Basic White Loaf

I lost this post so many times when trying to write it.  No idea why as it would always happen after saving and closing.  Upon re-opening, the content had vanished.  It has been terribly frustrating trying to write this multiple times.  Hence, this is an even shorter post than intended. I just want this thing done and posted before it mysteriously disappears on me again.

So, anyway, January has become a bit of a yeasted month.  Lots of breads so far and there's a deliciously amazing yeasted treat coming next week to finish out the month.  I've been obsessing over bread ever since I obtained James Morton's Brilliant Bread with a Christmas Amazon voucher (thanks again, Nanny and Grandad!).  I've been after a second dedicated bread book for a while and this one had rave reviews (the only negative one was about the publisher, not the book itself).  I'm not surprised. Bread was James' thing when he was on Bake Off after all.  It's a fascinating and enjoyable read.  There are lots of good tips and hints to help you understand the process of making bread.  I highly recommend it.

This recipe is the first one in the book and the first one I tried.  It uses the absolute basics of bread ingredients: flour, yeast, salt and water.  That's it.  It's a very wet dough but the bread it produces is delicious!  Admittedly, it can be a little temperamental.  My first go at it turned out great!  I didn't get a chance to photograph it though as I was literally out the door with it whilst it was still cooling.  I figured I'd just make it again another day and take pictures.  Well, the next two attempts failed miserably.  The bread refused to hold its shape and so rather than a nice ball I ended up with a thick puddle.  I'm pretty sure I over-proved the dough so on my fourth attempt I stuck as close to the resting times as possible.  And finally, I had success again.  Huzzah!

It is delicious.  Nicer than homemade bread I've made before.  It's got a nice crumb and tastes amazing with butter or dipped in soup.  I'm trying to make bread every Friday I'm home for the Hubby's tea.  I'll have to try out some of the other recipes soon.

Recipe - adapted from Brilliant Bread

• 500g/17.5oz strong white flour
• 10g/0.35oz salt
• 7g/0.25g instant yeast
• 350ml/12fl.oz tepid water

1. Put the flour in a large bowl.  Add the salt on one side of the bowl and the yeast on the other so they do not touch (salt can kill yeast).  Rub both into the flour with your hands.   
2. Add the water and mix together until you form a wet dough.  Make sure all flour is incorporated into the dough.
3. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to rest in a warm place for about 40 minutes.  It should have noticeably increased in size.  (If you can't decide whether it has grown or not, leave it a bit longer).
4. Keep a small bowl of water handy to wet your fingers.  After resting, wet fingers and slide under the dough and then fold it in half.  Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and do the same again.  Repeat until all the air is removed and the dough feels smooth.  
5. Cover once more and rest the dough until it has doubled in size (about 1 hour). 
6. Scrape the dough out onto a floured surface (a dough scraper is really useful here).  Shape into a ball by pinching one end and stretching the dough away from you before folding the stretched bit back into the middle. Turn the dough and repeat.  Keep going until the dough feels tighter.
7. Flip dough over then cradle it in your hands together underneath the dough.  Twist the dough slightly as you move your hands to start shaping into a ball. Repeat this action until you get a nice tight ball.
8. Place the dough on a heavily floured surface, cover and allow to prove for an hour (or until doubled in size).  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 210C/410F/Gas Mark 6.5.
9. Once bread is ready, score a few shallow slashes into the top with a serrated knife.
10. Bake bread for at least 40 minutes, until the crust starts to turn a deep golden brown.
11. Allow to cool on a wire rack before serving. 

Bara Brith

After last year's distinct lack of activity I am trying to take advantage of the fact I work part time to get baking fitted in.  Kudos to you if you are someone who can juggle a full-time job with your baking.  I envy you.  I just can't do it.  Not yet anyway.  Working on it.  The point is I'm aiming to get something baked (and ideally up on the blog) each week.  This week I was in a bread mood.  Actually, I've been in a bit of a bread mood for a while now but this week was extra bread-y since I made two different loaves.  Sadly, you're not getting the one of them quite yet because after doing a really good job the first time, the subsequent attempts have been a bit...flat.  The dough won't hold it's shape so rises sideways rather than up.  I think I may be over-proving.

