Berlin Briefing Weekend

I have to do lots of things other than baking to get my Queen’s Guide Award. One of these things is attending a residential event where I don’t know anyone, and another is to go away with Guiding and take on a new responsibility. So I am combining both of these with a trip to Berlin in July. I am going with a group of Senior Sectioners from North West Lancs to join in with the North West Region’s “Adventure in Berlin”. This weekend we are all meeting for the first time to get to know each other and plan the cool things we are going to do when we get there. 

Of course, any great weekend with Guiding needs some great baking and this weekend is no different. Before I left home I quickly made some chocolate buns with white chocolate icing. It was great to know that I can make something yummy in less than 30 mins. Although in my rush I did forget the baking powder. No biggy though, they all worked out fine. Also I used some really cool cases that I got for my Birthday. They have animals on them! 

For tea on Saturday we did DIY pizzas. The dough was made from scratch and everyone rolled it out and added toppings. There were some pretty amazing combinations, representations of faces and even some stuffed crusts. Then for afters was sticky toffee pudding. It was a quick recipe from Nigella that involved pouring a lot of boiling water over the top of what looked like a perfectly good sponge mix. I was pretty scared, it looked really bad. But after 45 mins in the oven it came out as this amazing sponge with lots of yummy sauce. I was so impressed (and surprised!) It was so good that I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of it before it had been eaten up. 

I am looking forward to more cake and more fun in Berlin!

Mini Cheese & Onion Quiches

So in my attempt to master shortcrust pastry but not make the same thing over and over I decided to make my first savoury bake. I used the recipe from the BBC website for the pastry this time (here) and the overall recipe is from another baking blog called Simply Veggie (here).

Method

I did a few things to try and improve my pastry. I left the butter out of the fridge for a few minutes before using and the room in general is warmer today (despite the falling snow). I tried to focus a bit more on what I was doing and making sure I mainly used my fingertips. Also, the recipe is for a smaller amount which reduced rubbing in time. I also used a knife to stir in the water and added it a lot more slowly and carefully. I used my hands to squish everything together at the end.

The dough looked a little better this time, although it was still pretty pale and I could see some small tell tale butter smears. I left in the fridge for longer this time, and tried to be gentler when rolling out and cutting.

The filling was simple to make with fried onions, grated cheese and an egg and milk mixture. I knew that this reduced pastry recipe would make fewer rounds and in the end I just about got to fill one 12 hole bun tray. I had scaled down the filling quantities but still had quite a bit left over –omelette for dinner!

Results

There were no soggy bottoms and no fillings exploding over the edge. The pastry still wasn’t that crumbly melt in the mouth texture I was going for. It still had those “layers” and the kind of hardish chewiness. However, the pastry was a lot softer than before, so an improvement. The filling was great, although I could have cooked the onion for a little longer (or used a bigger pan!).

Score: 4/10

Soundtrack: Radio One Chart Show