Baking

[onlyMark]

I have a weird family that don't like cake. I've never come across anything like it. They'll suffer cheesecake as it's not a real type of cake, but normal stuff, sponge etc, nope. If I make a cake I have to eat it all myself. It's a hell of a hardship.

[kerouac2]

I sympathize with you because I am one of those people who don't care for cake or even bread in most cases unless it is outclassed by thick sandwich ingredients. But I always feel terrible if I disappoint anybody who has prepared such an item, so I usually tend to pretend to love it with great appreciation. As you know, close family members are exempt from this and get told the truth, albeit not always immedaitely if they happen to be your adored grandmother who loves you back more than anyone in the world.

But you never know what the body will suddenly crave. I actually bought two croissants a couple of weeks ago after not having set foot in a boulangerie in more than a year.

[mickthecactus]

I’m not a cake fan but I do like good bread.
The local supermarket has a cranberry and cashew loaf which is delicious.

[onlyMark]

I did some pastel de nata in the summer. They went down a treat.

[onlyMark]

Miserable and rainy outside so apricot/honey pastries and brownies are just the thing.

[onlyMark]

Also meat, vegetable and potato pies -

[kerouac2]

Looks pretty good. Do you have the XL size clothing to go with it?

[onlyMark]

It would be ordered but I already have XXL shirts anyway.

[lugg]

ooh love a meat and potato pie

[onlyMark]

I've had one, it was pretty good. The other two will go in the freezer for now.

[bixaorellana]

The sweet treats look good, Mark, but the meat pies would be divine.

[onlyMark]

I'd had roast vegetables the day before and the leftovers with some beef I later did went in the pies. I'll have another one today just to make sure.

[cheerypeabrain]

Ooh your pies look delicious, as do the sweet treats

[onlyMark]

Thanks Cheery. I'll keep practising to get things up to your standards.

[onlyMark]

Chocolate muffins today. There was a yogurt cake again but this time with more lemon and vanilla which made it more tasty. That seemed to disappear quite quickly before I remembered to take a photo.

[cheerypeabrain]

Yummy. I made white chocolate and macadamia nut muffins this morning. Also put raisins, sultanas, cherries and chopped dates into a glass bowl with 300ml brandy to soak overnight, ready for making a couple of christmas cakes tomorrow (5" one for my sister and a 6" for us)

[onlyMark]

Thought I'd try one of these no knead bread recipes.
Mixed it together last night and put it on the fridge. It had risen a little but not much. Left it out for an hour to warm up and supposedly you put it in a Dutch oven to bake. Don't have one of those but I do have a normal deep steel saucepan for soups etc. So that served as a viable alternative.
Thirty minutes with the top on and thirty minutes with the top off.
Turned out ok. I'll let it cool a bit and get out the salted butter to give it a try -

[onlyMark]

I think I'm happy enough with that -

[htmb]

Looks really nice!

Tonight I’ll also be making a no-knead dough, but it will be turned into a pizza for tomorrow night’s dinner.

[bixaorellana]

That loaf looks ideal, Mark!

It will be Sunday treat night at Htmb's place!

[onlyMark]

I hate bad weather. I just end up wondering what I can bake. I'm having a bread theme at the moment.
Cheese and potato bread.
Tastes good -

[htmb]

It looks delicious.

[lugg]

Ooh that does look so good.

[kerouac2]

I wish I liked baked goods more. In the abstract, they seem good and often look delicious, but I always find out almost immediately when I start eating them that I don't like bread, sandwiches, pizza, croissants or hamburgers (among many other things) as soon as they are in my mouth. Perhaps it is a wheat aversion? I really don't know.

[onlyMark]

This is what it looked like inside. The idea was to make a dough using the flour and potatoes, go through a proofing cycle then roll it out to a rectangle about 1cm thick. Strew that with grated cheese, the recipe says mozzarella but I used Emmental because I already had a bag of "sprinkle cheese" as we call it. I'd try a stronger cheese like cheddar next time and especially for the colour.
Then you roll it up from the short side, pinch the join to seal it and place that on the bottom when you bake it in a normal bread pan.
You can see like a spiral of cheese, more or less.

[onlyMark]

Nov 26, 2023 18:01:06 GMT kerouac2 said:

I wish I liked baked goods more. In the abstract, they seem good and often look delicious, but I always find out almost immediately when I start eating them that I don't like bread, sandwiches, pizza, croissants or hamburgers (among many other things) as soon as they are in my mouth. Perhaps it is a wheat aversion? I really don't know.

I know you do eat some weird stuff, but maybe just something to do with the texture?

[bixaorellana]

How were the potatoes used -- cooked, mashed, then incorporated with the flour to make a dough? I love the idea of the taste and moisture of the potatoes in a bread dough.

[onlyMark]

Yep, they were mashed, then some milk, sugar and melted butter stirred in with some yeast. Left a little while then flour added to make a dough.

[mich64]

I am going to bake sugar cookies which I am forming into the bottom of a muffin tin to make mini blueberry pies. My mom's birthday is tomorrow, and I am bringing them instead of cake because she loves pies.

[onlyMark]

Chucked it down all day today. Freezing rain. I certainly wasn't going to brave it to go down to the bakery as we've run out of bread. Plan B came into effect and I made a few rolls.