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Pony Talk => Off Topic => Topic started by: Griffin on March 22, 2020, 01:14:02 AM

Title: Cooking & baking
Post by: Griffin on March 22, 2020, 01:14:02 AM: Now with many of us spending more time at home, I thought if would be fun to discuss the food we're making and maybe share some recipes!

What are you cooking/baking today?
What's your favourite thing to make?
Any recommended recipes/websites/books?

I've been baking a lot of bread lately - not because of any shortages but because I love homemade bread and this time of social distancing has been the perfect opportunity for small comforts like that. :) I have some barley flour which I'm trying to use up but my success with that has varied, it doesn't always rise properly even though I mix it with wheat. I'd also love to try making sourdough bread at some point! Mum has a book with instructions on how to make a sourdough starter from scratch, maybe I'll try that.... some day :P

For dinner today I was planning to make this Garlicky Cashew and Broccoli Stir-Fry (https://www.ilovevegan.com/garlicky-cashew-broccoli-tofu-stir-fry/), I love this recipe! Simple, quick, tasty (although I recommend serving it with plain rice instead of the couscous, and if you're not vegan, a bit of butter works quite nicely for some extra flavour). However, I just realised I may be out of cashews so maybe I'll postpone this to next week and think of something else today.
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: Mewtwofan1 on March 22, 2020, 01:33:40 AM: I’m not really that great at baking, and I often make a mess of it and my surroundings. But I have lately been thinking about the butterscotch cinnamon pie that Rosanna Pansino made from the game undertale. I want to make it, perhaps tweak the recipe if I need and bring a pie to the next dnd session we have. I feel it would be a good way to end our extended quarantine, and it meets everybody’s dietary requirements of no peanuts.
My grandad used to make apple pie from the apple tree in his yard. We don’t think he ever wrote down the recipe, so I’m trying to see if any of his relatives may have had it recorded for me to try. It was the best apple pie ever...
And grandmas cheesecake! She was planning on coming up here from Australia this summer, but now that’s a bit up in the air. She sent us the recipe, but no matter how much mom tries, she can not replicate it the way grandma does. Maybe it’s weird grandma rituals or something, but I was hoping to find out, and make one with her while she was here.

Here’s a link to the video on the recipe if anybody’s interested in making Toriels butterscotch cinnamon pie: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=64M8UTnmv3g
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: Ponybookworm on March 22, 2020, 01:46:35 AM: My family grew up wi cheesecake, but my Dad hates bananas. It was only when I started eating independently I discovered banoffee pie existed. Nowadays I have no working oven but I do instead make a banoffee cheesecake:

Base: butter to melt (enough to mix wi the ginger nuts), ginger nut biscuits (cookies, 12). Crush the ginger nuts, melt the butter, mix & spread in a container, nice & evenly. Leave to cool & set while:

Middle: plain soft cheese (I use Philadelphia, one small packet), 1 or 2 bananas, honey (dessert spoon), some setting agent (I use a Dream Topping sachet). Peel & mash the bananas, add the cheese, honey & setting agent, mix thoroughly. This will take some time so when it's ready the base will be set. Spread this mixture on top of the base gently & evenly, then leave to set while:

Top: 1 pack butterscotch flavour whippy delight (called Angel Delight in the UK), enough milk to make, a little squirting cream. Add the cream to the milk, pour in the whippy delight, then whisk thoroughly. Using a hand whisk takes longer, giving the middle longer to set before the delight mixture goes on top. Again, spread gently & evenly.
Optional: sprinkles/ nuts/ vermicelli/ a bit more cream. Add these as a garnish on top. Place whole thing in the fridge for about an hour to complete setting & serve.

