The bakers' thread

[Dave 123]

I know it’s not baking, but you lot are appreciative.

Home grown chillies turned into
Chilli jam, chilli oil and chilli salt for Christmas presents.

 

[Reynard]

The best Xmas pressies are home made edibles. I've an assortment of jams and jellies made from foraged and home grown fruits for this year. Not made any chutney this year, which is rare, but will make some gingerbread for those friends with ankle biters.

 

[grldtnr]

The best Xmas pressies are home made edibles. I've an assortment of jams and jellies made from foraged and home grown fruits for this year. Not made any chutney this year, which is rare, but will make some gingerbread for those friends with ankle biters.

Exactly how I think, i'd be very touched, if someone gave me a 'homemade' gift of any kind, it shows they actually care and not just a autonomic respose.
The best gifts are small ones, for me that is the meaning behind the Christian message of gifting at this forthcoming Winterval festival.
I haven't been part of this thing in a long time, it's a blatant rip off and over commercialized time of year.
And I am not a religious person.

 

[Reynard]

Exactly how I think, i'd be very touched, if someone gave me a 'homemade' gift of any kind, it shows they actually care and not just a autonomic respose.
The best gifts are small ones, for me that is the meaning behind the Christian message of gifting at this forthcoming Winterval festival.
I haven't been part of this thing in a long time, it's a blatant rip off and over commercialized time of year.
And I am not a religious person.

Neither am I. Religious, that is.

But I do like to give gifts to people that might otherwise be forgotten - my usual till lady in Tesco, the postie, the bin men (they get a box of biccies as it's easier to share), the chap who does the yellow sticker markdowns in Tesco and such like. I get a real kick out of putting a smile on someone's face.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

the chap who does the yellow sticker markdowns in Tesco and such like

Now the massive yellow sticker hauls make sense!

 

[Reynard]

Now the massive yellow sticker hauls make sense!

Hah! I resent the implication LOL!

 

[Dave 123]

Guess who forgot to turn the BBQ down after 20 minutes….

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Guess who forgot to turn the BBQ down after 20 minutes….

View attachment 754117

I do like a well-fired crust!

 

[Dave 123]

Focaccia for this evening around at my mother in law’s house. There’s about 5 gallons of olive oil in there!

 

[figbat]

A bit of a Christmas baking retrospective.

The centrepiece cake - a chocolate babka done in the round and topped with white and dark chocolate ganache.

I also managed some baci di dama (hazelnut biscuits with a dark chocolate base), some macarons (one batch filled with white chocolate ganache and raspberry jam, and another with dark chocolate ganache and black cherry jam), some stollen buns, mince pies and raspberry jam tarts. Sadly no pics of these things and they’re all gone now!

 

[Reynard]

All I did was a three-grain bread for a friend and a swiss roll tin's worth of marzipan lebkuchen.

 

[grldtnr]

Did you make the marzipan?
Love the real deal stuff made with Almonds, it's expensive but worth it, it isn't too hard to make, I think it's worth it.
Shop bought stuff usually is peanuts rather than Almond.
Taste the difference!

 

[Reynard]

Did you make the marzipan?
Love the real deal stuff made with Almonds, it's expensive but worth it, it isn't too hard to make, I think it's worth it.
Shop bought stuff usually is peanuts rather than Almond.
Taste the difference!

Shop bought. Mea Culpa!

In my defence, it was a really good quality one, bought on yellow sticker. Oddly enough, a recipe for Tudor-era marchpane popped up on my facebook news feed earlier in the evening. No eggs in that one, it's made with almonds, sugar and rose water.

 

[richardfm]

Did you make the marzipan?
Love the real deal stuff made with Almonds, it's expensive but worth it, it isn't too hard to make, I think it's worth it.
Shop bought stuff usually is peanuts rather than Almond.
Taste the difference!

I found it hard to believe that "Shop bought stuff usually is peanuts rather than Almond." so I went on the Tesco website and checked the ingredients of the marzipan that they sell. All four contain almonds, none contain peanuts.
Can you show me any that do?

 

[Reynard]

I found it hard to believe that "Shop bought stuff usually is peanuts rather than Almond." so I went on the Tesco website and checked the ingredients of the marzipan that they sell. All four contain almonds, none contain peanuts.
Can you show me any that do?

I've made sugar pastes with other nuts as well (walnuts, hazelnuts) and they do have their own distinct flavours. You'd notice it if it had peanuts in - it would taste a lot like peanut brittle, I think.

Seem to have a recollection that the very cheap marzipans are bulked out by flour. of the two that I have in, the expensive one from Tesco is just ground almonds, sugar, glucose syrup, while the cheaper one (Lidl) has some other bits in - mainly because it're marzipan fruits and you've got the colourings to take into account. The Lidl marzipan also has bitter almonds in.

Does say "may contain other nuts" but that's more likely allergy advice.