Baking Brad Episode 24

This is episode twenty four - chocolate chip scrolls.

Recipe

• Link

Good

• Tasted alright

Bad

• A bit dry
• Not as good as the cinnamon scrolls
• Only made eight

Ratings

• The Cook - 7/10
• The Taste - 6/10

Ingredients.

Chocolate chip scrolls.

Christmas Review

Since I increasingly can never remember even what I did yesterday, this is a random collection of thoughts at a point in time. This Christmas I got a whopping eight days off thanks to the official university shutdown period - mandatory paid holidays that don't subtract from annual leave is a nice employment bonus. This is as much as I can recall.

• December 25
• Had a massive all-you-can-eat buffet lunch at Bayswater Hotel. The vegetarian options were a little limited - mostly I dined on vegetarian lasagne and chips, but that left plenty of room for desserts. I felt full for at least the next 24 hours.
• December 26
• Started off the day with a long 17km run to work off some of the calories hanging around from yesterday.
• Watched some of the bonanza NBA Christmas Day matches, but most of them were one-sided.
• Went to the outlet mall in the afternoon, specifically the Nike Store, where I purchased yet another pair of Lunar Glide 4's, I think I currently own six different pairs.
• The surf store had some good bargains too, $15 for shorts but I wasn't sure what size to get, I figured since I own a lot of size 34's that are quite loose (at my current weight) I'd risk a 32, only I got home and they were quite a bit too small. Oh well, still better than trying on clothes in the store.
• December 27
• All of the shops were back open today, so I cashed in my ABC Store voucher before it expired for a new cooking book. This one kind of sucks though because most of the pages _don't_ have pictures, but I couldn't tell that at the time because the book was wrapped in plastic - SHE'S DEAD, WRAPPED IN PLASTIC.
• I also picked up Bioshock Infinite for a bargain $34 new and spent an hour at the gym.
• December 28
• It was supposed to get to 38 degrees today, not sure if it quite got there but it was damn hot. We went down to Jells Park for a run in the middle of the day which was a bit of a challenge. The park doesn't really seem to have many good running tracks, so you end up going around in circles every few hundred metres, which is mentally draining as much as anything.
• December 29
• Spent an hour at the gym then off to Designing Bond 007 at the Melbourne Museum - not sure if that's the exact name but it was something like that.
• The Bond presentation was alright, they had about seven different rooms showing off Bond memorabilia and interesting information.
• Gold Room - Goldfinger and The Man With The Golden Gun (but not Golden Eye).
• M Room - The M commissioner man and woman in the films.
• Q Room - The Q guy and all of the Bond devices and gadgets.
• Casino - The casino scenes that appear in several movies.
• Location Rooms - Shows off many of the locations used in the movies, e.g. Africa, Asia and Europe.
• Ice Room - The movie, or movies, that have snow and ice scenes.
• Villains Room - All of the villains from the movies.
• Overall it was quite good and I spent about an hour and a half there reading the signs next to each of the exhibits and such. You could walk through in as little as half an hour if you didn't bother to read as much.
• December 30
• Pretty much spent the morning and afternoon watching the final weekend of NFL regular season games.
• I watched the Red Zone channel for the end of the 5:00am - 8:30am games, which switches around between each of the games whenever a team is about to score.
• I watched the Chicago vs. Green Bay game next, while switching over to Grand Theft Auto V during all of the breaks. The game was a little slow to begin with but actually quite exciting in the second half and at the end. Go Packers!
• The last game was Dallas vs. Philadelphia over lunch. This one was a bit boring but at least it was close and the Eagles won.
• I also had time to squeeze in a run before and after the lunch time game, 14km in total.
• December 31
• I figured I'd end the year by getting some stuff in order.
• I took my coin collection down to Croydon ANZ which took like an hour. First they had to empty the machine because it was full - somehow it was full within 10 minutes of the day! then when it was my turn the machine just stopped working. The woman had to open it up and clean it out, there was a loose screw, hair pin and other random metal pieces that had gone through it. The total was just over $500 which is almost enough for an Xbox One. Even at the branch the stupid ANZ policy seems to be to only give out $50 notes instead of crisp green $100 bills.
• Spent the afternoon doing boring house cleaning tasks that I'd been putting off for weeks, months or years in some cases - the kitchen venetian blinds had some really sticky crap all over them when we moved in, which is just painful to get off without wrecking the blinds - they are a soft metal, so if you bend them accidentally they will have a permanent crease. So that was good to finally get finished after three years...

Baking Brad Episode 23

This is episode twenty three - caramel choc snowballs, perfect timing for a snowy Melbourne Christmas...

