Great British Bake Along: Povitica

This was the last thing I was able to do as part of my bake along challenge before I really started to struggle with finding time to do it.  As I have said before, I do hope to be able to go back to the ones I missed/failed miserably at *cough*custard tart*cough*, however, it's dependent on time and the fact I am likely to be distracted with seasonal baking (I have so many pumpkin bakes in mind, it is a bit ridiculous).  I may be able to combine a few challenges with said seasonal baking but we shall see.  So without further ado, let's get on with this Bake Along (for the time being).

Week 8 on the GBBO was Advanced Dough, where the bakers were working with enriched dough.  That means there is a higher percentage of fats, eggs, milk and sugars in the dough, usually resulting in something much richer and sweeter than your average dough.  Deviating from my usual process of attempting the signature challenge, I decided to take on the technical challenge for the week: povitica.  I had never heard of it before the episode but when I saw it, I thought it just looked so cool.  I really wanted to try it as I thought it would be the most challenging.  I also thought it would also make a nice bake to take into work to share.  Sealing the deal was the fact that I had been given the book for the series for my birthday by my brothers, so I had Paul Hollywood's recipe all ready and waiting for me to try.  Obviously, having the full recipe means I did not have as much trouble with this as the bakers did.  That's not to say I did not encounter problems, but I wasn't having to guess anything.  I will admit though, I tampered with the recipe ever so slightly.  I changed out some of the walnuts in the filling recipe for hazelnuts.  I was hoping for a more Nutella like flavour.

I had two issues when making this recipe; one was minor and one was major.  The minor issue came from the fact that the recipe requires a stand mixer with a dough hook to do all the hard work of making the dough.  I do not own such a thing for I can not afford it and even if I could, I have no where that I could keep it.  My lovely yellow kitchen is, unfortunately, quite small and we already struggle to store things (which is actually a problem with our flat in general).  It makes me a bit sad when things rely on mixers in recipes.  It makes things difficult for those of us who still have to do things the old fashioned way!  So I kinda had to muddle through making the dough by hand.  I mixed with a spoon and then kneaded the dough myself for a long time until I got the texture I assumed I was aiming for.

The major issue was the stretching.  You have to stretch the dough by hand after rolling it out to double the size!  It is not an easy feat.  Initially I did not use a bed sheet and had clingfilm covering my partially opened table instead.  Disaster.  The table wasn't big enough and everything stuck to itself.  After I extended the table further I found I could not rotate my dough to fit without it falling to pieces.  So I had a brief strop, where I scrunched it up and threw it down on the table, then went and got a bed sheet and started over.  I was concerned I would somehow ruin the dough by doing this but it didn't seem to have an adverse effect.  The sheet does make things easier but I still struggled with the stretching.  The blasted thing just kept tearing, a massive hole formed in the middle and I was unable to get it to the desired size.  So in the end I got it as big as I could, patched the hole and just went with what I had.  When writing up the recipe, I realised I had been using my hands the wrong way up, so that probably contributed to my problems somewhat but oh well, I know for next time.

Putting on the filling did not prove to be too much of a problem, and neither did rolling and shaping the loaf.  Really, after the stretching mess, everything else was pretty simple and I did end up with a pretty good looking povitica.  I was so pleased when I cut into it and could see all the spirals and that it was cooked all the way through, unlike most of the poor bakers' on GBBO.  I will say, once I tried it, it wasn't really my cup of tea.  But I'm fussy.  You all know that by now.  The lovely ladies I work with all seemed to enjoy it as once again it was eaten up rather fast.

Recipe - adapted from Great British Bake Off: Big Book of Baking


Dough:

• 300g/10oz plain flour
• 40g/1.5oz caster sugar
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp fast action dried yeast
• 30g/1oz melted butter
• 1 large egg
• 150ml/5.5fl.oz lukewarm milk
• 1/2 vanilla pod

Filling:

• 60g/2oz butter
• 4 tbsp milk
• 200g/7oz hazelnuts
• 80g/3oz walnut pieces
• 100g/3.5oz caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 vanilla pod
• 1 egg yolk 

Assembly:

• 15g/0.5oz melted butter
• 1 egg white, beaten
• 100g/3.5oz icing sugar
• Cold water 

