Fresh from the oven - White Tin Loaf

Since baking my own bread I can't remember the last time I bought a sliced loaf. As much as I love all the artisan style bread I bake, sometimes only a traditional white tin loaf will do and shop-bought bread certainly doesn't cut the mustard for me any more. When I found out that this months Fresh from the Oven's host was going to be Linda from With Knife & Fork and she had chosen White Tin Loaf I was really pleased.

This recipe uses a different kneading method to what I'm used to and sometimes the urge to whack all the ingredients into the KitchenAid can be to much, but this time I stuck with it and was genuinely impressed with the results. When I initially read the kneading instructions I could see how it could work, but I was proven wrong.

It produced a loaf with amazing oven spring and the perfect texture and size for bacon cobs. Although it doesn't have the strong taste like some of my bread does this makes it great for simple sandwiches. Everyone once in a while wants a basic, comforting sarnie be the filling ham and pickle or cheese and tomato. Don't be put off by the long looking method. It is truly worth it.



The 1 tip I would give would be that 10 min before the end of baking turn the loaf upside down in the tin. This helps the bottom of the loaf to crusten up.

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Dan Lepard says he developed this when he was working full time in commercial kitchens (that made artisan hand kneaded bread) because there wasn’t time for full 10 minute knead of all the different bread batches so he switched to short kneads spaced out and found it works just as well, part of the development of a good gluten structure is dependent on the time elapsed not the vigorous kneading. I liked the idea because I’d not been getting good textures with either a machine or a normal hand knead. I am now a wholesale convert.

Note:

You must use oil not flour on the kneading surface and your hands. Something like vegetable oil is good.

The dough must be quite sticky and soft to start with. It will firm up when kneaded and as time progresses.

Steps:

* Once you have soft sticky dough leave it covered in the bowl for 10 minutes.
* Now oil your kneading surface and hands and tip the dough out.
* Knead for about 12 seconds by folding in the edges to the centre, a bit like shaping a round loaf, rotate the dough as you go.
* Flip the dough over, leave it on the surface and cover with a cloth. Wash out the bowl and then oil it lightly. Put the dough back in the bowl and cover.
* Leave for 10-15 minutes and then do another 12 second knead. You will notice the dough is already less sticky and firmer.
* Leave for 20 -30 mins and repeat the fast knead. You are aiming to have kneaded the dough 3 times in the first hour.
* Leave covered to rise until at least 50% larger but not more than double in size.
* Tip out onto the oil surface and press the air out of the dough using the tips of your fingers so its square-ish in shape. Repeat the fast knead process (or fold in to thirds then rotate through 90, flatten again and fold into 3rds again).
* Shape the dough as required for the particular loaf you are making. Put it in a tin, or supported in a floured cloth in a bowl.
* Leave to rise until at least 50% larger and preferably almost double in size.
* Slash top and bake as per your recipe.

White Tin Loaf (based on Dan Lepard’s Quick White Loaf, p63 of the Handmade Loaf)

2lb loaf tin greased and floured or lined with baking parchment (no need to line the short ends just oil them).

Oven to be pre-heated to its maximum setting (R10/250C) and with a tray of water in the bottom to create steam.

Ingredients:

200g semi skimmed milk at room temp (Dan uses whole milk but semi skimmed seems to work fine)

150g water at room temp (remember 1g = 1ml but its easier to be accurate weighing fluids)

1 tsp fast action yeast (or 2 tsp fresh yeast crumbled)

200g plain white flour

300g strong white bread flour

1 ½ tsp fine sea salt

Method:

Mix the flours and salt together in a bowl.

Mix the water and milk together in a separate bowl and whisk in the yeast.

Add the liquid to the flour and mix with the fingers of one hand to a soft sticky rough dough. You may need to add a little more liquid do this a teaspoon at a time until you have a soft sticky dough.

Follow the kneading instructions above.

The first rise will probably take about an hour from the last knead.

To shape for a tin loaf, flatten the dough to a square about the same width as your tin. Roll the dough into a cylinder and press the seam firmly, fold under the two short ends and place in the tin seam side down.

Allow to rise (covered) to 1 ½ to 2 times volume i.e. to the top of the tin.

Slash the top of the loaf along it length and put it straight into the oven for 10 minutes at maximum temperature. After 10 minutes check how it’s browning and drop the temperature as follows (these baking guidelines are from the River Cottage Bread Book):

R6/200C if the crust is pale

R4/180C if crust is noticeably browning

R3/170C if crust is browning quickly

And cook for a further 40-50 minutes.

I usually check again part way through this time and either adjust temperature again or cover the top with foil if it’s brown enough. Also note that with a traditional gas oven (i.e. one without a fan) the top may brown far too quickly on the side near the heat at the initial temperature so you might want to start at a lower setting of R8/9 for the first 10 minutes. Adapt the setting for what you know about your oven and how things usually bake.

When it’s cooked turn it out of the tin and allow to cool.

Festive Muffins

Yes the C word is around the corner. Coca Cola have aired their annual "Holidays are Coming", Hellman's Mayonnaise have shown their credit crunching been-showing-the-same-unremastered-ad-since-1980's, households are beginning to compete as to who can rack up the biggest electricity bill with gaudy decorations and various z-list "celebrities" are battling out in the OZ jungle by eating various parts of a kangaroo's anatomy.

A great respite from all this was a trip to the Fabulous Places Christmas Market at Blackbrook House near Belper to discover some great Derbyshire independent businesses and people. I Spoke to Julie at Vintage & Cake about 50's Swing Dresses, discussed gluten-free cooking with Charlotte from Cupcake Corner, debated the virtues of edible glitter with Wendy at Quirky Cookies, picked up some stunning parrot tulips and anemones from Kerry at The Blossom Tree and finally Claire from Things We Make. I've been chatting to these businesses via twitter so it was lovely to be able to put a face to a name. Another great business there was Jack Rabbits. They have a fab new little business opposite the Cathedral in Derby, sell gorgeous food and cook on an Aga...need I say more!

