Week 1

Bake Club 

Week 1

Author Rebecca McLeod 

Edited by Anne-Marie Raymond

  Copyrights and Disclaimers © 2019 by Bec’s Table. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the publisher or author. You are free to print a copy of this book to use as your own reference. Disclaimer: Affiliate links are used throughout this eBook. If you were to click a link and make a purchase, the author may receive a commission on the sale at no extra cost to you.  Although my opinion is not for sale and I only recommend stuff I use and think will help you.

As always, thank you for your support!  

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Table Of Contents

Things to read before we start this week. 3

Understanding Butter Cakes 6

Bec’s Basic Butter Cake With Self-Raising Flour 7

Bec’s Muffin Mix 14

Bec’s Yo-Yo biscuits. 17

Golden Syrup Dumplings 21

Jam Tarts 24

Quick Scones 26

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Week 1 BasicsWe’re all busy and life gets in the way but I REALLY want you to get value from this courseand become a better baker! With that in mind, my recommendation is to read each ebooksent to you and try to make at least one recipe each fortnight. Doing and repetition is the waywe learn, many of the techniques in baking are transferable so just making one recipe a weekor fortnight will help a lot.     Making videos is new to us here at the cooking school (in fact I debated including them!) but Ifigure even if they’re a bit rough around the edges you will still learn something from seeing avisual demonstration of techniques.  NO LAUGHING THOUGH! LOL

Each fortnight, I’ll be honing in on one key topic as well as adding in other recipes to makesure you are getting your fill of baking.  If I were to write up all there is to know about baking inone go you probably wouldn’t read it cover to cover. Covering one topic at a time you will beable to learn in small chunks in the same way we do at our Bake Club meetings.

Baking is a science and an extremely large subject. I hope you find our method fun!

Things to read before we start this week.

Here are the first things I do before starting any recipe, and I strongly encourage you to do thesame (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the words “oh, I should have read through therecipe first” at our Bake Club meetings!).  

 Read your recipe from start to finish, including any tips or notes. Check the ingredient and equipment list to make sure you have everything.   Is there a step or are there any terms you’re not familiar with?   Is there something that needs to be brought to room temperature before you begin? I don’t really like to give baking times too much, they can vary a lot depending on youroven, the tin you’ve used and what temperature the ingredients were when they went in.That said I have indicated times as a guide only and as your experience grows you willbecome a better judge as to when something is perfectly cooked.

I know pre-reading can seem inconvenient but it only takes a few minutes and can make orbreak the intended result so it’s well worth doing. 

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For your information these are some of theIngredients we purchase for Bake Club:

Sugar: We purchase caster sugar for the majority of our recipes. We don’t buy plain whitesugar as the crystals are too large for most baked goods and it’s not necessary to have bothon hand. Milk: We purchase A2 milk and/or Lactose-free milk in order to cater for people that mightrequire it, so if you see it listed in any recipes just use whatever milk you normally use but beaware that for baking full cream is the best. Flour:  We always purchase good quality raw materials and flour is no exception. For plain,self-raising and baker’s flour, we purchase and store in bulk. All other flour, includingwholemeal and rye, we purchase in appropriate quantities as required due to their shortershelf life. Vanilla: I make our vanilla extract by purchasing a bottle of non-flavoured alcohol (Vodka),splitting vanilla beans and dropping them into the bottle. The flavour is infused in around 3 - 4weeks.  The general rule of thumb for making it is about 200 ml vodka to one good qualityvanilla bean, however, I pop around 15 split vanilla beans in our vodka bottle and just top it upwith vodka as we use it. I do this until it becomes too light in colour and we need to start againwith fresh vanilla beans.  Don’t throw those beans out though - leave them in the empty bottleand use them for anglaise, custards etc.  Anywhere you can use the whole bean and removebefore serving. 

We go through such a lot of vanilla at Bake Club, I’m suresomeone is drinking it! (just kidding!). 

These bottles are of freshly made vanilla, once they’ve satin the pantry for 4-6 weeks the liquid will be dark brown justlike a bought one,  then you can start using them then. 

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Thermomix Owners:I love my Thermomix, it’s obvious, I have 3 in the cooking school.  Although, there are sometimes that I choose to not use it.  It could be due to the volume of ingredients or mixingmethod.  If the recipe calls for 50 g of melted Chocolate I won't melt it in the TM when most ofthat will be stuck on the blades, in this case, I’ll more than likely use the microwave formelting. 