1. Put the flour and sugar into a large bowl.  Add the salt to one side and the dried yeast to the other.
2. Add in the butter, egg and milk, along with the seeds scraped from the inside of the vanilla pod.
3. Mix them the ingredients together until they start to form a dough, then knead with your hands until it is soft, smooth and stretchy.  (Much easier to do if you have a mixer fitted with a dough hook I'm sure.  Alas, I had to do it with a wooden spoon and my hands).
4. Give the bowl a light coating of oil, shape the dough into a ball and place inside.  Cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour, until the dough has doubled in size.
5. Whilst you wait, make the filling by putting the butter and milk into a small saucepan and melting gently together over a low heat.  Remove the butter from the heat.
6. In a food processor, combine the cocoa powder, sugar, walnuts, hazelnuts and seeds scraped from the vanilla pod.  Blitz into a sandy powder.  Some nut chunks are okay as it will add a nice texture.
7. Add the egg yolk and milk/butter mixture and pulse to combine.  Set aside.
8. Spread a clean bed sheet over a large work surface or table and dust with flour.
9. Roll out your dough into a rectangle that measures 30x50cm/12x19.5inches on the bed sheet.
10. Brush the surface of the dough with the melted butter.
11. Dust your hands with flour then ease them under the dough and carefully start stretching it out from the centre. (Paul Hollywood recommends doing this with your palms facing down so you are using the top of your hands).  It will become very thin and translucent (you should be able to see the sheet through it).  You are aiming for your rectangle to measure 60x100cm/24x39inches.
12. Spread the filling gently over the dough, taking care not to tear it. (If necessary, add a little warm milk to the mixture to loosen it up if it is difficult to spread).  Cover the dough as evenly as possible.
13. Prepare a 1kg loaf tin by greasing it with butter.
14. Starting at one long edge of the dough, gently roll over about an inch of dough to start your roll, then carefully lift the sheet to slowly roll the dough up tightly like a Swiss roll.
15. Carefully pick up the rolled dough and ease one end into the bottom corner of the prepared loaf tin.
16. Wrap the roll around the base of the tin in a U shape and then continue to lay the roll on top of itself to form a second U shape.
17. Place the tin inside a large plastic bag, seal and leave to prove for about an hour.  
18. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
19. Remove the tin from the plastic bag and give the top of the dough an egg wash with the beaten egg white.
20. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes before turning down the oven temperature to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2 and baking for another 45 minutes. (Cover the top with foil if it starts to burn).
21.  Allow the loaf to cool in the tin for 30 minutes after removing from the oven.  Then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
22. When the loaf is completely cold, mix the icing sugar with a small amount of water to make a runny icing.  Drizzle the icing over the top of the loaf and leave to set.

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Great British Bake Along: Viennese Gugelhupf

I have to say, I am quite disappointed with myself.  My Bake Along challenge kinda fell apart after I started work.  It's been a tough eight weeks which I have been struggling to cope with.  Things have not been going as well as I would have liked.  It also wasn't helped by the fact I got into a car accident a few weeks back, which has had me too scared to drive a car since.  Consequently, commuting to and from work has become a longer process.  Now that it is the school holidays I am hoping to get back out in the car for some practise and to boost my confidence again.

Anyway, that's why my posts stopped for a while.  A pity, since the Bake Off has finished.  A bit hard to do a bake along when I have nothing to bake along to, huh?  So I figure I will catch up with the two posts I was unable to get done after a bake and then hopefully somewhere along the way I'll be able to try out a few things I never got a chance to do.  Sadly, there does not seem to be much point in a commentary any more, since whatever I say will be a bit redundant at this point.  So we'll just skip straight to the bake. 

What week was this one...6?  Yeah, 6.  So this was the week of European Cakes.  I chose to take on the signature challenge and make a yeast leavened cake inspired by the cakes of Europe.  I had to go hunting for ideas for this one, since I had no idea where to begin.  I didn't know any names of cakes so looking took a while.  Eventually though, I found something called a 'gugelhupf' which could be made in a Bundt tin, which I had.  Once I had a specific term to look for, finding a recipe was not too hard.

Making the yeasted dough did not feel much different from making a regular cake batter but there was a time where I was worried it would not rise.  It took a while to do anything on the first proofing, and I think most of the rise came from the baking.  Thankfully it turned out rather well.  I took it into work with me and it was promptly eaten by the staff, which was nice.  I like it when people enjoy my baking.  It is not a really sweet cake so if you aren't one for lots of icing this might be for you.

Recipe - adapted from About Food

• 85g/3oz raisins
• 85g/3oz mixed candied peel
• Orange juice to cover, and for making the glaze
• Breadcrumbs for dusting tin
• 2.25 tsp dried yeast
• 125ml/4.5fl.oz lukewarm milk
• 180g/6.5oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• 4 eggs
• 120g/4oz caster sugar
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 500g/oz plain flour
• 85g/3oz blanched, chopped almonds
• 2 to 4 tbsp milk
• Icing sugar

1. Put the raisins and candied peel into a bowl and cover with the orange juice.  Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to soak overnight.
2. Prepare a large Bundt tin by greasing it well with butter and sprinkling with breadcrumbs.
3. Put a teaspoon of sugar into the warm milk and add the yeast.  Leave to proof for around 15 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugar until it is pale and creamy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating into the mixture after each addition.
6. Mix in the vanilla extract, salt and lemon zest.
7. Beat in the flour and yeast mixture until a sticky batter forms.  You can add the extra milk a little at a time to thin the mixture if needed.  It should jut drop from the spoon when lifted.
8. Drain the raisins and candied peel and add them and the chopped almonds to the batter.  Fold in gently.
9. Spread the batter into the prepared Bundt tin, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm spot until it has almost doubled in size.
10. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and then bake the cake for 40-50 minutes.  A skewer inserted into the cake halfway between the centre and edge should come out clean.
11. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
12. Make the glaze by putting a few tablespoons of icing sugar into a bowl.  Add a teaspoon of orange juice at a time, mixing after each addition, until you get an icing with a slightly runny consistency.
13. Drizzle the glaze over the cake and then leave to set before finally dusting with icing sugar.

