Tatty Pies

Hi All,
This morning OH and I finished the order for Denver Windmill. My wife really is a superstar as she does the most wonderful pie lids and doesn't complain at the early starts and low/no pay.


After we finished the order I thought it was high time I tackled those veggie pies I keep promising people.


These pies came about after several requests from vegetarians visiting my stall at Watton Farmers Market, after they had spotted my pork pies but were unable to sample them.


I tried to come up with something that would taste great when cold, and provide the same gastronomic effect as one of my pork pies.


I decided on the filling purely on a whimsical notion that potatoes are filling, and if partially cooked in a delicious sauce should provide a good meal once baked in a decent pastry.


After preparing a dish of Dauphinoise potatoes to my own recipe, I developed a vegetarian pastry using the same recipe as my pork pie pastry just minus the lard!


A quick blind bake of the cases and then it was in with portions of potato cut out of the dish using a pastry ring.


I tried out three variations, one with no topping, one with a handful of Gruyere and one topped with creamed potatoes made with double cream flavoured with shallots, garlic and nutmeg.

After a stint in the oven the test pies came out for a while but I decided that they needed more colour. Five minutes later and looking golden and delicious I took the pies out.


Sampled warm I settled on the cheese topped offering, mainly because I love Gruyere.


I think a chilled taste test will reveal the true winner and I will edit this post to show the results.


See you later




Later that same day;


The taste test was a complete and utter.....success!
Further market research is needed, as a focus group of two is a little limited even by my standards.
The winners are the Gruyere topped pie and in a close second came the Potato topped pie.
I need some willing veggies to have a crack at these pies, so please take a collective step forward if you would like to help with taste testing. ;-)


Tomorrow brings a new (used) chest freezer for bulk meat storage and another load of pies ready for Watton Farmers Market this Saturday from 08:30 - 12:30.
Pop down and see me before the pies are all gone.


See you all soon.




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Location:Kitchen

All quiet, or is it?

Hi All,
The last week or so since I left the Bake Off has been interesting.
I have been recognised by people other than friends, family and the authorities, which was rather nice.
One lady simple stood and pointed at me and said,
"Telly, you're off the telly!"
Which was weird but nice as she was a keen baker and was lovely to talk to.
One particularly enthusiastic woman spotted me in the Chatsworth House farm shop in Pilsley. She asked lots of questions and seemed quite awestruck.
It is strange having just a small taste of celebrity, but I'm not sure if I could hack it full time.

Whilst in the Peak District I dropped some samples off at Chatsworth House Farm Shop, to see if it is worthwhile my supplying them a line of Pork Pies.
I will fill you in when I know more.

I have a course booked this weekend which involves my teaching a basic bakery lesson to a small group of women. Should be interesting as I have a farmers Market the same day.

Well it's a busy day of pie baking and hospital visits tomorrow, so blogging will have to wait.

See you all soon




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Location:Sofa

Good grief, how busy can one man be?

Hi All,


As we are all no doubt aware, I didn't make it through a very tough pastry round of The Great British Bake Off.
The competition was very stiff with some beautiful (and not so beautiful) creations to tempt the judges.
I felt that my quiche recipe, which appears in the recipe book for the series, was a success and will work on it's cosmetics a little before baking it again.
However this was the only highlight as a schoolboy error with my Lemon Tart saw the filling cooked for too long.
Cooking for too long seemed to persist as a theme to my pastry and I managed to catch the pastry cases for my miniature tarts, which was a huge disappointment as the fillings were spot on.
I am upset at leaving the show at such an early stage purely because I missed out on the treats and challenges that remain to be seen in the rest of the series.
I will post my recipes at the bottom of this blog entry, so please feel free to bake them and post your comments on this blog for all to see.

Yesterday was hectic to say the very least. 
After a relaxed breakfast at Guest and The City in Brighton, Callie and I took a wander into the Lanes to find top chocolate shop Choccywockydoodah.


We were not disappointed, the shop was festooned with amazing creations including chocolate gnomes, towering wedding cakes and some family jewels that would make the eyes water!


We left with a family friendly slab of Banoffee chocolate for the kids and firm promises to return soon.


Despite the rain, we had enjoyed our last wander through the narrow winding lanes with their myriad beautiful shops and eateries, Brighton will be missed.


