Mini Crochet Bunting

I've always been a sucker for a magazine, and since taking up knitting last year and crochet this year I have bought more than my fair share of crafty/yarny publications. I usually buy editions that come with free yarn and/or needles and then spend ages looking at the patterns to see if I think I can manage any of them.

I had an early success last year with this knitted cardigan for Rabbit. This was made using a magazine pattern and some wool I already had. The then 5yo was delighted with it.

Then in January this year I used some of the leftover yarn from a magazine to practice granny squares and turned them into a blanket for Rapunzel. The 4yo loved it and tucks Rapunzel into bed with it most nights.

In April I made some more granny triangles, in two different patterns:

My eventual aim is to make some rainbow-flag inspired bunting for summer but I haven't yet got exactly the right shade of purple. One is too dark and the other is too light. So frustrating.

While the rainbow bunting is on hold I found myself browsing the magazines in my local shop again, and ended up buying issue 62 of Let's Get Crafting magazine, which had some rather lovely bright yarn in it. None of the suggested projects grabbed me though, so I decided to experiment with some different styles of granny bunting triangles.

Of the 4 different styles shown, my favourite is the bottom left (with blue on the outside) and I'm proud to say it is all my own design. I can't really believe that I only learnt to crochet in January this year and already I can design patterns. Only in simple treble crochet stitch, but still, to me it seems amazing.  I was enjoying myself so much that within a week I had used up all 4 bright colours and had 16 mini triangles:

I steam blocked them, then used one of the remaining colours from my pack to join them together with a simple double crochet chain. This is the finished product hanging up in my brother's conservatory:

It didn't stay there long though - I brought it home and now it is safely packed away in the Easter box in the loft, ready to be decorative again next year for our annual Easter Egg hunt.

Crochet for Rapunzel

My crochet skills are improving on an almost daily basis. In fact, I am even mid-way through crocheting myself a scarf. However, I keep being delayed in finishing this project by small people asking for various yarn items for themselves or their toys. This one being a case in point. I had bought some yarn in a variety of rainbow hues to make some rainbow bunting for the summer, and was looking at them when the 4yo said "could you use the red, pink and purple to make a scarf for Rapunzel?". It seemed a pretty reasonable request to me, so I made a few teeny squares in those colours:


When I showed them to her for her approval she said: "where's the lellow?". On pointing out that she had not initially asked for yellow she said: "yes I did". There was no arguing with her, so that evening I made some slightly different yellow squares to add into the mix:


These did meet with approval, but apparently the red edging was not good enough, so the finished item had to have an extra yellow edging too. I think it's turned out pretty well myself:


Of course, said scarf is now adorning a radiator and not the intended doll, but the colour scheme was much admired by the 4yo, and I was quite pleased by how neat it looks. Not bad given that I only started learning to crochet this January.

Chocolate and Pecan Brownies

These brownies are the best I've ever made, and I stumbled upon the recipe by chance, as I wanted to use up the pecans I had left after making Nigella's Christmas Cake.  (and yes I know it's February now, but it seems as good a time as any to blog about brownies).

I made these on Christmas Day, using my shiny new KitchenAid, which is without doubt one of the best Christmas presents I have ever received.

I made enough for us all on the day, and to take with us to the rest of the family on Boxing Day.  Every single person in the family liked them (ages 4 to 64) which was very gratifying, but did mean that I didn't get to eat quite as many of them as I would have liked.

The recipe I used was a Sophie Grigson one, and can be found here.  Since one of my new year's resolutions was to give up refined sugar, I'm not planning on eating any more of these myself in the near future, but I may make some for everyone else to eat, seeing as they were so popular.

 

Crochet and other things

I have made New Year's Resolutions in the past, and they have all had two things in common - almost have all related to eating less, exercising more or both and I have failed with almost all of them within a few days or weeks.  So this year it's going to be different.  I have resolved re-start my blog, and to learn to crochet.  And I'm pleased to say that on only day two I am doing pretty well.  I started with a (slightly wonky) small granny square, following a pattern from one of my many knitting magazines:

I was pretty pleased with it, especially because before yesterday I had only ever once used a crochet hook, and that was to put a simple border on a knitted blanket. It was hard to get my head around all the stitches using just 1 colour though, so I abandoned that to work on my first ever granny triangle:

To make it I followed the absolutely excellent instructions on the Attic 24 blog.  I am hoping to move on to producing a whole line of bunting.  I've got lots of remnants of wool leftover from the many knitting magazines I have bought this year, and it would be great to use them up in a practical (and pretty) way.