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Exciting news!  This blog has entered into the UK Blog Awards 2015.  Voting starts November 10th so hopefully I can count on your support!

Great British Bake Along: Vanilla Bean Baked Alaska

Firstly, I have to apologise for the lateness of this post.  Finishing the bake was delayed by the fact that it was for my birthday and my birthday was on a Monday.  Then the rest of that week ended up being quite stressful with almost no time for me to relax and do something that wasn't school work.  Hence the post wasn't getting written.  The same thing ended up happening this week, though with a little less stress.  It's here now though so I guess it's better late than never.  I would also like to say that unfortunately, there won't be a bake along for episode 5.  At least not yet.  I did attempt a custard tart at the previous weekend but it didn't work out and there hasn't been time to try again this week.  I'll try and come back to it after GBBO is finished.  Anyway, enough apologising, let's get on with this thing!

Well, episode 4 was certainly a dramatic one!  And yet once again I don't feel like I have much to say.  Admittedly, it may be because my memory is a little fuzzy on the details since it has taken so long to put this post together.

The signature bake was self saucing puddings.  A rather fascinating idea though not something that appeals to me.  I'm not really a sauce person.  There were so rather pretty puds though.  We all liked Diana's teacups.  Very cute.

I know I wouldn't have liked the tiramasu challenge.  I hate working with such thin cake.  Not to mention the chocolate tempering.  I really should try tempering chocolate at some point but since I got a temperer as one of my birthday presents the desire to try it has become even smaller.  Good on Martha for winning the challenge though.  It was about time she came top in something!

But we all know that the part of the show that everyone remembers is the showstopper round and 'Bin Gate'!  Poor Iain.  I feel I may have had a similar reaction if it was me.  Though I'm not sure I would have removed the ring and let the ice cream go everywhere.  I'm not sure I would have had the guts to bin it either because the thought of having nothing to present would be worse than presenting a destroyed Alaska (although that would still be devastating).  And I don't feel Diana did anything deliberately but if you took it out of the freezer why just leave it on the side?  Tell him!  Or find it a different freezer.  It really wasn't surprising that Iain went home.  The Hubby was outraged.  There was a lot of ranting at the result.  I was just thinking that Norman was lucky.  If Iain hadn't binned his bake, I think Norman would have gone that week.  He's still keeping it too simple.  But then, I probably can't talk.  I'm all about vanilla this week, as you are about to see.

I deviated from the usual plan this time.  I did not do the signature challenge.  I did the showstopper!  Though mine is not as amazing as some of the stuff that cropped up on GBBO and my flavours are so simple.  But why the change?  Well, it was my birthday!  I am now actually 26 and don't just think I am 26 like I have been doing for the past year (25 just doesn't exist for me apparently).  I am now too old for a railcard!  I have to pay full fare for train rides now.  This makes me sad!  But that is besides the point.  The point is, being my birthday, I needed a birthday cake.  Week 4's GBBO featured desserts and the showstopper was Baked Alaska!  Well how fortunate was that because I had been considering making myself some kind of ice cream cake concoction for months now!  Admittedly, I was thinking an Arctic roll but Baked Alaska had also featured in the thought process.  So when it cropped up on GBBO I knew it was meant to be as I could kill two birds with one stone!  I could bake along and I could make myself a birthday cake at the same time.  Fabulous!

Now, once again, I did not do this in the designated time.  I thought I probably could have done but then my ice cream didn't churn on day one.  I was having the same problem last year.  Despite leaving my ice cream maker's bowl in the freezer for the designated amount of time, my custard was still custard after an hour.  It was also late by this point so I couldn't even do it the old fashioned way.  So I put the custard back in its bowl and returned it to the fridge, then cleaned out the ice cream maker and put it back in the freezer.  I turned the temperature on the freezer down and left it overnight.  The next day I tried again and, would you believe it, it worked this time!  I don't know if it was the change in temperature in the freezer or the custard being chilled longer but I wasn't complaining!  I had beautifully churned ice cream and it tasted delicious!  One part was down!  The cake part was done easily and was one of the lightest cakes I have made.  I was rather pleased.  The final part was the one I was dreading: meringue.

