79. Banana and Chocolate Chip Bars

Still on the lookout to bake things with the littl'un, and needing to use up some very ripe bananas, I came across this bake and thought it looked nice and simple and sounded yummy. It was made in much the same way as the apricot one I made recently: a kind of crumble mixture with sliced bananas between the layers and chocolate chips scattered on top. It was simpler because there was no cooking of fruit required as part of the process. I had the same issue with this bake as the apricot one: the mixture wasn't plentiful enough to cover the base of the tin (half is used for the base layer and the other half is pressed on top of the fruit.) Admittedly, I didn't measure the tin, but I know it's not much bigger than the 7" suggested, and I've noticed that the 'biscuit base' quantities have been sparse in other bakes. I actually discussed this with a friend (Cathy) who made Mary's Millionaires Shortbread recently and found the shortbread quantity insufficient. I've had to double up the quantities on the cheesecake recipes before. Still, these are things you find out, and I'm making notes in the book whenever I come across an issue (a bit like the Half Blood Prince, Severus Snape, in his potions book). This made the bake a bit frustrating, trying to eke out the mixture, and when it was baked, it was very thin and flimsy. It held together in squares for the first day, but collapsed on the remaining two days I had some left for. Smaller tin or more mixture next time. We also noticed that it was very sweet, so I might try omitting the sugar altogether next time to see if the banana provides enough sweetness on its own.
Baker's verdict: tasty and easy to make - I'd bake it again with some tinkerings.
Husband rating: 7/10 - lovely banana flavour but far too sweet.

78. Cheese Straws

Another 'baking with toddler' escapade, which produced great results. A good bake to do with a small child, with some nice, 'safe' mixing involved. We managed to make them pretty quickly, and used the half hour of chilling in the fridge to do some other little jobs, before returning to them to roll out the dough and shape them. As soon as I'd started making these, I recalled that I attempted them in the very early stages of owning Mary's book. I also recalled that there was a disaster, and because of my baking experiences thus far, I was able to identify the reason for it and avert another crisis. The recipe states 'softened butter' is required, but I've not made any pastry yet which doesn't use cold butter. I remember the dough being unworkable when I made it with said softened butter, so I ignored that requirement this time and rubbed the cold butter in as I would do normally. I used mature cheddar and a fine grater: what happened here was that I did end up with some lumps of cheese in the dough, but I knew that could only be a good thing, ultimately.
The dough was very stiff when I removed it from the fridge, and quite difficult to roll out. I quickly decided to avoid the conventional creation of straws, in favour of using a small cutter which Elizabeth could play with easily. We managed to get a nice lot of hearts, which I simply baked for a reduced amount of time and kept a close eye on. Because they were so small, we were soon able to eat some of them fresh from the oven and lovely and warm. They were so moreish though, and Elizabeth and I had soon polished off about 5 each before going for our walk. We nibbled some more throughout the day, but managed to leave plenty for Daddy, and they lasted us for a couple of days, tasting just as good.
Baker's verdict: really lovely. I'd definitely use this recipe again as they were beautifully cheesy. I'd also stick to the smaller-sized biscuits as well, as they're nice in bit-sized portions. They'd make a great gift. Elizabeth loved them.
Husband rating: 9/10 - perfect bar snack: cheese, pastry - what's not to love? Can't give it 10 because they're simple things really, and there have been other things which I've loved more, but they were really good.
 

