“Life’s too short to stuff a mushroom” Prue Leith The quickest way to separate eggs is to crack them into a bowl one at a time and lift the yolks out with your fingers. It’s easier than you may think Tip Of The Week Welcome to my kitchen! “Taking the heat out of the kitchen” How to Bake Anything Whether you want to bake bread, cakes, biscuits (cookies), flapjacks or find ways to make and cook pastry this is the place to be Bread, cakes and pastry are very closely related; they are all a basic liaison of flour, fat and liquid to which other ingredients may be added in varying quantities. And that makes them something of a culinary miracle, because from that humble beginning they have become the most diverse form of food on the planet. Even pasta, in all its various guises, is basically the same mix. So too are pancakes, scones, waffles and crispbreads. Every society uses some kind of flour to produce a dough which can then be cooked and eaten. It is the simplest - and at the same time most complex - staple food available to mankind. How easy is it? Well, let's start off with a basic pastry, suitable for pies, that you can make in a food processor. Yes, really! Always bear in mind that for any given weight of flour, you need at least half that weight in fat. The more fat you add the 'shorter ', crisper - and more difficult to handle - your pastry will become. So, put 225 grms (or 6oz) of plain flour and a pinch of salt in your processor and whiz it for about 4 seconds. This will aerate it, which means you don't need to sift it. Add 125 grms (or 3oz) of chilled, diced butter or margarine and blitz until the mix resembles bread crumbs. Add one beaten egg and blitz just until the dough starts to form a ball. Remove the pastry from the processor and  knead it lightly for a few seconds. Then wrap it in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour. Be careful not to overdo the kneading, pastry should be handled as little as possible, especially with hot hands in a warm kitchen. Try to use your fingertips only. Working first thing in the morning is always a good idea, when the day is at its coolest and the stove is less likely to be on. A fan can also be useful (but by no means essential) to keep temperatures down. That's it. Congratulations! You are now a pastry chef. Find what you want using the menus There are two. The one above my head is for the recipe pages. The one below gives you access to all the Baking recipes. You will find menus like these on every page in this site. More Useful Stuff