So, I am up at some unGodly hour on a Sunday morning in an attempt to get some free time and stop me from annoying Him Indoors into getting out of bed and commencing the cleaning and cooking. No, Miss Crafty is not a houseproud culinary goddess who thinks the weekends are perfect for whipping the house into shape while making a Sunday roast fit for kings… Miss Crafty is a stressed-out ball of tiredness, sat in a mess-bomb of a flat that will be home to a dinner for Him Indoors parental units this very evening! Ahhh, see, now you get the idea.

Anyway, in preparation for this event I spent yesterday getting sweaty over baking as opposed to more basic stuff like cleaning the loo (he can do that whenever he surfaces) and tried to find a banana bread recipe to rival the one lost in the great laptop debacle of 2007 and also whipped up a rather unsuccessful Torta di Mele (more about that later).

For the banana bread I made a few adjustments to the recipe (as you do) but will explain as and when necessary. If you try it yourself be sure and pop back and add a comment with any tips for improvement.

Ingredients:

• 250g of Plain Flour
• 2g of Baking Soda (I thought that was a weird amount so just added a sprinkle in)
• 200g of Caster Sugar (In the end I went with 150g Caster + 50g Soft Brown)
• 1 Egg
• 75ml of Milk (I think next time I will leave this out)
• 5g of Baking Powder (unsure why you would use this as well as BS)
• 3g of salt
• 110g of Butter/Marg (I used good old Stork)
• 225g of mashed Bananas (I used 2 and a half, I think using 3 and not the milk would work better)
• 60g of chopped Walnuts (I leave these out as hate nuts but that may explain the overly moist cake)
• Dash (how technical of me) of Vanilla Essence (I just add this to most cakey things)

So, start off by creaming together the butter and the sugar, I always mix by hand but whatever you want to use is fine with me. Once it has a nice smooth paleness to it, slowly add the lightly beaten egg and banana. I like to alternate between egg and banana, just a little at a time. Into this mixture add the dash of vanilla essence and then gently add the dry ingredients, sifting in in batches (ie. don’t tip them all in and hope you won’t get lumps). At this point the recipe said to add the milk (which I did) but it really didn’t look as if it needed it and has come out a bit more doughy tasting than I would have liked. However, feel free to give it a whirl and perhaps bake a little longer…oh, bake, yes, you should have your oven on by now(!), pre-heated to 175c. Also, add the nuts if you wish (a good tip is to add about a teaspoon of flour to the nuts and gently swish them around in a bowl to coat them, this helps stop them from sinking to the bottom of your mix).

Once this is all mixed together, pour into a lined loaf tin and bake for roughly 50mins (I hate to give a set time, just bake until golden with a deep crack along the top (see photo) and a knife comes out clean when you cut into it).

 The next baking attempt was Torta di Mele (a thick apple pie). I got this recipe from culinary goddess Delia Smith in her Italian Cookbook. It’s simple enough and the lemon twist makes is seem a little bit posher than your average apple pie.

Ingredients:

Pastry

• 350g of Self Raising Flour
• 175g of cold Butter
• 2 tablespoons of Caster Sugar
• zest of half a lemon
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 2 eggs

Start off by making the pastry as it’s best to leave this in the fridge for at least half an hour (preferably overnight) before you use it. Cube the butter into the dry ingredients and rub until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Once it’s at this stage, add the lightly beaten egg gradually stirring with a fork until it binds into the pastry. Wrap in clingfilm and refridgerate until needed.

Filling:

• 900g of apples (I use half Cox and half Bramley, for this pie I used one bramley apple and 3 cox)
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
• zest of half lemon
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Peel and core the apples before slicing into slices approx 1cm thick. While slicing these pop into a bowl with ice cold water and the lemon juice (to stop from browning). Once you’ve sliced all the apples, take out the pastry and roll  2/3 to approx half a cm thick and line a 8″ springform cake tin (a deep one). Take out the apples and pat dry with kitchen roll before layering inside the pie with sprinkles of the sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest. Once filled, roll out the remaining pastry to form a lid of the same thickness and pierce two holes in the top. Pop in an oven pre-heated to 200c for 45-50mins.

