Sunday bakes - 'Feeling good' flax seed bread

A friend at work recently told us over drinks that her family bakes their own bread every day, using a bread maker. Her husband, who for years suffered from IBS, found that after a few weeks eating home-made bread this had improved dramatically. Even with a brief search on Google and you can easily find the reasons why this might happen. 
The mass-produced bread we can buy today are just loaded with chemicals to improve their flavour and texture and worse, the flour used to make it in the first place is modified so the bread can be baked quickly, with no timely fermenting process.
Now I'm fortunate that I don't have these health problems, but that's not to say that I never will; inflammatory illnesses like this can happen at any time. But my main concern is the level of chemicals that we have been ingesting. I have been increasingly interested in the level of synthetic hormones working their way into our systems, the chemicals in our environment that can induce hormonal changes and how this affects our overall health. Whilst chemicals can be helpful and necessary for some people to manage certain conditions I am more wary that I used to be of the side effects and the impact of non-medicinal chemicals. 
After talking to my friend I decided to try out my own bread recipes, which I have been honing over the last few weeks, adding in healthier alternatives and additions.

I don't have a bread maker but this recipe is actually really easy and kneading is not as hard as I thought it was. I added flax seeds because they are a really great addition to your diet being rich in Omega-3 and great for your skin and hair. I substituted the vegetable oil for coconut oil which does boost the flavour but is also a healthier fat. 

Ingredients
500g (1llb) wholemeal strong flour
3 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp flax seeds (linseeds)
1.5 tbsp dried active yeast (I like Allinson's for hand baking only variety)
300ml water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Method
Mix the sugar in with 1 parts boiling water to 2 parts cold water to make 300ml of warm sugar water, then whisk in the yeast. Leave this to froth up for 15 minutes. Make sure you do this in a big enough jug, because it will bubble over and make a mess. 
Put the seeds in a pestle and mortar and grind until the seeds are broken down. You need to crush up the seeds because otherwise they will just pass through your system and you won't benefit from the nutrients. Put the salt into a big bowl and pour the flour on top, add the crushed seeds and the coconut oil. Pour the frothed up water and yeast over the flour and mix with a fork until the mixture is a consistent ball. 
Get your hands in there and start mixing with your fingers, knead the dough in the bowl. To do this I've been using a twisting action pushing down with my middle knuckles, splaying my fingers, then folding the mixture back in on itself. Do this for 5-10 minutes. Pick up the mixture, making sure to leave the bowl as clean as possible and spritz the inside of the bowl with a little coconut oil just to make sure the mixture doesn't stick then put the dough back in again, cover the bowl with a wet tea towel and leave in a warm spot to rise for an hour. 
Line a tin with greaseproof paper and as gently as possible move the dough into the tin, it will deflate a little, but don't worry it comes back up again. Cover the tin with the tea towel and leave to rise for another hour. 
Heat the oven to 180 and bake the bread for 40 minutes until the crust is crispy and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it. 

Make sure you eat this hot when it's at its best, but the crumb will firm up the next day and make better sandwiches and toast. 

I love this bread, it smells amazing, it's really not that much effort to make and I know exactly what is in my toast. My next step is going to be sourcing local flour made from older types of grains, the newer breeds are chosen to grow faster and have fewer nutrients but this is a big step to cutting the processing chemicals from my diet and hopefully cutting the risks associated with them. 

Sunday bakes - 'save some for tomorrow' tomato pasta bake

This summer is great for tomatoes, as long as you keep them watered they will ripen and caramelise in the sun.
This pasta bake is full of sweet tomatoes and basil, with some of the pasta swapped for bulgar wheat to add a different texture.

Ingredients
8 vine ripened tomatoes, quartered
Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
Half a red pepper, diced
1 cup of bulgard wheat
1.5 cups of pasta
A pack of basil leaves (about 10 leaves)
3/4 a jar of pesto
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp Ketchup
50g of grated cheddar

Method
Cook up the pasta and the bulgar wheat in boiling water, drain, and stir all the ingredients, except the cheese together in a baking dish.

Scatter the cheese on top and bake in the oven until bubbling and golden.

This is about as simple as dinner gets, and there will be plenty for lunch tomorrow too.

Sunday bakes - 'good grief it's hot' gooseberry and apple pie

When I was little we used to have huge blackcurrant bushes, all around the vegetable patch. The summer used to be spent underneath these bushes, making dens in the shade that smelled of blackcurrants. In with these bushes was a single, small gooseberry bush. I absolutely love gooseberries, but they are hard to find now that we don't have that little bush anymore.
This gooseberry pie uses the tinned gooseberries, their softness boils down to a gooseberry treacle which works well with apple. cooked gently and left with a little bite.

Ingredients
One pack of shortcrust pastry
Two tins of gooseberries
One pink lady apple, cored and sliced
4 tbsp brown sugar

Method
Add the sugar and gooseberries to a saucepan and heat gently, stirring as little as necessary until the mixture is treacle like, but keep as many as the gooseberries in tact as possible.

Roll out the pastry until it's ab out 4mm thick and line a pie dish, blind bake until just starting to change colour, then cover the bottom with the sliced apples. Pour the gooseberry mixture over the top and cover with pasty.

You can either have a solid top, or cut thin slices of pastry and weave them together to form a lattice top.

Paint the pastry in milk and bake at about 180 for twenty minutes until golden brown.

I served this with an apricot and peach frozen yoghurt which worked wonderfully.

Sunday bakes - 'Stop eating cake' salad

Wow, so I've missed a couple of weeks, where did the time go!

