Mini Caramel Apple Pies

I don't own a car.  I do have a license but have never been particularly fond of driving.  Being the anxious person that I am I am constantly worried that something will go wrong.  I also suck at multi-tasking so trying to drive panics me because I start to get confused.  The Hubby, on the other hand, is in the process of obtaining his license.  He is a good driver but hasn't managed to pass his test yet.  We've also never really needed a car.  It's an expense we can do without and it's easy for us to get about most places.  Of course, there are the odd times when a car would be useful, such as getting to and from work, going on trips to Ikea or for doing the weekly food shop.  It's not possible for us to carry our weekly food supplies back from the supermarket.  There is just a bit too much for the distance we have to travel (about a half hour walk).  But luckily we live in the modern age where you can get your food delivered right to your door.  

Why am I telling you this?  Well, when you shop online, you have to pick what you want and specify a quantity.  We have our favourites list which makes buying our regular groceries nice and simple.  However, we occasionally crave something different and therefore have to track it down with the search engine.  Last week, the Hubby put through the order for the shop.  I only went in to reschedule the delivery since we ended up going out on the Sunday to see The Force Awakens (which was really god, by the way).  His craving this week was for apples.  We get apples every week, but they're for me and they're red.  He doesn't really like red.  He prefers the tarter, green kind.  So he ordered 5.  5 bags that is.  Neither of us was aware until the shopping was delivered and we received a carrier bag of 5 bags of Granny Smiths - around 25 apples.  Well, I just found it funny to be honest.  The Hubby was confused and embarrassed.  I said it was fine because now we knew what I would be baking with next!

So that's how we ended up here.  I had a lot of apples and needed to make something with them.  I decided I wanted to do something with pastry because it's one of those areas I'm still a bit lacking in.  Besides, apples in pastry are quite a classic and much loved dessert.  After perusing ideas on Pinterest, I settled on making mini apple pies, with the added decadence of caramel.  If I'd had any rock or sea salt kicking about I might have turned that into salted caramel but alas, not this time.  Maybe in the future.

I ended up making a couple of tweaks due to not having everything I needed.  Namely, I used just butter, rather than butter and shortening.  I had shortening in the fridge but it was past the use by date and I couldn't decide if it had gone rancid or not since I didn't know what that would look or smell like.  I decided not to risk it in the end.  I also used orange juice concentrate in place of lemon juice because I had used up all my lemons.  The change of juice didn't seem to affect things.  As for the pastry, I knew not using the shortening would change the texture somewhat and it wouldn't be as flaky but what you get with just butter is yummy anyway.

The tedious part of this was coring, peeling and chopping all the apples.  I think I used...about 7 apples.  That and making the lattice tops.  Otherwise this was a reasonably nice recipe to do.  Other than initially forgetting to give the pies an egg wash...  I took my pies to the regular Wednesday night tea with the in-laws (along with some home-made bread, but that's for another day).  They were a big hit (and go well with ice cream) and I ended up leaving most of them there.  The Hubby said to take 1 back for him and is now regretting that because he's eaten it and doesn't have any more!

There are still two bags of apples sitting in the kitchen but that's a more reasonable amount for the Hubby to munch his way through.  Anyway, that wraps up the last post of 2015.  I'm aiming to get back into baking more regularly next year as I only work part-time just now.  I acquired some new cook books I am looking forward to trying out!  So Happy Hogmanay everyone!  See you in 2016!   

Recipe - adapted from Mama's Gotta Bake

Makes about 9 muffin-sized pies

Pastry:

•  340g/12oz plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 200g/7oz butter (or 115g/4oz butter plus 85g/3oz vegetable shortening)
• 5-6 tbsp ice water

Filling: 

• 850g/1lb14oz tart apples (like Granny Smith)
• 70g/2.5oz brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 60g/2oz caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2.5 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp orange juice 
• 9 tbsp Carnation caramel
• 1 beaten egg + 1 tbsp water