A rain sodden drive through the hills rising out of Brighton and onto the M25, Callie and I wound our way North to find our way through to Redbridge tube station for our journey in to London. We stopped on the way at Valentines Mansion for a quick trip to the loo and a reminisce about the days of GBBO.


Back in the car we parked up and caught the tube into London. Settling on Soho as our destination and a trip to top Chocolatier Paul.A.Youngs new shop on Wardour street.


As we walked into the shop were greeted with friendly yet reserved staff, no Continental gushing here, these guys let you peruse the plethora of chocolatey treats without feeling pressured.


Had our budget been unlimited, I would probably still be crouched in the corner of the shop rocking back and forth in a chocolate induced stupor.
The creations on display were mind boggling and were forced by financial constraints to settle on a pair of chocolates.
Callie settled bravely on a Marmite Chocolate and I settled for a much safer Salted Caramel.


Like little kids, we hurried from the shop with rushed promises to return, we scuttled around the side of Paul's shop to consume our chocolates.


Ploughing into the Marmite offering we were totally overwhelmed by how Paul had managed to blend the two fillings in such a way that you were left with a beautifully sweetened yet bitter Marmite flavour which although balanced, left you under no illusions as to what you had just eaten.
The Salted Caramel was sublime. Smooth caramel, bitter dark chocolate and just enough sea salt to leave you wanting many many more.


This little shop and all of it's contents are a triumph and I cannot wait to go back, with more cash this time!


After a lovely lunch in a small and friendly Mediterranean restaurant on Petticoat Lane, we took a slow wander back to the tube via a very crowded Leicester Square, marvelling at the size of one shop devoted entirely to M&Ms, wondering at the longevity of such a place.


After a short but sweaty tube journey Callie and I arrived at Kings Cross and started our short walk to The Hub on York Way.
We were greeted by Ruby Kvalheim and her team, who made us both very welcome and showed us around the building.


After a cup of tea and a chance for us both to rest, I made my way downstairs to start setting up for the bread making demonstration to be held as part of the Hub Feast.


The Hub Feast is an opportunity for people to gather and share food in a friendly welcoming environment.


At around 7pm we got started with an informal introduction and then straight into the Soda bread.
As this is a really quick bread, the demo didn't last more than ten minutes and the bread was in the oven. Which was super as it left loads of time to socialise and catch up with friends new and old.


An unexpected treat was the arrival of Dana Gornitzky who runs a wonderful charm school and who is directly responsible for my contacting Ruby in the first place.
As usual Dana was more than a match for my enthusiasm and had plenty to tell me about her own projects, Check out Dana's Charm School.


I also had the pleasure of meeting Matthew Smee who is a big part of The Hub and was keen to hear about my exploits on The Bake Off as well as my other projects. Matthew is an energetic guy and I welcome any opportunity to work with him further at the Hub.


Another encounter, this time Twitter assisted, was with Chris Young of The Real Bread Campaign. Chris as you can imagine is a big fan of real bread and was also delighted to hear all about my projects and business successes.


Chris is keen to see Bakers and other Artisans go into schools to give children an opportunity to learn from these people, and give them anther avenue to explore after leaving school.


Being involved in this kind of project is close to my heart and I would love to have any kind of involvement.
Have a look at the Real Bread Campaign

After a long, tiring but ultimately inspiring day, Callie and I made our way back to Norfolk and the inevitable pile of post, e-mails and housework, as well as a mountain of Pork shoulder to butcher and pastry to prepare.


I will be making an appearance at the Thetford Food and Drink Festival tomorrow, so pies must be brought to being and made ready for a (hopefully) hungry public as well as some much needed samples, for a couple of very exciting meetings coming up over the next few days.


I think I have covered off everything that happened in the last day or so.....
Oh no, just one last thing:


I have been asked to be the patron of a campaign to raise money for Armed Forces charities. The campaign is called Festival of pride,  Click here for more details, and is a worthy and much needed event. Please support it by turning up at these much needed festivals. 
I will be appearing on stage at the event in Newark to hold a pie making workshop, so please show your support.


See you all again soon. 

Haddock and Watercress Quiche:

Ingredients for pastry:

175 plain flour (plus a little extra for dusting

salt

75g butter (plus extra for greasing)

cold water

Small bunch of fresh dill

Preparation method for pastry

Sift the flour together with a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until you have a soft breadcrumb texture. Add enough cold water to make the crumb mixture come together to form a firm dough, and then rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out the pastry on a light floured surface and line a 22cm/8½inch well-buttered flan dish. Don't cut off the edges of the pastry yet. Chill again.

