Orange bread! Or how to hide another vegetable in dinner

Our oven door exploded 3 weeks ago. AUGH it is the bane of my life at the moment.

I think I'll bake some... nope.
I want to make a slow cooked... nope.
I have leftover fruit so could whip up some... nope.

And so on.

I also got a fabulous pumpkin from a friend's yard on the weekend, and in true Samhain style to celebrate the harvest, I made damper with said pumpkin to share for lunch tomorrow.

Ah hah! No, I didn't bake it. Or make a fire. I used the Bessemer my lovely sister gave us for a wedding gift.

First time ever using it to "bake" in and it worked a treat. It is sheer tiredness that is keeping me from eating the whole thing RIGHTNOW with butter and a hot cup of tea.

Pumpkin damper
Not too sweet, not too savoury. Sadly it is a bit "a pinch of this" recipe but I hope you can follow along.

Ingredients
1/4 of a pumpkin - about 600g
2 and a bit cups of plain flour, converted into self raising flour
A big pinch of cinnamon
About half that of ginger
1/4C of cream
1/2C milk
Pinch of salt
A small palmful of sugar

Ugh when it's written out like that it looks really weird. But I cook by feel and sound so that's how it's written.

Anyways - cut the pumpkin skin off and then cut it up, steam it til it's soft, cool and then squish down with a fork. You don't want a puree but squished bits of pumpkin. Well, I don't anyway - I like a bit of texture. Add the rest of the ingredients and mash together with a fork. The "bit" of flour is because you need to work it with your hands a little, and it should be a fairly damp dough. Sometimes you'll need a bit more flour than other times. It depends on the pumpkin and the flour and the cream/milk and the phase of the moon. But the dough shouldn't be overworked, or too dry. Damp.

Heh that's the "damp" part of damper perhaps?

Ahem.

Form it up into a cob and put it on a floured baking tray in a 200C oven. Or in the Bessemer if you have one, on a low heat for about 1/2 an hour. It kind of steams rather than bakes, in the Bessemer, so it won't sound hollow when it's done but it'll taste just as good.

*****

So this is an awesome way to get more pumpkin into someone, and it goes well with tomato soup or based meals, any soup especially pumpkin, sweet things as well as it's a bit sweet. I put a bit of paprika in it sometimes too, or chilli. It goes well with Mexican food too.

Oven exploded - sad face

Am I going to look back at this blog in 5,10, 20 years and be able to groan at my language as being so... teens? Are we up to them already? Anyways, yes, our oven door exploded. This is not ours but it is similar to what happened.

The safety glass exploded off the front of the door, and is now taped up with safety cardboard. It's been 2 weeks without an oven and I am getting a bit annoyed with the whole process. I keep thinking that I'll just bake bread... nope. I'll just make some muffins... nope. I'll just pop a casserole... nope. I'll just invite people over for dinner and... nope.

Ok so Thelma the Thermomix is getting a lot of a workout but I'm noticing that I love to combine things and pop them in the oven or the slow cooker. And then write, study, photograph, play with Sally or do what I want. Instead I'm cooking quickly with Thelma, and not getting any baking done.

I don't mind the not baking so much as I still don't have a sweet tooth. TheHusband on the other hand I'm sure is missing my skills. I love baking for so many other reasons and I am getting better with steaming things in Thelma but it's not the same, ya know? And it's not quite as easy to make steamed pudding things, rather than "what's left in the fridge yes oatmeal and some fruit and random chocolate and fruit yoghurt sure that'll taste delicious in my normal recipe". And they don't keep as well either.

But the batter is so. YUMMY!!! when made with coconut cream.

I do need to get my hands on some new silicon cupcake pans though. The only ones I can find are bee shaped or fairy shaped or flower shaped. These don't work in the confines of the Varoma on top of Thelma but I'm reluctant to buy them online and pay for postage as well.

My house smells like muffins

In my younger days, when the internet was brand new and the world was a less stressed place, there was a thing called IRC and I spent a lot of time on there instead of studying. My nicknames was muffin cause I loved making them. Sweet and savoury - REALLY cheap eats for a student and filling.

I have perfected my recipe for a sweet muffin which is not too sweet, not cakey, and easily adapted to any fruit you've got around. I made some for us today as a breakfast treat because we have a weekend off together for the first time in ages. I thought I'd share my recipe. Please note that this is not a sweet or cakey muffin. They freeze well if wrapped up when still a little warmer than room temperature.

Melted butter for greasing the muffin tins, or a spray on oil, or muffin cases
2t garam masala or cinnamon or all spice
3/4C brown sugar
2C (300g) plain flour
1T baking powder
2 medium apples, cored and chopped (and peeled if you don't like the peel)
3/4C sultanas or nuts or seeds (optional)
125g salted butter, melted in a microwave-safe jug
2 eggs
3/4C milk or half milk half yoghurt or sour cream

Put the brown sugar and spice into a bowl. Sift the plain flour and baking powder together on top. I add a pinch extra to ensure that the muffins aren't too cakey and dense. Use a fork to mix the sugar and flour and spice together. Toss the apple into the flour and mix in well. Once the butter is cooled, add the milk and then the eggs to the same jug - less chance of them cooking that way! Whisk well. Pour into a well in the flour. Using a wooden spoon, mix together imperfectly - make sure you can't see any flour, and can't see any puddles of liquid.

Spoon into a pre-prepared muffin tin. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes. With lots of apple you'll get 16 or so regular-sized muffins. Eat hot or cold, with butter or lemon curd.