77. Apricot and Walnut Sandwich Bars

I selected these for my next bake because I wanted to bake something 'healthy' with and for my daughter. The first thing that amazed me was her eagerness to eat some of the dried apricots, when I hadn't previously been able to tempt her with any! She was a very helpful assistant in what was a pretty easy bake. I keep meaning to buy some scissors for apricot cutting, but there weren't too many to chop up for this one. As in the case of the date recipes, I had to cook the apricots in some water to make them gooey before assembling the bars: a layer of the biscuit mixture, then an apricot layer, then a topping of the biscuit, which was actually much like a crumble. I made a substitution in the recipe: mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower and linseed) instead of walnuts - mainly because I didn't have any walnuts, but also because I'm not a huge fan of them and because Elizabeth currently has a liking for pumpkin seeds.
One of the issues with baking with what I would call 'chewy fruit' (which becomes especially chewy and even 'chanky' - as those of Field origin call it - when baked) is that cutting the bake into slices is really difficult. This was a very crumbly mixture, and I didn't cut it into 8 bars, as Mary suggested, preferring to create smaller squares for easy nibbling. There was, as a result, lots of crumbs. Not really a problem though; I'm good at hovering crumbs up.
Baker's verdict: a little bit fiddly to make and a pain to cut into squares/bars. Very buttery and moreish. A shame the toddler in residence didn't really like them (she is suspicious of anything with 'bits' in, and had decided she didn't like apricots after all) but maybe she will when she's older.
Husband rating: 9/10 - just a bit different really. Nice touch with the seeds and a bit like the date bars from Stuart. A bit chewy but crumbly at the same time and soft and oaty. Very moreish.
Postscript: Husband didn't get to experience many of these as me and my Dad polished off a significant amount before he even got to them!

76. Date and Walnut Traybake

Another one made after my brush with the date bars (of which I made two batches because they were very nice) and a desire to experiment further with the delicious toffee-ness of the flavour they give to bakes. Again, I forgot to photograph my efforts here, mainly because I baked it to take to Devon to visit Joe's family, so it was baked and packaged in a bit of a frenzy. I do, however, have some leftovers in the freezer (some of which I ate this week), so I'll try to add a photo when they come out.
This was quite a straightforward bake, but one of the things I'm learning about using dates (and subsequently, dried apricots) is that they often need a bit of cooking in a pan with water to make them a bit squidgy and release their flavour. So that needed doing, and then cooling, before assembling the remaining cake ingredients. It took 1 hour and 10 minutes to bake at quite a low temperature, and smelt lovely. I didn't bother with the icing (lemon and icing sugar, with walnuts on top) because of the time and travel constraints. I expect it would've made it a little bit more palatable to those who aren't huge lovers of the strong cinnamon flavour and the dark muscovado sugar in the cake.
Baker's verdict: quite straightforward to make; was tasty enough but really heavy. Would work better as a dessert with custard than as a cake for afternoon tea.
Husband rating: 5/10 - feel bad giving that harsh score: it's more that it wasn't to my taste because of the cinnamon flavour but if something says it's walnut and date, you expect that to be the main thing and I didn't get any of them.

75. Double Chocolate Cookies

I have no photographic evidence of these beauties, and thus had forgotten that I'd even made them, but I had a recollection of baking something that Joe and his colleagues found absolutely delicious, and these were that something. They were extremely easy to make, and were always going to be good (if baked for the right length of time) because of the inclusion of condensed milk and chocolate rather than cocoa powder. I'm learning that chocolate fayre is really, really good if it is made with actual chocolate - there's a depth of flavour there which cocoa powder doesn't provide. Anyway, the recommended baking time for these is 15 minutes. I baked them for 10 and stood my ground. I've learnt that biscuits will always be soft as long as they are warm and to have faith that they're sufficiently baked. I was spot on this time; the cookies retained their softness and were properly chewy, like a great cookie should be.
Baker's verdict: ever so easy to make and really lovely. I'd definitely make these again.
Husband rating: 8.5/10 - really cocoa-ey, good chocolate cookie and very moreish.

74. Date and Cherry Butter Bars

I've actually been doing quite a lot of baking since my last post: 4 new ones from the book plus some repeats and another date recipe passed on from one of Joe's colleagues. What I've found more difficult is finding a moment to update this blog! So here I am, with lots to add, and probably very few comments from husband who will, once again, say that he can't remember what things tasted like because I baked them so long ago.
Anyway, I chose this one because I had some dates hanging about and wanted to advance the project. They were very easy to make and didn't take very long. It was just a matter of following some simple processes of making a biscuit dough and pressing the mixture into the tin. I over-baked them slightly, due to not being very familiar with the new oven in the new house (another move: this one's a keeper for as many years as we can tolerate it!) but it didn't affect the flavour too much. I don't know why I should've been, but I was surprised by the texture. They were actually like a shortcake with bits of fruit in and very biscuity. I'd expected them to be more chewy.
Baker's verdict: very easy to make and satisfying to eat. Maybe a bit too buttery and the flavour of the dates wasn't very strong.
Husband rating: 8/10 - they were nice, a bit chewy and soft cookie-like, which was good.

