Baking

One of our biggest struggles in trying to be more environmentally friendly is food. So much seems to come packaged in non-recyclable plastic and we can’t always afford the more ethical/organic alternatives. Palm oil in food has been bugging me for a long time and since watching the clip of an orangutan trying to fight off a giant digger I’ve been making a more concerted effort to avoid it. My family is quite partial to biscuits but when I looked at the packets in our cupboard every single one contained palm oil not to mention the fact they’re wrapped in single use plastic. So I’ve decided to start baking all our biscuits. I’ve always been a keen cake baker (primarily because I like eating cake so much!!) but I’ve only ever really made biscuits at Christmas and Easter. Three weeks into the new routine and it’s going well.

One of the simplest recipes I’ve found is Mary Berry’s fork biscuits which are delicious and keep really well. My daughter is a big fan of them and they cut nicely into different shapes.

100g/4oz butter

50g/2oz caster sugar

150g/5oz self raising flour

Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 160 fan and grease a couple of baking trays

Soften the butter and beat in the sugar and flour. Using your hands bring the mixture together to form a dough. Roll out on a floured surface. The mixture makes around 16-18 biscuits.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until a light golden brown.

Fuelled by the success of the biscuits I’ve also had a go at making my own brioche. The kids love the little chocolate chip brioche rolls but they usually come individually wrapped in plastic so I’ve said we’re not going to buy them again. Really hoping that I can sustain the momentum and keep up with the extra home baking.