The Great Blogging Bake Off: Halloumi And Roasted Vegetable Pie

Hello my lovelies and welcome to week seven of my Great Blogging Bake Off Adventure. Yes we have arrived at the week I've been dreading - Victorian week. Gulp. Each week I am attempting the signature challenge from each weeks Bake Off and this week was a Victorian Game Raised Pie - joy of joys. I will hold my hands up and say "I don't like pork pies". Never have done and probably never will. It's the jelly died pale pork that get's me. Just no. To be honest with you I'm not a massive meat eater, I like a little but I could also quite easily be vegetarian and not miss it. So seeing as I have three months left of my teenage years I'm throwing caution to the wind and rebelling. I've decided to bake a Vegetarian raised pie this week. Mainly because I know that neither me or my Mum would eat a raised game pie so it just seems a bit pointless making one. We both have very similar taste buds and a roasted vegetable pie is right up our street. There must have been some vegetarian victorians surely? I am sort of sticking to the brief by using a hot water crust pastry as supposed to a short crust so that's something at least. The good thing about a hot water crust pastry is that you don't have to fath about chilling it you can just crack on. Although it does involve lard which repulses me slightly but I'll be brave and embrace the change.

I've made this recipe up myself with my Mum whilst pinching Mary Berry's recipe for a hot water crust pastry. When it comes to baking she is the Queen so seeing as lard and hot water crust pastry is a topic that me and my Mum know very little about we put our hands to the baking Queen. The recipe seemed to work an absolute treat so thank you Mary, kind regards to you thank you so.

Halloumi and roasted vegetables is a heavenly combination. I just love vegetables and cheese simple as. Last night for dinner we had a plateful of gorgeous autumnal roasted vegetables and it was heavenly. Bit of veg, olive oil, blacks pepper, herbs, spices and toasted seeds so simple yet so effective. Currently drooling right now, must stop before the laptop get's sticky.

During baking we found that we had enough vegetables and cheese for two pies so we ended up making two. One for dinner and one for the freezer, boom! Yes Delia would be impressed. Feeling very smug and like two domesticated goddesses right one. If you only wanted to make one pie you could use half of the ingredients although what I will say is that it's tricky to buy half a courgette or half an aubergine. Although cold roasted vegetables are delicious so you could save them for another day it's entirely up to you.

Ingredients

Hot Water Crust Pastry:
500g plain flour
200g water
200g lard
1 egg

Filling:

250g halloumi
1 aubergine
1 courgette
1 orange pepper
2 red onions
100g mushrooms

Method

1) Pre-heat your oven to 220°C/ 200°Fan and very lightly grease three baking trays with some olive oil. At this stage you could also prepare your loaf tins. I ended up using two 2lb/900g loaf tins. Grease the sides and lay a strip of baking paper to cover the base and shorter sides. A good tip would be to cut the paper so parts of paper hang over the edges which will allow you to easily lift the pie out of the tin once baked

2) Thinly slice your onion, pepper, courgette and aubergine. I did this horizontally to form circles of onion and aubergine and lengthways to form strips of aubergine and pepper

3) Roast these in the oven for 15 minutes and then turn the oven off whilst leaving the vegetables in the oven. This will help to dry out the vegetables reducing the moisture level in the pie to avoid soggy bottoms

4) Next to make the pastry, place your flour in a large mixing bowl

5) Add your lard and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring to melt the lard

6) Pour your boiling lard and water mixture into the flour and stir with a wooden spoon to form a dough. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and kneed to form a smooth dough, this won't take long just a minute or so

7) Cut 1/3 of your dough and leave to one side to use for your pastry lid

8) Roll out the remaining dough and use it to line the base and sides of your loaf tins

9) Slice your mushrooms and halloumi into strips

10) Remove the roasted vegetables from the oven and pre-heat your oven to 220°C/ 200°Fan

11) Whilst the oven is heating it's time to fill the pie - the best bit. You can create your layers in what ever order you want, I opted for: onion - pepper - aubergine - halloumi - mushrooms - courgette - aubergine. I did one layer of each without double stacking the ingredients. I did end up with two layers of aubergine which isn't a bad thing in my eyes as it is one of my favourite vegetables

12) Roll out the majority of the pastry to form your pie lids leaving a small section for decoration

13) Next you can decorate your pie how ever you fancy, why not get creative?

Seeing as I am currently obsessing over Autumn I plumped for some Autumnal scattered leaves. I recon leaves are very simple yet always look effective on a pie. I also opted for a crinkled edge which you can do by pinching the dough between your fingers in alternate directions. To make the leaves, roll out your pastry and using a round cutter, cut out circles of pastry. Using the same cutter, cut out crescent shapes of dough around the edge of your circles to form the leaves. Pinch one end of the leaf for the stem and using a knife create a decoration of the leaf veins. You can arrange these however you like on your pie. Mine have a rustic effect varying in shape and size but you could do lot's of little ones around the edge or three large leaves in the centre it is entirely up to you. You could even create some branches, the world's your oyster. 