And not just any meringue either.  Oh no.  I was going to attempt Italian Meringue.  In the few attempts I have had at making meringue in the past I have not been successful.  My mixture wither won't hold its shape or adheres itself to whatever it is being baked on.  It is my other nemesis, after ganache.  But Baked Alaska calls for meringue so I had to make meringue.  I decided on Italian because it is cooked whilst you make it, it's pipeable and it is impossible to overwhisk.  The part that made me nervous was the sugar syrup.  I often burn any sugar I attempt to turn to syrup.  Especially when I am having to get it to a specific temperature.  And if I'm not burning the sugar I'm burning myself, which is even less fun.  However, it turned out not to be so bad after all.  In fact, it turned out pretty awesome.  I just wished I'd had a better idea about how I wanted to decorate the thing.  It's a little slapdash if I'm honest but ah well.  Maybe next time.

But of course, the most important thing for me is the taste.  And it tasted AMAZING!  So so so good!  The ice cream is some of the best I have made and the meringue was lovely and sweet.  Soft but yummy.  Adding some jam to the cake was also a good idea as it added a little extra flavour.  I may not have scored great on appearances if I was presenting it on GBBO (which I wouldn't, I'd put more effort in) but I was super happy with it.  It also kept okay in the freezer as it took us a few days to eat the whole thing between us.  It still tastes good even when it isn't straight out of the oven.

Recipe - makes 1 x 6inch diameter Baked Alaska


Vanilla Ice Cream - adapted from The Perfect Scoop 

• 125ml/4.5fl.oz whole milk
• 75g/2.5oz caster sugar
• 250ml/9fl.oz double cream
• Pinch of salt
• Half a vanilla pod
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/3 tsp vanilla extract

1. Put the sugar, milk, half of the cream (60ml) and salt into a saucepan and heat gently.
2. Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod and add to the milk mixture, along with the pod itself.
3. Once warmed through, remove from the heat, cover and allow to steep for half an hour.
4. Put the rest of the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh sieve on top.
5. Prepare an ice bath big enough to sit the bowl of cream in.
6. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks together.
7. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking the entire time, and then put the mixture back into the saucepan.
8. Cook gently over a medium heat, stirring the mixture the whole time and being sure to scrape the bottom of the pan as you do so.  Keep stirring until the mixture has thickened and coats the back of the spoon. (Do not let mixture boil).
9. Pour the custard through the sieve into the cream and stir together.  Add the vanilla pod back to the mixture and add the vanilla extract.
10. Place the cream bowl in the ice bath and stir the mixture continuously until it has cooled.
11. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the fridge.
12. When ready to churn, remove from the fridge, take out the vanilla pod and then freeze in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
13. Whilst the mixture churns, line a flat sided bowl with a diameter of 15cm/6inch with clingfilm (it can be slightly smaller but not bigger).
14. When ice cream is churned, spoon into the prepared bowl, cover and place in the freezer to firm up.

Vanilla Sponge - adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

• 2 large eggs
• 75g/2.5oz caster sugar
• 50g/1.5oz self-raising flour

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and line a 15cm/6inch diameter round tin with greaseproof paper.  If it is a shallow tin, make sure the edges of the paper stick out over the top to a good height.  This cake rises a lot.
2. Put the eggs and sugar into a large bowl and beat at full speed with an electric whisk until the mixture is extremely pale and creamy and has thickened enough to leave trails when the whisk is removed.
3. Sift the flour over the surface of the egg mixture and gently fold in with a metal spoon.
4. Pour into the prepared tin and tip about carefully to ensure an even spread of mixture.
5. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until sponge is springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before using.

Italian Meringue - adapted from James Martin via Good Food Channel
Make the meringue just before you need to use it. 

• 50ml/1.5fl.oz water
• 200g/7oz caster sugar
• 1 tbsp glucose (optional)
• 3 egg whites

1. Put the sugar, water and glucose if using into a saucepan.
2. Place over a medium heat and stir until it starts to boil.  Wash down any sugar crystals from the sides with a brush dipped in cold water.
3. Attach a sugar thermometer to the pan and increase the heat to cook the sugar syrup rapidly.
4. When the temperature reaches 116°C/240°F, beat the egg whites with an electric whisk in a large bowl until they form stiff peaks.
5. When the temperature reaches 121°C/250°F, remove the syrup from the heat.
6. Slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites in a thin stream, whisking the mixture the entire time.
7. Continue to beat the mixture until it is cooled completely.  This will take about 15 minutes.

Assembly:

• Cake circle
• Ice cream
• Italian meringue
• Strawberry jam

1. Preheat the oven to 230°C/445°F/Gas Mark 8.
2. Cut the sponge circle in half.  Place one half onto a heatproof plate.
3. Coat the inside of one half with jam and place the other half back on top.  Coat the top with jam.
4. Remove the ice cream from the bowl and place on top of the sponge.
5. Either spoon the meringue over the ice cream and cake or put into a piping bag and pipe over, making sure there are no gaps.
6. Put into the oven for 3-4 minutes until the meringue has become well browned.  Serve immediately.