Recipe

• Link

Good

• Best taste yet
• No baking required
• The recipe made a large quantity

Bad

• Crushing biscuits in the blender kept jamming up

Ratings

• The Cook - 8/10
• The Taste - 10/10 (first perfect score)

Ingredients.

Caramel choc snowballs.

Baking Brad Episode 22

This is episode twenty two - strawberry and cream bliss cake, without the bliss.

Recipe

• Link

Good

• Great creamy taste
• Only three ingredients

Bad

• Nothing

Really Bad

• The bottom of the spring form pan fell out and the mixture went everywhere

Ratings

• The Cook - 1/10 (-8 points for spilling everywhere)
• The Taste - 9/10

Ingredients.

Ingredients that didn't make it.

Strawberry and cream bliss cake.

Baking Brad Episode 21

This is episode twenty one - banana yoghurt muffins.

Recipe

• Link

Good

• Easy to make
• Not too dry
• The first muffins that didn't overflow

Bad

• Got distracted and almost overbaked
• Not too moist either

Ratings

• The Cook - 9/10
• The Taste - 6/10

Ingredients.

Banana yoghurt muffins.

Baking Brad Season 1

This is season one - twenty episodes.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12
Episode 13
Episode 14
Episode 15
Episode 16
Episode 17
Episode 18
Episode 19
Episode 20

Baking Brad Episode 20

This is episode twenty - butter almond torte. What's a torte? Do I like almonds? Do I like slivered almonds?

Recipe

• From Cakes & Slices

Good

• Almonds didn't seem to have a particularly strong or dominating taste
• Finally a cake that didn't overflow
• Looked roughly like the photo in the book
• Pretty good taste despite being slightly crunchy and crumbly

Bad

• Long cooking time in two phases - 50 minutes and 15 minutes
• Was a bit overcooked despite following the instructions and even reducing the heat slightly

Really Bad

• Biting into aluminium foil

Ratings

• The Cook - 6/10
• The Taste - 8/10

Base ingredients.

Top ingredients.

Butter almond torte.

Baking Brad Episode 19

This is episode nineteen - chocolate banana cake. Sounds like a strange combination, we'll soon find out.

Recipe

• From Cakes & Slices (only used half walnuts)

Good

• Easy to make
• The chocolate and walnuts were alright

Bad

• Grating chocolate is tedious
• Not as good as plain banana bread
• Slightly too much mixture for the tin, yet again...

Ratings

• The Cook - 7/10
• The Taste - 7/10

Ingredients.

Banana / Chocolate / Walnut cake (or bread).

Baking Brad Episode 18

This is episode eighteen - baked cheesecake aka the nightmare revisited.

Recipe

• From Cakes & Slices

Good

• Not a complete throw-in-the-bin disaster this time
• The filling was tasty

Bad

• The base was a bit overcooked
• The filling way exceeded the base once again - must be something wrong with the measurements in these books

Ratings

• The Cook - 7/10
• The Taste - 8/10

Base ingredients.

Filling ingredients.

Baked cheesecake. The base only goes halfway up the side, at best.
The tear is from when I poked it in frustration.

Baking Brad Episode 17

This is episode seventeen - cinnamon scrolls, probably my equal favourite so far.

Recipe

• From Homestyle Cookies Muffins & Cakes

Good

• Even better when put in the microwave for 20 seconds
• The cinnamon and sugar filling was great, just needed to be a bit stronger

Bad

• The recipe only made about ten

Ratings

• The Cook - 9/10
• The Taste - 9/10

Base ingredients.

Filling ingredients.

Cinnamon scrolls.

Baking Brad Episode 16

This is episode sixteen - poppy seed slice. This one took forever and it did not help that I was coming down with a major illness.

Recipe

• From Homestyle Cookies Muffins & Cakes

Good

• All the ingredients *sounded* good on paper (again)
• Learnt a new technique - cook with rice in the shell then throw it away?
• The base was pretty tasty

Bad

• I made the slice while I was sick, so mentally could not eat much of it
• The icing was too strong with all the lemon juice required, would have been better with vanilla and water
• Three passes through the oven was annoying

Ratings

• The Cook - 7/10
• The Taste - 5/10

Base ingredients.

Filling ingredients.

Cooking the base with temporary rice (did not have "baking beads").

The base and filling.

Icing ingredients.

Poppy Seed slice, now with more lemon.

Baking Brad Episode 15

This is episode fifteen - peanut butter cookies.

Recipe

• From Homestyle Cookies Muffins & Cakes

Good

• All the ingredients *sounded* good on paper

Bad

• Asking Jason to read off how long the baking time was - he said 15 minutes (from the opposite page) instead of 10
• Getting burnt biscuits out of the oven after 15 minutes
• The peanut icing was just too strong - I don't think I really like peanuts
• Trying to form a rolled oats mixture into biscuit balls again

Ratings

• The Cook - 6/10
• The Taste - 4/10 (-4 points for overcooking)

Base ingredients.