I've been playing around with festive recipes for a while. Primarily for my Cookery Club Kids. Mince pies went out of the window as a straw poll of my Cookery Kids told me that kids don't like mince pies, Christmas truffles not idea, (you wouldn't believe how long it takes to melt 16 sets of chocolate of chocolate in the microwave!) even these festive muffins couldn't tempt them away from Stained Glass Biscuits. Some of the children have made these biscuits before, but they still insisted in making them again. Kids are always amazed by the way the boiled sweet melts to make sugar glass. So given most of the Cookery Kids claim to not want to make these muffins due to the dried fruit in them these are for the adults to enjoy.



To make these muffins extra Christmassy I cooked them in my star moulds. I have to admit funky shaped silicone moulds don't cook as evenly as traditional round moulds, but they still taste great. One thing I would say is don't over mix as this mixture has a tendency to make dense heavy muffins if mixed too much.

Festive Muffins
Makes 16 regular or 8 large

300g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
225ml milk
50g butter, melted
1 egg
handful of typical festive dried fruit (eg glace cherries, sultanas, citrus peel, cranberries)
1 tbsp mixed spice
flaked almonds, for decorating

1) Preheat oven to 200oc. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar.

2) In another bowl whisk together egg, milk and butter. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients, stir until well combined.

3) Carefully stir in the dried fruit and spoon into cake cases into 2/3 full. Sprinkle with flaked almonds. Bake for 25-30 min until risen and golden.

Fresh from the oven - Beer Bread Bowls.

October's Fresh from the oven challenge was hosted by Corry. She recommended a fantastic recipe inspired by from Richard Bertinet’s fabulous book Dough – Simple Contemporary Bread

I tried this particular recipe last year, but keen to adapt recipe and in keeping with my sudden preoccupation of baking with beer, I wanted to try this recipe to make beer bread bowls, specifically to be served with scouse.

I use quite a bit of Sam Smiths beers in baking as their fruit beers give great taste to the likes of ice cream & brownies and their other beers have a strong defined taste that is perfect for stews and bread. The oatmeal stout I decided to use has a definite oaty aroma and I thought it would be perfect for bread.

This time the dough seemed to work better than my first attempt last year and they worked well. I now have ideas to make these bowls as a fruit bread then filling them with custard..mmmm..

Beer Bread Bowls
makes 6 16cm bowls

500g strong bread flour
20g course semolina
15g fresh yeast (or 5g fast action yeast)
10g salt
50g olive oil
320g beer
chilli or spice (optional for added flavour)

1) Preheat the oven to 250˚C (500˚F). Mix together the flour and semolina and rub in the yeast as if you were making a crumble (Richard Bertinet’s method – see below for video link). If using a mixer, switch it on to the slowest speed, add salt, olive oil and beer and mix for 2 minutes, then turn the speed up to the next lowest speed and mix for 6 to 7 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.

2) If you are kneading by hand, knead for approximately 10 to 12 minutes or until you have a nice smooth elastic ball of dough. Richard Bertinet has a unique kneading technique referred to as the French fold that can take approximately 5 to 10 minutes depending on practice. You can view his method in a online video at the Gourmet Webpage. In this video, he is actually doing sweet dough but the same technique can be used for most bread dough.

3) Place the dough into a bowl that has been floured, cover with a tea towel and leave in a draught free place for approximately 1 hour or until doubled in volume.

4) Lightly oil or spray with non-stick spray, the outside of 6 ovenproof bows (I used pyrex bowls). Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into 6 to 8 pieces (depending on the size of your baking bowls). Taking one piece of dough at a time and using a rolling pin, roll each piece into a circle (similar to making pizza). Shake off excess flour and shape each piece over an upturned bowl, patting into shape and pressing gently to remove air bubbles from between the dough and the bowl. Rest the dough for 10 minutes. Place the upturned bowls, two at a time, on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, then into the preheated oven. Turn the oven down to 200˚C (400˚F) and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes. Using a fine-bladed knife, gently loosen the bread from the bowls and ease off. Cool on a wire rack.

It is probably safer to serve the bowls on a plate, as they do become soggy after a while and the soup may leak through.

A flutter of Butterfly Cakes

If you hadn't spotted I'm going through a bit of a retro/kitch baking phase at the moment. Recipes that were beginning to gather dust amongst the more radical baking recipes but have the ability stand the test of time are coming back. I don't know if this is because time is precious right now and retro baking is almost instant gratification. In my books baking is therapy; taking me back to an innocent time when the biggest worry in my life was what to choose from the Woolworths pick'n'mix counter.

Just like jam tarts these Butterfly Cakes are probably what introduced people to baking when they were a child. Be it eating them at the school fete or baking them with mum. Given it is poorly timed National Baking Week these cakes were perfect to bake. I say poorly timed because some schools are on half term at the moment and the National Baking Week website is bigging up all of their teaching packs. I would have loved to have linked some of my teaching in with this week.



The WI wouldn't approve of these Butterfly Cake and they wouldn't win any prizes in a village fete, why? Because hidden under the fluffy buttercream is a pool of raspberry jam. An ingredient that is banned by Butterfly Cake aficionados. Goodness I'm such a rebel!

Butterfly Cakes
Makes 12

140g unsalted butter, softened
140g vanilla sugar (you can use normal caster)
3 eggs
100g self-raising flour
25g custard powder (or cornflour)
jam

for the buttercream
100g butter, softened
200g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp water
hundreds and thousands (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 190oc. Arrange cake cases in fairy cake tin. Beat together butter and vanilla sugar then one by one beat in the eggs. If the eggs begin to curdle stir in a small amount of the flour.

2) Into the bowl sift flour and custard then fold into the batter until ingredients are well combined. Half fill each cake case with the batter.

3) Bake for 15 min until risen and golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

4) To make the icing beat together the butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and 1 tbsp of water until icing with light and fluffy.

5) Using a knife carefully cut the top off the cake then cut this small piece in half. In the hole you have created spoon in 1/2 tsp of jam then cover with the buttercream. Place to 2 cake halves on top of the buttercream and arrange like butterfly wings. Decorate with hundreds & thousands.

Chilli Cheese Scones

Since finding my holy grail of scone recipes in Grandma's cookbook last year I have been playing around with the dough and flavours. My Cookery Kids have very successfully made scones with this recipe and Grandma even professed my scones to be far superior than any you can buy from the local bakeries.

It's been an age since I've made savory scones, but recently I was on a course and for elevenses they served chilli cheese scones. They were so delicious I wanted to have a go at making them at home. Whenever I bake scones it always brings up the age old argument between Hubby & I as to how you pronounce it. I sc-on-e, Hubby says sc-own-e. Of course I think I'm right!

