Unfortunately with a dodgy, uneven oven I've never thought of doing any baking up there, but this year I couldn't help but bake! I have become obsessed by Great British Bake Off, so when I realised that there was 'The Great British Book of Baking' based on series 1 I had to try and buy it. In most places this would be really easy, just go online and order it off Amazon or pop down to Waterstones, but the Isle of Skye is a little different, the one being the house we have up there has no internet. After a 45 minute drive to the main town, Portree, I walked down the high street which has about 10 shops and most of them being knitwear I was a bit disheartened and thought I would have to wait until I was home to get my hands on a copy. In the very last shop they were selling a few books, they must of had about 50 books in the whole store with 10 of them being cookery books. But I was in luck, they had 1 copy (£20), which I bought immediately!
After flicking through the book which has over 120 recipes, including recipes from the contestants such as Edward's cumin and fennel loaf and Louise's mini macaroons. However it was the cream puffs that took my fancy. And left the house again for a 45 minute back to Portree to get the ingredients, yes I know I should have read it in the car before driving home...
I've never made choux pastry before and in a wonky oven probably wasn't the best idea, but they turned out amazing if I do say so myself. They went down so well I didn't have time to take a photo of them before the rest of my family ate them!
(This makes 8 cream puffs)
Here is the recipe for the choux pastry:
Ingredients:
175ml water
a good pinch of salt
75g unsalted butter (If you've read any of my blog you'll know I love Lurpack for baking)
100g plain flour
3 medium eggs, beaten
Step 1.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees and measure out all the ingredients. Put the water, salt and butter into a pan and heat gently until the butter has melted completely without letting the mixture boil up.
Step 2.
Once the butter has completely melted quickly bring the mixture to the boil and pour in all the flour in one go, and remove the mixture from the heat and beat with a wooden spoon. The mixture should become a smooth, heavy dough.
Step 3.
Put the pan back on low heat and beat the dough for about a minute which slightly cooks the dough and the dough turns into a smooth glossy ball. Tip the dough into a mixing bowl and beat the eggs into the dough this makes the dough really shiny and it should fall from the spoon when shaken slightly.
Step 4.
Spoon (or pipe) the mixture into 8 large mounds on a greased baking sheet, then sprinkle a little water onto the baking sheet but avoiding the pastry. Bake this for 15 minutes in the preheated oven.
Step 5.
Then without opening the oven lower the temperature to 180 degrees and bake for a further 15 minutes until golden and crisp.
Step 6.
Remove from the oven and make a small hole (using a kebab skewer or something similar) in the side of the puff and return the puffs to the oven for another 5-10 minutes until the pastry is completely crisp.
For the filling
When ready to serve whip 250ml of whipping cream with 2 tablespoons of icing sugar until stiff. Then split the puffs in half horizontally and pipe in the cream to each base and put sliced strawberries on top of the cream and put the lids of the puffs back on. Dust the cream puffs with icing sugar.
For me I found this recipe amazing even with none of my cooking equipment, not in my own kitchen and temperamental oven, so give it a go!
This is just one of the recipes from the book, and I plan on making lots more from it, it seems like a must buy for any keen bakers who want to try new things.
This is a copy off abe books which seems to sell loads of books for really cheap, click here for a cheap copy of The Great British Book of Baking.
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