Baking wise, I have not done anything the last couple of days probably because it is half term but this morning has been a whirlwind of activity baking for the Friday Treat Boxes which are being collected later. Once the baking is done, I have plenty of other jobs to catch up on. My Friday Treat Boxes are proving to be a big hit which is a really good feeling.
I haven’t managed to make the Macarons yet but the egg whites are still in the fridge so I really need to make the effort soon. Maybe on Saturday I will attempt to make them, if and when, I need a break from the children I will go and hide in the kitchen. I think as it is half term and the children are being lazy it is making me lazy so I can’t wait for them to get back to school and my life to get back to normal again. There is so much I want to do but everything seems to have ground to a halt, this week.
On Monday, when the children return to school my plans are to try out the sugar free and reduced sugar recipe ideas and to take a trip to the recycling point for all the clothes which my children and myself have decided to throw away. So much waste it is horrible but if the clothes are recycled for other people to wear then it doesn’t feel as bad. In the meantime, I am going to try and get through some jobs whilst enjoying the sunshine. 🙂
My ideas for the Macarons are to make some chocolate flavoured ones which will mask the flavour of the ground almonds as my children do not like almonds that much although when I bake with them I tend to hide the flavour and they are none the wiser. Hehehe!! I am going to fill them with either a chocolate ganache or something that is a contrast to the chocolate but will also compliment it, for example, vanilla buttercream. Yummy I can’t wait. I think I will prefer these to the standard Macaroons.
I have a stock of lemon and limes in my kitchen at the moment so I may well have to make some Lime and Lemon Cookies – “Weightwatcher” ones actually as I use to make these sort of cookies when I had my market stall and they were a great seller. I had forgotten about this recipe until I was looking through a document on my computer which I had called “Recipes to Try”. There are plenty of other recipes in this document which I am itching to try again just to remind myself what the bakes are like. Many of these recipes are from my mother – not that she wrote recipes down – just what she had in her head – what I have seen her do in the kitchen and what I can remember. Some recipes are from my friends who are keen bakers and others are from magazines, books and so on that I have flicked through at some point and something has caught my eye.
What happens next with these recipes is that I sit and ponder or I am busy doing other jobs but thinking about a certain recipe and how I can change it to make it my own. Next I go ahead and alter the recipe then rewrite it again – looks like it is in the same document too – from this I try out different ideas and write down what I think of the final bake – improvements to make, nutrition facts, texture, taste and so on. Always the Food Scientist!! I still do this now but it is in a purple notebook – full of ideas which I keep chipping away at then everything is transferred to my blog posts. Looks like the blog has become my one big document now. 🙂
As you can see I have plenty to work on right now so I am off to package the bakes for today, then a quick cuppa before the first collection happens. Yeah it is FRIDAY!!