I've now finished my first triangle, but have yet to block it.  It's a bit wonky, and I haven't darned the ends in yet, but I like it:

I couldn't be more delighted with how quickly I was able to make something with my new skill.  Knitting took a lot longer to get started with.  I haven't given up on knitting though, and in amongst my crochet posts and baking writing I'm sure some knitting will follow.

I only discovered Lucy's blog at Christmas this year, and have been reading it avidly for the last few days - it is very inspiring and I really love her use of colour.  I can thoroughly recommend it - the home page is here.

I just showed this post to my partner who said "but you're called baking doctor and this seems to be about crochet".  This is a fair point, but I felt it would be odd to start a separate blog, so am keeping the same name.  I'll see how I get one with it, but plan to intersperse crochet with baking, knitting and book reviews over the next few months.

Variations on a pancake

I tweeted about these pancakes back in October last year, but have only just got around to finishing the blog - life somehow got in the way.

We often enjoy pancakes as a family, and have been using the same recipe for dairy-free pancakes for ages now.  They go very well with bacon, or with maple syrup and banana and the recipe works every time.

I've been trying some recipes from my most recent Weightwatchers cook book, and when I noticed there were not one, but two pancake recipes in it I knew I would try them out sooner or later.


Recipe 1: Apple Drop Scones

We had a bowl full of apples that we were struggling to eat, the first one I tried was this recipe for apple drop scones.   I adapted the recipe to make it dairy-free and I thought the results were pretty good.  The kids, however, were not so sure.  They didn't like the bits, and only ate them after taking out the raisins and the apple pieces.  (in fact, they were so against the bits that even several months later whenever I make pancakes they say "without bits mummmy" in a slightly anxious voice)



Ingredients

100g self -raising flour
50g muesli (I used sugar-free Alpen)
1 eating apple - peeled, cored and finely chopped
25g golden caster sugar
1 large egg
150 ml soya milk (sweetened)
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (I used oil spray)


Method

Mix the flour, muesli, sugar and apple together.  Beat the egg in the milk, then add to the dry ingredients and beat well
Leave to stand for 15 minutes
Heat a large frying pan with some oil spray
Put tablespoons of the mixture into the pan (as you can see, I could cook 5 at a time in my pan)
When bubbles form on the surface turn them over

The original recipe suggests serving these with low fat spread and jam, but we had them with maple syrup, which I can heartily recommend.

Makes approximately 18 pancakes.  Propoints value: 3 for 2 pancakes with 1 tsp maple syrup

Recipe 2: Maple griddle cakes with apple 'jam'

A few days later we still had loads of apples left, so I thought I'd try again. This time I adapted a recipe for 'Griddle cakes with banana jam'  My version is almost unrecognisable, being made with maple syrup and soya milk and with apple puree instead of banana jam.  The 5-yr-old loved the 'apple jam' and ate several pancakes without any maple syrup at all - a first for him.  And it has the added bonus of legitimately being one of your 5-a-day.

Ingredients - Pancakes

100g self-raising flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon maple syrup
150 ml soya milk (sweetened)
vegetable oil spray

Ingredients - apple jam

3 eating apples
1 tbsp caster sugar
pinch cinnamon
1 tbsp water

Method

Mix all the pancake ingredients together to make a smooth batter
Leave to stand for 10 minutes

Peel, core and chop the apples
Cook them in a covered pan with the cinnamon, water & sugar until cooked.  Mash gently with a fork to form a coarse puree

Put tablespoons of the mixture into the pan 

When bubbles form on the surface turn them over

They are done when they are set and golden brown on each side

Serve with the apple jam

Makes approx 16 pancakes.  1 propoint per pancake (with apple jam)

Recipe Evolution

Both these recipes were inspired by recipes found in this Weightwatchers cook book, which can be bought on Amazon:

Banana and Chocolate Muffins

These muffins are the result of many attempts at perfecting a banana and chocolate chip recipe.  I have experimented with this many times - mainly because we seem to always have 2 or 3 bananas that are just too ripe to eat, but not so over-ripe that they should be put in the compost.

