Category Archives: Baking

Long way back January when I was working in Italy, I had a constant excess of egg whites from the weekly test and trials of different kinds of cheesecakes. Oh yes cheesecakes non baked and baked ones. My Ukrainian stewardess whose sweet tooth equals mine, is simply addicted to cheesecakes. One of my favourite recipe (the crew favourite treat as well) is Orange and Lemon Cheesecake from Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries. The creamy filling will send you to dessert heaven!!!!

So when I was sent to London on a business trip to deal with some carpet samples, new lampshades for the boat and meet my boss, I made sure I found time to go to Borders (I always go to Tottemham Court Road) to grab some cookbooks. One was Cheesecakes cookbook collection, a present I gave to Mila. She has not really been baking before so I had to explain so many things to her like bain marie. Well I thought I was suppose to spend time training her boat work and food service but on our free time I would take her to the galley and explain baking essentials and equipments.

She got hooked!!!

On this photo here is Mila’s Banana cheesecake. I was occupied with many things that day that I told her just give a hoot if there is something she could not understand from the recipe. I told her just add more grand marnier than what the recipe calls! Wicked!!
Half way thru she called me and said Shalimar I cant find anything here on the recipe what temperature the oven should be.

Wait a minute… didnt I just help you with the gelatin? I just realized that moment it was not baked one, then she started freeting how the mixture will settle. So more lessons on cooling etc.
Oh I dont have the recipe to share she has the book I had the memories… and lots of egg whites.

That boat is fully equipped for baking. I decided to use the egg whites for coconut macaroons. When I worked on it I really follow a recipe, I just whipped the egg whites, added the coconut while continously checking the consistency of the egg white and the coconut and slowly adding sugar. I piped them into small florettes.
And I shut the galley I wanted to bake alone and listen to music.

Here is the recipe and make sure they are cool before storing them in airtight containers

and if you have lots of egg whites try this exciting recipe of coffee meringues

As they say some end is a new beginning….my life had turned upside down but I decided not to be put down with it. The pressure, the depression, sleepless nights and endless tears that took my life into a different state was too much to bear.

But then I thought of Dr Seuss words “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” Perhaps what happened to my life is indeed a blessing in disguise.
So in one of those days when I thought it would be so gloomy again… I decided that I would bake the cookies I always wanted to try for a very long time.

Last year I joined the EMBB and the parcel that arrived at my door came from Andrew of Spittoon Extra. He baked some of these cookies and they arrived in Athens to be savoured as soon as I opened the box.

Here is the original recipe Andrew had. I did not alter anything until to the point I could not roll the mixture. Perhaps it was my hazelnuts which was very powdery.
I added a bit of butter to hold the mixture. Andrew did not grind all the nuts to give it a crunchy taste which was so tasty. Also his were thinnner than mine.
I will bake these biscuits again and if I will be using the extra grounded hazelnuts then I will test by reducing the flour and maybe add a bit of butter.

Andrew included a bottle of honey on that parcel. I kept mine on tight container and gave away to friends.
These biscuits are perfect for afternoon tea… very easy to bake… quick to disappear from your kitchen too!!!!

these were the one Andrew baked

Irish Hazelnut Honey Biscuits

75g hazelnuts
150g plain flour
salt
100g butter
50g caster sugar
4 tablespoons thick honey

Toast the nuts in the oven for 10 minutes. You need to remove any skins before grinding to a powder. Cream the butter and sugar together and sift in the flour and salt. Add the nuts. Knead lightly. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough and cut iinto 5cm rounds. Grease a baking tray, line with paper and bake at 190C/375F/G5 for 7 – 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Serve sandwiched together with thick honey.

I didn’t actually ground the hazelnuts up all that finely wanting a little crunch in the biscuit; it made the dough rather fragile though, but the end result is rather tasty.

Easy tasty bake…..

…and other than slowly picking up my life again this little creature added a ray of sunshine to my life…my nephew Andreas Sebastian. Tara gave birth last 3rd of June few days shy to my birthday!

and he sleeps and asks milk again and sleeps again…

Saturday’s culinary adventure left my palate satisfied and my kitchen looking like a war zone. Just when I was about to tackle the mess, I wanted something sweet, lemony perhaps. This happens all the time when I eat seafood, nothing too weird just a dessert that cleanses.

Hmm I had limes that are just about to go to the bin. Then I remember I saw a recipe in one cookbook that uses limes.

There it was Citrus Angel Food Cakes. Having recently, conquered my fear of whipping egg whites ( I have successfully made a chiffon cake and meringues ) I just need to try this recipe. For years I have been drooling over photos of angel cakes. I once bought a second hand Betty Cocker cookbook at a bazaar and all the time I owned that (a friend borrowed it never the book came back to my shelf), I just wondered how all those cakes are so fluffy.

Now I understand the concept of egg whites, beating, whipping folding am sure things are easier to grasp these days. This recipe is from the book Williams-Sonoma TASTE. Oh those red checkered napkins!
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Sometime a month ago, I visited 80 Breakfasts and saw her truffle cupcakes ( she had truffle left over the Christmas past). She used a recipe she dug from Baking Sheet that has been adapted from Donna Hay.
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Just before Christmas Baby Rambutan baked an
APPLE CAKE. I knew its a matter of time I will test that recipe.
Well I have lots of old apples. No one will touch them so I have to “recycle”. At
Tartine La Gourmande she posted about food in your fridge that
Cela allait a la poubelle.. it was about to go to trash. I just finished cleaning my fridge when I read her post. I can’t stop thinking that I can never really bin food.
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