Hey there – the Bake Off’s Back!
Did you see the past couple of weeks? It’s like welcoming a (filthy) old friend back into your home and is the perfect way to settle down in these
‘sumtumn’ evenings, as the nights begin to draw in.
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It’s early days to guess how any of the contestants will do,
but that’s the fun of it. Seeing how folk progress and get more confident as
the weeks go on. Although there are a few stand-outs for me, but I shan’t say
who just yet…
It all takes me back to my time auditioning for the show. It
was nerve-wracking and although I was one phone call away from actually getting
on the show, I’m kind of glad now I didn’t. The pressure would have been
unbelievable!
To tie in with the new series of the Bake Off, the good
folks at Joseph Joseph sent me along a selection of their new baking equipment
to try out which I’ve been giving a test run in the kitchen over the past
couple of weeks.
Here’s my verdict on each one…
Glaze – the refillable silicone pastry brush. (rrp £8)
This is like a regular pastry brush where you can brush on
an egg wash or sugar glaze to your pies and pastries, only this one has a built
in holder for the ‘wash’. You fill the handle with your egg or milk mix, screw
on the brush head and away you go. With its silicone bristles, no stray bits end
up on your food.
You can gently squeeze the handle as your brush away at
whatever delicacy you are making.
My verdict: A handy tool if you are making lots of things
which require an egg-wash or sugar glaze, maybe for a bake sale say. But if you
are making a single pie for example, I would stick with the old method.
Whiskle – 2-in-1 whisk with integrated bowl scraper. (rrp £10)
I love this! It’s a balloon whisk, which we are all familiar
with, but it has an attached silicone scraper on the side, so you can get right
into the edges of the bowl.
My verdict: This saves you using a whisk AND a spatula to
get right into the bits of the bowl that the whisk itself cannot reach. Saves
on washing up!
Fin – silicone bowl scraper with integrated foot rest. (rrp £6)
Again, another favourite of mine which goes beyond baking.
You can get your hands right into mixing bowls, pots and pans and scrape out
every last bit of what you have been making. Plus this scraper also stands
upright, so you don’t have to put a batter-covered edge down on the worktop!
My verdict: An extremely handy gadget which saves mess (and
can be used to scrape out burnt on foods from pots and pans too!!)
Shake-it – self tapping sieve. (rrp £15)
This is a sieve which taps itself. Sounds weird? It actually
took me a while to get the concept of this. You place in your flour, icing
sugar, whatever you are needing to sift and this gadget taps the ingredient
into the bowl with you using only one hand! The cover over the handle lets the
sieve move from side to side and does all the tapping for you.
My verdict: Not a lover of this one, unless you have
mobility problems. I will stick to my own sieve. It does make sifting a
one-handed job, but this was a product I never really thought was needed out
there. Maybe I’m wrong – who knows?
Roll-Up – non-slip silicone pastry mat. (rrp £18)
I first thought this was a silicone mat for places your
baked goods on, but it’s not. It is a mat you unroll on to your worktop and
start rolling out your dough without muckying up your work surface. I love
this. In the past I have wasted tons of greaseproof paper and this mat does
this job time and time again. Plus it has handy measurements written on the silicone
if you need to roll dough out to an exact size.
My verdict: A very handy tool, no more messy flour covered
worktops. Plus it has a lockable storage strap, so it takes up virtually no space in
your drawers.
Overall, a great selection of baking products from Joseph Joseph,
which I mostly love. At a time of year when we are all getting our bake-on, why
not invest in some of these items to save time and mess in the kitchen!
Disclosure Statement: I was sent these items free to review. Any opinions expressed are my own.
Great selection, like you I'm always trying to save space in my drawers ;-) so these are perfect! I for one would've loved to see you on GBBO, but you'll always be star baker anyway! x
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