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).


Monday, 29 May 2017

99. Cheese and Celery Crown Loaf

I feel like I could easily maintain this tradition of making some sort of bread for our Sunday picnics; it's so nice to have something a bit special at the weekend. I'm not sure that this really qualifies as 'bread' though, as it turned out more like a scone, although we treated it as a loaf and made sandwiches with it. I was fascinated by how it would turn out, with the combination of three celery sticks, garlic and a lot of grated cheese, and was actually pleasantly surprised. I'm not a fan of celery, but I stuck to the recipe to see what it would be like, chopping the sticks as finely as I could.
The recipe suggests either forming 12 balls and baking in a round cake tin (like the crown loaf I made the other week) or free-forming on a baking sheet. I chose the latter, partly because it was quite hard to make 'rolls' (filled ones) with the small ones I got out of the crown loaf. As it turned out, doing it the first way would have basically made us 12 separate scones, which I'll probably do next time.
Anyway, it was very easy to make and handle; I adjusted the baking time to ten minutes less than suggested, but popped it back in for an extra 5 just to be sure, and it was perfectly baked. It was quite moist as a result of the celery, and it also had quite a salty flavour (the combination of cheese and celery). It smelt lovely during baking; the garlic helped it to be really appetising. We ate slices of it warm with butter, and had some apple and walnut chutney with it. It would work really well as an accompaniment to a cheese board.
Baker's verdict: really easy to make and very tasty. I'll definitely bake it again.
Husband rating: 8/10 - nice flavour; lovely crust; quite heavy though.


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