Live webchat and baking session with Dan Lepard, Fri 8 Jan, 12-2pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

We've got a Mumsnet first this Friday - award-winning baker and food writer Dan Lepard is our guest for a bake day and live webchat. Should be just the thing to counter wintry gloom and warm up your kitchen.

Dan's involved with the World Marmalade Festival, which promotes all thing marmalade-y and supports the charity Hospice at Home. So he has chosen Ponymum's muffin recipe and given it a citrus-y twist. Full details, ingredients, plus all Dan's variations on the recipe are here.

Please choose the version that tickles your tastebuds and join us to bake along with Dan on Friday. He'll be online from noon.

While your (and our) culinary creations are cooking, Dan will answer questions and swap tips about baking, bread making, marmalade making and the like.

Once your muffins/pudding/traybake are out of the oven, please share a picture of the finished result on your profile. We'll put up pix of our efforts here.

And, of course, if you can't make it on Friday but have a question you'd like to ask Dan, please post here.

[MmeLindt]

TeamEdward
Working now and look great. I love your other cakes too, the castle is great.

[Ponymum]

Fancy cake stands, star shaped muffins - there's some seriously professional work here! Who is eating?

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Just got back to the Towers - fab pictures on profiles. Thank you

[FaintlyMacabre]

I may be being a bit dim, but where are the MN pictures please?

[BusyMummyof3]

I'm a bit late making these but oh dear I've just made burnt marmalade sweets trying to make the glaze!

Note to self - must keep an eye on the pan rather than browsing MN!

[GeraldineMumsnet]

FaintlyMacabre - sorry, only managed to get them on Twitter during, just about to resize and add to our page and put on Facebook etc.

BigTech took some lovely video that he's editing just now.

[FaintlyMacabre]

Thanks- was wondering what everyone else was doing that I was missing!

[Guimauve]

Thanks Dan! That was great More cooking webchats please MNHQ - there are, I think, a lot of MNers who might appreciate some live action HFW!!

[snigger]

It took me longer to post the picture than make the cake.

Yes to more cooking webchats, that was rather fun, thank you.

[ButterflyEmma]

very yummy - hope some last till DH gets home from work!

[newlark]

I couldn't join in live but have just finished making these with my 3 yr old dd and they are delicious . I used a bit less sugar (so my 15 mth old could eat one without me feeling too guilty ) and added the zest of a lemon to the basic recipe. They are a little on the heavy/moist side in the middle - perhaps they should have had a bit longer in the oven?

[DanLepard]

Back now...

Hi henmum (Fri 08-Jan-10 09:38:47)

You asked for a recipe for heavy, sticky German-style rye bread pumpernickle. You know, that is one of the breads I haven't really mastered or got to grips with and - this will sound a bit bread geeky - but one of my resolutions for this years is to make great pumpernickle bread. Keep you eyes on my website and I post the recipe there when I've got it right.

Sourdough, there will be a step-by-step how to on my (new) website when It's launched later this month.

[DanLepard]

Hi BlauerEngel (Fri 08-Jan-10 10:40:48)

You asked about the mysteries of British flour, baking powder and bi-carb, and the answer also explains why some recipes use additional bicarbonate of soda.

Why doesn't the UK have different grades of flour? Well, we do but home bakers don't really get a look in. The different grades of flour here go under trade names, and there is quite a tradition of that. The Italians do the same. Though they have '0', '00' and '000' grades, the different flours for specific recipes are grouped under different names rather than numbers. So you might have a ''00' per pane', "'00' per dolce' and then each miller will use a proprietary trade name for their flour, e.g. '00' Tramonte per pane rosetta, that's one I know of. So in the UK we have high ratio cake flours (for cakes with a higher ratio of sugar and fat to flour), heat treated flours, higher extraction flours (containing more bran etc). It's just that the home cook never sees them.

I notice on the back of my container of Dr. Oetker Baking Powder they recommend:
3 tsp per 225g for a sponge cake or muffin
1 tsp per 225g for a dense fruit cake
1 tsp per 225g for batters or biscuits

Most pastry cooks and good home cooks (aka Grandmothers in Scotland) tweak their baking with bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar, the alkali and the acid respectively in baking powder. Brands might use slightly different chemicals but that roughly what they are. Now some cooks find that by adding more of one than the other they get a better result and that's why some recipes suggest baking powder plus bicarb, as this will give more lift.

