Welcome to Cook the Books
Issue #1: Bakes and Wee Treats - by Jonny Murphy
Hello, friends - and welcome to Cook the Books, my new series where I finally get round to working my way through my ever-increasing cookbook collection. The aim is to choose a book each month and then attempt to make at least 3 items from it each week. There will be weeks where I make more or less, or have to do adaptations - but the main aim and premise is to be actually using the books rather than them looking pretty on the shelf.
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In true me style, of course I start this new series right when the kitchen renovation begins in just a few weeks… but, we’ll deal with that at the time! Once all is finished, I’ll be sure to do a little tour of my new baking space and book shelf.
Right, let’s crack on with the first book then shall we! I’ve chosen Bakes and Wee Treats by Jonny Murphy to get started with. This book is a love story to Irish baking, and is something very akin to what I grew up with in rural Lancashire. Being ‘just over’t water to Ireland, there’s a lot of recipes here that feel very familiar. So it feels almost nostalgic and very fitting that this is the first book to be starting with.
I’m Jonny, aka The Hungry Hooker. I used to be a professional rugby player, but after an injury led to my retirement I jumped straight into my other passion, baking. It has totally changed my life and this book has all the recipes that have helped me find my way again. And they’re seriously delicious. If you enjoy baking without all the fuss, I’ve made this book for you. Jonny x
To keep track of this ever-increasing collection, and to catalogue the recipes I’ve made from each of them, I’ve built a couple of databases in Notion. One which will contain a list of my cookbooks and another which details the name of the recipe and page you can find it on. I’ve also included a ‘free from’ column to help with identifying any recipes that are vegan / vegetarian / gluten free / etc.
If you’re curious or want to follow along, I’ve made my setup public »
Click here to view my cookbook collection »
Click here to view my Cook the Books tracker »
Bake #1: Flakemeal Biscuits
We’re kicking off the bakes with something simple, satisfying, and easy to share… biscuits! I wanted something I could confidently bake my way through, knew I was going to eat and also have enough to gift to the friends coming over. Which I’m pleased to report they were very happily received!
I don’t care if it’s hotter than a hot thing outside at the moment - and yes, 21ºc is hot for a pale-skinned northerner like me - it’s never too hot for a brew.
I love baking. Even more so when I’m making stuff that I would normally buy from the shop - and it feels really bloody good to be transitioning from store-bought to home made.
This particular recipe called for flakemeal (funny that, with them being called flakemeal biscuits!) however I only had rolled oats in the cupboard. After a quick bit of research I found that thankfully, they’re pretty interchangeable when it comes to most recipes. Rolled oats are whole oats steamed and flattened for a chewy texture - while flakemeal is a finer, raw milled oat.
I wanted to experiment with a couple of toppings, so I cracked open the Fortnum & Mason chocolate hidden in the cupboard and split the biscuit batch into 3 once cooked: 1 batch to keep as plain, 1 batch to be chocolate and desiccated coconut and 1 batch to be chocolate and cracked sea salt.
I was actually really pleased with how uniform they turned out! They had the right amount of snap and there’s just something so homely about the smell and taste of buttery oats.
Perfect with a cuppa and dangerously easy to reach for a second… or third.
Bake #2: Fruit Bannock
So for the second bake, I wanted to practice some of the skills I learned on my bread day at River Cottage so opted for this Fruit Bannock. There are quite a few fruit breads / loaves in this cookbook, something I’m a huge fan of - so no doubt I’ll be making my way through them.
I’m keen to become a pro at bread baking - so I think I’ll try and attempt a different bread each week!
I for sure messed up the dough on this as after bringing it all together, it was still way too wet. I worked a little more flour into it best I could whilst trying not to dry it out too much, then plonked it on a tray and hoped for the best!
Lesson Learned: I also definitely didn’t score the top deep enough - meaning that the steam wasn’t able to escape as well as it should have, hence the unruly rise. I used a wooden spoon to score and so it pulled the dough rather than cutting into it. Will be making sure I use a sharp knife next time!
I enjoyed this with an obscene amount of salted butter - which in my eyes is the only way to enjoy pretty much anything toasted!
Bonus Bake: French Toast
I have recently started following a foodie whose content is so inspiring and I have just completely fallen in love with: Hope Batchelor - a fantastic chef (hello Masterchef finalist!), baker and all around lovely person. I’ve been working my way through Hope’s back catalogue and in one of her recent videos, she shared a French toast recipe using leftover hot cross buns!
You can find all of Hope’s links here - and I can’t recommend checking out her Youtube channel highly enough. Quite literally my favourite thing to watch at the moment!
It made me think that I could totally do that with the left over fruit bannock, so I gave it a go. This was absolutely delish - and my first time making French toast! I know, I know.
That splash of vanilla extract and some cinnamon, along with the sweetness of the bread and raisins… so bloody good!
Next time I’ll go all in and top with some fresh fruit and some whipped coconut cream.
Bake #3: Nanny’s Boiled Fruit Cake
And rounding up the bakes for this week, we have: Nanny’s Boiled Fruit Cake
This one actually felt quite special to make. It’s a recipe from Jonny’s Nanny and it really feels like a heart-filled bake. Something like your own grandma would have handy in ‘the cake tin’ ready for visitors, or just to go with a big pot of tea.
The original recipe makes two 1lb loaves, but I halved it to make just the one - which turned out to be more than enough to slice up for tea time for me throughout the week. It’s the kind of bake that you know is going to taste better each day, especially once the fruit has had a chance to settle in and the edges go all sticky. Perfection!
Now, I’m actually a massive fan of boiled fruit - and as I don’t think I’ll be making another batch any time soon, I decided to make extra to pop in the fridge to use with something later this week. VE Day is coming up and we are heading over to our next door neighbour’s garden party, so I’m thinking maybe using them in some buns or scones? I’ll have to have a think!
Well, that’s a wrap on my first Cook the Books post! It’s been great finally getting stuck in to this collection. Next week I’ll be diving back into Bakes and Wee Treats with a batch of classic scones, some Empire biscuits and Top Hats.
See you next time!
Mark + Hiro 🐾
Too much here that I want to eat! And that database is such a great idea
the hidden chocolate reference!!!!