No Knead Focaccia

 I've discovered the best and easiest Focaccia ever!  No knead and it only has to rise for an hour.

Yes, there are plenty of different recipes and ways of making it...and, I have tried several, but none are as easy and as tasty as this ... so far.

Taken from Geoff's Baking Blog.. as are lots of recipes I try lately.  He makes great videos of his bakes... is straight forward and easy to follow... and, anything I have tried from his blog has turned out very well.

Geoff's Baking Blog

He has another focaccia, but it needs more rise time and I have yet to try that one... and, even queried him on whether he thinks it tastes any better than this much simpler bake.  No reply yet...but will update this when I find out.  

The recipe is on the page.. I hope you give it a try... you'll be glad you did. 

Here is the first one I made from his recipe... I put on some sliced black olives, sun dried tomatoes, grated cheddar cheese... and into the dough I mixed some sautéed onions, a few sun dried tomato bits and spices. Oooooh...it was YUMMY!  It's like a big, fat pizza by the time I get through putting on all the goodies.

It puffs up perfectly and you get a big 9 x 13 inch panful of goodness.  

        

Molten Orange Tarts

I tried these for the first time yesterday and my mid back is still bothering me.  They were a lot more fiddly than I thought they'd be.  As a matter of fact, Geoff, from whose site I got them, referred to them as"Easy"on the recipe.  He's a better man than I....... although, it didn't look that hard on his video.  He called them Gooey Orange Tarts..but, I don't really like the word 'gooey'.... so, I call them Molten instead.  There is just enough orange sauce inside them to let it gently slip down onto the plate if you cut one in half.  If you put too much into the shell it will just bubble up and over the sides...don't be tempted to do that.   There was plenty of sauce left over so I just heat some when we eat a tart..and spoon a little bit on top as well.  

Anyway... the crust is firm when baked, but still not tough if you know what I mean.  It is like the crust on fruit tarts.  It has a lovely flavour and you notice a hint of orange from the zest... which is strange as I thought the zest from two whole, very big oranges would be too much.  It wasn't.  It is perfect.  

Further info and thoughts...::: I think the chunk of dough for making the little topping balls should be kept in one big chunk and covered 'til you are ready to roll out the balls, otherwise it begins to feel a bit dry in spite of the fact that it is really oily.. quite weird.  And, mine did feel a bit grainy I think.. probably because I used granulated sugar when it called for caster sugar.  Next time.... and, there must be a next time as they are wonderful to eat!  So, I will have a better idea of what can happen...and will have more paper towels at the ready for my very greasy hands and will put the pot of orange sauce ingredients on the front burner of the stove ... also... the amount of sauce is overly generous for only 9 tarts.  A bit less would be fine.  I'll have to work out the measurements for a closer amount. 

Without further ado...here is Geoff's recipe.  

Geoff's Orange Tarts

Here is the original Youtube where Geoff got his idea for these tarts.

Ricette Fatte in Casa

Photo of my very cute finished tarts.

I got tired of trying to make perfect little balls so I tried one with just crumbles of the dough...it looks very nice as well.  Not quite as cute, but easily as acceptable and of course, just as delicious! 

......... making the 72 (or thereabouts) tiny balls..... which as you know...I didn't........  

Here is one with some extra orange sauce spooned over .... 

Geoff's Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

 First, a photo of Radcliffe.... with one of these lovely muffins. Okay... something has changed on Blogger and my post page and it's very difficult to do what I planned. Hang on...

Geoff's Baking Blog

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Here is the link to Geoff's site and the original recipe....  and here is Radcliffe showing you what they look like..... mmm.... yummy......

Plum Loaf

Every year at this time is the only time I see the small Italian or prune plums in the stores.  So, I bake several of the loaves we love so much.

Italian Prune Nut Bread
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt ( I never use it because I used salted butter)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup sour cream (I used fat free yogurt)
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
2 cups Italian prunes, pitted and chopped in 1/2 inch pieces.
1 cup chopped nuts

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Combine flour, salt, cream of tartar, cinnamon and baking soda.
Blend sour cream and orange peel...
.. add to creamed mixture alternately with dry ingredients.
Stir til blended.
Add prunes and nuts; mix well.
Divide between two greased loaf pans (9x5x3).
Bake at 350F for 50-55 minutes
.... or until tooth pick inserted in centre comes out clean.
Cool 10 mins. in pan
Remove from pan and cool thoroughly on rack.

............ options .... I added a bit of ginger, all spice and nutmeg to the cinnamon. Be careful with nutmeg and all spice..just a tiny "sprink" goes a long way! The nuts in mine were walnuts and I lightly toasted them before chopping. I halved the recipe for my test loaf.... but it was so good I will be making more right away. Double wrapping with foil and plastic keeps loaves as fresh as the day you bake them. Just thaw and enjoy later. Last week I sliced an egg nog loaf from Christmas baking..... perfect for a surprise treat at tea time ...

My bread got "over riz" ...

Hahahhaha.....   I laughed my head off when I saw this about 3 hours after I put it into the bowl to rise... it was only supposed to do that for 1 to 1 and a 1/2 hours or so... but, things got busy and I forgot.  But, still.......

It pushed the plastic wrap and the towel on top out of the way and broke over the top of the bowl...my biggest bowl unless I step up to the big ol' metal bowl...

This particular recipe is one I have used for years.  But in the last two batches .... I have had to add lots more flour than usual to the 2 cups of water... even to get it to a stage where it is not really sticky... maybe because it has been really rainy or something?   We do know that breads are finicky that way... and by the time I weighed out the two loaves I discovered that they were in the 720 gram range versus the 560 to 580 gram version of all the times past.  This is silly.

They really were too big for the regular size loaf pans which are only 8 x 4 inches.  This time...I tried to sort of divvy them up into one of the regular size pans and one quite large pan which is 9 x 5.   It worked...sorta.... but, then, I was kind of waiting for the large one to rise a bit more and so the smaller one got "over riz" again..hahah.... and now I have one lop sided loaf and one good loaf.

See where the smaller one is poofed out on the side?  But, who cares??   Paul Hollywood is not judging my bread.  They taste really good as usual... and, if they don't fit in the toaster., too bad.  I'll just cut them in half.  Especially the BIG one... that one won't fit the toaster...

 They don't look that different in some photos and the big one doesn't even look that big ... I should have put it beside the toaster for better perspective.  Next time.