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.

Remove the pastry case from the fridge and line the base of the pastry with baking parchment and then fill it with baking beans. 

Place on a baking tray and bake blind for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment and return to the oven for another five minutes to cook the base

Ingredients for quiche filling:

325g smoked haddock (undyed) 

300ml whole milk 

30g butter 

1 small onion, finely chopped 

1 stick celery, finely chopped 

1 garlic clove, finely chopped 

30g plain flour 

nutmeg 

bunch of watercress, finely chopped (with stalks removed) 

2 eggs, beaten 

2 tbsp grated Parmesan

Preparation method:

Place haddock and the milk in a saucepan (do not crumble).

Bring to the boil then cook for 10 minutes. 

Allow to cool and remove the haddock (reserve the milk). 

Crumble the fish into a bowl and set this aside.

Add the butter to a frying pan, melt then add the onion, celery and garlic. 

Cook until softened then add the flour and stir into the butter. 

Allow to cook for a few minutes before adding the reserved cooking milk a little at a time. Stir until the sauce has thickened then season with salt, freshly-ground pepper and nutmeg.

Remove from the heat and add to the fish. At this stage beat the remaining eggs into the mixture and add the watercress. Pour into the pastry case and sprinkle the top with the parmesan.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes (the top should have risen and coloured a golden brown). Allow to cool a little then turn out, slice and serve.

Now for the tarts:

Show Stopper Sweet Miniature Tarts.

1. Salted Chocolate Tarts with Stem Ginger and Mascarpone Cream and Caramelised Pecans.

Ingredients:

Pastry

90g butter

40g caster sugar

1 free-range egg, yolk only

125g plain flour

2 tsp cocoa powder

Filling

175g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids

175ml oz double cream

175g light muscovado sugar

1½ tsp sea salt flakes

Cream

1 large tub Mascarpone cream

1 small jar stem ginger in syrup

Caramelised Pecans

100g caster sugar

2 tbsp water

24 pecan halves

pinch sea salt

Preparation method.

To make the pastry, cream together the butter and sugar, then add the egg yolk and mix well. Gradually add the flour and cocoa and mix to make a stiff dough. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Roll out the pastry on a floured board and line 12 greased 2.5in tart tins, making sure there aren’t any holes. Line the tarts with greaseproof paper, fill with baking beans and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the beans and paper and cook for a further five minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool.

To make the filling, place all the ingredients in a large bowl and place over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not come into contact with the water. Stir occasionally until the mixture is completely smooth, then pour the filling into the pastry cases and place in the fridge for about two hours or until set.

Meanwhile, make the caramelised pecans. Place the caster sugar and water into a saucepan and dissolve over a very low heat, shaking the pan occasionally. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, turn up the heat and boil until it turns into a golden caramel colour. Working quickly, stir through the pecans and sea salt, turning the mixture onto a baking tray lined with silicone paper and spreading it out as much as possible. When cool, break up the mixture, trying to keep the pecans whole.

Place two halves on each of the cooled tarts.

Finely shred stem ginger and fold into Mascarpone along with a tablespoon of the syrup.

Top each tart with a piped swirl of the cream.

1. Miniature Passion Fruit and Ricotta Tarts.

Ingredients.

Pastry

90g butter

40g caster sugar

1 free-range egg, yolk only

125g plain flour

Filling

450g Ricotta cheese

4 eggs

160 ml single cream

160g caster sugar

4 passion fruit

Garnish

1 small punnet of Strawberries (minimum 12 good sized strawberries.).

2 passion fruit.

Preparation method

Bake pastry cases as before and set to one side to cool.

In the mean time place Ricotta, eggs, cream and sugar into a food processor and blend until smooth.

Stir in the pulp from the four passion fruit.

Put mixture into blind baked pastry cases and bake at 160 degrees centigrade until set.

Fan slice a strawberry and place on top of each tart.

Spoon over a small quantity of passion fruit pulp.

1. French Fruit Tart.

Ingredients

Pastry.

90g butter

40g caster sugar

1 free-range egg, yolk only

125g plain flour

Filling.

