Apricot jam hearts...

Hello again!

As I mentioned in my previous post I had a new baking book given to me as a Christmas gift and I was planning to have a go at one of the recipes.
Well, the recipe I went for was quite a simple one in terms of equipment and expertise but the results were very yummy! I made the 'Mulled wine stars' though changed it slightly to become Apricot jam hearts as I couldn't get hold of Mulled wine jam (apparently Tesco isn't quite that upmarket) and I didn't have any star shaped cookie cutters (they're on my shopping list).

I followed the recipe precisely as I wanted to get as close as possible to the result as I should using it, then work out what, if anything I would want to tweak in the future. The dough made in the recipe was quite 'short' which had me a little worried as I've never worked with such short dough though I needn't have been worried as the biscuits turned out just fine and delicious! My only slight negativity of the recipe as a whole would be that the biscuits themselves take quite a long time to bake as I needed to do quite a few batches in the oven (two halves of biscuits together, with jam in the middle) and that they were a bit too sweet for my tastes. The added sweetness came from the cinnamon in the dough, which gave a lovely dimension to the overall flavour, just perhaps with a little bit less sugar next time?

Irrespective of my personal tastes regarding the sugar/cinnamon combo the biscuits looked quite good for a first attempt. I think next time I will try to make them more uniform in size and thickness, otherwise I was quite pleased. As were my colleagues at work in our weekly meeting!
Not going to post the recipe for the biscuits as it was taken from a book and I don't want to be sued, though the book is Peggy Porschen and can be found in most good book shops.

I've also decided to give baking my own bread a go, and made two small (400g) loaves this week. Though I must confess I cheated and used a ready bought bread mix and used my bread machine! Can't beat the smell of freshly cooked bread wafting through the house...mmm!

Time permitting I want to have a go at making my own bread properly this week, probably just a plain old wholemeal loaf to begin, and possibly make a sour dough starter ready for next week.

 

Surprisingly good loaf from this mix!

 

 

 

The finished article! Not bad for a bread machine.

 

 

 

Come back soon to see what else I've been up to in the kitchen. Hoping to get hold of some fresh yeast for homemade crumpets either this week or next (and I will post the recipe for that one for you).