But the other bread turned out well!  Having been obsessing over Bake Off the last couple of weeks (applications for the next series were due last Sunday) I have found myself reading lots of articles about the show and past contestants.  In amongst those I stumbled across one on Beca, who made it to the semi-finals in Series 4.  This article was specifically about her yeasted tea-loaf she made during the Sweet Dough week (and received high praise from both Paul and Mary): a Welsh bara brith.  Literally meaning 'speckled bread' it is a sweet loaf filled with mixed fruit.  And being a tea-loaf, it's obviously got a healthy amount of tea in there too.  

Aside from the fact I wanted to try something new and different, what really motivated me to make bara brith this week was the bag of mixed fruit sitting in the cupboard, as I still have loads to use up from making mince pies and panetonne over Christmas.  Even after baking this I have leftovers so mixed fruit may crop up again in the next few posts.

I did end up making a slight tweak to the recipe: I used instant yeast, not fresh.  According to my newest bread book (which I will gush about properly when I post a recipe from it) there's not much difference between them.  Instant yeast is more convenient (and what I had in my cupboard).  I just halved the amount required.

I sent this along to the lovely ladies at Markinch with my mother-in-law on Monday.  They are always so nice about my baking and appreciate what I send.  They've been enjoying this over the week and plan to make toast with any leftovers that may have gone a little stale.
 

Recipe - adapted from Beca Lyne-Pirkis via Wales Online
Makes 1 x 2lb loaf 


Tea-Loaf:

• 450g/1lb strong white flour
• 7g/0.25oz salt
• 10g/0.35oz instant yeast
• 75g/2.5oz butter 
• 50g/1.75g brown sugar
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 350g/12oz mixed dried fruit
• 1 egg
•  225ml/8fl.oz strong warm tea (I used two Twinnings Breakfast Tea teabags steeped for 5 minutes in 225ml boiling water, then let it cool slightly)

Sugar Syrup Glaze:

• 50g/1.75oz caster sugar
• 50ml/1.75fl.oz water 

1. Put the flour into a large bowl.  Add the salt on one side and the yeast on the other and rub into the flour to combine.
2. Rub in the butter using your fingers until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
3. Mix in the sugar, mixed spice and dried fruits until evenly distributed.
4. Add the egg and tea and bring everything together to form a dough.
5. Knead the dough until it is smooth (I stretch the dough away from me then fold it back on itself before giving it a quarter turn and repeating for about 10 minutes).
6. Place back in your bowl and cover with an oil piece of clingfilm.  Leave to rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size (about 1 hour).
7. Grease a 900g/lb loaf tin.
8. Knock back the dough, shape and fit into the loaf tin.  Cover with the oiled clingfilm and prove for another 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
9. Once proved, remove the clingfilm from the dough and back in the oven for 20 minutes.
10. Cover the bara brith with foil and leave to bake for another 25-30 minutes.
11. Remove from the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.
12. Make the sugar syrup by bringing the water and caster sugar to a boil in a small saucepan.
13. Cook the mixture until it takes on a syrupy consistency.
14. Remove and use a pastry loaf to cover the loaf in the glaze.
15. Allow to set and cool before serving.

Lemon and Blueberry Syrup Loaf

 

 
So my attention has been rather monopolised these past few weeks.  At the start of August the Hubby and I welcomed two new additions to our home.  We are now the proud owners of two gorgeous Siberian kittens.  We have been waiting for them since January so were very excited when we were finally able to go and collect them from Liverpool.  It involved six hours of trains either way but it was worth it.  They are just the most beautiful creatures ever, as well as the cuddliest.  They love to curl up with you on the sofa and it is wonderful.  They make me so happy.  They are also very distracting.  That's not to say they have stopped me baking.  It's more that they stop me updating the blog.  Trying to do food photography in a small flat with two curious kittens is quite tricky.  As is trying to type anything as they want to sit on either you or the keyboard.  There's also not been a huge amount of new innovation in terms of what I have baked.  I've been doing a lot of favourites recently, so there's not been anything new.

