Beginner-Friendly Baking
Bakes for a first attempt: few ingredients, mixing by hand, and a clear sign of when they are done.
None of these needs a stand mixer, yeast, a sugar thermometer or a piping bag. Most are stirred in one bowl. Each recipe says how to tell when it is ready, whether that is a skewer coming out clean, a hollow sound underneath or edges turning deep gold, and those cues matter more than the minutes.
How these were chosen
- Rated Easy, with no yeast, no electric mixer or food processor, and no thermometer.
- Mixed by hand, usually in one bowl, with 13 ingredients or fewer.
- The method gives a doneness test, not only a time.
Chosen by reading each recipe's ingredients and method, and checked against the recipe again every time the site is built. Times are the recipes' own figures. None of these recipes has been cooked for this collection yet; how recipes are checked.
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Irish Soda Bread
Flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and buttermilk, brought together in about 30 seconds; it is done when the base sounds hollow.
- Time
- Prep 10 min, cook 45 min; 55 min start to finish
- Serves
- 10
- Equipment
- Oven, Baking tray or sheet pan
- Difficulty
- Easy
-
Damper
Five ingredients, rubbed together by hand, kneaded for 1 minute and baked as one round.
- Time
- Prep 10 min, cook 30 min; 40 min start to finish
- Serves
- 8
- Equipment
- Oven, Baking tray or sheet pan
- Difficulty
- Easy
-
Lemonade Scones
Self-raising flour, cream and lemonade stirred with a knife. There is no butter to rub in, the step that usually goes wrong.
- Time
- Prep 10 min, cook 15 min; 25 min start to finish
- Serves
- 8
- Equipment
- Oven, Baking tray or sheet pan
- Difficulty
- Easy
-
Beer Bread
A quick loaf of self-raising flour and lager stirred until just combined; the batter is meant to be lumpy.
Made with lager, which is baked rather than served raw.
- Time
- Prep 10 min, cook 50 min, cooling 15 min; 1 hr 15 min start to finish
- Serves
- 10
- Equipment
- Oven, Cake or loaf tin (13 cm loaf tin)
- Difficulty
- Easy
-
Rock Cakes
Butter rubbed into flour, then piled in rough heaps with two forks; they are meant to look craggy.
- Time
- Prep 15 min, cook 18 min; 33 min start to finish
- Serves
- 10
- Equipment
- Oven, Baking tray or sheet pan
- Difficulty
- Easy
-
Anzac Biscuits
Oats, flour and coconut bound with melted butter and golden syrup; bake them shorter for chewy, longer for crisp.
- Time
- Prep 15 min, cook 18 min; 33 min start to finish
- Serves
- 20
- Equipment
- Oven
- Difficulty
- Easy
-
Flapjacks
Oats stirred into melted butter, sugar and syrup, pressed into a 20 cm square tin. The hour of cooling in the tin is part of the recipe.
- Time
- Prep 10 min, cook 25 min, cooling in the tin 1 hr; 1 hr 35 min start to finish
- Serves
- 12
- Equipment
- Oven, Cake or loaf tin (20 cm square tin)
- Difficulty
- Easy
-
Gâteau au Yaourt
Everything is measured with the empty yoghurt pot, so no scales are needed for most of it.
- Time
- Prep 15 min, cook 40 min; 55 min start to finish
- Serves
- 8
- Equipment
- Oven, Large pot or casserole, Cake or loaf tin (22 cm cake tin)
- Difficulty
- Easy
-
Bakery-Style Blueberry Muffins
Wet and dry are folded together in about 12 strokes, and the batter rests 15 minutes so the muffins rise up rather than spread.
- Time
- Prep 15 min, cook 25 min, resting 15 min; 55 min start to finish
- Serves
- 12
- Equipment
- Oven, Cake or loaf tin
- Difficulty
- Easy
-
One-Bowl Banana Bread
One bowl, folded by hand until a few streaks of flour remain; the skewer test and the foil tent at 40 minutes keep it from going wrong.
The method browns the butter first, which takes 4 to 5 minutes of watching the pan.
- Time
- Prep 15 min, cook 1 hr, cooling 1 hr 15 min; 2 hr 30 min start to finish
- Serves
- 10
- Equipment
- Oven, Cake or loaf tin
- Difficulty
- Easy
