Daring bakers

Daring bakers time again, this months challenge was co-hosted by Natalie from Gluten a Go Go and Shel from Musings from the fishbowl and this was the first ever 'alternative' Daring baker's challenge.






The challenge: This was also my first savoury challenge since joining the Daring baker's, this month we had to bake Lavash crackers, the recipe came from Peter Reinhart's book 'The bread baker's apprentice' and also make a accompanying dip/ salsa/spread or relish to go with the crackers.


The rules: We really had so much leverage with this challenge,what with which seasoning or spices we added to the crackers and make whatever dip/ relish we wish.

The only strict rules we had were to make the Lavash crackers with either wheat flour or use a gluten free alternative.

All relish / salsa/ spread or dips must be vegan and gluten free.

I was really excited about this challenge, the lavash crackers were very simple to make, a lightly yeasted dough, that was difficult to knead but I got there, and the dough was wonderful to work with once it had had sufficient kneading.
The dough has to be rolled very thinly and placed on a baking sheet, we had complete freedom with out toppings/ seasoning so I used Nigella seeds (I am loving Nigella seeds at the moment) and on my second batch I used sea salt and cracked black pepper, hardly original but they tasted divine.

The big part of this challenge for me was making sure my dip was vegan and gluten free, I suppose I eat many foods that fit into both categories without realising it but it is different when I have to stick to the rules. I decided to make a dip using my favourite ingrediants red pepper, chilli, garlic and onion.

Roast pepper, chilli and garlic dip

1 1/2 red peppers
1 red chilli
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion
olive oil
salt

Heat the oven to 180c
Cut red pepper into quarters,
place in a roasting tin with the chilli (quartered), garlic cloves (skinned but left whole), onion (cut into 4) drizzle with olive oil and season well with salt.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, cool, and pulverise in the blender not to a pulp though, leave some texture.

I loved this months challenge, I have never made crackers before, but they were so easy and quick too, I also loved having a lot of freedom with the dip,it was delicious, and having the too there together were the perfect duo to have nibble on all night.

Thank you to this months host Natalie and Shellyfish, don't forget to visit their blogs where you will find this months challenge recipe and also check out the Daring baker's blogroll for more Lavash crackers.

Award time

Beautiful site award



Maria from The goddess kitchen has given me this lovely award, the 'Beautiful site' award. Thank you very much Maria it is much appreciated. Do go and look at Maria's beautiful blog.









I shall pass on this award to some beautiful sites I often visit, do go and visit them yourself.



Culinary travels of a kitchen goddess



Tea and wheaten bread



The clayton's blog

The best chocolate chunk cookies

These are my favourite cookies, crisp on the outside, soft, chewy and melting in the middle, I love them.

The recipe comes from Phil Vickery's 'A passion for puddings' this is a great book done in conjunction with Carnation milk to raise money for the charity 'Shelter'. Every recipe in the book contains Carnation condensed milk but the variety of recipes is great.

The recipe found here http://www.nestle.co.uk/OurBrands/Recipes/OldFavourites/HazelnutandChocolateCookie.htm

is the recipe Phil used for his petits fours in a hotel, they are so good, I have passed this recipe on many times and it always gets rave reviews.

I ommitted the hazelnuts and used belgium and white chocolate, the uncooked cookie dough keeps very well, infact it gets better if kept in the fridge for a few days. I must admit my version never looks like Phil's, his always look crisp, like biscuits, mine have never turned out like that but I still love them. They are especially good slightly underdone.

Chocolate orange cake

I rarely bake for myself, meaning for my own benefit. I bake for my loved ones, what they like to eat. I bake for other people, most people that come to my house end up eating cake and I like that, it is homely, welcoming and comforting.

It was a bit of treat to bake something just for me, to be truthful the reason I decided to do this was, after a disagreement with my OH I decided to annoy him and please myself by baking a favourite of mine, that he just happens to hate, chocolate orange cake. Revenge is sweet, even more so when it's sugar sweet.

I find it so strange that anyone can not like the combination of chocolate and orange, the flavours merge together brilliantly but my OH can't stand the two together.

Baking is my ME time, I love nothing more than pottering around the kitchen rustling up delicious goodies, but it was more pleasurable when the sole purpose of this was for my own pleasure.

Looking through my books I found only a couple recipes for chocolate orange cake, both from Nigella but neither did it for me, one was a store cupboard cake using a jar of marmalade and the other was based on Nigella's famous clementine cake, I didn't like the clementine cake last time and to be honest the idea of boiling oranges for hours on end didn't interest me. So I went it alone, I decided on a plain loaf cake, the best, darkest cocoa I could find and for the orange I used freshly squeezed orange juice and orange zest.

Chocolate orange cake

250g self raising flour

225g butter

175g caster sugar

50g good quality cocoa

3 large eggs, beaten

juice and zest of 3 large oranges

juice of 1 lime

Preheat the oven to 180c

Line a 2lb loaf tin.

In a mixer combine the flour, butter, sugar, cocoa and eggs.

Stir in the freshly grated orange zest.

Pour in the orange and lime juice. Mix well.

Pour into the prepared tin, bake for 1, 1/4 - 1, 1/2 hours.

A very simple recipe, and a very simple but delicious cake. Super moist, this cake was perfect with a cup of tea.

The orange flavour however wasn't as strong as I would have liked, it was very subtle, I thought adding the lime juice would have helped bring out the orange flavour, next time I think I would add a splash of cointreau or maybe a drop of orange oil...but still a wonderful treat for myself.