1. Start by making the pastry.  Mix the flour, salt and sugar together in a large bowl.
2. Add the butter (or butter and shortening) quickly and rub into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add 2-3 tbsp of the water at a time and mix together with a fork to get a smooth dough.  
4. Tip dough out onto a floured surface and give it a quick knead before shaping it into a ball.
5. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
6. Meanwhile, make the filling.  Peel and core the apples and cut into pieces about 0.5cm/0.25inch thick.  They need to be able to fit inside the cups of the muffin trays.
7. Put the chopped apples in a large saucepan with the sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, cornflour and salt and mix together.  
8. Put the lid on the saucepan and cook the apples over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 18 minutes.  By this point the apples should be nice and tender.
9. Remove the lid and cook for another 5 minutes until the liquid has thickened.  Then remove from the heat and stir in the orange juice.  Allow to cool to room temperature.
10. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7 and grease a 12 cavity muffin tin (I used silicone as it made getting the pies out much easier).
11. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a thickness of 0.5cm/0.25inches.  Cut out circles of dough that are slightly bigger than the cavities in the muffin tins (I used a ramekin as a template) and gently fit them inside.  Make sure you have about  1/3 of the dough leftover for the tops.
12. Fill each pie base with a generous helping of the apple filling (it shrinks as it cooks) and top with a tablespoon of caramel.
13. Roll out some of the remaining dough so it is wide enough to make two pie tops and cut into strips.  Lay out three strips horizontally on the floured surface then cut three more strips in half.  Weave the cut strips with the uncut strips then cut out circles that are just the same size as the muffin cavities.
14. Fit the woven tops over the top of the pies.  Repeat until you have made enough lattice tops for each pie.
15. Press the edges of the tops down against the base with a fork then use a pastry brush to coat the tops with the beaten egg.  Sprinkle with sugar.
16. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until the tops are golden and the mixture inside is bubbling.
17. Allow to rest in the tins for 5-10 minutes and then carefully remove (use a knife to run around the edges of the pies and use a spoon or fish slice to scoop pie out) and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Great British Bake Along: Apple and Pear Green Tea, Cinnamon and Raisin Rye Rolls

Well, we're only on week 3 and already my schedule is getting messed up.  I was expecting a little bit of disruption but not this much.  I am currently drowning in work as I get settled in at my new job.  Being a teacher is hard!  And being a new teacher is harder!  There is still so much that needs organising and I am currently struggling to stay on top of things.  That being said, it should hopefully get a little easier (just a little) and I'll be able to establish a routine for myself that allows me time for work and rest.

Anyway, that is the cause of the delay for this Bake Along Challenge!  I was desperate to get it up before the next episode though so Tuesday night was spent rapidly editing photos (which ended up being taken without natural light, boohoo!) and typing things up!  So without further ado I present this (or last) week's:

As always I'll give my thoughts on the episode, which this week featured bread!

Admittedly, I don't have a lot to say this week.  This is in part to having a bad first proper day of work (kids started back on the Wednesday) and was feeling tired and miserable and wasn't taking notes.  So unfortunately there is little commentary.  That should hopefully not be the case with the next one.

Anyway, I will say I was surprised at Norman.  As I said last time, I was expecting him to do well this week but he's still being too simple.  I get that that is what he likes but this is GBBO!  You have to work outside the box.

Luis gets it!  It's no surprise he won star baker this week.  He created some spectacular things.  Even his signature rolls looked ridiculously impressive with their two colours and the swirl.  Very cool indeed.  Of course, Kate also did amazing.  It's just such a shame her showstopper did not cook properly and turned out raw because it looked stunning.  Quite a few did actually.  I really liked Richard's.  I want to try making something like that some time, when I'm not so busy.  Ham, cheese and spinach maybe?  Yum yum!  I also wouldn't mind attempting ciabatta, even though I'm not the biggest fan of it.  It's all right but just a bit flour-y for me.  I dislike overly floured bread.

And Jordan went out!  There was a massive chorus of 'Noooooooooooo!' at the mother-in-law's house (since we all gather there to watch it) when they announced it.  We all loved Jordan.  We didn't think he was the best baker but he was fun and inventive!  I still need to watch him on Extra Slice.  We all thought Norman was going to go because he keeps being criticised for being too simple.  He's really going to have to step it up because we're delving into the fancier categories now.  It's desserts next after all!  But we shall see I guess.

So I decided to keep with doing the signature challenge and hence I tried to make 12 rolls that used rye flour in 3.5 hours.  I'm going to admit this right off the bat: I did not finish these in the time limit, though I do think it would be entirely possible to do it.  I just happened to be distracted by building furniture and then the need to have tea. We do have a really nice new bed now though!  But that's getting off track.

