Daring Bakers' Challenge No. 1 - Nov 2010 - Fig and Honey Crostata.

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Simona gave us lots of great information and recipes and free rein to really do what we liked with the basic idea.  I followed her first recipe for pasta frolla which is an Italian sweet, shortcrust pastry.  I chose to make a crostata di frutta fresca (crostata with fresh fruit) which involves the pastry, a layer of pastry cream then fresh fruit.  I decided to try fresh figs with a honey glaze.  It was delicious.  However, next time I make it, I think I would use something like kiwi fruits as I really like the sharpness as a contrast with the pastry cream.  I also found that my pastry cream hadn't set as well as I would have liked so I couldn't cut it into pretty slices.  I know exactly why this was - the kids were with me in the kitchen while I was bringing the pastry cream to the boil.  They were cutting shapes out of the leftover pasta frolla and kept asking me to help them or asking to get down or endless questions while I was trying to stir constantly so I was beginning to get a little stressed and harried.  So, instead of letting the pastry cream come to the boil, I gave up before that point.  So, of course, a runnier pastry cream than would have been ideal.

Recipe - Pasta Frolla

Ingredients - 

100g caster sugar

235g plain flour

pinch of salt

115g cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

grated zest of half a lemon

1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl

Method - 

1. Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.

2. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs.

3. Make a well in the centre of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it.

4. Add the lemon zest.

5. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips.

6. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.

7. Shape the dough into a flat disc and wrap in cling film.

8. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours or overnight.

9. Heat the oven to 180C/ Gas mark 4/ 350F.

10. Take the pasta frolla out of the fridge, roll out and cover the base of your tart pan.

11. Cut a piece of parchment paper or foil large enough to cover the pastry and extend a bit past the sides.

12. Place pie weights or dry beans in an even layer over the parchment or foil.

13. Bake for 20 minutes.

14. Remove the weights and paper and continue baking until the border is light golden, about 5 mins.

15. Let cool completely.

16. Remove from tin and place on a serving plate before filling with the pastry cream.

Recipe - Crema Pasticcera.

This is Simona's Aunt Lucia's recipe.

Ingredients - 

2 extra-large eggs

65g sugar

500ml milk

3 strips of lemon peel

3 tbsp plain flour

Method - 

1. Pour the milk into the pan, add the lemon peel, and warm up to well below boiling point.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until the mixture is bubbly.

3. Sift the flour over the egg mixture and beat briefly until incorporated.

4. Temper the egg mixture with a small quantity of milk, then slowly add the rest of the milk, mixing with a wooden spoon.

5. Pour the mixture into the pan and set it to a very low heat, stirring at least every couple of minutes.  When the froth on the surface disappears completely, the crema starts to feel slightly thicker.  From this point on, stir almost continuously.

6. When the crema reaches boiling point and thickens, cook briefly (1-2 mins), then remove the pan from the heat, remove the lemon peel, place the saucepan in a cold water bath, and stir to bring down its temperature.

7. While the crema cools down, stir it every now and then to prevent the formation of a film over it.

I then filled the pastry with the cream, arranged the sliced figs over the top and glazed with some heated honey.

We had some pasta frolla left over so the boys cut out some cookie shapes and we made cookies which they then decorated.

Home-made Pizza.

There's a good reason that making pizza at home is a very popular thing to do with children.  They love it and it gets them interested in food.  In an effort to limit my kids' TV viewing, we have film night specifically on a Saturday evening and we watch a DVD.  We quite often have tea that can be eaten in the living room as a treat.  We eat all other meals at the kitchen table as a family.  So, last Saturday we decided to do the home-made pizza thing and then eat it in front of a film.

I know you don't really need a recipe to do home-made pizza but we used the recipes from The River Cottage Family Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Fizz Carr.  This is a lovely book for families.  Some great recipes and a bit of education on where food comes from and how to source welfare friendly meat and eggs, etc..  It is not a patronising book at all - has recipes for proper meals and tricky things that Hugh and Fizz know full well children can either manage themselves or with a little help from their parents depending on age.

Recipe - 

For 4 pizzas.

Ingredients - 

For the dough -

Strong white flour, 500g, plus extra for dusting the work surface

Salt, 2 tsp

Easy-blend yeast, a sachet or 2 tsp

Olive oil, 2 tbsp

Sugar or honey, 2 tsp

Warm water, about 300ml

For the tomato sauce - 

Garlic, 1 clove

Plum tomatoes, 400g tin

Olive oil, 1 tbsp

Sugar, 1tsp

Toppings - 

Anything you want

Method - 

1. Put the flour into a mixing bowl, add the salt and the granules of yeast and stir with a wooden spoon so they are all combined.

2. Spoon the olive oil and sugar or honey into the measuring jug then top up with warm water to just over the 300ml mark and stir well.