14) Beat one egg using a fork, this will be used as an egg wash. Before placing your decorations over your pie, lightly brush your pastry lid with the beaten egg and arrange your decoration on top. Then brush more egg over the decoration. This will help stick your decoration to your lid and give your pie a gorgeous brown and crisp shine once baked

15) Create a small hole in the centre of your pie lid to allow the steam to escape

16) Bake in the oven for 30 minutes

17) Reduce the oven temperature to 200°C/ 180°Fan and bake for a further 20 minutes until golden brown

18) Turn the oven off and leave the pie in the oven to finish off

19) Once the oven has cooled, remove the pie from the oven, you can re-heat it to serve warm if you chose to do so. Once cooled remove the pie from the tin

So there you have it my lovelies a twist on a Victorian centre piece. This is a really easy recipe to make and perfect for a winter warmer dinner. Seeing as our boiler has broken the house is on the cold side with no hot water or heating, a nice steaming pie is the perfect dinner. You know the house is cold when you spend your day baking just to keep warm. My first meeting with a hot water crust pastry seemed to go really well. The pies have a golden crisp pastry and it was so quick and easy to make. So much less effort than puff pastry where you have to roll the pastry and butter together to create the layers and then chill it and repeat and so on. Before you know it half your day has disappeared to making pastry. I'll be honest the smell of boiling lard is up there in my top 10 of worst smells but the pie is worth it in the end. When roasting vegetables I would usually smother the vegetables in olive oil and season with black pepper, herbs and spices but I would say that for the pie it's important that minimal liquid is used to reduce the water/moisture content. Hence why it's important to leave the roasted vegetables to dry out in the oven. You could use any cheese or vegetables that float your boat. You could create seasonal pies for example you could use butternut squash, carrots and sweet potato for an autumnal pie seasoned with sage, thyme and pumpkin seeds. Yum.

Thank you for reading this blog post my lovelies. Phew we made it, roll on week eight is all I can say. Next week we will be tackling Patisserie week which involves creating some little cream horns. I'm really excited about those as I've never made them before and they look really fun. I'm sure you could be really inventive with some flavour combinations. I hope you enjoyed reading this post, let me know in the comments if you chose to give this ago. If you are following this baking series or attempting the challenge yourself, I would love to know what you came up with for Victorian week. I hope you all enjoy your Sunday evenings my lovelies.

Week One: Cakes: Raspberry and Almond Madera Cake
Week Two: Biscuits: Coconut and White Chocolate Biscotti
Week Three: Bread: Sun Dried Tomato and Basil Soda Bread
Week Four: Desserts: Amaretto Creme Brûlée
Week Five: Alternative Ingredients: Lemon, Honey and Pistachio Polenta Cake
Week Six: Pastry: Blackberry and Pear Frangipane Tart

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The Great Blogging Bake Off: Blackberry And Pear Frangipane Tart

Picture the scene: it's a beautiful crisp, Sunday Autumnal morning with blue, blue sunshine, autumn leaves crunching and a warm golden sunlight with a cool air. What could be more perfect then a Sunday morning of baking heaven with Mum. The obvious solution to me was to continue my Great British Bake Off adventure with week 6 which was Pastry week for the bakers.

Pastry week on the Great British Bake Off filled me with great excitement. I love, love, love a frangipane tart. You cannot beat that gorgeous Bakewell slice now can you? The combination of raspberry and almond is just heavenly and I do love a frangipani filling I won't lie to you. When I saw that the signature challenge for week 6 was a frangipane tart I was so excited. I came up with loads of different flavour combinations it was really hard to narrow it down to just one. Seeing as it is now officially Autumn I thought I had to go for Autumn fruits and what could be more Autumnal then blackberries and pears. If I was some sort of really organised domesticated super woman I would have gone out and picked fresh blackberries or used some that I had frozen from last year to save for that special baking moment when it arrived. But I'm not so I haven't - sorry. The thought was there so I'm half way there but in the real world with work and college who has time to go blackberry picking?

In my Great Blogging Bake Off Series on my blog I am attempting the signature challenge from each of the episodes to put my own spin on it to imagine what I would do if I were to take part on the show. Does anyone else remember how shocked Mary was from last series when one of the contestants didn't make their own fondant icing in biscuit week? Well being the bake off shop brought  pastry wouldn't be acceptable so I have also made my own pastry for this one. Obviously in the really world not everyone has time to do this so shop brought shortcrust pastry would be perfectly acceptable to use. After just rambling on about how in the bake off it's important to make everything yourself I will confess that I didn't make my own jam. To be honest at the time I never really thought to do so. Shocking I know. To be honest I have no idea how to make jam so that was one step too many for me but one day I would like to attempt it so who knows maybe I'll go the whole hog and make everything from tip to toe myself you never know.

