I'm back in the Kitchen... What will I bake?
I've not been able to bake for a few days... So what am I baking today?
You see, I couldn't use the kitchen as I normally would, we had a bit of a leaking pipe and that just got fixed yesterday Woohoo!
Do you get withdrawal symptoms when you can't get into the kitchen to bake?
I did! Its so strange isn't it. That not being able to bake, as I didn't have the facilities to wash up numerous bowls as I create, was really tough.
So here I share what I'm going to bakem and also share a few childhood memories too.
Enjoy this weeks Podcast and catch up very soon
Angela xx
Transcript
What am I going to bake today?
Speaker:It's gluten-free.
Speaker:Angela here and I've had a few days when I haven't been able to get in
Speaker:the kitchen and I thought I'd share with you what I am going to bake.
Speaker:The reason why I haven't been able to bake is because we haven't had
Speaker:running water for a little while.
Speaker:We've only been able to switch it on sporadically over the last few days.
Speaker:And you know what it's like when you start to bake.
Speaker:You have to wash up so much and so today is the day and I thought, let
Speaker:me just go and see what needs to be used and I've got three things
Speaker:that I know I'm gonna bake already.
Speaker:So what's your go to inspiration?
Speaker:Do you love thinking, What can I create?
Speaker:So, hey, I opened the fridge and I found some cream cheese that needs
Speaker:using up, so I thought that's perfect.
Speaker:I can bake a cheesecake, however, will that cheesecake be savory or sweet?
Speaker:Who knows?
Speaker:It depends what I fancy creating.
Speaker:Do you like the savory cheesecakes, which are, are really rather
Speaker:nice with, certainly with a little bit of blue cheese in.
Speaker:But somehow I think I'm gonna be making a sweet cheesecake.
Speaker:And, and I really, really, really want to, to implore to you go back to all
Speaker:of those recipes that you used to love before you had to give up gluten, you
Speaker:know, your perfect recipe that you always used to make your, your cheesecake from.
Speaker:And a lot of the baked cheesecakes don't require any any wheat in them.
Speaker:whatsoever.
Speaker:and even a lot of the Unbaked cheesecakes don't either.
Speaker:So these are recipes that you'd be quite excited to know.
Speaker:You can adapt quite easily.
Speaker:Let's have a look at the base.
Speaker:So the base tends to be.
Speaker:A little bit of broken biscuit, a little bit of butter, and then
Speaker:possibly something else in there.
Speaker:But if you would just strip it back.
Speaker:One thing that you will notice is that our biscuits tend to be a lot,
Speaker:lot dryer than when we had wheat.
Speaker:So that means that you've got to reduce the amount of butter
Speaker:or, or whatever you are using.
Speaker:just because it's not gonna absorb as much.
Speaker:So you need to melt that butter
Speaker:. and then just combine it
Speaker:I'm going to be using, I've got some beautiful, beautiful ginger biscuits.
Speaker:But as I said, they don't absorb like others, so I am going to
Speaker:use about half the amount of butter that I normally would.
Speaker:And then what do we need on top?
Speaker:Well, we are talking about lovely cream.
Speaker:We're talking about the, the beautiful cream cheese.
Speaker:, Do you like fruit on it?
Speaker:Do you like not like fruit on it?
Speaker:You know me, I love my Tonka , so this is gonna be a really,
Speaker:really simple cheesecake.
Speaker:But I think on top of it, what I'm gonna do, which will be glorious, is I actually
Speaker:have some of the sour cherries, the frozen sour cherries that I've defrosted, and
Speaker:I'm gonna put some of those on the top.
Speaker:I will love it because it will be, Sour so tart with that beautiful,
Speaker:delicious, creamy filling that just needs a little bit of sugar to sweeten it.
Speaker:And, and by sugar I tend to use the, the the powdered sugar, the icing sugar.
Speaker:But just keep it simple.
Speaker:A little bit of lemon or lime zest will help to just give it that extra dimension
Speaker:because we don't want everything sweet in there, do we?
Speaker:So I'm gonna be making a lovely, lovely, lovely cheesecake, and I'm not
Speaker:gonna use all of those sour cherries.
Speaker:I'm actually going to make a beautiful cake and.
Speaker:, and it's quite a simple cake.
Speaker:I e it isn't in layers, but this simple cake just has so much taste to it.
Speaker:And if you've ever had pistachios and ground almonds sitting around
Speaker:and some, some dried sour cherries and some fresh frozen sour
Speaker:cherries, what to do with this?