Great British Bake Along: Apple and Pear Green Tea, Cinnamon and Raisin Rye Rolls

Well, we're only on week 3 and already my schedule is getting messed up.  I was expecting a little bit of disruption but not this much.  I am currently drowning in work as I get settled in at my new job.  Being a teacher is hard!  And being a new teacher is harder!  There is still so much that needs organising and I am currently struggling to stay on top of things.  That being said, it should hopefully get a little easier (just a little) and I'll be able to establish a routine for myself that allows me time for work and rest.

Anyway, that is the cause of the delay for this Bake Along Challenge!  I was desperate to get it up before the next episode though so Tuesday night was spent rapidly editing photos (which ended up being taken without natural light, boohoo!) and typing things up!  So without further ado I present this (or last) week's:

As always I'll give my thoughts on the episode, which this week featured bread!

Admittedly, I don't have a lot to say this week.  This is in part to having a bad first proper day of work (kids started back on the Wednesday) and was feeling tired and miserable and wasn't taking notes.  So unfortunately there is little commentary.  That should hopefully not be the case with the next one.

Anyway, I will say I was surprised at Norman.  As I said last time, I was expecting him to do well this week but he's still being too simple.  I get that that is what he likes but this is GBBO!  You have to work outside the box.

Luis gets it!  It's no surprise he won star baker this week.  He created some spectacular things.  Even his signature rolls looked ridiculously impressive with their two colours and the swirl.  Very cool indeed.  Of course, Kate also did amazing.  It's just such a shame her showstopper did not cook properly and turned out raw because it looked stunning.  Quite a few did actually.  I really liked Richard's.  I want to try making something like that some time, when I'm not so busy.  Ham, cheese and spinach maybe?  Yum yum!  I also wouldn't mind attempting ciabatta, even though I'm not the biggest fan of it.  It's all right but just a bit flour-y for me.  I dislike overly floured bread.

And Jordan went out!  There was a massive chorus of 'Noooooooooooo!' at the mother-in-law's house (since we all gather there to watch it) when they announced it.  We all loved Jordan.  We didn't think he was the best baker but he was fun and inventive!  I still need to watch him on Extra Slice.  We all thought Norman was going to go because he keeps being criticised for being too simple.  He's really going to have to step it up because we're delving into the fancier categories now.  It's desserts next after all!  But we shall see I guess.

So I decided to keep with doing the signature challenge and hence I tried to make 12 rolls that used rye flour in 3.5 hours.  I'm going to admit this right off the bat: I did not finish these in the time limit, though I do think it would be entirely possible to do it.  I just happened to be distracted by building furniture and then the need to have tea. We do have a really nice new bed now though!  But that's getting off track.

I really wasn't sure where to start.  I knew I wanted to add some flavour to my rolls because you never do plain and simple of Bake Off.  The question was, what do I add?  I was at a loss and the internet was not being terribly helpful.  I knew I didn't want to include cheese, since the Hubby doesn't like cheese, and I didn't want to do anything that the contestants had done.  After much searching and consideration, I thought I would try cinnamon and raisin.  But I wanted to go one step further than that because that still seemed a bit of an obvious choice.  So I was hunting around for flavours that go with cinnamon and raisin.  This was even less successful than the original search.  The two were rarely combined with anything.  It was pure chance that I stumbled onto a listing for tea which was 'Apple, Cinnamon and Raisin'.  Now that sounded interesting; apple tea.  Another search yielded that Twinnings sold an apple tea.  It was too late to order it for the Friday shop but we would be going to town on the Saturday and I figured I would find it in the supermarket or the health shop.

Turns out neither had purely apple tea.  There was apple and cinnamon but I wanted to add the spice separately.  So I ended up opting for Apple and Pear Green Tea instead.  I know pear can work with raisins and cinnamon too, so figured that would be fine.

The next job was finding a recipe which would allow the incorporation of tea.  This was much easier though, since really I just needed to find a recipe that used water, which could be substituted with tea.  Stork's website yielded such a recipe and I just made the necessary adjustments to incorporate the flavours I wanted in place of theirs.

The rye rolls turned out pretty well, if a little inconsistent in appearance (I gave up on weighing all the different bits of dough).  The tea part is subtle but still noticeable.  The most prominent flavours though are the cinnamon and raisins.  They tasted good.  The Hubby is enjoying them.  He compares them to cinnamon and raisin bagels and says they are very good toasted.