 Enjoy!

Posted: February 24th, 2008 under Recipes.
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Thanks to losing a whole bunch of my favourites from my laptop a few months ago I am desperately seeking a replacement recipe for banana bread/loaf. Any you guys can recommend?

EDIT: OK, I found one that looks like it might do the trick. Test run this weekend. Will let you know how it turns out.

Posted: February 19th, 2008 under Recipes.
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Having lost all inspiration when it comes to locating the perfect gift this Christmas I have been checking out the following DIY Gifts for the Holidays article and getting my bake on.

Simply buying some nice cake tins and filling them full of cakes and treats for those you visit over Xmas and New Year make a nice gift, which not only helps them feed the masses, but also gives them something nice to keep for the rest of the year.

A particularly popular favourite are chocolate chip cookies, which I baked tonight to take into work tomorrow for the guys who keep me supplied with tea the rest of the year.

Here’s the recipe:

• 113g Unsalted butter (room temp)
• 100g of Caster Sugar
• 100g of Soft Brown Sugar
• 1 large Egg
• 1tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
• 210g Plain Flour
• Half teaspoon of Baking Powder
• Pinch of salt
• 135g of choc chips (I prefer chopping a large block of Dairy Milk!)

1) Preheat the oven to 170c/Gas Mark 5. Line two baking sheets with baking paper and set aside.

2) In a bowl cream together the butter with the white and brown sugar until fluffy (approx 2 mins). Note you can do this with an electric mixer but I’m old school and do all my baking by hand. Beat in the egg gradually and then add the vanilla extract and mix until blended in.

3) In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add these ingredients to the other mixture and beat until well mixed. Add the chocolate about halfway through the mixing.

4) This should leave you with quite a moist dough. Whatever you do, do not panic and add more flour to dry it out, you will just end up with brick hard cookies (believe me!). The dough is fine moist as these cookies are the soft type like you find in Millies, not the crunchie biscuit types.

5) Spoon the mix into ball shapes on to the prepared baking sheets and bake for about 14 minutes until they are golden brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack before storing.

NOTE: You can freeze any spare dough. Form the dough into balls and place on a lined baking sheet. Freeze the sheet and then once frozen place the balls in a plastic bag and return to the freezer. When it’s time to bake, just place the frozen balls of dough on a sheet into the oven and increase the baking time by a few minutes. Bingo!

Posted: December 12th, 2007 under Recipes.
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Well, it’s been a suitably crafty week here at shescrafty HQ. I have been quietly beavering away on a gift for Him Indoors for our impending New York adventure (we leave on Friday!). I managed to complete it earlier this afternoon but cannot post details of it here for fear of him seeing it before it’s official unveiling.

 So, instead I give you some other things I have made this weekend. Scones! Yup, in my recent conversion from skateboarding tomboy to domestic goddess (in training) I seem to have developed into a slightly taller and hopefully less wrinkly version of my late grandmother. It’s true that many of my morals, viewpoints and aspirations came from her and she’s the only woman I knew to have a fabric cupboard to rival my own. Sundays were baking day at my granny’s and the whole house would smell of the most wonderful creations.

 Unfortunately, I’m not quite into the hours of mass production that she was. Instead I love the fact that to rustle up a batch of scones takes 30mins from gathering the ingredients to chomping down on a warm one (ooh err!).

 These days I’ve also become quite the penny-pincher and the mere pence it takes to bake my own cakes as opposed to buying them is staggering. I’ve not quite reached the stage of making my own jam to go with them, but who knows what will happen next year.

For those who wish to make their own, I use this simple recipe which makes about 5-6 decent size scones:

• 225g of Self Raising Flour
• 1 level teaspoon of Baking Powder
• 40g of Butter
• 50g of Raisins (optional)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Caster Sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 150ml of milk

Sieve the the flour and the baking power into a bowl. Rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar, salt and raisins. Stir in the milk with a knife. Roll out to approx one inch thick. Cut into rounds. Cook in an oven at about 225 degrees celsius for around 12mins or until golden, just ike the beauties above that I made earlier (I’ve always wanted to say that!).

Posted: September 16th, 2007 under Recipes.
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