Normally enough for two people, but in my case I can eat the lot lol.
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: tailrustedtealeaf on March 22, 2020, 07:24:14 AM: I want to get back in the baking game but I don't understand the science between lots of gluten free flours and I'm intimidated by the amount of choices...can't go wrong with some macarons though! I'm proud to be able to pull them off. I don't bake as much as I'd like but I would love to make some sort of Easter bread.
Sourdough was so much fun to make! I hope you'll give it a try soon, it really is so good.
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: BlackCurtains on March 22, 2020, 07:30:35 AM: I'm just making a simple belated St. Paddy's day meal. Baked red potatoes, carrots and cabbage, and some fried cabbage too. I couldn't get heads of cabbage until now, so that's why it's belated XD

I love to cook but my health has really gotten bad that I can't do it as much as I'd like. I just can't stand and clean and chop veggies like I used to (I'm vegetarian, so lots of veggies always!). Sometimes I'll sit down and do it, but we don't have a kitchen table (long story) so I have to do it at my desk, which isn't always convenient.

Don't do a lot of baking because I don't have much of a sweet tooth but I like to make mixed snack mixes like Chex Mix and Muddy Buddies. It's simple enough and tastes better than store bought.
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: Griffin on March 22, 2020, 08:13:03 AM: Quote from: tailrustedtealeaf on March 22, 2020, 07:24:14 AM
I want to get back in the baking game but I don't understand the science between lots of gluten free flours and I'm intimidated by the amount of choices...can't go wrong with some macarons though! I'm proud to be able to pull them off. I don't bake as much as I'd like but I would love to make some sort of Easter bread.
Sourdough was so much fun to make! I hope you'll give it a try soon, it really is so good.

Oh I hear macarons are tough so well done! (I've never tried making them myself.)

Speaking of gluten free, I made this zucchini cake for my birthday once as one of my friends is gluten-free and it was really good - much better than the "regular" cake everyone else was having! It was easy enough and I bet it would work nicely with carrots, too. https://www.marthastewart.com/907427/zucchini-almond-cake
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: cuddlebuggy on March 22, 2020, 08:25:34 AM: I'm going to make pita bread today! Yeast has been super hard to find but I tried the Indian grocery store and got two boxes.
I made a sourdough starter as well which will be ready in a few days.
I'm also going to try some different recipes for pizza dough as the one I've made before is just ok, not great. I'm also going to try a sourdough pizza crust when it's ready!
I had gotten a 25 pound bag of flour at Christmas and my family was questioning my sanity but now that it's so hard to find baking supplies they are thrilled!
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: AnnaPommes on March 22, 2020, 09:56:30 AM: oh, a wonderfull thing to talk about!
I love baking as a "time off". I like to make cookies and cake i can dye in many colors. ^^ So it is mostly simple marbled cake with nuts and/ or apples and gingerbread and plain cookies with spices. - i have quite a cookie cutter collection.

yesterday, i made bananabread. it is simple and can be quite healthy , it smells and tastes great!
last week i made a "viking bread", which was fast to make but we had to eat it quickly because it became hard after a day. here is the recipe:
https://www.theschizochef.com/viking-brown-bread-scandinavias-soda-bread
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: RoseNoire on March 22, 2020, 10:02:50 AM: What a nice thread ! Well, today, I've been baking some pastries with my friend. Two sugar pies and a few meringues. We didn't have an electric whisk for our meringues so we had to do it by hand. My arms are sore, but it's not that bad and the result it fantastic. The pies are out of the oven and cooling down. They look really great ! The meringues are still baking.
My favorite desserts are meringues, Tiramisus, cakes, ice creams, sherbets and waffles. Well, many others too. I love food. x)
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: Beldarna on March 23, 2020, 12:27:14 AM: I've been making a lot of muffins latley. It's a simple recipie.

melt 100grams of butter and let it cool.

Whisk three dl socker with three eggs until it's nice and fluffy (around 5 minutes). Ad half a teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 dl cold water and the melted butter.

Mix 4 and a half dl of flour with 1 and a half teaspone of baking soda. Ad it to the batter and blend well with a spatula.

Now is the time to add the fillings: either 2 dl of blueberries, 2 dl of chopped up chocolate or strawberry or whatever. Blend in loosley with the spatula.

Put the batter in muffin forms in the middle of the oven.