Now, the trick with scones is to not roll them out too thin. The thicker the dough, the more they will rise. I can highly recommend eating these warm from the oven with a generous slather of butter. Yum, yum.

Chilli Cheese Scones
Makes 9 medium scones

225g plain flour
40g butter
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
handful of mature cheese, grated
2 generous pinches of chilli powder
milk
1 egg, beaten
If you wish you can replace the bicarb and cream of tartar with 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder.

1) Sieve the flour, bicarb and cream of tartar into a basin. Rub in the butter, add the chilli and cheese. Gradually stir in milk 1 tbsp at a time until you have a smooth dough.

2) Turn out onto a floured surface and roll until about 2cm thick. Cut into rounds and place on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment. Brush the top of each scone with beaten egg. Bake at 200oc until golden and firm. Cool on a wire rack.

Christmas Marzipan Cake

Ok, ok I know it's September and usually I wouldn't be thinking of Christmas let alone beginning to bake for it for a while but I have some excuses. 1) October, when I usually bake Christmas Cake is booking up fast, 2) I want to feed and feed the cake, 3) the generous Wm Morrisons contacted me and ask if I would like to submit a Christmas Cake recipe for their customers to try and as a thank you they would send me a big box of ingredients.

I played around with a few ideas including Guinness and fruit beer (for any regular readers of my blog this won't surprise them one bit!) and settled on the idea of a marzipan laden cake...minus icing. This is based on the fact I'm not a big icing fan as I find the majority far too sweet. At Christmas time will gladly pick off all the icing on a Christmas Cake to be just left with the delicious marzipan and fruit cake. Now I understand that marzipan is a bit of a marmite ingredient; People either love it or hate it. I love it. The reason for soaking the fruit in orange juice rather than the traditional alcohol is that this really does enhance the taste of the fruit of the cake. The alcohol will come later!



I decided to essentially combine the succulent fruits of my Simnel Cake with the marzipan filling of a stollen and together they made a delicious cake that looks a bit like a Dundee Cake, but smells of sweet, sweet marzipan. The aroma in the kitchen as I was baking this cake was amazing. Due to the amount of ingredients crammed into such a small cake along with the juicy fruit it did take longer than a usual fruit cake to bake. For a change we are planning to start eating this in early December and not leave it until Christmas Day when by then you begin to become thoroughly sick of anything too heavy & fruit laden.

Ideally a Christmas cake should be made no later than 1 week before it is needed. The longer the cake is left the more it matures and the flavours develop. If stored correctly Rich fruit cakes can last for up to a year.

Maybe I should start a trend - Christmas Cakes aren't just for Christmas...

Christmas Marzipan Cake
Makes a 18cm round / 15cm square cake

100ml orange juice
150g sultanas
100g raisins
100g currants
50g dried cranberries
50g dried apricots, quartered
50g dates, stoned & quartered
50g glace cherries, halved
50g mixed peel
110g butter, softened
90g muscovado sugar (or soft dark brown sugar)
2 eggs
250g plain flour
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 tsp mixed spice
50g flaked almonds
1 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp marmalade
1 tbsp black treacle (this gives the cake both taste & colour)
200g marzipan cubed & frozen (you can find my recipe for it here)
whole almonds for decoration
Rum, brandy or whisky for glazing

1) Before making a start on the cake soak all of the fruit in the orange juice overnight and make sure the cubed marzipan is in the freezer.

2) Line grease and line your tin with both baking parchment and greaseproof paper. For good instructions on how to do this pop over to dear Delia. Preheat oven to 150oc.

3) Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time to stop the mixture curdling. If it does begin to curdle stir in a handful of the flour. Once eggs have been added stir in the almond extract, marmalade & treacle.

4) Next, stir in the remaining ingredients alternating between the marzipan, fruit and flour. Mix until well combined. If the mixture becomes too stiff to mix add a splash of milk to loosen the mixture.

5) Pour into the lined tin, level the top of the cake then decorate with the almonds. Bake for 3 - 3 1/2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean of cake mix.

6) Remove from the oven brush the cake with your chosen article then allow to cool completely in the tin. Remove from the tin and wrap in fresh greaseproof paper. Store in a preferably airtight tin or container until ready to eat.

7) Every 3-4 week make holes in the top of the cake using a skewer and feed with your chosen alcohol. I use around 50ml of alcohol per feed. Try not to over feed the cake as this can make the cake soggy, dense and a texture more akin to a Christmas Pudding.

Fresh from the oven - Stuffed Buns

This months Fresh from the oven challenge has been hosted by Ria where she proposed Stuffed Buns. I've never made stuffed buns before let alone eaten them, but I'm always up for a challenge!

The dough turned out very different to the type of dough I'm used to working with. The best way I can describe it would be of the texture (and weirdly the smell) of playdoh. I had to add more flour to get it to a kneading consistency. This extra flour may be down to me converting the recipe into grams incorrectly. I also mucked up the oil. Thinking Sunflower oil would the best as it is the lightest flavoured oil I had in the house, I had completely forgotten until I poured the oil in that I had used this oil for frying fish a while back and filtered the unused oil back into the bottle giving the dough a slight eau d'fish-and-chip-shop. Thankfully once the buns were cooked you couldn't smell or taste the oil. I chose to make the buns with a curried paneer filling which was very tasty.



Given all the stumbling blocks I had with this dough the buns worked well. Hubby and his workmates raved about them. They have requested some more soon.

Stuffed Buns
makes 12 buns

For the dough:

3g fast action yeast
125ml milk
Salt to taste
125ml oil
250g plain flour
60g sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 egg white, for egg wash
Nigella seeds (Kalonji) for sprinkling
Method

1) Boil the milk and allow to cool down till it is warm to touch. Add sugar, oil and salt. Mix well with a wooden spoon till the sugar dissolves and add 1 cup flour and mix to a smooth paste.

2) Add the beaten egg, yeast and mix. Add the remaining flour and mix well till it forms a smooth dough. Knead well for 10 mins. Let it rest till it doubles in volume.

3) Punch down the dough lightly using your palm and divide them equally. Flatten them into small discs and fill them with 1 tbsp of the filling. Re-shape them into a ball. Sprinkle the top with Nigella seeds. Let it prove for another 20 mins.

