theordinarycook

The Ordinary Cook loves to cook. If I am not cooking or baking then the chances are I am thinking about cooking and baking. I love sharing recipes and ideas and my website is my space to do this.

Honey and almond buns

5 Comments / review, yeast cookery /

It’s Real Bread Week this week and this is something close to my heart. The difference between real bread, made with those four ingredients of flour, yeast, salt and water and the bread that you get in the supermarket with all the added emulsifiers, fast proving and bland fluffiness are a world apart. I urge you to bake your own bread or if that doesn’t appeal (although please give it a go, just once, and I promise you will be hooked) then try to find a bakery that makes bread that meets the Real Bread Campaign’s standards.

Most of my days are consumed with the making of bread, the trialling of new recipes or the teaching of bread baking to others.  In celebration of Real Bread Week I thought I would make these beauties.

Honey and almond buns
Honey & Almond Buns

These were inspired by a free sample of Manuka Honey I was sent to review by Manuka Doctor. Manuka honey is reputed to have many health benefits, with its antibacterial properties.  Now I cannot vouch for its ability to cure you of your ills, but I can tell you that it is very tasty. It has a creamy, smooth consistency and is really quite delicious, and not as strong tasting as some Manuka honey that I have tasted in the past. I ummed and erred about whether I should cook with it, as Manuka honey is expensive and is probably better spread on your toast or added to your peppermint tea (and most of my jar has been used for both of these purposes) than used so extravagantly as I do in this recipe. However, I was sent a jar to review and this is a cooking blog and would you really be interested in a picture of my honey spread on a bit of my toast? If you are making these buns at home then I recommend you use a very good local honey (and check the jar carefully to make sure it is local honey and not just packed locally) and save your Manuka for your toast and to sweeten your tea or smoothie.

This recipe is the enriched dough recipe I use in my baking classes, but with the sugar swapped for honey and it really does ring the changes, making a deliciously sticky and aromatically sweet bun.

Honey and Almond Buns

Ingredients

300g strong white flour
250g plain flour
10g salt
10g fresh yeast or 5g easy bake yeast
1 egg, beaten
150ml milk
150ml water
50g butter
50g honey

For the filling:
50g melted butter
50g flaked almonds
75g ground almonds
100g honey

For the glaze:
1-2 tbsp honey
Flaked almonds

Method

Place the flours, and salt in a large bowl, mix well. If you are using easy bake yeast then add this to the flours. If you are using fresh yeast crumble into a small bowl or cup. Heat the milk and the water over a gentle heat until just warm to the touch. Pour a little over the yeast and stir well to dissolve. Add all the liquid and yeast to the flours. You don’t have to wait for the yeast to bubble.  Melt the butter with the honey over a gentle heat and add to the flour with the egg.  Mix well together until there are no dry bits remaining. Cover the bowl and leave to rest for about 30 minutes. Do the first round of stretch and fold as shown in the video. Leave to rest for 10-30 minutes. Do another round of stretch and fold and repeat rest and a final round of stretch and fold. You can also knead the doughy hand for 10 minutes or use a use the dough hook in a free standing mixer, with the mixer on speed 1 and for about 3 to 5 minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball, place into a bowl and cover with a large bag or lightly oiled clingfilm and leave to prove for about an hour to an hour and a half. With all of the egg, milk and butter in this dough it may take longer to rise. So use your judgement and when it looks like it has doubled in size it is ready for the next stage.

Make the filling by melting the butter and honey together in a small pan and then stir in the flaked and ground almonds.

Lightly flour your work surface and turn the dough out. Roll the dough into an oblong measuring 20cm x 40cm. Spread the filling evenly over the dough.

Roll up from the long end like you would a swiss roll. Cut into nine equal pieces.

Line a square 20cm tin with baking parchment and place the buns in.. Using your palm to flatten slightly so that when they have proved they will all be joined together in a batch. This will mean you have that lovely soft sides to your bun when you tear the nine buns apart once cooked (see pic below). Cover again with a large plastic bag or lightly oiled clingfilm and leave to prove for about thirty minutes, or longer if your kitchen is cold. They will have grown and merged together.

Preheat your oven to 200ºc, gas mark 6, 390f or use the roasting oven of the Aga with a grill rack set on the floor of the oven. Remove the bag or clingfilm and place in the oven and bake for about 25 -30 minutes until the buns are golden. Drizzle over another 1-2 tablespoons of honey whilst the buns are still warm and sprinkle over some more flaked almonds. Leave in the tin for ten minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

honey and almond bun

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Happy Easter

8 Comments / yeast cookery /

Hot cross buns

Happy Easter to all my readers. I will be enjoying at least one of these Hot Cross Buns with a cup of tea in a bit. The rest will be shared amongst friends and family. We are having a quiet Easter weekend at home. We will not be getting on the busy roads but instead will be pottering about planting seeds and getting some jobs crossed off that never ending list that we have.

