Bakers Anonymous - for those of us who are addicted to butter, sugar and flour

As-Salamu Alaikum,

 

If you are mad about baking and The Great British Bake Off  please do follow/join this great little blog I stumbled upon named Bakers anonymous 

Bakers anonymous are having a GBBO bake along, yippee! come and share photos of that Cake, Pie, Petit Fours, Biscuit Tower etc. made from or inspired by the show.

Spoiler:- It's sweet dough week on tonight's GBBO, I can't wait......can you?

Google+ Comments

Asalamu Alaikum Sisters, Hello everyone

My apologies for all of you who have commented on my blog posts in recent months without receiving a response from me, you see old blogger was better as I would receive an email or at least a notification in my dashboard letting me know I had a new comment.

google+ is great for social networking BUT if your like me and don't check yours every day, you miss comments on your blog posts and I hate not feeling connected with my readers which is why ive decided to remove google+ comments and go old skool again.

Until next post fee amanillah <3

Take 2&3 - Vanilla Custard Slices (slow progress)

As-Salam Alaykum  / Greetings Readers,

 

Since Take 1, I have made the Vanilla Slices again and again, each time something didn't go quite right or I'm just aiming too high above home baking standards.

 

During Take 2 - I changed the crème patissiere / pastry cream as I wanted more of it so I simply doubled the recipe quantities i used in take 1 thinking I would get the same consistency but I was wrong, it became too rich through too many egg yolks and too thick due to too much plain and corn flour. 

 

The photos above are from Take 3 - I chose to follow a different recipe altogether for the crème patissiere and I didn't any many adjustments! and I'm happy to say it was just right.

 

Making the puff pastry dough from a packet mix as worked well in both Take 2 and .

 

Notes to self before Take 4:-

• Decide the dimensions of my final sheet(s) before baking which depends on how many and how big slices i want to achieve.
• Don't over or undercook the pastry.
• Don't flatten the baked pastry sheets straight away after baking, wait until they have cooled. 
• Work on the consistency of icing, not too runny or it will drip, drip, drip!
• Find my missing or buy another small pastry bag with small circular tip for piping chocolate onto icing.
• Stock up on Chocolate and/or Nutella use this pastry project as an excuse to your husband and children why you need to eat more chocolate and your not sharing. LOL

Recipes on how to make Vanilla Puff Pastry From McDougalls Puff Pastry Mix and Vanilla Pastry Cream to follow shortly.....

What's Cooking?

Asalam Alaykum Sisters & Hello readers,

Here are a few photos of food i've cooked/baked in my home this week Masha'Allah

Doubara - Algerian Chickpea Soup

Loubia - Algerian White Bean Soup (with meat)



Tuna Cheese Toasted Sandwich - simple but delicious!

Overly Sweet Lemon & Orange Blossom Cake (i over did it with a layer of apricot jam & the honey cream cheese frosting)

Pac Man??? lol 

I still have a long way to go on my quest to being a good cook, I'm slowly getting there in sha Allah My favourite was the tuna cheese toasted sandwich believe it or not, it was simple yet oh so satisfying Alhamdulillah

Rosy Lee (Tea)

Asalam Alaykum Sisters, Hello readers,

Yorkshire Tea for Hard Water is what i am currently drinking, it's a rich and satisfying blend of black tea and although i am not 100% sure we have hard water in our Town, i do taste the difference in this tea to others i've tasted before. Even with the addition of milk it's a much cleaner and stronger flavour.

Water described as “hard” is high in dissolved minerals, specifically calcium and magnesium. Hard water is not a health risk, but a nuisance because of mineral buildup on fixtures and poor soap and/or detergent performance (i have noticed i have to use more detergent in addition to a cleaning tablet to get a bettter performance from my washing machine).

In case you were wondering Rosy Lee is cockney rhyming slang (London's famous not so secret, secret language lol) for Tea.

In Victorian times tea merchants would blend tea to suit the water in their area. So it only makes sense to bring an old tradition like that back to suit us Tea loving Brits.

I found this info graphic a while ago via pinterest and thought i would share it with you all.

Source: http://www.londonofficespace.com/

Are you more of a Tea or Coffee drinker? or neither? Tell me your favourite drink in your comment.

Thank you for asking, i take my Tea with milk and 2tsp sugar please (smiles)

* I have not been paid or asked to advertise or write a review for Yorkshire Tea.
**Sources of information used to write this post
https://www.taylorsofharrogate.co.uk/teaitem.asp?itmid=1091
http://www.hardwater.org/
 

Photos of my first Lemon Chocolate Cupcakes



The Only Use I Find For The Telephone Directory lol 

Salam Alaykum,

For a short while now i have been developing my own cupcake recipes, likey likey my Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes and Espresso Cupcakes.

