Sachertorte eclipses the eclipse and the aurora borealis.

Well, I couldn't let the solar eclipse go by without comment.

Unfortunately I was at work, where the class I was working with were receiving a visit from a very friendly police sniffer dog - no, the school's not that rough, it was a demonstration visit only!

Anyway, while everyone was preoccupied with this, I sneaked outside at 9:30 am to see what was happening with the sun The light was already dimming and the temperature had dropped. Unfortunately we had just struck out on the weather and there was a cloudy sky. However, this did me a favour really, as I was expecting only to be able to glance at a crescent of bright sun (I know, I know. I shouldn't do that.) As it was, there was a smiling face peering through the clouds in the sky and it was quite easy to look at. The clouds also meant that my phone didn't get too freaked out by staring straight at the sun and surprised me by managing to capture the moment.

 

I've opted for the long view as I'm bored of everybody's close-ups
which all seem to be rather the same.

This was quite some improvement on what happened with the northern lights two days previously, when a low blanket of fog enveloped the fens just enough to make sure that again we saw nothing of it. It was so frustrating, as looking straight up we could see all the stars in the sky. The only part of the sky we could not see was the horizon, where all the action was happening. We even drove out along the dark, murky lanes toward The Wash and away from all habitation, but the fog just stubbornly refused to budge.

Anyway, one celestial phenomenon in a week is enough to keep me happy, but last night this was surely outshone by the Blokes Baking Group's most ambitious project so far.

We decided to tackle Sachertorte. Invented by Franz Sacher in Vienna in 1832, this chocolate cake or torte has recently acquired fame with appearances on The Great British Bake-Off. We decided to risk following Mary Berry's recipe, available here, despite being let down by her in the past!
New techniques were required - bain-maries for melting chocolate, folding ingredients, whipping up egg whites, a ganache, using an icing gun. It was all new territory, much more fiddly than our preferred techniques of chucking everything in a bowl, bashing it around a bit, cooking it and eating it.

Conversation and beer flowed and at the end of the evening we had produced three of these:

Mine was the only one which said Sacher Tart on it though! And before you wonder, this was done on purpose as a retort to the others trying their utmost to confuse me over the spelling. With hindsight, I should have included a smiling sun on it to mark the occasion. Maybe next time.




If you need an excuse to make a Sachertorte cake, 5 Decemeber is, apparently, National Sachertorte Day - though I think that may only be in Austria.

Herb breads and a doughnut experiment.

Rosemary Herb Bread

As you'll probably already know, I belong to an excellent little group known as The Fenland Smallholders Club.
As part of this, I run a couple of offshoots, one being the Blokes Baking Group, who normally get together once a month. Inspired by this, I've now started baking every Friday evening and I must say I've been enjoying it. However, for the first time in my life I have now gone 1lb officially OVERWEIGHT for my height (though it may just be that I need to recheck how tall I am). So if I am going to enjoy the products of all my baking, I'm going to have to work even harder in the garden to burn it all off.

Anyway, yesterday evening, over a few bottles of real ale, Blokes Baking Group tackled herb breads. I'd planned to use rosemary and sage, as these are about the only two herbs which have not completely died back at this time of year. The rosemary bread was a double rise, which takes about 4 hours from start to finish. Fortunately Sue had the fire on in the living room, which was duly designated as our proving room.

So we mixed and we kneaded and we set the dough aside for its first rise, leaving time to start our great doughnut experiment! This was a project which got missed out previously, but I was keen to have a go. The doughnut dough was soft and gloopy, somewhere between a pancake batter and a pastry mix, so I really wasn't sure if we had it right. It contained yeast, so needed to be set to one side to prove. The book said 20 minutes.

Onto project number three then - sage soda bread.
A soda bread does not contain yeast so is much quicker to make. Traditionally it is made with buttermilk and we usually make one when Sue makes butter. But on this occasion there was no buttermilk in the house so I had to buy some. A hint here - look in the Polish section of the supermarket. You are looking for maslanka. It's £1 for a litre, which works out much cheaper than the other alternative.
The soda bread simply involves mixing all the ingredients into a dough, shaping into a ball, slashing the top and baking. So into the oven it went and we returned to those rising doughballs. To be honest, they didn't seem to have changed much, but we tried one in the fryer. It sank to the bottom, the outside fried nicely and the inside was still mushy! It did, however, taste something like a doughnut should. I reckoned that the dough needed longer to rise, but we also weren't sure about the oil temperature. The book simple said 'very hot'.