Or for instance, the way I make scones.  It’s far simpler to weigh all the ingredients into a largebowl. Of course, you can use your Thermomix if you wish but I find it easier to clean out abowl and scraper than cleaning the Thermomix.  I don’t even get the bench dirty with mymethod. 

New Members At Meetings:

I always get loads of questions in Bake Club meetings but new members have the most.  I’mgoing to start making a list of questions and I’ll answer them over the weeks so that it’s not toomuch to read.  If you’re a subscriber and have questions you can either use the Facebookgroup or email me.  Go for it we don’t bite. ;-)

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Understanding Butter CakesThe method used for making butter cakes is one of the most used methods there is. Leaningthis technique will help you with all the variations there are. 

Typical Glutinous Flours Used For Making Butter Cakes

Plain Flour (American: All Purpose flour)  9.5-11.5% Gluten.  Used for most cakes, shortbread and biscuits. It produces a shorter densertexture. Plain flour is usually a blend of white wheat flours mixed to create the desired glutencontent.  Some cheaper plain flours can vary quite a bit in quality, gluten and texture fromsupplier to supplier and from bag to bag.  It’s always best to pay for the better qualityingredients if you can afford them. Self-Raising Flour (American: Self-Rising Flour)  Gluten is slightly lower than plain flour by the gram because of the addition of leaveningagents.  Self-raising is plain flour that has been premixed with chemical leavening agents. Commercial self-raising flour purchased from the supermarket is not a standard mix andresults may vary from brand to brand.  In a lot of commercial pastry kitchens whereconsistency is of great concern, the chef won’t purchase self-raising flour.  Recipes are writtenusing plain flour and a specific quantity of baking powder and or bicarb by gram to ensure thesame results each time.  At home, we don’t care as much but it is worth noting just in caseyou’ve noticed discrepancies in your recipes and may not know why.   To make your own Self-raising flour at home here’s a ratio you can use.  

Self-Raising Flour Formula

 200g plain flour 6g baking powder  2g salt (optional)

Cake Flour  6-8% Gluten Cake flour is milled from soft wheat (finer grain, usually chlorinated or what iscalled bleached flour). If you don’t have any and you want to prevent a trip to the shops youcan make a similar product at home if you have plain flour and cornflour on hand. The ratio to use is 85 g of plain flour plus 15 g of cornflour mix well to combine.

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Bec’s Basic Butter Cake With Self-Raising FlourSo this isn't the best photo, I'm more interestedin showing you how to make this moist lightcake.  I've added some images throughout thisbutter cake section to show you how versatile itis.  

For Thermomix Owners Most of the time you can weigh your ingredientsinto the Thermomix as you go, but for learningpurposes, I suggest you gather and weighbeforehand.  I’ve chosen to use a good qualityself-raising flour here because it is quicker andeasier - just what we like! Check my tips for theratios using plain flour and the adjustments.

Here’s a short video for Thermomix Owners     Ingredients

  320g caster sugar OR mill white sugar in your Thermomix on speed 6 for approx. 5-10seconds 250g soft butter, cut into pieces (for the Thermomix I prefer straight from the fridge seeNotes pages) 4  eggs 450g     self-raising flour 250g     milk 2   tsp  vanilla essence

What we used in our meeting

 We used a USA Brownie pan so the cake would cook faster in our meeting but you coulduse a large or two 9” cake pans or even fill a  9” springform cake pan .  Remember thetimes to bake off in the oven will depend on the tin you use. Silicone Spatula  Thermomix and/or Stand Mixer  Baking paper to line the base for easy removal. If your baking pans are not non stick likeours then I suggest you have a look at making some pan release  (the ultimate non-stickyou can make yourself!).  Here’s a recipe for you.