Icing ingredients.

Peanut Butter cookies.

Baking Brad Episode 14

This is episode fourteen - rainbow loaf, not just for kids!

Recipe

• From Recipes+ magazine

Good

• Like bread, only better
• Super tasty

Bad

• Slices didn't look as good as the photos
• Too much mixture for the recommended loaf tin again, could have turned out a lot worse though

Ratings

• The Cook - 7/10
• The Taste - 9/10

Ingredients.

Before baking.

After baking, looks much worse than it was.

Baking Brad Episode 13

This is episode thirteen - double chocolate brownies, when single chocolate is not enough.

Recipe

• From Cakes & Slices

Good

• Easy to make
• Inside pieces weren't too dry
• Two types of chocolate

Bad

• Probably overcooked a bit, edge pieces were a bit hard

Ratings

• The Cook - 8/10
• The Taste - 6/10

Ingredients.

Double Chocolate Brownies.

Baking Brad Episode 12

This is episode twelve - banana bread.

Recipe

• Link

Good

• A daily serving of fruit...
• Great taste

Bad

• Had to use a blender to mash the bananas, not sure if it liquified them too much
• The top of the bread rose a bit too much and cracked, but still alright

Ratings

• The Cook - 8/10
• The Taste - 9/10

Ingredients.

Banana Bread.

Baking Brad Episode 11

This is episode eleven - cocoa sesame biscuits.

Recipe

• From Homestyle Cookies Muffins & Cakes

Good

• Getting a bit quicker at measuring out ingredients (i.e. direct to the mixing bowl)

Bad

• Hard to combine into balls that would stay together (just like Anzac Biscuits)
• Taste wasn't great, the cocoa flavour was a bit too strong
• The return of refrigerated golden syrup (not a surprise this time but still annoying)

Ratings

• The Cook - 7/10
• The Taste - 5/10

Ingredients.

Cocoa Sesame Biscuits.

Baking Brad Episode 10

This is episode ten - banana cupcakes.

Recipe

• A packet mix I made up out of curiosity and for comparison

Good

• Easy to make
• I now own electric beaters!
• Light and tasty

Bad

• Probably better than anything I've made, although I haven't made cupcakes yet

Ratings

• The Cook - 9/10
• The Taste - 9/10

Ingredients for the cupcakes.

Ingredients for the icing.

Cupcakes.

$2 cupcakes (plus extra ingredients).

Baking Brad Episode 9

This is episode nine - choc-raspberry cheesecake slice (without the raspberries).

Recipe

• From Homestyle Cookies Muffins & Cakes

Good

• I learnt some value lessons about using gelatine, or I'll never use gelatine again
• It looked like a cheesecake
• The parts without solid bits of gelatine tasted alright

Bad

• Crushing biscuits without a food processor was a waste of time
• The slice still wasn't as thick as I hoped after refrigeration (freezing helped)

Really Bad

• Gelatine Part 1 - I used hot water to mix it, then let it cool, only it turned into one big clump before I was ready for it (timing is everything in baking)
• Gelatine Part 2 - I used hot water to mix it, then threw it in the cold mixture where it later turned into many small clumps (hot and cold do not mix)

Ratings

• The Cook - 3/10 (-5 points for gelatine)
• The Taste - 3/10 (-5 points for gelatine, I threw most of it in the bin)

Ingredients for the base.

The biscuit base.

Special ingredients to add to the filling later.

Ingredients for the filling.

The world's saddest cheesecake.

Baking Brad Episode 8

This is episode eight - berry cheesecake muffins.

Recipe

• From Homestyle Cookies Muffins & Cakes

Good

• Added filling to muffins (pretty obvious really)
• Quick and easy

Bad

• The cream cheese filling could have melted a bit more
• The recipe only made six (or could have made eight slightly smaller ones)

Ratings

• The Cook - 9/10
• The Taste - 7/10

Ingredients.

Muffins.

Baking Brad Episode 7

This is episode seven - custard butter cake.

Recipe

• From Homestyle Cookies Muffins & Cakes

Good

• It was edible
• The icing tasted alright

Bad

• Trying to make smooth icing without electric beaters
• Using a 20x20 tin with only 75% of ingredients still only just worked, needs a much bigger cake tin than suggested

Really Bad

• The first attempt collapsing into a gooey mess in the middle
• Using a 20x20 tin as suggested, only I could tell it wasn't big enough (with so much self raising flour)

Ratings

• The Cook - 2/10
• The Taste - 6/10

Ingredients for the cake.

The second attempt, just barely came out alright.

Ingredients for the icing.

Custard butter cake.