73. Cut And Come Again Cake

So, I haven't baked anything for months and months, and I've really missed it. Weekends have been very busy and I haven't braved doing any baking with the resident toddler yet. Also, the oven in our current house isn't reliable, and I got very demotivated after several incidences of over-baking! I did bake some cupcakes for some students at school, which went down well, but didn't advance my project. Finally though, after weeks of getting cake hospitality from my Mum, I decided to bake something to repay the favour.
I fancied attempting a simple fruit cake, so decided to do this one, which didn't require masses of ingredients or any complicated processes. It was a pleasure to don my apron again and to experience the delightful smells emanating from the oven. I was very cautious with the oven, choosing a slightly lower temperature and a shorter time. When the skewer still came out sticky, I chose increments of ten minutes between testings (and a layer of tin foil on top to prevent too much browning) to make sure it didn't over-bake. Disappointingly, it did. It looked dry when I cut it and it tasted (felt?) dry too, but fortunately the presence of lots of fruit saved it from being a  mouthful of sawdust, or stale breadcrumbs!
Baker's verdict: easy, tasty, but came out dry.
Husband rating: 7/10 - really good flavour, very moreish, a tiny bit on the dry side and not too keen on the currants burnt on the edge as they go a bit bitter. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
 

72. Blueberry Muffins

Disaster alert! Who knew you could go wrong with a batch of muffins? I've made so many muffins in the past, but the ones I've made from this book just don't turn out right at all. I decided to make these because I had a load of blueberries to clear up (daughter having issues with anything with some kind of skin). I thought she'd probably eat them if they were disguised as cake, and knew we'd enjoy them too. Anyway, I followed the recipe carefully (muffin recipes are dead easy), while making Sunday dinner, popped them in the oven when the roasts came out, and looked forward to sampling one for afters (as we say around here). Well. They looked nice enough, although not as risen as I was expecting. When we attempted to eat them, however, we discovered that they were just a soggy mess. You expect a bit of moisture from the blueberries, but this was ridiculous. I worried that I'd not baked them at the right temperature, but Joe pointed out that they seemed very 'eggy' and I could see what he meant. Elizabeth seemed to enjoy them, but I didn't want her to eat the middle bit, and although I picked at the tops of a few of them, I ended up binning the rest as the ink from the paper cases was bleeding into them, they were that soggy! I then conducted a bit of research, to try and work out why I was failing on the muffin front, and consulted Nigelle's 'Domestic Goddess' book, which I've used to make muffins before. Sure enough, her blueberry muffin recipe is almost exactly the same as Mary's, but with one key difference. She uses one egg instead of two. Could this be the cause of the egginess? It seems likely. So next time I make muffins, I'm going to just use the one egg and see what happens...
Baker's verdict: terrible, although they sort of tasted okay. Waste of good blueberries!
Husband rating: 4/10 - tasted of egg and seemed undercooked.

71. 'Boozy' Fruit Cake

Back in October, when the Christmas baking begins (I made my mincemeat), I decided not to make a Christmas cake. As we raced towards the festive season however, my Mum and I decided we'd quite like to have one, so I chose this one as a sort of Christmassy cake which didn't need maturing. 'Boozy' is essential at Christmas, and this cake was jam-packed with nuts and different fruits. I was surprised to discover it didn't have any sugar in it, but a hefty amount of golden syrup instead (which generally stresses me out because it's so messy and sticky - sticky fingers, ugh). Anyway, it of course involved much measuring and chopping of many fruity ingredients, but the cake batter was super easy to prepare. I love the smells of melted butter and sweet things all combined, and this was another quite unusual element of the recipe: the 'wet' cake ingredients were heated in the pan with the fruit, then the dry stuff was added to this afterwards. It took a lot of baking (almost 2 hours), but of course the benefit of that is the slow release of those lovely festive aromas which fill the house.
The cake was fed with brandy once it came out of the oven and then well wrapped until we were ready to eat it. A lovely way to spend Christmas Eve. We sampled some the following day and it was delicious. It was quite a light cake (meaning not dark), so not your typical Christmas cake, but very tasty. I even sampled it with some good cheddar, which went down very well.
Baker's verdict: easy to make and tasted wonderful.
Husband rating: 7/10 - lovely and moist, but a bit too cinnamon for my taste. Didn't enjoy it as much as last year's Christmas cake.
 