Savoury muffins - to make them, the recipe as written is fine as long as you have 1.5C or so of fairly dry filling that is ready to eat and remove the spice obviously. If it's less, or if it's wet, then you need to reduce the milk by a little or bake a little longer. Some filling suggestions:

- any fruit, and appropriate spices
- ham
- feta
- mozzerella
- sundried tomatoes
- salmon and dill
- cooked vegetables

What do you use vanilla sugar for?

One of the comments left on my blog recently said:

What do you serve vanilla sugar with/use it in? I've never actually heard of it! Sounds yum though!

And I thought - what do I actually use it for? Here are 10 totally random things I use it for:

1. Sprinkle on top of baked goods instead of plain sugar
2. Add to a cup of tea when you need some sweetness and comfort
3. 30g (1T) in any baked good instead of vanilla extract
4. Add to cocoa powder when making hot cocoa
5. Add to a coffee or fruit cake to change the flavour
6. 1tsp in a tomato dish helps to enhance the flavours
7. Make a vanilla sauce for your next pudding
8. Add it to stewing fruit instead of plain sugar
9. Make icing or custard with it
10. Smell when you need an uplift
    

Mix Master flashbacks

When I was little, my mother had a Mix Master. It had a particular smell to it - slightly sweet and a smidge oily and a lot of spice. She used it for cakes and bread and lots of other things and the sound of it is a lovely flashback to my childhood.

Anyway, I am now lusting after a Kitchen Aid.
To make bread. To make cakes. To make those desserts that I want to. It is TOTALLY a want, and I know that until maybe my 30th I'm not going to be able to justify such an indulgence, but I can still write about it, right? And label the post properly...

Flowers and tools

Why is it that every new hobby I want to start, or interest I have, requires me to buy new tools? Yeesh. I've started some gardening and now I consider it probably necessary to replace the watering can that is cracked at the bottom, and with cake making I feel that I would like things to make decorations with. And to learn to make pretty flowers like frangipanis.

It comes back to priviledge in my mind, something which Kate at Craftastrophies has had me thinking about more recently. So many things with crafting come with priviledge, a surprisingly difficult word to spell. Here are a few:

• Access to skills through books, internet, shops and so forth - I don't have to find an artisan to teach me, or work it out for myself.
• I can read. I have experience with the technology associated with accessing information. That makes it very easy to just decide, on a whim, to learn how to do something.
  
• I have time to do these things - it is not taken up acquiring energy, water, healthcare, education etc.
  
• I also have money to do what is basically entertainment - it's certainly not a crucial life skill.
  
• It is socially acceptable for me to do what I want with my time, money and self, and it is not dictacted by my gender, class, caste or religion.

More cake

I made another cake:



And it was yum. It was a chocolate cake with cream and strawberries on it. So simple and yet so elegant and easy!

But not really a Good Cake. The recipe is almost like a packet mix, and it's a pain to melt the ingredients and then cool them, and then add the flour and mix it up. The result isn't very light (although it is very tasty and lovely immediately after making) but next time I want to make Beatty's Chocolate Cake Recipe.

Cake stands and so forth

I found a great post the other day for a cake stand making tutorial and wanted to archive it here for future reference. I have been working on my cupcake recipe and wanted to write that out here too! With some photos for decoration.

Basic vanilla cupcake recipe
125g butter (I use salted butter bought in a block)
3/4 C sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp Queen vanilla bean paste with vanilla seeds
1 1/2 C self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 C milk
1T milk

Have the butter at room temperature then beat it with the sugar until it is paler than originally. Add the vanilla (you can use 1 tsp vanilla essence instead) and one egg and beat well. Add the other egg and beat some more. Remove the beaters and grab a spatula.

Sift in 3/4 C of flour with the extra self raising flour. Add half the milk and mix gently through. Add the remaining flour and fold in gently. Add the remaining milk from the 1/3C and mix in. The mix should hold a peak but not be too stiff - add a smidge more milk if you need to get it to "plopping" consistency.

Half-fill cupcake liners in your patty pan and bake at 180-190C for 10-15 minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on them - they are done when slightly golden brown on top. Remove from over, remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack.

Some notes on ingredients:

• I'll never ever go back to imitation vanilla essence. If you're going to bake, please use the best you can find. I love the paste I've linked to and while it's expensive, I use 1/2 the recommended amount for a recipe and it gives such an amazingly real, vanilla, homemade flavour. It also adds extra liquid to the mix which tends to keep the crumb happy.
• Use the best ingredients you can find. Cake making is about making love in little patty cases so don't scrimp on it. I use generic sugar, but I do use the best flour I can find at the time.
• Play around with patty liners and pans. I like the stiffer paper ones rather than the really cheap thin ones. I also love love love individual silicone ones that you remove afterwards - great for mini bite sized ones! I tend to fill 12 of the paper cases and then use the rest of the mix in the silicone cases.
  
• Use good eggs. I use free range ones locally produced and bought. I find that battery hen ones are pale, insipid, and watery. Yuk.
  

Icing: Ok I'm not the most sophisticated cake maker and decorator yet. But I love making them and icing them. I colour my icing because it adds something extra to the whole experience. My basic icing recipe:

1T salted butter
a dash of lemon juice
a dash of hot water
icing sugar
food colouring

Put the butter in a small bowl. Add a heaped teaspoon of icing sugar and mix in. Add a few drops of lemon juice and mix in. Add more icing sugar and mix in. Add a dash of hot water and mix well. Taste. If it's not sweet but it buttery, add more sugar. If it's sweet and only sweet, add more lemon juice. If it's too lemony, add a smidge more hot water. Colour and apply.