A few months ago, gripped by baking fever, I purchased Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I quickly decided to embark upon a mission to bake everything in the book, and turn myself from an occasional baker into a bit of an expert. My Grandad Ern was a Master Baker by trade; the man responsible for introducing Danish Pastries to England in fact, and I wish it had occurred to me to spend more time learning from him, rather than simply enjoying the fruits of his effortless labours. This project is almost a way of making amends for that; I'd like to follow in his footsteps (if not in my career, at least as a hobby) and continue the proud heritage of baking in my family.
I credit my friend Rachel with the idea to write a blog about my baking exploits, hoping that there will be more successes than failures as I attempt all 213 of the Queen of Baking's recipes.
So as not to bore the husband with a monotonous diet of sponges, followed by weeks of biscuits, I've decided to tackle the recipes by selecting the first bake from each chapter, followed by the second recipe and so on. I'm not going to pick and choose; I'm determined to face my baking demons and learn how to do everything baking-related, even if the consequences are disastrous!
Everything will be photographed, with comment about how I found baking it, and a husband rating (to be taken with a pinch of salt as he has a very selective cake-tooth).


Saturday 24 October 2015

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.
 
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