Flying Spatula

I know, it’s been a while.  But I’ve been really busy (honest) and therefore not had time to share my thoughts with the blogosphere.  Still I’m back now and I do have a story to tell…

First a good news update – me and my sourdough pet have been making beautiful dough-related things happen. In fact, I have one in the oven (oo-err missus) as I write this.  The most important thing  I have learned so far is that whilst you shouldn’t rush the proving , over proving will lead to some serious floppage the minute you turn your precious loaf out of its proving basket.  About 5 hours appears to be optimum.  Experimentation continues, but this evening’s oeuvre is looking superb.

I decided that today would be a baking day, partly because I felt it would make a good blog and partly because I haven’t done baking in a while.  Apart from my weekly sourdough, I decided to bake one of my go-to standards – Nigella’s Banana Bread – and something new in the form of some gluten-free Amaretti muffins from the latest edition of BBC Good Food Magazine.  I haven’t really done much gluten-free baking so this seemed like a new departure and an opportunity to check that doing it the lactose-free way also gives a good result.  The Banana Bread was a must as I haven’t produced one in a while and one of the girls at work has been dropping hints for weeks.  Well when I say hints it’s been more like “When are you going to bake your Jack Daniels cake again?”  The first time I made it, I didn’t have any rum, so I soaked sultanas for the cake in Jack Daniels – hence the alternative name – and a legend was born…

Have you ever had that moment when you are elbows deep into a recipe you’ve been dying to try and you suddenly find you are missing a vital ingredient?   The results that the pioneering and improvisational  cook can produce through informed substitution can be inspirational.  They can also on occasion be thoroughly bin-worthy, but don’t let that stop you.  Next time you find yourself short of something in the kitchen, resist the urge to dash to the nearest shop on the off chance that they will actually have the one thing you are looking for – just go with what you’ve got.  Open those cupboards and be creative!  Be brave dear heart, be brave.

Today, I was forced into using a mixture of dark spiced rum and blended whisky to soak my sultanas, but it was smelling good and so I was in the zone.  I have made this Banana Bread so many times I was more concerned about the muffins that I had planned for later.  I do have to confess to a further departure from the original recipe which calls for the sultanas and booze to be brought to a boil and then left to steep.  I don’t normally drain the excess liquid off the sultanas (as advised by La Lawson), I just throw it all into the mix.  Maybe it’s just because I am too tight to throw any alcohol away (even if it has been boiled and used to plump up some dried vine fruits) but I always think that moisture in a cake is a good thing.  So in it goes!

The basic method for the bread is that the dry ingredients are mixed together, whilst melted butter and sugar are whisked together and then two eggs beaten in, one at a time.  A couple of mashed bananas are then mixed in along with some chopped walnuts (or pecans today because that was what was in the cupboard) and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Finally the dry ingredients are mixed in a third at a time until everything is combined.  Then scrape it into a lined loaf tin (pre formed loaf tin liners are perfect for this) and whack it in a 170C oven (150C fan) for an hour to an hour and a quarter.

I was already feeling smug with a warm smell of Banana Bread wafting around the kitchen, and my ingredients prepared for the Amaretti muffins, when I noticed a stray pan on the hob.  My heart sank.  So complacent was I about my ability to knock out a legendary Banana Bread that I had forgotten to add the sultanas that I had so carefully and boozily prepared.  Oh blocks!  Still, there was no going back now, but at the point I removed my no distinctly sub-standard, absolutely-no-Jack-Daniels-or-any-other-booze-whatsoever cake I had a moment of inspiration.  For once, I did drain the sultanas.  I poked a few small holes in the warm cake and drizzled the boozy juices over so that they could soak in.  I am hoping that this will have rescued the situation.  If not, all I can say is “I’m sorry, Em – I’ll do it right next time!”

Onto the Amaretti muffins.  This recipe uses ground almonds and rice flour to provide a tempting treat for those avoiding wheat!  The method is quite similar to the Banana Bread in that sugar and vegetable oil are whisked together, followed by two eggs (one at a time) – the recipe didn’t specify this but I am always cautious with eggs.  Add in a couple of tablespoons of yogurt (Lactofree of course!) and 25ml of espresso, followed by the ground almonds, rice flour and gluten-free baking powder.  Finally fold in a few soft amaretti biscuits which have been broken up into small pieces. As normal I did not have standard amaretti morbidi, but I did have some with pistachio in.  So, in they went!

Line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases or squares of baking parchment.  Put a couple of tablespoons of the mixture in each case, sprinkle with some flaked almonds and bake in a 180C (160C fan) oven for 20-25 minutes until golden on top.  We have of course taste-tested the almondy delights  (me, my husband and our friend John who was an unwitting participant in my experiment) and all can report that they tasted “just like normal muffins”.  In fact, my husband has gone so far as to suggest that we should “never have buns with gluten in again”.  I’m not quite ready to go that far yet, but I will continue to experiment and report back.
The morals of this story:

• Don’t be afraid to mix it up a little, use what you have and don’t feel the need to buy stuff in specially when you probably have something you could substitute readily available.
• Follow your recipe – even if you have made it a hundred times before.
• But if you don’t, it’s not the end of the world.  Improvise!

So now I need to decide what to do with 100g of boozy sultanas.  Perhaps I should put out an advert somewhere – Boozy sultanas seek lactose-free vanilla ice-cream for short but ultimately fulfilling relationship…
Be back soon…

MC

The all important stuff for your shopping list:

Nigella Lawson’s Banana Bread (From How to be a Domestic Goddess)

• 100g sultanas (don’t forget to put them in just after the walnuts)
• 75ml Bourbon, Dark rum or other golden well-flavoured spirit
• 175g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Half a tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Half a tsp salt
• 125g unsalted butter (Lactofree or other non-dairy spread eg Pure), melted
• 150g sugar
• 2 large eggs
• A couple of ripe bananas, mashed
• 60g chopped walnuts (or pecans)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Amaretti Muffins (from BBC Good Food March 2017)

• 110ml Vegetable Oil
• 110g Golden Caster Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp Yogurt (Lactofree – or Greek)
• 25ml Espresso
• 110g Ground Almonds
• 60g Rice Flour
• 1 tsp gluten-free Baking Powder
• 4-5 soft Amaretti biscuits (Amaretti Morbidi), broken up
• 50g Flaked Almonds