70. Special Fruit Scones

I seem to remember quite spontaneously deciding to make these. I had all the ingredients and just fancied knocking something up. I'm having a crisis with scones at the moment, and was eager to find out what would happen if I followed the recipe to the letter. Joe thought he'd heard something about not overworking them and then (after I'd made them) about how not to use the cutter, and Mary says that they shouldn't be 'overhandled'. So I was very careful, added some additional fruity ingredients (candied peel) to make up the required 50g and hoped for the best. As you can see, some of them look suitable scone like, while the others turned out like my usual efforts: decidedly flat! They were very tasty (especially warm with butter), and even after a few days, they weren't horribly dry or anything, just so flat. I've got to crack this. There has to be a way...
Baker's verdict: easy to make, but the results were disappointing.
Husband rating: can't remember but do recall enjoying them.

69. Iced Apricot Fruit Loaf

This is another bake from the list I'm supposed to be working my way through, although my system is going to go to pot now that I've decided to abandon bread-making for the time being. I think I'll just bake whatever I fancy (and try really hard not to leave all the difficult ones until last)! Anyway, as Mary's introduction to this recipe states, this one was very easy to make. Apart from the customary faff of rinsing and drying the glace cherries and some chopping of apricots, it was really quick and straightforward to prepare. I still have worries about our oven, so am generally setting the temperature a bit lower, or the timer a bit shorter, and just keeping a very close eye on things. This seemed to bake ok and smelt delicious. I went a bit off piste with the icing, as I didn't fancy covering the whole top in a big blob of it, so had a go at some artistic 'dribbling' and thought it looked rather good! W.I. here I come!
Baker's verdict: easy to make and very tasty. Thought it might be dry when I cut it, but it was actually moist and very tasty.
Husband rating: can't really remember, but did like the smaller amount of icing.

68. White Cottage Loaf

Here follows a lesson on how not to approach making bread...the first point being that you need to make sure you have all the right equipment and a decent space somewhere warm for it to prove. This loaf never really stood a chance, and the process of making it involved much frustration and pent-up anger! Entirely my fault, and I've now decided not to make any more bread until I have the right stuff and a good kitchen in which to do it.
Issue #1: wrestling with cling film when I should've had a large plastic bag, suitable for covering food. This was the best I could do, but it was next to useless.
Issue #2: a proving place. I decided on the airing cupboard, only the airing cupboard wasn't tidy enough for a baking tray to perch in. An almighty clatter heard from downstairs, a sickening feeling in my gut and yes, there it was: a heap of bread dough unceremoniously plopped on the floor. Totally unsalvageable owing to the grotty condition of the airing cupboard, so into the bin it went. A shame really, as all the processes up to that point had been easy and gone well. I was looking forward to some freshly baked bread.
Of course I will attempt this again, so watch this space...
UPDATE! SECOND ATTEMPT!
So I made this way back in September (it's now March) and have only just got round to blogging about it! Unfortunately I only just manage to find time to bake, nevermind get to this stage as well, and now there's another little person in the family to thwart my efforts!
Anyway, this attempt was much more successful, and although it did its proving in the airing cupboard, it didn't meet the messy end of its predecessor. I made sure I had the right equipment (including a big plastic bag for proving) and it turned out really well. The only thing I wouldn't do another time is bake the load on the baking parchment, as it stuck and was virtually impossible to peel off. It also needed bit less time baking in our oven, which I'm gradually becoming more confident at 'reading'.
It was such a tasty loaf that I made it again the next weekend, but it didn't turn out as well. I think I rushed it, because I was preparing Sunday dinner at the same time, so I'll be more careful next time.
Baker's verdict: easy to make and I was really impressed with how it turned out - I made proper bread!
Husband rating: he denies all knowledge of this loaf but I know he thoroughly enjoyed it!