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This is a story of a pie. A pie in a beautiful bright red pie dish.
I've never made pie before. Hard to believe, but it's true. I'm not quite sure how it came to be this long before I attempted pie. It wasn't really about fear, because I've made pastry before with success. It wasn't even about lack of tools, because you can make pie in any ovenproof dish and I have several pyrex ones tucked away. But for some reason the dessert has eluded me. Until now.
There was a conspiring of events, as there often are when it comes to me attempting a new recipe. First was a conversation between N and myself about the seasons changing and how it would soon be time for warming hearty food. Pie came up and I learned that N was a fan. How could he not be in fact, warm fruits, spices and pastry. What's not to love.
Then the second thing happened: Mum pointing out that Lakeland, home of all things a domestic goddess doesn't even know she needs, has a website. Disaster! Before I knew it two hours had passed and I had perused every page of the site, sometimes going back to pages for a second or third look. It's a good thing my credit card was in the other room and that I was pinned down on the sofa by the cat, otherwise the damage could have been very widespread indeed.
On one of the pages was a pie dish. A bright red pie dish with a fluted edge. It was beautiful, it was perfect and it was screaming out to join my kitchen and force me to make pie. And so the Lakeland fairy visited whilst we were on holiday (thank you Mum) and suddenly the means to make pie were there. It was like a challange.
But with a dish that sexy it couldn't be any old pie. Oh no, I wanted it to be the best pie ever, which was something of a high standard considering I've never made pie before. But I'd tackled the beast of jam making and overcome it, so I was feeling pretty confident.
Off I went to Smitten Kitchen to get the foolproof pie dough recipe. I could have used ordinary sweet shortcrust pastry, but no, this had to be special and everyone said this was the dough of all doughs. I had to do a bit of conversion work, and the amount of butter seemed very high (I used all butter, rather than a butter and shortening mix), but I decided just to go with it. For the filling? The epitome of autumn; apples and pears spiced with a mix of cinnamon, mixed spice, nutmeg and ginger.
See, see how beautiful that pie dish is? I don't deserve a pie dish that seductive. I filled the pastry case with the fruit, rolled out a nice thick top, placed it carefully over the fruit, cut slits for the steam to escape, and even made little leaves out of the left-over dough. A masterpiece.
Then disaster struck. I made the mistake of glancing in the oven while it was cooking. My perfect crust had sunk over the fruit and the shell had shrunk. NOOOOOOOOO! I had broken the perfect pie, I had failed the pie dish.
But all was not lost. There is a happy ending to the story, because despite it's rather rugged exterior, this pie was pretty on the inside, the fruits were delicately spiced and not too soft and the pastry turned out just right and didn't seem to have suffered despite the sinking.
I might fiddle with the ratios in the pastry using less fat next time, I might add more fruit to the filling next time, I might make the shell larger to prevent shrinkage next time, but the important thing is...there will be a next time. Oh yes, my pie making days are only just beginning, and there are a good five months of cold weather still to come. 
Yesterday was Baking Day. I wasn't really in the mood to bake lots of things - I know, sounds crazy doesn't it, but yesterday just turned into "one of those days" and grumpy baking just isn't fun.
However, on Friday I did fancy making us something special for a baking day breakfast. It's been a while since we had a special breakfast and I had a couple of bits in the fruit bowl I needed to use up. The result? rhubarb and cinnamon breakfast rolls.
I used the same dough that I used when making the cinnamon rolls earlier this year and filled it with a rhubarb compote. I then sprinkled the rolls before baking with a sugar and spice mix.
The result? A rather damp and doughy breakfast but a tasty one nonetheless. I think I cut them rather too large and didn't think about the fact that the rhubarb was so wet. It was a nice experiment though and we managed to polish them off with no complaint. I think next time I'd cook down and strain the rhubarb so it isn't as wet, and bake them at a lower temperature for longer.
One to work on...
Although there have been bits and pieces of baking going on, it feels like a very long time indeed since the last baking day. In the end it turned into rather a mammoth day, with me making not one, but three things! Clearly I had been feeling deprived.
