Christmas Traditions – December 2019

For our December event this year, our bakers shared their Christmas baking traditions with us.

On the savoury side, it seems sausage rolls are a hit with our bakers at Christmastime (right in step with this year’s Christmas Number 1) as we had three different kinds!  Heather gave us Christmas sausage rolls complete with ham, sage and rum-soaked raisins (mmmmmmmm….) which remind her of her family’s annual Christmastime trip to her favourite restaurant in Keswick.  Chelsea made her chestnut and apple stuffing into a sausagemeat plait (it’s the only thing she’s cooked every single Christmas since was first introduced to stuffing that didn’t come out of a packet by one of her University housemates).  And Jan made her family favourite vegetarian sausage rolls (filled with all manner of tasty things including mushrooms, walnuts, onions, sundried tomatoes) into a beautiful Christmas wreath.  Move over Great Christmas Bake Off!

Mandy introduced us to Jerusalem Kodafa – a kind of cheesecake made with a cous cous base and flavoured with pistachios and honey.  Apparently it’s one of the few foods associated with the Jewish festival of Hannukah that isn’t deep fried!

Taking us into Europe, we had Marina’s traditional Lebkuchen (German spiced biscuits) and Cat impressively managed to produce Panforte, the Italian Christmas classic containing honey, nuts and dried fruit which originates from Siena and is notoriously difficult to bake.  For an interesting history of panforte, see this link:  https://www.thespruceeats.com/panforte-ancient-christmas-sweet-from-siena-4082544

Tina also went with those warm spiced festive flavours, giving us gingerbread biscuits, traditionally baked in her house to accompany the decorating of the tree.  In a twist on the traditional though, we had Gingerbread Darleks – because there’s always a Dr Who Christmas Special!  Finally, Faye took us back into more traditional territory with an elegant Christmas Cake.

We hope you enjoyed your Christmas baking too.  We’re back in the New Year with our Something New event on Tuesday 14^th January.  A chance to try out a new recipe, work with a new ingredient or perhaps try a new piece of kit.

The full list of Christmas Traditions bakes was:

Heather – Christmas Sausage Rolls

Jan H – Vegetarian Sausage Christmas Wreath

Chelsea – Chestnut and Apple Stuffing Sausagemeat Plait

Mandy – Jerusalem Kodafa with Pistachio and Honey

Cat – Panforte

Marina – Lebkuchen

Tina – Gingerbread Darleks

Faye – Traditional Christmas Cake

Summer Lovin’ – August 2019

This month we celebrated the flavours and occasions of summer, with bakes featuring fresh tastes of seasonal fruit and veg and reminding us of picnics.  It seems we are fairly similar in our tastes, with two impressive pies, and also two variations on the Lemon Drizzle cake!

We enjoyed a good balance of sweet and savoury.  Jane served her traditional pork pie with homemade chutney and piccalilli whilst Cat’s monster Three Bird Picnic Pie featured cherries: one of her favourite ingredients and of course only available for a few short weeks during the summer.

 

 

There was a real labour of love from Tracey who made her own puff pastry for her elegant Courgette and Pea tart and a colourful and tasty Beetroot, Spinach and Goats Cheese Tart from Chelsea.

 

On the sweet side, we enjoyed a Lemon & Elderflower Drizzle Cake to contrast with a Courgette & Lemon Drizzle Cake and a straight Courgette Cake, and an unusual but very moreish Banana Loaf with Almonds.

As Sue had a glut of cucumbers, she also kindly bought along an extra of cucumber smoothie made with cucumbers and yoghurt for us to sample.  It made for a really refreshing drink.

The full list of bakes was:

Jane – Pork Pie with Chutney and Piccalilli

Tracey – Courgette and Pea Tart with Homemade Puff Pastry

Cat – Three Bird Picnic Pie with Cherries

Chelsea – Beetroot, Goats Cheese and Spinach Tart

Sue – Courgette Cake

Tina – Lemon & Elderflower Drizzle Cake

Faye – Courgette & Lemon Drizzle Cake with Poppyseeds and Banana Loaf with Almonds

Next month we celebrate our 2^nd Birthday with a Famous Doubles event!  See our Events page for full details of what’s coming up.

A Tribute to the Great British Bake Off (October meeting)

The theme for our October Meeting was ‘A Tribute to the Great British Bake Off’, with our bakers invited to make any of the recipes which have featured on the show in the past.  It certainly inspired everyone, with some lovely bakes produced, although one of our number (who shall remain nameless) confessed to never having actually seen Bake Off – we were shocked!  We also welcomed three new bakers this month as well; so good to see even more new faces joining us.

Between us we managed to produce a wider variety of bakes than last month, with a good mix of both sweet and savoury dishes on offer.

Our tribute to The Great British Bake Off

We basically enjoyed a three course meal, starting with Tracey’s excellent fougasse bread served with oil and vinegar for dipping, having an appetiser of Chelsea’s lamb, apple and rosemary sausage rolls with homemade puff pastry before indulging in a slice of Cat’s magnificent game pie with its amazing hot water crust.  We were spoilt for choice with dessert (although of course we tried them all!) – Mandy’s Chocolate Orange layer cake, Vicky’s Frosted Walnut cake, Faye’s Grapefruit and Ginger Meringue Pie and Bailey’s unusual Fresh Fig and Earl Grey cake.

Bake Off Bakes

Some of us even managed to accidentally reproduce similar conditions to those found in the actual Bake Off tent.  Cat can vouch for the fact that a game pie does indeed produce a lot of liquid, Chelsea learnt that there are no shortcuts with puff pastry and Faye that toasting meringue is a very delicate job requiring total and undivided attention.  Tracey produced her fougasse under a very tight timescale strongly resembling a typical Paul Hollywood Technical Challenge, having forgotten to start her dough the night before and therefore getting up extra early in the morning to prove her dough before work!

As lovely as our September cake fest was, this time I really enjoyed indulging in some savouries before hitting the sugar.  Somehow it seemed to allow more room for seconds too…