Ingredients 

Pastry:

125g unsalted butter
250g plain flour
1 egg

Filling:

125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
150g ground almonds
50g plain flour
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp blackberry jelly
handful of blackberries
2 pears

Method

1) To make your shortcrust pastry you will need to make breadcrumbs in a large mixing bowl.

To do thus I cut my butter into chunks - the longer the butter is out of the fridge the softer it will be and therefore this will make your life a lot easier. Obviously with in reason, not days before we don't want to give everyone food poisoning do we now. Gently and lightly rub the butter and flour in between your fingers until the mixture resembles soft, fine breadcrumbs. This is the most therapeutic experience you will ever experience in your life. If I was a life coach and people came to me because they were suffering from stress I would tell them to make breadcrumbs. 

2) In a separate bowl beat your egg with a fork

3) Add the egg to your breadcrumb mixture and stir the ingredients together using your fork before finishing it off with your hands to incorporate the mixture all together to form a round pastry ball.

4) Place your dough in the fridge and chill for 30 minutes

5) In the mean time prepare your tart tin - I used a 23cm loose bottomed flan tin. To do this you need to grease your tin to prevent the tart from sticking once baked

What is it with bakers with tarts and bottoms: loose bottomed and soggy bottom they're obsessed

6) Pre-heat your oven to 200°C/ 180°Fan/ Gas mark 6

7) Once chilled sprinkle your work surface lightly with flour and roll out your pastry to approximately 3mm thick

Frangipane tarts are known for having a nice thin pastry layer at the bottom. Personally I'm not a massive fan of thick pastry so this suits me down to a tee. To roll your pastry try to roll it out in a circle as this will make it easier to cover your tin. Be very kind and gentle to your pastry and don't overwork it or it will be brittle and break. Seeing as you've spent the time making it you should respect it and not ruin it at the last hurdle - it's your baby. 

A good tip to cover your case is once rolled, lightly roll half of the pastry onto a rolling pin to help lift the pastry and transfer it to your tart tin. 

8) Mould your pastry to your tart tin by lightly pressing around the edges. Don't trim the edges you should do this once baking is complete to get a nice neat finish to your edges as you may find that your pastry shrinks after being in the oven

9) Prick the pastry base lightly with a fork and blind bake for 15 minutes

Blind baking prevents any soggy bottoms to your tart and it will help to ensure that your pastry will be fully baked. By this I mean you won't be left with raw, soggy pastry at the bottom which Mary Berry certainly doesn't approve of. 

To blind bake, line your tart with baking parchment or baking paper and fill with baking beans or rice. 

10) After blind baking remove the baking parchment and baking beans and return to the oven for a further 8 minutes. Once the pastry is looking golden, remove it from the oven and allow to cool whilst you make your frangipani filling

11) Lower the oven temperature to 180°C/160°Fan/ Gas mark 4

12) To make the filling, first cream together the butter and sugar.

You could use an electric whisk but I find it more satisfying to use the old fashioned method of a wooden spoon. After all I'm a home baker without a set time frame so I can take as long as I want and enjoy it. 

13) Mix in the ground almonds, three beaten eggs and your flour

14) Finally mix in your vanilla extract and your batter is complete

15) Gently layer your tart case with the blackberry jelly

I used a blackberry jelly rather then a jam as a jelly is smooth and without pips so you're not trying to get pips out of your teeth after eating it which isn't the most attractive of looks. 

16) Layer your frangipani filling on top of the jelly and again lightly smooth it over to get an even distribution being careful not to chip your pastry or to get the jelly mixed into your cake batter. We want those beautiful layers after all

17) Now it's fruit time. Peel and cut your pears and arrange them how ever you wish to with your blackberries. You can be totally spontaneous and free flow. Personally with pears I like the fan effect but like I said it's totally up to you to get creative

18) Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until golden and set. If the centre is taking longer to bake, reduce the oven temperature by 20 degrees to prevent the edges from burning. Once a skewer is inserted and comes out clean you know that your tart is baked

19) Remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool before removing it from the tin

I'll let you into a little secret here. I was genuinely and still am really proud of this bake. I've never made a frangipane tart before let alone attempt shortcrust pastry. I don't know why but pastry always leaves me a little nervous as I've never got on that well with pastry before we've always had a rocky relationship but this one worked a treat. The pastry was really light and buttery yet really easy to make. I think it may become a classic staple recipe that will be programmed into my memory so if ever in need of pastry I will automatically turn to this recipe. The tart itself held it's four distinctive layers: pastry, jam, frangipani filling and fruit. I love the combination of the almond, blackberry and pear. The tart itself is really light, fruity and indulgent I would really recommend giving a frangipane tart a go. It's a real treat and crowd pleaser.

