Anyone for cake!

17^th February 2014

Baking is like life, you don't always have to follow the recipe just like you don't always have to follow the crowd!

Had a lovely day yesterday, took Alfie for a walk in the sunshine for a change, then spent a few hours baking before settling down and chilling out with mom watching old episodes of ‘only fools and horses’, I love to hear my mom laugh and she says some of the funniest things too, it’s never dull in our house!

I made rock cakes which remind me of my childhood, no mom couldn’t bake – she was more well known for NOT being able to bake – her homemade bread in the 70’s bread strike was hilarious – it didn’t rise!  No we were taught how to bake at school in domestic science, used to love it ;)

Here’s the recipe I used;

Rock Cakes

makes 12 - 4pp each

225g/8oz wholemeal self-raising flour

75g/2½oz caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

125g/4½oz low fat spread (I used bertolli light for 12pp – PP vary depending on brand)

150g/5½oz sultanas

1 free-range egg

1 tbsp skimmed milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a baking tray with baking parchment.  Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the low fat spread until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, then mix in the dried fruit.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg and milk together with the vanilla extract.

Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until the mixture just comes together as a thick, lumpy dough. Add a teaspoon more milk if you really need it to make the mixture stick together.

Place golfball-sized spoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking tray. Leave space between them as they will flatten and spread out to double their size during baking.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden-brown. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a couple of minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool.

I then made some scones with a different recipe that brought the ProPoints down;

Simple Sultana scones

3pp each – makes 10

225g wholewheat self-raising flour (19pp)

25g low fat spread (3pp)

25g caster sugar (3pp)

40g sultanas (3pp)

150g virtually fat-free plain yogurt (2pp)

2 teaspoons skimmed milk

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 6 / 200^oC / fan oven 180^oC.  Reserves 2 teaspoons of the flour for rolling, sift rest into a mixing bowl.  Rub the low fat spread into the flour until the mixture looks a bit like breadcrumbs, lifting your fingers high as you rub the fat and flour together to incorporate as much air as possible. 

Stir in sugar and sultanas.  Next stir in the yogurt, mixing to give a soft but not sticky dough that leaves the bowl clean, use hands if necessary. 

Dust the work surface with reserved flour and pat the dough out by hand to a thickness of 2.5cm (1 inch).  Use a 5cm (2in) diameter cutter to stamp out the scone rounds.  There will be trimmings left from first cutting out, ready to pat out again and stamp out further rounds to a total of 10.

Place on a lined baking tray, then brush the scones with the milk, make sure the milk doesn’t drip down the sides of the scones as it stops them rising.  (I didn’t do this bit)

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until risen and golden brown.  Cool slightly on a wire rack before serving.

Note: If you don’t have a cutter, simply pat the dough out to a rectangle then cut into 12 small squares using a knife. 

For Savoury Cheese Scones

2pp each – omit the sugar and sultanas from recipe and replace with ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard plus 40g half fat cheese finely grated.  You can add 20g to mixture then press the rest on top of the milk brushed scones before baking, to give a lovely cheesy crust. 

I plan to make the savoury cheese scones in a minute for breakfast, thought they’d be delicious with scrambled egg.

I love that on Weight Watchers you can have anything as long as it’s ProPointed, it’s all about balance; the Filling & Healthy foods are always there as your core base ensuring you have the best of the best foods to hand, then the niceness of things such as home made cakes can be enjoyed in moderation.  We had a cake lunch yesterday instead of a meal, it was delicious and we stayed on track!

Corned beef hash is on the menu today, I never got round to cooking a meal yesterday after baking I couldn’t be bothered, I’ll make the effort today though – promise!