3. Pour the oily water on to the flour in the bowl a little at a time.  Either with the wooden spoon or your hands, work the water into the flour and gradually bring it all together into a mass of soft, slightly sticky dough.  If the dough feels very sticky, add a little more flour.  If it feels as if it won't come together, then work in some more warm water - a soft dough is much easier to knead.

4. Flour the work surface and turn the dough out on to it.  It'll look rough and saggy at this stage, so it has to be kneaded until it's smooth and bouncy.  Keep kneading for as long as you can - at least 10 mins, if possible.

5. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with cling film or a damp tea towel and leave it in a warm place for one and a half to two hours, when it should swell to double its size.

6. Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce.  Peel the garlic clove, place it on a board and crush it with the flat of the knife blade until it turns into a rough paste.

7. Tip the tinned tomatoes into the pan with the olive oil and garlic.  Break them up with a wooden spoon.  Add a teaspoon of sugar.  Turn on the heat to medium and let the tomatoes bubble furiously, stirring every now and then to make sure they don't catch on the bottom of the pan.  Let them bubble for about 5-10 mins until most of the juice has evaporated and you have a thick, pulpy sauce.  Let cool.

8. When the dough has risen, press it down with the palm of your hand and take it out of the bowl.  Divide it into four.

9. Turn the oven to its hottest setting.  Put the baking sheet in to get hot.

10. Sprinkle some flour on to the work surface.  Take one of the dough pieces and shape it roughly into a circle.  Then continue to shape it - either with your hands or a rolling pin.  Shape the other pieces int he same way.

11. Oven gloves on! Take the hot baking tray from the oven.  Carefully lay one (or two) of the bases on to the sheet.  Spread a quarter of the tomato sauce over the pizza, leaving a bit of bare dough round the edge.

12. Scatter on your chosen ingredients.  Trickle a very little olive oil over the top.  Finish with a little salt and pepper.

13. Put the tray back in the oven and bake for 8-10 mins until the base looks cooked and the cheese is bubbling and spotted with brown.  Cook the others in the same way.

Salted Oat Crackers.

Well, I can take no credit for these whatsoever.  I came in from rowing yesterday and found Steve and the boys making something.  So I just decided to photograph them and see what treat lay in store.

They were making salted oat crackers from a recipe in the Weekend section of this Saturday's Guardian.

Recipe - 

Ingredients - 

300g plain flour, plus a little extra for rolling

1tsp caster sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp fine salt

25g unsalted butter, softened

100g rolled oats

175ml cold water

sea salt flakes, for sprinkling

Method - 

1. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and rub in the butter.

2. Toss in the oats and milk, and mix to a soft dough.  

3. Cover the dough in the bowl, and set aside for half an hour.

4. Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/GM 6.

5. Liberally flour a worktop and roll out the dough very, very thinly, using extra flour to stop it sticking.

6. Cut the dough into 10cm discs using a pastry cutter, or into squares with a sharp knife.

7. Lay the discs (or squares) on an oven tray lined with nonstick baking paper.  Brush the top of each disc lightly with water then sprinkle a few salt flakes over each.

8. Bake for about 12-14 minutes, until barely golden at the edges, but still slightly pale.

We had them warm out of the oven.  They weren't as thin and crisp as they could have been - really because if they had been too thin it would have been too difficult for the boys to handle the dough.  They were delicious, though.  Tasted just like the porridge my Granda used to make.  So, in honour of that, I had mine drizzled with honey as we always had our porridge with honey and salt - love the contrast.  Yum.  The boys enjoyed theirs with honey like me and Steve had his with cheese.  We will definitely make these again - probably make these to go with the cheese when we have people over for dinner.

Actually, it's probably about time we had a go at making our own oatcakes too. 

Even Little Rufie Helped Me.

We made an Apple Tea Cake from Little Kitchen yesterday and both boys helped me out with it.  We had the cake warm with vanilla ice-cream for pudding.  The cake underneath was a light buttery sponge, then there was a layer of meltingly soft apples, and this was topped with a crisp, cinnamon and sugar layer.  

Rufie putting in the baking powder. 

Joint effort to rub the butter into the flour.

Rufie whisking the eggs and milk while Lolly (Adam's blue and white dog) supervises.

Serious work.

Very comforting.

I think it was lighter than the Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze we made a couple of weeks ago although for a treat I would prefer the one with the glaze.

Recipe for Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze.

Anyway, we had my Dad here today helping us out with some DIY so we made another of the cake with brown sugar glaze for him as he particularly liked it.