Speaker:Well, look in your spice cupboard and see if you've got any mahleb or a sweet.
Speaker:Cake type herb and spice . And that's what I'm gonna be using.
Speaker:So I'm gonna be making this beautiful thing with pistachios,
Speaker:with ground almonds, with who knows what other nuts I will come across.
Speaker:And there's all these.
Speaker:Beautiful intense flavors.
Speaker:And then over the top, I'm going to sprinkle some of the lovely sour
Speaker:cherries and then I will drizzle some of the juice over the top.
Speaker:And if you want to put anything else in there you can do.
Speaker:If you'd like some orange blossom water in there to enhance the flavor, you can do.
Speaker:But this needs nothing else with it.
Speaker:It's just intense.
Speaker:Flavorful and delicious.
Speaker:You can even use, you know, if you don't have anything like sour cherries, you
Speaker:can, you can put things on top, like look and see what tinned fruits you've got.
Speaker:Have you got some a tin apricot apricots or some tinned peaches?
Speaker:We forget how sweet and delicious they are, just when you take them out.
Speaker:Get rid of the juice that's on the outside.
Speaker:You might want to pat them slightly and stick them on top of the cake.
Speaker:You would be surprised at how delicious they are.
Speaker:So that's another thing that I'm gonna do, and you, something I haven't had in
Speaker:so, so long, is my homemade granola and I have some gluten-free porridge oats.
Speaker:They're an apple flavor and.
Speaker:I'm not that enamored, but you know what?
Speaker:I'm not gonna waste them because I'm gonna make my beautiful granola.
Speaker:And this granola is so crispy.
Speaker:It's got honey, it's got a whole host of different spices in it.
Speaker:Lots and lots of cinnamon, lots of whole almonds.
Speaker:It's just beautiful.
Speaker:It's not that shall we say bland?
Speaker:Type, It's more like a, a fruit.
Speaker:A fruit nut, brittle . It's incredible.
Speaker:So I need to I've just managed to open empty one of my beautiful big jars, you
Speaker:know, those kilner jars, and they're perfect for putting Lovely, lovely.
Speaker:Granola in, so I've actually got two of them free.
Speaker:So who, who knows how much I'm gonna make, but it's one that you combine
Speaker:all of those oats with seeds, with honey, with apple sauce or grated.
Speaker:Apples in there.
Speaker:Lots of cinnamon, and I am actually gonna put some of these mixed spices in that are
Speaker:there for making cakes with, So there's so many different spices in this spice mix.
Speaker:It's amazing.
Speaker:It's from my favorite deli down in London.
Speaker:So once I've used it all, I'll need to go and get some more.
Speaker:But what, you know, it's been days since I've been able to create, so
Speaker:I, I decided that I need a perfusion of cakes there for us to just taste,
Speaker:for us to go and grab, for us to eat.
Speaker:And also in this whole world, for me, there is just something
Speaker:special about creating cakes and being able to give cakes away.
Speaker:So when I make a big cake, I know it's too much for our little household,
Speaker:but if I keep a quarter, then that means I can gift three quarters to
Speaker:friends, to neighbours, to other people.
Speaker:And at this time of the year, it's, we're in the beginning of November, remember?
Speaker:And in my beautiful village, we have a little.
Speaker:Table where if you have things going to spare, you can put things on there.
Speaker:And it is Apple season.
Speaker:So I have all of these apples that I've been able to get from my
Speaker:neighbors orchards and I have been thinking about the past and when
Speaker:I was young and some of the things that I used to buy when I was young.
Speaker:And we used to have this wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker:Bakery in the north of England and it was called Thurston's.
Speaker:Now if you are in the uk or if you've been to the uk, you will have seen
Speaker:something called Gregs on every corner.
Speaker:And don't bother going in there cuz you're gluten free.
Speaker:because it's all gluten.
Speaker:Well, they may have one or two things.
Speaker:Hey ho.
Speaker:So when I was younger, this is pre gluten free days.
Speaker:I used to, on my way home from school, me and my friends used to pop into
Speaker:our village Thurston's, and I always remember what I used to buy from there.
Speaker:Other people bought other things.
Speaker:And some people have said they loved the the, the, the little
Speaker:finger buns with icing on top and you know, donuts and other things.
Speaker:But for me it was always the one thing that I loved.
Speaker:And this thing was called an Apple Charlotte, but it was nothing
Speaker:like an apple Charlotte that you would see in a recipe book.