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TM Method

Method

1. Gather and weigh all ingredients and set your oven to 150°c fan forced or 160 – 170 °c forno fan.  

2. Add the caster sugar to the TM bowl.3. (If your butter is cold straight from the fridge, (which is the way I like to do it) add butter &

vanilla and mix at speed 4 for 30-40 seconds or until soft enough for the butterfly tohandle the speed.  Never heat the butter to 37°c when making butter cakes, if you go toofar your mix will not produce a light crumbed cake)

4. Add the butterfly into the bowl and mix on speed 3 until the mix is light in colour andfluffy.

5. Turn the speed down to 2 add the eggs - one at a time6. After adding all the eggs turn the speed up to 4 for 5 seconds7. Add around a cup of the SR flour and mix on speed 3 - 4 for 5 seconds8. Add around 1/3 the milk and mix again on speed 2 for 3 seconds9. Repeat the last two steps, again adding around a cup of the SR flour and mix on speed 3

-  for 5 seconds and approx. another 1/3rd of the milk and mix again on speed 2 / 3seconds

10. Add the remainder of the flour, turn the speed to 4 and mix 5 seconds and the rest of themilk and mix again.

11. The mix should be looking light and fluffy.  If not, mix for another 10 seconds on speed3.5 to try and achieve the desired result (although as discussed in the tips if you haveover mixed and your butter is melting you will have problems and may wish to start fromscratch).

12. Pour into a greased, lined cake tin.13. Cooking times will vary according to your oven and size of tin but start with 35 mins if

you're using two tins and 45 mins for the 9” round at around 150°c fan forced, 160-180'cfor no fan, test with a skewer and cook further if required.

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Conventional Method

1.  Collect all your ingredients and weigh them out ready to proceed.  Grease and line yourcake tin and set your oven to 150°c fan forced or 160 – 170 °c for no fan.

2.  Add the butter and sugar to a mixing bowl and start creaming.  Mix until the ingredientsare light and fluffy.

3.  Crack the eggs into a small jug and mix with a fork to combine.4. With the mixer running slowly add the eggs a little at a time.  If the mix looks like it’s

starting to curdle, add a heaped tablespoon of the weighed out self-raising flour to bringit back together then continue on with adding the egg.

5. In 3 additions with the mixer on a medium speed alternate adding the flour and milk andfinally the vanilla.

6.  Pour into a greased, lined cake tin.7. Cooking times will vary according to your oven and size of tin but start with 35 mins if

you're using two tins and 45 mins for the 9” round at around 150°c fan forced, 160-180'cfor no fan, test with a skewer and cook further if required.

Degree of Difficulty: Easy

Oven Temperature: 160°C

This is a cake I made for the Grand Opening of Coles at Casey Central.  Three different flavoursof buttercake and everything is edible even the boxes. 

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Bec’s Tips:

 This is my go-to recipe for making butter cake for lots of reasons; it tastes good, It has a soft, moist crumb It’s firm enough to carve for decorative cakes like the coles cake on the previous page. the crumb structure is great for stacking. the basic recipe can be easily adjusted or varied. Lowering the oven temperature will help prevent your cake from rising too high andcreating a dome on the top. This recipe makes a large full tin 9-inch cake.  When I need double the quantity I justmake two batches and prepare them one after the other.  It’s a quick and easy cake tomake and doubling the quantities could possibly overload your mixer. I often make thisin two low sided 9" cake tins to make it easy for stacking a two-layer cake. I prefer using cold butter straight from the fridge in the Thermomix.  I know this is againstthe conventional rules for creaming but after years of experience, I know this methodworks. Using cold butter will give your cake a more even, light structure. Roomtemperature butter has the chance of warming too much and creating a flat, heavycrumbed cake. Can you over cream?  Yes, you can.  What I’m talking about is beating the butter until it’stoo warm and it goes from being fairly firm to too soft.  Over creaming will make yourcake heavy rather than light and there are other issues that we will discuss next fortnight. If it’s hot in your kitchen watch out for over creaming.  I tend to slightly under cream soonce I start adding the other components and remixing I don’t over do it.  Check out my creaming notes for the conventional method in your ebook next week

If you want to make the above Butter Cake using plain flour here are the ratios you’ll needwhen swapping out the Self-Raising Flour.

435 g Plain Flour14 g baking powder1/4 tsp salt Notice how I’ve reduced the amount of plain flour to compensate for the baking powder andsalt.

Here's another little video tip on how to hold down your baking paper preventing the fan inyour oven from blowing it over onto the surface of your cake. 

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My Basic Butter Cake is brilliant for variations.

