Get your Bake On with Joseph Joseph

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.