Speaker:This apple Charlotte was thurston's and it was quite a deep pie.
Speaker:type bun.
Speaker:So the pastry was about two inches thick on an individual pie.
Speaker:Serving in one of those silver little pie dishes, you know, the aluminum type.
Speaker:And then on the bottom there was this apple compote.
Speaker:It was chunks, little squares of apples that were quite tart.
Speaker:And then there, there was this sweet sauce as well.
Speaker:So that was lovely.
Speaker:And then on top of that, they had the most amazing thick custard, which was lovely.
Speaker:And I always remember when you looked at it, the top of it was shiny.
Speaker:It was so, so shiny.
Speaker:And then there was a big circle of whipped cream.
Speaker:And then on top, Whipped cream.
Speaker:There were tiny little green speckles of of something.
Speaker:And as you bit into this little individual pie, it wasn't little at all.
Speaker:It was, it looked rather big as far as I was concerned, but you had pastry
Speaker:that had no sugar in it whatsoever.
Speaker:So that was beautiful.
Speaker:And then you had this sweet.
Speaker:And tart apple compote.
Speaker:And then you had this luxurious, well, it seemed luxurious when I was younger.
Speaker:Beautiful, not overly sweet custard.
Speaker:. And then on top of that, you had the cream, and then you had these crunchy
Speaker:little green things on top, and it was just incredible and nowhere else in the
Speaker:world have I come across this little apple and custard and cream tart, that
Speaker:thurston's called an apple charlotte
Speaker:so it made me think a little while ago.
Speaker:Why do you know often what has absolutely enthused us to be the bakers, to be
Speaker:the cooks, to be chefs to, to just enjoy food and creating one or two
Speaker:recipes, if that's what you do, But what actually drew us into loving baking.
Speaker:I realized that some of the, you know, that is what something that
Speaker:I used to really, really enjoy.
Speaker:So why don't I recreate it?
Speaker:So I'm going to, I'm going to recreate it.
Speaker:I've spoken about this before, but I am going to do it now that I have
Speaker:a kitchen that I can get into and cook in and clean up afterwards.
Speaker:So anyway.
Speaker:, that's what I thought I would do.
Speaker:I'd do my granola, I'd do this beautiful large cake and gift
Speaker:some away, make a cheesecake.
Speaker:I don't actually happen to have any blue cheese in, so I think
Speaker:it's going to be a sweet cheesecake rather than the savory cheesecake.
Speaker:And just being able to have granola in the morning, my beautiful granola,
Speaker:which you don't actually need to eat it, like granola, you can
Speaker:eat it as a snack, as a you know, instead of sweets instead of a cake.
Speaker:It, it's so good.
Speaker:And to put that in those beautiful kilner jars and something like
Speaker:that, I do believe should be out.
Speaker:For everyone to admire and for to remind us that we've
Speaker:created these beautiful things.
Speaker:So yeah, and that's what I'm going to be baking.
Speaker:So after a few days without being able to bake in my kitchen, I
Speaker:can't wait to get back to it.
Speaker:And something else I started to think about was what.
Speaker:What does baking evoke in our minds for us?
Speaker:And, and, and something that I always put with baking and, and
Speaker:let me just, I dunno about you.
Speaker:I just shut your eyes for a moment and I want you to think back to when
Speaker:you were younger and I want you to think about walking into that kitchen.
Speaker:And I dunno whether that's in your home or whether that's in somebody else's kitchen.
Speaker:It could, could be grandparents' kitchens or a neighbor's
Speaker:kitchen or you know, wherever.
Speaker:And toddling over to the cake Tin.
Speaker:Do you remember the cake Tin?
Speaker:There were always like metal and they had some form of design on the outside
Speaker:and some form of design on the top.
Speaker:And with you, they were probably a little bit battered.
Speaker:But what you would do is you would grab hold of that big cake tin and you
Speaker:would wrap one arm around the bottom of it, and then you'd bring your other
Speaker:hand over the top and you would pull the top of that cake tin off, and the
Speaker:smell of that beautiful baked goods that were inside would then hit you.
Speaker:And that may be a chocolate cake.
Speaker:It may be those coconut tarts.
Speaker:It may be a Madeira cake.
Speaker:It could be lemon tarts, jam tarts, It could be a battenberg cake.
Speaker:Whatever we created back then went into that all important set of metal cake tins.
Speaker:and I just remembered, do you know what the excitement of going to my
Speaker:grandma's to see what was there?