Smaller ones are on 200 degree C for 20 minutes. Medium ones for 25 minutes and large for 30. They're ready when the top has a nice golden crust.

I also have this really nice and easy hazel nut cake. The recipie is from one of hubbys best friends grandmothers.

Ground 150 grams of hazel nuts until they're a fine powder. Weigh three eggs. The weight is the amount of sugar you shall be using.
Crack the eggs and whisk them with the sugar.

Mix 1 teaspoon of baking soda with the hazelnuts and add them to the batter. Put the batter in a buttered and breaded cake tin. Bake in the lower part of the oven in 175 degree C for 35 minutes.

This one can be served in several different ways. You can make a feasty cake out of it if you cover it in whipped cream and strawberries. Or make a cream cheese frosting. The latter makes it very sweet so when I make it this way I serve it with something sour like physalis. Or just eat it as is :satisfied:.
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: Griffin on March 23, 2020, 11:44:42 AM: Beldarna, that hazelnut cake sounds absolutely delicious!

I ended up having fish fingers with mash potatoes and spinach sauce for lunch/dinner yesterday. Today, more or less the same but instead of fish I had carrot and quinoa patties from the freezer. The rest of the potato mash ended up as a sort of flatbread that is traditional to Karelia: potato mash, barley flour and egg, usually I add a little milk too but I was out so I reduced the amount of flour accordingly. Had these for breakfast with egg butter. :) (It's similar to egg salad but made with just eggs and butter rather than mayo, seasoned with salt. I also like to add chives or spring onions if available, and sometimes cottage cheese to make a lighter version.) And I managed to use up the rest of the barley flour which was already past its best before date! :D (My next project will probably be the rye flour, haha. But there's not much left anyway.)
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: glitterball on March 23, 2020, 12:30:48 PM: A few weeks ago there was a glut of flour and yeast sachets for sale at my local Aldi, so I bought 2 boxes of the yeast and 2 large bags of strong white (bread) flour.

Thank goodness that I did, what with everything happening at the moment!

There is a BBC Food recipe online that I use to make pizza dough, (vegan friendly, bonus!) so this is what I have been making! Even my kid enjoys kneading the dough! Even better - after making a batch, I cut them into smaller balls, wrap them in cling-film and freeze; just let them defrost in the fridge and they are ready to use.

here is the link, under spoilers:
Spoiler
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pizzadoughbase_70980

I then cut up and microwave a couple of large tomatoes for a few minutes until they go mushy, then pass them through a fine mesh to catch the seeds and skin to make a smooth sauce (my kid is fussy!) any excess sauce can be frozen for future use; now add salt, dried herbs (oregano), garlic and onion paste if desired, to make your tasty sauce. A little bit of sugar helps, too.

drizzle this sauce over your rolled-out dough (I press some semolina flour into it to add external texture) then add your extra toppings (cheese, fresh basil, what ever) and pop in a very hot oven until it is to your liking, some chefs say never longer than 7 minutes, others say 12 minutes!

And enjoy!
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: SunPony on March 24, 2020, 05:45:48 PM: Ooo, that butterscotch cinnamon pie sounds delicious! :dribble:

I had a huge amount of rye flour, so I tried making rye bread from a random recipe I found online. It turned out okay, but the crust is super hard. Maybe that is normal? Its my first time making rye bread.

The hazelnut cake reminds me my mom has a hazelnut cake recipe that's been handed down the family for generations. I should ask her to send me a copy of it! Whenever she makes it its so good. It is more of a fluffier cake then they one Beldarna described. Another delicious thing I like to make with hazelnuts is linzer torte. Mmm I haven't made one in awhile...but its so good.

