Bagels!

So now you know of my unhealthy obsession with The Great British Bake Off (so upset that Cathryn’s gone!) I feel obliged to share this recipe with you. I can’t even find the words to express what a brilliant idea it was to make these; not only are they delicious in every way, but they were so much fun to make. I used the recipe from The Great British Bake Off “How to turn everyday bakes into showstoppers” book. Mum and I adapted the flavouring as we lacked some of the original ingredients.

Episode 2 in this series of the bake-off was bread week (I'm currently re-watching it as I write this), and they made some of my favourite things ever – flat breads and bagels. I've briefly tried my hand at flat breads before and have made some pretty decent chapatti’s, but for some reason, it had never occurred to me to make – or even find out how to make – bagels. You have to boil them first! Who knew?! That’s what gives them their chewy crust. 

The original Bake Off version of this recipe was fig, walnut and gruyere… The basic recipe is the same, we just changed the flavouring ingredients. These are amazing any time of the day but they do make for a particularly fab breakfast.

Apricot, Pumpkin Seed and Gruyere Bagels!

Ingredients:
500g strong white bread flour
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 x 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
75g dried apricots, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon runny honey

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium egg
1 teaspoon yeast extract (e.g. Marmite)

beaten egg, for glazing
pumpkin seeds

70g thinly sliced gruyere

Method:
Combine flour, salt, yeast and chopped apricots in a mixing bowl. In a jug, mix together the water, honey, oil, egg and yeast extract. Pour into the bowl and mix to make a firm, but not dry, dough.

Turn the dough out and knead for ten minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide into 12 equal portions (half, half each again, then thirds – I found that easiest) and shape each into a ball. Spread well apart on a large, floured tray, cover and leave to rise for 25 minutes.

Push a spoon handle through each ball to make a hole and make it bigger with your fingers – they need to be a reasonable size so they don’t close up on the next rise. Cover and leave to rise for 35 minutes.

Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 230 degrees. Bring a large, wide pan of water to the boil. Add the bagels. “ADD THE BAGELS.” As if it’s as simple as that?! Well, maybe it will be for you, but not for us. Try picking them up. You’ll squish them. We scooped them up with fish slices, but most of them ended up a bit flat… let me know if you figure out how to get them in still in shape. Maybe we made them wrong…? ANYWAY, add the bagels, 2 at a time and poach for 75 seconds on each side. Remove and leave to dry on a wire rack.

Lightly brush the top of each bagel with beaten egg. Sprinkle on the pumpkin seeds. Set well apart on floured baking trays and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and quickly top with cheese, bake for a further 3-4 minutes. Transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool.

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EAT.

The Great British Bake Off

Okay, so, bar some extremely fun baking (more on that later) tonight is bound to be the highlight of my week.

I’m sure it says a lot about me that Tuesday nights are my favourite (possibly not including Saturday… Doctor Who!) simply because The Great British Bake Off is on. It’s probably not the best thing to admit and I will lose all my cool points, but it’s amazing.

I don’t know quite what it is… Maybe because all the cooks are amateurs - you’re not just watching a professional showing you how to make something – you get to see their mistakes (a glove filled with blood, anyone?) and their triumphs.

Maybe because of the presenters… I’m sure I find Sue and Mel funnier than they actually are. 

Whatever it is, I bloody love it. It’s so inspiring and gives me so many baking ideas.

The cooks are often hilarious and I love seeing how different the technical bake always turns out for everyone.

Bagels, tarts, cakes, breads, pies, meringues, macaroons... I could go on about it for hours. Instead, I shall say, go to BBC iplayer and watch it.

 

Picture from the The Telegraph

Finally, a recipe... Tray Bake

As you all already know, I got this idea from Jamie Oliver’s magazine. It’s so easy to adapt and there’s no skill at all involved, just chuck some food that you fancy on a tray. Here’s my version for you all to peruse…
(There are no pictures because 1) This meal was no great shakes looks-wise, 2) My camera appears to be broken and 3) I was too hungry to delay eating by trying to take a decent photo of it)

Ingredients:
Half an aubergine
A whole red pepper
Halloumi cheese
Palma ham
Salt, pepper
Dried herbs (I just used oregano)
Sunflower oil
Couscous
Boiling water

Method:

Cut up your aubergine, red pepper and halloumi into equal sized chunks and put them all on a tray, drizzle with the oil and season with the salt, pepper and herbs. Mix it around a bit. Put it in a hot oven – I have no idea what temperature I turned the dial to but it was probably around 200 Celsius.

