Let's do the Hokey Pokey!

It's Friday, tomorrow, right? I'm all ready to, 'Thank Crunchie,' I've been ready ever since sampling the Mini Moo chocolate with honeycomb the other week - in the interests of research (of course) for another post that I wrote. Last week, remembering a kind friend who made some honeycomb for me the other year, using a Nigella recipe, I searched online and found this one. Problem was, the process of moving house got in the way of any making or baking. Not this week though! Huzzah!

I love the name of this stuff - Hokey Pokey. It immediately reminds me of the Hokey Cokey and then conjures to mind Baby's efforts to follow the actions and makes me smile. 

Anyway, back to the recipe! 

What I found interesting about this recipe (apart from Nigella's aside about the Cornish name for honeycomb) was the comments at the bottom - quite enlightening! Although Nigella says that it's easy, the comments of her followers lead one to suggest that maybe it's not quite so easy as our lovely Nigella makes out? 

However, one follower (comment 10, I think) suggested altering the quantities to the following:

4 tbsp golden caster sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup 

1 tsp   bicarbonate of soda

'Aha!' thought I. 'This person sounds confident and successful, so that's what I'll do then. Bound to work '

Having washed my tin (it was still in a box, in the Living Room - I've already run out of space in the kitchen cupboards, in our new home) and lined it with parchment, I dug out my ingredients and, a bit gingerly (don't want sticky stuff ruining my pans) off I set.

What a sticky mix!

I measured, mixed and heated - Baby had already lost interest by this point, already. Once it was bubbling away nicely, however, I called her back, got her to add the bicarbonate of soda and whisk it in (being very careful to keep her from touching either the hot pan or the mixture). Then I hastily poured it into the lined tin as per a comment from another of Nigella's followers. 

'Well!' I thought, as I gazed at my results. 'That's not going to go very far is it?' I'd been envisioning great big chunks of the stuff, over which I could dribble melted chocolate. I was sure The Hub's friend, Paul, had made much more generous quantities of the stuff, when he made it for us the other year.

Making a mental note to double, triple, maybe even quadruple, the ingredients next time, I left the mixture to set.

Returning to examine the recipe, I noted that Nigella did state, that the recipe doesn't make a large quantity. '... any more and you'll be sued by your dentist,' says Nigella.

'Humph!' Thought I, 'Beg to differ! Dentists don't get rich by congratulating patients on how well their teeth are looking, do they?'

Well, I left the stuff in the fridge for long enough, I thought, but when it came out, it was not going to crack into lovely crispy pieces, oh no! I was able to mould it into fancy shapes though... which eventually flopped! 

What  a flop!

At this point I succumbed to tearing chunks off with my teeth and chewing furiously, to vent my frustration... until I remembered the comments about the dentist. 'Better not eat the whole lot, in one go,' I thought to myself. The flavour was there, but where was the crunch? 

Meanwhile, with Baby's help, I made some more - double quantities this time. I let it bubble for a bit longer, as one of Nigella's followers suggested one should. It certainly foamed very nicely when the bicarb went in and really looked the business. 

I also messaged Paul. 'Cut down the syrup,' was his advice, and, 'put it in the fridge!' Right-oh! In the fridge - too late for the syrup bit! I left the Hokey Pokey in the fridge for a couple of hours this time - went out shopping and everything!

At this point, I'd love to tell you that we were successful... but no! It was a bit more solid, yes but still chewy rather than crispy. More chewing ensued. 

The next morning, I was debating whether or not to make another load - with less syrup this time. I was thinking of my teeth, by this time - I didn't want to end up with a whole lot more to chew my way through - all I really wanted was a nice crisp dairy free Crunchie!!

One last go, and... result!!

Yay!

 
Less syrup and more cooking - I let it go a bit darker than I had before. Not sure what did the trick but crispy, crunchy honeycomb was the result. I never got round to adding the chocolate though - it didn't really last long enough.

I'm not thanking Crunchie, though - my thanks go to Paul, for helping me out. Less syrup, more cooking was definitely the way to go!  Oh, and storing it in the fridge, to stop it going goey. 

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Baking with Baby 2 - Banana Bread Muffins

A sample of our wares

Well, I've only got myself to blame, really. I should have stopped myself, this morning, when, as baby munched happily on her breakfast, I eyed the ageing bananas in the fruit bowl and stupidly uttered my thoughts aloud. "Those bananas are going off, I really ought to do something with them. Maybe we could make some banana bread." The Hub said, "Oooh! That sounds like a good idea." Baby immediately seized her opportunity, jumped on the bandwagon and that was it! It was all arranged. The Hub made his getaway and I was left to my fate!