Speaker:I knew what was there because she baked the same every single week.
Speaker:But out of the tins that I would open, would it be just the chocolate cake?
Speaker:Would it be the sausage rolls?
Speaker:Would it be the jam tarts and coconut Gem tarts and lemon curd tarts?
Speaker:Or would it be the coconut tarts?
Speaker:Who knew I would grab one of them and whatever it.
Speaker:I would just be hit by this home baked aroma that made me smile, and
Speaker:I hope that you have some similar thoughts as well, and memories.
Speaker:And it, it made me think that why don't I use mine more often, which
Speaker:is what I'm actually going to do.
Speaker:So I, I've come in to, to get more of my tens, my cake tens, because, They
Speaker:keep things really well in there and when you open them, just the intense
Speaker:smell that comes out and the want in, I love opening is the coconut
Speaker:tin, what whatever is in there.
Speaker:And so there's all these things from when I was young that.
Speaker:Bring such beautiful memories that is walking home from school and popping
Speaker:into ths and getting that apple Charlotte that isn't like an apple Charlotte.
Speaker:Cuz Apple, Charlottes, when you look at them in a book will have some form
Speaker:of sponge fingers on the outside and that's certainly not what they will like.
Speaker:It was pastry.
Speaker:So we know that we can create gluten-free pastry.
Speaker:As I keep saying, let's not be snobbish.
Speaker:Let's go out and buy Roger made good pastry.
Speaker:I've told you.
Speaker:Get into your local wardrobe or a avocado and get that so pastry cuz it is so,
Speaker:so good to just take that out of the freezer and use rather than making pastry.
Speaker:Although I do make pa I do make my own pastry and, and the skill.
Speaker:Rather the hack to it is, it's much, much better if you're going
Speaker:to be adding eggs into your pastry.
Speaker:Just something happens, it makes the gluten-free pastry better.
Speaker:So, so that's what I do.
Speaker:I always make sure that it's a recipe with eggs in and having a cake.
Speaker:Just, just a prepared cake that you've just brought out for the oven and
Speaker:just like cool down a little bit.
Speaker:But I Are you like, When you take that out of the oven, it's crazy, isn't it?
Speaker:You can never let the thing call properly before you cut the
Speaker:piece, or a slice or just a little corner off, and I always think.
Speaker:Am I allowed to cut it before it's properly of kilt and do you know what?
Speaker:I can do what I want with that cake.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:So these are things I'm gonna be baking today.
Speaker:So my oven is going to be going, my oven is gonna be so
Speaker:happy that we are baking again.
Speaker:And I don't know about you, but it, it's something that I just love.
Speaker:I, you know, there are times when I will buy things that are.
Speaker:They tend to be more independent places, so that's good.
Speaker:But I just love baking in my own home and.
Speaker:I've always loved baking and really it's around the sweetness, the cakes, the, the
Speaker:tarts, the, the pies, the pastries, all of those I absolutely love to, to make, and
Speaker:I know it's a challenge when, when we have to give up gluten, but there are ways that
Speaker:a lot of cakes out there can be converted and, and for me, rather than rather.
Speaker:Going to try and use what can be some quite unusual ingredients.
Speaker:And honestly, I have read recipes and I've really struggled to source
Speaker:some of them from strange rice flour's to certo in certain things.
Speaker:And I just like being able to.
Speaker:Things that work time and time and time again in the comfort of my own home.
Speaker:So that as people walk in, they know that I've been baking,
Speaker:they can smell it in the air.
Speaker:And it's just beautiful.
Speaker:And that's what I think as bakers we love, don't we?
Speaker:So that's what I'm getting into the kitchen to bake today.
Speaker:What about you?
Speaker:What are you creating?
Speaker:So I hope, I really, really hope that you've got some good ideas.
Speaker:So is it a cheesecake?
Speaker:Because do you know what cheesecake recipes?
Speaker:Most of them we can still make, just as I said, do the
Speaker:adaptations that I've suggested.
Speaker:I've let you know which pies you can make and I'm gonna create my own
Speaker:gluten-free Angela's equivalent of the Apple Charlotte from Thurstons, Circa
Speaker:of the 1980s, and sometimes it is good to look back at what we had in the
Speaker:past and see, can we recreate that?
Speaker:Was it beautiful?
Speaker:And if it was, then why not try that again.
Speaker:And I think when I, when I was young, I always remember you know, if, if
Speaker:my parents had people coming around for, for a little bit of a, you know,
Speaker:dinner, et cetera, I always used to think, Please, please, please, please,
Speaker:please, please, I hope I can stay up.