We consulted the oracle (www) to be hit with all sorts of contradictory advice. For the proving, we read to prove at 90 - 100F - much warmer than you would for bread. This might explain why the doughnuts didn't seem to have risen. We moved the trays closer to the fire. As for the oil, most people said 190C, but one said 160C. The dough hadn't floated to the surface, indicating the oil was not hot enough. But it had cooked too quickly on the outside, indicating the oil was too hot.
My hunch was to lower the oil temperature and leave the doughnuts to rise properly to make them, well, less dense.
Impatience got the better of us and we tried another batch in the fryer. The result was better, but still not quite there. Jam in the middle might hide some of the problem, but this had seemed a step too far when I was at the planning process.

It was now time for the sage soda bread to come out of the oven. It looked amazing.
The rosemary bread still needed a wee while to rise further and the decision was made to leave the doughnuts to develop too, so we took a while to concentrate on the ales! A new member of the Old Hen family, Old Hoppy Hen, was the subject of much approval.

Some time later and it was time to knock back the rosemary bread dough and shape it ready for its second rise in the loaf tin. While the tins went back into the proving room, we revisited the doughnuts, frying them one batch at a time. Fortunately I'd decided not to triple the mix quantities, for we ended up with 31 mini doughnuts anyway! The more we cooked the better they got. We finally got close to the real thing with the last batch, which floated high in the oil and expanded almost to a state of fluffiness!

I reckon that one more go at these and we'll be ready to unveil to the public.

Our schedule now took us back to the Rosemary Bread. As usual, Phil's had risen the most. I swear he carries a magic powder around with him which he secretly sprinkles into his mix. Into the oven they went and all we had to do now was to wait... and eat doughnuts... and drink beer.

Finally the breads were ready. I was somewhat smug as mine had overtaken Phil's in the oven. Clearly the product of a skilled kneader!!

So here's the final results. Another triumphant evening for Blokes Baking Group.

I don't know what happened to the rest of the doughnuts, but this photo might explain it.

Friday Night is Bake Night

Back in 2012 I resolved to see every sunrise of the year. It was hard work at times but worth every bit of effort. It is an experience which I shall never forget. And if you're wondering, I missed one!

I still sometimes see the sunrise, especially at this time of year. It is after all a very special time and every sunrise brings something new with it.

Sometimes we need to push ourselves to develop. I'm not one for tradition, but it does seem that the New Year Resolution is a good way to do this.

So, for 2015, I've decided to do more baking. I already run a Blokes Baking Group once a month, but I've decided that every Friday evening is for baking. I won't go mad about it. If something else comes up, then so be it. (Particularly if it is a rare bird which could have me heading off to any far-flung part of the country at a moment's notice!)
But the principle is that I plan to bake most Fridays.

So today was my first Friday Bake and here's what I made:

A traditional wholemeal Cottage Loaf and a batch of Orange Biscuits.

Usually I post up links to websites where my recipes come from, but I've decided this year to make more use of the ranks of cookery books I've accumulated.
I really don't want to copy out all the recipes, but if you're desperate then please do get in touch.


The recipe for Orange Biscuits can be found
in this book, one which I go to often
for my baking inspiration.

The Cottage Loaf comes from this delightfully
old-fashioned book, available used on Amazon
for 1p (+ postage)

On the subject of New Year Resolutions, I also made all of the Veg Group commit to promises (veg related) at our gathering the other night. They are written down and will be revisited at the end of 2015! My gardening resolution was to keep up the succession of my carrots and beetroots all year. There were plenty of others I could have made and I'm not sure that I haven't made the succession resolution once before!

Naans, Parathas, Santa logs and Pumpkin Soup

Flatbreads ready!
Courtesy of Blokes Baking group.

I belong to the Fenland Smallholders Club which provides me with an excellent excuse to spend time with fellow smallholding friends.