The Lemon Chocolate Cupcakes pictured above are a work in progress.... i have succeeded with the cupcake itself, but the buttercream icing i made although it looks delightful was too sour, I'd over estimated how much i liked the bitter taste of lemon and not taken into account the fact that cocoa powder itself is slightly bitter, tut tut.

I was inspired by Lizzy's Chocolate Lemon Cupcakes and i mean come on what girl doesn't like either chocolate or lemon so why not combine both win, win situation!

I don't work from box mixes so following Lizzy's recipe was out of the question and since I'd had success before inventing cupcake recipes i thought why not? anyway i may take a leaf out of her book next time and go for a lemon cream cheese frosting as there is something eye catching about the contrasting colours, brown cupcake and creamy coloured frosting.

I am cupcaked out to be honest but my son's only baking request these days is 'let's make cupcakes' masha'Allah he helps by turning on the mixer and whisking the cocoa powder/flour together oh and he is a dab hand (NOT but let the lad learn) at sprinkling the sprinkles lol

* Note: Here is the link to my Chocolate Lemon Cupcake Recipe

Warning: Some Pre Made Pastry contains Ethanol/Alcohol!

Source

Salam Alaikum,

This warning comes from first hand experience of being too lazy / i have better things to do than learn how to make puff pastry right now. SHOCKING i know coming from a baker dedicated to her craft / sweet tooth lol

I wanted to make the creamy delight that is a vanilla slice pictured above, although mine would have been single decker slice(s), never mind some other time inshaAllah for now i can indulge in the thought.

The story goes a little something like this:-

While doing my online grocery shopping one cold winter evening, the thought came into my head that pre made pastry would be the way to go in order for me to save time in making my most favourite bakery item.
So as i usually do, i checked the ingredients list displayed here thinking that it was the all above board i.e. the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth but to my dismay here is the whole truth, the complete ingredients list

Ethanol = Alcohol = Haram / Forbidden
By that time it was too late i already had the product in my house so i binned it and that was that, the end of my easy pastry dreams.

So next time i or you think about cutting corners in order to make life easier, think twice and always read the label (of course alot easier if you have the product and packaging in the palm of your hand and not on a screen like i did)

Keep Korma and Curry On...

Source: Noor AlQahtani

Salam Alaikum (peace be to you)

Sorry for my absence here lately, apart from morning sickness and my children having a week or 2 of illness nothing major has really happened for me to stop posting, i seem to go through the phase where i give my all to something or leave it completely instead i need to focus on balance and doing a little of something good each day is better than nothing good at all, right?

From the title you may have guessed my sweet tooth in this pregnancy so far as switched to being quite savoury mashaAllah (Has God willed) i still enjoy a nice slice of cake, scoop of ice cream, bite of a crunchie every now and then but my favourite food right now has to be baked beans with HP sauce on toast OR Keema biryani with coleslaw(eww you may think but not to me at this moment in time)

I hope to be back soon with a recipe post inshaAllah(God willing)

Until then, Salam Alaikum

I Changed My Mind Again!

Salam Alaikum / Hello,

Thank you all for being ever so patient with me and my changes which are now unchanged? what am i talking about? well i made my blog readers invite only BUT....... my posts were no longer showing in google reader and to cut it a long story short it's just easier and more convenient i keep the blog open.

My blog isn't personal as such i mean i don't divulge too much info! but my personality in my writing style comes across (i hope) and i don't feel great about the opposite sex having any piece of me.

When i found that a man (a muslim man at that) could read or would want to comment i felt quite put off the blogging experience because my blog is aimed at women only NOT that i discourage a man to get in the kitchen and cook for his wife and family no, that is something i champion at least every once in a while but you know i just don't feel comfortable with the men and woman interacting for no valid reason even in the virtual sense because it's not something permissible in the laws of my religion/Islam.

Anyway, i hope i made myself clear on the whole subject and please if you are a man and do follow my blog your free to take and use the recipes but i don't want to communicate i.e. comments with you in any shape or form unless of course you want to go through my husband? any comments from men that find will be deleted.

JazakAllah Khairan & Thank you for reading (assuming google reader is now publishing my posts again! lol)

*I DISOVERED AFTER WRITING MY POST THAT MY GOOGLE READER WAS SUBSRIBED TO MY OLD BLOG ADDRESS OOOOPS! TO SUBSCRIBE AGAIN CLICK THE ORANGE SUBSCRIBE BUTTON WHEN YOUR IN GOOGLE READER AND ADD MY WEB ADDRESS www.athomewithasmaa.blogspot.co.uk


 

at home with asmaa is becoming invite only very soon inshaAllah

Salam Alaikum, greetings ladies,

I just want to let you know my blog will become invite only very soon inshAllah /God willing

Sorry for the inconvenience of it all but it's a choice I have made something I have thought about for a while now after having just 1 man comment on my blog it set me thinking how many others read and just don't comment, inshallah non and allahu alim/God knows

If you are a woman (only) and would like to have an invite drop me a quick email athomewithasmaa@gmail.com when you have time to spare inshAllah i will keep the settings as they are for a few days. In your email to me, please tell me who you are or give me your blog link / other social media so I recognise you instantly or can verify your indeed female.