Hold on to your socks kids but I had no soggy bottom - yes let me repeat that and shout it from the roof tops - no soggy bottom. This was what I was most nervous about, it sounds silly I know but I didn't want to let Mary down. I felt quite chuffed actually as on the bake off quite a few of the bakers experienced a soggy bottom so this felt like an achievement for me. By blind baking you can be sure to avoid a soggy bottom and instead I was left with a smooth, golden and crisp bottom. Yes we are still talking tarts here. Actually that still didn't help, let me rephrase that we are still talking baking.

Before this post get's censored I just wanted to say thank you for reading this blog post and I hope you are all enjoying accompanying me on my Bake Off adventure. Let me know in the comments if you attempt any of these recipes or if you have attempted any similar in your own bake off challenge. This has been my favourite challenge so far in my bake off series as it was entirely new to me yet very satisfying to make. I enjoyed a new baking challenge. The frangipane tart is just as satisfying to bake as it is to eat. Stay tuned for next week's post with Victorian week - don't hold your breath but that could be an interesting one put it that way. Not sure how I feel about that one to be honest with you all.


Week One: Cakes: Raspberry And Almond Madera Cake
Week Two: Biscuits: Coconut And White Chocolate Biscotti
Week Three: Bread: Sun Dried Tomato And Basil Soda Bread
Week Four: Desserts: Amaretto Creme Brûlée
Week Five: Free Form: Lemon, Honey And Pistachio Polenta Cake

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The Great Blogging Bake Off: Lemon, Honey And Pistachio Polenta Cake

Hello my lovelies and welcome to the 5th edition to my Bake Off Baking series on the old blog. Week Five involved the bakers attempting cake without sugar, bread without gluten and ice cream without dairy in the form of free form week. I quite enjoyed the challenge of this week searching for sugar free cake recipes as for individuals with allergies they can't eat your bog standard flour, eggs, butter and sugar all in one cake so it it's important to find alternatives as a life without cake would be a very sad one. Also, for the health conscious among you all this will appeal as a sugar free cake must be better for you then a sugar cake which justifies two slices instead of one surely? When researching sugar free cakes the majority seemed to be banana bread, carrot cake or citrus cakes. It's kind of difficult to put a spin on a banana or carrot cake without changing it from a banana or carrot cake so I plumped for a citrus cake. I adore lemon cake it always tastes light and refreshing and I haven't eaten it for a while so I plumped for lemon. With the cakes being sugar free you need a strong flavour fruit for taste as well as sweetness. I remember baking a lemon and pistachio cake with my gran many years ago which I loved so I thought that I would incorporate pistachios into the cake for a bit of texture and crunch as it is a very gooey and moist cake with the glaze which isn't a bad thing in my book. My aunty recently baked an orange and polenta cake over the summer which was gorgeous and where I first discovered polenta but I have never baked with it before so now seemed like the ideal opportunity to test it out, killing two birds with one stone this week. I believe that polenta is a type of grain yet I never realised how 'grainy' it actually is before if that makes any sense. I was also surprised to the bright yellow colour it holds. To sweeten my cake instead of sugar I thought honey would be an easy option and after visiting a local market at the weekend and seeing traditional Sussex honey I knew my little baby was complete and all set to go. 

I adapted Tamal's Honey and Grapefruit Polenta Cake recipe which seemed to go down a treat on the bake off to my own but the cake is based on his recipe. I opted for a honey glaze for the topping as the cake mixture itself is a little more drier then usual which I believe is down to the polenta. It's a strange one because as the cake is only one tier it is a little dense yet it's still really light to eat. Personally I love the texture the polenta gives the cake and would definitely try baking with it again. I opted for a honey drizzle which keeps the cake really moist and full of flavour. It also gives the cake a beautiful shine to it. What I would say is that when you tuck in to this beauty you will need a fork as it's very gooey and sticky but I always think that those are the best kind of cakes. The aroma you get whilst this little beauty is baking is so good there aren't words to describe it. Imagine homely comforts of your Mum baking on a wet and cold Sunday afternoon and times it by one thousand. This cake is packed full of flavour I would definitely try giving this ago if your looking for new inspiration. 

Ingredients

200g unsalted butter

150g ground almonds

70g polenta

80g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

140g honey

2 eggs

zest of 2 lemons

For the honey glaze:

4 tbsp honey

juice of 2 lemons

50g pistachios 

Method

1) Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin and preheat your oven to 170°C/150°Fan/ Gas Mark 3

2) In a bowl mix together your flour, polenta, bicarbonate of soda and ground almonds 

3) In a separate large mixing bowl, beat the butter to a smooth, pale consistency 

4) Add your honey and lemon zest to the butter and whisk in

5) Gradually whisk in your eggs and dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Before adding eggs I always whisk the eggs together separately in another bowl before whisking them in with the main ingredients. When adding the eggs and dry ingredients I did this in two stages to prevent the mixture curdling. Simply by adding half of the eggs and half of the dry ingredients and whisking together followed by the remaining eggs and dry ingredients once incorporated

6) Bake your cake for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean once inserted into the middle of the cake. 