As a part of this, a while ago I set up a Blokes Baking Group and last night we were attempting to make naan breads and parathas from scratch. I had the idea of buying in a takeaway curry (minus the flatbreads) to accompany our efforts.
At the last minute we decided to break with tradition and invite the Widows of Blokes Baking along too.

In fact, everything was a bit last minute. I didn't even look up recipes for Indian flatbreads until the evening before, by which time it was too late to buy authentic ingredients such as chapatti flour and ghee. Ask for these in Holbeach Tesco and you'll invariably be met with a very puzzled look! Not to worry, I could make the ghee and the flour could be substituted. On the plus side, they did have Indian lager on special, so multiculturalism is alive and well in these here parts.
The only other ingredient I was short of was garam masala, a mix of spices commonly used in Indian cookery.
I was lucky enough to find some of this on the shelves, but baulked at the price - £1.75 for a little jar. You've got to be kidding! So instead I took a photo of the ingredients and ground my own when I got home, all from whole spices. The result was a fragrant and spicy powder which did an excellent impression of garam masala. So that's another product I won't be buying in the future.

So, back to the Blokes Baking. One of the naan recipes used yeast and a double rise. If we started this process at the usual time, we would need to eat at about 10pm. So I did all the prep work before the others arrived.

Bring on the feast!

I found the recipes on Youtube - search for Titli's Busy Kitchen for some excellent recipes. They are even accompanied by some very clear videos and Titli is definitely a character. Alternatively, you can just click here.

The Blokes now work well as a team, so we divvied up the bread-making duties. Dave took responsibility for the Aloo Parathas and was most impressed when they puffed up on the hotplate. Phil took the plain Parathas, which involved a little origami to create layers in the bread. I took on the Naan breads. A keema naan stuffed with minced Shetland lamb from our very own fields and another naan recipe topped variously with nigella seeds, chilli and coriander.
We had the oven, the grill, the griddle and a couple of heavy frying pans on the go. In all we produced nineteen breads! And just as the last naan was going into the oven the takeaway delivery arrived. Perfect timing.

What followed was a feast of monumental proportions enjoyed in very good company.

Then it was up bright and early (well, Sue anyway) to make a giant pot of pumpkin soup for the monthly Smallholders Meeting. This wasn't quite in our plan, but we were asked at ridiculously short notice. No harm done anyway.
The Smallholders meeting was to be a series of demonstrations of Christmas crafts by fellow smallholders. Decorative glass painting and Christmas wreaths were not really my thing, but were still much appreciated. But what did impress me were these:

Simple to make from logs cut at an angle, some of these will certainly be guarding our door this Christmas. They may be my one concession to Noel festivities this year!

And on the plus side, when Santa comes down the chimney this year, he can stay on the fire!!

Sue and some of the other smallholders start their Christmassy creations.

Soggy Sponge Cakes and Nine New Chicks

As the plane landed us back in good old Blighty, my mind was already working on what I would choose to bake on Friday night.
For Blokes Baking night had come round again and I had promised sponge cakes. I have never made sponge cakes, so it is a good job that the baking group is all about learning together. Sue makes sponge cakes by the dozen, whenever we have an accumulation of eggs, just simple loaf cakes with various ingredients added, sultanas, date and walnut, almond and cherry, lemon.... eating them all can be a real chore!

I eventually chose two recipes which seemed very simple. The all-in-one method seemed the most appropriate for the Blokes Baking Group, basically concrete mixing but with different ingredients! So we would try a basic sultana sponge in a loaf tin, followed by a coffee and walnut cake made from two rounds sandwiched together.

It all seemed very quick and simple compared to some of our bread-making efforts, but I was aware that sinking sponges would be a potential pitfall. Luckily, Sue would be on hand to help out if we got stuck... or so I thought. Little did I know that the Widows of Blokes Baking Group had arranged to go down the pub for the evening!!!

Sunken, soggy and sorry.

Well, I'm pleased to report that we had our first major failure. All three sponge cakes sunk in the middle, to varying degrees, but one of them went even more drastically wrong!!!


