It must be Christmas as here I am making sausage rolls; normally only ever made in this house by the Pastry King and only ever in the week before Christmas. The Pastry King loves Brussel Sprouts and Brown Sauce and simply adores sausage rolls, and mince pies, in fact he adores anything with pastry on it, round it or under it. Continue reading
Warm, sweetly scented with cinnamon and brown sugar, butter and golden syrup, wholesome with apples and rye flour. It is easily made on a gloomy afternoon when you should be dealing with your tax returns, planning Christmas, all things I would rather not do. Ever. So much better to avoid and bake a teatime treat instead.
I always bake this one in this narrow high sided Matfer tin and it cooks perfectly in 50 minutes flat.
This time I used soya milk as we had run out of cow’s milk and experimented with lining the tin (the most irritating part of making any cake for me) with Lakeland’s fancy new parchment one side/foil the other side stuff. It’s a clever product that you don’t exactly need but I thought I would try it out. It worked fine! And I think it would be excellent for wrapping stuff like fudge, or halva or well any of those things. It has the feel of the old Callard and Bowser butterscotch wrappers. You can get nice crisp lines with it and it doesn’t curl up like my usual baking parchment does.
Not much else to add, this is a lovely cake, too hot to cut at the time of writing, but hey, I have made it about half a dozen times since the recipe was first published in its original form in The Guardian and has been amended since then. It is one of our favourite tea time cakes, not too fancy, no icing, just a nice soft apple cake that is easy to put together and easy to eat. It is one of the many great recipes in Short & Sweet, so get someone to treat you to a copy if you feel the urge for a new baking book this winter.
I freely admit to having a huge bias in favour of cakes that you put together at least in part in a saucepan. No creaming of sugar and butter, no separating eggs, you just have to watch that you don’t overheat the sugar-butter-syrup bit and you will be fine.
I almost didn’t make it and I am late as it should have been ready for Evidence Matters’ round up by last night, but better cake than never!
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Edit: If you’re thinking of making this cake have a look at Misk’s solution to the age old and much loathed task of lining a loaf tin with non stick parchment in her latest post → click here
The Shortandtweet challenge this week was buttermilk oatcakes or cheesy buttons from Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard.
I made a batch of Dan Lepard’s buttermilk oatcakes, fitting them in between making supper and sorting out my friend’s Macs which had inexplicably locked her out. While I am useless at fixing my own, the God Geek of Tech smiled on me last night and I managed to get her up and running which gave me a big rush of happiness.
I used home made yoghurt as I didn’t have any buttermilk and it is given as an alternative in the recipe.
I split the batch and did half with no added sugar at all. I wasn’t sure how fine to grind the oats so I whizzed away, forgetting to whizz more for the shaping, but I hadn’t washed up the food processor so just did a few more. It makes a sticky moist mixture and it is very quick to put together.
I found it a bit fiddly to shape and messed around for ages. In the end I put a cutter over the mix and patted away at it through the top with the back of a spoon and then I pressed them out some more with my fingertips.
I baked on fan at 150 ºC but they were really not done after 25 minutes and I put them back again for another chunk of time. I really had no idea of how to judge when they were done, so going by golden edges I took them out and left to cool. They were still a bit soft in the middle when they cooled and the following day they are on the soft side, maybe that is the effect of the yoghurt? I think I prefer the oatcake recipe in the Handmade Loaf, but then I am a fan of Nairns Oatcakes, which are very hard and have a distinctive dry mouth feel and a slightly tangy taste which these don’t have, I wonder if more salt would do the trick for me and a longer bake. I will experiment some more when I have a moment.
I tested this little plateful just now ; very nice with some creamy Chavroux for a morning snack. Forgot to have breakfast (well that’s my excuse!) Healthier than chocolate digestives and quite moreish once you get going on them.
Now where’s the Cheddar?
This week’s recipe is one of my all time favourite Dan Lepard recipes, top tea cakes! on Page 88 of the book. if you haven”t made these and love toasted tea cakes this is the one to go for. I love this recipe. Just love it!
Zeb Bakes 