7) Once baked remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool leaving the cake in it's tin

8) To make the syrup and glaze for the top, heat the lemon juice and remaining honey in a saucepan over a low heat to get a smooth and runny consistency. You may want to adjust the amount of honey until you are happy with the sweetness level

9) Prick the surface of the cake all over using a skewer, I think I inserted the skewer to about half way through the cake

10) Pour over 3/4 of the honey glaze to soak the cake and prevent it from drying, similar to a drizzle cake really 

11) Chop the pistachio nuts and sprinkle on top of the cake, this doesn't need to be precise I think I roughly chopped one nut into three or four pieces

12) Pour over the remaining glaze to give a pretty shine to the cake. I left the cake in it's tin for a couple of hours to absorb all of the juices and to stop them from leaking out. Once absorbed you can remove the cake from the tin and indulge away

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post my lovelies and let me know if you attempt this recipe. I would also love to know any good sugar free recipes that you know and would like to share. Pastry week sees us next attempting a frangipani tart which excites me immensely as of course that means almonds and I adore frangipani so I'll see how I'm inspired for that one. I hope you are enjoying this baking series on my blog. I am loving creating and baking new ideas and sharing them afterwards. I also think that so far friends and family have been enjoying all these new baking discoveries but let's not tempt fait and speak too soon on that one. 

Week One: Cakes: Raspberry And Almond Madera Cake

Week Two: Biscuits: Coconut And White Chocolate Biscotti 

Week Three: Bread: Sun Dried Tomato And Basil Soda Bread

Week Four: Desserts: Amaretto Creme Brûlée 

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The Great Blogging Bake Off: Amaretto Creme Brulee

Hello my lovelies and welcome back to the return of my Great Blogging Bake Off adventure. The signature bake for dessert week was creme brûlées - gulps. I have never tried a creme brûlée before in terms of baking or eating so this was another big challenge for me. Strangely enough I found it more challenging then bread week which I was dreading yet survived. Making creme brûlées looks challenging enough yet this is bake off and they can't stick to 'normal/original' recipes, no they have to go that one step further and make life a thousand times more complicated for themselves by coming up with twists and variations on traditional recipes. I always like to put my own stamp on these signature bakes by imagining what I would have done it if I was competing in the bake off. After bread week I saw that the following week would be dessert week which excited me immensely especially the sight of three tier cheesecakes I mean hello yes please thank you very much so kindly to you. The sight of nervous bakers wobbling creme brûlées I'll be honest produced less excitement in me as it's a dessert that has never majorly appealed to me, maybe it's the jelly like texture of creme caramels that has put me off I'm not sure. Anyway, I instantly thought my twist on the classic brûlée would be an Amaretto/almond concoction. This got me very excited for dessert week that I had instantly got an idea. However, Paul ruined my plans on the bake off when he said he would be making amaretto brûlées. I tried to think of alternatives but then I thought sod it I'm just going to make them anyway. I also further adapted the almond theme by incorporating some amaretti biscuits into the pudding, whether that was a good idea or not I'll let you all decide on that one but I personally loved it as it enhanced the almond flavour.

Ingredients - Serves 4

75g amaretti biscuits
10g unsalted butter
300ml single cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
30 ml amaretto liqueur
1 tbsp brown sugar

Method

1)  Crush the Amaretti biscuits to form biscuit crumbs, to do this I placed the biscuits in a plastic bag and crushed the biscuits using a rolling pin.

2) Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat and stir in the crushed biscuits. Evenly distribute the biscuit crumbs between the ramekins and press down to form a base. Creme Brûlées don't usually have a biscuit base but I thought the amaretti biscuits might enhance the almond flavour and I am totally in love with them so why not? It's part of my twist on the classic creme brûlée and I quite liked the idea when some of the bakers had bases in their creme brûlées so I thought I'd knick that idea

3) Preheat the oven to 150°C and place your ramekins in a large roasting tin

4) In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, caster sugar and amaretto together to form a light coloured mixture

5) Cook the cream and vanilla extract in a saucepan over a medium heat until the mixture starts to simmer, you want to gently stir the mixture as it warms through

6) Whisk the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture and evenly pour into the ramekins over the crushed biscuits

7) Pour hot water into the roasting tin to create a bain-marie, the water should reach half way up the sides of the ramekins. A bain-marie allows a more gentle bake as water can only reach a maximum of 100°C

8) Cook in the oven for approximately 30 minutes and just set - there should be a slight, gentle wobble. Once set, remove the ramekins from the tin and allow to cool for two hours

9) Cover with foil and place the creme brûlées in the fridge for 6 hours - which feels like a life time trust me

10) Mary Berry said no blow torches and I don't own one anyway so I went for the traditional method. Preheat the grill on a high setting and whilst the grill is heating up sprinkle brown sugar on top of the creme brûlées