I hope you have a lovely Easter weekend whatever you are doing.

Kath x

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Aromatic Shropshire Pudding

9 Comments / pudding, The Ordinary Cook /

Aromatic Shropshire Pudding

Duerrs sent me a sample of their jam specifically made for home bakers. Made to be easily spreadable and stable when cooked their rhubarb and custard jam brings back memories of the sweets from childhood. I have been racking my brain as to the best way to use the jam. Last week I spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen trying out new recipes for my bread baking courses and whilst I was making cardamom scented buns I thought about using the jam as a filling for a ginger flavoured bun. Rhubarb and ginger are one of my favourite flavour pairings.  They were very tasty but because I made them in a whirl shape a lot of the jam escaped during baking, so I am back to the drawing board with that one. I think if I make a bun that is more like a doughnut with the jam enclosed that will work better. More experimentation will take place later this week.

On Sunday I was making dinner for Mothering Sunday and so was thinking of a dessert that would make use of the jam. I was tempted by roly poly and Manchester Tart but as I was looking through the index of Dorothy Hartley’s Food in England I noticed her recipe for Aromatic Shropshire Pudding with Brandy. I am not sure how I have missed this recipe before, being a Shropshire Lass through and through. My version is based loosely on Dorothy’s recipe, her version has no jam in it, but as it is a steamed pudding and I seem incapable of following other people’s recipes I thought why not? I didn’t have any brandy either so I swapped that for some dessert wine that I have sitting on the top of the cupboard. I swapped suet for butter too. Dorothy suggests serving it with brandy butter because in her words “(T)his is brown and aromatic, and, served with this butter and sugar, makes a good pudding for a frosty day”, I made proper custard. I did say it was loosely based on Dorothy’s recipe.

This recipe is a good way of using up stale bread and is very much like a sponge steamed pudding. I had some cold today with fridge cold cream and it was just as delicious in a different way.

225g breadcrumbs
100g butter
60g light brown sugar
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1 generous teaspoon brandy, dessert wine or liqueur of your choice
2 eggs, beaten with 1-2 tbsp of water
150g jam

Method

I made this in a food processor  by putting the breadcrumbs and butter into the processor and whizzing it, then adding the sugar, nutmeg, brandy/dessert wine and the beaten egg mixture and whizzing briefly again.

You can make it without a food processor by grating the cold butter into fine breadcrumbs and then adding the rest of the ingredients and using your hands to bring it all together.  The mixture should be quite moist.

Butter an ovenproof bowl that has a 1-pint (500ml) capacity and spoon the jam into the bottom of the bowl. Place the mixture on top of the jam. Cut a large square of greaseproof paper and fold a pleat in the middle of it. Tie securely with string, preferably making a handle with the string. Place a trivet in the bottom of a large saucepan. Put the pudding in and carefully pour hot water in to cover the bowl by three-quarters. Cover the pan tightly with a lid and bring to the boil. Lower to a simmer and simmer for three hours.

Lift the bowl carefully out of the water. Remove the paper. Invert a serving plate onto the top of the bowl and turn the pudding out. Be careful as sometimes it can  pop out and splash hot jam at you. Serve with cream, custard or brandy butter.

Aromatic Shropshire Pudding before cooking
Aromatic Shropshire Pudding before cooking

Duerrs sent me a free sample of their jam to try. All opinions are my own and honest. 

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Blood Orange Sorbet

11 Comments / ice cream, The Ordinary Cook /

We went to London for a few days during half term last week. The reason for the visit was because it was Chinese New Year and my youngest had requested that instead of our usual trip to Birmingham we went to see all the festivities in London. I messed up though as I booked it early to get a good deal on the hotel and trains. I booked it before the Chinese New Year festivities were published. There was I thinking that as CNY was on a Thursday this year things might be happening on the Thursday. Things weren’t happening on the Thursday, they were happening on the Sunday when we would be back in Shropshire. Oh well, lesson learned.

We still had a great time and we walked up and down Chinatown several times so that the youngest at least felt that she had soaked up something of the atmosphere. We did the British Museum to look at Ancient Greek items and the mummies. The mummified cat they have there is a mixture of amazing and horrid. Always a good mixture for things in a museum case I think. We did a couple of the more famous and older patisseries, our friend Tony bought me a cup from Patisserie Valerie which is much treasured. The other patisserie was perhaps the most disappointed by a cake shop that I have ever been. The cakes were delicious, the surroundings were grim. I am not sure when the Environmental Team were last in there but I am presuming it wasn’t recently.

