GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF SEASON 11

  I cant even tell you HOW EXCITED I AM  for Season 11 of GBBO to hit netflix this Friday!

I am a HUGE fan.   Across the pond they will have access to it 3 days earlier every week, which is going to be SO HARD TO IGNORE SPOILERS!!

What we know so far (here in America anyways)

Steely Eyed Silver Fox and King of Bread Paul Hollywood, and queen of bright color blocking and chunky necklaces Prue Leith are back as main judges.   SO watch out for the claggy bakes, soggy bottoms, booze up the desserts and make those calories worth it!

Everyones favorite shag haircut emo comedian Noel Fielding is returning as host.  A familiar face we are missing this year is sweet little Sandi Toksvig, who left GBBO to focus on other projects.

Replacing Sandi is a familiar face to some, Matt Lucas. (my family knows him as Nardole from Dr Who).  Apparently he is a GBBO enthusiast and rumor has it that on first day of filming made himself sick taste testing everyones bakes! 

Format will remain the same . Round One, signature bake.  Each contestant makes their best version of whatever that weeks theme is.  

 Round 2, blind technical.  Paul and Prue choose a rather difficult item for the contestants to make (sometimes it is quite obscure), give them limited instructions (usually it will just say "bake", but no temps or times.  Or Make creme pat but no recipe...really testing contestants knowledge of baking) and then blind taste test each one and rate them on how well they understand the science behind baking.  

3rd Round is showstopper. Each contestant goes all out and really wows the judges with their creations.  (remember Paul Jagger's  bread lion everyone??)

Each episode one contestant gets awarded star baker, and one contestant goes home.

So here is the lineup for season 11:

DAN: AGE 30. Armoured Guard from Hampshire  Strengths lie in bread and clean decoration

HERMINE:  AGE 39.  Accountant originally from Benin, West Africa, currently living in London. Love of high end patisserie!

LAURA: AGE 31.  digital Manager from Kent. Loves strong flavors and putting modern twists on old favorites.

LINDA: AGE 61.  Retirement Living Team Leader from East Sussex. Strengths are classics and home comfort cooking

LORIEA: AGE 27. Diagnostic Radiographer from  Durham. Rarely follows a recipe and makes jamaican food

LOTTIE: AGE 31. Pantomime Producer from East Sussex with a dark sense of humor and is a perpetual perfectionist

MAKBUL: AGE 51.  Accountant from Greater Manchester. Great at pastries and loves to incorporate honey from his own hives into his baking.

MARC: AGE 51  Bronze resin sculptor from Cornwall. After losing a leg in a motorbike accident, took up baking bread as a form of therapy. 

MARK: AGE 32  Project Manager from Liverpool. His baking style is influenced by his irish heritage and he has an affinity for african and asian flavors as well!

PETER: AGE 20  Accounting and finance student from Edinburgh. Also a competitive badminton player, Peter has been cooking seriously since he was 12. He loves to use traditional scottish ingredients whenever he can.

ROWAN: AGE 55 Music Teacher from Worcestershire. Passionate about french patisserie, he also has a love or recreating 18th century Georgian era recipes. He loves to use flowers in his decorations.

SURA: AGE 31. Pharmacy Dispenser from London. iddle eastern and asian influences is a hallmark of her food. Loves to improvise and inject personality into each recipe and particularly enjoys fragrant floral flavors like cardamom, rose and orange blossom.

Looks like a great bath, cant wait to watch and have a follow up blog post tomorrow!!

Sour Cream Cookie night!! (plus recipe) Happy Holidays Baking

I LOVE baking for Christmas.

LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
I enjoy all the mixing and prepping and frosting and sprinkling that is involved. I love coming into work every day with a plate of goodies and seeing the joy and happiness and delight in my coworkers as the sugar rush kicks in.


DISCLAIMER:
 I have always been a goodies maker/giver and it is something I really look forward to. I believe I have been this way since I was little. Not everyone has this in them, so if you don't want to give these away, who am I to judge?? There have been times I have contemplated hoarding these under my bed and retreating to my room for "a nap".

 Now, my favorite tradition of the Christmas season  is Sour Cream Cookie Night!. I have been making these since I was old enough to help out with the decorating.  My mom has been making these for as long as I can remember. And HER mom used to make them.  Grandmas cookies used to be frosted and then sprinkled with those metal ball candy things that would almost break your teeth. Good memories.

The thing I LOVE about these cookies, is the amount of sweetness.  The cookie itself is not very sweet. It is actually quite subtle. The sour cream gives it a smooth tang, and since there is only about 2 cups of sugar for the entire batch (i can get 100 cookies out of a batch, rolled thin), the sweet level is quite low.  BUT they are so tasty by themselves as well.  They aren't quite a sugar cookie, because there really isn't enough sugar in them, but they aren't a regular cookie either. Kind of a mix, really. This is a great cookie to use a sweet vanilla frosting with, because the sweet of the icing really pairs well with the mellowness of the cookie.  Just a wonderful treat.  I have brought them into work the past 3 years and when I came in with the plate this year one of them actually clapped and said "Oh yay, I was waiting for these. They're my favorite!"  Mine too.

So every year I mix up a batch of this dough and we spend an hour rolling, cutting and baking.
This year we purchased 3 tubs of frosting. A white, a red and a green.  (you can also make a powdered sugar frosting and color it yourself, but that was just waaaaaayyy too much work involved this year for me.)
The red and green came with a small variety of holiday sprinkles. We also had a carousel jar with the various sprinkles and sugars and confetti's.   We were set.

