Baking

I seem to remember mentioning in my first post about how I’m becoming more domesticated (I would check but I’m expecting Thomas to wake up in, well, seconds actually) so I thought I’d share one of my domestic experiences with you.

All week I’ve been intending to (ah he’s awake… wonder how long he’ll patiently babble to himself for…) do some baking to stock the freezer up with tasty things for Thomas’s lunch. A while ago I spotted some nice recipes at My Name Is Beth http://mynameis-beth.blogspot.com/search/label/Recipes and yesterday I finally got round to buying the ingredients for them. I’ve copied and pasted some of Beth’s post (the blue writing) and added my comments (the black writing). So here goes, this how I spent Thomas’s now-finished nap:

Sweet Potato Muffins (from Sensational Vegetable Recipes):
1 cup (175g) sweet potato
2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup finely grated tasty cheese90g butter, melted and cooled
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk (that’s three-quarters, not 3 or 4)
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Curse self for not getting ingredients and equipment ready before putting Thomas down for a nap.
Tiptoe around kitchen, quietly opening and closing cupboards.
Curse self for buying more sweet potatoes when we already had loads.
Decide to make double the quantity.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Brush melted butter or oil into 12 deep muffin cups (or use silicone bakeware – no need for oiling etc, it rocks!).
Silicone bakeware does indeed rock.

Finely grate sweet potato and cheese.
Realise grater is turning potato into mush.
Curse grater for being rubbish.
Coarsely grate potato and cheese.

Sift flour into a large mixing bowl.
Remember we threw rubbish sieve away.
Reach for tea strainer.
Decide against sifting.
Realise there’s only 1 cup of flour in the pack.
Rummage (quietly) around baking cupboard.
Curse self for being so short.
Find flour and thank husband (silently – he’s upstairs sleeping after a night shift) for being so good at keeping the cupboards stocked up.
Curse fancy flour pack for being impossible to open.
Curse husband for hiding scissors.

Add sweet potato and cheese, stir to combine. Make a well in the centre.
Add butter, egg and buttermilk all at once to dry ingredients.
Use natural yoghurt and mascapone cheese instead of buttermilk as 1) my favourite shop-cum-cafe sells yoghurt but not buttermilk and 2) we have some mascapone to use up.

Using a wooden spoon, stir until just combined; do not overbeat.
Realise that overbeating is why my muffins sometimes have a weird texture.
Try desperately not to overbeat.

Spoon mixture into prepared tins.
Discover large pocket of unmixed flour hidden in the middle of the bowl.
Add a splash of milk to help get rid of the flour and mix while trying not to mix IYSWIM.

Bake for 25 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.
Remember that my original intention was to make the cous cous cakes.

Turn onto a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, before serving with warm butter.
These better be good…

(Just finished typing up this post – the boy wouldn’t wait earlier – so thought I’d add: They are.)