One of the most exciting things about London is that you can buy anything, and what I most wanted was blood oranges. I remember my mum buying blood oranges in Shropshire when we were little but they are rarer than hen’s teeth in the county these days. If any one knows a secret source can they let me in on the secret.

So five blood oranges were duly carted home, amongst the huge bags of M&Ms the girls had managed to persuade me were a good idea in M&M World, and the small but treasured box of Turkish Delight from Fortnum and Mason.

The girls were horrified by the idea of blood oranges, reminding me how I had been the same when I was young, until I tasted one. History repeated itself. The girls loved this sorbet, sweet and refreshing as it is, and that colour could not easily be beaten surely.

Blood orange sorbet

It is very easy to make. Squeeze and measure the juice. Measure a quarter of that amount of caster sugar (so 200ml of juice needs 50g of caster sugar).Put the sugar in a pan and add enough of the juice to cover the sugar. Place the pan on a gentle heat until the sugar is dissolved. Leave to cool and then add the sugary juice to the rest of the juice. Pour into a freezer safe container and freeze. Stir up with a fork and freeze again. Then enjoy every sweet  mouthful.

The peel of the blood orange is so beautiful that I couldn’t throw it away so I candied it. I then promptly forgot the peel in the simmering oven of the Aga for a full 24 hours. Turns out it was a delicious mistake to make. The peel is sticky and moist with all of that sugary water evaporated down to a sweet, sweet sludge.

blood orangesblood oranges

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Singing Hinny

6 Comments / review, scones /

I was kindly sent a Kitzini silicone baking mat to review and I have been giving it a thorough test over the last couple of weeks. I started with a jammy dodger recipe, but the recipe needs more tweaking before it’s ready to share with you. They spread too much and needed to be a bit more substantial to be jammy dodgers that I would be proud to tell you about.  I made some buckwheat and almond cookies that are really good and will be shared at some point in the near future.

Jammy dodgers about to go in the oven
Jammy dodgers about to go in the oven

Buckwheat and almond cookies
Buckwheat and almond cookies

I have been impressed with the Kitzini mat. It has even heat distribution and is easy to clean, much easier than a buttered tray. Any spills wipe off very easily. The mats are oven, microwave and freezer safe and can also be used as pastry mats. They are available  at Amazon and are currently on sale.

I also made a Singing Hinny which worked really well with the mat on the simmering plate of the Aga. I have made a Singing Hinny a few times directly on the simmering plate and it works fine, but using the Kitzini mat did mean that it didn’t need turning as often to prevent the bottom scorching.

Singing Hinny
Singing Hinny dough with the underside cooking on the Aga

The Singing Hinny gets its name from the singing noise it makes when it hits the heat of the griddle. I sadly, have yet to experience a hinny singing to me yet. Maybe, one day.

The Singing Hinny is delicious served warm, sliced into wedges, split and buttered. Jam is optional but good.

Singing Hinny
Singing Hinny cooking on the Aga

This is supposed to cut into 8 wedges but Mr OC and I can eat it all in one sitting.

225g self-raising flour
½ tsp salt
50g butter (lard is more traditional but I don’t often have it in the fridge)
50g caster sugar
75g raisins or currants depending on what you have in the cupboard
1 egg
6 tbsp milk

Method

I make mine in a food processor which makes it very quick and easy. Put the flour, salt and butter into the processor and whizz together briefly. Add the sugar and whizz again. Add the egg and milk and whizz, then add the dried fruit and whizz very briefly. It should now be easy to bring together into a ball using your hands.

If you don’t have a food processor, rub the butter into the flour using the tips of your fingers. When it resembles breadcrumbs stir in the sugar and salt. Add the dried fruit, egg and milk and work gently together with a spoon or your hand until it forms a ball.

Place onto a lightly floured work surface and flatten to a disc using your hand. You can cook it on the simmering plate of the Aga or in a heavy based pan over a low-medium heat. Turn after about 8-10 minutes when it should be well browned. Cook for another 8-10 minutes. Leave to cool for a minute or two on a wire rack and then cut into wedges, split horizontally and spread with butter.

I was sent two silicone mats by Kitzini for review purposes. I received no other payment and any opinions expressed are honest and my own. 

