good. The making custard bit is a faff (nice but a faff!) and cream is gorgeous but a bit naughty for every day. So I experimented with low fat fromage frais. I do have an ice cream machine which makes it easier but no problems making this without a machine. It was delicious. Then I got a bit cheffy and decided to make some biscuits too, the results were very satisfying, the biscuits are based on this recipe but I have adapted it. The ice cream is a cross between ice cream, gelato and a sorbet but more of an ice cream than a sorbet!

Gooseberry lemongrass and ginger ice cream with ginger and lemongrass biscuits

Before you start, make sure the ice cream maker bowl has been in the freezer for 24 hours first (if using) and poach the fruit in advance as it has to be fridge cold.

Ingredients

For the gooseberry ice cream:
500g (1lb) gooseberries
100g (4oz or more to taste) sugar
2 tblspns Ginger and Lemon grass Cordial (Bottle Green is the best and local to us, or use the stem ginger syrup and a touch of lemon grass paste)
1-2 balls stem ginger chopped finely
300ml carton low fat (or full fat if preferred) Fromage Frais

For the ginger biscuits:
110g (4oz) butter
1 egg
225g (8oz) Self Raising flour
225g (8 oz) caster sugar
½ tsp baking powder
1tsp ground ginger
1 ball stem ginger chopped finely
½ tsp lemongrass paste

Method

Ice Cream

1. Poach the gooseberries, cordial, sugar and stem ginger in a covered dish in the microwave for 5-8 minutes on 75% power (or until cooked) stirring half way. If you poach in a pan be careful it doesn't catch as no water is used. Break up lightly with a fork, you do not want whole gooseberries and add more sugar if needed, I like chunks rather than a purée and a tart taste. Cool and refrigerate until needed.
2. In a large jug mix the chilled gooseberries and fromage frais.
3. Turn on your ice cream maker and slowly pour the mixture into the bowl (that’s why it is in a jug) and leave the machine to churn until done, 30-45 minutes.
4. Turn ice cream into a freezer proof container and freeze until needed. 

To serve: remove from freezer and leave at cool room temperature for 30 minute (or in the fridge for 60-90 minutes) before serving. It should be quite soft to maximise flavour.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker pour into a large freezer proof container and freeze for an hour. Mix well with a wooden spoon to break up the ice crystals and freeze again. Repeat 2-3 times and then leave to freeze thoroughly. Follow serving instructions above

Biscuits

1. Pre heat oven to 150deg fan oven
2. Melt the butter over a low heat, cool slightly and whisk in the egg then mix in the chopped stem ginger and lemongrass paste.
3. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and add the butter/egg mix.
4. Mix thoroughly, using your hands if necessary.
5. Roll the dough into small balls about 2cm across.
6. Space the balls WELL APART on thoroughly greased trays, I used 3 trays (or line with reusable baking tray liner), and bake for 20-25 mins. If they are still a bit pale after this, turn the oven up a fraction to brown them slightly.
7. Leave to cool completely on the tray. I love the way the surface cracks like ginger snaps, but they are very slightly chewy.

You can either serve the ice cream formally with biscuits on the side or make an ice cream sandwich with the cookies. It was so good that I made to take to lovely friends who had invited us for dinner. Now they know I didn't spend hours slaving in the kitchen!

Today is not ice cream weather…the middle of the day in the middle of August, in Gloucestershire, and the lights are on and I am making soup for lunch. The dog is not getting a walk in this weather!

Rule Britannia!

What a day...the phone rang late on Saturday morning and it was our friends who can call on us on their way home from holiday in Devon to Northants, five of them, puppy and largish caravan! We warned them to park at the top of our street!

I started to bake, the easiest and tastiest ever shortbread and a strawberries and meringue cream Victoria Sponge. It was a miracle I didn’t mess up either as I was dashing back and forth to the living room watching all the amazing Team GB medals come through.  Apparently “to medal” is now an allowed verb according to a programme earlier on good old Radio 4 yesterday.  The Oxford English Dictionary (I think) guy was very careful not to pass opinion but stated dictionary addition/alteration is purely on documented usage by the general population and not academic opinion.  In Great Britain we medal, and we medal Big Time!

Strawberry Cream Meringue Victoria Sponge

Finally our friends arrived after a stressful few hours on the M5 and we all had tea before a lap of the common with their bouncy puppy Jasper who forced Rolo (our 12 year old lab) into a trot, he is happier sniffing in his old age.

