Welsh Clay Pot Loaves

I have been baking “The no knead bread” for over a year now, and I make other breads that rank as high as that one, and now I have yet another one. Welsh clay pot loaves!
Recipe is from one of my baking books, “The ultimate book of baking”, nonetheless, and even though I had to make it with no herbs, and no garlic (boo-ho, I love garlic), the bread itself (never mind the pots) is awesome. I can’t play with herbs, and garlic when baking for my kids. After I put the dough in pots, I remembered I could have made one flavored “pour moi”! Oh, well, next time; soon for sure!

This dough would be perfect for many uses, especially hamburger or sub buns.
I loved the idea of clay pots too; as you may have noticed, I love combining art with cooking! I do some pencil drawing from time to time, and I love art of any kind, with favorite being renaissance era.

Anyway, back to cooking! : ) Here, I will share the full recipe, and you can adjust the herbs, and other optional ingredients.

Welsh Clay Pot Loaves

You'll need:
1 cup whole-wheat bread flour
3 cups unbleached white bread flour
1 ½ Tsp salt
1 package quick rise yeast (7g) or ½ ounce fresh yeast
2/3 cup lukewarm milk
1 ½ cups lukewarm water
4 Tbsp butter, melted
Beaten egg, for glazing
1 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbsp chopped fresh sage
1 garlic clove, crushed
Fennel or other kinds of seeds for sprinkling (optional)

Let’s make that awesome bread! Sift both flours, and salt into a large bowl, and make a well in the center. Mix yeast with a little bit of milk until blended, and then stir in the rest, and pour it all into the well, and sprinkle with some flour from the sides. Cover and let it sit in warm place for 15 minutes, to get things going : )

Now add water, and butter. This is also when you would add the herbs, and garlic. Mix it well, and knead for about 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Transfer into lightly oiled bowl, and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 ¼ - 1 ½ hours, or until doubled (in my case it quadrupled : )


Now, turn it out on a lightly floured surface, divide into 2 parts, and shape it into 2 clean, lightly greased clay flower pots (now, I wasn’t happy with this, I am going to line it with parchment paper next time, had trouble taking it out). Clay pots should be about 5 ½-inches in diameter, 4 ½-inches high. See, I am sure I could have made another one of those with the amount of dough I had, you be the judge when you make it, but have en extra clay pot handy.

OK, well, now that the dough is in the pots, let it rest, covered with lightly greased plastic wrap for another 30 minutes or so. Preheat oven to 400 F. Then brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with some seeds, and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy the bread and awes you will get when you present it to your friends and family! ;)

Oh, and DON’T WATER IT!!!! :)

Baked Apple Dumplings

I have added a new cookbook to my collection, and I love it! It is called Best-ever pastry cookbook by Catherine Atkinson, and you know what, it certainly is my best pastry cookbook so far.

I love making pastry, and this book covers every kind, from shortcrust, to puff pastry, to pate a pate, as well as many sweet and savoury fillings in over 135 great recipes. It is nicely detailed, and rich with illustrations in all of its 251 pages, I just love it!

I can’t believe I got this great find for just $5.99, plus tax. Mouthwatering pictures just make you want to hit the cooking stage and make some edible art.

As soon as I turned to page 150 I knew that would be the first recipe to try; baked apple dumplings, mhmmm! It is as delicious as it is presentable; yet so simple!
Never mind my pictures, couldn't wait till daylight to make this great dessert!


What you’ll need for 8 dumplings:
Remember to adjust ingredients if you need less; I only made 3 dumplings.
8 firm cooking apples
1 egg white
2/3 cup caster sugar
3 Tbsp heavy cream
½ Tsp vanilla extract
1 cup maple syrup
Shortcrust pastry ingredients:
4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ Tsp salt
1 ½ cups (or 350 g) butter or white vegetable fat, diced
¾ - 1 cup chilled water

First make the pastry by sifting flour and salt into a large bowl and “rub in” the butter until it all looks like breadcrumbs; then ad ¾ cup water, and mix until the dough holds together. Mix in a bit more water if necessary. Make a ball and wrap it up in a plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 20 min.

About 5 minutes before you are ready to take the dough out of the fridge, set the oven to 425 F (220 C), and prepare apples. Peel, and core them.