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Spiced prunes

15 Comments / breakfast, The Ordinary Cook /

This week is National Breakfast Week and by pure chance I was going to tell you about these prunes anyway. I have to eat within ten minutes of waking up or I am horrible. That means that I need something easy to eat. A year or two ago that would have been a bowl of cereal. But now I find that they taste either of cardboard or sugar. I have made my own muesli for the past year or so. This is simply a mix of oats, nuts and whatever dried fruit I have in the cupboard, eaten with milk or greek yoghurt. I sometimes make granola too. But I needed a change. The idea of stewed prunes just appealed to me. I am not sure why, as the very words ‘stewed prunes’ has connotations attached to it that you don’t really want to think about first thing in the morning. That, perhaps, is why I chose to title this post ‘spiced prunes’; that sounds so much more appealing and exotic and doesn’t conjure up grandmas quite so easily.

These are easy to make, taste delicious and you make a big batch and it will keep in the fridge for a week or so, no trouble at all. I eat them with a big dollop of yoghurt stirred in. I forgot to buy some prunes this week and now I have run out and I am missing them. So, now, against all the odds and the “who’d have thought it”s, I am a confirmed stewed (aka spiced) prune eater. Give them a try and you will be too.

You can ring the changes with whatever spices you fancy. I like star anise, cinnamon and ginger but cardamom is good too. Try whatever appeals to you. It doesn’t need any sugar as the prunes are naturally sweet. I have tried adding a slice of lemon or a slice of orange but the stringency didn’t appeal to me. Give it a go though if you think you might like it.

250g ready-to-eat prunes (this amount lasts me a week of breakfasts, just for me)
water
your choice of spice, I use one star anise, half a cinnamon stick and a teaspoonful of finely chopped fresh ginger

Method
Put the prunes in a saucepan, add enough water to cover and with about 1cm of extra water. Add the spices. Place over a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat down a little and simmer for about 10 minutes until the water is syrupy. Take off the heat. Put into a bowl, once they are cool cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge and eat whenever you feel like it.

Honestly, they are really delicious and probably very good for you.

 

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Teavivre

11 Comments / review, The Ordinary Cook /

I was recently sent some tea samples for review purposes from Teavivre. I have to say that it has been a real treat. We British have a reputation for being tea drinkers and that is certainly the case in this house. When we go abroad on holiday I make sure I pack enough teabags for at least two cups of tea for me and Mr OC a day. You can’t get more British than that.

Despite our love of tea in this house we are prone to buying the tea that comes in teabags in a box from the supermarket. Some of these teabags, it has to be said, make a comforting cup of tea. We do also buy loose tea from our local teashop and at weekends we make a proper cup of tea – in a pot and using a strainer, as opposed to a bag in a cup, but beyond that we are not very adventurous with our tea.

So, it was a real treat to receive these teas. Take a look at the Teavivre website to see their full range of exceptional teas. I was sent a range of black and white teas to try, which included Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea Full-leaf, Bailin Gongfu Black Tea, Premium Keemun Hao Ya Black Tea, Organic Nonpareil Silver Needle White Tea (Bai Hao Yin Zhen), Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) Wuyi Rock Oolong Tea Fujian.

Teavivre teas

They are beautiful teas to look at and the taste is exceptional, whether it is the rich, almost chocolatey taste of the oolong or the delicate floral taste of the silver needle tea. There is a tea for every occasion and for every taste in the sample pack that I received and that was only a selection of those available on the Teavivre website.

The website itself makes for fascinating reading with its advice for brewing the tea in the traditional Chinese way. One thing that I have learned is that you do not pour boiling water over tea, but rather boiled water at 90°c. After thirty odd years of making tea (well, I was only seven when I made my first cup of tea) this parcel of tea has been responsible for me changing my tea making habits.

Teavivre send their teas direct from China and delivery takes between 6-10 days. Their website is available in British Sterling, just select the currency at the top of the webpage. They also have some lovely teapots and teacups that I have been admiring.

Teavivre sent me teas for free for the purposes of review. I was not required to give a positive review and all opinions are my own and honest.

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Happy New Year

9 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

To all my lovely readers I wish a very happy 2015. May the year bring you happiness and good health, without too many of the inevitable bad moments.

We had a lovely, relaxing Christmas break, which was much needed by all four of us. It’s time to get back to it now.

For my own part I am hoping that Veg Patch Kitchen will take off this year and that I will be teaching lots of people the joy of making their own bread. Beyond that, then it’s the basics of happiness that I am hoping for and that means good health for everyone I care about.

Here’s to your good health.