I've been craving brownies all week for some reason. I'm not sure why because they are rarely something I think about eating of baking. Perhaps I just felt the need for a pure chocolate hit. So whatever was going to happen brownies would be made. However, I also wanted to make some biscuits. Ages ago I bought a moose-shaped cookie cutter and still hadn't gotten around to using it. N kept reminding me of it, and this week my new hoodie arrived in the post, complete with moose design and "mooses like peanut butter too..." slogan. So I knew I had to get the cutter out and give it ago, moose shaped peanut butter biscuits it had to be!
But, then I was faced with a real dilemma. I already had to things I wanted to make, but three new cookbooks on my reading pile. It felt rude not to try something from them, particularly as the Ottolenghi has such an impressive and extensive baking section. Also, N had commented in a cafe recently that their chocolate cake looked really good, and that he reckoned the only reason he thought so was because it was decorated with bits of Cadbury's Flake! I of course, replied with a sarcastic comment about now having to top anything I baked for him with Flake to make it appetising. Another challenge for my baking day, I had to make something I could stick a bit of flake on to continue the joke.
It occurred to me that I also hadn't indulged my cupcake love for a while too, and what would be more perfect than cute little cakes topped with flake. Fortunately Ottolenghi not only includes two cupcake recipes in his book, but I had all the ingredients for one of them.
Thus began the baking day adventures. My mission, to make low-fat brownies, peanut butter cut-out biscuits and hazelnut cupcakes topped with flake!
The brownie recipe came from Baking Bites, a blog I not only read twice a day (because she manages to update so often) but rate really highly. It not only talks about recipes, but reviews products and give tips and advice. It really is everything you'd want from a food blog. There had been a post on their previously about double chocolate brownies, that looked great, but then a few days later she posted about low-fat brownies. Now what with needing as low fat a diet as possible because of my back this immediately caught my eye, especially as her comments said that it didn't lack anything taste and texture wise die to being low fat. I eagerly copied down the recipe and decided to give it a go. The batter was really thick, and hard to spread in a parchment lined baking tray (I had to get N to hold the paper in place while I struggled with the spatula) but it did settle out whilst baking. I wasn't sure what the result would be like, especially as I managed to overcook it slightly and so it didn't come out as gooey as I had hoped. However, the taste was great. Rich and cakey (due to overbaking, next time I'd baked for less time to get it fudgey) and with a nice chocolate flavour that wasn't too sweet. Plus you definitely wouldn't know it was low fat.
Low-fat chocolate brownies (makes 8)
preheat the oven to 180C and grease/line a 10" by 6" baking tin
3/4 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder1/4 tsp salt
2oz dark chocolate
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp fromage frais of low-fat yoghurt
1 egg
1 egg white
1tsp vanilla essence
Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl melt together the butter and chocolate. Whisk this mixture with the sugars and yoghurt and when combined whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Gently mix in the flour. The batter will be really thick. Bake for about 20mins until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Allow to cool then cut into eight.
The peanut butter biscuits posed slightly more of a problem. I couldn't find a recipe anywhere for a peanut butter cookie recipe that you could roll out and cut shapes with. In the end I decided to just experiment. It could go horridly wrong, but that was a risk that would be worth taking! I used a basic recipe for cut-out biscuits and used peanut butter rather than butter. I also only used an egg yolk, since I had one left from the brownies. This meant the dough didn't really come together, so I had to add a bit of water, but in the end it rolled out fine and made some nice biscuits, not too sweet with a subtle peanut flavour. I glazed them with some of the icing I was going to use on the cupcakes.
Moosey peanut butter biscuits. (Makes 8-10 large biscuits)
Preheat oven to 190C and line/grease a baking sheet
125g plain flour
63g peanut butter
63g brown sugar
1 egg yolk (or 1/2 beaten egg)
water to make up to a dough
Beat the butter and the sugar and add the egg. Sieve the flour into the mixture and mix into a dough, gradually adding enough water to make it roll-able. Roll out and cut into shapes. Bake on a high shelf for aprox. 15 mins.
Finally I made the hazelnut cupcakes. I halved the recipe to make only six since there was already a rather large amount of baked goods in the house. Instead of using the cream cheese icing suggested in the book I used a whipped chocolate ganache, and plonked a hunk of flake on top.
Now you have all these delicious goodies, settle down in front of the cricket with a cup of tea and enjoy!
Whilst pondering what we should have as this months Baking Day treat N wondered out loud as to whether I could make scones and suggested we make it afternoon tea. It was as if he took the thought right out of my head. The weather has been more and more Spring-like and I have been seeing scones cropping all over blogs in the past few weeks which has put them in my mind several times.