4) Bake them in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 10 mins. When it starts to brown, give them an egg wash using 1 slightly beaten egg white.

Spicy paneer filling

200g paneer
4 Onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste
3 tbsp oil

1) Heat oil, add the garlic paste and saute till it gives out a nice aroma. Add the onions. Saute them till soft and transparent. Reduce the heat and add the groud spices and mix well for 2 mins.

2) Add the paneer and mix well. Take it off the heat and allow to cool before filling the buns.

Queen of Tarts

There is something simple, comforting and nostalgic about the humble Jam Tart. For many people it was probably the first thing they cooked with their Mum or Grandma. Making Jam Tarts always reminds me of Home Ec in Secondary School and many of those said tarts didn't make it home as I would have scoffed them before home time. Back then though I was frankly rubbish at pastry, it would just crumble and fall apart. It put me off pastry for long time and it's only recently have I got over my Fear of Pastry. I've just put Fear of Pastry into good old google and it sent me to a World of Warcraft page?!?...ok I digressed.

The reason behind these tarts is that I'm planning to cook them with my pupils during British Food Fortnight as you can't get more British Afternoon Teaish than a dainty Jam Tart, plus I have have a set of fantastic 10 year old budding pastry making boys in my class. The kids are aware that they are making Jam Tarts in a few weeks and bless them, they are already excited and talking about it. After baking a Bakewell Tart last year I'll be baking another traditional Derbyshire dish with pastry for British Food Fortnight this year. If I pull it off I'll blog about it during the fortnight.

I did experiment with using marmalade in a few of the tarts, but they just don't work as well and have an amazing ability, akin to superglue, to weld themselves to the bun tin. Given the fact I've now mastered pastry I can't for the life of me make a Jam Tart look refined, I think the best way to describe them would be "rustic". Anyway since when has a humble Jam Tart been anything but charmingly simple?


Jam Tarts
Makes 12 small tarts

225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
110g butter
cold water
around 12 tsp jam

1) First get started on the pastry. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2) Add the chilled water a small amount at a time and mix with a knife until you have a good dough. Roll into a ball, cover in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 min.

3) Roll out the pastry until around 5mm thick. Using a 3 inch cutter, cut rounds and press gently into a bun tin. Place a generous teaspoonful of jam in the center of each round.

4) Bake at 200oc for 10 min, or until well risen and golden. Allow to cool for 5 min before transferring to a wire rack.

Black Sheep Bread

This bread is in honour of the Yorkshire 3-Peaks Challenge Hubby & I completed last weekend. Thanks to everyone who sponsored us. We stayed at Pinecroft and it was somewhere I would highly recommend. We're thinking of returning with friends later on in the year.

It was a great experience and provided great memories from the bog jumping, being knee deep in mud, weird tasting watermelon jelly sweets, a sneaky pub stop and sunset at the top of Ingleborough. During the walk I gained the nicknames of Speedy Gonzales. Once I got going, there was no stopping me. This may have been due to a heady mix of ibuprofen, Lucozade, Jelly Babies & adrenaline. I'm really proud of myself & Hubby for completing it minus any injury, blister ache or pain (ooh get me!) and the training I did over the summer really paid off. Although it took us far longer than expected to complete due to an incident involving the Mountain Rescue Team 1 mile from the end (let's just say thank goodness for the training I did as part of my DofE Gold Expedition), some of us are planning to return next year to do it in around 10 hours. Others however have been put up hill walking for life! In a slightly crazy way I got a serious kick from the challenge and found it easier than I was expecting. Even after 25miles I could have continued, as someone has pointed out there is room for a female Eddie Izzard!



The reason for this bread being a tribute to our walk is that one member of the team (not me I hasten to add)sneaked in a cheeky half-pint at the Old Hill Inn - a fab pub between Whernside & Ingleborough belonging to the famous Black Sheep Brewery. Apparently this cheeky half-pint was one of the best drinks he has ever had and it provided some comedy moments for the rest of the team as it went straight to his head, he started to talk about how pretty all the trees were and I swear at one point he began to skip up Ingleborough. I've never baked bread with beer in it before, but have declared this bread to be a resounding success. It produces a beautiful fluffy bread with a slightly golden crumb. You can certainly taste a hint of ale in the bread. It's given me some ideas for some other bread that I've going to keep under wraps for now. This is also the first time I've used my new brotform and grignette and am really pleased how well they have worked.



Now, the after effect of endurance exercise is that it does 2 things to your appetite. Either you can't eat enough or your appetite is zapped. Now you would think when burning 9000 calories in 16 hours we would both have raging hunger...nope. Our appetite was completely killed and a week on it's only just getting back on track, hence why it has been so long since I've blogged. Normal service will now resume on my blog with both Hubby & I having lots of great foodie projects up our sleeves. So here's to carbs, the great outdoors and friends. Cheers!

Black Sheep Bread
Makes 1 large loaf

500g strong white bread flour
10g salt
5g fast action yeast.
300ml Black Sheep Riggwelter Ale (yes I know it's sacrilegious, but it needs to be warm)

1) Mix together all the ingredients until you have a rough dough. Knead either by hand or with a mixer for 10 min until you have a beautiful, silky dough. Shape into a round and leave to rise in a covered bowl for 1-2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

2) Knock back the dough, shape into chosen shape and place in/on tin or brotform and leave again covered in a plastic bag until it has doubled in size. If cooking on a baking sheet cover in polenta/course semolina before placing the bread on as this stops the bread sticking to the sheet.

3) Preheat the oven as hot as it will go. At the bottom of the oven place a baking tin of boiling water (this helps to develop the crust). If using a brotform turn bread out onto tray. If not using a brotform place the dough in/on chosen tin. Slash the top of the loaf (optional) then bake for 10 min.

4) Turn down the oven to 200oc and bake for a further 20-30 minutes. When the bread is ready the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Lemon Drizzle Fairy Cakes

To counteract the unsummery weather we've had recently I wanted to inject some sun into the kitchen. Lemon is one of my favourite ingredients in both sweet and savory cooking and decided to play around with my fête fairy cakes recipe. This time I swapped the custard powder for cornflour as I didn't want the vanilla to dominate, but still wanted to have the light fluffyness that both custard powder and cornflour give to a cake.

