Lisa Bakes: Gnarly witches fingers

After I'd made the Spooky Pumpkin and walnut bread, I still had lots of pumpkin and baking supplies. So I decided to try my hand at some more baking.

All in all I made three batches and found that speed when moulding the fingers into shape was key. The first batch expanded the most, whereas the next two batches came out much better as I hadn't handled them as much. Mr. Ree and a few friends were more than happy to provide some quality control.

I'd also made pumpkin and cinnamon cookies which were really yummy. Nothing beats a fresh squidgy cookie!

We went out to a Halloween party last night and brought both cookies along with us. They seemed to go down well and it wasn't long before they started disappearing! (Which is the best compliment in my book!) If you'd like to try making your own witch finger biscuits, I've attached the recipe below. Happy baking! :)

The fruits of my labour!

Gnarly Witches Fingers

Ingredients

• 225g (8 oz) butter, softened
• 125g (4 1/2 oz) icing sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 350g (12 oz) plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 100g (4 oz) whole almonds

Method

1. Combine the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer. Then gradually add the flour, baking powder and salt, continually beating; chill for 20 to 30 minutes. (The longer the better really!)
2. Preheat oven to 160C. 
3. Lightly grease baking trays.
4. Remove dough from fridge in small amounts. Scoop 1 heaping teaspoon at a time onto a piece of greaseproof paper. Use the paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped biscuit. Press one almond into one end of each biscuit to give the appearance of a long fingernail. 
5. Squeeze biscuit near the tip and again near the centre of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance. Arrange the shaped biscuits on the baking trays.
6. Bake in the preheated oven until the biscuits are slightly golden in colour, 20 to 25 minutes.

Lisa Bakes: Spooky Pumpkin and Walnut bread

Whatever it is about the Autumn and Winter time, I just love all things cosy. All the foodie people I know say to use seasonal fruit and vegetables where possible so with Halloween, there's an abundance of pumpkins! When better to try my hand at making pumpkin bread?

So with cautious optimism, I took to the kitchen after trekking through the baking aisle in Tesco for supplies. Also, baking question - are baking powder and baking soda the same or is there a difference?

Ready to be whipped together to make some tasty bread!

For this recipe, I needed to make pumpkin puree. I had read a few different ways online and opted for the microwave method, which was the same way I cook potatoes, so no new territory there! I used about half of a small cooking pumpkin for this recipe which made about twice the puree I needed, so in future I'd probably only need a quarter of the pumpkin.

I chopped them into roughly the same size, put them and some water (about 1/4 of the dish) into a pyrex dish, covered and microwaved it for 11 minutes. Before stirring and microwaving for a further 5 minutes. The skin came away fairly easily from the the pumpkin and then it was just a case of mashing away!

My Mum always taught me to put all the ingredients to one side of the main mixing bowl, and then once the ingredients go in, to move them to the other side of the bowl. It makes it easier to check what has gone in the mixture at a glance.

I mixed the dry ingredients together, then added all the liquid ingredients. When I was mixing, it seemed to be a bit runny. But maybe this is normal?

Mm.. Er.. Squidgy!

Ready for its maiden voyage to the oven!

I lubed up a baking tin with a knob of butter, poured the mixture in and hoped for the best.

And it started to rise!

And then it rose some more! I was actually worried it was going to reach the top of the oven. Note to self: move oven tray down.

The smell of the bread baking filled the apartment and it created a wonderful festive ambience. But I wasn't done yet!

The first time I took the bread out to check if it was baked, it seemed a little squidgy so I popped it back in to oven. I didn't want it to be overbaked or burnt.

From watching programmes like the Great British Bake Off, I remember they would leave bread to cool on a wire rack. I had to settle for a steamer. Well, it has holes in it and should allow air to circulate. Needs must and all that jazz!

 
Then the best part of any baking adventure - tasting what you've made! It got a big thumbs up from Mr. Ree and the spices really made it tingle the tastebuds. It was moist and the top had a lovely sweet crunch to it from the brown sugar. Next time I might add a bit more walnut though, but that's just me! Although I had inadvertently bought walnut halves which required a bit more chopping, but it was worth it. Next time I'll be buying walnuts of the chopped variety!

All in all, I came out fairly unscathed from this recipe. It wasn't difficult to make either. Definitely one to try again!

Fancy giving it a go yourself? Here's the recipe. Good luck and happy baking! :)

Pumpkin and Walnut Bread

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• 2 eggs        
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda        
• 1tsp salt
• 1 tsp of nutmeg    
• 250g pumpkin puree    
• 1 tbsp brown sugar        
• 75ml water
• 30g chopped walnuts    
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon    
• 300g caster sugar

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Put sugar, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices into a large bowl. Stir to blend.
3. Add pumpkin puree, water, oil, eggs and walnuts. Beat until well combined.
4. Pour mixture into greased bread tin.
5. Sprinkle brown sugar on top.
5. Bake for 50-60 mins. Skewer with knife/skewer through centre of loaf. Once it comes out clear, it's done!
6. Take it out of the tin and leave to cool. How you enjoy it is completely up to you! :)

Damn you procrastination...

I have so much that I should be doing. Namely tidying, cleaning and generally being organised. I wish I had the type of organised whirlwind days, you know the type of day where motivation is at an all-time high? I aim to bring out my inner Domestic Goddess meets Wonder Woman. Domestic Woman? Hm.. No. Wonder Goddess ™! Ah yes, that's the one!

So a hybrid modern woman between this:

Disclaimer: I can't fly, and the last time I used a lasso, I looked like a Macrame disaster.

And this:

Although I can't imagine myself being overjoyed at staying at my reflection in shiny kitchenware, nor do I drive a funky vintage car. And I really do appreciate the mod cons like a dishwasher, washing machine, tumbledrier et al.


I'm what one would call an avid list maker, I make lists for my lists, and yes... I own and use a Filofax. So perhaps if I make a list of all the things I have to do, I'll morph into 'Wonder Goddess'™, whizz around getting everything done and have time to sit and relax with a cuppa whilst saying to a bewildered onlooker "Oh, the entire house clean, laundry, shopping , fire lit and bills to be sorted? All done, sure it only took me a little while!". Instead of the general response my brain seems to opt for "Oh sod it, you can do it tomorrow."

Perhaps 'Wonder Goddess'™ won't be around all the time, but when she is, that lady knows how to get shit done!