I really wasn't sure where to start.  I knew I wanted to add some flavour to my rolls because you never do plain and simple of Bake Off.  The question was, what do I add?  I was at a loss and the internet was not being terribly helpful.  I knew I didn't want to include cheese, since the Hubby doesn't like cheese, and I didn't want to do anything that the contestants had done.  After much searching and consideration, I thought I would try cinnamon and raisin.  But I wanted to go one step further than that because that still seemed a bit of an obvious choice.  So I was hunting around for flavours that go with cinnamon and raisin.  This was even less successful than the original search.  The two were rarely combined with anything.  It was pure chance that I stumbled onto a listing for tea which was 'Apple, Cinnamon and Raisin'.  Now that sounded interesting; apple tea.  Another search yielded that Twinnings sold an apple tea.  It was too late to order it for the Friday shop but we would be going to town on the Saturday and I figured I would find it in the supermarket or the health shop.

Turns out neither had purely apple tea.  There was apple and cinnamon but I wanted to add the spice separately.  So I ended up opting for Apple and Pear Green Tea instead.  I know pear can work with raisins and cinnamon too, so figured that would be fine.

The next job was finding a recipe which would allow the incorporation of tea.  This was much easier though, since really I just needed to find a recipe that used water, which could be substituted with tea.  Stork's website yielded such a recipe and I just made the necessary adjustments to incorporate the flavours I wanted in place of theirs.

The rye rolls turned out pretty well, if a little inconsistent in appearance (I gave up on weighing all the different bits of dough).  The tea part is subtle but still noticeable.  The most prominent flavours though are the cinnamon and raisins.  They tasted good.  The Hubby is enjoying them.  He compares them to cinnamon and raisin bagels and says they are very good toasted.

Recipe -inspired by Stork
Makes 12 rolls

• 4 Twinnings Apple and Pear Green teabags
• 375ml/13.2fl.oz warm water
• 40g/1.5oz butter
• 340g/12oz rye flour
• 340g/12oz strong white flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3.75 tsp fast action yeast
• 3 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 155g/5.5oz raisins
• 1 egg

1. Steep the teabags in the warm water for 2-5 minutes.
2. Melt the butter.
3. Put the flours, cinnamon, salt, yeast and sugar in a large bowl and mix together.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the tea (without the teabags) and the melted butter.
5. Mix together to form a dough.
6. Knead the dough until it is nice and smooth (about 10-20 minutes).
7. Coat the dough in the olive oil, place in a bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size (about 1.5 hours).
8. Stretch the dough out into a rectangle shape, place the raisins in the middle and then gather the dough up around them.
9. Knead the dough for at least 5 minutes to evenly disperse the raisins throughout.
10. Divide the dough into 12 equal sized pieces.
11. Divide each piece of dough into 3 pieces.  Roll each of these pieces into sausages about 25cm/10inches long.
12. Plait the three pieces together then pinch the two ends together to form rings.  Place the rings onto two trays coated with greaseproof paper.
13. Cover the rolls and leave to rise for about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 210°C/410°F/Gas Mark 7.
14. Beat the egg and brush over the top of the rolls.
15. Bake the rolls for 10-15 minutes until they are golden and sound hollow when tapped underneath.
16. Leave to cool on a wire rack before serving.

Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

I love doughnuts, really really love them, though I cannot eat too many in one go.  I do have limits.  But if I can have a doughnut then I will.  Provided it is a flavour I like.  Remember, I am surprisingly picky despite my sweet tooth.  I grew up with jam doughnuts, so I always have a soft spot for them.  However, I developed a liking for glazed doughnuts when I first got to try a Krispy Creme!  Man, those things are scrummy.  Rather overpriced for a doughnut though, unfortunately.  For a single glazed doughnut from Krispy Creme, I can get a packet of at least 5 jam doughnuts from the supermarket.  Not that I could eat all those doughnuts in one day but that's not the point.

The point is, I have been wanting to make my own doughnuts at home for ages.  So what has been stopping me?  Well, the frying aspect.  Not the idea that they are fried, mind.  I have no issues with frying things.  But doughnuts are deep fried and my issue comes from the fact that deep frying requires a lot of oil, which will still be left over at the end of the frying.  And then what do I do with it?  I don't want to keep it in the pan.  I've only got so many pans and they all get used for making dinner.  I can't afford to be one pan down.  And I don't want to try bottling it up again.  Honestly, it is not worth the effort.

