I am not a baker . Having to watch my weight for the whole of my life . I have given cakes , biscuits and pastries a very wide berth .However I do have happy memories . I have made lovely lemon meringue tarts from scratch , the citrus fumes of lemon wafting is stimulating . Scones thick and firm on the edges with soft insides waiting for jam and butter . Or even thick clotted cream . Chocolate cakes made moist with oil or much healthier grated courgettes with a hint of ground coffee to accentuate the flavour . Quiche Lorraine a savoury treat with plenty of eggs , cheese and bacon , or creamed spinach and other fine vegetables complimenting cheese . Coconut macaroons made with my child which I shared with my neighbours . Other baking efforts have been rock cakes, a firm favourite my Nanny Nell made regularly .
I learnt to make pastry when imperial measurements were all we ever used . Liquid was measured in pints . A pound of flour was 16 ounces , half a pound of butter was 8 ounces . Baking was simple mathematics in action. We used proportions and remembered simple equations . 6,4 and 2 ounces . for crumble , flour , fat and sugar . Half fat to flour for pastry and half the fat was a mixture of lard and margarine . The former giving lightness , the latter giving colour . With experience the scales were abandoned . Flour was sifted with baking powder and hands ready to gently rub fat into flour until the mixture resembled fine breadcrumbs . Tepid water and sometimes egg mixture added and then rolled out using a rolling pin with a flour dredger to keep the stickiness at bay . Some people had wooden rolling boards . The pastry was rolled out and set on to the pie dish , pricked with a fork and sometimes baked blind before any filling was added . Some pastry consisted of suet , maybe for meat pies . There was grades of short crust pastry for pies . Courser for pies standing still on their own and more fat , often butter , added for mouthwatering pastry belonging to fruit . Baking needed space and time but this was accommodated in a style of life very different than today .
Pastry can be bought in rolls that is kept optimal in a fridge or even frozen . All presented in neat packages . The same with cake mixtures with only a need for an egg added before being mixed up and added to a baking tin. Fruit preserves or frozen batches for pies are readily available too . Albeit with added preservatives and often inferior ingredients used .
Personally , I prefer to make things myself as I know where the ingredients came from . I don’t like additives . Baking can be fun and I went through a stage in lockdown 3 when I would get up and make scones and give them to a neighbour . Once I made an oreo cake , but was the point in home baking with commercial biscuits ? Home baking gives off a delicious welcoming aroma . Ingredients meld together in the heat wafting in our nostrils . Vegetables softened in the oven rather than boiling on a pan Today I made sweet potatoes in spices , sprayed with oil and made more delicious coated in chilli with a few herbs to accompany . I took time and care to prepare . The hot oven did the rest.
No more baking for me today . Maybe tomorrow a jacket potato . Buttery insides and crisp skin or mash potato crisped up as a topping , so much better than plain mash just spooned over .
There is a magic in baking , textures added to good food and lots of intoxicating aromas tempting the appetite and exciting hungry bellies .
I’m like you. I love to bake but have to watch my weight. At the moment my tins are full with sweet and delicious cakes, pies and biscuits which I will try and fail to resist. I have metric scales but still think in imperial weights. 🤣
PromptVent Day 22
To Bake a Poem
Use only the best ingredients
the worthiest of words
a scintillating simile
a mesmerising metaphor
the right rhythm and rhyme
and a sprinkle of magic
Leave it to bake a while
then serve it to the world
with love
This is brilliant
Thanks Chrissie ❤️
Perfect!
Thank you Jane ❤️
Promptvent22
Bake.
I am not a baker . Having to watch my weight for the whole of my life . I have given cakes , biscuits and pastries a very wide berth .However I do have happy memories . I have made lovely lemon meringue tarts from scratch , the citrus fumes of lemon wafting is stimulating . Scones thick and firm on the edges with soft insides waiting for jam and butter . Or even thick clotted cream . Chocolate cakes made moist with oil or much healthier grated courgettes with a hint of ground coffee to accentuate the flavour . Quiche Lorraine a savoury treat with plenty of eggs , cheese and bacon , or creamed spinach and other fine vegetables complimenting cheese . Coconut macaroons made with my child which I shared with my neighbours . Other baking efforts have been rock cakes, a firm favourite my Nanny Nell made regularly .
I learnt to make pastry when imperial measurements were all we ever used . Liquid was measured in pints . A pound of flour was 16 ounces , half a pound of butter was 8 ounces . Baking was simple mathematics in action. We used proportions and remembered simple equations . 6,4 and 2 ounces . for crumble , flour , fat and sugar . Half fat to flour for pastry and half the fat was a mixture of lard and margarine . The former giving lightness , the latter giving colour . With experience the scales were abandoned . Flour was sifted with baking powder and hands ready to gently rub fat into flour until the mixture resembled fine breadcrumbs . Tepid water and sometimes egg mixture added and then rolled out using a rolling pin with a flour dredger to keep the stickiness at bay . Some people had wooden rolling boards . The pastry was rolled out and set on to the pie dish , pricked with a fork and sometimes baked blind before any filling was added . Some pastry consisted of suet , maybe for meat pies . There was grades of short crust pastry for pies . Courser for pies standing still on their own and more fat , often butter , added for mouthwatering pastry belonging to fruit . Baking needed space and time but this was accommodated in a style of life very different than today .
Pastry can be bought in rolls that is kept optimal in a fridge or even frozen . All presented in neat packages . The same with cake mixtures with only a need for an egg added before being mixed up and added to a baking tin. Fruit preserves or frozen batches for pies are readily available too . Albeit with added preservatives and often inferior ingredients used .
Personally , I prefer to make things myself as I know where the ingredients came from . I don’t like additives . Baking can be fun and I went through a stage in lockdown 3 when I would get up and make scones and give them to a neighbour . Once I made an oreo cake , but was the point in home baking with commercial biscuits ? Home baking gives off a delicious welcoming aroma . Ingredients meld together in the heat wafting in our nostrils . Vegetables softened in the oven rather than boiling on a pan Today I made sweet potatoes in spices , sprayed with oil and made more delicious coated in chilli with a few herbs to accompany . I took time and care to prepare . The hot oven did the rest.
No more baking for me today . Maybe tomorrow a jacket potato . Buttery insides and crisp skin or mash potato crisped up as a topping , so much better than plain mash just spooned over .
There is a magic in baking , textures added to good food and lots of intoxicating aromas tempting the appetite and exciting hungry bellies .
I’m like you. I love to bake but have to watch my weight. At the moment my tins are full with sweet and delicious cakes, pies and biscuits which I will try and fail to resist. I have metric scales but still think in imperial weights. 🤣
I do metric except for crumble , for some reason I think of my Nan when I make it
#promptvent #day22 BAKE
Beat and fold and whisk and cream,
we'll create a kitchen dream!
Grease and line, and pour and fill,
leave the icing there to chill.
Bake, one eighty, at the top,
careful there, the oven's hot!
Set the timer, let it ring,
'cake is ready!', hear us sing.
Leave to cool now, on a rack
in an hour we'll be back.
When it's cool we'll decorate,
with silver sprinkles on the plate.
Santa's sleigh, some tiny trees,
icing sugar makes us sneeze!
Our cake is ready now, to grace
the sideboard, taking pride of place!