Wheaten Bread

Had a go at a hand-me-down recipe for wheaten bread.  The recipe is one my Dad uses but he learnt it by watching his Aunt do it.  I did the same with my Dad a few years back but as we're in modern times I did so with my laptop open while trying to type in all the things he did.

It was a tricky.  I thought I'd easily get all the measurements down into a fool proof method but the process began like this:

Mix 2 handfuls of course wholemeal flour with 1 handful of bran...wait now...how big is a handful?  As it turned out Dad's hand lifts about 4oz of flour...which is also handy if you're baking a cake.

Anyway the rest went something like this:

Dry Mix

2 handfuls Course Wholemeal Flour

1 handful Bran or Plain Flour (Dad usually uses bran)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

Liquid Mix

Mix the following separately then add to Dry mix

2 dessert spoonfuls Molasses Cane Sugar (mixed in a little hot water to aid mixing), can be varied to taste

0.75 pint approx Butter Milk

2 dessert spoonfuls cooking oil

Add the final mixture to a greased and lined rectangular loaf tin.

Gas Mark 5, 45 mins approx

So that is what I followed tonight except I doubled everything.  I couldn't bake my Dad's old recipe without making him a loaf and the other one is for the SWOT breakfast tomorrow.

Ricotta & Orange Tart

While flicking through a colleague's magazine a couple of weeks ago this recipe stood out. I thought I'd give it a go.

Ricotta & Orange Tart

Ingredients

4 sheets of fill pastry

olive oil

500g ricotta cheese

zest of 1 orange

1tbsp of vanilla extract

100g caster sugar

4 eggs

(stewed fruit to serve)

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4.

2. Brush the insides of a 20-25cm round tin with olive oil. I used a spring form tin just so its easy to remove afterwards.

3. Use a brush to coat the filo pastry sheets and layer them up in the tin. Make sure you oil the edges as these will hang over the edge of the tin and may dry out while to do the remain next few steps.

4. Mix the ricotta cheese with the orange zest and vanilla in a bowl.

5. Beat the eggs and sugar together until fluffy.

6. Fold the beaten eggs into the cheese mix.

7. Pour the lot into the tin and fold the excess edges in. These will crisp up in the oven a look nice when you take it out.

8. Put the tin on the hob for a bit to crisp the pastry base. It'll take about 5 mins.

9. Put the tin in the oven for about 35mins.

10. Let it cool before serving.

As it was quite late when I made it I left it until the next day to eat. Unfortunately in the intervening hours it was placed in the fridge. Logically you would think that would help chill it and it probably did. But it also seemed to make the filo pastry a bit soggy.

The recipe suggested serving with stewed fruit. That might have been nice but I couldn't be bothered with that. Ended up just serving with tinned mandarin oranges!

All in all I quite enjoyed it. It reminded me a little of a dessert we get in Cyprus. But I think that because the pastry in the greek dessert is sweeter it made me miss that in this tart. Maybe some honey and rose water would add something to it. Also, if I actually made the stewed fruit then its sweetness would have come through.

I'd like to try the recipe, of derivative of it again. I'll either do the stewed fruit or the rosewater and honey in the pastry. I'd also like to try using a different cheese in the mix. The ricotta ended with a slightly graining consistency - a bit like semolina was what my Dad said. Maybe something like Philadelphia would work better?

I've got about half the filo pastry left. If I don't make this again straight away I think I'd like to make some kind of custard tart. Maybe with that confectioners custard and fruit.

Blogging Along

It is hard to believe the time between my last post and this. Maybe its because after doing all that travelling back then that I didn't have much that was terribly interesting to share.

Be that as it may I thought I'd start recording a few things here. The first will be some of my attempts at baking but I might throw a few other things in now and then.

I'll see how it goes.