Sunday afternoon in the kitchen just might be my favourite time of the week. A time when I can completely immerse myself in baking. That’s not to say that I don’t bake at other times of the week, just that Sunday is the time when I really indulge. I’m in my own little world and for a few hours the bakery that I dream about is actually happening.
The day starts with a trawl through my ever expanding cookery book library as I decide what’s on the menu. After that it’s a shopping expedition for anything not already in the larder. Then the rest of the day is mine.
Ideally I like to bake at least three things and part of the enjoyment is working out the timings and schedule of what I’ll be doing. For someone who is quite chaotic in the rest of his life this sense of organisation is quite an unusual experience.
One of the things on my Sunday menu is usually prompted by whatever that weeks #twitterbakealong challenge is. This weekly challenge is posted on Twitter every Tuesday and covers virtually every type of baking. You have a week to bake something connected to it and then to post a photo on Twitter. If you enjoy baking and are looking for some new ideas I would encourage you to get involved. It’s a hashtag with an ever expanding community and I’ve made lots of baking friends and contacts through it.
This weeks #twitterbakealong challenge was for savoury muffins. I opted for a combination of pea, bacon & cheese and I’m rather chuffed to say that my bake was picked as the winner.
If anyone is interested in having a go at making some of them I’ve put the recipe below.
There will always be a cake on the menu as Sunday evening just isn’t the same without one.
For this weeks I made an oatcake with blueberries and raspberries. In this bake the oats are soaked in milk before you bake with them. This produces quite a heavy cake, almost with the consistency of bread pudding. However with the fruit on top it still had a summery feel and was a big hit.
The recipe for this came from Natural Baking by Carolin Strothe & Sebastain Keite. This is a fascinating cookbook that has introduced me to a number of interesting new ingredients and techniques. Much of their baking is given a very distinctive flavour by using dark muscovado sugar in place of castor and by using einkorn or spelt flour.
I rounded off the weekends baking with a chicken, pale ale and chicory pie. Chicken and chicory in a creamy beer infused sauce under crispy puff pastry. As with all good Sunday pies there was some left over for Monday lunch as well. The recipe for this can be found in Ruby Tandoh’s Crumbs cookbook. Ruby was a Great British Bakeoff finalist a few years ago and my copy of her book is one of the most used on my shelf.
A full Sunday afternoon and I’m already looking forward to the next one.
Pea, bacon & cheese muffins
makes 12
100g frozen peas
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of dry mustard powder
Sea salt & black pepper
2 tsp chopped chives
1 egg
100g soft goats cheese
200ml whole milk
50g cooked bacon
75g Comte or Cheddar cheese
Pre heat oven to gas 4 , butter a 12 hole muffin tin
Blanche the peas for 2 minutes in boiling water. Drain and refresh under cold water.
Sift the flour, baking powder and mustard powder into a mixing bowl then add salt pepper and chives.
In a separate bowl, lightly beat the egg with an electric whisk. Add the goats cheese and continue whisking until it has broken up and combined with the egg. Whisk in the milk and then stir in the peas and bacon. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, mix quickly and lightly to combine. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tray and sprinkle the Comte or Cheddar on top. Bake for 20 minutes. The muffins should be golden and firm to the touch. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
David in the kitchen. 