Roll out the pastry thinly, and cut squares large enough to almost enclose the apple, brush with egg white and place apple in the middle. Combine sugar, cream, and vanilla in a small bowl, and spoon it into each apple. Make pastry rounds to cover the tops of apples.

Bring the sides of the squares up to enclose the apples, and make a snug fit by pleating the larger piece of pastry, if not holding, moisten the overlaps.


Use the trimmings to create stalks, and leaves to decorate the dumplings. When all set, place them in a greased baking dish, and bake for 30 minutes @ 425 F (220 C), and then another 20 minutes @ 350 F(180 C).


When done, transfer to a serving plate, and add maple syrup to juices in the baking dish, mix it, and pour over dumplings. Enjoy while still hot! Serve with ice-cream, and/or whipped cream!


This is the ultimate treat and comfort food on a cold winter evening, after we had another snowfall. Scrumptious, inside and out!!!

Apple cake, with whole apples

I have inherited this cake recipe from my late mother in law. She used to make this one often, and it’s one of my husband’s favorites. I have shared it with some other blogs/sites, but never in English. Really, it’s an apple turnover cake, but spruced up into a dessert that never fails to impress.
It is not too sweet, just enough for my taste, and it is rather refreshing, and perfect for hot summer days, although it seems to be disappearing just fine out of my fridge right now, and we have SNOW---AGAIN!!!

You’ll need:
5-6 medium apples (6 if you want one in the middle)
To stuff the apples:
A handful of ground walnuts
Some raisins

For the sponge cake:
4 eggs
4 Tbsp of sugar
4 Tbsp of oil
4 Tbsp of flour
1 package baking powder (13 g)

For the frosting:
2 packages of strawberry or rasberry pudding (Dr.Oetker or some other kind)
(or 6 Tbsp of corn starch with some red food coloring,
and strawberry flavor, or some other fruity flavor)
650 ml of milk (about 2 and 2/3 of a cup)
6 Tbsp of sugar
150 g of unsalted butter or margarine

Pudding I use.
Process:
First, make the frosting, because that way it will be cold by the time the cake is nice and chilled and ready for frosting. So, bring about 550 ml milk to boil. Use 100 ml to dissolve the pudding, and sugar, and then add it to the boiling milk. Reduce heat, and whisk fast for about a minute or two. Put in the fridge, or freezer, and let it cool down completely; mix every so often. When completely cold add butter, or margarine, cut up into slices, and mix it on high for about 5 minutes or until well incorporated. Put back to fridge until ready to frost the cake.



When your pudding is cooling, you start with the apples. First, preheat oven @ 405 F. Peel, core, and place apples in the round spring form pan, and stuff with walnuts and raisins (raisins optional). It doesn’t matter if you get walnuts and raisins all over the bottom of the pan, even better, it will all get baked into the cake, yummy!

Bake @ 405 F for about 20 minutes. In the meantime make sponge cake mix by mixing eggs with sugar, then oil, and flour with baking powder. Mix well and spread evenly over the apples, and put them back in the over and bake for another 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven.



Now that the cake is done, let it cool down completely, then flip it over on a platter, frost it with yummy frosting, and top with whipped cream. Decorate as you like; I have added some color to some of my whipped cream, just for more character! : )

I wish I could post the aroma of this cake here, for all to sense, as it is amazing. I love this cake!

Chicken - dressed up!

Dress up your whole chicken into totally stylish (yummy) “feathers” by wrapping it up in bacon slices!


I have this one issue of a Macedonian magazine called “Hrana I Vino” (Food and Vine), although I think now they changed it to “Debeli ama Srekni” (Fat but Happy), and in that issue was this chicken named “model out of the oven”.
Ever since I bought that magazine, I have been making my kitchen a runway for these yummy super models! : )

All you need is a whole chicken, seasoning you like, bacon slices, and potatoes, and maybe other veggies that you like.
Take the skin off the chicken, season (I have used Emeril’s Chicken Rub this time, delicious), arrange bacon slices nicely over chicken breast, and wrap a slice around each leg. Place in a pan with half cup oil.
Bake for about half hour @ 425 F, and then add potatoes (and veggies if you like), and bake for another hour or until done.
I season my potatoes with paprika, try it, you’ll love it! Enjoy your dinner!