I have been making 6 egg Victoria Sponges for a fair few years, my friend Andrea gave me the idea of doubling the size of my normal recipe, and I bought two good quality spring action loose bottomed 9”/ 22cm diameter deep cake tins years ago. I always use St Delia’s (Delia Smith) all in one method and sunflower margarine and extra large eggs at room temperature. Never ever peep in the oven until the last couple of minutes and only then if you are worried it is overcooking, you can tell that when the aroma is very definite! I only trust imperial measurements for this one. Dave asked for the recipe so he could make a cake so here you are Dave!

Classic Party Size Victoria Sponge

Pre heat fan oven whilst making the cake, fan oven 160 degrees, shelves at 1/3 and 2/3rds position

Ingredients

12oz (375g) Self Raising Flour
2 tsps baking powder
12oz (375g) Caster sugar
12oz (375g) Sunflower Margarine  AT ROOM TEMPERATURE (make sure it’s not low fat)
6 extra large eggs (or 7 medium) at room temperature
2tsps vanilla essence (optional)
300ml Whipping cream
200g strawberries
1oz(25g) icing sugar
1-2 meringue nests
2 tblspns Bonne Maman Strawberry Jam (or home made!)
Grease the tins and line the bases

Method

• Sift flour, baking powder and sugar into large bowl.
• Add margarine and crack in the eggs and add vanilla essence if using. No need to pre whisk the eggs.
• Using an electric whisk mix on low speed until the ingredients are just combined, then increase to high speed and mix for one minute only.
• Divide equally between tins (which translates to 8 very heaped tablespoons dotted around each tin I ) Do not tap spoon to release.
• Minimal handling and speed into the oven is the secret now.
• Gently smooth tops leaving a slight hollow in the centre area and raised a bit round the edge.
• Place a tin on each shelf in the oven and gently shut the door.
• Bake for 30 minutes. The cake will be light brown and the edges just curling back from the edges, and the centre springs back when pressed lightly with a finger.
• Leave to cool in tins on cooling racks for 5 minutes and then carefully turn out and finish cooling.
• Keep the best 7 strawberries back and halve 6 and keep one whole and chop the rest.
• When cool whip the cream, sift the icing sugar on top and fold in.
• Put half the cream into another bowl. Fold in the chopped strawberries to one half.
• Sandwich the cooled cakes with the jam and strawberry cream.
• Spread remaining cream on to the top and arrange halved/hulled  strawberries and one whole one in the centre.

Serve with a nice cup of tea and cake forks.

It was so lovely to see our friends, but unfortunately they had to get home before dark with the caravan.

After everyone had left we settled down for some more Olympics. We are hooked…and I hook whilst watching too. On this Super Saturday we won so many medals that I lost count on my Bullseye Square so many times it took me 3 ½ hours to complete a 20 minute square, lost count of the medals too! Spectacular successes in rowing, cycling and especially Jessica Ennis in the Heptathlon, Mo Farrah in 10K and brilliant Greg Rutherford in Long Jump. 6 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze, in one day, for lil old Great Britain!

Bullseye or Medal Squares!

They look a little like medals!

We can’t cope with any more…Sensational Sunday has seen bronze and silver in men’s gymnastics, the fantastic Ben Ainslie  tactically sailed to Gold in the Finns and Percy and Simpson still won a silver, they didn’t fail at securing a gold.

Oh…and Andy Murray has just smashed Federer into smithereens in 3 sets in the Men’s tennis singles. Gold number 16, 17 or 18?!

So how do us Brits celebrate? Well with tea and cake of course, I'd better get the roast on so we can watch Team GB this evening.

The best result; Ben in the sailing of course, that used to be my sport, the coverage was fantastic as the intricacies of sailing tactics, making a boat go fast, starting and reading the wind and waves and working out who is in the lead is impossible from the shore. Best Olympic Sailor of all time. We are learning to win in this country and not just be polite and take part!

Goats cheese, cherry tomato and caramelised red onion tart

Tonight was a first, I served a veggie dinner and instead of the normal “where is the meat?” or “that was nice but it would have been even better with a sausage” comments from “the husband” he said: "that was actually quite nice!" Whoa, this is high praise from a meat loving man who is happy with a vegetarian dish for a side dish, starter or lunch but dinner equals some sort of meat, even if it is a token amount!

This is an open style tart using bought puff pastry, with no quiche style eggy mixture, easy and delicious.

