bake

I always think that people who bake are the best sort of people – organized, enthusiastic, creative etc. & I want to be like that. I also want to be able to bring my special cake to dinner parties.

This is a recipe from a detox cookbook, so it about as healthy as it can get but, amazingly, it’s still yummy.

4tbsp sunflower oil
250g (9oz) bananas
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
50g (2oz) cashew nuts
50g (2oz) dessicated coconut
50g (2oz) oats (or gluten-free alternative)
1 apple, peeled and grated

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5.
Blend bananas, oil and spices in a liquidiser.
Add cashew nuts and blend for few seconds to break them.
Add coconut, oats and the apple and blend for few seconds (I like to leave it very coarse, so I just mix these in with a wooden spoon).
Turn into a greased 23cm (9n) baking tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 20-30 minutes. Leave to cool, then cut into wedges.

oooh, this was yummy! much better than i expected it to be. I didn’t have potato flour so I used brown rice flour instead and that seemed to work just fine. I also added in some dessicated coconut, which gave it a nice coarse texture.
I think I could easily make this a sweet treat by substituting apple juice for water and adding in some vanilla extract and maybe even raisins or some fruit… I might experiment tomorrow.

this was quite tricky and time consuming to make, so I’m glad I made two and froze the other one. Definitely worth the effort – I don’t think I’ll ever buy a quiche again! I want to make more soon, just to try out different toppings and also because I quite enjoyed making them. I might make one for my friend later this week. I wish I could find a good wheat and dairy free quiche recipe – I might try this pastry recipe next time, but not sure if there’s a way of making the filling dairy-free.
Oh, and now I really want some ceramic baking beans, might put those on my xmas list.

Here’s a picture of the rolls I made recently. They were deeeelicious and very simple to make (I still made a huge mess though, lol). I’m definitely going to make these soon again. I think I’m going to experiment with adding in different things, like herbs, carrot, garlic etc. This time I just threw in some mixed seeds. I can’t make these too often because they’re just too delicious fresh with a glass of cold milk. mmmm…

I also made some oatmeal biscuits, which didn’t turn out as they were supposed to. I think I know what I did wrong though (didn’t trust the recipe and kept on adding more and more flour). They were still delicious, though.

Next, I’m going to try to make something yeast- and wheat-free.

so I re-named this goal. I don’t know why I want to start baking, maybe because I’m lonely and miss my mum and she’s always baking.
I’m still going to make gingerbread biscuits, but also bread, other biscuits, pies and maybe even a cake.

First, I’m planning to make oatmeal biscuits (my mum’s recipe). I’m a bit undecided whether to use sugar and treacle to sweeten them or whether I should try to find an alternative, maybe maple syrup? I might check my ‘free from’ cookbook for ideas. Also, I want to make bread. I’m going to try making dinner rolls first. The ones my mum always makes are tricky, so she’s given me a recipe that’s meant to be fool proof. No kneading and no making sure the water is the right temperature etc advanced baker skills needed.

I hope the rain stops so I can go to tescos…

I grew up in Finland ^{i used to hide this part (and few others) about my identity here because i thought that would make it easy for people to identify me. for some reason, now that i’ve been found out once, i feel less need to hide facts about me. weird? i guess this time my username is not so obvious, which helps} where gingerbread is a huge part of christmas. We used to make them together a few weeks before christmas, I think most families do that. The last time I made gingerbread was more than 15 years ago. I’ve never made the dough myself, my mum used to always make it. I can’t remember the last time I ate proper homemade gingerbread biscuits, it must be over 10 years ago.

• email mum re. recipe
• buy cookie cutters – can i find them here or do i have to order online?
• buy all the ingredients

So, because of the “try a new recipe once a month” goal, I kind of wanted to see if I could bake something without burning water… instead of never doing it because I just assumed that I couldn’t.

There were two different mixes in the pantry:
Pilsbury brownie mix with cheesecake
Peanut butter cookies

Yesterday I made the brownie mix.
They came out pretty good!
Like I expected, I overcooked it a little bit and the edges were kind of crunchy, I guess.

But Katy ate one or two and she said that they were good!
And she cooks a lot, whole meals and everything, and her favourite things to make are brownies, cookies, and cakes.
So for her to say that gave me some confidence.

So… the peanut butter cookies are in the oven right now!

: P

These were fun to make.
I got roll each little 1” ‘bump’ with my hands, and then press the fork on the top of each one in a criss-cross pattern to make the… criss-cross shape like the directions said.
lol

I started thinking… like in a bakery, I hope they either use gloves or wash their hands if they roll their dough to make the bumps like I had to do with these cookies.

Anyway… AH the oven just went off!

OMG they look so perfect!

I touched the top of one and it let out a little “pfft” and kind of sunk in.

lol

I set the timer for one more minute.

Woo!

before 2 of my sons became vegan and before my husband insulted my baked goods. I do love to bake, though.

...but if I can do anything, it’s baking.