11) Cook under the grill for 2 - 3 minutes to caramelise the sugar, make sure you keep an eye on the brûlées as everyones grills are different and you don't want to burn the brûlées at the last hurdle. Once caramelised enjoy your well earned brûlées immediately

I hope you enjoyed this blog post my lovelies. I was pleasantly surprised by these little beauties. They were so, so light. They had that thin crisp sugar layer which was followed by the smooth creamy almond filling. I really liked the alternative biscuit base as it reminded me of a cheesecake which has to be my all time favourite dessert. When you look at the pictures they do look slightly burnt around the edge which they probably were a little but hey hands up I'm a home baker not a professional chef so it doesn't matter really well not to me anyway, I found it enhanced the flavour. I feel like I've learned quite a few new skills this week so thank you very much Paul and Mary. Stay tuned for my take on a sugar free cake for the following weeks challenge - free form baking.

Week One: Cakes: Raspberry And Almond Madera Cake
Week Two: Biscuits: Coconut And White Chocolate Biscotti
Week Three: Bread: Sun Dried Tomato And Basil Soda Bread

The Great Blogging Bake Off: Sun Dried Tomato And Basil Soda Bread

Hello my lovelies and welcome to week three of my Great British Bake Off Blogging adventure. I won't lie to you all but bread week has been the week that I was dreading from the start. As I mentioned in my Biscotti post I don't have the patience of a saint, in fact I have very little patience at all. I have never been one for making bread as to be frank I can't be bothered to spend hours waiting for my bread to prove and rise only to 'knock it' back down and repeat the whole processes again if not several times over. When it comes to baking bread I have no knowledge over things such as gluten and what would make a tight dough structure at the end of the day bread is bread to me and what I do know is that a lot of supermarkets and bakeries sell delicious fresh bread. I am a complete novice this week on new territory so you'll have to bare with me. I was a little apprehensive before watching the bread episode yet I was so relieved to find out that this weeks signature challenge was for quick breads. For those of you who don't know and that included me by the way, quick breads don't involve yeast which means no proving - Hallelujah.

Quick breads were the perfect bread for me to start off with as it is what I would call bread for beginners. This meant that I could bake this bread quickly and it wouldn't take all day and I wouldn't have to fath about with rising and proving. I opted like many of the other bakers to bake a soda bread, with my variation including basil and sun-dried tomatoes. A very Mediterranean theme as I love Mediterranean flavours. I could quite easily live off an Italian, Greek or Spanish diet. I actually found it quite difficult to decide on a flavour as I had so many different ideas such as goats cheese and red onion, red leicester and red onion, rosemary or feta and black olive. They call themselves quick breads and oh my they aren't lying, it took me less than an hour to prepare and bake the bread. It was a lot quicker then baking the previous weeks challenges. I hate to say this but it was also quite easy so it has opened my eyes to bread making and it has definitely inspired me to try baking soda bread again. Perhaps I could try some of the other ideas I had for flavours who knows. I'm not one for blowing my own trumpet but I'm actually really proud of this bread it turned out a lot better then I ever could have expected so if like me you fancy a new challenge I would recommend you give this a go.

Ingredients

- 170g self-raising wholemeal flour
- 170g plain flour
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 290ml buttermilk
- 70g sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 tbsp basil (although I prefer the taste of fresh basil, I used dried basil flakes to avoid stringy bits of mushed basil)

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 200°C/ 180°Fan/ Gas mark 6

2) Add both types of the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl

3) Cut the tomatoes into chunks of your desired thickness (approximately 1 - 2 cm in thickness) and add along with the basil to the mixing bowl and mix the ingredients together

4) Form a well in the centre of the bowl and add the buttermilk. Once the buttermilk has been added quickly mix with a fork to form a dough

5) Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and briefly knead the dough but don't over work it

6) Lightly shape the dough into a round and slightly flatten the top to get a smooth even surface

7) Cut a cross at the top of the bread in the centre and place on a lightly floured baking sheet and bake for approximately 30 minutes. You will know that the bread is baked once it sounds hollow when tapped at the base

8) Allow to cool on a wire wrack and enjoy - I would recommend enjoying this with a comforting and warming bowl of soup or lightly toasted with mozzarella and fresh basil on top for an authentic Italian feel

Thank you for reading this blog post my lovelies and a massive celebration all around as I think we may have just possibly made it through bread week. Small secret for you all here but this was my first attempt at baking bread ever so if you're prepared to trust me then I would recommend you give this ago. I would also recommend you enjoy this fresh as you can't beat freshly baked bread. It has a nice crisp crust and a warming gooey centre filled with Mediterranean summer flavours. Let me know if you attempt this or know of any good quick bread recipes to try. Next week for desert week we'll be attempting creme brûlée's so I'll have to get my thinking cap on for some flavours for that one. See you next week lovelies.