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Variation Ideas:

 Substitute sour cream for the milk or ½ and ½ milk/sour cream Substitute yoghurt for the milk There are many ways to turn your cake into a chocolate cake.  Of course by addingcocoa powder but there’s a bit of science that goes on here.  You can't just go addingcocoa.  If you want a chocolate cake you’ll need to add between 1/4 – 1/2 cup cocoapowder, you’ll also need to add a little extra liquid to the basic mix.  Cocoa sucks upmore moisture than flour. For example, remove 35g flour add 35g cocoa + 30 g of liquid.  If you want it extra chocolatey add some choc chips or melt some chocolate and addthat.   For this case try removing 35 g flour, adding 35 g of cocoa and adding 100 g ofchocolate. Or just stir in about 100g of melted chocolate and 1/4 cup cocoa for a decadentchocolate cake. White chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate whichever you choose. Add cocoa powder and liqueur for an adult cake. Kirsch and cherries for a black foresttype flavour or Tia Maria or Kahlua…mmmm!  Add a teaspoon or two of instant coffee with the cocoa to get a deeper flavouredchocolate cake. Or a tablespoon or two to get a coffee/chocolate cake. It won’t taste likecoffee unless you overdo it.  Add a shot of coffee with the cocoa powder, and it can help with the liquid problems. Dried fruits like raisins, figs, dates, apricots etc. can be added easily.  I always wash andsoak my fruit first.  This keeps your cake really moist and helps prevent any fruit on thesurface from burning. Add a cup of mashed banana for banana cake. Add walnuts or other nuts for a nut cake or add them along with something else? For coconut, you need to add a little more liquid as well, but that liquid can be anythingyou like? Cream, sour cream, yoghurt, milk, liqueur or even sugar syrup as a drizzle cake. For Citrus cakes, substitute some of the liquid for juice, all of it for juice and or add somezest. For example, this butter cake asks for 250g milk you could go 175 milk 75 juice Seeds, Poppy, Pepitas??? Just throw them in. Frozen fruit, canned fruit, fresh fruit, poached fruit, pureed fruit.  If the fruit is solid, it canbe just added.  But if it’s wet like canned or pureed, you need to adjust the liquid, or youcould just add to the top of the cake before baking for a pudding-like cake. Spices cardamom, cinnamon, allspice? A blend chuck it in.  You won’t need too much soit won't alter the cake a lot. For a denser cake, add 1/2 cup of ground almonds or hazelnuts or any nut really. Add some grated carrot or grated zucchini

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 For upside-down cake line the base of the cake tin with baking paper then a layer oftinned or fresh fruit such as pineapple or peaches or pears (or berries), sprinkle with aheaped tsp of brown sugar and pour the batter over the top. Add some of the tinnedsyrup to the batter for extra flavour? (keeping the liquid at the same measurement.)  Add some honey, maple syrup or rice bran syrup Think of jams, nut butter, marmalade Syrups for drizzling after baking (we’ll cover these later).  And if anything goes wrong, turn it into rum balls or cake pops, slice and trifle it or servewith a heavy coat of custard and ice cream. There are infinite variations even from just the ideas above. What about chocolate andraspberry, or coconut and strawberry jam cake, or chocolate banana cake, chocolateginger and fig cake…

 and then there are all the different ways to decorate or ice the cake.

If you’d like to have a play with changing up the butter cake I’ve listed give it a shot, or if you’dlike to chat with me about it you can either use our Facebook group   I’ve made or email meat  rebecca@becs-table.com.au

Here's a link to this gorgeous cake that one of our Bake Clubers made during a meeting from

using the variations above.  

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Bec’s Muffin Mix

Ingredients

 450g plain flour 180g caster sugar 15g  baking powder 1 pinch  of salt 150g eggs 200g  milk 100 g unsalted butter 170g diced pie apple  (optional see notes) 170g frozen blueberries (optional see notes)      

What we used in our meeting

  We use a Texas Muffin tin  Or in our larger class (so there were more to go around) weused a cupcake tin  Thermomix and/or Standmixer Knife Silicone Spatula  As you know you can purchase cupcake liners at the supermarket but you can also getmuffin liners too.  These are a little taller.  The image isn't very clear but they come inbrown and white in one pack.  

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  Conventional Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200°c and line your muffin tin with papers2. Measure your plain flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt into a bowl and sift3. Melt the butter and leave to cool.4. Weigh your eggs and set aside into a separate bowl or jug5. Weigh your milk and set aside into a separate bowl or jug6. Mix the eggs and milk into the flour mix alternatively a third at a time until incorporated.7. Drizzle the butter into the mix while stirring to combine.8. Add the fruit and fold through.9. This mix should be at dropping consistency if not add a little more milk until it is.

