I've BAKED something!!!

So, after literally months of waiting to get to try and bake in the kitchen, because of lack of space on the benches, and because I wanted someone there to guide me while I baked something, I have finally baked something!

Now, I know you're all wondering what it is that I've baked, and I'll tell you, it's not an obvious first choice for someone like me, who hasn't baked anything since they were at high school. You may be thinking 'I bet she tried cupcakes, or maybe a muffin, or maybe a cake.'. But no. I chose this ages ago, from The Great British Book of Baking, because one day, a few months ago, I was looking through it, and one of the recipes just seemed to be perfect for me. It sounded fairly easy to do, and it's something that I like to eat. It is...

Petticoat Tails! See, not obvious. This is great for me, as it's in the Biscuits and Teatime Treats section of the book, which happens to be the first section in the book. And if you know me, and what I like, you'll know that I love tea, and biscuits. So it's like my ideal recipe to try first. Also, since I was a kid, I remember at Christmas my mum always bought 'all butter Scottish shortbread petticoat tails' by Walkers, I think.

While I made it, very late last night, with my companion/mentor by my side, I took pictures at each little stage of the baking process. And I thought, hey, why not include most of them in this blog post? So that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Step 1:

Put 150g of unsalted butter (I used Flora margarine) and 40g of icing sugar into a big mixing bowl, and beat it up using a wooden spoon (which I used) or an electric whisk, or mixer. The recipe says to do it until it's light and creamy.

As you can see, the next step will obviously involve using a sieve.

Step 2:

Put 200g of plain flour, and 50g of cornflour into the sieve, a little bit at a time, and use a metal spoon (this is what my mentor/companion told me to do) to push it through the sieve into the mixing bowl. Then use your hands (this is what I did) to bring the mixture together.

This is just before I brought the mixture together with my hands.

Step 3:

Now you knead it gently, and then seperate the dough in half, and shape each half into a ball.

Step 4:

Grease 2 baking trays (or 2 round tins of approx. 18cm across, and 5mm thick, like I did) (you could use vegetable oil, like I did, or butter to grease the trays/tins) and place each ball into each tray (or tin) and either gently roll with a rolling pin (or press the dough out with your hands, like I did) to make a circle the same size as the tin (as I put above). Try and make the circle of dough as even as possible. I used the bottom of a round glass to do this, although it did leave a few round marks on the dough, but you could hardly notice them. Pinch the outer edge of both circles of dough (I used my right thumb to do this, but I s'pose you can use any finger, it's up to you, but I wouldn't advise using your toes *laughs*). Now use a 5cm round cutter (or a small liquor glass, which I had to do, because I didn't have a round cutter) and push it into the centre of each circle of dough.

These are how my 2 circles of dough looked after Step 4.

Step 5:

Using a sharp knife, cut around the center circle of each big circle, into 8 pieces, but try not to cut into the centre circles.

Step 6:

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C, 350F, or gas 4 (which is what I did) for 18 - 20 mins. Then take them out of the oven, and sprinkle them with caster sugar, and cut along the lines you did earlier.

But the ones I did weren't quite done after 20 mins, so I tried another 3 mins, and then I ate one of the centre circles, and noticed it was still a bit too moist in the middle. So then I went to bed, and my companion/mentor put them back in the oven for another 10 mins, then left them to cool, and then put them into a tin, one on top of the other.

And here's the finished product. By the way, the cracks had nothing to do with me, that happened when my companion/mentor lifted them out of each tin with a broad bladed knife, after they'd cooled down. Although, I did make one of them crack when I used a knife to see if it would come out of the tin, after it had had an extra 3 mins in the oven, before I went to bed.

Thanks for reading about how I made Petticoat Tails. Despite them being cracked, and being in the oven for longer than the recipe said, they actually taste really nice, and smell lovely too. They have a very soft texture, but not so soft that they break apart when I dipped one in my tea today. My companion said "They were very melty and crumbly.".

Please let me know what you thought of my blog post and my Petticoat Tails.

Lots of blogging love, Ss1. xxx

P.S. It almost feels like I've been blogging about baking food forever. This post was so easy to write, although it took me well over an hour and a half. Plus, the Petticoat Tails were great fun to make. I even said "They're my babies in there!" just after I first put my Petticoat Tails in the oven. It reminded me of what someone in the Bake Off said, but I can't think who it was.