Baking up a storm




I do believe I said I would be baking this weekend and I guess when I commit to an idea I really commit because since last night I have made pancakes, French toast, bacon and egg muffins, baby cheese scones, almond brittle, almond chocolate sweets and I'm making buns later. Yea I know, I'm like a 1950's housewife or so I told myself as I brought food into himself and the house-mate as they watched a match and I returned to the kitchen to finish baking. Not that I would have voluntarily watched a match given half the chance. I like baking and preparing food especially when I get to play around a bit with a recipe and I get a great sense of satisfaction whenever I pull it off but unfortunately not every recipe is the success I am hoping for.

As it happens I am reasonably competent cook and when I can follow the recipe to the letter ( yes, I like my recipes precise) then I am usually fine. It turns out pretty much like it looked in the picture and everyone agrees that whatever I made is yummy. The trouble is that dietary matters in recent years have made everything a bit less precise and many recipes call for substitutions and instinctive guesses and this is a lot more difficult a process in that sometimes it works and other times not so much. I still remember the first time I tried to make pancakes without wheat flour or regular sugar and I thought I was being reasonably smart when it turned out I really shouldn't have been making direct substitutions. That was when I learned that coconut sugar is way sweeter than regular sugar so I should use less and also that almond flour, being just ground almonds, doesn't really work as a flour on its own. I made these sticky brown globs of something that refused to fry and tasted sickly sweet. It's a tougher way to bake and yet a more creative way but you have to prepared for it to not always work as planned or you might end up somewhat heartbroken and hungry. Two of the recipes I used last night called imprecise measures in cups (1/2 cups really) of coconut oil but the difficulty is that they didn't specify the size of the cup so I didn't know if I was using the same size as the recipe demanded and I ended up with treats that weren't so delicious.
I think it might have been a case of way too much coconut oil or perhaps I made them right and they are not supposed to be delicious at all.

I did however do a decent job on the French toast and pancakes even though I couldn't eat either of them, a reliable source told me they were delicious so that gave some satisfaction to my efforts and the bacon/egg cupcakes ( as pictured above) went down a treat also. I was ridiculously pleased to have them turn out like the cookbook promised even if its not something I'd ever want to eat. To be fair though if I was to limit myself to things I am willing to eat then it would be very boring indeed.

In case you were wondering bacon egg cupcakes are incredibly easy to make.Grease a muffin tray and then Line with bacon making sure there are no gaps, Break an egg into each one and then sprinkle with some cheese and chives. cook for 15 minutes and then allow sit for one minute before prising free with a knife.

And eh voila, I'm sure I'll bake again but this is where it gets harder. In order for me to actually be able to eat my offerings (which lets face it makes baking way more satisfying) I'm going to have to start experimenting with gluten free flours and stevia instead of sugar so it could lead to a whole world of deliciousness or some pretty epic failures.

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