10. Drop the mix evenly into lined Texas muffin papers, almost to the top. Bake until golden,when cooked they should spring back lightly when pressed in the middle.

11. Cool for 5 mins in the tin then remove to a cooling rack.

Thermomix Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200°c and line your muffin tin with papers2. Weigh your plain flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt into your TM bowl and with

the MC in place sift on speed 6 for 3 seconds.  Remove from the bowl and set aside.3. Weigh the butter into the TM bowl and set to 37°c/3 mins/ speed 34. Weigh your eggs and milk into the TM bowl and mix on speed 4 to combine.5. Add the flour mix back to the TM bowl and with the MC in place mix on speed 5 for 6

seconds.  Remove the lid and scrape down the sides, mix again on speed 5 for 10seconds.

6. Weigh the frozen fruit through the hole in the lid and mix on reverse speed + 3 for 4seconds.

7. This mix should be at dropping consistency if not add a little more milk until it is.8. Deposit the mix evenly into lined Texas muffin papers, almost to the top. Bake until

golden, they should spring back lightly when pressed in the middle.

Cool for 5 mins in the tin then remove to a cooling rack.

Degree of Difficulty: Easy

Oven Temperature: 200°C

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Bec’s Tips

 When you're adding any frozen fruit it's best to leave the fruit in the freezer until the verylast minute before folding through. This will help keep the fruit intact rather than If youadd it when it’s defrosted it will have a tendency to disintegrate and spread throughoutthe mix. As with most cake recipes, don’t overmix this batter.  You don’t want to over-develop thegluten or the end result will be tough.  Just mix until everything is combined then stop. Before popping in the oven, I like to sprinkle raw sugar on top, you can use any largegrain sugar but I don’t buy plain white.  This gives them extra sweetness and a littlecrunch. There are loads of variations you can use for the fruit as long as you get the same weightyou should be fine. If you want chocolate muffins, remove the fruit and replace with 200g choppedchocolate or callets and 30g cocoa powder (sifted).  Cocoa powder can be added withthe dry ingredients. And add 20 g more milk to compensate for the drying tendency ofthe cocoa.  If you have a sweet tooth, you can keep the ingredients the way they are and just throwin a handful of white chocolate callets/choc chips.

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Bec’s Yo-Yo biscuits.

Ingredients

Ingredients for biscuits

 160g butter from the fridge. 150g self-raising flour 60g soft icing sugar 65g custard powder (use the “Orgran” brand if you want to avoid the nasty colours. Thedough settles a little bit more in the baking so don’t push down as hard with the fork, butthe taste is pretty much the same).

Ingredients for the filling

 120 g icing sugar 60 g butter unsalted, diced 2 tsp custard powder 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

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What we used in the meeting

As you’ve probably gathered we use USA pans a lot, they’re silicon coated so they don’t needbaking paper most of the time.  In this instance, for the cookies, we used their cookie sheets . They have no sides and this is important for cookies/biscuits.  If you don’t have a tin that is flatand sideless just use an upturned tin and use baking paper if needed.

Method

Thermomix method

1. Preheat your oven to 170c2. Get your oven trays ready, using silicone mats or another non-stick method you like to

use.    3. Put all dry ingredients into a clean, dry TM bowl and mix for 5 seconds/speed 4 to sift.4. Add the chopped butter and mix on speed 4 for 5 seconds then knead for 2 – 3 mins on

interval speed (kneading function).5. Roll into balls that are all equal in size.6. Place on your tray, leaving room for spreading.7. Use a fork to flatten each ball a little and imprint the stripes.8. Bake until they just start to colour (this should take 15 to 20 mins).9. Cool on a cake rack.

Thermomix filling method

1. Weigh the dry ingredients into the TM bowl and with the MC in place mix on speed 6 for3 seconds to sift

2. Weigh the remainder of the ingredients into the TM bowl and mix on speed 4 for 5seconds

3. Once the cookies are completely cold add around a tsp of filling to ½ the cookies andsandwich the remainder together. 

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Conventional Method for the biscuits

1. Preheat your oven to 170c,2. Get your oven trays ready, using silicone mats or another non-stick method you like to

use.3. Sift all your dry ingredients into a bowl.4. Rub in the butter by hand until you have a stiff dough (like a paste).5. Roll into balls that are all equal in size.6. Place on your tray, leaving room for spreading.7. Use a fork to flatten each ball a little and imprint the stripes.8. Cool on a cake rack.