300ml double cream

100ml custard

a few dashes of poire william liqueur 

1 punnet strawberries

1 punnet of blackberries

1 punnet of raspberries

1 small bunch of white seedless grapes

Preparation method

Blind bake 12 pastry cases and leave to cool

Mix together whipped cream, custard and liqueur, then spoon into each case.

Arrange fruit attractively on top of cream  mixture.

Let me know what you think.

All at sea in Brighton

Hi All,
Well last night came as no surprise to me, obviously.
What did leave me gobsmacked was the level of interest in the judging and final products of the baking.
I for one am quite happy with the decisions made by the judges. Rob Billington is a gifted chap and will do great things, and for the sake of his female admirers I hope this means more TV work.

My life since the bake off finished filming has been exciting to say the least. I have launched two business which are getting off the ground, with the pie business in particular doing really well.

I would love to do a lot more work in television and radio. For one it was great fun and hard work which is a great combination. For another it is a great forum for promoting Free Cakes For Kids, and the work of Clic Sargent who helped with Cancer respite care for my eldest son Deryn.

I have been told that presenting work would be a good avenue to explore. When people say this I genuinely cannot see the appeal, but others tell me that my banter and good natured approach make me an asset I am quite proud.

As I blog I am sat in a lovely little balcony room in Brighton over looking the sea. I am on the cusp of who knows what, but I can tell you this; whatever comes my way I am going to grab with both hands.

I can't upload recipes or pics yet as I am away from my MAC and don't yet have a MacBook (hint hint)
I will blog again when I get home and throw on recipes from last nights programme.
For now it's a circuit session with my fave training partner on the beach.

See you soon


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Guest and The City Brighton

What a busy day

Click here for more information

Hi All,


Yesterday I told you how we dropped my eldest son Deryn off at Heathrow, for his trip to Barretstown in Ireland. 
Well once the emotional goodbyes had been done, Callie, Dylan and I headed in to Windsor to meet up with old friends of Callie's from her days married to the Household Cavalry Regiment.


We had a lovely few hours sitting and chatting. Something, that with chemo and hospital etc, we have little or no time for normally. So it made a lovely change to sit and sink a few cold beers in good company.
A few pies were ordered for next weekend when Callie goes back to Heathrow to collect Deryn, so I couldn't help do a little business!


On the way back home we stopped off in Bushey to see an old friend and deliver his long awaited Pork pies. It was genuinely nice to see him making a success of his business.


As I had had a few tall frosty ones too many, Callie was duty driver and I took the opportunity to catch up on vital Tweets and make some phone calls.


One of these phone calls was a long over due one to Sarah Williams.
Sarah is the Co-Ordinator and Chair of The Free Cakes For Kids Wales organisation, part of the UK wide network.
I had said weeks prior after a random meeting via Twitter that if I could lend any weight or support to their campaign then I would.
After an inspiring forty five minutes on the phone together I was left bursting with good news.
I had offered myself up as the patron of the organisation in the UK, and Sarah had readily accepted my offer!


After getting off the phone, and despite the late hour I rang my Mum and my Sister to tell them the good news, and then jumped on twitter to tell all my followers.


I am, as you can probably tell, absolutely thrilled to be the patron of such a worthwhile and hard working organisation.


As the name suggests, Free Cakes For Kids UK, arrange for birthday cakes to be baked and delivered to under privileged children in all sorts of environments from foster homes to battered women's refuges.


I whole heartedly support their endevours and urge you all to do the same.
Please try and think of someone who can bake. They don't need to be world class bakers. Just be able to turn out a decorated, safe to eat cake for a child and deliver it to them.
These children will be in the same community or close to the baker, hence why we need lots of people to volunteer.
If you think of someone, please ask them to contact me and I will help to get them involved.


For now, I am preparing for a radio interview on BBC Radio Norfolk at 16:40 this afternoon. 


See you soon.

Courgettes? Surely not!

Hi All,


I thought that it would be nice to post recipes from the show as the weeks pass, so that you have the chance to try these things out on your friends and family.


Todays recipe is for the two tier Chocolate Courgette Cake that featured in programme one.
Despite the comments by the judges, the cigarillos are not an attempt to mask poor icing, they are in fact because I love posh chocolate! Fact.

Two Tier Chocolate Courgette Cake.

• 15oz plain chocolate
• 17.5 oz self-raising flour
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 12 oz caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• 18 fluid ounces vegetable oil.
• 24 oz peeled weight courgette
• 6 oz chopped walnuts

Butter Cream Icing.