Sorry again for the all the recent changes around here.

1975: Burger & Chips Followed By Tulumba

Asalamu Alaikum, Greetings blogosphere,

In 1975, did frozen burger and chips even exist? As I was born in the late 80's I wouldn't have a clue!

Ok, so the photos are 1975 style but definitely worth eating in 2012 I promise.

You see I do have days where I don't home make every meal. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood or like today the fact I decapitated, gutted, stuffed and pan fried sardines for my husband was enough time spent in the heart of my home so the quick dinner was perfect alhamduillah

I want to know why I can never make burger, chips/fries that good! seriously you would think chips are easy but no, i must be using the wrong type of potatoe, that's my excuse. Oh and don't get me started on the tulumba... it is just the right sweet to eat at anytime of the day, for me that is.

Tulumba or Tulumba tatlisi i believe is a Turkish sweet, made with choux like dough. Instead of been baked it is pushed through a special mould, deep fried, then soaked in sugar syrup, delicious!

Sadly, I have never been able to recreate this favourite of mine not without trying but I either haven't come across the right recipe or maybe it's the fact I haven't the specific mould required, I've always used a pastry bag and the largest nozzle I own which is quite small really in comparison.

Tulumba should be hard and quite crunchy (if fresh) on the outside, soft and oozing syrup inside. My versions have always always been nothing but soggy if not at first then after an hour.

Do any of you out there have this elusive tulumba recipe I've been searching for? If your in the UK and know where I can get the mould please let me know in the comments inshA Allah / God willing.

I almost forgot, how do you like my new blog & name? MashaAllah / as Allah willed, I eventually thought, thought and thought a lot more finally deciding on this simple and cute name. May Allah reward all of you that gave your suggestions, sanna your suggestion 'Asmaa in da house' was the inspiration behind my choice <3

Let's Vote!

/ greetings,

I'm taking my blog name change to a vote! 

You will see the pole at the top of the side bar, please help me decide as I like them ALL. 

Change Is Better Than A Rest, Right?

Salam Alaikum or hello,

Firstly if you haven't read/watched/listened to http://salaf-us-saalih.com/2012/09/20/the-correct-stance-of-every-muslim-on-the-film-about-muhammed-peace-be-upon-him-shaykh-saalih-as-suhaymee/ I really recommend you do, please spread the link so both Muslims and non Muslims may benefit, inshAllah /God willing.

I've kinda been thinking, maybe I should change the name of my blog.

Reasons:-

1. Although i admit a lot/majority of my posts will be baking related i don't want to feel confined to posting topics about baking only.
2. I like change and I mean a lot!, it's better than a rest right? I would gladly change my avatar everyday of the week if I found the time/remembered.

I got a few ideas from my new avatar courtesy of noor over at Ya Salam Cooking who also owns and writes the blog Little Pink Strawberries....I'm sure many of you are avid readers as am i mashAllah/as Allah willed

So names I'm thinking of

Baking Muslimah
Muslimah Baker 
Muslimah That Bakes 
Muslimah Who Bakes
Muslimah's Bake too!
Muslimah, Bake It!

If any of you have the above blog names, let me know so I can remove the name from the list and check out your blog inshAllah/God Willing.

 I want your opinion on the above please, although I like change it means I'm not a very good decision maker, the two qualities character traits go hand in hand!

Which name do you like best? Or give me your ideas as I'm up for suggestions.

I probably wouldn't make the name change over night because well my designer is sooo busy and maybe I could take this design project on myself IF I take things sloooow and steady as me and photoshop aren't the best of buddies oh and I don't have a clue how HTML works lol


Until next time Salam / Peace,

Test Bake : Vanilla Cupcakes

 

3 days ago i baked cupcakes in my new oven for the first time, as you can probably see it didn't all go according to plan, oven problems again!

Now if you read my previous post you will note, i wanted to buy a conventional  / regular oven apposed to convection / fan oven, as they are known to be better baking ovens and fan ovens always run hot, always! well at least in my experience they do.

We bought yet another convection /fan oven (Alhamduillah / All praise be to Allah) as it was the only one within our budget and isn't new persay but reconditioned like the one we had before.

