Bakes and wee treats ~ Jonny Murphy

 

I stumbled across Jonny Murphy and his baking while scrolling on Instagram. He is known as The Hungry Hooker, hooker being a rugby term, a forward who plays in the front row and primarily 'hooks' or rather kicks the ball backwards to win possession. Jonny played the position of hooker until he had to retire early due to an injury. During that time and since he has a passion for baking and cooking which he often shares with his family, friends and former team mates. He openly talks about his struggles on and off the pitch while remaining sincere and optimistic in hopes it helps anyone who may be struggling themselves. His Instagram profile and posts are going strong with not only local support but plenty of support from around the world.

With his cookbook, Bakes and wee treats, he wanted to share his family's favourite Northern Irish recipes and helping him do that is his Granda and Nan. He has also started supplying some of his bakes to local coffee shops. This cookbook is a celebration of love, family and life - whatever life may throw at you and how to cope and keep going. I do agree and with what he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'that there are a multitude of things that are or can become therapy and baking seems like one of them.'   

 

With the death of his uncle, Jonny felt the need to reconnected with not only his roots but his close relationship with his Nanny Mamie. When he was much younger his Nanny and him would bake together. That prompted him to move back home and try to start a bakery there and things seemed to have taken off for him. 

This cookbook has plenty of sweet scrumptious classic recipes, I hope he does a savoury cookbook as well. He definitely has a talent and gift inside the kitchen. With helpful baking tips from his Nan and how to knead dough, how to make the perfect cuppa and a glossary of Northern Irish slang all complement this heartfelt cookbook.

With over one hundred recipes, chapters include: Morning Treats, Breads, Biscuits and Small bites, Cakes, Traybakes, Sweet Buns and Breads, Pudding, Celebration Bakes, Homemade Basics along with a conversion table at the back. To find out more about Jonny Murphy, his Nanny, his Granda Alfie and his baking give him a follow on Instagram or Facebook.  

I decided to include the recipe for the Sticky Ginger Loaf Cake as it's absolutely luscious. The measurements are as they appear in the book,  in grams, therefore you will need a kitchen scale to weigh and measure out ingredients.   

Sticky Ginger Loaf Cake 

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makes 1 large loaf cake

100g butter

100g golden syrup

140g treacle

100g soft dark brown sugar

200g plain flour 

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

50g crystallised ginger

2 eggs

80ml milk

1  Preheat oven to 160ºC fan/180ºC/gas 4 and line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

2  Gently melt the butter, golden syrup, treacle and dark soft brown sugar in a small pan over low - medium heat. Set aside once melted.

3  Sift the flour into a large bowl along with the bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. 

4  Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the slightly cooled melted ingredients. Mix with a spoon or spatula until fully combined and smooth, then add then add the crystallised ginger.

5  In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk, then pour this into the batter. Stir well until fully combined, then pour into your loaf tin.

6  Bake for about 45 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool fully.

7  You can get stuck in straight away, plastering it in real butter.But of you wrap it tightly in some kitchen foil and pop it in an airtight container, the flavours will develop over a few days. It might be a good idea to make two cakes. One to keep you going and the other to look forward to, unless someone lands unannounced for a cuppa tae. 

Leon ~ Ingredients & Recipes

This was on my cookbook list however it was gifted to me and after posting about Leon's pocket sized cookbooks I thought this would be the perfect book to post about now. The Leon cookbook covers quite a bit throughout it's 293 plus pages. Loads of culinary information with the importance on ingredients. Stressing, the purchases we make at the shop are the factors that will affect the way food tastes. This cookbook is for anyone who loves food, those that care about what they put into their body and people who get excited about food. Leon cookbook talks about superfoods, ingredients they love and ingredients they can not be without. Then again, don't we all have a list of favourite ingredients and ones that we can not be without. To them ingredients are everything which equals good food and food that is good. The book is divided up into two parts, one being the Ingredients half, and all it's detailed information and the other being the Recipes with entertaining stories and personal photos.   

I could go on about this book, believe me, and the post would be a long one. To share much of it's detail information and recipes would be great however this cookbook is one to be added to your collection, to be given as a gift, and to be enjoyed. 

Thought I would share this lovely recipe from the cookbook. Enjoy! 

Apricot Madeira Cake

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Makes 8 fat slices

1 3/4 cup dried apricots

scant 2/3 cup Madeira or sweet sherry

butter or oil for greasing the pan

6 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup fructose

2 1/2 cups ground almonds

a handful of sliced almonds

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

Put the apricots in a small saucepan and fast simmer in the booze for about 10 minutes, or until there is no liquid left.

