I have had a not too successful day.

Ahhh, SpringyChicken, never thought of using my oven for proving - thought it was only for cooking ?

I was never good at pastry and my DM - who was a cookery teacher - told me it was because my hands were too warm. That's enough excuse for me to never bother trying. I usually buy any sort of pie ready made and if I need pastry for something I buy that ready to roll. Even DM didn't make her own puff pastry as she said 'jusroll' was better than she could make.

I know what you mean, DoraMarr. DH refuses to believe how temperamental Yorkshire puds are. They seem to be governed by the weather, my mood, the temp in the kitchen, phases of the moon and any other random circumstances, although I always try to make them in exactly the same way

I cooked a roast dinner for friends who were coming for the weekend; sadly they had an accident on the way and had to turn back. It was the best roast dinner I have ever cooked, before or since, and we tried to eat it all but failed.

A few years ago we were having a meal with our neighbours, at their house, the evening before I planned to do my annual mince pie and sausage roll baking. After the meal, Di and I somehow managed to consume the best part of a bottle of Baileys between us! The baking went ahead the next day as planned and the mince pies were the best I had ever made. Now, whenever I say I’m going to make the mince pies, the family cry goes up “ Have you had the Baileys?”!

Granless - I just leave it on the bench top .
If the room's cold it takes a bit longer.
Bread dough can even rise in a fridge, if you leave it overnight.

Fennel, fridge, really.

For those of you with problems baking things where one side is baked more than the other - have you checked your oven door shuts properly? I've noticed mine shuts very loosely and ,I think the heat is escaping at the front. I try and push everything right to the back, which seems to help, but I must get it seen to.

A sort of Cuisine Serendipity?

Coppernob the moral of the story is - you're more relaxed when you've had a Baileys (or three) and the more relaxed you are, the better your pastry!

I suppose the same might go for when you're rushed - just throw it all in and hope for the best

I've already had such a lovely day that I don't need mincemeat pies on this occasion. Hallelujah!

Wow! I'm glad I started this thread. There's some good ideas here. Crumble, cake, recipe for pastry with good old lard. I will get busy. I can feel the tight waistband approaching as I speak but, boo! Who cares? ?

The best pastry I've ever tasted was made with good old lard half and half with butter.
Not mine btw!

Laughed out loud about Luckgirl's baking with little'un post.

Yes. Everyone seemed to stop using it when all the health stuff came out, but now it seems the natural fats are no worse than any others. Better, in fact, than some.