I love baking. I have cut back baking a lot of sweets this year, but I do have excuses to bake bread - after all, it's a staple. After hearing all the stories about some bread keep the shape with out any mould for months in room temperature, I do start to wonder how many preservatives the shops and factories put into the bread these days? In the name of bread improver?
I usually make the children's sandwich bread using egg, milk and butter, but I have been using olive oil, and water, and the result is pretty good.
It's a small loaf as it's only for the children.
300g bread flour
170g water
30g olive oil
1 tsp salt
5g yeast
That's all it is.
I just love it when I'm able to provide my children they love to eat for school lunch.
We've got some guests this week, and time for me to get baking again.
Apart from the baked cheese cake, the naughty snack, I had to bake some thing a bit healthier.
So here it is:
Lemon & Coconut Cake with Olive Oil and Fat Free Yoghurt
Ingredients:
200g Self Raising Flour
3 Large Eggs
100g white sugar + 30g for egg whites
80g Desicated Coconut
100ml Extra Virin Olive oil
1 Lemon, zest and juice
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
100g Fat free plain yoghurt
Icing sugar and some slivered almonds.
Method:
1. Seperate the eggs. Cream yolks and sugar, and until is pale and silky.
2. Add olive oil, whisk until it's silky.
3. Add lemon zest, vanilla extract and yoghurt, whisk well until mixture is silky.
4. Whisk egg whites till soft peak, gradually add sugar to form meringue.
5. Fold egg whites gradually with the egg yolk mixture, sift in flour, mix well till smooth and fold in coconut, add lemon juice, mix well.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes in a pre-heated 190C oven (my oven is a big uneven and unpredictable, baked a bit over today!)
7. Dust with icing sugar and some lightly toasted slivered almonds.
Healthy cake for a some what guilt free treat!