For baking these I used individual silicone cake cups and they are slightly bigger than traditional fairy cake cases, but not as big as cupcakes. To be honest these cases and a spatula are the only piece of silicone bakeware I would recommend. In my experience the other type of silicone bakeware just don't work, are a pain to transfer to the oven, nearly always still stick, don't keep their heat well, which inturn doesn't bake the food as well. For every other type of baking I stick to traditional metal pans.

I wanted to use the mini jelly lemon/orange slices I had seen for sale somewhere recently, but could I find them when I wanted them? nope. I remember when we used to get these fruit slices in our stocking at Christmas I deemed them as the height of sophisticaion. My perception of sophistication has changed somewhat since then. Instead of decorating them with the elusive lemon slices decided to decorate them with some of the lemon zest.

One of the first things given to me from my Mum for my kitchen was a citrus zester. At first I thought "what on earth would I do with a zester", but I can honestly say it is one of the best gadgets I own. Rather than the fine zest a grater produces it produces long ribbons of zest which is ideal for decorating. Plus I have less chance of adding part of my finger to the dish than I would with a Microplane. For a loaf version of this cake try Tara's Lemon Drizzle.

Lemon Drizzle Fairy Cakes
Makes 12

140g unsalted butter, softened
140g caster sugar
3 eggs
100g self-raising flour
25g cornflour
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
100g icing sugar, sifted

1) Preheat oven to 190oc. Arrange cake cases in fairy cake tin. Beat together butter and vanilla sugar then one by one beat in the eggs.

2) Into the bowl sift flour and cornflour then fold into the batter until ingredients are well combined. Stir in lemon zest. Half fill each cake case with the batter.

3) Bake for 15 min until risen and golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

4) Beat together icing sugar, lemon juice and boiling water until you have a smooth icing. Using a teaspoon drizzle the icing over the cakes then leave to set.

Baileys Cheesecake Brownies

Ok, I've fallen off my "get healthy for the 3-peak-challenge" diet in quite spectacular style. Up until yesterday I had been quite restrained but seeing a picture of cheesecake brownies on Tastespotting tipped me over the edge. Plus Summer Holiday Boredom is hitting big style and I sometimes I just NEED to bake to kill time. Anything to avoid watching the horrors of Jeremy Kyle & Loose Women.

Given that one of my most requested cakes from co-workers is my Baileys Cheesecake (I have refined my presentation of this dessert since that photo was taken!) I felt obliged to have a go at making Baileys Cheesecake Brownies. Well, I do have a penchant for sneaking in the odd glug or two of Baileys into various baked items. Right up there on the unhealthiness stakes, but goodness do they taste good.

The brownie part isn't exactly what I would call a brownie, but it is still a luscious, moist, rich and dense chocolate cake. The one minor criticism Hubby had to make about these was that I had used Baileys with a hint of coffee rather than plain Baileys as it's all I had in the house. Um...he hates coffee. I'm not complaining though as it means more for me! Saying that he isn't saying no when I offer him one with a cup of tea. Tonight we're having them for pudding with a generous spoonful of Cherry Beer Ice Cream.

Baileys Cheesecake Brownies
Makes 16 small but undeniably rich brownies

Brownie mixture
110 g dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa)
110 g butter
120 g vanilla sugar (or caster sugar)
60 g plain flour
2 eggs
glug of Baileys

Cheesecake mixture
225 g cream cheese
40 g caster sugar
1 egg
another generous glug of Baileys

1) Preheat the oven to 150oc then Line a 23 cm/8 inch square cake tin with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a bain marie. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and stir then leave to cool slightly (if you don't do this you may end up with scrambled egg brownies).

2) Beat the eggs one at a time into the brownie mixture, beating until it is glossy. Stir in the Baileys until well combined then gradually fold in the flour then pour into the cake tin .

3) For the cheesecake mixture beat the cream cheese and sugar together. Add the egg and mix then stir in the Baileys until all is well combined. Top the levelled brownie mixture with the cheesecake mixture and using a knife, gently swirl it into the chocolate mixture.

4) Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until just set in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin for 15-20 minutes before cutting into squares and serving.

Welsh Cheesecakes

As I've mentioned before I have a bit of a thing for kitchenalia. Trust me, if I had a big farmhouse kitchen nailed to all the beams would be random pans and Victorian jelly moulds. At moment my collection is very much orientated around vintage cookbooks. I love looking at the recipes and ingredients. The one thing great about a lot of old cookbooks is that they are plain and simple. They don't beat around the bush and unsurprisingly the recipes often work really well. They are also the kind of book that tells you how to be a good wife and look after your servants. I think Hubby is still wishing I would follow some of the advice in the books.



Stuffed in the back of one of the books given to me by Grandma was a catalogue from one of the local grocers. Unfortunately the grocer is no longer but some googling shows it was an important and well known place within the local community. Within the catalogue is adverts for long-gone products, apart from the Rowentrees Cocoa. The Rowentree advert means I can date the catalogue to around 1910, so Grandma must have been given this cookbook by her mother. I love looking at the claims the various products make. I don't think you would get away with it now! By clicking on the pics you can see the adverts in more detail.



Yesterday I had the craving to make Jam Tarts and while flicking through a copy of a Good Housekeeping book called The Home Book, from around 1920's-1930's, I stumbled across a recipe for Welsh Cheesecakes. One thing about old cookbooks, they often don't have pictures, however they sometimes tell you how to present the dish. Even with the basic presentation instructions I still wasn't 100% what they were meant to look like, let alone taste like. To be honest I'm not sure why these are called a cheesecake as there is no cheese in them. Some research suggests that the term "cheesecake" in olde English may mean just a tart, but I'm not sure.



A few years ago I did have a bit of a pastry phobia and have tried many shortcrust recipes over the year, but always come back to this recipe as it always works perfectly. These cakes are essentially jam tarts with a basic sponge topping. The pastry worked out at the perfect short texture and the buttery sponge helped offset the sweet jam. It's very difficult to just eat just 1 of these little dainty cakes with my morning cup of tea. Tonight we may have a few warm with some Cherry Beer Ice Cream. mmmmm... As this is a 80 or so year old recipe I've kept it in old style ounces rather than grams.