So when I stumbled across the idea of baked doughnuts, I was so excited!  Yet said stumbling happened two years ago and so far there has been no sign of doughnuts on this blog.  And the reason for that is I kept failing to find a recipe I liked and thought worked.  Hindered by the lack of a doughnut tray, I went looking for doughnuts I could shape and bake without a mould.  Said doughnuts always turned out too much like bread, both in appearance and taste.  Admittedly, quite sweet bread but bread nonetheless.  It was all rather disappointing and I became rather put off by the idea.

Anyway, at the start of the month, after finishing university and returning to the internet properly I discovered that the first Friday in June is apparently National Doughnut Day.  Admittedly, I don't know if that's just an American thing but if it is an excuse to eat doughnuts, I'm in.  Problem was, I had no doughnuts and my past failures with baked ones made me reluctant to try making them again, despite that being a suggestion when I was lamenting.  However, the brooding that resulted meant I finally did what I had been thinking of doing for ages and I decided I would buy that doughnut pan I had been admiring on Amazon for the last year!  I was going to try a softer mix and see how that turned out.

And what can I say?  They turned out great!  I found a really good recipe (thank you Chocolate Moosey!), though I decided to only glaze half of the doughnuts and coat the rest in cinnamon sugar.  The fiancé is not a fan of glaze.  I also reduced the recipe slightly so I only made six as I wasn't sure we could manage nine doughnuts between two of us.  Turns out, we probably could have.  The fiancé devoured his cinnamon coated doughnuts within the day and is requesting I make more.  And I probably will since they were so simple and so quick to make!  That, and they tasted lovely.  The texture was right and the taste was right.  Finally, a baked doughnut that tasted like a real doughnut.  I am so happy.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Recipe - adapted from Chocolate Moosey

Makes 6 


Doughnuts:

• 150g/5.5oz plain flour
• 1/3 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 40g/1.4oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• 60g/2oz caster sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 small egg
• 2/3 tsp vanilla extract
• 85ml/3fl.oz milk

Glaze (for 3 doughnuts):

• 25g/1oz icing sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1-2 tsp milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Cinnamon Sugar:

• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 2 tbsp milk

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and grease a 6 cavity doughnut pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the seeds from the vanilla bean (cut the bean down the centre, split open and remove the seeds by running a knife along the length of the inside), the egg and the vanilla extract to the sugar butter and beat to incorporate.
5. Beat in the milk.
6. Add the flour a little at a time, mixing after each addition, until all the flour is just incorporated.
7. Put the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large, round nozzle and pipe the mixture into each of the tray cavities, being careful not to overfill.
8. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the doughnut comes out clean.
9. Allow to rest in the tray for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
10. Make the glaze once the doughnuts have cooled.  Mix together the icing sugar, salt and vanilla extract in a bowl.  
11. Add the milk and mix until smooth.
12. Dip the tops of 3 of the doughnuts into the glaze until they are covered.  Allow to set.
13. On a plate, combine the sugar and cinnamon.
14. Brush the unglazed doughnuts with the milk and then roll in the cinnamon sugar to coat.

Pumpkin Sandwich Cakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

It's the second Thursday of the month so it's time for the Lady Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge.  This month's ingredients were pumpkin and cream cheese.

Well, I was seriously considering not taking part this month.  I had no experience with either of the ingredients and had no idea what I would make and who would be willing to eat it.  Pumpkin seems to be a very American thing to bake with and is not very common over here in the UK (from what I've experienced anyway).  You can't get it in canned form in the supermarket, only in fruit form, and I really didn't feel like trying to scrape out the filling from one of those.  However, leave it to Pinterest to start giving me inspiration.  Just opening up the Food and Drink section started yielding several different pumpkin recipes as early as the start of September.  Clearly the stuff is even more popular over in the states than I initially thought.  But with so many options just staring me in the face I decided I would have to give something a go.  As to who would eat it, I figured if I could get them made before the autumn half term started, I could give whatever I made to the lovely ladies at Markinch Primary School via the fiancé's mum.

