El Andalous - Baking

Banoffi Pie

We didn’t have panic buying here in Egypt (thankfully) during the pandemic, but I was amused to see that the toilet roll fiasco in the UK (and elsewhere) later turned into one of flour selling out in supermarkets. Even here, it seems that many of us are baking during this time.

Although I do actually socialise with my friends here in Sahl Hasheesh (we’ve all been stuck here long enough to feel that it’s unlikely that any of us have coronavirus, given that until last week there have been no cases here), we have been careful. Many times, instead of having meals at each other’s, we’ll deliver baked goods.

I’ve yet to make anything successfully with yeast. It might be because I’m mostly using whole wheat flour (in a vain attempt to be a little more healthy) and not doing anything to compensate for that. However, I did buy a whole packet of white flour, and yet my hot cross buns failed, as did my sticky (finger) buns, as did my toasted teacakes. It’s been pretty depressing. They’ve all not really risen properly and I’m not sure why. It’s like I’m not even learning from my mistakes. Maybe it’s the yeast? Or am I just abdicating responsibility? Just as well I wasn’t being paid to do it.

My cupcakes have been more successful (apart from the ones that I grilled, as explained in an earlier blog). Here, I have learned from my mistakes. The big learning is that my little oven that has only one temperature setting also needs me to have items to cook on one shelf only. If I have two shelves of cupcakes, they go wrong. If I have one shelf, they’re fine. It’s annoying as it means twice the electricity to cook double.

Last weekend I made banoffi pie. I’ve only ever made it once before. To my amazement, it went pretty well. The base came out of my cake tin without breaking and looked like a proper base. The Egyptian sweetened condensed milk turned into the toffee-flavoured filling in the allotted time; I’d been fretting over that, because food items over here are always slightly different from what you expect; it was sweeter than I remembered, so maybe that was an Egyptian thing. My memory from years ago is that my recipe said that the condensed milk would turn to the toffee filling within a minute and instead it took hours; fortunately, the recipe I had this time said to allow two hours, so my expectations weren’t thwarted. I was so proud of it that I took a photo (see above). But when I cut it, it was so hot here (over 30 degrees, probably) that it instantly melted onto the plate. Other than that, it was fine.

I’ve received many wonderful items – banana cake, various breads, fruit roll, to name but a few.

More recently, we’ve loosened our resolve and have started having each other round for meals. We mostly see each other by the pool each day, so in a way the caution seems perhaps unnecessary. We started off socially distancing ourselves, but we seem to be having less and less distance as time goes by. But it’s fun to have the company, it’s great to have the occasional evening where you don’t have to cook. And since we know that we've all been either in our flats here or by the pool for the vast majority of the time (barring essential shopping), the risk doesn't seem too high.

This seems to be the way at El Andalous. The different nationalities / language speakers (our group is Belgian/American/British) seem to have their trusted little groups and stick to each other for social events, while also stopping to say hello to the other groups when we’re by the pool.

The beach should be opening up later this week. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m worried that we’ll get crowding. Let’s see what happens!