Conventional Method for filling

1. Weigh all the ingredients into a stand mixer or bowl and cream together to form abuttercream.

2. Once the cookies are completely cold add around a tsp of filling to ½ the cookies andsandwich the remainder together. 

Degree of Difficulty: Easy

Oven Temperature: 170°C

Bec’s Recipe Tips

  These biscuits are supposed to be soft like a melting moment.  Don't overwork the mixor you will be developing more gluten and they'll toughen a bit although the fact thatwe've used self-raising flour and custard powder will help keep them soft. Like all sweet treats these need to be appreciated in moderation. Why not freeze thembefore you bake and have a smaller quantity ready to use at a time.

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What I do:

 I start by getting them totally ready for baking as above but instead of popping the tray in the oven, pop it in the freezer.  Once frozen, scoop them up and pop them into a zip lock bags, store away in the freezer until you need them. They will last 3 months in the freezer. It’s a great idea to have different types of biscuits in the freezer.  You can bake off aselection when you need them.  Just remember to put them on different trays if theyhave different baking times and temperatures. It’s a great way to fill a cookie jar with a variety in one go. An easy way to portion your quantities is to roll a sausage out of the mix then cut inequal lengths until you get the hang of it.

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Golden Syrup Dumplings

Golden Syrup Dumplings are an Aussie dessert.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

IngredientsFor The Dumplings

 150 g self-raising flour 60 g unsalted butter, cubed 1 egg 20 g milk, to beat (may need a little more, up to 10 g extra)

For The Syrup

  60 g butter, unsalted 180 g water for the TM method or 350 g of water for the stove top method 200 g caster sugar 200 g Golden syrup  30 - 40 g lemon juice

To Serve 

  250 ml thick cream, to serve 

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What we used in our meeting

I purchased the enamel tin in the photo from the supermarket. Easy Peasy.

Conventional Method For the Dumplings

1. Sift flour into a bowl, then rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. 2. Beat egg with a little milk and pour into flour mixture. 3. Combine to form a dough, then divide into small balls and set aside in the buttered

ovenproof pot or dish.

For the syrup

1. To make the syrup, combine the ingredients together with 1 cup of water in a pan andbring to the boil over medium heat. 

2. Carefully add dough balls to the syrup and boil for 20 minutes. 3. Serve with syrup and cream.

Or for Bec’s method

Follow step one, then make the syrup in a pan that can go in the oven, bring it to the boil, dropin the dough balls, bring back to the boil, then place in a 180°c oven and bake for 20 mins oruntil golden brown.

Thermomix Method 

Set the oven to 180°c and grease an oven proof pot or dish with butter and set aside

1. Weigh the flour into the TM bowl and the lid and the MC and sift on speed 6 for 3seconds

2. Weigh the cubed butter into the TM bowl and with the MC in place mix on speed 5 for 3seconds 

3. Weigh the remainder of the dumpling ingredients and mix on speed 4 for 6 seconds tocombine to form a dough, then divide into small balls and set aside in the butteredovenproof pot or dish

Method

For the Dumplings

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For the syrup

1. Weigh all the ingredients into the TM bowl and set to 15 min/100°c/speed 22. For the assembly in a shallow baking dish 3. Pour the syrup over the dough balls (making sure you cover them all) and then cover the

baking dish with a baking paper lined foil lid remove the lid in the last 10 minutes ofbaking and bake until golden brown.

Degree of Difficulty: Very easy

Oven Temperature: 200°C

Bec’s tips

 Don’t overwork the dumplings or they will become tough. I’ve doubled the syrup recipe in this ebook because when we made them in Bake Clubwe wanted MORE.  Greedy I know.  hehehe

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Jam Tarts

Ingredients

 350g   plain flour 1  tsp  salt 3 tsp  caster sugar 175g    Unsalted Butter 120ml   water  Around ½ a large jar of jam of your choice. 

What we used in our meeting 

We used jam tart tins, I've been struggling to find these in supermarkets and shops these daysso if you're interested in them it's probably best if you google jam tart tin. We’ve used them tomake neenish tarts, party pies and loads more.  They’re great bit sized snacks and they’re easyto pop pastry in.  If you can’t find them now, they might be around nearer Christmas time formince tart making. 