I originally planned to make pumpkin fudge because it sounded really interesting to do.   Plus I want to try making more confectionery. However, I attempted it three times and all three times I failed.  The first batch burnt; the second seemed to be working until I added the final ingredient and it turned into this crumbly powder; and the final batch, whilst better than the other two, just didn't have the texture of fudge.  It was rather disappointing and I ended up with saucepans with burnt, failed fudge adhered to their bases.  It took several days to clean them all completely, which made dinner tricky since we only own 3 large-ish pots.  Really I've been needing a proper, heavy based pot for confectionery making.  Good thing I got to go to Ikea at the weekend and acquire a lovely cast iron casserole pan for half the cost one that size would usually cost then.  I cannot wait to test it out.

Sorry, I got a little sidetracked there.  So I scrapped the fudge idea and went looking for something else I could do.  I liked the idea of biscuits but I like to make crunchy biscuits and adding wet pumpkin to it would likely not yield such a thing.  Then it hit me: whoopie pies!  They seem to get classed as biscuits (or a 'cakey cookie') but I'm leaning more on the side that they are cakes.  Cookies are not cakey.  Cake is cakey!  Hence why I've called these sandwich cakes, despite the recipe I was using referring to them as cookies.

After the fudge disasters, this recipe ended up being really simple.  I ended up getting canned pumpkin from a seller on Amazon (who provide excellent service by the way).  The batter turned out nicely though it was a bit of a pain to get onto the trays.  I went to the trouble of smoothing them all over to make sure they came out nice and even on top, since reviews in the original recipe had complained of lumpiness.  I also made a decision to try and make them look pumpkin-like.  It was a complete experiment and I did not know if it would work.  I tested one by drawing the lines into the uncooked mixture first, putting in a clove stalk and then baking.  That worked okay but making the lines was quite fiddly.  So then I tried drawing them in after by running the sharp end of a skewer through the top just after they came out the oven.  It also worked but looked quite messy.  Finally I realised that since they were still quite soft when they came out the oven, I could just press the skewer into the top to make the pattern.  It worked really well and with the little clove stalks they made quite adorable pumpkins.

As for the filling, cream cheese was very easy to work with and pipes really nicely.  I ended up with double the amount I needed though.  Maybe the baker of the original recipe is just really generous with their filling?  Ah well, I saved the leftovers and used it in another batch later in the week since I needed to use up the remaining pumpkin too.

These went down really well with everyone who tried them.  I admit I was surprised since it is a bit of an out-there flavour combination but I guess the fact that it is so unbelievably popular in America should have tipped me off. 

Recipe - adapted from Land O' Lakes

Makes about 18

Cakes:

• 280g/10oz plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• Whole cloves
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 200g/7oz light brown sugar
• 170g/6oz canned pumpkin
• 60ml/2fl.oz milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Orange food gel (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line 2-3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Remove the buds from the whole cloves, setting the stalks aside, and then crush the buds.  You want make about 1/8 teaspoon of crushed cloves.
3. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, crushed cloves, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
4. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.
5. Add in the pumpkin, milk, egg and vanilla extract and beat together until well mixed.
6. Add the flour mixture, and food gel if using, and beat until smooth.
7. Drop level tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the trays, spaced well apart.  Try and have an even number on each tray.  Use a spoon to make sure the dough is shaped into a neat circular mound.  Use a wet finger to smooth over the tops of each mound.
8. Bake for 9-10 minutes until set (a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean).  I would recommend baking them one tray at a time since you have to do the 'decoration' straight from the oven and if they cool too much it won't work.
9. Immediately after removing a tray from the oven, use the side of a bamboo skewer to press eight lines that point towards the centre into the top of each of the cakes.  Place a clove stalk into the centre top of half of them.
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Filling: 

• 200g/7oz cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
• 30g/1oz butter
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp milk
• 600g/21oz icing sugar, plus extra for dusting

1. Combine the cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, vanilla extract and milk in a bowl and beat until the mixture is well combined and smooth.
2. Add a the icing sugar in four parts, beating well after each addition until it is nice and creamy.
3. Spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe generous swirl on the underside of the cakes that do not have stalks in.
4. Top each one with a stalked top piece.
5. Dust with icing sugar.

Apple and Cinnamon Turnovers

It is time for the Lady Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge again and this month's ingredients were apple and cinnamon!

I decided I wanted to try something a bit different this time around.  I've used apples and cinnamon plenty of times before in cakes so I didn't really want to go that route.  This is meant to be a challenge after all.  So I decided to raid my books and see what I could find.