I have a oven thermometer so i thought it would be no biggy,  i set my oven to 140 degrees centrigrade on the dial but for some reason the oven just kept getting hotter and hotter and hotter 150, 160, 180.... i had to switch down the oven part way through baking but of course by then it was too late, the damage had been done! the cupcakes had risen too quickly, causing cracks in the surface and a few had erupted like volcanoes, thankfully the taste and texture underneath the crust were delightful, smooth fragrant vanilla and very airy and light due to using Mcdougalls self raising supreme sponge flour definitely going to be buying more of that.

Baking is a science as we all know, it's only easy if you have the right equipment and recipe, i will be making these again tomorrow (i must remember to reduce the oven temperature to 120 on the dial / 160 in a conventional oven) they are going to be a gift to my sister who has recently had a newborn, that's when i eventually get to visit inshaAllah (God willing) Friday, you see my children have been ill for what seems like forever,  it's only been a couple of weeks but one still has a runny nose.

The recipe i used to make my cupcakes can be found here  

The Nutella frosting i used can be found here, i halved the recipe quantities and it iced 12 cupcakes, with some to spare. I substituted half the butter for cream cheese which added a nice sour note to cut through the rich, sweet chocolate.  If you want to use the butter cream frosting to pipe high on your cupcakes then use the original recipe quantities, again substituting half butter for cream cheese (Philadelphia is the brand i used and in my opinion it's got to to be full fat)

I let my son help in piping on the frosting as it was the perfect opportunity with the cupcakes not being quite up to scratch,  the piping work didn't have to be either and well i had already bought him his own decorating bag and nozzles a few months ago that he was yet to use, we had lots of fun and  frosting left over that we speedily took 2 spoons to.

The cupcakes liners i bought on e-bay and although i will be using them again, they are not greaseproof as i thought, i would suggest you bake your cupcakes in regular white greaseproof cases (I'm all out) and then for display place them inside these baking cups, also the cups would be great for ice cream or other snacks such as small portions of pop corn.

Until next time, peace!

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!)

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

Another Qalb El Louz or is it?

Well today is tuesday and my top tip is....always go with your gut instinct when adapting a recipe not his!

I must say it's the best looking Qalb El Louz i've made yet but it wasn't Qalb El Louz as dh knows and loves it!

It all started when my dh (dear husband) mentioned the qalb el louz here was tasty, the right texture but too thick! mmmm i was upset but kind of understand why he had said that because i used a smaller baking dish as my old 'special' qalb el louz tin i kind of scrapped earlier this year, it now sits at the bottom of my oven as a steamer for whenever i bake bread i fill it with water, needless to say it's not in the best of states and i was in no mood for scrubbing it whilst fasting. I ended up using my silicone bakeware which is soooo easy to clean but results were too thick!

Sooo while my other specialised baking tray was winging it's way in the post, dh couldn't wait a day or two and i had to make Qalb El Louz again, only this time he said use this tray pulling out of the kitchen cupboard my one and only HUGE non stick roasting tin....yeh errm this isn't going to work i said it will be too thin but the man gets what the man wants lol needless to say my qalb el louz pictured above, not only was super thin but it was well and truly roasted, tasting nice alot like algerian tamina which is delicious in it's own right, but not what I was aiming for.

I wonder next time inshAllah i can finally get it right, me wants to wait while next Ramadan to find out but i wonder is dh going to let me off the hook for a whole year, me thinks not!

Yesterday we had another confession, he is not so keen on cupcakes lol we were watching cupcake wars at the time, "not yours" he said (digging his way out of the hole) "but in general they are not all that" What do you think?

Vanilla

On my quest to search the internet for halal vanilla extract i came across this nice shop named Vanilla Mart their halal vanilla extract is quite expensive about £14 so i opted for  vanilla beans as they are cheap as chips compared with supermarket prices!
I ordered the gourmet indian vanilla pods rather than the more famous madagascan variety and im ashamed to say i never knew india produced vanilla beans, how food uncultured am i? The GOOD news is the flavour for me is equally as delicious as its more expensive cousin.
This weeks mission it to bake it... using vanilla, care to join me?

Crumbs!

This next post was supposed to be about a flat bread pizza base i made however, after dh formatted my 'it will get you by until we have more funds' camera, he wrote off the only 2 photos i had. Oh well, another day, another pizza!

So, now, i turn my attention to this little gadget YES it's a..........crumb cleaner! I don't know about you, but part of my cleaning routine is to sweep all accumulated crumbs off tables and worksurfaces onto the floor then vacuum. This battery operated gadget would come in handy if  when i clean up as i go for example: sieve flour into bowl, clean any spilt flour, move onto next baking step.

Gadgets like this i feel are perfect to receive as gifts but you wouldn't necessarily go and buy it yourself, would you?