Stourhead on such a cold day!

So today is the day when the leaves were supposed to be best at Stourhead and thankfully the weather was perfect for taking photos... although a little on the absolutely freezing side! As you know already Stourhead is my favourite place to go in Somerset (actually technically it is in Wiltshire but I am allowing it to be in Somerset, just because I'm nice!). So here are a few of my pictures, the composition gets worse and worse throughout as my hands got colder and colder. -1c! I got there when the gates opened with a lot of other budding photographers who had bigger cameras than me... and stayed for 3 hours, with a cuppa break to bring my fingers back to life. As I was leaving the place started to really full up with people, and driving out of the car park there were queues back to the main road of cars. So clearly I got the best day and the best time... hope you like my pictures.

Apple crumble cupcakes

Week 38. Bake 38.

As I have been driving to work this week I have seen a sign about PYO apples. And so as I was up at 7:30 this morning (I know, a totally shocking time on a Saturday morning) I decided to pop along. I presumed (as there was no website to check) that it would open at 9am, so driving along at 9:15am past the sign in my little car this morning I happened to notice it was 10am it opened. So instead of going to the outlet centre and spending money I don't have, I decided to go for a walk up Glastonbury Tor. And so I walked up the Tor, I actually over took someone and enjoyed the view over somerset in the early morning. I finally found the apple orchard and rolled my little car onto the farm and found out there were over 10 varieties of apples to choose from. I picked at least one of everything but put them all in the same bag so have no clue which apple is which variety. Anyway, by 11am I had been up Glastonbury Tor, had ran into some children from my school, picked 6.5kg of apples and was back at home with a cuppa.

So this weeks back is again to celebrate autumn. I love autumn and this week has definitely felt like it!

Ingredients: (makes 6)

• 90g of plain flour
• 10g of corn flour
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• 3/4 tsp of baking powder
• 1 egg
• 90g of caster sugar
• 3/4 tsp of vanilla essence
• 60ml of milk
• splash of lemon juice
• 60ml of vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 apple
• splash of apple juice
• 75g of unsalted butter (for the icing)
  
• icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp of cinnamon (for the icing)
• 100g of plain flour
• 50g of butter
• 25g of sugar
• a sprinkle of brown sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c.
2. In a bowl sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. In a jug measure out the milk and add some lemon juice and leave for five minutes.
   
4. Now, in a separate bowl, beat the egg with a whisk and then add in the sugar and beat.
5. Add in the vanilla essence and the vegetable oil and beat.
6. Now beat in a third of the flour mixture, then a third of the milk and keep alternating between the two until it is incorporated.
7. Divide the mixture into the cupcake cases, they need to be about 3/4 full.
   
8. Now bake for 15-20 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, peel and core the apple and chop into chunks. Put in some water and the apple juice and stew until the apple is soft.
10. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and cool on a cooling rack.
    
11. Now make the crumble mix, rub the butter into the flour then add in the sugar. Put in a baking dish and sprinkle some brown sugar over the top then bake in the oven until golden brown.
    
12. Make the icing by beating butter and icing sugar together with 1/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon (add more if you like, but I like mine to be subtle).
    
13. It is now time to assemble your cupcakes.
    
14. Cut the core out of the cupcakes and fill with the stewed apple.
    
15. Pipe the icing over the cupcake into a swirl.
    
16. Now break up the crumble topping and sprinkle over the top of the cupcake.
    
17. Finally dust the cupcake with a sprinkle of cinnamon.
    
18. And eat with a cuppa (because everything is better with a cuppa)

Spiced apple and raisin croustade

Week 37, Bake 37.

So this week I have been back at my lovely job and it has been the first week back at school for all the kids. The good news I received this week was that on Monday I will be now working 4 days a week! Which of course is really exciting and so I didn't do my bake on Wednesday as I decided to enjoy my last Wednesday off (till half term!) and I went back to Stourhead. I can now say that I am well and truly in love with Somerset. As one of my favourite old books says: "There is probable no English county so underrated as Somerset. All too seldom does one hear it mentioned as one of the great beauty spots of the West... Certainly there is more scenic variety to be found in Somerset than in any other part of the West - moorland, hilscape, romantic coastal reaches, coombes, woodlands, flats all are here." (Lovely Britain, P.E. Barnes)

Anyway enough of my dreamy talk about a beautiful county, here is this weeks bake. I have never made filo pastry before and doubt I will do again, but it was a technical challenge which I tried and didn't fail at.
Ingredients:

• 300g of strong white bread flour
• pinch of salt
• 30g of unsalted butter (melted)
• 150ml of water
• 1 egg
• 6 cooking apples
• 50g of unsalted butter
• 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon
• 75g of raisins
• 2 tablespoons of honey (runny)
• 100g of brown sugar
• Icing sugar to dust

Method:

1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the centre.
   