Cook until the veg has softened and the halloumi is starting to turn a little bit golden – this time will vary depending on how big you’ve cut your veg. It probably won’t be more than 20 minutes.

Towards the end of the cooking time take the tray out and add in some chopped up ham – I also drizzled the veg with a bit of balsamic glaze which added a nice flavour – and pop it back in the oven.

Now, you’re meant to add “1 part couscous to 1 part water” but I just tipped some couscous in a bowl and poured boiling water over it so the water came just a bit higher than the couscous. (Turned out I’d used far too much couscous and a little too much water so I ended up with a mountain of damp, sticky couscous – it still tasted nice.) Anyway, so add the water and cover the bowl with a lid of some sort and wait until it’s absorbed all the water – five-ten minutes.

When that’s done, season it, fluff it up, take the veg out the oven and plonk it on top.

It tastes nice, I promise. And it’s so quick and easy. Pretty well balanced and healthy too.

As I made much too much for just me, I kept it in the fridge and tonight I used it as a filling for stuffing peppers which were super tasty.

An Improvement!

This week I’ve basically been some sort of professional chef/baker/eater/foodie person.

I’ve had a complete turn around and have actually been cooking! Have to say, I’m rather proud of myself. Okay, so I may have started my week with tomato chicken spaghetti… with tinned pasta sauce and pre-cooked chicken, but it was cooked food and I had to do dishes afterwards! (I use the term “afterwards” loosely, it was roughly four days later.) But as the week went on my dinners improved – baked aubergine (using the leftover pasta sauce), a trip out to Yo! Sushi and even a cheeky Jamie Oliver-style tray bake.

I hope you’re all proud of me!

Poor student, Poor effort.

I've been living in my flat for over a week now and I am ashamed to say that my cooking's been pretty non-existent. In a bid to avoid having too many dishes to wash up I've been eating out or making sandwiches and salads.

It actually took me forty-five minutes the other day to decide whether to use bacon or ham in a sandwich; I wanted bacon more but then I had to wash up the frying pan (the horror!) whereas ham I could've just plonked straight onto the bread. After much arguing with myself I did eventually decide on bacon... although somehow, my boyfriend ended up washing the frying pan...

So, whilst flicking through Jamie Oliver's magazine I saw the section "How to be a healthy student" (he probably wrote it specifically for me... one day we'll get married). One of the pages is entitled "Tray Bakes", basically, you just shove a bunch of ingredients onto a baking tray and bake them all together. Such an obvious idea. And only one tray, one plate and some cutlery to wash up.

I'm now determined to try at least this - even if I don't yet tackle any cooking that involves more dishes to wash up (I will eventually, I promise). The pepper, courgette, aubergine and halloumi idea has taken my fancy.

So hopefully, next time I write I'll have some recipes for you, along with proof that I do actually cook!

Cakes, cookies and cooking

Cooking has always been a part of my life; before me and my sister were born, mum was a chef, and she used her brilliant cooking skills when bringing us up. Whilst most of our friends were fussy and picky with their food, Alice and I would eat most things (within reason!) that were given to us. We had fun learning to cook and going out to eat from a young age and that has stayed with me over the years.

The clearest memory I have is of cooking for a “bake sale” with two of my best friends – Stevie and Cassie – when I was eight or nine. We made all sorts of things – biscuits, cupcakes, flapjacks… - and sold them at a stall in our school hall to raise money for the National Autistic Society.

I’m a firm believer that baking can, if not solve, then make most problems a bit more bearable; whether you’re raising money to help solve other people’s problems, baking as therapy for your own, or you’re giving someone something you’ve made to make them happy (it works. Cakes and biscuits make the best presents – cheap as well!).

 Baking cakes and cookies remains one of my favourite things to do. I’m not too bad in other areas of cooking… although there’s a lot of room to improve!