Week One: Cakes: Raspberry And Almond Madera Cake
Week Two: Biscuits: Coconut And White Chocolate Biscotti 

The Great Blogging Bake Off: Coconut And White Chocolate Biscotti

Good evening my lovelies, let's get straight into this and hands up who is excited for the return of the Great British Bake Off tonight - me, yes please thank you kindly as I immediately jump into the air. As I mentioned in a previous blog post this is the second episode in my baking series which is inspired by The Great British Bake Off which I have inspirationally named "The Great Blogging Bake Off. Each week I will be attempting the signature challenge from each episode. It's bread week next week so God help me with that one. I've never been one for bread making and I believe that there are two main reasons for this. One - I have more of a sweet tooth and two - I literally have no patience so waiting hours and hours for bread to prove is just simply boring for me, yes I know how bad that sounds. So when it comes to bread week I don't have high expectations for the finished result, instead it will be more of a light hearted attempt where I won't take myself too seriously. Last week was biscuit week which featured the bakers attempting biscotti. I was really pleased with this weeks bake as I have never made biscotti before so I was keen for a challenge and to try something new. It also gave me and my Mum an excuse to go to Costa and buy some almond biscotti to try accompanied with some caramel cappuccinos. Not that we need an excuse mind as I'm pretty sure I go to Costa at least two or three times a week but hey ho, you only live once. Also, I had never eaten biscotti before so at least now I know what it's supposed to taste like anyway.

Biscotti is an Italian biscuit which has a crispy, hard appearance and texture yet it still manages to crumble and melt in the mouth. I would also throughly recommend a biscotti with a large mug or bowl of coffee as they are great for dunking, biscuits and coffee puts a whole new spin on tea and biscuits. The biscotti are also twice baked which gives them their firmer texture. After watching the programme I came up with so many different ideas for different recipes and flavour combinations that I found it challenging to narrow it down to one. So difficult I ended up baking two different yet similar types of biscotti. The base mix was coconut and white chocolate yet one batch contains cherries added and the other have lime. Biscotti is traditionally flavoured by almonds or many dried fruit and nut combinations such as pistachio and cranberry so I thought I would stick to this by choosing a fruit and nut to form the core ingredients. The white chocolate was a spontaneous addition as I was inspired by the way the bakers dipped their biscotti in chocolate and seeing as white chocolate is my favourite type of chocolate it just gives me an excuse for some further indulgence.

Ingredients

250g plain flour
220g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
100g desiccated coconut
200g white chocolate

Coconut, White Chocolate and Lime: zest of 1 lime (if a whole batch then the zest of 2 limes)
Coconut, White Chocolate and Cherry: 70g glacier cherries, I used French Morello cherries as I prefer the sweeter flavour of these and I find them less artificial (if a whole batch then use 125g)

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 160°C/ Gas mark 3 and line two baking trays

2) Mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl

3) Beat your eggs together and gradually add the eggs to your flour mixture to form a dough

4) Stir in the coconut and divide your mixtures in half for the two separate flavours. If only baking one of the recipes then you won't need to divide your mixture in half

5) For the cherry biscotti, cut up the cherries finely for your chosen texture. To be honest I just randomly chopped the cherries into chunks I wasn't the least bit precise. Once you have chopped your cherries add them to one of the doughs and mix into the dough

6) For the lime biscotti, grate the zest of one lime into the other dough and mix, working the lime into the dough

7) Place the dough on a baking tray leaving you with two 'logs'. If you are only making one variation you will need to split the dough in half at this point so you will also be left with two logs

8) Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden brown

9) Remove the biscotti and allow to cool for just under 5 minutes before slicing the biscotti into 'sticks' which are roughly 1 - 2cm in thickness

10) Turn the biscotti on their sides and return to the oven to bake for a further 5 minutes

11) Remove the biscotti and turn the biscuits onto their over side so they are still sideways on and bake for a final 5 minutes. This will firm the biscotti giving them their crunchy texture

12) Remove the biscotti from the oven and allow to cool by transferring to a wire wrack

13) Once completely cooled, break up your white chocolate into a heat proof bowl and melt the chocolate. I did this by heating a pan of water without boiling it and placing the bowl containing the white chocolate on top of the pan

14) Dip your biscotti into the chocolate, I did this on the longest, bottom side of the biscuits but another way you could do this is by dipping one of the ends into the chocolate. What ever floats your boat to be honest with you

15) Return the biscotti to the wire wrack to set the chocolate in place

16) Boil the kettle and make yourself a strong cup of coffee, sit back and relax with a biscotti or two or three. Perhaps you could read a book or do what I'm going to do and stick the Bake Off on at 8pm tonight for bread week

I hope you enjoyed this blog post my lovelies. Let me know in the comments if you attempted either of these recipes and how it went. I would also love to know if you have any good recipes that you would recommend for biscotti. Although biscotti are quite dry they are still really light making them a joy to eat and I would throughly recommend that you give these a go. I was pleasantly suprosed by these and they are very addictive which isn't a bad thing in my opinion. I shall see you next week for bread week 'gulps loudly' wish me luck. I will soon be tucking into one or maybe two of these with a strong coffee to enjoy tonights episode, less then an hour to go 'hyperventilates a little'.

