After recently being sent a bottle of Nielsen Massey Orange Blossom Water to try & being wife to a man that loves good, simple baking, I dug out my trusty, basic scone recipe and set about making him a batch of scones.
Archives for May 2014
Rosewater meringues
225g (8oz) Caster sugar
5ml (1tsp) Cornflour
5ml (1tsp) White vinegar
5ml (1tsp) Nielsen Massey Rosewater
Pink gel paste food colouring (optional)
1. Preheat your oven to 130C.
2. Line two baking trays with baking parchment.
3. Making sure your mixing bowl is very clean and grease free (or your egg whites won’t whisk up), whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks.
4. Gradually add the caster sugar, a spoon at a time, whilst continuing to whisk. Your mixture will become thick and very glossy.
5. Mix the cornflour, vinegar and Rosewater together then fold into the meringue mix (add any paste colouring at this point too, if desired).
6. Spoon the meringue mixture into a piping bag (I use disposable ones, to save on the washing up!) Snip off the bottom of the bag horizontally to give you a 1cm cut.
7. Pipe even sized circles onto the parchment, approx 3cm in diameter.
8. Place in your preheated oven for 60 minutes, until dry.
9. Remove from the oven. If you gently remove one from the baking parchment and tap the base, you’ll know it’s cooked because it’ll give you a hollow sound.
10. Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.
I’ve sandwiched mine together with some double cream which I’ve whipped up with some icing sugar and 5ml of the Nielsen Massey Rosewater to make a decadent, deliciously light and summery dessert.
You can see in my photos that I’ve created a ‘striped’ effect on my meringues. This is incredibly simple, but effective to do. Using a disposable piping bag, pinch the bottom point between your thumb, fore and middle fingers. Turn the bag inside out, over your hand and arm. Keeping your hand inside and the point pinched to hold it still, use a clean cocktail stick to smear stripes of your chosen gel colour down the inside of your bag. Gently turn the bag back the correct way and fill with your meringue mixture. The first couple of piped meringues will be more subtle in colour and the stripes less defined than subsequent ones.
I was sent a bottle of the Nielsen Massey Rosewater free of charge. I was under no obligation to develop or publish a recipe using the product.
BBC Good Food Show Bloggers at the Brompton Cookery School
As one of the BBC Good Food Show Midland Bloggers, I was invited to join the rest of the team up at the Brompton Cookery School near Shrewsbury for a day of chatting, baking, tastings and inside information on the show.
Upon arrival at this beautiful cookery school in the middle of National Trust land in Shropshire, we were treated to rich coffees and wonderful muffins from resident chef and owner Marcus Bean.
After an introduction from Katy and Flo representing the BBC Good Food Show, we were introduced to Marcus and also to Robert Swift from Richard C Swift Ltd (a fifth generation bread baker with a passion for the dough that would be hard to top).
We were given an overview and lots of inside information on the show that I know you’re going to love when you attend next month!
We were given a tour round Marcus’ gorgeous and very well stocked cottage garden from where we foraged pine cones, herbs, wild garlic and flowers to include in the breads that Rob was going to get us to make when we returned indoors.
While Rob worked his magic with the dough that he’d been up from very early that morning preparing for the shop and the Ludlow Festival, Marcus set to work creating a wonderful wild garlic pastry to encase a fresh quiche using locally produced ingredients that we were later to enjoy for lunch as well as an amazing marmalade ham that he was making; the smells from the kitchen were amazing & made us all very hungry!
Rob taught us to flavour and shape breads that we brought home with us to enjoy. I filled mine with a delicious combination of locally produced cheese, red onion and sweet chilli sauce.
As it was Marcus’ birthday on 9th May, we baked cakes to take with us which were judged by the birthday boy himself. I’m very proud to say that the carrot and lime cake with a mascarpone & orange zest frosting won!!!! I’m now a very proud baker indeed.
As part of the BBC Good Food Show blogging community, I’m offering my readers a discount of 15% on ticket prices. If you want to grab yourself the discount, then click on the image below to take you to the BBC Good Food Show website and enter the discount code of FYC20 at checkout.