Kath x

 

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VonShef Popcorn Maker

12 Comments / review, The Ordinary Cook /

Domu asked me to review something from their range of kitchenware and cooking equipment. I selected to review their popcorn maker. My eldest daughter loves popcorn and would invariably buy a bag when we called into the sweetshop on the way home from school. This was quickly becoming an expensive habit and with expensive presents requested for Christmas we came to an agreement that there would be no more visits to the sweet shop after school until after Christmas so we could save some money to put towards the presents that they had requested. It is a lot cheaper to buy a 500g bag of popping corn and make your own than to buy the ready popped variety. Each day before school pick-up I was popping corn in a pan with a spoonful of oil. This can get messy if you happen to start another job and forget your pan of popping corn.

The VonShef Popcorn Maker in action
The VonShef Popcorn Maker in action

I hadn’t considered the option of a popcorn maker. In fact, I hadn’t realised that you could get one for the home. I have to say, I am very impressed. The popcorn maker is reasonably priced at £22.99 and is well worth the purchase price if you eat a lot of popcorn.

The popcorn maker is very easy to use and requires no oil. The corn is popped by hot air circulation and it takes about a minute to pop a bowlful of popcorn. It is quite noisy when operating but no noisier than a food processor.

The popcorn is much fluffier than when popped in an oiled pan and there is less waste. I tend to find quite a few unpopped corns in a pan and the most I have found in a full bowl of popcorn made by this machine is ten unpopped corns. There is less washing up too, particularly when you don’t have burned pans to wash up.

You can add whatever flavour you fancy to the popped corn. The favourite in this house is butter melted with golden syrup and a grind of sea salt.

The popcorn maker comes with a 500g packet of popping corn and four cardboard popcorn boxes. It has recipes on the side of the box too, including one for popcorn with bacon and maple syrup. That might be one we will be trying over the Christmas holidays if we get the chance to put our feet up to watch one of the Christmas films.

The only problem with having a popcorn maker in the kitchen is that it nearly kills you to buy popcorn at the cinema when you go to watch Paddington.

Domu sent me the VonShef popcorn maker for free for the purposes of review. All opinions are my own and honest. 

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Christmas cooking

10 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

It is my youngest daughter’s eighth birthday tomorrow, the party was held at the weekend and everything is ready for tomorrow. This, then, for me, means I can begin to think about Christmas. I can’t contemplate it before her birthday preparations are out of way. Thank goodness she wasn’t born closer to Christmas. What this also means is that I have been doing this blog for more than five years now. This was bought home to me when I printed off the chocolate birthday cake recipe for my mum to make for her and looked at the photo of the cake that my youngest had decorated for her Dad when she was three.

This made me think about just how many recipes I have posted on here over that time. It has become my own personal cookbook and I hope that it has the same purpose for others too.  In my planning for the holidays I started to look back on the recipes that are favourites and also found some that I really enjoyed when I made them but haven’t returned to since. It occurred to me that a round-up of the recipes I will be revisiting or would like to, but probably won’t have the time when it comes to it, would be useful for me and perhaps for a few of you too.

I do love all the cooking that comes with the Christmas holidays. The girls have two weeks off from school which means that we can have proper breakfasts, rather than a bowl of cereal or a piece of toast. So we will be enjoying pancakes, waffles, pikelets or Staffordshire Oatcakes as well as the occasional Full English.

The Aga baked ham will be cooked for Christmas Eve dinner and for tucking into afterwards too. Whenever there is a ham in the house Fidget pie is made, because I love it so much. When I made Fidget pie last week, I used white wine instead of cider and reduced it to a syrup before I added the cream and it was delicious. My recipes are always evolving.

My mum makes enough mincemeat for all of us, but if you do need a recipe the one I made with pecans was really tasty. Mince pies are very popular in this house, in fact I have promised to make some today. My eldest likes them slightly burned. I like to oblige, sometimes because I have forgotten put the timer on. The curse of the Aga.  Then when we are bored of them, mincemeat bars might make an appearance or that Norfolk Scone I have promised myself.

My mum will also be cooking the turkey, but she will be doing it this way because it’s tried and tested and delicious. Mushroom and chestnut wellington makes a very good alternative to the turkey.

Stollen might make an appearance, because I make marzipan at Christmas, not for the cake (mum makes those) but because we love it. Marzipan chocolates will be the result and I should really make my ginger and marzipan cake again because that was very, very good.

Christmas pudding is my absolute favourite, but if you want something different then my Cardamom and almond steamed pudding or my Whisky and honey cheesecake go down very well. Chocolate truffles, whether chilli or cherry flavoured will be on the table at some point and I might find time to make candied peel again.

Just writing this post has lifted me into the festive spirit so I am off to make mince pies and some lemon curd ready for the pikelets and oatcakes. Be assured that whilst I make these I will be half watching a movie on one of the Christmas channels. I started doing that back in November. Don’t judge me too harshly.

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