Welsh Cheesecakes
Makes 12 individual cakes

Shortcrust pastry
8 oz plain flour
4 oz unsalted butter, cold from the fridge and cubed
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
cold water (you'll need no more than 1/4 pint)

Filling
Raspberry jam
2 oz plain flour
2 oz unsalted butter
2 oz caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder

1) First get started on the pastry. Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2) Add the chilled water a small amount at a time and mix with a knife until you have a good dough. Roll into a ball, cover in cling film and chill in the fridge while you make the filling.

3) Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg. Fold in the sieved flour and baking powder until you have a smooth cake batter.

4) Roll out the pastry until around 5mm thick. Using a 3 inch cutter, cut rounds and press gently into a bun tin. Place a small amount of jam on top of the pastry then top with 1 tsp of the cake batter. Using the scraps place a cross of pastry on top of the batter.

5) Bake at 200oc for 10 min, or until well risen and golden.

Fresh from the oven - Tomato & Garlic Focaccia

This months challenge from Fresh from the oven is to make a Focaccia using which ever recipe we wanted to. Focaccia is becoming a staple in this house. I probably make some version of focaccia more than any other type of bread. It's perfect for barbecues or when we have people over to dinner because it is easy to share.

I made this variant for my Birthday BBQ and it went down very well. The tomatoes give it a nice change in texture and sweetness. The only slight alteration I would make next time would be to add the garlic to the dough as it caught a bit on top when added to the oil.

Tomato & Garlic Focaccia
Makes 1 large foccacia
Based on a recipe from River Cottage - Bread

500g strong white bread flour
5g fast action yeast
10g fine salt
325ml warm water (mix 100ml boiling water with 225ml of cold water)
1 tbsp olive oil (for the dough)
2 tbsp olive oil mixed with 2 minced garlic cloves (for the topping)
rosemary
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
flaky sea salt

1) Mix together the flour, yeast, salt and water. Once the ingredients are combined add the olive oil. Knead for around 10 min until the dough is smooth and silky. At the stage, if using a mixer, the bowl should be clean of dough.

2) Shape the dough into a round and leave to rise in a covered and greased bowl until it has nearly doubled in size.

3) Tip the dough out and work in a rough rectangle shape then place in an oiled baking tray. Cover and allow to rise for 20 min.

4) Preheat the oven to 250oc (or as high as it will go). When the bread has had its half hour rise prod it with your fingers to get the cratered texture then push the tomato halves into the dough. Drizzle with the garlicky olive oil then sprinkle with salt & rosemary.

5) Bake for 10 min then bake for a further 10min at 200oc. Leave to cool on a wire rack for around 10 min before serving.

Strawberry Ice Cream Cupcakes

It's that time of year again when I break up for the summer holiday and celebrate my birthday. As Hubby & I have known each other for 9 years he knows exactly what I like. With the KitchenAid for my birthday last year and the trip to River Cottage for Christmas he outdid himself yet again this year with an iPhone for me. I've been talking about buying myself one for ages, but have been saving up. For my birthday I also got some beautiful flowers, lovely set of new saucepans (after the handles fell off my old ones), microplane grater, Lothian raspberry vodka from Demijohn and some other lovely foodie gifts. What you can't see in the photo above was that 3rd Birthday was the birthday I got a Fisher Price kitchen set for my birthday, a sign of things to come?

To celebrate my birthday we had a BBQ, something of which has come a bit of a tradition. Thankfully the rain held off and in amongst the various vegetables and raised beds we had a barbecued shoulder of hogget (sourced from a smallholding friend) along with some tomato focaccia, roasted new potatoes, beetroot hummus and salad.

For after the BBQ I made a peach melba jelly and also wanted a nostalgic cake. When I saw the Ice Cream Cupcakes on Mums Who Bake a few weeks back I knew they would be perfect. As a child I can remember how much I loved the marshmallow filled ice cream cones that were a treat and any trip to the seaside was incomplete without a Mr Whippy. As strawberries often featured in my childhood birthday cakes I wanted to add the pulp from the last few strawberries from the garden into the icing.



One thing about traditional cupcakes is that I'm not a big fan of buttercream as I find it too sweet, so decided to try a cream cheese frosting. Well, I have to say I'm converted to cream cheese icing. Although it doesn't last as long as buttercream and it isn't as stiff, it's not as sweet as buttercream and absolutely delicious. I could quite happily just eat the icing! I really enjoyed my making these cakes and I'm going to try and do more swirly icing on cakes now I've found an icing I like. Still need a bit more practice with the icing bag and I'm going to try and see if I can find bigger icing nozzles as the shops here have quite a limited selection.

One thing I did learn from this is don't overfill the ice cream cone or it will dramatically burst and dribble cake mix down the cone.

Strawberry Ice Cream Cupcakes
Makes 8-10

For the cakes
125g plain flour
125g vanilla sugar (or caster sugar)
125g softened butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tsp baking powder
8 flat bottomed ice cream cones

For the icing
240g cream cheese, cold from the fridge (it has to be the full fat version or it won't work)
80g softened butter
150g - 190g icing sugar (to taste)
the pulp of a few mashed strawberries
3 full sized flakes cut into 1/4

1) Preheat the oven to 180oc. Beat together the sugar, butter and eggs, then mix in the rest of the ingredients.

2) Line up the cones on a baking sheet. It does make it slightly easier if you put the cones in the cups of a bun pan.

3) Fill up the cones about 2/3 with cake mix. Don't overfill or they go everywhere! Bake in the oven for 15 min, or until they are golden and pass the skewer test. Allow to cool on a wire rack before icing.

4) Once the cakes have cooled beat together the butter and cream cheese then mix in the sieved icing sugar to taste. Fold in the strawberries then pipe onto the the cakes. Decorate with a flake.

5) If you want the icing to be a bit firmer, chill in the fridge for a few hours.

Fresh from the oven - Rustic Loaf

At the end of last month via UKFBA Claire introduced me to a new baking group called Fresh from the oven. As I'm a keen baker, I was keen to join the group to help improve my skills. This months challenge was hosted by Brianna. She chose a Rustic Loaf recipe from from Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes. The idea behind the recipe was that it was a good, basic recipe that introduced a simple preferment, minimalist ingredients, and let us practice our shaping techniques.