[DanLepard]

Hi OliviaMumsnet (Fri 08-Jan-10 10:41:49)

You asked how hard it is to make a simple loaf of bread by hand. Do try this one here:
Easy White Bread
www.danlepard.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2593

[Pizzamum]

Pane Pugliese crust question;

I am a moderately competent home baker and can never seem to get the dark the heavy dark crust I have had in Puglia and Tuscany.

My mix is generally a Carol Field recipe using 20% starter and 3% yeast in 1kg flour made with 50% Molino Spadoni PZ3 (4-8hr rise) 00 flour and 50% high gluten Marriages Manitoba approx 70% water. I bake with a Rayburn at 250ºC dropping to 220ºC on 10mm x 400mm x 300mm porcelain tiles with plenty of water in a tray and a good squish with a sprayer to start and after 10 minutes or using a wood fired pizza oven with a 25mm refractory brick floor. The latter I can run up to 300ºC or more and have had fairly good results with no steam at 220ºC but not a heavy dark crust.

Suggestions?

Alex Chambers

[BusyMummyof3]

mmmm....yummy. Followed basic recipe with the marmalade glaze and they are scrummy. Thanks ponymum for recipe.

[DanLepard]

Hi Leo35 (Fri 08-Jan-10 11:38:43)

I like a geeky question. Will orange syrup covered muffins survive freezing, presumably with "syrupus intactus"? Possibly, certainly they should look fine though some of the syrup will probably be drawn into the cake as it thaws. Yes, freeze them. We do that here and it's usually fine.

[DanLepard]

Hi fishie (Fri 08-Jan-10 11:49:23)

You asked about varying the types of flour used when you refresh a sourdough starter. Yes, do, go for it, nothing will go wrong and it's crucial that you make a loaf that you're absolutely happy with rather than following my scripture or anyone elses. Hal;f white, half rye sounds good to me.

I think I said earlier today that I no longer reply on fresh yeast. Replace fresh yeast in a recipe with the same volume (1/2 tsp of fresh yeast weighs about 3.5g, whereas 1/2 tsp dry instant weighs about 1.75g) of dry instant.

[DanLepard]

Hi snigger (Fri 08-Jan-10 12:11:36)

Why is your marmalade burnt and bitter? Overcooking once the sugar is added. Check my rough recipe (Fri 08-Jan-10 13:32:43) and make sure you reduce the volume of strained orange liquid after cooking the skin to the same volume for weight as the original fruit, then add about the same weight in sugar.

1. Start with 1kg oranges and 1 or 2 lemons
2. Chop, cover with water, simmer for 2 hours, then strain the liquid.
3. Measure the liquid. You should have 1 litre. If you have more, return it to a clean pan and boil until you have 1 litre.
4. Return to the pan with the cooked peel - all or some of it - and add 1 kg sugar.
5. Bring to the boil and cook until it reaches 104C. Check for setting using a cold plate, a spoonful of the marmalade dribbled on should set in 5 minutes left in the fridge. If it doesn't, keep the temperature around 104 and let it stay hot for 10 minutes more - don't let the temperature go up.
6. Once the setting point is reached let the marmalade sit for 15 minutes before bottling.

[DanLepard]

Hi CMOTdibbler (Fri 08-Jan-10 12:12:26)

You asked if I could add alternatives to my recipes. I would love to in the Guardian column but I'm only given 225 words to play with. Actually it used to be 250 but with the shrinking economy the page shrunk as well. So no room for any ifs or buts.

But we do have a nice - no, make that excellent - GF bread recipe of mine here:
figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/05/22/best-gluten-free-bread-ever/

[DanLepard]

CarrieDaBabi (Fri 08-Jan-10 12:15:51)

swan meringues = retro cool

[HinnyPet]

So it wasn't with Def Leppard then?
Aw, shucks.
Hey MNHQ.... there's an idea for you.