Recipe -inspired by Stork
Makes 12 rolls

• 4 Twinnings Apple and Pear Green teabags
• 375ml/13.2fl.oz warm water
• 40g/1.5oz butter
• 340g/12oz rye flour
• 340g/12oz strong white flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3.75 tsp fast action yeast
• 3 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 155g/5.5oz raisins
• 1 egg

1. Steep the teabags in the warm water for 2-5 minutes.
2. Melt the butter.
3. Put the flours, cinnamon, salt, yeast and sugar in a large bowl and mix together.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the tea (without the teabags) and the melted butter.
5. Mix together to form a dough.
6. Knead the dough until it is nice and smooth (about 10-20 minutes).
7. Coat the dough in the olive oil, place in a bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size (about 1.5 hours).
8. Stretch the dough out into a rectangle shape, place the raisins in the middle and then gather the dough up around them.
9. Knead the dough for at least 5 minutes to evenly disperse the raisins throughout.
10. Divide the dough into 12 equal sized pieces.
11. Divide each piece of dough into 3 pieces.  Roll each of these pieces into sausages about 25cm/10inches long.
12. Plait the three pieces together then pinch the two ends together to form rings.  Place the rings onto two trays coated with greaseproof paper.
13. Cover the rolls and leave to rise for about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 210°C/410°F/Gas Mark 7.
14. Beat the egg and brush over the top of the rolls.
15. Bake the rolls for 10-15 minutes until they are golden and sound hollow when tapped underneath.
16. Leave to cool on a wire rack before serving.

Great British Bake Along: Paprika Thins

It's the weekend so we know what that means!  It is time for:

We're now two weeks into the Great British Bake Off and round 2 was biscuits.  It came up much sooner than the past couple of years but I was rather thankful it fell on this week as biscuits take less time than most things and I had a second bake planned since it is the Hubby's birthday this weekend (post to come later this week).  But before we get into the bake, let's talk bakers!

Once again, we had three interesting challenges.  The signature bake was to produce 36 savoury biscuits.  Admittedly I don't feel I can comment much on this one as I am not an eater of such things.  I am not a crackers and cheese girl, despite my love of cheese.  So I couldn't say if what they were doing was anything special.  Admittedly, I thought Martha was mad to make sandwich biscuits because then she was making 72 not 36 but good for her for pulling it off.  I didn't think Diana's really counted as biscuits given they were made with pastry, though again she was also mad because she made her own puff pastry and they only had two hours?!  I remember thinking Norman's were a bit boring and simple as well.  In fact, most of the things Norman did this episode were too simple.  It was a bit disappointing.

The technical challenge was florentines.  Now, I've made florentines before but don't make them very often because they always cause me bother.  Every time I have made them they have adhered to the paper they were cooked on and I've had to painstakingly remove it after baking.  It is so frustrating so I was watching intently to see if any of the bakers had the same problem.  Apparently not!  I want to know what paper they were using!

Then there was the showstopper.  Oh, I would be quite frustrated with this one because it is so fiddly!  A scene constructed entirely of biscuits is not an easy task, but this is the showstopper so it wouldn't be.  I wouldn't even know where to begin.  Some of the designs though!  Just...wow.  Luis's was ridiculously good.  Especially since he chose fiery flavours for the dragon.  That was clever.  Richard's was also amazing.  That interlocking sea monster was just a work of genius.  It's not really a surprise he won this week.  These two are definitely ones to watch.  I'm also keeping an eye on Chetna and Jordan because I really like them!  And I think Martha is due a win (even though I'm still horribly envious).  She doesn't seem to have done anything wrong so far and yet has been beaten out of Star Baker each week.

As for who left this week, I admit I did not think it would be Enwezor.  I really thought it would be Norman, though the Hubby pointed out that Norman had received compliments in the first round.  Enwezor had not had much in the way of praise.  It was sad.  I liked his rocket!  And props to him for baking with children attached to his legs when he is at home.  I don't think I would have the patience for that!

Next week is bread.  I'm thinking Norman may do rather well on this one.  He strikes me as a bread man.  Guess we shall find out on Wednesday!

Right, so onto this week's bake.  Like last week I decided I would take on the signature challenge.  I rarely make anything savoury so this would make a nice change.  Luckily, my lovely yellow biscuit book has a section on savoury biscuits so I ran options by the Hubby and his mum and sister, since they would be the ones eating them, and these paprika biscuits won.

A biscuit dough often is, this wasn't too tricky to put together.  I had it made in 15 minutes.  In fact, the whole process was actually pretty quick.  Even though I could only fit 12 biscuits in my oven at one time, I was still finished all 36 well before the 2 hour limit was up.  I even ended up redoing the first 12 after I'd initially cut them out because I realised I had split the dough wrong (and I'm supposed to be good at maths!).  So this is a fairly quick bake.  And very simple.  I always appreciate something quick and simple, especially when I am pressed for time because there are other things to be making.

They turned out rather well though I don't think I would be complimented on my presentation.  Whilst the bake seemed to be fairly even, they do vary in thickness ever so slightly.  The thickest ones could have done with a couple more minutes baking, but it was hard to tell since they are still soft when they come out the oven and firm up as they cool.  Some also went a little wonky when baking.  Other than that though they were okay.  The paprika was not as strong as I thought it would be but I discovered my paprika was out of date...and as we learnt on GBBO this week, that weakens the flavour.  Should have opened my new packet.  They were still enjoyable though and go very well with cheese.  I'll be making them again with in date paprika and they should be even better!  

