You Win Some, You Lose Some

Sometimes Things Go Pear-Shaped

As you know, I enjoy baking and usually things turn out well. Last month (16th March) things went pear-shaped when I attempted to make what should have been a delicious, caramel-flooded sticky pear and ginger cake from my Norfolk cookbook. I carefully weighed the ingredients, I followed the instructions to a T so I'm not sure what caused the problem. First of all, you have to make caramel which will sit in the bottom of the baking tin. Unsalted butter was specified for the cake batter but not for the caramel. As I was short of unsalted butter, I used salted butter for the caramel. The other ingredient was soft dark brown sugar. I melted the two ingredients together and stirred but the mixture seemed too thick and grainy, and it was too salty. 

Once the caramel had set in the baking tin, I placed pear halves over it before getting on with the batter. This contained chopped pears, chopped crystallised ginger and ground ginger. I checked the oven settings - correct - and put the cake in to bake. When the time was up, I tested the batter and it wasn't quite ready. I gave the cake another fifteen minutes, tested it again and it seemed to be okay. I let it sit for twenty minutes and then went to turn it out on to my cake stand. Disaster struck. The caramel had remained hard and the batter hadn't cooked all the way through after all. Disappointed. It was supposed to have been the dessert at our St Patrick's Day lunch. The spouse and I were somewhat under the weather and so didn't have the energy to make anything else. The spouse had to dash down to a local bakery to buy some festive cupcakes. There were some edible parts of the pear and ginger cake and they were tasty, but I think I will associate this cake with disappointment. 

Minestrone for Life

Minestrone: stage 1

The spouse and I have been ill for a couple of weeks and have barely had enough energy for getting through the working week and tending to the younger offspring, let alone having time for trying out new recipes. Anyway, yesterday (Saturday 9th April) I decided to try to shake off the lassitude I've been feeling. I checked my list of recipes that I'd like to try and decided to make minestrone and raspberry Bakewell tart using the recipes from Complete Comfort Food and the Norfolk's Own Cookbook, respectively.

Minestrone: stage 2

I didn't get around to using the minestrone recipe in The Soup Book - I'm not sure why. Complete Comfort Food claims that minestrone is packed full of vegetables to give the system a vitamin boost, as well as being hearty and warming. This version is certainly packed with vegetables: celery, carrot, French beans, courgette, potato, Savoy cabbage, aubergine and tomatoes. Once chopped, the onion, celery and carrot are stir fried together, then the other ingredients are added at different stages. At a later stage you add vermicelli. I couldn't find vermicelli while shopping so used spaghetti. I've just read that in Italy vermicelli is slightly thicker than spaghetti but in the USA spaghetti is thicker than vermicelli! And there's even a National Pasta Association in the States!

Surprisingly, the minestrone recipe called for the addition of home-made pesto (fresh basil leaves, a clove of garlic, pine nuts, grated Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses, and olive oil). The addition of pesto saved the soup from being rather bland.

Minestrone: ready to eat

The younger offspring took himself out to lurk in the locality with friends. I had told him I'd be making minestrone for dinner and, much to my surprise, he didn't know what it was. On his return from lurking, he said to me, "A couple of my friends said that minestrone is quite good." Aah! How sweet. He enjoyed it. 

The husband and I had the left-overs for lunch today. He added spinach to his for an extra vitamin boost. 

Does anyone remember this song - Life is a Minestrone - by 10CC?



Bakewell Tart: Well Baked or Overbaked?

I have loved Bakewell tart since my school days when it featured occasionally on the school pudding roster (other items being milk puddings, jam roly poly, and treacle pudding). For the pastry the Norfolk cookbook's recipe requires flour, sugar, butter, seeds from half a vanilla pod and 1 medium egg yolk. Check. I made the pastry but was alarmed by how dry the dough was after I'd mixed in the egg yolk. After chilling for at least 45 minutes as stated, I knew the pastry would need some further moisture. I was able to roll it out but handle to handle it carefully into the baking tin. Another 15 minutes of chilling and it was time to spread raspberry conserve over the pastry. Then ... there was more chilling. 

Now I was able to start making the frangipane: unsalted butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds and 5 medium eggs. I poured this mixture into the pastry case - no more chilling - and began baking. After 20 minutes I took the tart out of the oven, studded the frangipane with fresh raspberries, sprinkled the top with flaked almonds, and covered the lot with baking parchment. Now, according to the recipe only another 20-30 minutes was needed to finish off. After 40 minutes the frangipane was still soft so I covered the tart with foil and gave the tart another 30 minutes. The end result was a light pudding - a little sweeter than I would have expected but tasty all the same. 

Apparently, Bakewell tart developed as a variant of Bakewell pudding and there is no evidence that it originated from Bakewell in Derbyshire. This article about making the perfect Bakewell tart (by Felicity Cloake in The Guardian, April 2013) is informative. I would like to make Bakewell tart again but I don't think I'll use the Norfolk recipe. 


Bees in Books 

I've been continuing to note references to bees and honey when reading novels. Here's a small selection from my recent reading: 

Dinah Jefferies' The Tea Planter's Wife: 

Then Naveena had brought in hot goat's milk, sweetened with bee honey as opposed to jaggery, she had explained, before saying goodnight with a charming smile.

Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections: 

Denise's voice and Enid's voice in the kitchen were like a larger bee and a smaller bee trapped behind a window screen. 

Robert Harris' Imperium: 

Excusing himself from his bemused guests, [Vibius] led us inside to his tablinum and opened up his strongbox. Among the [items], there was a little packet of letters marked 'Verres', and as Cicero broke it open, Vibius's face bore an expression of utter terror. ...
At first sight, it was nothing much - merely some correspondence from a tax inspector, ... who was responsible for collecting export duty on all goods passing through Syracuse harbour. The letters concerned one particular shipment of goods ... upon which Verres had failed to pay any tax. The details were attached: four hundred casks of honey, ...

Now it's time to finish up for today. 

Minnie