Week one: Cakes: Raspberry And Almond Madeira Cake

The Great Blogging Bake Off: Raspberry And Almond Madera Cake

Good afternoon my lovelies and a Happy Tuesday to you all. Today’s post features the first addition to a new series that I am creating on my blog that I am calling ‘The Great Blogging Bake Off’. At this point if you have already guessed what this series will be related to and inspired by then ten brownie points for you and a whopping great big gold star.  A few clues for you: it involves baking once a week with a different theme each week inspired by two celebrity bakers. Yes you guessed it – The Great British Bake Off has returned to our screens for series six which fills me with so much excitement I feel as if I could burst. I have been waiting for the return of this show since the last series ended for my baking fix. I have religiously watched every series and it is always on repeat in our household. It’s the show that everybody and their mother and their mother’s dog have been talking about and it seems to take over the nation with a toxic baking wave.  Luckily the baking god’s have honoured us with another series sill featuring Mary, Paul, Mel and Sue, which is a magical combination.

As I have mentioned on my blog previously I have a very strong passion for baking of which I bake at least once a week to satisfy my baking craving.  I don’t publish all my bakes but I don’t want to swamp you all to death with cake. Each week after each episode I thought I would put my spin on the show by having a go at each weeks signature challenge and what better way to start off then with week 1 – cakes. Cakes are my favourite things to bake and this week’s signature challenge involved baking a madeira cake. Ever since I was little I have loved eating madeira cake as when I was little as in 3 – 4 I didn’t like icing and I only really liked plain sponges so madeira cake was perfect to feed me and shut me up as my Mum raced round doing the Tesco food shop. Having said that I have never attempted baking one so I was really chuffed with week ones challenge. I always thought Madeira cakes were supposed to just simply be a plain vanilla loaf sponge so the fact that these were all different flavours and shapes boggled me. I’ve always thought that Raspberries and almonds is an amazing combination and always a personal favourite of mine so I thought why not throw them in for my spin on the classic madeira cake. I baked this cake with my mum which was really nice as we never normally get a chance to do baking together any more but when I was younger we always did cooking and baking together so it was really nice and just like taking a trip down memory lane.

Ingredients

- 175g butter

- 175g caster sugar

- 2 tsp almond extract

- 3 eggs

- 50g flaked almonds

- 100g plain flour

- 100g self-raising flour

- 2 tbsp milk

- 200g fresh raspberries

Method

1) Grease your loaf tin and line it with grease proof paper. We cut the paper leaving you with two ‘handles which in theory should help you to take the cake out of the loaf tin once baked

2) Preheat the oven to 160°C/ 140°Fan/ gas mark 3

3) Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl, you want to do this until you are left with a light, fluffy and pale mixture

4) Beat in the almond extract which oh my it smells so good, you need to spend a good five minutes just appreciating the smell

5) Add all but a small handful of the flaked almonds to your batter and lightly fold these in

6) In a separate bowl, beat your eggs together with a fork lightly

7) Add half of the beaten eggs to your cake mixture and beat in, don’t worry if the mixture curdles this will be resolved once you add the flour

8) Sift in both types of the flour together followed by the remaining egg mixture and fold all of the mixture together. It may look lumpy at first but don’t worry if you continue to lightly fold all of the ingredients together it will resemble cake mixture. To fold you don’t want to violently and heavily beat the mixture, you lightly fold the ingredients together incorporating the ingredients around the edge and through the middle which will combine the mixture whilst leaving air bubbles to help the cake rise and it will also leave you with a light textured sponge

9) Fold in the milk followed by all of the raspberries minus a small handful. Again you want to be gentle whilst folding the fruit in so you don’t crush the raspberries, which would leave you with a pink, speckled like sponge. The aim is to keep the raspberries whole

10) Pour the mixture into your loaf tin and decorate with the remaining almonds and raspberries on top

11) Bake in the oven for an hour and a half, this slow bake ensures the cake is fully cooked without burning

12) Once baked and a skewer once inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

You could serve this cake served with a vanilla cream or ice-cream and fresh raspberries or just simply on it’s own. I can’t express how good the almond smell is once you remove the cake from the oven.  It’s a really easy recipie and the cake is so worth the wait so I can strongly suggest that you have a go at this one, it’s a gooden.

Thank you for reading my blog post my lovelies. Let me know in the comments if you attempt baking the madeira cake and feel free to send me some pictures. Also let me know if you join me in my ‘Great Blogging Bake Off’, I would love to know what you attempt each week for your signature challenge. It might give me some more inspiration and ideas as there is so much potential out there for different flavour combinations. I shall see you at some point next week for week two which is going to be biscuit week. After the next episode which I hope you all have marked and underlined in your diaries for 8pm tomorrow night I shall have to put my thinking cap on once we know what this week’s signature bake will be.