New Breadmaker has arrived!

I have recently had to buy a new breadmaker as my old one was past it's best and decided to give up the ghost!  It hasn't had a bad life, as I've had it for about 4 or 5 years now, so has done me well.  It was a Bluesky one that I bought from Carrefour and wasn't one of the best, but for me did perfect dough and bread.  So this time I decided to go for one a little different and one that does just that bit more! 

So this time I bought a Moulinex Home Bread Baguette. And as advised, the first thing to try is a 'Basic' loaf, which I did this morning. 

And this is the finished article!  Did this one on medium 'colour', but think next time I'll do a slightly darker version.  But impressive 'quand meme'!

It comes with a really good recipe book (obviously all in French - but that's not a problem!), so will have to work my way through the book and try them all out. 

One of the reasons that I bought this one was the fact that I can do baguettes in it as well, you make the dough first and then take it out and separate into 4 small rolls, place in the individual sections to cook and place this back into the machine to cook. 

This morning, as I had a 'free' day, decided to do a bit of cooking.  Yesterday, I picked all the gooseberries, so they had to be 'dealt' with.  I love gooseberries, and don't have them very often, so decided to make a couple of things with them, one of my favourites.......

GOOSEBERRY CRUMBLE

You can use whatever fruit you like for the base, but obviously I used gooseberries and had about 500g of these.

Crumble topping:-

175g plain flour

75g butter

25g flaked almonds

25g porridge oats

50g dark sugar

Custard, cream or ice cream to serve!

First, prepare your fruit for the base, you will need to add some sugar and a bit of water to the pan and gently simmer until cooked but still slightly firm.  Put the fruit into an oven dish. 

Make the crumble:  Put the flour into a bowl and add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs.  Then add the flaked almonds, porridge oats and sugar and mix well. 

Sprinkle this topping evenly over the fruit in the dish and place in the oven to cook.  190c/375f/gas 5 for about 30 mins until the topping is golden.  Serve.

GOOSEBERRY AND CREME FRAICHE TART

This is a Delia recipe, one I haven't done before, so looking forward to trying it. 

I cheated and used a bought 'ready made' pastry for this tart, but you can make your own, if you have the time.

This is a very quick and simple dessert!

I lined a flan dish with the pastry and baked this 'blind' for about 10 mins, or until lightly golden in colour.

FILLING:

Into a bowl place 100ml of creme fraiche, add 2 egg yolks, 40g caster sugar, 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar and whisk. 

Now, into the cooled flan case add 450g of gooseberries (which have been washed, topped and tailed, then pour in the creme fraice mixture on to the top. 

Place in the oven and cook for about 40 to 45 mins (350f/gas 4/180c.  When cooked, remove from oven and let to cool.  Apparently, this is also just as nice cold as it is hot!  Enjoy!

After making this, I've now got some egg whites to use up....so there's only one thing to do and that's some meringues!   Well, as we have lots of strawberries at the moment and the fact that Mr TK has brought back some lovely thick double cream from Guernsey, it's just got to be done.....Eton Mess!  I will post the recipe for this in the Strawberry section. 

So here they are ready for the oven:-

Here they are!