Jessica's Bake Off Challenge

This apple cranberry pie is a double-crusted fruit pie, and thus satisfies the signature bake from The Great British Bake Off  Series 4, Episode 4. I made two of these pies for friends for Pi Day. Both seemed to enjoy the pie. It is not a particularly difficult pie to make, but can be slightly time-consuming between the preparation and the bake time. The first step is to prepare the crust. This is a slight variation to my standard shortcrust pastry- I add a tiny bit of sugar. The addition of vodka or rum helps the crust come out nicely flakey, since it adds liquid to help the dough roll nicely without activating gluten (which can make the crust leathery).  It is important to make sure the dough is cold before baking. Most recipes call for completely chilling the dough before rolling it out, but I personally find that it's extremely difficult to roll if it's too cold. I chill for about 15 minutes, roll it out, and then chill a further 20-30 minutes once in the pie dish. This pi...

 Following the success of my llama cookies a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make these iced lavender biscuits for my take on the 24 Iced Biscuits challenge from Series 7, Episode 2 of The Great British Bake Off. Mind you, these are biscuits in the English sense of the word- a.k.a. cookies to us Americans. Not American biscuits, which are more like English scones in shape and texture. And let's not get into the nonsensical things that Americans call scones... These lavender biscuits are a flavorful variation of the typical sugar cookie. The lavender gives a light floral flavor. Also, my addition of fresh lemon juice to the royal icing helps to balance out the earthiness of the lavender. In order to get a substantial lavender flavor in these biscuits, I added both dried lavender and lavender extract to the cookie dough. I desiccated the dried lavender and mixed it in with the granulated sugar. Although it would be possible to break down the lavender with a mortar and pestle, I do ...

 Wow. I have had quite a hiatus from this blog... from baking as a whole, really. My entire world has turned upside down since October 2019. I got pregnant shortly after that point, and my early pregnancy nausea and sensitivity to smells definitely caused me to cut back on my baking for a little while. Once I was over that, the pandemic started. As much as I love baking, I prefer not to bake when I cannot give the finished products away. Now I have a wonderful 6-month-old baby, who takes up all my time. I made some cookies the other day, and it took most of the day to bake and decorate them due to the fact that I had to keep stopping to take care of the baby. I still am not baking that much. It's too much that I cannot share easily, and it typically takes more time and/or energy than I have. I will, however, try to make something and post it every once in a while. We just might not have any massive showstoppers until I can invite some people over to partake. I did, however, bake a ...

Today I am going to share with you three of the random-ish bakes I did over the summer. All three were meant to fulfill Bake Off challenges... Except I didn't write down the recipes. Regardless, one was nearly a complete failure, and only one came out amazingly well. Therefore, it is no loss that I shall have to try to recreate them, and in one case, very much improve on it. I will try not to distress you too much, dear readers, so I will start with the bake in the middle of the pack... a white peach and raspberry pie. This bake was meant to fulfill the double-crusted fruit pie signature challenge from Series 4, Episode 4. I was very excited about this pie because I love white peaches. They are only available during summer months, so I went a little crazy with them for a while. For the double-crusted white peach raspberry pie, the fruit is mixed with white and brown sugar, a little lemon juice, some spices, and a little cornstarch as a thickening agent. The slits are cu...

Orange French Silk Tart This Orange French Silk tart was made for the Series 6 Episode 9 signature challenge of Great British Bake Off- a signature chocolate tart. You may remember that I made this tart for my Pi Day party, but didn't remember the recipe I created for it. Vincent's coworker's boyfriend liked the tart so much that I decided to make the next rendition of the tart for just the two of them. Vincent's coworker, who is a self-proclaimed pie hater, texted me later to say it is the best thing she thinks I've made. The classic French Silk tart is made with a sweet shortcrust pastry crust, a silky smooth creamy chocolate filling, and a whipped cream topping. It is rich without being overpowering, it is creamy smooth, it is refreshing on a nice hot day. I altered the basic French silk pie only slightly, adding orange to the flavor profile. Orange and chocolate is a common flavor combination in England (such as in Jaffa cakes), and works much bette...

Welcome back, as always. Today, I am sharing my recent bake- cinnamon, cardamom, chocolate, and orange babka. It fulfills the chocolate loaf signature challenge from Series 7, Episode 3 of The Great British Bake Off .  What is babka? The word babka  technically refers to a sweet yeast cake, but in the Jewish tradition, is specifically filled and twisted into a loaf shape. It is something of an alternative form of a rugelach, and is usually filled with either a chocolate or a cinnamon filling. Mass produced chocolate babka is readily available (Trader Joe's has an awesome chocolate babka), but the addition of orange and spices gives my recipe a unique flair. The cake ends up just sweet enough, making it a perfect accompaniment to tea. Babka looks difficult to bake, but it is not really hard... it just takes patience. Unlike most cakes, babka needs time to rise. Like most breads, it needs two rises, but as an enriched dough, the rising time takes longer than a typical...

I am finally getting around to posting a little bit about my annual Pi Day party (March 14, 2019). Pi Day is my favorite secular holiday- and it might even beat out a few religious holidays. It is also Vincent's and my anniversary. And yes, we did have wedding pie instead of wedding cake. Be prepared to see more Pi Day party posts in future years. I made a lot of food. In previous years, I have served only pie, but I did set this party around suppertime. Therefore, I served some savory food as well... Including some savory pies. Since I keep kosher, and cannot serve dairy and meat products simultaneously, this was a fully meatless shindig (albeit with some fish). I served appetizers of mushroom and tomato basil bruschetta, inarizushi, sushi, three types of deviled eggs, and Greek salad. I also made a pasta primavera as a non-pie main dish and a side of asparagus. And then there were the pies (not all of which are seen above). Unfortunately, I was super busy and did not ac...

I admittedly made this bake a few weeks ago, when I had some leftover coconut milk from a savory recipe and a lot of leftover mango. I was really determined to find a Bake Off challenge with which I could use up my leftovers before they went bad. I found that Series 8, Episode 1's signature challenge was to make a fruity cake! Coconut, mango, and lemon are all fruits, so this cake idea quickly formed. I had a few issues with the construction of the cake (due to my own impatience), so it ended up only being two layers instead of the three I had planned. The recipe is for a three-layered cake, so keep in mind that the final result will be a little taller than seen in these pictures. I had some homemade lemon curd in my refrigerator, but store-bought will do just as well. Likewise, store-bought mango jam will work just as well as my homemade jam. The cake went over a storm at Vincent's office. One of Vincent's coworkers specifically loves lemon curd, so she really app...