I have been looking out for some weighing scales, for a long time now. I have had some digital weighing scales that were ok I suppose, they took any size of container, but kept switching themselves off, leaving me with the job of keep setting them back to pounds and ounces each time I turned them back on.

Passing a shop in a local indoor market, that sells old style items, I spotted these traditional weighing scales and nipped in to ask how much they were.

 

I haggled the price of £12 down to just £8, along with some advice about a German brand of old camera that is particularly hard to get hold of and second hand ones were normally bought for spares, for a higher price, one of which she had in a basket outside her shop!

All I need to do now, is to use my traditional weighing scales and increase my knowledge of baking.

Tiffin - means a light meal or snack - it comes from the old Empire British India.

Things you will need:

• 8oz cooking chocolate - milk or dark or both
• 8oz of plain biscuits
• 4oz butter
• 2tbls sugar
• 4tsp cocoa
• 2tbls golden syrup

Now your instructions:
First, melt your butter in a pan (careful not to burn it) - add in and mix your sugar, cocoa and syrup.
Next, crush up your plain biscuits, it can be digestives, rich tea, etc, any kind you want, then add these to your mixture.
Remove your stodgy mix from your pan and place in a suitable cooking tin (I use an oblong loaf tin) - flatten it down.
Now take your chocolate and place it in a mixing bowl, placing the bowl over the top of a pan of boiling/simmering water (make sure the bowl is larger than the diameter of the pan!) and melt it.
Pour the melted chocolate over the top of your mixture, leave it to set.
When set, cut into whatever size you want.... then scoff!

Hey presto... chocolate tiffin!
For something different, try adding fruit or cinnamon

I don't understand why our local Asda store has brought in their own range of greaseproof paper (alongside their own range of tun foil as well) then they flooded the shelving with their own brand product, then pushed all the prices up?

Here at the building site* we usually buy Warburtons bread. Not only is it cheaper at our local garage (fresh delivery every other day and is delivered on the same van as Asda and Tesco's deliveries!) it is 10p per loaf cheaper and has been for about three years, it also has the added bonus of being wrapped in greaseproof paper!

When I was growing up in the 1970s, I was lucky enough to have a mum who baked regularly. Back in those days it was customary for most sliced loaves to come wrapped in greaseproof paper - the habit has stuck with me, as now I empty the wrapping of crumbs, seperate the joiny bit, fold it up and place it in my kitchen drawer.
I don't need to pay £2 - £3 for a roll of what I throw away every other day!

* Building site: unfinished extension on our house

Good pastry:

• keep it as cold as possible
• rule of thumb - Half fat to flour
• when adding in water to bind, make it ice cold (run the tap for a good 5 minutes)
• too sticky? add a little more flour - to dry? add a little more water
• people often make the pastry then bag it in a freezer bag and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes or until they need it
• personally, I find lard makes better pastry than butter/marg
• if using butter/marg then add a little bit more than half the weight of flour, when you are mixing it

Lightly dust your worktop and rolling pin with flour, before rolling out. Handle your pastry as little as possible.

REMEMBER: Your pastry is bound together with fat (lard or marg, etc) the more you handle it, the warmer the fat becomes and the more your pastry will break up when rolling.