I admit, the first thing that did come to mind was apple strudel.  I knew the fiancé loved strudel and I've not made it before due to not really doing much with pastry in the past.  I even went and looked up how to do it, including how to do the pastry from scratch.  However it is rather complicated.  Strudel pastry is apparently very tricky to make and few people do it.  I saw them doing it on the Great British Bake Off last year and all that stretching looks scary!  Really, I just wouldn't have time, especially with this post-grad course and the fact that I already have an assignment to do which is due in next week.  So strudel was out but I was now determined to do something with pastry.  I needed to do something out of my comfort zone and working with pastry would definitely be that.  If I ever want a chance of getting on the GBBO, then I'll need to be able to bake all types of pastry.  It is probably the most used thing on that show.  It took some trawling, but I eventually stumbled on apple and cinnamon turnovers in the lovely baking book the fiancé had got me for Christmas but that I have so far not used.  

The turnovers themselves looked to be quite a simple recipe.  The challenge came from the pastry because I decided I was going to make my own.  This was my first attempt ever to make puff pastry!  Well, actually, it ended up being my first AND second.  My first try failed pretty quickly.  I brought it out of the fridge after its first resting period and went about rolling it into a rectangle, only to have all my butter start oozing out from every inch possible.  It just kept coming and coming and I ended up with a mush of butter and pastry.  Not good.  But at least it happened early and not an hour down the line.  So I started again.  I used butter straight from the fridge this time, rather than letting it soften first, and made sure it was really well sealed in its pastry envelope.  When it came to rolling out, there was still a little that managed to escape but it was nowhere near the amount of the first try.  After it had had a few rests and re-rolls it was less trouble.  I was quite pleased.

The book I was using was great.  It explains things rather neatly and all the recipes are quite short and to the point.  However, in the list of ingredients for the turnovers it said '3 apples'.  Just '3 apples'.  There was no indication as to size, weight or type.  So I guessed.  I got Bramley apples, since they are the standard cooking apple over here.  I also decided to just get 2 since they are rather big.  Turns out even that was way too much.  I only used about half the apple filling that I made.  Hence I'll be adjusting the ingredients in the write up.  I made sure to measure how much apple there was before and after making up the pastries, so you'll get a weight.

I cooked my turnovers in two batches.  The first batch I made came out really well.  The filling did leak slightly and the egg wash was a little patchy but overall I was happy.  There were no soggy bottoms!  Pretty good for a first attempt at puff pastry.  It's such a shame I burnt the second batch.  This is evidence that I should not multi-task.  Or at least, not do so in a room that isn't the kitchen or adjoining living room.  I have a tendency to forget about things if I leave the room.  I thought I was being productive when I decided to put away all the laundry and change the bed linen whilst the turnovers cooked.  But I forgot about them and lost track of time.  When I went back into the living room, I noted it was hot.  I then walked into the kitchen to open the window, wondered why the oven was on and then realised!  The poor things had been in half an hour longer than they should have been and were ruined.  I was so disappointed.  I cannot wait for my new oven timer to arrive.  Then even if I do forget by going out the room I'll still get a noisy reminder.

The ones that didn't burn apparently tasted yummy though.  The fiancé did think the pastry was a little thick but also said they tasted very like the strudels he would get at the market in Edinburgh at Christmas.  The cinnamon went really nicely with the apples and there were layers in my pastry!  I'll have to find time to make them again in the future, and not burn half the batch next time. 

Recipe - adapted from The Art of French Baking 
Makes 6 pastries


Puff Pastry:
This takes 2-3 hours to do since you have to roll out, fold and rest the pastry several times in order to get the layers in.

• 200g/7oz plan flour, plus extra for dusting
• Pinch of salt
• 100ml/3.5fl.oz ice-cold water
• 100g/3.5fl.oz butter

1. Sift the flour into a bowl and mix in the salt.
2. Add most of the water and mix in until you get a smooth and elastic dough.  Add more water if necessary.
3. Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out the dough into a square that is about 1.5cm/0.75inch thick.
4. Cut the butter into cubes and place into the centre of the pastry square.
5. Fold the corners over into the centre so the butter is completely enclosed within a pastry envelope.  Make sure there are no gaps.
6. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
7. Remove from the fridge and roll out into a long rectangle that is 5mm/0.25inch thick.  Try not to let any butter escape from inside (don't panic if a little comes out though).
8. Fold the short ends of the rectangle so they overlap each other in the centre to make a rectangle with three layers.  Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 at least seven more times.  You can do it more times if you want.  The more times you repeat the steps, the more layers your pastry should have.
10. Now the pastry is done so chill it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

