After the recent experience with croissants, instead of picking a recipe for a traditional English scones from a Brit, Mary Berry or maybe Hollywood boy, I didn’t. 🙂 I went to Dorotka’s again and followed her recipe. The result? Nearly perfect scones. I’d have them a touch sweeter maybe, but they’re soft, slightly crunchy on top, delicious and will be enjoyed with coffee tomorrow morning.

I used 400 g of plain flour, 100 g of cold butter, 3 tsps of baking powder, half a tsp of salt, 50 g of sugar and let Kitchen Aid mix it all nicely. 70 g of raisins, 30 g of dried cranberries, 2 eggs beaten and topped up with milk to make 250 ml of liquid. Once added the liquid to the mix, I went to combine the dough by hand, as lots of wise people say that once the scone dough is overmixed, they get tough. Quickly rolled to 1,5 cm, I cut out the scones, brushed them with a bit of egg and sprinkled a touch of cinnamon on. They baked in 220 degrees for 10 minutes.

Had to restrain my child -who was due to have her tea- from scoffing down the whole scone at once. I guess that means she liked them.

Paul Hollywood has got a nice, new series on Food Network, where he travels cities and tastes/makes all sorts of good bakes. Since he visited a place in Paris, where croissants are made daily, I got excited. I thought I must try, it’s not like I have no time for  16 hour bake, right?

Obviously, I chose Hollywood’s recipe. This one:

http://paulhollywood.com/recipes/croissants/

I started yesterday, followed all the instructions, did as I was told. This lunch time there were going to be fresh croissants. I realized they might  not be as spectacular as I’d have hoped when they failed to rise, when the recipe said they’d double in size within 2 hours. After 3 I still placed them in hot oven. They then rose alright, but nowhere near doubled. Lots of butter melted out, the smell was great.  In the end they tasted ok, but they were not light and puffy, like they should have been. Crispy on top, buttery, but not the real deal. I immediately thought- the yeast. Hollywood boy always maintains in his recipes, that dry yeast is BETTER, more convenient, easily. Sorry, Paul,  in my view it’s not better.  Fresh yeast makes doughnuts like clouds, fab pizza dough and probably awesome croissants. I was still chewing on mine, while immediately checking what did Dorota from mojewypieki.com had to say. A lot, she did, she tried 3 recipes and then settled on one from some posh French boy, who recommended FRESH yeast. Which is exactly what I’ll be doing next time I’ll make croissants. Thumbs down Hollywood!

More macaroons. Red food colouring this time and inside a mixture of mixed berry coulis mixed with a touch of cornstarch, cooled and combined with mascarpone and a slosh of cassis.  The shells turned out so good, that I saved and froze 10 and decided to decorate Izzie’s birthday cake with them next weekend. Is the plan. 🙂

An only and obvious choice for Florek’s birthday. We’ve just tasted it, as the recipe said best the next day, but I must say it didn’t benefit from a night in the fridge. We’ll leave it outside in the room temperature till the evening and I’m sure the texture will improve big time.

Small round cake was made out of 100 g of dark chocolate and butter, melted together plus a single espresso and a splash of water( that’s my replacement for a tsp of instant coffee, which I don’t use, so didn’t have any), half a tall glass of plain flour mixed in a bowl together with a touch of soda, 0,5 tsp of baking powder,  2 tsps of cocoa,3/4 glass of muscovado. 2 whole eggs beaten with 35 ml of buttermilk.  All this stirred in together with a spatula, plus a tbps of hazelnut vodka- replacement for rum, either way couldn’t taste any.  Finally about 60 g of raspberries.

It baked in a lined tin for about 50 minutes, 140 degrees.

When baked, glazed with a double cream/milk chocolate mixture, plus extra fresh raspberries.

Happy birthday Florek! 🙂

I think it’s fair to say that I now enjoy baking more than I enjoy eating what I bake.  But time comes during the day, when I’m craving something sweet and then I head straingt to mojewypieki.com, have a look through the page and I always find something I want and something I have all the ingredients for. This one was with  hazelnuts, still one of my top ingredients and although I had no dark chocolate, I decided to chop up an Easter bunny from Ewa, made of milk chocolate.  It all worked, I made half a portion and we’re half way through it and Masterchef hasn’t even started yet. 🙂

50 g of butter, melted and cooled. 2 eggs, separated, whites whipped with a pinch of salt and 50 g of sugar.  Yolks added.  In a separate bowl 50 g of ground hazelnuts, 0,5 tsp of baking powder, 4 tbsps of plain flour and 50 g of grated( or, in my case, taken care of by food processor) chocolate, 0,5 tsp of cocoa- all this mixed and added into the egg mixture, folded gently with spatula. Baked in 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. Finished with a simple glaze, double cream and milk chocolate. Very moreish. 🙂