Good news is that after putting on a bake sale at work we raised £233 for my friend's earthquake efforts. She and her team are making santitation packs for the people who have been displaced by the earthquake. If you're interested in seeing their efforts or donating to the cause you can do that here:http://www.kgnepal.com.np/health-relief

In the meantime, here in the UK, after baking (and eating) an epic amount of cake it's time for salad.

So today we have fennel and radish salad with spiced lentil, which I ate with chicken baked with crushed pineapple.

Ingredients
1 Fennel bulb
7 radishes
handful of dried lentils
cajun spice
Lime juice

Method
Thinly slice the fennel and radishes, save the fennal leaves from the top to garnish the salad. Cover the chopped vegetables in lime juice and set aside to marinade together while you cook the lentils and chicken.
Boil the lentils in salted water, drain and pour onto a baking tray. Cover the lentils in cajun spice and a bit of salt and bake in the oven until they are crispy.
Put the chicken breast onto a piece of foil and cover with crushed pineapple pieces from a can, bring the edges of the foil together but don't totally seal it and put it in the oven for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Open this up for the last 5 minutes to give the top a chance to brown.
sprinkle the lentils over the salad with the fennel leaves and serve with the chicken.

The best antidote to cake.

Remembering Patan

So a few weeks ago I mentioned a print by an artist, Chitra Merchant, that I have bought it for my living room. 

One of the reasons I loved the print so much was that it reminded me of my last night in Nepal, in Bhaktapur, Patan square, Kathmandu. Today I woke up to the awful news that Kathmandu had been hit by a huge earthquake and one of my favourite places, Patan/Durbar square was effectively gone. The friend we had gone out to visit is still out there and was actually living in Patan at the time the earthquake hit so the pictures of the flattened square really scared me. She was ok, she’s with her family. I know that many many people are have been hurt and killed and still more are missing so all my thoughts are there with them. 

 

Patan was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and now, with who knows what damage done and some heritage lost forever, my photos and memories are all the more important to me. Here are just a few of my favourites, I’m going to keep hoping that we’ve seen the worst of the damage and the death toll doesn’t get any higher.

Sunday bakes - 'More sunshine please' madeleines

This week I'm making an attempt at one of my favourites, madeleines. I've never made them before, and I know they can be tricky so I was a bit nervous about giving them a go.  It's important that they are light and fluffy so I was extra careful to beat in as much air as possible and be gentle with the mixture.

Ingredients

2 eggs

100g/3.5oz caster sugar

100g/3.5oz plain flour

100g/3.5oz butter, melted and cooled slightly

juice and zest of one lemon

3/4 tsp baking powder

Method

Whisk up the eggs with the sugar until light and frothy and then gently whisk in the rest of the ingredients. 

Leave the mixture to sit for 20 minutes. 

Heat the oven to 200 and then brush a little extra melted butter into the madeleine moulds and sprinkle a little extra plain flour as well. Tap out any excess and spoon the mixture into the moulds gently. 

Bake for 10 minutes until the madeleines are golden brown and cooked all the way through. 

 

 

 

Now to sit in the sunshine, with a glass of something, a good book and a plate of fresh madeleines.

Sunday bakes - 'They don't make egg-shaped moulds' easter cake

For Easter sunday I wanted to make a 'show stopper' and what better shape for Easter than an egg. But unfortunately they don't seem sell egg shaped cake moulds, so I had  improvise with a pudding dish. 
Whilst this cake lasted long enough to eat, the bottom half was starting to look a little bulbous, I think there is a good reason why there aren't egg-shaped cakes. 
So make this cake if you are planning on eating is quickly (in the next few days).

Ingredients
Cake mix - make 2 batches, each with the following:
120g/4.5oz Self-raising flour
140g/5oz Caster sugar
pinch of salt
40g/1.5oz stork/butter
120ml milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp flavouring
Marzipan
Fondant icing
Icing lace powder
Black cherry jam

Method
For each of the cake halves beat the sugar and butter togegther until light and fluffy, then add the egg and beat again. Sift in the flour and mix gently at first, then gradually add the milk, salt, and the flavouring, beat togegther to make a light sponge batter. For the top layer I added vanilla flavour but for the bottom I added almond, to go with the cherry jam and marzipan.

Pour one batch of cake mix into a pudding dish, lined with buttered tin foil and cover with some more tin foil with a pleat in. Put into a roasting tin half filled with water and bake on a low heat until it is cooked all the way through (use the skewer test to check). Take the tin foil off the top for the last 10 minutes of cooking to crisp up the top, it will help keep the structure of the cake strong. Do this for both halves of the cake.

Once the cake has cooled tip them out onto a plate, put one small side down on the plate, cover with jam and then invert the other side and place on top. The pudding dish will have had a flat bottom so this should balance.

Cover the now egg-shaped cake in jam, then a thin layer of marzipan before putting on the fondant icing. I've found that rolling out the marzipan and fondant onto cling film will make transferring the rolled out icing onto the cake much easier and the surface much smoother. You can also rub down the surface to smooth out any folds without getting too sticky. 

I have a collection of the powdered icing paints, but you can mix them with water to make icing paints. I mixed up three colours and painted them over the surface to make a bright watercolour effect. 

You can buy the silicone mould for the icing lace online as well as the special icing sugar. you mix up the powder with water and spread over the mould, taking care to scrape off as much excess as possible. 

It will dry out overnight or over a few hours but you can speed up the process by placing in a very cool oven. Don't leave in the oven for too long because it will become brittle. 

Peel out of the mould and lay over the cake. I ran pieces of wire down one of the pieces and folded up to make a bow to sit on top. 

Happy Easter bakers!