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Method

 Add flour, salt, sugar and butter to a food processor and mix until coarse crumbs areformed.  Add the water very gradually and continue to blend until a ball is formed.   Spread a sheet of cling film on then bench tip the pastry on the top loosely fold over tomake a sealed parcel and flatten the disk with a pastry roller.   Keep wrapped in the cling film and place in the fridge to chill for around 30 minutes (or10 mins in the freezer if you are short on time like we are at Bake Club although 30minutes will work better for resting). Grease 2 shallow tart trays and roll out the pastry on a floured surface until it is thin. Cutout rounds with a cutter and place into tart tins. Bake at 180°c for 10 minutes. Remove and spoon about 2/3rds of a tablespoonful of jamper round, (not too much or the jam will bubble out over the tin, then put back in theoven for an additional 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Degree of Difficulty: Easy Oven Temperature: 180°C

Bec’s Recipe Tips

 At the meetings, I demonstrated how to make these tarts in a small space or if yourkitchen is hot by rolling the pastry into a log then placing it in the fridge to chill.   Once chilled you can slice discs off the end, roll the flat side of the disc out to the size ofthe tart tin you're using and place in the mould.

Here’s a video on how I cut my tarts out on hot days or if I have limited space.

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Quick SconesDepending on the size of your scones this batch will make about 6.  The time to bake willincrease with the size of your scones and the number of scones in the tin.  We doubled ortripled the ingredients in Bake Club so we had enough to go around in the meeting to eat andtake home. 

Ingredients

 125ml  cream 300g    self-raising flour sifted 1      pinch salt 125ml  lemonade or soda water (I like soda water, see notes)  Optional:    milk for brushing tops Optional:    jam and whipped cream to serve    

What we used in our meeting

 For the large batch, we used the USA brownie tin   and for the smaller batch, I used theUSA square cake tin .   We used a  round cookie cutter set I’m pretty sure you can get these at mostsupermarkets too.  

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Week 1

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Place baking paper on a baking tray.2. Place flour and salt into a bowl and mix until combined. Gradually add the cream then

lemonade and mix until the dough sticks together. Turn out onto a floured board anddust with flour.

3. Press the dough into 3 cm thick square. Using a large knife dusted with flour cut thedough into 16 cubes. Round the corners off and arrange in a grid on the baking tray.

4. Press the cookie cutter into the tops of each scone, brush with milk and bake in very hotoven 10-25 mins depending on how many you’ve made (tops will only brown a little).Serve warm with jam, cream and tea.

Bec’s Method for quick and fuss-free scones.

1. Preheat oven to 220°C If you’re using a USA pan or a good quality non-stick, no need toline it.

2. Weigh all the ingredients into a large bowl starting with the dry ingredients and endingwith the wet. 

3. Use a scraper, spatula or clean hands to bring the dough together.  Don’t overwork it justbring it together. 

4. Flatten the dough in the bowl to about the thickness of the cookie cutter depth. 5. Use the cutter to cut out a scone and place it in the tray6. Repeat until you’ve used up all the dough. Have each scone just touching one another

and the sides of the pan.  

Here’s a quick video on how I cut my scones out right in the bowl I mixed them in.

Degree of Difficulty: Very easy

Oven Temperature: 220°C

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Bec’s Recipe Tips

 If you have a tin that fit the scones snugly that’s great but if you don’t just try to keepthem all down one end together. To get the most height out of your scones you need topop them in a tin with sides.   The higher the sides of the tin the more blonde the tops will be, but hey, scones aren'tsupposed to be golden brown anyway.  We use this USA pan as a rule and the sides areperfect. See what we used above.  When you place your scones in the tin have them touching one another.  This helpsthem expand up rather than out.  I like to use soda water for my scones.  I know there’s a whole lot of lemonade sconerecipes out there but I think they’re sweet enough if you’re going to slap jam and creamon them. Also, you can swap them out for a savoury snack if you haven't added sugar, or use themto top a casserole.  Have you seen that done before, it’s a little old fashioned but if youdo it over individual ramekins it’s a bit of fun? ;-) We also tested using soda water and cordial rather than lemonade.  We always haveelderflower cordial at the school for a cool drink during classes.  So that got a taste testas well as rhubarb cordial.  I think I liked the rhubarb the best, it gave a nice tang withoutbeing too sweet.  If you’re using cordial you need to make sure you use enough toflavour it.  I can't tell you how much because each brand is different but use at leastdouble what you would use in a drink. Remember it has all that flour to go through too.

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