Monday 1 April 2013

Easter in the Kitchen. Many Photos!

Hey folks!

How are you all? Having a lovely long weekend I hope. I ADORE long weekends. Especially those where I don't have to go to work straight after them! Now you know I love my job. I doooo. But I love the holidays more!

So Friday we went out for the day. Saturday too. It was nice on Sunday to have a day of pottering. The HG took the offspring off out into the weak Spring Sunshine and they blitzed the garden. I can now go peg out without having to run a Krypton Factoresque gauntlet, with washing over one shoulder and a handful of pegs in the other! Anyway

I spent most of my day in my kitchen. I baked and made stuff. I'm going to tell you and show you here!
Firstly. Crumpets. I have no idea why I wanted to make them. Having now made them, I'm not sure if I 'll want to for a long time. Maybe if ALL I'm making is crumpets I'll consider it.

This recipe is from my trusty Mary Berry Cookery bible that I've had for YEARS. I just made one quantity.
So here are the photos a step at a time!
12 oz  of strong bread flour?
Don't mind if I do!
Put in bowl. Check. Cover. Check. Wait!

OOOH! It's all got big and frothy!

I had washed my hands!

Here goes!

Oh dear I think I added too much batter to the ring.
Wait - somethings happening!
It's beginning to look a lot like a crumpet!
Ta DAAAH! First one done.


Getting cocky now - two at a time!

It took a few attempts to work out times/heats/amounts to pour in. I made a slightly thinner lot and some hefty cousins!

The boy had one with butter and one with butter and jam

Six had gone already - had to quickly take a photo before the rest went!

One of these is mine, one of them is a shop bought Warburtons. Neither have been toasted yet. Which one would you choose?
 So the downfall I discovered is that they take a good 7 - 10 minutes each in the rings to cook. Which is fine if you've not been on your feet all day making other stuff. Also I am a brat when it comes to making pancakes. I HATE being told what to do by eggs, flour and milk! You have to be patient with them yet speedy! I am sure the last one I made did not rise or was as holey as the first one I made. Tasted fine! So I reckon I made a batch of 20 crumpets for about 50p all in. Not bad.

BUT I also made some Easter Nest cakes. Chocolate - melted. Shredded Wheat - crumbled. Mixture - stirred. Mini Eggs - adorned.
Beef in Ale for pie - Cubes of beef skirt - coated in seasoned flour and flash fried. A red onion, three banana shallots and two carrots - sauteed. Put the lot in a casserole with half a bottle of Ale and some good stock plus a tspn of Marmite. Cook for aaaaages.  The puff pastry took me ages. Those packets are really tricky to get open!
Sand Cake - absolutely NO calories in this whatsoever - from my new book that I got from the bookman at school - billy bargain five quid! Me and Beryl worked hard to combine all the  diet ingredients together! I used a diet frosting recipe, Double cream, white chocolate, butter and icing sugar topped off with a diet jelly thingy from the doctors. Dr Oetkers.
I also worried I'd not spent enough time in the kitchen so soft floury baps were born.

Less than 24 hours later and a lot of it has gone. I could weep! Not to mind! I might make some fairy cakes later. We make fairy cakes in this house - not cupcakes!

I'll post some more pics here just to make your computer lag a bit more.I am making them small as possible.  I'm not in the least bit sorry! I am also off to read some other blogs too. Now that I have the freedom and the time! I'll be back tomorrow with a story all about The Lord Of The Rings.
 Photos .....



 

Healthy wholewheat goodness!
Zero Calories here - look away - nothing to see!

Rolled out by my own fair hands! Again thoroughly washed clean hands.
Best beef in ale I have ever made!

Last but not least. HOW THE BLOODY HELL DO I GET PAST LEVEL 65???????
THREE WEEKS I'VE BEEN AT IT!!!


3 comments:

  1. Sand Cake? I have heard of it I think, has it got semolina in for the texture or am I confusing it with cornmeal. Would you share the recipe, I could do with eating the diet frosting, it will make a nice change from my diet ganache. Pam

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mmmm crumpets! I've never made crumpets before and wouldn't know where to start. I have brought them sometimes in the past from the UK supermarket but they are like plastic toy food....absolutely rubbish! Like yourself I'm not keen on having to wait 7 mins each for them to cook...I prefer put in the oven stuff and then I can get on with other stuff at the same time. I have to admit though yours look quite delicious.

    Many thanks for your comments on my latest post and I'm listening to my readers and chiding myself for being impatient.

    keep well

    Amanda :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yum yum you sure had a delicious Easter. I was lucky my sister visited and did most of the cooking, so I could be totally lazy.

    ReplyDelete

Many thanks for taking the time to read my words and respond with your own thoughts. I always try to reply so make sure you pop back to see!