Corona Cavern

[Snoop Puss]

Snoop might remember me asking what is used in Spain for SR flour 2 years ago when I was over there and was asked to bake a cake. I can't remember the answer but it worked and I can't check it out as I don't seem to be able to look at my messages.

Janie, I don't remember either. Was it maybe harina de reposter�a (cake flour) and levadura qu�mica (chemical yeast, meaning baking powder, often simply called Royal after the leading brand here)? The other thing we get here instead of baking powder is what they call gasificantes (gasifiers), boxes of paired sachets of bicarbonate of soda and some kind of acid (tartaric acid, malic acid or citric acid), used for making cakes and for making fizzy soda drinks. The acid activates the bicarbonate of soda, which is why the sachets come in pairs. You can just use bicarbonate of soda if you've got some kind of acid in the cake mix.

Are you maybe putting in a lot of baking powder, Nicos? Or might 'gasifiers' suit you better?

[mothhawk]

I've ordered the book off Abe Books. Small cakes and biscuits are the way forward for us, I think. If I make loaf cake or something like that, we eat it far too quickly. Freezing and portion control are what we need.

With a tinful of home baked biscuits, will power is what I need. (I don't have any).

[mothhawk]

And to defrost I lay them out on a wire cooling rack. They only take a few minutes.

[mothhawk]

No, I just stack them in an old ice cream container or a tupperware box.

[Snoop Puss]

I've ordered the book off Abe Books. Small cakes and biscuits are the way forward for us, I think. If I make loaf cake or something like that, we eat it far too quickly. Freezing and portion control are what we need.

Do you do anything special to biscuits before/after freezing? I have a vacuum sealer but wonder if biscuits might go a bit soggy.

[JanieB]

Snoop might remember me asking what is used in Spain for SR flour 2 years ago when I was over there and was asked to bake a cake. I can't remember the answer but it worked and I can't check it out as I don't seem to be able to look at my messages.

[mothhawk]

More people should make biscuits. They are so easy to make, easier than cakes, and the taste far exceeds anything out of a packet. I tend to make four or five different types in one go, to fill up the tin.
Because I'm batch making I get the food processor out, and generally make the whole lot without washing it between mixes, I plan the right order - bourbons always last, being cocoa! Using the FP, they literally only take four or five minutes to make, roll out and shape, plus baking time.

They probably don't keep as long as shop bought, preservative filled offerings, who knows? I've never managed to keep any for more than a week in the tin If I 'm baking ahead and need to keep some, I put them in the freezer - it's the only way they don't get eaten!

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, mothhawk. Brilliant tips. I rarely make biscuits (Cornish fairings, mostly) but shop biscuits are full of all kinds of stuff and not for love nor money can I get Mr Snoop to read the ingredients.

[mothhawk]

Lemon shortbread and garibaldis, they sound like my cup of tea, mothhawk. I've decided not to eat any cakes or biscuits that I haven't made myself (there's nothing like knowing exactly how much butter and sugar goes in them to make you treat them with a bit of respect). If you have a source for tried and tested recipes, would you mind sharing?

I have a book called Biscuits, by Helen Thomas, which has some excellent biscuits in, both savoury and sweet, including Garibaldis, Shrewsbury biscuits, Abernethys, digestives etc. which I use when I want to try a new biscuit. I also use recipes from old cookery books I have.

But biscuits are very simple things, mostly I do 4:2:2 of plain flour : caster sugar : butter then add whatever flavourings I fancy and bind it with a drop of milk or beaten egg to make a stiffish dough. I find 4oz flour makes about a dozen biscuits depending on cutter size, which is enough of one flavour.

You can play about a lot without spoiling the mix. For instance, if you use icing sugar it makes a softer, less crunchy biscuit, substituting a tablespoon of flour for cornflour gives a smoother texture, rolling out on caster sugar instead of flour makes them crisper.You can do 4:1:2 for a less sweet biscuit. the variations are endless!

[Nicos]

Good link! thanks-I've bookmarked it.

I've bought all sorts of makes/qualities of flour and can honestly say that none have been exempt from weevils
Nasty little things can spread so quickly given half a chance.

[Snoop Puss]

I've only ever seen self-raising flour here in a fancy shop. It was a UK brand. So I don't know how well it freezes. But it's common for people to freeze flour here, especially in the summer months.

You might find this interesting, Nicos:
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/qu...in-the-freezer

Upshot would seem to be freeze in quantities that you're likely to use in a single go or quite quickly.

[Nicos]

I always bring back self raising flour cos I really hate the flavour of rising agents when I add it myself -fortunately I brought back quite a few packets back in March.
I've always done this but a few end up with weevils.

I did read you can freeze flour -I should look into it more as it might just mean plain flour...but I've never thought of doing that before!
I bet the sales of freezers has gone through the roof over the last few weeks?!

[Snoop Puss]

Lemon shortbread and garibaldis, they sound like my cup of tea, mothhawk. I've decided not to eat any cakes or biscuits that I haven't made myself (there's nothing like knowing exactly how much butter and sugar goes in them to make you treat them with a bit of respect). If you have a source for tried and tested recipes, would you mind sharing?

We've been lucky for bread. I found a specialist flour supplier late autumn last year, as I really wanted to improve my breadmaking over the winter. Very expensive in comparison with supermarket flour, but it's amazing stuff and they give loads of info on level of strength and so on. As an existing customer, I've had no problems getting further supplies during lockdown. Plus, in the autumn, a friend brought over four packets of Dove's Farm yeast, so that hasn't been a problem either. And I've recently started making bread with bigas and poolishes, which don't use much yeast at all. I've had more than a few disasters, but the results are reliably good now and still cheaper than bread we can buy locally. I sound a bit smug here. Sorry. Don't mean to be. Only have to look outside at the non-existent veg patch for a big come-uppance!

[JanieB]

I’ve been lucky. I keep a loaf or two of supermarket sliced in the freezer, to be used a slice at a time. I also always have a good supply of bread flour as I make other dough products such as doughnuts and pizza bases. This all relates back to when I was first married and lived in a cottage on our farm. No buses or car. My once a week shopping was for things I couldn’t grow or source any other way. I no longer do the kneading, I let the breadmaker do that,

[mothhawk]

Yay greenishfing! I was in the same situation, down to the last pound of Tesc0 bread mix (not nice at all really) and had been searching online for bread flour deliveries - been through all the mills, stoneground mills, heritage working mills etc checking since the beginning of April, and finally last Friday managed to get a delivery from a kitchen supplies shop in Hampshire. It's a 4 kilo bag, but what the heck, it'll keep and it will last me a good 2 months.

Got 4kg of plain flour at the same time so yesterday I had a biscuit making fest, to refill the biscuit tin. Caraways, bourbons, lemon shortbread and Garibaldis.