No-Touch Bread | Book of Elsa

 No-Touch Bread 

Makes: 1 loaf 

• 400 grams strong white bread flour plus more for dusting 
• 1g fast-action dried yeast 
• 8g table salt 
• 350 millilitres water 

Method: 

Put all the ingredients in a bowl big enough to take everything with room to spare, this baby grows. Stir to combine using a the handle of a wooden spoon, then cover and leave in a draught free place for 18 hours, it’ll be fine up to 24 hours in winter.  

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 245°C. Place an enamel or cast iron pan with a lid in the oven for 30 minutes. 

Whilst you wait roughly shape the dough but leave it inside the bowl, cover again until 30 minutes are up. 

Take the pan out of the oven; be careful it will be scorching. Place on a heat safe surface, sprinkle flour at the bottom of the pan and turn your dough out inside. Sprinkle more flour on top, pop the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. 

Take the lid off, then bake uncovered for a further 15-30 minutes until golden brown. 

Immediately remove from pan and let cool on a rack for 30 minutes at least before you slice it. 

Turmeric & Lemon Loaf | Chetna Makan

Ingredients:

150g room temperature unsalted butter in cubes

150g caster sugar

150g plain flour 

3 large eggs

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

zest of a lemon

1 tbsp lemon juice

pinch of salt

2 tbsp black poppyseed <optional>

Icing:

50g icing sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180℃. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin having said that: I use a disposable liner.

Put the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachement and mix until it resembles softened ice cream. 

Add all other cake ingredients and  mix for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for a futher minute.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer/uncooked spaghetti/knife comes out clean. 

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 5 mintues before removing it.

Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and pour onto the cake whilst it is still warm.

Serve warm or cold.

Apple and Berry Pie | Book of Elsa

This is a weekender recipe, I don't apologise for it either. There is no way I would make this unless I had time to seriously devote to it. I give a recipe for sweet shortcrust pastry because it's worth making your own in this case. But, if you don't feel that way inclined for any reason then good all buter shop bought is fine. I would say to make the pastry dough the day before.

Lemon Cake | Book of Elsa

• Ingredients:
• Finely grated zest of 3 large lemons mixed with 3 tablespoons lemon juice 
• 350g Plain Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 225g Unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 400g Caster Sugar
• 3 Large Eggs
• 200ml Buttermilk or Whole Milk with a table juice of lemon juice added

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180℃. 

Grease and flour your choice of baking tin. Or line a tin with parchment paper.

In a stand mixer using a paddle attachment whisk the butter until fluffy. 

Add the sugar and mix until it resembles soft ice cream.

Add all other ingredients except the zest and juice mixture and mix into a smooth batter.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the zest mixture and mix for another few seconds.

Pour batter into a prepared tin and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and half. 

Cake is done when a skewer comes out clean.

place on a wire rack to cool completely.

https://youtu.be/PxVLWt3fF4M

Gluten Free Clementine Cake | Book of Elsa

This is a cake more convincing as a pudding for a dinner party, it keeps well due to the high moisture content and taste better the next day. It happens to be gluten free and you could turn it vegan by substituting the eggs for mashed ripe bananas! Which I imagine would be a delicious hybrid, not to mention 'of the moment'.

Sweet Saffron Bread with Cranberries | Book of Elsa

Sweet Saffron Bread with Cranberries

A Christmas Grinch | Book of Elsa

The forced cheerfulness, the crowds, the inevitable rain and anxiety about ones’ whole family gathering in one place can bring me out in hives if I’m perfectly honest. But I do love food and this year I’ve decided NOT to be a Grinch and it’s about time I try to embrace the Christmas spirit or just settle for finding it.
Right, so as I type it’s the 11th December and the shopping for presents is done, tick. The (real) tree is lit up, decorated and smelling lovely, tick. Oversized red stockings are on order and Amazon assures me they’re coming, tick. So far so good. However, the Christmas cheer isn’t spreading through me so much as I’m going through the motions… So last Sunday I went shopping in Manchester city centre. I wish I hadn’t, I thought the high street was dying, that no one shopped in stores anymore, that the consumer had moved online! Who were all these people?! Breathing became a challenge in one retailer such were the swarms, there was no stopping to enjoy beautiful lights; it was all elbows and rush, rush, rush. My friends and I managed a couple of hours before giving up and going home.
Which leads me nicely to this recipe: more tinkering per se rather than cooking. Please feel free to use shop bought puff or even shortcrust pastry if you’re not inclined to bring out the heavy machinery. Making mince pies is as close as I get to the spirit of the holidays and that is quite alright.

Gateaux Bananes | Book of Elsa

Believe me when I say this is the easiest snack I know. I'm not even sure it can be classified as 'recipe' per se as there are only three ingredients: bananas, flour and salt.

The bananas have to be very very ripe, mashing them with a fork. Add a pinch of salt and enough flour to bind into a something resembling a thick pancake batter. Then fry in batches using teaspoons. Eat whilst still a little warm so not to burn your mouth.

Book of Elsa

Apple Turnover | Book of Elsa

<Large> Apple and Blackberry Turnover

The large is in brackets because I was lazy and couldn't be bothered to make a couple more reasonable sized ones which would be the normal thing to do here. 

Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat at 200℃

Peel and roughly chop a couple of eating apples, I used cox but I mean please use whatever variety you want.

Add a few blackberries

Some lemon zest

2 Tablespoons of caster sugar

2 Tablespoon of ground almonds

1 Teaspoon of cornflour

Whisk a golden egg 

Roll out puff pastry into a rough circle

Pile the dry mixture on the left side of pastry; this amount is too much I took off about half, bagged it and am freezing it for next time. 

Brush the edges with the beaten egg

 Bring the right edge to the left making a half moon. 

Crimp edges with a fork 😼

Brush the top with more beaten egg, refrigerated for 30mins

Bake for 25mins.

Eat with lashes of cream or custard.

Sunday Apple Tart - Book of Elsa

Morning all,
My parents gitfted me a whole load of bramleys cooking appples, and buy gifted you understand they wanted me to bake a pie or tart out of it. For them!
Ofcourse I don't mind it's the weekend afterall, prime baking time. The recipe that follows is mine: trialled and error from years of practice.
I did however buy the pastry but if you want to make one (why???) then click for a recipe here

use butter to greas the pie dishe and line with coat to coat, lightly.

roll out the shortcrust pasty

Line the pie case with pastry and plug the holes so to speak with leftover pastry dont worry about it being neat it's meant to look homemade.

                                  Prick the pastry with a fork all over to stop it doming in the oven

Using non stick baking parchment line the base of the tart with baking beads or lentils or rice. Bake in a preheated oven at 200℃ for 10-15mins.

Take out the lentils and cool on a wire rack completely before filling.

Take a load of cooking apples

Peel 

Wash and chop 

Add the zest and juice of a clementine, 150g caster sugar and cook until mushy.

Peel and finely slice 2 eating apples and place in lemon water

Bubbling apples almost ready, take out the clementine skin

Let it cool a little off the heat

Beat an egg

Paint egg onto cooled tart shell

Fill the tart with the apple compote and add the sliced leftover apples on top

Bake for a further 10-15mins at 200℃ 

Finally, paint the tart with warm apricot jam. serve warm.