They are always a huge hit in our house, and work particularly well as an after-school snack for the 5-yr-old.  I do still occasionally make my grandmother's banana bread when I have some old ripe bananas hanging around, but these muffins have become a firm favourite.

I've not tried them with nuts yet, but I'm sure they would taste good with walnuts or pecan nuts in them.

Recipe

Ingredients

125ml sunflower oil
250g plain flour
2 eggs
100g caster sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 medium ripe bananas
100g dark chocolate chips

Method

Whisk the eggs, maple syrup and oil together
Mash the bananas
Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl together
Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix together
Mix in the bananas and chocolate chips

Divide equally between 20 small muffin cases and bake at 200 C for 15-20 mins, until golden brown on top

Recipe Evolution

These are based on this recipe in Nigella Feast.  By replacing the butterscotch chips with dark chocolate (as recommended by the good lady herself)  they are dairy-free.   I reduced the amount of chocolate by a third initially to reduce the propoints, but then the next time I made them added some maple syrup as with less chocolate they were slightly less sweet.

Weightwatchers

These come out as 4 propoints each using the recipe builder on the website.  If you make more or fewer muffins from the mixture then adjust the propoints accordingly.

Interaction

I tweeted a picture of these muffins and was tweeted back by @ww_uk asking me to send them my recipe so they would publish it.  I duly did so, but didn't really expect to hear anything back. A few days later though, they replied, asking if it was ok for them to share it via social media and when I said yes, they tweeted this:

Fancy something indulgent but low in ProPoints values? Try @bakingdoctor’s chocolate&banana muffin recipe, just 4 PPV! twitter.com/ww_uk/status/2…
— Weight Watchers (@ww_uk) November 1, 2012

I gained 7 new followers as a result, and a great feeling of satisfaction.  Goodness only knows how happy I would be if I ever published an article or a book!

Halloween Cookies

I've had a break from this blog for nearly a year - as I had to concentrate on revising.  I've finally passed the exam and now never have to sit one again.  I can't tell you what a relief that is.  I also can't really believe that I was still taking exams well into my 30s - definitely one of the downsides of choosing medicine as a career.

Now that have more time on my hands I'm getting right back into my baking, and have been particularly motivated by watching the latest series of Great British Bakeoff.

I've always enjoyed making cookies and biscuits using a wide variety of cookie-cutters, so when the kids were invited to a Halloween party it was the perfect excuse for me to get out my tried-and-tested pumpkin cutter and new-and-exciting ghost cutter.  Taking food with us to a party serves two purposes - it's always lovely for the host to receive home-baked goods and it means that the 3-year-old is definitely allowed to eat something sweet.

I've tried these out with a few flavour combination, but find that orange and cinnamon works best for autumn.  The kids like them in all their incarnations (so far), which is pretty unusual, and explains why I've so much practice making them.

Recipe

Ingredients - Biscuits

90g sunflower spread
100g caster sugar
1 egg
230g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
zest of 1 orange
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Ingredients - Icing

100g icing sugar, sieved
1 egg white (I use powdered, as then it is kid-safe)
Juice of 1 orange

Method

Cream sunflower spread and caster sugar.  Beat in the egg, orange zest and cinnamon.  Mix in the flour and baking powder to make a dough.
Cover in clingfilm and put in the fridge for about an hour

Roll out thinly and cut into your desired shapes

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 180 C

Meanwhile, make the icing sugar by combining the icing sugar and egg white with enough orange to make a spreading consistency and colour as required.

When the biscuits are cool enough, ice them.  The icing will set within about 30 minutes, so you have to work relatively quickly at this stage

Recipe evolution

This is based on Nigella's 'cut-out cookies' from her Feast book, but dairy-free and flavoured for autumn

Variations

Nigella's original recipe calls only for vanilla (1/2 tsp), with plain icing.  Lemon also works well (zest of 1 lemon in the dough and some lemon juice in the icing)

WeightWatchers

Using the recipe builder this works out as 2 propoints per biscuit (if 40 biscuits made - adjust points accordingly if making more or fewer biscuits)

Pumpkins from our vegetable patch last year