You can get anywhere from 60 to 100 cookies out of a batch of dough, it really depends on how thick you roll it.  I roll my dough somewhat thin for a little bit thinner cookie. Sometimes I will go a little thicker to get a meatier, denser bite. I used to make them REALLY thick and they would be puffy and huge, but then you almost need to add a huge wad of frosting to swallow it, because the bigger they get the drier they seem to be. If they are too thick and puffy it's almost like trying to swallow crackers with no saliva in your mouth.

a plate full of holiday goodies!

Sprinkle-y goodness!

 So get your table  set up with strategically placed tubs of frosting and sprinkles (works well with kids.)  Make sure you have plenty of napkins handy because temptation to lick your fingers will be unbearable!! If these are for your own personal pleasure, then lick away. However, I try and keep my spit to myself when making these cookies for others...(LOL Winky face)




Now on to the nitty gritty.  How much "STUFF" do you slather on??
You can add as much or as little frosting as you like. These cookies are all about personal preference.  we use a decent amount. Nothing crazy. Just enough to keep the cookie to frosting ratio equal. You can do less if you are trying to watch your sugar intake, or more if you are trying to induce a sugar coma.

You can use premade from a can(guilty), or you can make your own with powdered sugar. i don't know if you can use other flavors, I would think that a strawberry frosting would be quite tasty, and perhaps even chocolate. But traditionally we use just the white/vanilla frosting.

Keep cookies in a Tupperware or in gallon Ziploc baggies after the frosting has set. They will dry out if you leave them out in the open too long.
I am the first to admit, my kids don't have mad decorating skills, (or patience) so they aren't the prettiest. But they are still so tasty.





I ALWAYS get asked for the recipe whenever i make them for any function or goodies plate. So here it is.... THIS RECIPE IS ALL ABOUT PERSONAL PREFERENCE.  So use the smallest amount for the minimum and can tweak to a larger amount depending on what you like. remember, the thinner you roll, the more cookies you get. I use the basic christmas cookie cutter set from walmart. It has like 6 different cookie shapes, comes in a nylon mesh sac and was only 2 dollars or so.

                                                                    THE RECIPE:

2 sticks BUTTER (you can use margarine,, but butter bakes and tastes better IMO)
1 1/2 - 2 cups granulated sugar (I use about 1 2/3 cup, but that is a personal taste preference)
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream (full fat, not the fat free, it doesn't bake the same, I don't know why. I haven't had success with fat free sour cream in this recipe)
1 - 2 tsp vanilla (I use 1 1/2 tsp)

Cream all these ingredients together.

In a separate bowl combine
5 1/2  to 6 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

gradually add this flour mixture into the creamed butter/sugar. Dough will become thick, and will be slightly sticky. You can add flour a little at a time to each batch of dough you will be rolling to make it manageable if it is too sticky.
consistently flour your  rolling surface and rolling pin really well to keep dough from sticking.
Roll dough to desired thickness. I roll between 1/8 and 1/4" for thinner consistency cookies. The thicker you roll the puffier and bigger your cookies will be.

Place on greased baking sheets.
Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until Bottoms and edges are a nice golden brown.

Cool and then frost/decorate and eat!!
(or don't wait and try one warm from the oven. yuuummmmmmm)

Yet another christmas cookie recipe

Ok these are super easy, super simple Shortbread cookies.

1 cup butter, softened.
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 to 3 cups flour

cream together butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy.
Gradually add flour until you have a stiff dough. Do not overwork.

roll out to about 1/4" thick and cut into desired shapes.
Bake at 325 for 10-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

I just rolled them out and cut them into strips and then cut tham again so I had squares and rectangles.
They are just so simple and buttery and flaky and super easy to make.

Today is baking Day

Yes, today is Saturday. We went to a Breakfast in Bethlehem this morning at church. They had about 5 pounds of butter left over from their pancake breakfast, and were just going to throw it out.

We wrapped it up, brought it home and I am proceeding to spend the day making Snickerdoodles, brownies, Krispie treats and peppermint chocolate chip cookies.

totally not helping the diet, I know.

Neighbor Dorothy's Heavenly Caramel Cake

Tonight is Book Club. So in honor of LAST months book, Cant Wait To Get To Heaven by Fannie Flagg, I am making "Neighbor Dorothy's Heavenly Caramel Cake".

I will stretch my culinary acumen to their furthest limits. This recipe requires sifting, more sifting, making pastes out of flour and milk, beating, blending and mixing.
I hope these ladies realize what an effort I am making for them!! Just kidding, I have been wanting to try out this recipe for myself. ( But I will make it this morning and if it doesnt work out I will bring the old standby- peanut butterscotch rice krispie treats. I ALWAYS have a back up plan)
But for anyone interested, here is the recipe, courtesy of Fannie Flagg and Can't Wait To Get To Heaven.

1 3/4 cup cake flour, sift before measuring.
resift with 1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup soft butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp double acting baking powder
1 tsp vanilla

beat for 3 minutes and bake in a greased pan for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

FROSTING:

2 TBSP cake flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 tsp salt

over a low heat combine cake flour and milk. Cook to a thick paste and cool and set aside.
Cream sugars and vanilla with butter and shortening. Beat until Light and Fluffy.
Blend in salt. Mix in cooled paste. Beat until fluffy. SHould look like whipped cream.
Frost cooled cake and voila you have a perfectly(hopefully) delicious southern cake!

has anyone tried this recipe? Is it as good as it sounds?
Wish me luck!