January Baking: DONUTS!

A huge success and great fun had by all with our donut session. We made a vanilla-cream-filled Norwegian donut, and followed the Bosnian fritter recipe suggested by Jen, rolling them in all manner of coverings: cinnamon and sugar, powdered sugar, and a savory coating of crushed pumpkin seeds, nigella seed and salt. Delicious!

And I don't think any of us has eaten that many donuts in a single day before!

ROSE AND CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES


Does it sound odd to you, rose and chocolate chip cookies? Or does it sound quirky? Well then, you should definitely go for this very simple bake, and I assure you that there is no margin for failure with this recipe.

Baking time: 45 min (15 min preparation, 15 min baking, 15 min cooling)








Ingredients (makes about 30 chestnut size cookies)


Dry ingredients
3,5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
rose petals (if you have any)

Wet ingredients
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (if your butter is very hard, just put it in the microwave for 20 seconds and voila!)
1 cup sugar
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 teaspoon rose water (less if you are not familiar with rose flavour, but for me the stronger the rose smell and taste, the better. Rose flavour loses its strength when baked, just keep this in mind)
1 pack of chocolate chip cookies, usually 100 grams.


Preheat the oven to gas mark 4, or 180 Degrees C. Line two trays with non-stick paper.

Combine the dry in a separate bowl.

Whisk the butter and sugar until white-ish pale yellow, it should have a very fluffy texture. Mix in the eggs one at a time, but don`t over whisk. Mix in the vanilla extract and rose water.

Combine the dry and wet ingredients, make sure you don`t lose the air in the mixture. So don`t whisk at this stage, just blend with the help of a flexible spatula.

Use two table spoons to scoop and scrape off the mixture on to the trays. Line the cookies 1 cm apart from each other. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. If you have a gas oven, rotate the trays mid-way.

When you take the cookies out, leave them in the tray for 5 minutes, then cool them on a rack for another 10 minutes. Then these beauties are good to go, be it to your stomach, or a jar.

They stay fresh up to a week, after one week they lose their crunch, still taste good though.

I adapted this recipe from http://baking.we-wish.net/2011/12/milk-chocolate-chip-rose-water-cookies/ I found this recipe lacking the real edge rose water provides, and too buttery, which overpowers the taste and smell of rose. So don`t hesitate, just experiment with rose water.

NOVEMBER BAKING SESSION!

Dear all,

Hope this email finds you well and not too stressed!

Many thanks to all those who took part last month. It was great fun to get started, and I hope you saw the photos of the bake on our blog. Last month's draw winners, Yi and Bjorn, took home a veritable mountain of buns and pretzels, so just remember, this month...it could be you!

LATEST KITCHEN NEWS: St. Cross will not allow use of their kitchens, so I had a look at Wolfson's Buttery, which is rentable. Unfortunately, though the space is certainly larger, the oven is smaller, and inferior to my own, probably ok for heating stuff up and making a baked potato but that's about as far as I would go. Also, no other devices are there on site. 

Thus I am afraid we will have to continue as we are with small sessions at my home, (limit 6 people), until/unless we can come up with another option. 

Fortunately, St. Cross is prepared to help with buying some items of equipment so I will be drawing up a list and hopefully that will get sorted out soon. Bundt tin, anyone?

THIS MONTH'S BAKING SESSION DATE is SATURDAY 17th of NOVEMBER. Reply asap to get your place. 

PROPOSED BAKE: A Sweet Pie! It's that time of year, when the cold weather inspires a bite of warm pastry and filling. Once you have a place on the baking session, we will choose our filling between us: expensive pecan? classic apple? perhaps a challenging cherry? or something totally different? Our bakers will decide. 

My first attempt with the Bon Appetit Vanilla Cloverleaf Bun recipe

This was carried out well before our baking session last Sunday so we can see how our experimentation progressed!

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=30706324#editor/target=post;postID=4450841113344552789

Sweet Dough Session Photos!

Chocolate and Original sweet pretzels. With pearl sugar! Without Pearl Sugar! With Cinnamon Sugar! With Plain Sugar! Oh MY!

Thank you to everyone who came to bake at this, our first session of the (academic) year. And Congratulations to Zhu Yi, who won this month's draw and a huge quantities of freshly-baked yumminess!

Our new FB Page!

Dear all, we now have a FB presence here.

(URL is: http://www.facebook.com/hotcrossoxford)

So, as they say.... "Like us on Facebook!"

Cake Wrecks

And anyway, this is *the* best site if you need a laugh to cheer you up!

Always good to remember...it could have gone worse