Festive Baking

 

Lebkuchen

Candied Peel

Chelsea Buns

What to do when the weather turns and allotment visits are off. Do keep well fuelled this Christmas!

HXB

In time honoured tradition it is time to bake the hot X buns!

 

Vatrushka Take 2

With the gardening on hold during the recent cold weather I have turned to baking some comfort food.  

After my last jam filled vatrushka I plucked up the courage to go for the more traditional farmhouse  cheese filling.   

I thought they were better but not everyone shared my preference.  Another failsafe favourite is challah: 

Christmas Bakes 4

 

Staying with Italy for another day, here is an example of treating a familiar material (dough) in a different way to produce something novel:  breadsticks or "grissini"

Having made a Ciabatta dough you slice off strips which are then stretched and rolled in a coating of salt flakes, sesame seeds or poppy seeds and rested on a lined tray for the second rise.

Baked for a good while (30 mins or so) until they have dried out to the core. 

As they have no moisture left they will keep for ages in a tin or jar. It is a little too easy to overdo the salt flakes but the sesame seed and poppy seed ones are infallible!  

Christmas Bakes 1

 

It is time to dust off the recipe books for those seasonal treats. Ordinarily they would be snaffled up by visiting friends and family.  This year consumption is likely to be over a longer period with fewer mouths to feed!  I am starting with long shelf life items. These spiced biscuits are baked to a dry 'biscuit' consistency. They benefit from a freshly made up spice mix.  All over Europe the mix varies subtly.  I have gingered these up a bit more than the mix I  found on the net.

When You're Smiling...

The weather has turned and we are getting a last bite at summer. After going into shock in August some plants  are getting a welcome reprieve or a chance to ripen on the vine. 

Tomatoes

Sungold has been a a favourite as it even succeeds in Scotland and is ultrasweet.

Sadly we have experienced some "grinning"  for a second year. The books suggest that such skin splitting is due to temperature variations.  And while recent days have been sunny night temperatures have been low.

The only other variety I have grown this year was sold as San Marzano -  I've recently concluded that I was sold a pup. These are not plum tomatoes by any stretch of the imagination. They're not bad, some are ripening now, as you can see, so soon we will see what sort of sauce they make. Some of them have split too.

Others plants benefiting from the respite

Sunflower "Little Dorrit"

Fig Leaf Melon

The warm spell has come too late for the cucumbers...

..but it is tailor made for Autumn Raspberry Joan J.

 Here's some other random pictures.

Our local mob of tree sparrows got a nasty shock the other day when this visitor turned up

Sparrowhawk

 I've had some queries recently about my brick beds. Well they're still going. Here's the late sown salads.

Another subject that I haven't mentioned in a while is baking. Here's a Boston Cake - 7 Cinnamon Buns baked together. A surefire winner.