This time I made a much runnier glaze and didn't cook it for so long so it all soaked into the cake rather than sitting on top.  Dad said he preferred it this way.  I'm not so sure.  It made the cake really squidgy and fudgy.  It was very decadent but quite filling.  I wish I could make them both at the same time so I could compare directly.  I guess it's nice to have different ways of doing it so I can choose depending on my mood at the time of cooking!

Okay, so enough with all the apple cake!  That's the Pitmedden apples all finished now so we'll maybe try something different at the weekend.

For lunch today, we tried the Carrot and Courgette Slice from the Little Kitchen book too.  It was tasty but unfortunately I hadn't cooked it long enough and it was still a bit squidgy in the middle.  I'll try again, though as it was very tatsy and obviously full of good stuff.  Next time I'll fill the loaf tin less.  Here's how it looked from the outside but I didn't photograph the inside as it all just fell apart.  Watch this space for perfect looking slices next time (hopefully).

  

Little Kitchen.

Some lovely food again this weekend.

Steve has made more wholemeal bread.  Not as good looking this time but just as tasty.  He got up early on Saturday morning to bake it so we had it warm from the oven with melting butter with our morning coffee. Mmmmm.

Rufus and I had been to the library last week and I had managed to pick up a few new cook books to have a look at.  We used the first one today.  It is called Little Kitchen by Sabrina Parrini. It is Australian and looks like it was only published in 2009 so quite new.  It is a lovely book especially for cooking with children.  Laid out very well with photographs of a completed version of every single recipe as well as other fun or stylish photos. 

I see they have a website and sell baking equipment in Australia -  Little Kitchen

So, for lunch today, we decided to go for the Crunchy Chicken Fingers.  We had some Ruskoline in the cupboard so we used that instead of making our own breadcrumbs and we just served them with peas.

Adam did most of this himself and I was impressed at what a neat job he made of it.  He is getting really good at cracking eggs into a bowl and there was no shell in the egg at all.  I think I usually underestimate what a 3 year old can actually achieve.

Because it's the tattie holidays, Adam will not have pre-school for the next two weeks so this will give us more time to do loads of cooking and baking.  There are a few recipes in this book that we have our eye on - can't wait to get cracking!

Easy Turkish Meatballs.

It's amazing how simply sticking something on a skewer will double the chances of the kids eating it.

Adam kind of helped me make these skewers but really he just ate half the onion as I was chopping it and by the time we got to the good bit of squishing the meat onto the skewers he had lost interest and wandered off.  Oh well, next time.

They both ate absolutely all of their tea which makes me very happy so we'll definitely be having these again.  They are also so easy and quick to make.

Turkish Meatballs.

Serves 4.

Ingredients - 

400g lamb mince

1 large onion, chopped

1 heaped tbsp cumin powder

salt and pepper

Method - 

Soak skewers in cold water for half an hour before you start.  I always forget this and didn't do it last night - the skewers still kept their shape but certainly if I was barbecuing I know they would just burn through if I didn't soak them.

Put everything in a large bowl and squish together with your hands.  Shape around the skewers.

Grill, turning every few minutes for about 12 minutes.

I served them just with some frozen peas but there are loads of things you could serve them with.  We had the leftovers today for lunch with just some lettuce and cucumber.  They would also be nice with pitta breads and hummous, I think.

Oh, and tomato ketchup always helps!

It's a pity I'm not writing a kid's cookbook.  I have the perfect models for the photography!  Even if I do say so myself. 

Chicken Burgers.

Just had some very simple chicken burgers for lunch today but they were lovely.

I followed the recipe in this book of children's recipes - a great book full of really easy recipes for kids to make.  The kids didn't actually help me with this today as they were busy playing with Daddy but I'm not too proud to steal quick, easy ideas from their book.

We have made these several times before but the thing that made them special today was that Steve had made the wholemeal rolls himself.

And, yes, it looks a bit skimpy on the chicken but do you know how much free range chicken costs these days?  £5 for two breasts.  So we make 2 breasts do the four of us.  Fish is really expensive just now too.  We got some beautiful tuna steaks yesterday but we were £10.80 for two.  They were big fat juicy ones and we made the two do the four of us no bother at all.  I think we're going to try keeping meat and fish to once or twice per week to keep the food bills down a bit.  In fact what I really need is some sort of shopping budget challenge as that tends to keep me more focussed if I think I am competing with myself.  Maybe I'll start with a target of £50 for the weekly food shopping, see if I can stick to that and, if so, try to reduce it a bit.  Actually if that includes all the household goods and dog food, it's probably a bit unrealistic.  Okay I'll go for £60 and see how it goes for two to three weeks then adjust if needed/possible.  I'd be interested to hear opinions on a budget for a family of four and a dog.

Of course, the big thing we need to do is stop eating out so much!  Well, we went out for tea tonight so I might do a restaurant review tomorrow but then after that, I'll try to rein it in.