So I got on the phone to the Domestic Goddess Hotline (Mum) and picked her brains for the amazing scones recipe that frequented my childhood. I was chuffed to discover it came from her Mum, my Nanna, who I know would have been really pleased to hear about my new-found love of cooking, baking and all round Domestic Goddessry.
Cream and jam were added to our shopping list, and N returned home from work yesterday brandishing two punnets of simply sumptuous looking strawberries (okay, not quite in season, but sometimes it just has to be done).
Then this afternoon, with cupcakes cooling and the first pangs of hunger after breakfast showing themselves, I set off on my first ever try of "Mummy's Scones"
I left them in for a little too long, underestimating how quickly our oven can cook things, but despite being slightly darker than I would have liked they still tasted delicious, just like I remember. Another Baking Day success. Mmmm...
The recipe I'm afraid will remain a closely guarded secret!
My recent obsession with cupcakes is somewhat taking over my life. I have been ordering all sorts of cute and exciting sprinkles to decorate them with and thinking up all sorts of batter/icing flavour combinations. I have even been dreaming about making them! Sad, but true.
So, although N had asked for something else to be the centre of Baking Day (post on it's way...) I just knew I had to indulge the cupcake fixation.
I didn't want anything too rich, and after a week of glorious late-February sunshine I wanted something to reflect the refreshing taste of Spring we've been having. So I decided to make citrus cupcakes; one set of orange, one set of lemon. I used a recipe for lemon cupcakes, and before adding the lemon juice and zest split the batter so I was able to mix one half with lemon juice and zest and the other with orange. The only problem being that I needed to remember which was which!
Once the cakes had cooled I decided to try out different icing combinations too. So, I iced six lemon with lemon cream cheese icing, and six lemon with orange buttercream, and then had six orange with lemon cream cheese icing and six with orange buttercream meaning I had one of each type of cake with each type of icing. 
Ah, cupcake obsession sated for one weekend at least! 
Now for the recipe: It was taken from the Cupcake Bakeshop blog, which I can't recommend too highly. I then adapted it for the orange ones. I have no idea how they've turned out as we haven't actually gotten around to eating any, but the batters smelt lovely whilst cooking and rose really well.
Lemon Cupcakes
12 regular cupcakes / 180 degree oven
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature 1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
11⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1⁄2 cup milk
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice zest of one lemon
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Measure out milk and vanilla.
5. Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
NB: At this point I split the batter and added half the amount of lemon needed to one and the equivalent of orange to the other.
6. Mix in lemon juice.
7. Fill the cups about 2/3 full and bake at 180 for 20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
The Baking Day resolution was made too late for starting in January, and to be honest there had been plenty of indulgence already (see cupcakes and mousse!), so the institution of our new decedent day of indulgence began on February 2nd.
I wanted the inaugural Baking Day to be done in style. Since the following Tuesday would be pancake day, but N and I would both be out and thus unable to indulge in pancakes together, what better way to begin Baking Day proceedings than with American-style blueberry breakfast pancakes.
They were delicious and well worth the effort (despite the fact that they took slightly longer to cook than I anticipated and so I missed the first Arsenal goal in the match!) I served them with additional blackberries and blueberries and cream whipped with maple syrup and plenty of maple syrup on the side. Decedent, indulgent and true to the spirit of Baking Day! It just so happened that the first Saturday of February was not only Baking Day, but also a Dungeons and Dragons evening to be held in Kent. Knowing that it was quite likely that the evening would be a very long one, stretching into the early hours and involving not insignificant amounts of beer, I thought that making a nice big cake for everyone to share would help keep those of us on a hard night's slaying going (and to help soak up some of that alcohol).
It wasn't difficult to decide what to make. The previous weekend N and I had been out and bought a new bookcase for the flat, and then lots more lovely books to put on it, one of which was Delia Smith's "Vegetarian Collection." A really nice book not only because of the large format and beautiful pictures, but also because it includes baking and desert recipes as well as main courses. In it I had found a fresh coconut cake and low and behold in our Abel and Cole box on the Wednesday before Baking Day we coincidently received a coconut. Now if that's not an omen for making a fresh coconut cake I don't know what is!