Recipe - adapted from Home Baking Biscuits and Cookies

Makes 36

• 345g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 170g/6oz oatmeal
• 3 tsp paprika
• 3 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 170g/6oz butter
• 6 tbsp soured cream or yoghurt

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line 3 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
2. Put the flour, oatmeal, paprika, baking powder and salt into a bowl and mix together.
3. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Gradually add the soured cream (or yoghurt) and bring the mixture together to form a smooth but firm dough.
5. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 0.5cm/0.25inches thick.
6. Use a round 7.5cm/3inch diameter cutter to cut out the biscuits and place onto the prepared trays. 
7. Prick each biscuit with a fork.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a light golden brown.
9. Allow to rest on the trays for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

Great British Bake Along: Matcha Green Tea and Peach Swiss Roll

The Great British Bake Off (GBBO) is back on our televisions again!  The nation rejoices with much tea (apparently there was a power surge equal to 260,000 kettles during Wednesday's episode) and, of course, baking!  As an avid watcher and baking blogger I thought it might be fun to join in.  So the blog is engaging in a bake along!  

The GBBO has a theme every week and thus, if all goes to plan, I will be posting a new recipe each week based on the theme.  Ideally, I'll be doing my own take on the signature bake challenge, though none of my recipes are going to be signature because, like I said, I'll be posting something new.  This blog doesn't do repeat posts after all.  I'll also be giving my thoughts on that week's episode.  Thus, tentative schedule will be: 

• Wednesday - A new Great British Bake Off episode airs on BBC1 at 8pm.
• Saturday - Becca bakes along (because she starts her first full-time job in a week and so Monday to Friday are taken up with the teaching of children).
• Sunday/Monday - Becca posts her Bake Along recipe and thoughts on the episode.

So hopefully that means there'll be a new post every week for the next 10 weeks.  Let's see if I can stick to it!

And with that introduction out of the way, we dive straight into episode 1 and the first theme: Cake!   

So it's a brand new series and we have 12 new bakers!  And they all seem so lovely!  Admittedly, that's par for the course with GBBO.  Everyone is always lovely on this show.  It's a little early to pick definite favourites yet but usually if I can remember a name by the end of episode 1 that usually means they've made an impression.  By that logic, bakers that currently stand out are Chetna, Luis, Nancy, Norman, Jordan and Martha.  I must confess though, Martha sticks in my head for completely petty reasons.  I am sorry Martha but I'm afraid I am going to harbour slight dislike for you because I am a jealous person.  I have a tendency to automatically resent anyone who does something I love to an amazing degree who is younger than me.  I had the same issue with Ruby last year.  And you are 8 years younger than me!  You make me feel old!  Especially as you are clearly very talented.  It's nothing personal.  Like I said, I'm petty.

Actually, everyone seems to be ridiculously talented and creative.  There were some seriously beautiful bakes and it is only episode one!  Kate's Swiss roll looked gorgeous, as did Chetna's.  And the minature cakes Nancy and Luis made for the showstopper looked amazing.  I also thought Iain's looked rather lovely, despite being a bit big.  Maybe if they'd had one less layer they'd have looked better.  Admittedly though I was looking at some of the showstopper cakes and wondering what British classic they were supposed to be.  And despite what Mary Berry thinks, I believe lemon and blueberry are a fantastic combination of flavours that compliment each other (they are the Hubby's favourite after all) and I couldn't see how one drowned out the other in Jordan's bake.  As for the technical, I thought it looked okay for a first challenge.  I knew the flour trick and had been explaining it when Nancy mentioned it.  I felt so pleased with myself.  Maybe I'll try to make that cherry cake at some point.

I also want to say I am seriously coveting the gadgets that appeared this week.  I am so jealous of these bakers who can make (or have spouses to make) cool little kitchen tools.  I want Nancy's guillotine, and Norman's...I'm not sure what to call it actually.  But it removed 12 cakes from a loose bottomed muffin tin all at once.  It was amazing.  I want it!  I wonder if anything else will crop up as the series goes on.

Overall it was a really enjoyable episode but as will be the case every week, there was the inevitable sadness that comes when they have to announce who is leaving.  I have to say, it was pretty clear who was going though it was such a shame.  I thought Claire was so adorable!  It would have been nice to see more of her but everything just seemed to go wrong for her.  And she asks the question about why is she crying over cake but it's obvious!  It's the GBBO!  Anyone and everyone will cry over cake.  I know I would.  So it was sad to see Claire go but I found her blog Bake Therapy so I'll be keeping an eye on that.

