A Stack O' Stotties

The older I get, the more Geordie I appear to be getting. And since getting my mixer, resplendent with its dough hook, i've been trying to make more bread (although bread making is often delayed whilst I end up wandering around my kitchen, making myself giggle by pretending to be a pirate with the dough hook) So it's amazing really that I've never yet gotten round to making my own stottie cakes yet. But, tonight, I made my first attempt.

For those of you of a Southern disposition, you may well have no idea what I'm on about. The stottie is one of the shining lights of Geordie cuisine. Within its fluffy, dense interior is the inimitable feeling of home. 

Stotties bread is only proved once, giving it a dense, beautifully soft texture. It's like the marshmallow of the bread world. It's particularly good at soaking up liquids, so great for a bacon sarnie as the sauce (brown, obviously) and fat soaks into the bread. Traditionally, it was make by housewives on baking day, as they used to take a section of dough after first proving to bake straight away for their man's bait (that means lunch, by the way, not some weird northern mating ritual). Off the man would go, down the pit, with his ham and pease pudding stottie in hand.

So anyway, my first attempt at them went alright. I tried to make them smaller than a usual, plate-sized stottie, and I probably made them too thick. I left some of them in the oven a little too long as well, so they started getting a crust, although this certainly isn't unpleasant, just not very traditional. 

And here, dear friends, are My First Stotties: 

One ha'penny, Two ha'penny...

The weather seems to be getting a wee bit better, giving me some hope that spring is around the corner.

So, it was time to do some spring baking last weekend. I've never made hot cross buns before so boyf and I decided to give it a shot. 

Baking attempts were somewhat hampered by the fact that his car broke, so what with all the proving and everything, hot cross bun making turned into quite a lengthy adventure. I must admit to finding myself wondering if all the effort was worth it, when you can just buy ready made hot cross buns and they're even on buy one get one free.

The end result was rather tasty, and although they didn't look perfect, they did have some rustic charm. We used this BBC Good Food recipe. And i have to say that toasted, with melty butter, they did justify all the hoohah to make them.

Stir Up Saturday and Sunday

Hi all,

I'm so behind on blogging, I really do apologise. So now it is time to do some serious catching up!

A few weekends ago I decided I would have my own little Stir-Up Sunday, although it was actually Saturday, and it spilled over into the sunday anyway.

I made christmas puddings, to Nigella's recipe. I am very pleased with myself for managing to avoid the disaster which occurred last year, which led to the destruction of one christmas pudding, one steaming pot, and one rather pricey Jamie Oliver pan. This time I kept a keen eye on them while they were steaming and made sure no melting happened.

This year's puds seem to have a much better colour than when i've made them in the past. Last time I used cointreau and they were quite er, potent shall we say. This year, I invested in some sherry, so they should be a bit more gentle on the taste buds.

Then I also made stollen. A long time ago i was a pre-reg pharmacist working in a hospital, and there was a German pharmacist working there. She brought some stollen in, and I loved it, so demanded the recipe. I remember her telling us the recipe off the top of her head, then she said "You'll never be able to make it properly without being actually German" (I do think she was kidding).

Anyway, I've made stollen every year since to that recipe and it's pretty much always a triumph/ What that you say? You want the recipe? Well only if you are very, very good.

I always make huge quantities of the stollen mixture, then get a bit scared by the fact that it appears to attempt to take over the whole kitchen after proving.

And here they are in all their Fresh-Out-The-Oven glory. This time I made one big one and two little ones. One will probably be accompanying me to work at some point, as i've been getting requests for stollen already from my colleagues.

Hayley xxx

POST- CHRISTMAS UPDATE:

The Christmas puddings were an absolute triumph. My family really enjoyed one on Christmas day, and even my Grandma, who is very vocal about not liking Christmas pudding, tried some and declared it yummy. The boyf and I had our own little Christmas Dinner also when he came up after Christmas, and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy his generous portion with ice cream!

Soda Bread again

Hiya,

today i have made two loaves of soda bread. i made one white loaf, and one wholemeal. I think i am perfecting this recipe now. Still used golden syrup, which i think actually does work rather nicely. 

Two loaves of soda bread joy

I'm going to have a very nice tea tonight of chicken soup with home made soda bread. Nomnomnom!

There will be more interesting posts next week, I promise.

Hayley xxx

Soda Bread

Hi my lovelies,

Why did no one ever tell me how easy soda bread is to make? From now on i will whip up a loaf every.... ah, well maybe not that often, but it's really not much of a faff at all, and is really, rather good to snaffle down with a little bit of butter, or some jam, or some peanut butter. And it makes blummin lovely bacon sandwiches.

Ok, so its really not the prettiest, but it was really very yummy and comforting, and there is a supreme amount of satisfaction and domestic goddess type smugness in eating home-baked bread.

I used Lorraine Pascal's recipe, which can be found here. There were a couple of tweaks, as i made an impromptu decision to make this so had to make do with what i had in the cupboards. So i used warm milk with lemon juice instead of buttermilk, and golden syrup in place of treacle.

Hayley xxx

Bread Baking Battle Verdict

Well, the results are in for the bread making bake off.

AND I WIN!!!!

Ok, so the judge was my friend Nancy, who may have been slightly concerned at the idea of weeks of permanent foul mood induced by my losing my baking crown, but hey, I still won! 

And we did everything properly, sending anonymised pictures to her to judge so she didnt know which was which when she made her decision.

So I present to you, dear people, the winning foccacia:

And here is The Boy's runner up effort (which I have to say is very impressive, and probably a more worthy winner than mine, but that's not the point)

Note the kitchen paper backgrounds to blind the results for the judge. We took this competition seriously, you know.

The recipe I used was from the very wonderful Lorraine Pascal, and can be found here.

And as an extra special bonus (and to buy me a few more moments of smugness in my success), here are some more photos of the baking process

I have also made some soda bread tonight, but i'm now too full of fresh focaccia to write a post about that right now.

Love and joy to the world, for I am a winner,

Hayley xxxx

A Bread Baking Battle Begins

Who's silly idea was this? Oh, mine.

I am typing this as a way to pass the time whilst nervously waiting for some bread to prove.

I wanted to bake something today, the Boyf also wanted to bake something today. He is in London, I am in Newcastle. So in a moment of confidence, I suggested we both bake the same thing in a bake-off type fashion, and we decided on some focaccia bread because that was on the Great British Bake-Off the other night.

We have independent judges and everything.

Now i'm thinking, a lot is riding on this. My reputation as a baking queen vs he who has never made bread, females vs males, Northerners vs Southerners. Pressure indeed. Its been years since i've bothered making my own bread.

Results, recipes etc to follow.

Eeep!