Wood Pussies

[VikingVagine]

Carrying on from Chat.

I can second then choc and beetroot brownies by Hugh

I've fallen out with Paul.

I was looking forward to him taking one of my most loathed baking jobs off my hands - crushing biscuits for cheesecake base. I'm using the food processor with the main blade.

All I'm getting is half tiny, pulverised crumbs and some big chunks. The more I whizz, the smaller the crumbs get and the big chunks remain. Not only that, the grainy crumbs are all getting stuck between the lip of the lid and the side of the bowl, so when I take the lid off, crumbs are going everywhere. Its a disaster! Paul says I'm not doing it right, but he won't tell me how I should be doing it.... Any suggestions??

Mmm,I just use the end of a rolling pin and a bowl, takes seconds and is stress relieving , what about adding the melted butter and whizzing it again?

Ken is getting his first outing today. I'm making some lemon biscuits. I'm a bit of a novice baker so starting out with something simple! Now, it seas to cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest to start with with an electric whisk, but I should use the k-beater rather than the whisk - is that right?

I am making sticky toffee pudding tomorrow...yum!

I'd use the k beater. Butter tends to get stuck in the whisk. Just make sure butter is room temp NOT that I have made that mistake before.....

Kbeater, not whisk for creaming (says so in the booklet, otherwise you might damage the whisk).

That's what I thought, thanks. Butter softening as we speak!

Well, I made the cassis recipe, although DH told me not to put the cassis in... Doh. Will be having it for dessert tonight, looks nice, smells of beet root though.

I was given this recipe by a friend and tried it today......gonna attempt a link here

Skinny Choc and cranberry muffins

They are incredibly good.....I changed the recipe and tripled the melted choc quantity

I've not had any rubbing in problems I just lob slices of butter in and ignore it

Lions you are letting the processor run up to speed before you drop your biscuits in aren't you?

I tried to tell my mum about the wonders of the Prospero today and she was very ; I know she was thinking 'all that education and she's going on about bloody food mixers!'

Pesky bloody kids and their pesky bloody need to be entertained, chef is all lonely and unused so far this weekend!
Rubbing in butter with k-beater has also been fine for me!
I have offered to host our next family get together and will be menu planning based solely on maximum chef usage!

I made carrot cakes today, and made buttercream with honey and cinnamon. Goes beautifully.

Ken's first outing was a success today - nothing too adventurous, just some lemon shortbread biscuits. I loved that it was working away while I pottered about getting other ingredients ready etc.

Am I the only one who feels the compulsion to stand and watch like a lemon rather than do other jobs at the same time which is obviously the whole point ?

Ah Viking I can get on with other things as long as I can hear my propsero buzzing happily

I had some browsing time in Waterstones today and ended up buying this baking book - it's got lots of quite basic recipes which I need, and a historical slant.

The Hairy Bikers book seemed to be more international and the one from the new British Bake Off series seemed to have more original and unusual things, but this looked nice and traditional.

I got the Great British Bake Off one for the baking 'how to' content. I need some major practice/instruction!

Another unsatisfactory rubbing in experience today, this is really disappointing as it was one of the things I most wanted it for. My butter was really soft (just holding it's shape) in little cubes, but it gets so far then the lumps all just go round and round and never get any smaller. This is after several minutes at full speed (which isn't great as quite a lot of the mixture flies out the back of the bowl). Grrr.

Whoknows Prospero or Chef? Honestly I just slice the butter and lob it in

Prospero with K beater. The lumps get down to about the size of a small pea but no smaller, definitely not fine breadcrumbs. I guess the beater doesn't get quite close enough to the bowl. I might put it in in big soft slices next time and see if it makes any difference.

Is there confusion from actual pastry process rather than the Kenwood? I'm scared of sounding a twat in case you know this or I have always been totally misinformed but.

Cold butter in pastry leaves lumps as it doesn't "melt/coat" into the flour. These small lumps create little hot pockets when baking that makes your pastry flaky/crispy.

This is why I use suet in my savoury pies (like Ma Dragon does> to make it crispy as it stays solid and break down on baking making a lovely crispy pie top.

Slices of room temperature butter are fine. You get a nice uniform pastry that is all.

If previously you have always rubbed by hand till you get uniform crumbs than you melted the butter through anyway with your body temp.

Are you happy with the pastry you are making? What do you want to change.

I have made up with Paul. I was being a dick with the biscuit crushing. I just needed to start slow, then pulse, and be patient. We got there in the end.

Can thoroughly recommend this black forest cheesecake. It's really nice for a change, and not at all sickly or overly rich. The hardest part was procuring the kirsch though.

Oh, also, with the crumbs getting trapped between the lid and the wall of the bowl, that is annoying, but a very sharp shake and tap of the side loosens them back into the bowl before you take the lid off.