Okay, now I have told you my all important thoughts on the first episode of the series, I can now get onto talking about this week's bake.  So I decided I would do the signature challenge and make a Swiss roll in two and a half hours.  The basic plan for it was developed in discussion with the Hubby's sister, since it was her I was watching the episode with.  I honestly cannot remember exactly whose idea it was but we decided green tea would be interesting.  Since it was Wednesday I was pretty sure I would be able to get the matcha powder before the weekend (thank you eBay).  Deciding what to fill it with took a little longer as we were not sure what would go with it.  So we hit up Google and there were a few suggestions.  I did consider adzuki beans as red bean is a popular Japanese flavour.  Strawberry was a popular suggestion and blackcurrant also came up.  However, I decided peach would make for an interesting accompaniment.  So matcha tea and peach it was.

Saturday rolled around and the tea finally arrived in the post.  The other ingredients had come in the grocery delivery the day before.  I had found a couple of recipes to adapt to my needs and was set.  At 1:30pm my challenge started and I had until 4pm to complete it.

Now if this had been the actual GBBO I would have practised and perfected this recipe beforehand.  However, this was a brand new bake and I was going in blind.  The recipe I'll be writing below will not take 2.5 hours.  The only reason I was working down to the last second was because I kept changing my mind about some things and others just went wrong and had to be altered.  The mind changing was mainly to do with the visual aspect of the thing.  Everyone on GBBO goes all out in their presentation.  As Sue pointed out, a traditional Swiss roll is not decorated but most of the bakers had chosen to ignore that.  As I previously mentioned, there were some stunning bakes.  So I thought I should try and add a little something to my own bake.  Originally I tried colouring some of the batter to pipe a decorative pattern (similar to how I decorated my first ever roulade).  However it was too runny for my first idea of making flowers.  Instead I did wavy lines but after I baked and turned the roll out I decided they looked silly, so they're on the inside of the roll.  Then I thought I might try and make little blossom flowers out of chocolate.  That just ended up looking ugly so I scrapped that too.  The icing sugar decoration was a last minute decision.  I knew I had stencils and figured I could at least make a pretty pattern.  Turns out I had an ideal looking blossom stencil and it did add a nice visual to the finished roll.

But the thing that ate up most of my time was the filling.  Oh the filling.  Originally I was attempting this mousse thing with gelatin.  I figured it would hold its shape better.  However, when I added the peach purée to it, it ended up too runny.  This was about an hour before my time limit was up so I figured I would put it in the fridge for about half an hour and see if it would firm up.  It didn't.  So I tried whisking it a bit more to see if that would help.  Nope.  It turned to butter and buttermilk, as cream does when you overwhip it.  So that was ruined and I only had 20 minutes.  There was no time to attempt this version again so I hit Google to see if I could find something similar but far simpler.  The one I found could be made in 5 minutes.  Perfect.  And it worked thankfully.  So in it went and I was able to finish it in time.  Hooray!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I presented it to the Hubby, and later his family.  I didn't know if it was going to work, if the flavours would go, if the textures would be okay.  I was dreading that it would be 'dry' because that is something no GBBO contestant wants to be told (poor Kate).  It was a big hit.  The Hubby said it was 'refreshing' and his sister thinks it would work really well as a palette cleanser.  The flavours are there but are maybe a little subtle and it's not particularly sweet.  Still yummy though.  I think I would have definitely lost points for the roll.  It probably wasn't as tight as it could have been.  It looked better once it was cut into though.  I don't know if Paul and Mary would have enjoyed the flavours but my personal judges certainly did so that makes me very happy.

Recipe - makes one Swiss roll:


Sponge - inspired by James Martin via BBC Food

• 4 eggs
• 115g/4oz caster sugar
• 75g/2.5oz self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp matcha green tea powder
• Icing sugar for decorating (optional)

Peach Cream - inspired by Gino D'Acampo via BBC Food

• 1 peach
• 150ml/5fl.oz double cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and grease and line a 23x33cm/9x13inch swiss roll pan with baking parchment.
2. Put the eggs and caster sugar into a large bowl and beat together until they are pale in colour, fluffy and have thickened.  
3. Sift in the flour and the matcha green tea powder and gently fold into the egg mixture.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tray and tip around to ensure the mixture is evenly spread.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the sponge is only just cooked.
6. Remove from the oven and turn the sponge out onto a sheet of baking parchment.  Remove the parchment used during baking.
7. Score a line along one of the short sides about 1cm in from the edge.  Do not cut all the way through.
8. Roll the sponge up tightly into a spiral with the baking parchment (parchment will be inside the roll) and then leave to cool completely.
9. Peel, de-seed and chop up the peach.
10. Put into a blender and reduce to a purée.
11. Whip the cream with the icing sugar until it reaches the soft peak stage.
12. Gently fold in the peach purée until the mixture is smooth and of a spreadable consistency.
13. When the sponge has cooled, unroll it.
14. Spread the peach cream evenly across the cooled sponge, leaving a 1inch gap from the far short side.
15. Roll the sponge back up tightly, finishing with the end at the base.
16. Cut off the end on each side with a serrated knife for an even finish.
17. If desired, dust with icing sugar.  I used a cake stencil to create the pattern on top of mine.