So, whilst N put together the final touches for the D&D campaign I frantically cooked, cooled, iced and decorated a cake. Ta da!
As it happened, during the recipe I had problems with the scales, and as a result I think the cake had far more butter in it than called for. This meant that it wasn't as solid as I would have liked, and so instead of being a four layer cake make from two 8" tins cut in half, I had to make do with just using the 8" tins as they were. However, I think this worked out well in the end as the mascarpone filling and coating was just enough and probably wouldn't have stretched for more layers. The crumbly nature of the cake also meant it didn't come out from the tins as cleanly as I needed, and in fact not only left a lot of itself behind, but actually came apart whilst being moved onto a plate. A rather stressful moment I must admit especially knowing we were a bit pushed for time and needed to get everything into the car and go. All I can say is thank goodness for coated cakes, as once I slapped the icing and grated coconut on I don't think anyone noticed!
As usual I adapted the recipe (I just couldn't resist, I never can) and added the zest of one lime to the batter and then when it was too dry added the lime juice instead of water. I then topped the cake with the zest of another lime. This was a great addition to the flavour and in my opinion made it more interesting.
On the whole it went down very well at 2am with a cup of tea whilst trying to work out how on earth to kill a bunch of magical scorpions. It was a very moist cake because of the freshness of the coconut and addition on the lime, which meant it also kept well for a sneaky second slice the following day!
May all Baking Day treats be this tasty (and less crumbly and stressful!)
Now for the recipes...
Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
The mix made four pancakes each with batter to spare, and believe me four was more than enough!
2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
2 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries
Extra unsalted butter to fry the pancakes
1. Mix together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, bicarb soda)
2. Mix together wet ingredients (eggs, buttermilk, melted butter)
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients and carefully mix till just combined (do NOT overmix - the batter should be slightly lumpy)
4. Heat a frying pan and melt 1-2 tbsp butter at a time over a low heat. Once the butter has melted, spoon roughly 1/3 cup of batter into the frying pan and lightly spread into a circular shape of even thickness. (I actually used a heart shaped mould courtesy of the Queen of Posting)
5. Sprinkle some berries over the uncooked surface and push them into the batter.
6. Fry for about 2-3 minutes or till the sides have started to colour and the bottom is slightly crispy and nicely browned. Carefully flip over and fry the other side till equally cooked through.
7. Serve with more berries and maple syrup.
Fresh Coconut Cake (Adapted from Delia Smith)
For the cake:
75g fresh grated coconut (have big strong man on hand for help grating as there's more to come!)
175g Self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 large eggs (room temp)
175g soft unsalted butter
175g golden caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lime (zest and juice)
Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add all other ingredients apart from the coconut, whisk and combine everything (actually I just stirred like mad with a wooden spoon). After about 1min the mixture should be smooth at which point add the coconut, mix again and divide the mixture between two 8" cake tins.
Bake for 30-35 mins until the sponge springs back when touched. Remove from the oven and leave to cool (Delia says for 5mins, but I think the longer the better in my experience of this crumbly cake).
Filling and coating:
40g grated coconut
250g marscapone
200ml fromage frais (I think 150 is enough actually and gives a slightly creamer less tart flavour)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 dsp golder caster sugar
50 grated coconut for coating
1 Lime (zest for topping)
whisk all ingredients together. Use about half in between the two cake layers, spreading a thick but even layer. The use the rest to coat the outside of the cakes. Then cover with the final 50g of coconut and zest the lime over the top in the centre.
Serve with a nice cup of tea for optimum cake enjoyment!
See, see how beautiful that pie dish is? I don't deserve a pie dish that seductive. I filled the pastry case with the fruit, rolled out a nice thick top, placed it carefully over the fruit, cut slits for the steam to escape, and even made little leaves out of the left-over dough. A masterpiece.
But all was not lost. There is a happy ending to the story, because despite it's rather rugged exterior, this pie was pretty on the inside, the fruits were delicately spiced and not too soft and the pastry turned out just right and didn't seem to have suffered despite the sinking.
I might fiddle with the ratios in the pastry using less fat next time, I might add more fruit to the filling next time, I might make the shell larger to prevent shrinkage next time, but the important thing is...there will be a next time. Oh yes, my pie making days are only just beginning, and there are a good five months of cold weather still to come. 
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