Sunday, March 29, 2015

Cheese Straws - Home Sweet Home Bake Along (20/100)



The more astute among you may have noticed the slightly longer break between posts. Due to a combination of illness and busy-ness, Gill and I agreed to have a little "half term" break. And we both know that cheese straws are hardly exactly high level baking, but sometimes they're just one too many things to do!


These were a slight variation on my usual method, which involved sandwiching the cheese between two layers of puff pastry - here the pastry is brushed with an egg wash and the cheese squashed into the top.


The cheese straws look better - because there is the contrast in the twist of the cheesy side and the non-cheesy side, but the cheese feels less distributed in the twists, I felt.


Also, I think I underbaked these - they could have done with being a bit browner and crispier, but they went down well at Home Group!


Ingredients:
250g puff pastry (shop bought! It's okay - even Mary Berry buys hers...)
180g gruyere cheese (I substituted this for mature cheddar), grated
60g parmesan, grated
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves (It's not thyme season, I substitued this for 1 tsp dried thyme)
salt and pepper to taste
1 large egg, beaten.

#HomeSweetHomeBakeAlong

HTML code to insert badge (copy and paste): 

 <a href="http://beckie-a.blogspot.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="http://twitchyneedles.com/homesweethome.png" border="0" height="170" width="170" alt="#HomeSweetHomeBakeAlong" /></a>  

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Peanut Brittle (Mixed Nut Brittle) - Home Sweet Home Bake Along (19/100)


Peanut brittle, such a fun throwback to the days when tuck shops could sell refined sugar and nuts. Like Mrs B, I adapted this recipe to make it more than just peanuts - I used a blend of hazelnuts, almonds, salted peanuts and walnut pieces.


The salted peanuts provided a wonderful contrast to the sweetness of the caramel. I had a little trouble getting the caramel evenly out of the pan and over all of the nuts before it started to cool to much and solidified in the pan.


It did ooze about generally, though, so only a few nuts were not "glued" properly, but some of my difficulties might be the varied sizes of my nuts, rather than the more uniform size of all peanuts.


It's jolly more-ish, I must say.


Peanut Brittle
250g nuts - a blend of your choice!
300g granulated sugar
400ml water

#HomeSweetHomeBakeAlong

HTML code to insert badge (copy and paste): 

 <a href="http://beckie-a.blogspot.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="http://twitchyneedles.com/homesweethome.png" border="0" height="170" width="170" alt="#HomeSweetHomeBakeAlong" /></a>  

I'm entering this in #CookBlogShare

#CookBlogShare 

Sunday, March 08, 2015

Peanut Butter Granola Bars - Home Sweet Home Bake Along (18/100)


Well, these are rather nice. They taste like an American peanut butter candy, but better. You can pretend they are healthy because of the nuts, seeds and dried fruit.


They are so more-ish, that in the time it has taken to write this post I have already eaten three. I had to hide them from myself or I would have devoured more.


I certainly hope to make these again, but will probably add a touch more peanut butter to act as a slightly firmer binding.


I was troubled by a little disintegration, but not to the degree that Gill described.


I made a couple of substitutions in the basic granola mix - I replaced the pecans with walnuts, and used a seed mix rather than just pumpkin and sunflower seeds. I also replaced the raisins with a mix of cranberries, sultanas, chopped dates and chopped dried apricots.


Ingredients:
60g unsalted butter
60ml honey
480g porridge oats
80g flaked almonds
80g pecan nuts, chopped
50g pumpkin seeds
50g sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
160g raisins
100g crunchy peanut butter
125ml golden syrup
70g soft light brown sugar

#HomeSweetHomeBakeAlong

HTML code to insert badge (copy and paste): 

 <a href="http://beckie-a.blogspot.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="http://twitchyneedles.com/homesweethome.png" border="0" height="170" width="170" alt="#HomeSweetHomeBakeAlong" /></a>  

I'm entering this in #CookBlogShare

#CookBlogShare