Things I baked recently - made to FIGHT; + Stephen Fry
Today: Yum Cha with two bottles of wine, followed by a live taping of QI, featuring Stephen Fry, Alan Davies and locals Shaun Micallef, Jennifer Byrne and Dave Hughes. Verdict: Stephen Fry confirmed adorbs. But whole thing was a bit awkward: Stephen and Alan had great rapport but the others were like uncertain strangers marooned together at a party - and the tightness of the format kept cutting them off just as they seemed about to warm up. Also I understand from capn_n_pye, who are more devoted fans than I, that some of the questions were recycled from recently-aired shows (no wonder Alan knew the answers!). How that's supposed to work out, I don't know.
Then I went to Target and bought a cute sundress and some new undies. Then came home and was so exhausted by my hard life, I was obliged to have a nap.
***
So, I thought that would I post about things I baked recently, and make them FIGHT.
Applesauce cakes/breads FIGHT
The candidates:
Verdict: the Oatmeal breakfast bread by a mile. This is a staple for me now. A thick slice is a meal. It's fresh-tasting and fruity and moist. The Old-fashioned applesauce cake was drier (although with a fatty mouth-feel from the butter), less flavourful and excessively sweet, in comparison. I think it is not a good breakfast recipe - maybe I would have liked the fattiness and sweetness more for afternoon tea. That icing was definitely totally over the top for breakfast (I will keep it in my repertoire for dessert cakes, though).
Nigella Lawson Orange-scented brioche pudding done Nigella's way vs my way: FIGHT
I had made this several times in a half-arsed, substitute-posh-ingredients-for-whatever's-on-hand way, and liked it a great deal. So recently I decided to try ponying up for all the ingredients and making it exactly as written,
Note: usually I make it with a loaf of homemade brioche bread, from this very easy method (usually I will make a batch of dough, do something fancy like a fruit-filled braid with half, then bake the other half as a loaf and chuck it in the freezer for future use in this or a similar pudding). Other times I've used a nice white sourdough. I don't actually know where to buy commercially made brioche in Australia.
The candidates:
Stephanie Alexander fruit crumble topping vs all other crumble toppings in the world ever: FIGHT
I am not even going to pretend this is a fight. I am just going to give you the recipe and tell you you do not need any other crumble topping:*
100g brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger (actually when I bought a fresh packet of ground ginger recently, I suddenly found this was too strong - maybe add a bit at a time and taste to see?)
60g unsalted butter (I used salted because I have it on hand)
150g plain flour
(to go over 2 cups drained & poached, or pureed, fruit)
Crumble butter into flour with fingers, till in pea-sized pieces. Toss with rest of ingredients. Put fruit in a greased 1 litre ovenproof dish, strew with topping. Bake at 180 degrees C for 40 minutes until brown and bubbling at edges (this is for substantial fruit such as apples or apricots. For berries, try 200 degrees for just 15 mins so they don't collapse too much).
(From The Cook's Companion, 1996.)
* unless you don't like ground ginger, I guess?**
** get out of my journal.
x-posted at Dth with
comments. Comment wherever you like (scraps of paper posted in the tree outside your house may not be received right away).
Then I went to Target and bought a cute sundress and some new undies. Then came home and was so exhausted by my hard life, I was obliged to have a nap.
***
So, I thought that would I post about things I baked recently, and make them FIGHT.
Applesauce cakes/breads FIGHT
The candidates:
- Oatmeal [applesauce] breakfast bread Method notes: I consider it stupid to dirty a third bowl just to toss the fruit in flour - I just chuck the fruit in with the full flour mixture before adding the wet ingredients. I have always used sweetened bottled applesauce from the supermarket (there aren't many varieties in Australia - I haven't seen an unsweetened one in a while) and then reduced the sugar in the recipe. Like the blogger, I use skim milk because that's what I keep on hand. Variations: you can just go crazy and add however much fruit you like: in addition to sultanas I've done chopped dried apricots, dried cranberries, even a grated fresh apple. I once did the topping with walnuts and allspice instead of pecans and cinnamon. It was all great.
- Old-fashioned applesauce cake Made this recently, with dried apricots instead of currants, and homemade applesauce that was just 4 peeled and chopped granny smith apples cooked down with a small amount of water, then bashed into a paste with the wooden spoon. I added a browned butter icing per advice in the comments (get a random recipe off google - it's basically butter heated up in a pan till brown, then icing sugar stirred into it, then maybe a splash of milk or hot water or whiskey as well, depending on your recipe).
Verdict: the Oatmeal breakfast bread by a mile. This is a staple for me now. A thick slice is a meal. It's fresh-tasting and fruity and moist. The Old-fashioned applesauce cake was drier (although with a fatty mouth-feel from the butter), less flavourful and excessively sweet, in comparison. I think it is not a good breakfast recipe - maybe I would have liked the fattiness and sweetness more for afternoon tea. That icing was definitely totally over the top for breakfast (I will keep it in my repertoire for dessert cakes, though).
Nigella Lawson Orange-scented brioche pudding done Nigella's way vs my way: FIGHT
I had made this several times in a half-arsed, substitute-posh-ingredients-for-whatever's-on-hand way, and liked it a great deal. So recently I decided to try ponying up for all the ingredients and making it exactly as written,
Note: usually I make it with a loaf of homemade brioche bread, from this very easy method (usually I will make a batch of dough, do something fancy like a fruit-filled braid with half, then bake the other half as a loaf and chuck it in the freezer for future use in this or a similar pudding). Other times I've used a nice white sourdough. I don't actually know where to buy commercially made brioche in Australia.
The candidates:
- Nigella's way: this involves Grand Marnier, cream and millions of eggs, some of them separated. I will confess though that after bleeding $40 for the Grand Marnier, I drew the line at $7 for two things of double cream, and instead bought a large thickened cream for $3.
- My way: this involves improvising, and also being lazy and a cheapskate. Replace the 3 Tb Grand Marnier with 1 tsp of orange blossom water (I've had the bottle for years) and the rest of the volume as water. Replace cream with skim milk or whatever is on hand. Use less than 5 eggs if you don't have the full 5, and use them whole without separating.
Stephanie Alexander fruit crumble topping vs all other crumble toppings in the world ever: FIGHT
I am not even going to pretend this is a fight. I am just going to give you the recipe and tell you you do not need any other crumble topping:*
100g brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger (actually when I bought a fresh packet of ground ginger recently, I suddenly found this was too strong - maybe add a bit at a time and taste to see?)
60g unsalted butter (I used salted because I have it on hand)
150g plain flour
(to go over 2 cups drained & poached, or pureed, fruit)
Crumble butter into flour with fingers, till in pea-sized pieces. Toss with rest of ingredients. Put fruit in a greased 1 litre ovenproof dish, strew with topping. Bake at 180 degrees C for 40 minutes until brown and bubbling at edges (this is for substantial fruit such as apples or apricots. For berries, try 200 degrees for just 15 mins so they don't collapse too much).
(From The Cook's Companion, 1996.)
* unless you don't like ground ginger, I guess?**
** get out of my journal.
x-posted at Dth with
comments. Comment wherever you like (scraps of paper posted in the tree outside your house may not be received right away).