Roughly chop eight of the apricots; purée the rest.

Grease an 8-inch cake pan with butter or oil.

Beat the eggs until big and fluffy, preferably with an electric mixer.

In another bowl mix the fructose, ground almonds, and baking powder and then fold the mixture into the eggs.

Add both kinds of apricot to the batter and pour into your prepared pan.

Scatter the surface of the cake with sliced almonds.

Bake for 40 minutes, turning it around halfway through. 

Let cool in the pan. 

WF - wheat free •  DF - diary/lactose free •V - vegetarian • low or no animal fat


Hope everyone is enjoying their week so far. - JD 

Budget Buster ~ Family Cookbook

I bought this cookbook for a mere $6.99! Hoping it would curb the grocery bill a bit. It was published in 2009 and seeing how it is 2013 I think trying to feed four or more for ten dollars is a bit of a stretch. By todays prices it should read feed four or more for $20 or less. And even then that may be a stretch. Let's take the Bread and Butter pudding recipe... fairly simple ingredients that you may have all ready however let's play devils advocate. Let's say we didn't have any of the listed ingredients and that we had to go buy them. 

You need six slices of day old bread. In order to have the six slices you need a loaf a bread. A loaf of bread can cost anywhere between $3.49 - $4.99. 

Butter 2 tablespoons, a pound is $4.99. 

Sugar 2 tablespoons, a 1kg bag is roughly about $3.99.

Golden raisins 1 tablespoon, bought bulk $3.00 approx. 

Currants 1 and 1/2 tablespoons, bought bulk $3.00 approx

Milk 1 and 3/4 cups, a 2 litre will cost $3.49.  

Eggs 2, however they are sold in 6 or 12, $3.49 for a dozen (12).

Allspice 1/2 teaspoon, bought bulk for .49 cents.

And the grand total is: $25.94 plus tax! That's $6.49 plus tax per person based on four people. A simple dessert can really add up. It's interesting when you break it all down. 2009 wasn't that long ago so I can see things being a bit cheaper. Not so much so to make this dish half price. Even then it's not at the price this book is claiming. 

I have made a few recipes from this book, including the Bread and Butter Pudding, Pork with Tomato Rice, Vegetable casserole and the Chickpea casserole. All tasty and somewhat economical. Each recipe has a dollar sign value. One $ = bargain, two $$ = budget and three $$$ = economical The bread and butter pudding had one $. The lowest rating. There are three chapters in this cookbook and they are 1) Soups, Snacks and Sides 2) Main Meals and 3) Desserts. Being economical means being focused! 

As you may know sometimes the best way is to buy bulk, make things from scratch and if your are going to dirty a pot you might as well double the recipe... ie: when making chili make a large stock pot full for more than one dinner. Use local and the freshest ingredients when possible. However tin tomatoes do just fine. Dried herbs are great! Rub them to bring out their flavour. Sometimes the inexpensive/expensive brand isn't always the best. The inexpensive may save money however the list of not so great ingredients may be long. The expensive brand may cost more however the ingredient list you may be able to pronounce. That's where you can decide which items are worth it and which ones aren't. Read labels, quantity and size. Is buying two for one really worth it or does the larger size really save you money? Always go for the lowest amount of salt. Compare items and prices. Budgeting can be hard especially at the grocery store if you plan ahead it will keep you more focused and help you save money. - JW 

      

Four Generations

This cookbook was given to me by my Dad. It looks as though it's been through the war and it probably has considering it was my Great Grandmother's. This homemade cookbook is 100 years old! Not only did my Great Grandmother use this book so did my Grandmother, his Mother, my Dad and now me. All the recipes have been typed out using a typewriter except for a few which have been hand written. Pages are filled with classic recipes and some to which I have never heard of. There are check marks and cross marks next to some recipes. Few handwritten notes.

All the recipes are still easy to read. She must have had a good typewriter and the paper is of very good quality, heavy and thick. All the recipes are typed on one side only. On the backside of each sheet is a faint imprint of a crest and these words that I can read by holding it up to the light: Superfine Linen Record, Made in Canada.

Mixed with the typed recipes are some handwritten ones as well. These pages look like they were very well used. It is unclear who's handwriting it is. It could be my Great Grandmothers or my Grandmothers. It is very delightful receiving a cookbook like this. - jw