2. Mix the water, egg and butter in a jug and beat it together. Now pour it into the well and using your hands bring the sticky dough together and knead it in the bowl until it comes away from the sides easily.
3. Now turn it out onto a floured work surface and work until the dough comes away from your hands. Then knead it like you would if you were making bread. You really want the gluten to get stretched. Once it is smooth and elasticated, cover and let it rest on the work surface for 15-30 minutes.
   
4. Meanwhile, peel and core the apples then pop them into a frying pan with some melted butter. On a low heat let them soften.
   
5. Now add in the raisins, cinnamon, honey and sugar and wack up the heat so that the sugar melts and starts to caramelise.
6. Don't let the apples break up too much and once soft and slightly sticky, remove from the heat and allow to cool.
   
7. Now it is the hard part, stretching out the pastry. You will want the pastry to measure 80x80cm stretched out in one sheet. I did this on my dining room table and used a bed sheet to make sure it didn't stick to the table or dry out. I think you could also use your table covered in cling film as this may give you some grip. Stretch out the dough with your hands then when it becomes too big, lay it on the table and continue stretching it out. I used melted butter and a pastry knife to make sure it didn't dry out.
   
8. Pre-heat the oven to 190c.
   
9. Once at the correct size cover with cling film to make sure it doesn't dry out and then cut a section of the pastry (20x40cm) to work with. Brush the melted butter on both sides them place it into the tin (a 23cm spring form tin) with the edges over hanging. Do with 5 more times making sure the whole of the tin is covered.
   
10. Now once there are 6 rectangles in the tin, spoon in your apple mixture. The fold the sides of the pastry over to cover the top. Use any left over pastry to decorate the top and then glaze the pastry with more melted butter and some brown sugar.
    
11. Bake for 30 minutes until golden and crisp.
    
12. Dust a bit of icing sugar on top and serve with fresh cream.
    

October

Well, I apologise for not writing a blog for AGES, there is no excuse as I have only been slightly busy. Anyway so here is a blog about the flower arrangements I have been making for my parents Bed and Breakfast. Another idea from Martha Stewart I recently found was a pumpkin vase...









So here is how to do it...

1. This time I decided to use squashes however I do warn against this as squashes are very hard to carve. Use pumpkins, so much easier and the effect is the same. So, carve the top off your pumpkin and scoop out the seeds and flesh (use the flesh to make pumpkin soup).

2. Put either a small pot in the pumpkin or I used a freezer bag in the centre and fill it up with water.

3. Now start arranging your flowers. Make sure you hide the tub or freezer bag by arranging flowers over them.

And finally here is our family carved pumpkins, left is my aunt Jane's, middle left is my bothers, middle right my dads and right is mine... Happy Halloween.

Also, thank you to everyone who has been visiting my blog from Ikea Hackers.

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Fig and Apple Jam

Today we picked our apple harvest. 106 pounds (48kg) worth of apples. So we decided to use some of them to make fig and apple jam to add to my parents jam menu at their Bed and Breakfast. So here is the recipe I used for the fig and apple jam, which I found on google.

Ingredients:

• 1lb of figs, diced.
  
• 2 cooking apples (approx 1/2 a lb), peel, cored, diced.
• Juice of 3 lemons
• Grated rind of one lemon
• 2 cups (500ml) of white sugar

What to do:

1. Place the chopped apples and figs in a large heavy base pan. Add the lemon juice and rind and cook gently over a medium heat.
   
2. When the figs are very soft and the apple is mushy add the sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Bring to the boil and boil until the jam has reached its setting point (check this by the saucer test or using a thermometer until it reaches 105 degrees).
4. Ladle into clean jars.

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I love Autumn

I really love Autumn, the cool sunny days, the wind rushing through the trees, the television programs suddenly get better and the best thing about autumn is the fashion! I have never really been one for the flip flops and swim wear of summer, I prefer my boots, a chunky scarf and my lovely 20's style cloche hat.

Anyway, even though I have no money, I still love to buy the fashion magazines and it turns out that this autumn 1940's (typical when I have no money) and Fair Isle knits are in fashion. It seems that I am either ahead of the trend (or far behind it) as for the last two years I have knitted two Fair Isle jumpers. So here are the pictures of my first jumper, if you want the pattern to make your own, I found it here.I shall put the pictures of my other Fair Isle knit up another day as I don't want to bore you...

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