I think I've mentioned this before, when we made Flapjacks - Baby LOVES baking!! Me, less so! Washing-up will be waiting for me at the end of a long, dark tunnel, fraught with potential for mishap, due to an over-eager Baby! But still, I have to do it. I've sweetened it for myself, by buying a few new baking accessories, I love my new measuring spoons (bargain from TKMaxx) but sadly, fancy new baking aides do not a baker make!!

First up was locating the recipe. I contemplated searching through Pippa Kendrick's new book, or her recipe blog, The Intolerant Gourmet, I love her stuff, because it's allergy friendly and looks (to a shaky baker, like me) 'do-able'. However, in the interests of saving time (Baby doesn't do patient) decided on a recipe I've tasted before. 

It's a recipe with good memories attached - we holidayed in a cottage in Devon with some friends the other September. These friends came armed with dairy free food and recipes, one of which was some rather delicious banana bread! I had the feeling it was a Nigella (our friend bakes a lot of Nigella's recipes) but not being able to locate it online, I printed off the recipe that our friend had sent me after our holiday.

Recipe out, we got stuck in. Baby was safely installed (incarcerated for minimum destruction?) in her highchair, with a bowl of bananas to mash (3 medium ones, just in case you're interested. The oven was switched on to 200 degrees to heat up (190 degrees, for those whoe ovens actually work) and I got on with measuring. 85g Pure Margarine, 340g of ... sugar. It's at this point, I realised that I didn't have the right sugar, but I had demerara, so demerara it had to be! Does it matter? I don't know!

Baby was bored of mashing bananas by now, so creaming sugar and marg together with a fork became her next job, whilst I finished mashing before rushing off to measure out the next  lot of ingredients. Hmm! The  next realisation was that I couldn't locate the proper vanilla essence. 'Did we use it up?' I wondered, as I surveyed my badly-in-need-of-sorting baking cupboard. I couldn't remember. Old bog standard would have to do.

My Matroyska Measuring Spoons

So, 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence, 3 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda,  1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg (bought for my yet-to-be-cooked rice pudding) later, I realised my cupboard was sadly lacking - not just in the muscavado department, but also in the spice department - all spice and mixed spice this time. I decided to innovate. 


No idea if it was right, but I added 1 teaspoon of ginger and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon instead. Actually the ginger is kicking in as I write, so maybe I should cut down on the ginger to 1/4 teaspoon next time, and see if that works better. Or maybe I should just get the right ingredients!

More innovation was to follow - 1 teaspoon of salt seemed too much to me. Baby shouldn't have too much. I decided to halve it. I stuck to the flour though, well sort of - 340g Doves plain flour it should have been. Ho hum! Remember it next time!

I did remember our friend's advice about the bananas though - adding the mashed banana at the end. That's where I ran into difficulty - his recipe ends with, 'this usually makes enough to fill...' Oh! Looking at the amount in the bowl and my one remaining loaf tin (somehow I thought I had another older one somewhere) I decided more innovation was required - cue muffin cases! I guessed it was meant to be two loaves, so plumped on nine muffin cases, for roughly half the mixture.

Cases filled, there wasn't as much left as I thought, for the loaf tin, but it was too late by then! Inspecting my tin, I realised the instructions on how to prepare the tin had also been left out. No problem, I consulted Nigella, online. She greased and lined. So did I. 

All in the oven, it was timer time. Which was when I encountered my next problem - no baking time included in the instructions!! 'Next time,' I thought to myself, 'I'm going back to Pippa, from whom I know I'd get a full set of instructions!'

Our Banana Loaf

Quickly consulting Nigella, all her Banana Bread seemed to take about an hour! Hmm! Remembering previous encounters with muffins, I set my timer for 20 minutes (I'm sure I've heard somewhere that you should leave an oven for 15/20 minutes, when baking cakes, to make sure they don't sink). 


Twenty minutes seemed to do the trick for the Banana Bread muffins. I turned the loaf tin around and gave it another 5/10 minutes more, before that too seemed done. I pressed the tops and inserted a skewer (which came out clean) just to make sure. Hey presto! Job done!

Correction! Baby thought the job wasn't quite done - until she had tasted. That was her morning snack. Now, she doesn't often eat fruit (hence the aged bananas) so does that count as one of her five-a-day? I dunno!!


I'm getting the hang of this innovation thing, though. Having sampled our loaf, I'm coming back for more! And I'm considering adding walnuts next time. Hang on a minute! Next time??

Just in time for Baby's morning snack

Baking Tip Addendum: The loaf is a bit on the small side, maybe I should just chuck all the mixture in the loaf tin next time, bar maybe three muffins (for quality control purposes of course). 

Oral Allergy Addendum: I sometimes get reactions to raw banana (and other fruits too). The first muffin I ate (fresh out of the oven) affected my lips. The second one, eaten sometime later (they're only little, really) didn't, so take care if oral allergy syndrome is a problem for you too!

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