A post mortem left us puzzled, but upon the advice of experts (no less than the revered catering secretary of the Fenland Smallholders Club), we decided that it was all Mary Berry's fault!

But in the true spirit of Blokes Baking Group, we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves down and bounced back with a couple of rather delicious coffee and walnut cakes. Our success here was undoubtedly due to our newfound expertise and nothing to do with Mary Berry!








Our first day back from Rome was an exciting one for another reason. For we had put a dozen eggs under Elvis, timed to hatch on our arrival back in the country. Our plan worked perfectly with Elvis contentedly clucking and the distinctive sound of new-born chicks cheeping and the sight of tiny feet and beaks protruding from Elvis's protective feathers.
By this morning Elvis had moved off the nest and I could count nine healthy chicks.

Happy Valentine's!

I'd like to wish everybody out there a happy Valentine's Day.

And we all know that Valentine's Day means.... Goose eggs!

That's right. Forget chocolates. Forget flowers. Forget romance. For Valentine's Day is traditionally the date when geese start laying.
(At this point our broody hen, Elvis, takes a huge gulp, as I have threatened to give her some goose eggs to hatch out!)

Not all geese can read the calendar correctly and we have friends whose geese have, for the last three years, started laying some time in advance of this, even as early as late December.
But our geese are cleverer. They at least have waited for February and it was not really a surprise when I received a text last weekend which simple read 'Goose egg!'

The ganders have been slightly more macho of late, baring their teeth, honking and stomping, at each other and at humans! But in reality they are not too aggressive and have not yet started to defend the nest. Maybe this will change when one of the geese decides she wants to sit.

For the moment at least, we furtively remove each egg which is laid, however carefully the geese are to hide them deep under the straw in their nest. They really do make the most enormous omelette or boiled egg!

Blokes Baking

Now, you may be thinking that I shouldn't be talking about goose eggs on such a romantic day. Well, there is a little bit of romance left in these old bones. For last night was the second ever gathering of the Blokes Baking Group which I run. I had deliberately moved it forward a day so that we could all make romantic bakes for our loved ones.

Piping skills in action
- just like using decorators caulk and a cartridge gun!

It took quite some searching to find a couple of recipes which would be fitting for the occasion. I finally settled on Red Velvet Whoopie Pies and Chocolate Florentines. These recipes would test out our skills to the limit and quite possibly beyond. Piping bags were involved, as were electric hand whisks.
Never mind though, it was just like using a DIY cartridge gun and a plaster mixer! And trowelling the cream cheese icing between the whoopie biscuits was just like brick laying.

Well, actually, I did a run through the night before so that I could find all the pitfalls. This helped considerably with the Whoopie Pies, the second batch being a considerable improvement on the first.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies - suitably romantic!
(The beer bottles in the background are to keep the table cloth on)

The Chocolate Florentines though were a different story. On Wednesday's practice run, everything went smoothly until I spooned dollops onto oiled baking trays. It was immediately obvious that the toffee mix was going to spread everywhere, especially when it had to go in the oven for ten minutes. Less immediately obvious was the fact that there was an infinitecimally small time margin when it could be extricated from the baking sheets. On one side of this millisecond, it simply disintegrated. On the other side, it was hermetically sealed to the baking sheets. We ended up scraping it all off, reheating it and putting it into Yorkshire pudding trays, without much success. We did manage to bind some of them together using melted chocolate, but it was not a very successful salvage job.

So when it came to Thursday evening, when I was supposed to be the expert, I made a few tweaks and rather unwisely stuck to the same recipe. I substituted the margarine (cheapskate) for butter and tried silicone baking trays and others lined with oiled parchment.

Carefully spooning out the Florentine mixture!

Again, though they appeared better before going into the oven, again the toffee just melted into a sea! At least those in the silicone trays, after a quick blast in the freezer, did come out in one piece. The ones on the baking parchment, however, had inseparably bonded with the greaseproof paper.

Oh, how I wish that whoever compiles these cookery books would actually try out the recipes first, following their own instructions.

Anyway, enough was made for us all to make a fitting romantic gesture in the morning. Brownie points were definitely earned and we had a great evening into the deal!

If you want the recipes for these dishes, please visit the Blokes Baking Blog.