#bakingfail

Touted in Paul’s book as an historical recipe from 1835 with ingredients originally measured in a tea cup, the Soft Treacle Parkin sounded interesting if nothing else.  I like ginger.  I like oats.  I like brown sugar.  I like molasses (a viable treacle substitute). Should be a winner!

I gather my ingredients.  I did decide to use fresh, zested ginger rather than ginger powder for no other reason than I just wanted to. ☺  

I melted my butter and sugar together as directed. 

 I then poured that mixture into the oats thoroughly and then added the eggs.  (Where is the flour?)

 I then added the baking soda and vinegar, which reacted together wonderfully and put on a show of fizz and bubbles! #chemistry

 I let the mixture sit for 30 minutes as instructed and then put it in the oven at 400 for one hour. (One hour?!)  (And really, where’s the flour?)  At about 30 minutes it started smelling burnt.  I checked it and it was not done, but the sugar was burning a bit.  I left it for 15 more minutes and couldn’t stand it any longer.  I removed this disaster from my oven.

I thought, well maybe it tastes divine.  I took a bite.  Nope.  It still struck me as odd that it didn’t have any flour in the recipe.  I went back and read it again to make sure that I had not missed anything.  Nope.  I had included all of the listed ingredients and flour was not one of them.  I then googled Parkins.  Every recipe I found included flour.  Every. Recipe.  Could this be a typo in my beloved book???  I kept taking small bites of it hoping that it would get better or that I was mistaken about the flavor, but no.  It was not pleasing in taste nor texture. My husband tried it.  He said he’d eat it as cereal and pour milk over it in the morning.  Gross.  I threw it in the garbage.  Really?  Two weeks in a row I had to discard my bakes.  Very disheartening.  So I baked a sourdough to make myself feel better and prove to myself that I can bake tasty things.  Here it is! 

 Ahhhhh.  That’s better.  Gorgeous, right?  I can go on now. 

Rosemary Cheddar Scones

Sound lovely, don’t they?  I enjoy the flavor of rosemary in my bread.  I commonly make Rosemary Olive Oil Bread and it’s quite a treat.  Scones. Therein lies the difference.  Let’s get started shall we?

I gathered my ingredients as such.  I shredded my white cheddar (obtained from the FANCY cheese section of my local grocery store. 

I mixed the rosemary and cheddar into my dry ingredients, then added the milk to make this yummy-looking dough. 

I then cut the dough into circles using my large biscuit cutter.  I was careful not to “twist” as this keeps the dough from rising properly.

I sprinkled the remainder of the cheddar on the top of the little scones and popped them in the oven at 450 F degrees for 15 minutes.

When the timer went off, I removed my scones form the oven to assess their desirability for consumption.  They looked ok, if not a bit overdone though.  I bit into one. …

Oh Paul, why do you keep doing this to me?  It looks great and tastes like cardboard.  Perhaps it’s my American pallet.  Perhaps it’s my lack of baking skills.  Perhaps it’s British food?  I thought perhaps the flavor would be improved by some butter.  Not really, no.   The rosemary tasted nice, but that’s where it ended for me.  I fed one to my unsuspecting husband who is always honest with me.  He said, “Meh”.  I took them to work the next day.  They always appreciate my bakes.  One of my biggest fans said, “I like the rosemary…”  I immediately tossed them into the garbage after that.  So, so disappointing and I have no idea what the true problem is with this bake.