Apple and Cinnamon Turnovers:

• 170g/6oz apple (about 1 large Bramley apple)
• 60g/2oz caster sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 400g/14oz puff pastry
• 1 egg yolk 
• Water

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7 and grease two baking trays with butter.
2. Peel and core the apple and then cut it into 1cm/0.5inch cubes.  Put in a medium bowl.
3. Add the cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the caster sugar to the apple and stir to coat them.
4. Lightly dust a surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry as thinly as possible.  Ideally you want to be able to cut all your turnovers from this one sheet and not have to re-roll (though I didn't quite manage it).
5. Use a 12cm/5inch circle cookie cutter, or trace around a bowl with a similar diameter, and cut out six circles of pastry.  If you want, you can also cut small, decorative shapes out of the leftovers (I made a heart for each one).
6. Place a heaped tablespoon of the spiced apple on top of each circle, ever so slightly off centre.
7. Moisten the edges of the pastry with water, fold in half to make a crescent shape and press the edges together to seal them.  If it tears in places, patch the gaps with leftover pastry.  If you made decorations then attach them to the crescents with water.  Place the pastries on the trays.
8. Beat the egg yolk and then brush the pastries with it to glaze them.
9. Sprinkle over the remaining sugar.
10. Bake for 30 minutes.

Cinnamon and Raisin Bagels

I've always been a bit wary of the idea of making my own bagels.  Admittedly, it had never occurred to me to even try doing so until it came up on last year's series of The Great British Bake Off, but that's where I saw the thing that concerned me: poaching.  I've never poached anything before, not even eggs, so I really wasn't sure if I would be able to do it.  Consequently I put it out of my mind until about a month ago, when I had a sudden craving for bagels.  I didn't have any though and didn't feel like going out to get some.  That's when I started considering trying to make my own.  I've gotten better at baking since starting this blog so I could do with branching out a bit.  So I began looking about online and in books for recipes, for plain ones mind because I'm very boring in my tastes.

Well, as you may have assumed by my lack of previous posts about bagels, I never did get around to making them.  I couldn't really find a good time to do them and then I just ended up ordering some with my weekly shop.  But here we are, a month later, and I have finally made some! 

Since these are cinnamon and raisin, they're clearly not for me.  I made them for the fiancé as he enjoys having them for breakfast but I hadn't gotten any in the shopping (despite asking him if he wanted anything thee times) and the local shop didn't have them.  Well, seemed a good enough excuse to give making them a go at last so I did.

I decided to work off a plain recipe, opting for a Nigella one I had already bookmarked back when I was originally looking for recipes.  I then modified it by adding the cinnamon and raisins, picking my own amounts based on what looked and smelt right, as well as switching the caster sugar with dark brown sugar.  I messed about with the amounts of ingredients slightly too, since I only wanted to make 5, not 15, and the numbers didn't divide easily by 3.  Plus I don't have a measuring spoon that'll do 1/3 tbsp.  All worked fine though.  Clearly I'm getting better at making stuff up.

Turns out it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.  Poaching was easy.  The hardest bit was kneading the dough due to it being a very dry dough and thus very hard to work.  My arms were so tired afterwards.  I also ended up decimating most of the raisins in the process but never mind, they're still noticeable in terms of both sight and taste.  My only other issue was that I couldn't get my oven quite hot enough and so had to keep them in longer.  As a result I ended up burning the bases but some very vigorous scraping with a bread knife got rid of that.

The fiancé thought they were a lovely surprise to come home to (I didn't tell him I was planning to make them) and promptly cut one up and toasted it.  He said they are really yummy cinnamon bagels and just as good as the store bought ones.  I was pleased that the inside looked right, with a close crumb.  So hooray for me!  I shall be making them again in the future and maybe I'll even get around to trying to make plain ones.