That viking bread recipe sounds interesting, I want to try making that! I have all the ingredients, so after I eat all my rye bread I can try it out. :)
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: Artemesia's Garden on March 25, 2020, 05:28:20 AM: I just started a blog post with my best recipes, planning to post one per day. It was a great reason to resurrect a website that I registered and then never did anything with! Anyway, here you are:

https://artemisiasgarden.com/2020/03/25/lockdown-cooking/ (https://artemisiasgarden.com/2020/03/25/lockdown-cooking/)
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: Satin Slipper on March 28, 2020, 09:24:00 AM: Quote from: Griffin on March 22, 2020, 01:14:02 AM
What are you cooking/baking today?
What's your favourite thing to make?
Any recommended recipes/websites/books?

As far as cooking it would be a Salmon and maybe later or next week I might be baking Cookies.

Cupcakes are my favorite food to make.

I took Home Economic Classes in high school.
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: Thimble on March 29, 2020, 03:38:09 AM: I tried making Dalgona coffee. It was delicious! Also very entertaining. Definitely recommend. I made mine with less of everything, because I didnt want to have a lot extra. It worked fine. Added a bit of cream to the milk, just because I had it.
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: tailrustedtealeaf on March 30, 2020, 04:25:01 PM: I made macarons! I didn't let them bake for long enough so I lost a few cookies but they turned out nice. I finally got buttercream right, too, I never whipped it for long enough and never thought I could make good homemade buttercream. It was meant to be blueberry but I didn't make enough sauce so it's just wonderfully colored. Fine by me, still tastes good!
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Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: Artemesia's Garden on March 30, 2020, 05:26:32 PM: Quote from: Satin Slipper on March 28, 2020, 09:24:00 AM

Cupcakes are my favorite food to make.

Could you give me your favourite recipe?
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: poniesthatsparkle on March 31, 2020, 01:42:36 PM: I've pretty much just been doing box cake mixes at the request of my mom. We're going through at least one cake a week.

Aside from that, my sister and I have been making homemade treats for our pets. Some for the dog, and some for the hamster and mouse.
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: glitterball on March 31, 2020, 02:35:25 PM: Today I made Chinese-takeaway-style salt & pepper king prawns with steamed broc.

Tomorrow - I have 2 chicken breasts that need cooking; I will slow-fry them to keep them juicy and then cut them into lumps.
I made some low-fat Indian-style masala sauce last week that's waiting to be defrosted, I'll add the chicken to that.

Instead of rice I have a cauli that I can grate and roast, along with some cubed sweet potato and onion.

Yep, that's tomorrow's meal planned!!
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: Koudoawaia on March 31, 2020, 02:40:20 PM: I baked Pillsbury Grands Biscuits today
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: AnnaPommes on April 01, 2020, 02:40:41 AM: We are onto perfecting our personal favorite bananabread! So far, we bake it once a week together and keep adding some spices and nuts.
Next we want to add rolled oats. ^^
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: cuddlebuggy on April 01, 2020, 07:38:41 PM: Hey AnnaPommes, just a suggestion to try with the rolled oats! Toast them in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring frequently just like you would with nuts. It gives them a nuttiness that works well in banana bread.
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: AnnaPommes on April 02, 2020, 01:06:27 AM: Quote from: cuddlebuggy on April 01, 2020, 07:38:41 PM
Hey AnnaPommes, just a suggestion to try with the rolled oats! Toast them in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring frequently just like you would with nuts. It gives them a nuttiness that works well in banana bread.

That sounds delicious! It also have a nice fragrance to it. (like toasting bread?) Thank you a lot for the hint, cuddlebuggy! I will try that as soon as we get our weekly groceries. ^^
Title: Re: Cooking & baking
Post by: cuddlebuggy on April 04, 2020, 04:16:32 PM: You're welcome! I have a friend who was allergic to nuts and the banana bread was a bit blah without something so I played with it a few times before trying toasted oats.

Tonight's meal- Baked Tandoori chicken (masala/ yogurt marinade)
Veggie/ paneer curry (garlic, onions, celery, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, red bell pepper, sweet potato and califlower- spicy yellow curry sauce) and basamati rice with saffron.

Not bad, I'd eat it again. The kids liked the chicken and rice, don't know about if they liked the curried veggies and paneer. (I love paneer, it's a cheese that squeaks when you chew it!)