I baked until it broke!

Credit goes to Noor for this useful spoon to cup conversion table 

Salam Alaikum (Peace be upon you)/ Hello my readers,

It's been a while since I posted, I have been searching for my blogging voice, mojo whatever you want to call it but that doesn't been I haven't been baking oh no! I have made a number of muffins, bread, cupcakes, etc they have either not turned out as pretty as I wanted or I have simply just been off mood for spending time snapping pics and now to top it off my oven broke, yes really!

For a while now the door handles have been falling off and then two days ago the fan stopped working and I smelled a terrible burning when I was about to bake my first attempt at a 8 strand braided loaf! I immediately switched the oven off whipped out my halogen oven gave it the once over (cleaned it) and transferred unsucessfully the braided loaf to a smaller tray and baked, let's just sayit was edible but not pretty lol I was thankful alhamduillah that the stove part of my cooker was still working but then that stopped working yesterday too! Well, I have always wanted a conventional electric oven anyway, ever since my baking has become a daily habit, (it seems i can't go a day without feeling the urge even if i dont give in) as i have heard there better than electric fan ovens for baking, so when we have enough £ saved or a bargain comes our way that is what I hope to buy, inshaAllah (God willing)

I have experimented with halogen oven baking but hardly any of my tins/pans fit and I have noticed with cakes and bread especially, the top bakes while the bottom remains soft/pasty. I read online somewhere to treat cooking/baking in a halogen oven like a fan oven i.e lower temperature for less time but then I've had personal advice suggesting to bake at a higher temperature for longer which seems the right advice according to my experience so far... If any of you have specific halogen oven baking recipes feel free to share, thank you and until my next post, peace / Salam 

Eid Mubarak!

Salam Alaikum to all my sisters in Islam,

InshAllah you all are having a blessed EID.

I made this coffee and nutella cake for EID (went down a treat with my coffee loving husband).

For lunch my family and I had lemon, garlic & herb roast chicken and potatoes, delicious alhamduillah what about you, what did you eat today? Tell me in A comment.

We have lots of chicken leftover for a nice chicken salad later, saying that it will probably be tomorrow before we are hungry or eat again.

I will post the recipe for my cake some other time (it needs minor adjustments - less coffee, more nutella!)

Vanilla, Almond & Orange Blossom Ice Cream

I wanted to create a new and unique ice cream flavour for Eid which is just around the corner.
The Almond and Orange Blossom flavour was inspired by algerian sweets such as Qalb El Louz and Tcherek so here it is, enjoy!

All sisters that have EID recipes (traditional or modern) i recommend you enter sister Sadaf's EID virtual 'Potluck'  inshaAllah

Ingredients

2 cups Double Cream

1 cup Single Cream or Milk

2/3 cup sugar

2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped or  2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 to 1 tablespoon Orange Blossom Water

Upto 1/2 cup Almonds, lightly toasted, roughly chopped and cooled.

Method

Mix all the ingredients except the almonds and chill for a few hours in the fridge.
Process in maker until desired consistancy is achieved,  add the chopped almonds stir. Either serve straight away or store in freezer, using a pre-chilled(in freezer) container works best.
For that extra treat drizzle orange blossom honey and or more chopped almonds to serve.

**next time i would sprinkle the nuts with a touch of ground cinnamon before toasting.

Strawberry Ice Cream (Egg Free)

Photo taken with ipad3

I love making things from scratch, yes you can buy ice cream fairly cheaply at the supermarket but i would much rather make my own that way you know exactly what it contains and lets face it home made ice cream tastes far better, why? because it has far less air incorporated during the churning process, making it much creamier and satisfying by the spoonful.

It was not my first attempt at making ice cream this week. I did make a batch of caramel ice cream however, it ended up tasting slightly eggy and salty. Maybe i over or undercooked the custard base and slipped when adding a generous pinch of salt that the recipe called for, either way i will have to try it or another recipe at a later date as caramel is hubbys favourite flavour (usually).

This strawberry ice cream is far more simple to make, no eggs are required so no custard to be made! when i've licked my salted caramel wounds i will try another custard based ice cream inshAllah (God willing), but for now i'm satisfied with my strawberry dream ice cream. Alhamduillah (All praise and thanks be to God)

You can substitute any soft fruit in this recipe and it will work just as well if not better.

Ingredients

400g ripe strawberries, washed, hulled and chopped
200ml double cream
75g caster sugar or to taste (you may need more if your srawberries aren't fully ripe)
1tsp lemon juice
1 vanilla pod, seeds only or good dash of halal vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Puree strawberries in a blender until smooth, pass through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds.
2. In a large bowl, add all the ingredients and mix together. Chill in the fridge for a few hours.
3. Churn ice cream according to maufacturers instructions or you could try hand churning!  

Brown Eyed Baker's Burger Buns

I know i said my next bake it! wouldn't actually be baking BUT i couldn't resist! These burger buns are just perfect in everyway, slightly hard on the outside, super soft inside.

I had spotted these a while ago over on Brown Eyed Baker, but i've struggled making a super tasty burger for a looong time, so i kept the recipe in mind ready for the right time which was yesterday mashAllah (has Allah willed) dh brought home some frozen halal lamb burgers (we are not normally a frozen kinda family if you catch my drift) to make myself feel less guilty about eating frozen food (not literally) and that i'm not a great cook i made these buns and proved, yes indeed i am all baker!

Recipe can be found here

Oh and if you haven't a crepe/pancake maker, buy one! they are great, not only for pancakes but you can cook flat breads, drop scones etc also good for re-heating breads and things too.

Yummy Break!

Salam Alaikum / hello readers,

Have you noticed, i have been rather slow in coming forward with recipes this month? this is purely because i haven't baked that much, due to it being Ramadan and the only demands in my house are Qalb El Louz Qalb El Louz Qalb El Louz. Yes i have had quite enough, i finally baked my third and final in the correct size dish (33cm by 22cm) and it worked out well Alhamduillah.

Don't ask me for the recipe of those pretty cupcakes pictured above, ok i no longer have it however, look on the back of a packet of tesco's light brown sugar it should be there. I have to confess, the cupcakes were not 'all that' apart from the rose butter cream swirl that is.

I sooo can't wait for the new series of The Great British Bake Off to start next week, what about you? forget the Olympics! OOOps did i just say that out loud

My next bake it! doesn't actually involve baking but more of that another day....

Peace and Love