Recipe - inspired by How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Makes 5

• 330g/11.5oz strong white bread flour, plus extra for kneading
• 1 tsp salt
• 7g/0.25oz easy bake yeast
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
• 170ml/6fl.oz warm water
• 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 70g/2.5oz raisins 
• 2 tbsp sugar for poaching

1. Put the flour, salt, yeast and ground cinnamon into a bowl and mix together.
2. Combine the sunflower oil, water and brown sugar together in a jug or bowl and mix.
3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet.  Mix slightly.
4. Add the raisins and start to bring together with your hands until you get a stiff dough.  The dough is very dry and that's the way you want it.
5. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead it, adding more flour to it as you go.  It's a very tough dough to work and you'll likely pulverise the raisins in the process of kneading.  Do not add more water.  You're aiming for a smooth, elastic dough so expect to be kneading for at least 25 minutes.
6. Coat the inside of a bowl with oil.  Shape the dough into a ball and place in the oiled bowl, rotating a couple of times to coat it.  Cover the bowl with clingfilm and then leave dough to rise for at least an hour.
7. When the dough has risen, knock it back (give it a good punch) and knead it again for about 5 minutes.
8. Break the dough into five equal sized pieces and each piece into a rope about 25cm/10inches long.
9. Curl each rope around to form a ring, overlapping the ends and pinching them together to seal them.
10. Place the rings on an oiled baking tray and cover with a clean tea towel.  Leave them to rise for about 30 minutes, until they are nice and puffy.
11. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 240°C/475°F/Gas Mark 9.  About 10 minutes before the end of the rising time, put a large pot of water on to boil.
12. When the bagels are puffy and the water has boiled it is time to poach them.  Add the 2 tbsp sugar to the boiling water.
13. Put a bagel into the water and poach for 1 minutes, turning it over with a spatula after 30 seconds so both sides poach evenly.  Remove with a slotted spoon so that the water drains off and return to the oiled baking tray.
14. Repeat with remaining four bagels.
15. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until they are shiny on top.
16. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Banana and Cinnamon Loaf

I was not intending to bake today but as I was cleaning my kitchen it occurred to me that I still needed to use up the last of my bananas.  They were looking very ripe at this point and since I would be busy over the weekend making a cake and attending a party, today was really the only day I could do it.  Not like I had anything else to do aside from the laundry and this ended up being a pretty simple bake.

I had asked the fiancé what he would like earlier in the week, since he would be the one who actually be eating it.  He sort of shrugged and said, "Banana bread?".  Well, why not?  I know I made banana bread cupcakes quite recently but I thought it might be nice to make an actual loaf.  

My original plan was going to be to ask the fiancé's Mum for the recipe that she uses for banana bread, since I know he likes that one.  I never got around to it asking for it though.  Ah well.  Instead I decided to raid my books and see what I could find.  Mary Berry was my first pull from the shelf and ended up being my only one, since she had a nice, simple recipe that looked perfect.  I even got lucky with certain ingredients, like the flour, and had just the right amount needed.  Clearly it was meant to be.

I also decided to spice things up a little, literally, by adding some cinnamon.  I had read banana and cinnamon go well together and the fiancé does like cinnamon.  Admittedly, it is another one of those things he was a bit sceptical of when I talked about the idea but where's the fun in playing it safe?  Not that adding cinnamon is particularly wild but oh well.  I decided to do it as a layer of cinnamon sugar running through the centre of the loaf with more sprinkled on top, rather than mixing cinnamon into the batter itself.  So I guess it's a little bit like a cinnamon bun in a way.  I didn't have as much cinnamon as I wanted to put in but I've put what I would have used in the recipe.

The fiancé really liked it and is currently scoffing it down.  He says the cinnamon isn't very noticeable though, despite the fact that you can see it and smell it.  I put that down to not having enough in the sugar mix though.  Like I said, I've upped the amount in the write-up. 

Recipe - adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

• 2 ripe bananas
• 100g/3.5oz butter
• 175g/6oz caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 225g/8oz salf-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 75g/2.5oz granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line a 23x10cm/9x4inch loaf tin.
2. Mash the banana in a large bowl.
3. Add all the ingredients except the granulated sugar and cinnamon and then beat until smooth and there are no lumps of butter.  You can do this by hand but I would recommend an electric whisk.  It makes things much easier and the mixture ends up smoother.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the granulated sugar and cinnamon.
5. Spoon half the mixture into the loaf tin and use a spatula to smooth it over.
6. Cover the exposed batter with a layer of cinnamon sugar.
7. Spoon in the rest of the batter and smooth over.  Sprinkle with the remaining sugar.
8. Bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Allow to rest in the tin for a few minutes before turning it out, removing the greaseproof paper and letting the cake finish cooling on a wire rack.