Speaker:And it was always great when it was somebody who had children as well,
Speaker:cuz their children would come along.
Speaker:So we would always be up until the parents went home late, late, late.
Speaker:And, and that meant I could always.
Speaker:That beautiful slice of, What am I gonna say?
Speaker:What was my favorite when I was younger?
Speaker:Well, let me tell you, shall I?
Speaker:It was the good old Schwarzwalder kirschtorte Yes, Black forest
Speaker:Gateaux, homemade by my mom.
Speaker:What happened to that?
Speaker:What happened to that in the, you know, it, it was so popular
Speaker:in the 1970s and the 1980s.
Speaker:We know what happened.
Speaker:It became a frozen dessert that was in every freezer and the, the
Speaker:ingredients were cheapened, shall we say, and it just, everybody ate it.
Speaker:But when my mom created that dessert,
Speaker:These were thin, luscious layers of chocolate, dark, dark, dark chocolate
Speaker:cake with beautiful whipped cream, with beautiful cherries in there with
Speaker:little bits of dark chocolate as well.
Speaker:And these were layered up with, I don't know whether we had Kirche in the UK back
Speaker:then, but there was certainly some form.
Speaker:Alcohol liqueur type thing put on the top.
Speaker:It could very well have been cherry brandy, who knows?
Speaker:But if there's one dessert that I always, always, always wanted a piece
Speaker:of, it was that black forest gateaux, that homemade black forest gateaux.
Speaker:And it is a, it is a gateaux that deserves to be served in its
Speaker:pride of place and that is in the.
Speaker:Of an array of food on a table.
Speaker:And I always remember seeing that black forest gateaux and the cherries on
Speaker:top always had the cherry stalk there.
Speaker:And I just wanted a piece, the swirl of cream and a cherry
Speaker:with the stalk on, stuck on.
Speaker:Now that is not one that I'm going to make today, but it, I think that
Speaker:could feature coming up to, let's face it, with coming up to Christmas.
Speaker:All of these beautiful, luscious, intense, decadent, dark, exciting
Speaker:flavors really deserve to be on our gluten free list, don't they?
Speaker:So maybe I'll, I'll recreate that recipe pretty soon as well.
Speaker:So have I.
Speaker:Inspired you to go and have a little bit of a bake today.
Speaker:Let me know what you've created.
Speaker:I'd love to know
Speaker:it doesn't take much to create a beautiful cake.
Speaker:Whatever idea you have in your mind, it is possible to go and create that.
Speaker:So please, please, please have the confidence to do so.
Speaker:And we are getting ready for the new bake.
Speaker:For gluten free Angela's Bake Club, where for six weeks, you are going
Speaker:to get a great video of me and how I create my bakes at home, and you're
Speaker:gonna be able to bake along with that prerecorded video and understand how I
Speaker:convert so many different recipes and you're gonna have them in your own home.
Speaker:If you'd like to increase your confidence, your prowess, and your ability to
Speaker:create beautiful creations at home.
Speaker:I know there's one in there that everybody always loves, and
Speaker:it's the pimms the clock cake.
Speaker:And people look at it and just go, Wow, , It looks like Pimms on top of a cake.
Speaker:And it's actually within the cake as well.
Speaker:It, . It's a bit crazy, but it's beautiful.
Speaker:I love that cake.
Speaker:I really do.
Speaker:And there's never anything left.
Speaker:Whenever you cr serve a pins the clock cake, everybody wants
Speaker:their biggest piece possible.
Speaker:There's so much fruit on top of it.
Speaker:There's so much pins on it as well.
Speaker:It, it is just lovely and it just goes so quickly.
Speaker:So if there's one Christmas day or New Year's Day or Wimbledon,
Speaker:cake that you should create.
Speaker:It is the Pimms O'Clock Cake, and I have got video of that and
Speaker:how I create it coming in that gluten free Angela Bay Club.
Speaker:So anyway, today has all been about what I can get in and create.
Speaker:So I'm gonna do that very shortly and I'll have some photos that
Speaker:I'll share at some point too.
Speaker:So I hope you've enjoyed spending the last half.
Speaker:Thinking about cake tins, different things to bake, and I'll be with
Speaker:you, but I'll be with you again soon.
Speaker:You take care.
Speaker:This is Angela from Gluten-Free, Angela, see you soon.
Speaker:Happy baking.
