The first week of my baking challenge has been a bit of a phony war! I had a bit of a stockpile of cake and bread to use up, as it would be a bit of a false economy to let them go stale. However, we have now finished all the cake and I am down to the last loaf of bread.
Bread will be our biggest issue. I think that I, (OK - the breadmaker!), will probably need to produce a loaf of bread every morning, and have some rolls in the freezer for the children's lunches. Fresh bread doesn't tend to last much past breakfast! I have baked some parmesan rolls to stock up the freezer as I had some quasi-parmesan in the fridge. I am going to tweak this recipe to use normal/cheaper cheese and will blog it if it is any good.
I have also made a kind of mocha chocolate sponge. I baked a recipe using six eggs so I used my Kenwood Chef which originally belonged to my Mother-in-Law.
I love it because I know that it has been used to bake countless cakes, including many enjoyed by DH when he was small. It has a very on-trend retro look and it also does the job beautifully. I made four sponges, froze two and filled two with chocolate butter icing. The mocha cake had mixed reviews; DD thought it needed more coffee, DS thought it had too much! You can't please all the people...DH maintained a diplomatic silence!
I have also stocked up on biscuits. I used the hob-nob recipe which Morgan kindly gave me the link to. The recipe is supposed to be for 20 cookies, but I doubled up the quantities and made 88, so some maths has gone awry somewhere. I should have enough to keep us going for a while anyway!
We have also made flapjack, gingerbread men (from a Christmas kit), plum tarts (least said, soonest mended) and tiffin. I know that for many people this is a normal way of life, and you are probably wondering what I am making such a fuss about! For me it feels like a natural progression, but the real test will start next week as the kids go back to school and normal routines resume.
You've been busy baking! One of my goals for 2013 is to bake all our breads (except for flour/corn tortillas which I still haven't mastered). I am trying to decide whether I want to bake a week's worth at once or bake every two days. The bread seems to be going faster than I planned on.
ReplyDeleteYou've have started off with a bang there! Well done. I have a Kenwood Chef exactly like yours, and probably of a similar vintage as my aunt and my mum had one each; my sister got my mum's and I got my aunt's. It makes great bread, too.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see the old Kenwood mixer having a new lease of life, and feeding that little boy's offspring. Well done, Lesley.
ReplyDeleteThat hobnob recipe IS great. We found a liquidiser goblet in a charity shop which fits my vintage Chef beautifully. Even more soups to be made!]
ReplyDeleteBut not sponge cakes, in view of expanding waist line
happy new year!!