Goats cheese, cherry tomato and caramelised red onion tart

Serves 4-6

You will need:
1 packet/block of puff pastry
2-3 tblspns  green or red pesto
1 tblspn olive oil
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1dstspn sugar
200g ripe cherry tomatoes, halved
1-2 red peppers, sliced
250 g goats cheese (not soft)
Handful fresh basil

Method

Gently heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onions until soft and starting to brown, add the sugar and turn up the heat a bit, stir until caramelised. The onions should be soft and brownish but not burnt! Put to one side to cool.

Red onions are nearly caramelised

Pre heat your oven to 190 degrees (fan) and lightly flour a baking sheet.

Roll out puff pastry thinly to an oblong, place on baking sheet, wet edges and roll over once to form an edge.  Score the pastry lightly inside the edge (not all the way through.)

Spread the pesto over the pastry, then cover with the caramelised onions.

Arrange the tomatoes cut side up, interspersed with sliced peppers.

Cube/crumble the cheese and sprinkle over, tucking into gaps.

Grind over some black pepper, a pinch of rock salt if desired, and tear some basil leaves.

Doesn't it look beautiful?

Admire how lovely it all looks and bake for 20-25 minutes, until pastry is crisp and cheese nicely browned, no soggy bottoms allowed!

Goats Cheese Tart ...done!

Serve warm with salad and wait for the compliments to flood in. Tonight we broke the very strict rule of no TV at dinner time, it was agonising watching the British Men's gymnastic team go from stunning surprise silver to an amazing bronze, on a technicality, but my our boys did us proud and are true champions.

Goats cheese and cherry tomato tart

I secretly hoped my tart wouldn't be that popular and that I may have some left for my lunch tomorrow, no such luck! When L came in later from her evening shift (serving cheese at the deli counter) she also enjoyed it, but did manage to slot in the obligatory observation that it would be perfect with some parma ham/ prosciutto or chorizo in there too...some things never change! Then there was the ensuing discussion that it would have been better again without toms (S age 16) or red pepper (L age 19), it is impossible to keep everyone happy here unless it's lasagne...again!

Watching the Olympics is a perfect activity to accompany the latest knotty activity....nearly finished a...

round and round and round and...

but that is for another post another day! Answers on a postcard as to what it is do not win a prize!

Apricot Frangipane Tart

I like to bake...I have always baked, I like to eat my baking! It's not normal to have pud more than once a week in our house (not counting yogurt and fruit) but tonight is a little celebration.

Apricots are reasonably priced in the greengrocers at the moment, not quite the same as the mounds you get so fresh and cheaply in the markets in France, but this makes a dozen go a long way! I invested in some Amaretto for just such recipes a long time ago, well worth it. This isn't an original recipe, are any recipes original? It's a mish mash of two or three.

Apricot Frangipane Tart

You will need:

Sweet Pastry
500g plain flour
250g butter
175g icing sugar
1 egg

Frangipane filling
75 g caster sugar
75 g unsalted butter at room temperature
50 g plain flour
150 g ground almonds
2 eggs
1 tsp almond essence (optional)

Apricots
10-12 apricots halved and stoned
275 ml water
200g caster sugar
50 ml amaretto (optional)

Glaze
3 tblspn apricot jam
1 tblspn amaretto (or water)

Method
Pre heat oven to 180 deg C (fan)

For pastry :
Sieve flour and sugar into food processor.
Add cut up butter cut and pulse  in small bursts until fine crumbs then add the egg and briefly pulse until it starts coming together.
Turn out and gently knead together and rest the pastry covered in fridge for 30mins +

Meanwhile poach apricots.  Add sugar to water and amaretto (if using) in a large based pan.
Bring to boil and gently slide in apricots, cut side down, turn heat to low at simmer. Simmer for 4-5 mins, be careful they go mushy quickly!
Remove with a slotted spoon and allow to cool.

For the frangipane filling: cream butter and caster sugar, and add eggs, almonds and flour and beat together (easier to use the food processor that is already dirty!)

Roll out pastry and line tart dish, carefully line with greaseproof paper and baking beans and bake blind at 180 for 6 minutes, remove beans and paper and bake for another 6 minutes.  It’s better to have a baking sheet if using a ceramic dish. Pastry should be dry but barely coloured.

Fill base with frangipane filling and smooth and carefully arrange apricots in concentric circles on top, cut side down starting at the outside.

Bake for around 40 minutes at 160degC (fan)

For the glaze: heat the jam and amaretto or water in a pan or microwave, then sieve. Carefully drizzle on top of warm tart (or brush delicately with a pastry brush, I tend to slop it on) and allow to cool.
Serve with cream, ice cream, crème fraîche or as is!

Eat...that's an order!