• 750g butter, unsalted
• 3 tsp vanilla essence
• 1.8kg Icing sugar
• 6 table spoons milk

Decoration.

• Fresh grapes, deep blue if possible and seedless, two large bunches on the vine.
• Fresh red currants on the vine, two large bunches.
• Medium sized whole strawberries, with tops. two large punnets.
• White and milk chocolate cigarillos, 2 x 700g packs of each colour, cigarillos must be a minimum of 10cm long.

Method for cake:

1. Set oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
2. Grease and flour a 6” and 10” cake tin
3. Melt the chocolate
4. Grate the peeled courgettes
5. Whisk eggs and oil together.
6. Put all dry ingredients (flour,salt,sugar) into a large bowl.
7. Mix in the egg and oil and beat until glossy.
8. Add chocolate, grated courgettes and chopped nuts.
9. Stir well.
10. Pour mixture into two tins and bake for an hour or until sponge is slightly springy to the touch.
11. Cool in tin for ten minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
12. Decorate with chocolate cigarillos.
13. Arrange tumbling fresh fruit down the side of cake and around base.
14. Dust fruit lightly with icing sugar.

Extra equipment required.

• 8” crank handled spatula/icing knife
• Lazy Susan 15”
• 6” and 10” loose bottomed or clasped cake tins
• Wooden dowel rods x 6
• Cardboard cake trays (thin board) 8”
• 15” Cake board.
• Secatuers for cutting dowels

Nerve racking doesn't quite cover it!

This recipe is deceptively simple, and if you are even remotely good at making and decorating cakes, this will be a breeze.

On the programme we were kitted out with nordic branded Cake Lifters. I cannot stress how useful these simple little devices are. I highly recommend one for large heavy cakes such as this one.

We were also given some very useful cake thermometers. The ends turn red when the cake is cooked and come from Nordic also. Again I can recommend these, and no I am not on commission from Nordic.

This cake can be scaled back and made as a great single cake, split in two and filled with chocolate buttercream. The top of the cake takes on a lovely crispy texture.

I challenge you to make this cake last more than a couple of days in a busy household.

I will post recipes from the show as we move through the programme, so make sure to follow my blog for updates.

Thanks for reading.

Concerned for Rob after he dropped his cake.

Simon.

Let's talk about The Great British bake Off

Hello all,
As you are by now aware I am fortunate enough to count myself as one of the 12 amateur bakers to make it through to the Great British Bake Off.

If you watched the show on Tuesday night you would have seen me take a bit of a hammering for my choice of ingredients for my cupcakes!


If you didn't see it you can watch it here..GBBO Series Two Episode 1


I am not a bitter type of chap and thought I would open up my recipe for the cupcakes from the show, and give all of you the opportunity to try these little devils for yourself.


Please post your comments if you tried this recipe yourself and how you got on.

Chocolate and Guinness Cupcakes.

1. 250ml Guinness
2. 250g butter
3. 100g dark bitter chocolate, broken up
4. 400g caster sugar
5. 1 x small tub of creme fraiche
6. 2 medium eggs
7. 275g plain flour
8. 1 tbsp baking soda

Baileys Irish Cream and Cream Cheese Icing

• 75g butter
• 340g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream
• 150g cream cheese

Method

• Gently heat the Guinness, butter, chocolate and sugar together. 
• Mix in the eggs and combine until thoroughly mixed.
• Add sour cream and combine slowly over the heat until fully combined.
• Slowly add in the flour and baking soda. 
• Remove from heat and beat until mixture is smooth with no lumps.
• Place into 24 cases and bake at 160 degrees C for 18 minutes or until well risen and springy to the touch.
• Remove from muffin tin and allow to cool totally on a cooling rack.
• Cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth.
• Add sufficient icing sugar to achieve a mixture that achieves a ribbon like consistency when whisked as it by it's nature is not as stiff as a buttercream.
• Place in the fridge if the mixture becomes runny or loose.
• Place icing in a piping bag and decorate each cupcake with a generous amount of icing in a style to suit you.

This is exactly how I did mine on the day and I want to know how your cakes turn out and whether you enjoyed them or not.

I have since made these cakes with Adnams Broadside and the flavour blew me away. It worked so much better than Guinness and it's a local product.

Have fun and let me know how you get on.

Here's a little teaser from next week's show..Teaser for episode 2

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