I learnt all about preferment at River Cottage, though it was called the sponge dough method at RC. I've been keen to use the method and decided to set time to do it. It's by no mean the quickest loaf I have ever made, but my goodness did it taste good. The addition of wholewheat also made it filling. The preferment gives a very slightly sour taste, not too unlike sourdough.

Initially the dough was very wet and too difficult to work with so had to add some more flour (this may be due to me making a dodgy conversion with the measurements from cups to g/ml). I also have to admit I didn't let it prove for as long as the recipe said as 1) I was running out of time and 2) it was rising quite rapidly thanks to the hot, humid weather and I was worried about over proving the dough. Looking at the crumb of the dough the big air pockets are a sign that is was beginning to over prove so I caught it at about the right time.

I need to get better at making a tighter shape and have asked for some proving baskets for my birthday. What you can't see on the photo is that in both of the loaves Hubby & I made they burst a bit on one side due to how we shaped it and supported the dough during proving. Although I was initially unsure of the recipe I'm really happy with the loaf I managed to produce and will certainly be using this method again.

The full recipe for the loaf can be found on The Fresh Loaf.

Fête Fairy Cakes

Today is fête day, but with storm clouds rumbling outside and showers of hail I'm seriously thinking it is going to be called off. Like all good fêtes we have a cake stall. As I'm renowned for my general cake geekiness I thought I should contribute to the cake stall. No nipping off to Tescos and trying to pass their cakes off as mine, for me!

I decided to make something that I haven't made in years. While cupcakes have been à la mode for the last few years I wanted to go English Old School and go for the cupcake's daintier, less ostentatious cousin - the humble fairy cake. Until I made this batch I had forgotten how much smaller the fairy cake is compared to a cupcake.

As I'm not a huge fan of icing at the best of times, though I love the look of big cupcake swirls, I wanted to use a thinner icing that could be brightly coloured with ease. This icing acts more like self-levelling concrete and hides all the cake imperfections and also can hide a cake if it hasn't risen as much as you hope. Frankly I wanted another excuse to play around with my new food dyes.

I found the animal decorations in the back of my baking cupboard. Hubby bought them when we attempted chocolate covered apples, but thankfully I found hundreds and thousands before we made them; and yes these sugar animals were still in date. Hopefully the cakes sell well and make some money.

There is a secret ingredient, well not so secret as I'm about to tell you, that goes into these cakes; and it's custard powder. The custard powder does 2 things. It makes the cakes fluffier as well as flavouring the sponge. Hubby tasted one of the cakes last night and spotted the subtle custard taste. I don't really use custard powder for making custard, I prefer proper custard or a tin of ambrosia (yes I know, but there is something very comforting about it!) and use it in baking more. If you have any custard powder you can use cornflour to help keep the cakes fluffy. Of course cornflour alone won't flavour the cakes so add some vanilla extract.

This recipe is based on a Good Food recipee, though I have altered the method and icing.

The storm is getting worse...I wonder if these cakes will end up on the staffroom coffee table tomorrow instead.

Fairy Cakes
makes around 20

140g unsalted butter, softened
140g caster sugar
3 eggs
100g self-raising flour
25g custard powder

for icing
200g icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp boiling water
food dye (optional)
sprinkles (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 190oc. Arrange cake cases in fairy cake tin. Beat together butter and sugar then one by one beat in the eggs.

2) Stir in flour and custard powder until ingredients are well combined. Half fill each fairy case with the batter. Don't over fill or you won't have room for the icing to puddle.

3) Bake for 15 min until risen and golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

4) Beat together icing sugar, lemon juice and boiling water until you have a smooth icing. Colour with dyes if wanted. Using a teaspoon slowly pour the icing on top of the cakes. You can guide the icing somewhat as to where you want it to go. Once you have finished icing, cover with sprinkles and leave for the icing to set.

Sour Cream Rhubarb Cake

At the moment Hubby & I are training for the Yorkshire 3-Peak Challenge, I was coerced into doing it by a good friend. One of my lifetime ambitions has been to complete a marathon and considering there is no chance you'll get me running a marathon the next best thing is to walk the equivalent distance of a marathon while taking climbing 3 peaks along the way...oh and all in 12 hours. Thinking about it, running the London Marathon is becoming more appealing.

Back in me youth I would have had no problem but now I'm a 20-something I need to get my fitness back and prepare myself mentally for it. We've been doing quite a lot of walks recently and am slowly trying to increase the distances. This bank holiday We headed to Calke Abbey to do a 12 mile walk while taking in the bluebells and Foremark Reservoir with of course the obligatory ice-cream stop. The one thing I like about walking is seeing the seasons change and I'm getting better at spotting wild food.

The other task for the bank holiday was to find something to do with the rhubarb that was beginning to take over the raised beds. Now, rhubarb is my most hated veg, yes to me it's a veg as it grows up from the ground rather than from a tree/bush/plant. It doesn't help that I've never had much luck cooking with rhubarb. I've tried making crumble with it and roasting it, but nothing could make me like it...until now. Ok I lie the Rhubarb Bellini I drank at River Cottage began to convert me.



In time honoured tradition of having surplus veg and not having a clue what to do with it I put it in a cake. Think back to the Beetroot Brownies & Squash Honey Drizzle Cake (though I have Hugh to thank for both of these recipes). While surfing the web for a recipe that took my fancy I stumbled across a recipe for Sour Cream Rhubarb Squares on the Good Food website. I did alter the recipe somewhat as many of the comments mentioned it was too sweet and I overestimated how much of the rhubarb int he garden was ready to be picked. I was really pleased with the result. It made a beautifully moist and light cake with the nuts on top giving a nice contrasting texture. It also worked well hot with a custard just as well as it did cold with a cup of tea. I imagine it would also work with apple instead of rhubarb.

Sour Cream Rhubarb Cake
12 slices

100g unsalted butter, softened
50g golden caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
100g of mixed nuts, roughly chopped (I used brazils, almonds & walnuts)
200g soft dark brown sugar
1 egg
225g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300ml soured cream
150g rhubarb, chopped into 1cm pieces

1) Melt 15g of the butter then stir in caster sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Put to one side while you make the cake batter.

2) Preheat the oven to 180oc then line a 33x23x5cm baking tin. Cream together the remaining butter with the soft dark brown sugar and egg. Then fold in flour, bicarb, soured cream and rhubarb. Pour into tin.

