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igenlodeI tried Jack Monroe's Peach and White Chocolate Traybake (as I happened to have a tin of peaches sitting in the cupboard), but it was a failure -- and while I know that prices have shifted around quite a bit in the last ten years, and chocolate in particular has gone up a lot, I really can't see how a recipe specifying three eggs and *eight ounces* of butter (not even margarine; she specifically says butter) can ever have been considered a 'budget recipe', let alone priced at 28p per portion if it only makes eight portions. (I made mine in two trays and cut it far smaller; it was still ridiculously extravagant, and if the quantities had been given in ounces upfront I wouldn't have considered it; but I have no very clear concept of how large "250 grams" is...)
Probably I shot myself in the foot by trying to economise and using only half butter and half margarine, and substituting two of the eggs for the last of the frozen chickpea water from the last time I boiled chickpeas... but although the mixture actually seemed rather stiffer than described --there could be no question of 'pouring' it into the tins-- and although I had split it between two small tinfoil containers rather than one large square tin, it was obviously not cooked after an hour (estimated baking time 45 mins to an hour). After a further half-hour, although it had shrunk away from the sides of the tin and was much darker than the photo it was evidently not properly cooked on the bottom layer once cooled down. The top crust simply lifted off, leaving goo behind.
I subsequently put it back into a low oven for another 45 minutes or so, which made it just about solid enough to cut into fingers and lift out, but the texture was obviously nothing like that illustrated. Instead of having chunks of fruit and white chocolate visible among cake crumb, the whole lot had simply melted together, while the peach made it even soggier.
It wouldn't have been so disappointing if it hadn't used so many expensive ingredients; I managed to boil dry an Apple Hat (*inside* the pressure cooker while under pressure, which I had always regarded as impossible) and had to struggle to get the melted plastic bowl loose from the trivet and scrape it off the inside of the cooker. But while I spilt a lot of the delicious buttery juices in the process, that very rich-tasting and filling recipe only used two ounces of butter, being padded out with suet pastry (itself padded out with grated potato :-p)
"The Four of Us" has now shot up to 118 hits and 19 kudos on AO3, which is more in six days then any of the other five fics I posted in that fandom have achieved in up to nine months.
Chapter 3 of "Little Gentlemen" has received three page views... which is better than the nothing it got on the first day of upload, but probably about as many as it is likely to get in total!
Probably I shot myself in the foot by trying to economise and using only half butter and half margarine, and substituting two of the eggs for the last of the frozen chickpea water from the last time I boiled chickpeas... but although the mixture actually seemed rather stiffer than described --there could be no question of 'pouring' it into the tins-- and although I had split it between two small tinfoil containers rather than one large square tin, it was obviously not cooked after an hour (estimated baking time 45 mins to an hour). After a further half-hour, although it had shrunk away from the sides of the tin and was much darker than the photo it was evidently not properly cooked on the bottom layer once cooled down. The top crust simply lifted off, leaving goo behind.
I subsequently put it back into a low oven for another 45 minutes or so, which made it just about solid enough to cut into fingers and lift out, but the texture was obviously nothing like that illustrated. Instead of having chunks of fruit and white chocolate visible among cake crumb, the whole lot had simply melted together, while the peach made it even soggier.
It wouldn't have been so disappointing if it hadn't used so many expensive ingredients; I managed to boil dry an Apple Hat (*inside* the pressure cooker while under pressure, which I had always regarded as impossible) and had to struggle to get the melted plastic bowl loose from the trivet and scrape it off the inside of the cooker. But while I spilt a lot of the delicious buttery juices in the process, that very rich-tasting and filling recipe only used two ounces of butter, being padded out with suet pastry (itself padded out with grated potato :-p)
"The Four of Us" has now shot up to 118 hits and 19 kudos on AO3, which is more in six days then any of the other five fics I posted in that fandom have achieved in up to nine months.
Chapter 3 of "Little Gentlemen" has received three page views... which is better than the nothing it got on the first day of upload, but probably about as many as it is likely to get in total!