Wednesday, September 26, 2012

I baked: Grasmere Gingerbread (MasterChef)

So far, I have been cooking and baking stuff from MasterChef Australia for this "Cook Like a Star" event. Long before the MasterChef Australia series started, I was already watching MasterChef UK, which is the original series. I was hooked to the show and would watch it every night without fail.

So I browsed the website to find something I could make - most of the recipes on MasterChef UK seem to be a lot harder (quite technical too). However, I found this recipe for Grasmere Gingerbread on BBC UK website, by Jackie Kearney - one of the semi-finalist in the 2011 show which seems to be very easy to make. I love gingerbread and Grasmere Gingerbread is reputed to be one of the best in the world. Jamie Oliver describes it as "the best gingerbread I've ever eaten in my life".



Grasmere Gingerbread are supposed to be "flaky, crumbly as well as soft and slightly chewy". However, using this recipe (actually I cut down baking time from 40 minutes to 30 minutes), it turned out to be more like flapjacks than gingerbread. They were still a nice treat - we still enjoyed them nonetheless but not what I envisaged them to be. The texture was crunchy and I liked how strong the ginger taste was. I did like how enticing the kitchen smelt during and after the bake -the aroma of spices is heavenly. Everytime I walked into the kitchen, I would take a deep breath and suck it all in!

Kids still loved it



What I think went wrong: Baking time is definitely too long, which is way the texture was quite crunchy like a flapjack. Based on other recipes, I think you may only need to bake it for 10-15 minutes. I may attempt this again, using either this BBC Good Food recipe or Jamie Oliver's. 



Grasmere gingerbread
Recipe adapted from MasterChef UK - Jackie Kearney
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4-6

"A gingerbread in a class of its own, flavoured with heaps of ground ginger and given texture by oatmeal."

Ingredients
125g oatmeal
125g plain flour
4 heaped tsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
175g butter
130g soft brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup


1. Preheat the oven to 180C/365F/Gas 4. Grease and line a baking tin or tray with greaseproof paper.

2. Mix together the oatmeal, plain flour, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar in a bowl.


3. Melt the butter over a low heat in a small saucepan, then add to the dry ingredients and mix well. Mix in the sugar and golden syrup until well combined.

4. Pour the mixture into the tin in a thin layer and press down lightly with the back of a wooden spoon. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden-brown. (I took them out at 30 minutes cos they were already golden brown and looking crunchy!)



5. Allow to cool slightly, then mark into 3cm/1½in squares. Leave to cool before slicing into squares.





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I am submitting this to the "Cook Like a MasterChef" bloghop which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Anuja of Simple Baking. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe (from the contestants, judges or even sponsors) from any MasterChef websites or cookbooks (any countries) and blog hop with us for the whole month of September 2012.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in September 2012 - please do not link older posts.

Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Anuja of Simple Baking and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

You can get the HTML code here: get the InLinkz code (Click on the link, copy and paste the HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML mode when you paste in the code)

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:



*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's FB page on 26 Sept 2012.

Full set of photos can be viewed on my Facebook page here.

32 comments:

  1. The MasterChef recipes need an editor for sure! I had to edit their recipes before I put them on the blog. It looks crunchy and delicious nonetheless.

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    Replies
    1. I know! Many recipes have lots of mistakes, at least the Australia one you could read other ppl's comments. MasterChef UK one doesn't have such an option.

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  2. Looks & sounds so yummy like a bite in crunchy heaven! My boys will surely like these delicious ginger bread. Thanks for sharing , bookmarking this recipe & thanks again for the tips too! :)

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  3. oh yeah, based on the photos, i wouldn't have known that anything went wrong, since it still looks very tempting. and if baby d liked it, his recommendation is good enough for me! :D

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    1. Well, there's nothing to say that this wasn't how the chef intended it to be. Maybe her version of gingerbread is crunchy, there wasn't any photos or much of a description that came along with the recipe. I will try the other recipes and see how the texture compares. But this was good anyhow - was very surprised Baby D ate it without complaining it was spicy. He just kept munching and munching!

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  4. I love watching your son reaching for his food. His facial expression is so innocent and cute!

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    Replies
    1. Hehe he is a very good model for my cooking! I do love watching him eat and smile:)

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  5. Ooh yea the smell of gingerbread is really nice! It's a bit like walking past Famous Amos and sucking in those awesome free smells. =D

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    Replies
    1. Haha that's true. I always take a deep breath when I walk past Famous Amos!

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  6. Can I add in some peanut butter? :P

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  7. I don't mind eating this if it is similar to flapjack! I love flapjack! And anything with ginger is thumbs up for me!

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    Replies
    1. Yea, I didn't mind it too! Flapjacks are lurvelyyyyy.

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  8. Yen, you are so hardworking in cooking & baking! I'm slowing down! Not even making bread in the last 2 weeks. Oh, please pass me some of your gingerbread!

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    Replies
    1. Mmmm first few weeks of this month, I was baking/cooking everyday. Have to slow down this week cos I'm not feeling too well :(

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  9. I love ginger bread! Actually I love anything with ginger! Gonna make this for my office snacks over the weekend.

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  10. Not a fan of ginger...so gingerbread, ginger cookies, xiao lung pao...all not my favourite. My missus loves them though!

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    Replies
    1. I find that generally men dont like ginger as much as the ladies.

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  11. Ooo I love this - always like the spice ginger flavor, but don't like the plain flour/biscuit texture. This is great, can chew on the oatmeal. I will try this one. Thanks Yen for sharing.

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  12. Hi Yen,

    I reckon it must be a typo error in this recipe. Good that at least the kids like them :D

    Zoe

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  13. I love ginger so I think I would love the taste of this treat ! These look crunchy and chewy at the same time :D

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  14. even they did not turn out as what you expected, it looks good ! at first i thought there were some coconut flakes in it, then i realised it was oats. Yeah, even the semifeddo recipe that i took from the website also contains error, missing ingredient!!

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  15. Hi Yen.
    I totally agree that Masterchef recipes are a bit dicey. They definitely need an editor to fine comb these recipes.
    Love your ginger treat. Glad that the kids loved it :D
    HAve a nice day!
    Anuja

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  16. (Aug 2016) Stale thread I know, but as a fan of the grasmere gingerbread I had to comment that the original BBC GoodFood.com version was far closer to the shop bought version than this. It's vanished from their site but I found a couple of links (after a long search). One's on http://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/grasmere-gingerbread.html, the other was maybe a cached link to the original (Sad) http://recipe-finder.com/recipe/18106529553830953911
    If you're interested then I'd advise saving whichever html document you find to your local PC or print it off and keep it safe.

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  17. Do you happen to have a copy of the BBC grasmere gingerbread recipe? I can no longer find it online. I used it years ago and make a mix of Jamie Olivers and the BBC one as you have done, but I recall I used fresh ginger, dried ginger and candied ginger. Am looking to replicate what I did, but unless I have a paper copy, I cannot find it on my computer.

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