3)Sprinkle the cake with the sugary nut mix. Bake for 35 min.

Mini Egg Tiffin

I can't believe how fast this week has gone. I'm already half the way through my Easter hols. It's now Good Friday and our Easter tree has been up for about a week. I was first introduced to Easter trees 20 years ago in Germany and decided I wanted one in our house this year. Traditionally you are meant to have some branches in buds, but apart from hacking away at nextdoor's plants I decided to use some decorative branches we already had in the house. I picked up the decorations at a garden centre. It's added a nice bit of colour to the lounge.

I've done quite a bit of Easter baking recently; primarily Simnel Cupcakes and Mini Egg Tiffin for work. I've made the tiffin 3 times in the last few week. First was for my work mates, second for Hubby's workmates (who consequently threatened to hold Hubby to ransom until I made them some more!) and then I decided I couldn't let Hubby & I go without. As I have quite a few other things on my plate at the moment it had to be a quick Easter cake...plus Mini Eggs are my weakness. Forget creme eggs, far too sickly sweet for me, I love mini eggs.

The word tiffin originates from the British India meaning a light meal coming from the old English tiffing as in to take a little drink or sip. Oop North it also relates to a refrigerator cake.



This cake is based on my Malteser cake and the basic recipe can be easily adapted to add different fillings. It's really easy for kids to make, so much so we'll be making a similar cake in Cookery Club, and can be prepared in 5 minutes. Julia @ A Slice of Cherry Pie is hosting her Easter Cake Bake again this year and I've submitted my Mini Egg Tiffin.

Mini Egg Tiffin
Fills 1 x 1lb tin

85g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp cocoa
170g digestives, crushed (I usually blitz them in a food processor)
170g mini eggs, lightly crushed
30g mini eggs, left whole

1) Gently melt butter and golden syrup in large pan. Stir in cocoa, digestives and crushed mini eggs.

2) Line a 1lb loaf tin with cling film. Press mixture into tin then press the whole mini eggs into the top. Refrigerate until set.

Focaccia

Back in February I made focaccia, to accompany Snow day soup, successfully for the first time. Then later on in February I attended a course with Dan Stevens & Aiden Chapman at River Cottage to learn the art of bread making. Between Hubby & I we made so much bread on the course, which was stashed in the freezer, it is only now I've really been able to put the skills I learnt at River Cottage into practice. One of the biggest things I learnt on the course was that I was relying on my mixer to do all the work and not kneading the dough for long enough.

While down at River Cottage we popped to The Town Mill, Lyme Regis, a water-powered flour mill. There we were able to purchase some wholemeal flour that had been ground of the premises using the old grinding stones. The organic grain for grinding came from Tamarisk Farm

I've been waiting for us to finish our bread stash so I could try out this flour. I wasn't brave enough to make a loaf with 100% wholemeal so to make the focaccia I used 3/4 strong bread flour and 1/4 of this Town Mill flour. Like usual the the foccacia baked really well and the Town Mill flour certainly gave depth to the flavour.

Another ingredient I've also discovered recently is Maldon's flakey Sea Salt. I'd seen it before in shops, but couldn't see how and expensive salt could be so significantly different to 'normal' salt. Back in the new year while eating at friends she had used it on her cooking, then I suddenly understood why it is so good. I now use it on focaccia and a few other things. You only need a small amount of it so it lasts a long time.

Like all bread baking I do I'll be submitting this to the wonderful & inspiring yeastspotting.



Focaccia
Makes 1 large foccacia
From River Cottage - Bread

500g strong white bread flour
5g fast action yeast
10g fine salt
325ml warm water (mix 100ml boiling water with 225ml of cold water)
1 tbsp olive oil
rosemary
flaky sea salt

1) Mix together the flour, yeast, salt and water. Once the ingredients are combined add the olive oil. Knead for around 10 min until the dough is smooth and silky. At the stage, if using a mixer, the bowl should be clean of dough.

2) Shape the dough into a round and leave to rise in a covered and greased bowl until it has nearly doubled in size.

3) Tip the dough out and work in a rough rectangle shape then place in an oiled baking tray. Cover and allow to rise for 20 min.

4) Preheat the oven to 250oc (or as high as it will go). When the bread has had its half hour rise prod it with your fingers to get the cratered texture, drizzle generously with olive oil then sprinkle with salt & rosemary.

5) Bake for 10 min then bake for a further 10min at 200oc. Leave to cool on a wire rack for around 10 min before serving.

Coffee Creams - mk1

After making custard creams last year it has always been my intention to adapt the recipe to make the long-gone biscuit Coffee Cream.

Coffee Creams were the biscuits that could only ever be found in the festive Foxs (or was it Jacobs) biscuit tins given to you by Grandma for Christmas. As I love anything coffee flavoured I always snaffled them up, but not before I had sampled all the other biscuits (especially the posh Jammy Dodgers) first. As any coffee lover will tell you, coffee flavoured sweets/biscuits/cakes are not loved by everyone and are more often than not left till last. This is when us coffee lovers swoop and have our last coffee hit.

Now after a bit of experimentation I admit I've sorted the icing, but haven't got the biscuit dough quite right and no I know they don't look like the originals. The biscuits are delicious in their own right, but don't taste exactly like the hallowed Coffee Creams. Although I put coffee in the biscuit dough you can't taste it. I'm going to work on the recipe and try and get it closer to the flavour I remember. I also need to work on extracting a stronger coffee extract. Any tips?

Coffee Creams
Makes 8 coffee cream sandwiches

For the biscuits
175g/6oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g unsalted butter, cubed
3 tbsp caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp strong coffee

For the coffee cream
100g icing sugar
50g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp strong coffee

1) Preheat oven to 180oc (160oc fan). For the biscuits mix flour and baking powder. Add butter and rub until you get a crumble like texture. Beat coffee into egg in separate cup. Add sugar then gradually beat in egg/coffee mix (you may not need all the egg) until you have a soft dough. Wrap dough in clingfilm and rest in fridge for 20 min.

2) Roll dough to around 4mm and use cutter to cut out round. Place on lined baking tray and bake for 15 min. Cool on rack before sandwiching them.

3) To make coffee cream, beat together icing sugar and butter until you have a cream. Add coffee and beat again until you have a smooth coffee cream.

4) Sandwich each biscuit with about 1 tsp of coffee cream.