Until the Hubby's birthday!  I always aim to do a new recipe for that, though it often involves similar flavour combinations.  This year was no different, as I was asked for the usual mix of lemon and blueberries.  I decided I wanted to do a take on a lemon drizzle cake.  The one the recipe is based off is a Nigella recipe, which was just lemon.  The idea of the syrupy 'icing' made it sound a bit more decadent than a normal drizzle cake and so I adapted it to my needs.

The first version I did of this cake was for the Hubby's birthday and it was not a loaf cake.  The Hubby wanted a round cake so I made it in an 8inch tin circular tin instead.  I personally did not like how it looked because it felt a bit flat.  I feel a round cake needs layers.  I much prefer the loaf look.  Since I didn't photograph it first time due to time issues, I decided to do it loaf shaped for the second version.  I also altered the recipe slightly by adding a little more flour and a little less milk.  The blueberries sank in the first one because the batter was too runny.  I wanted a thicker batter for the second one.  It worked much better.  I also used much bigger lemons and added more zest to get a much more distinct lemon-y flavour.  The second one was definitely much better overall.  Even the texture was nicer, though maybe that was down to my recent acquisition that I purchased with my birthday money: my very own KitchenAid Artisan mixer.  Yellow, of course.

The cake was very well received.  The Hubby was really happy.  He prefers the round one but everyone else liked the loaf better.  The syrup and berries make it a very juicy cake but not too wet.  It was delicious.  It goes really well with ice cream and strawberries too.

Recipe - inspired by How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Makes 1 x 1kg/2lb loaf

Cake:

• 175g/6oz caster sugar 
• 125g/4.5oz butter
• Zest of 2 large lemons
• 2 large eggs
• 175g/6oz self-raising flour
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp milk
• 115g/4oz blueberries

Syrup:

• 155g/5.5oz icing sugar
• Juice of 2 large lemons
• 85g/3oz blueberries

1. Grease and line a 1kg/2lb loaf tin.  Cut the greaseproof paper so it hangs over the edge to make it easier to remove the cake after baking.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
3. In a large bowl beat together the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Mix in the lemon zest.
5. Add the eggs and beat well.
6. Gently fold in the flour, followed by the milk and finally the blueberries.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and smooth top.
8. Bake for about 45-55 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Whilst cake is baking, make the syrup by combining the icing sugar, lemon juice and blueberries in a saucepan and cooking over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
10. Squash the blueberries within the pan to release the juice into the syrup and stir.
11. Switch off the heat and leave syrup to thicken slightly.  Just before removing cake from oven, strain the syrup through a sieve into a jug to remove the berry skins.
12. When cake is baked, remove from the oven, but leave in the tin, and quickly poke holes all over it with a skewer.
13. Pour the syrup over the cake.  Aim to get syrup to absorb in the centre of the cake and not just the edges.  Keep adding syrup, even if you think you are drowning the cake.  As long as it doesn't overflow the tin it is fine.
14. Leave the cake in the tin until it has absorbed all the syrup and has gone cold before removing it from the tin.  If you can stand to wait, wrap the cake up and leave it overnight to get a more intense syrup flavour.

Citrus Summer Fruit Drizzle Cake

Okay, well, long time no post, huh?  Last post was in December last year and now it's July!  This was a bit of an unexpected hiatus but a necessary one.  I became swamped with work after the Christmas holidays as I did not do so well in my first term at school and needed to make it up.  This got made worse by everyone getting sick or other things coming up which meant things were not getting done at reasonable times and ended up having to be done in a very short space of time.  Very stressful.  So much so that I ended up at the doctor's and have been given medication for anxiety, which I've always had but got worse these last couple of years.  Fun fun fun.  Anyway, the good news is that I did pass my probation year and I am a fully qualified teacher!  Bad news is that currently I don't have a job after the summer.  I didn't do so good in the interview as what I thought I was saying was not coming across.  Ah well.  I've just got to keep trying and see what comes up.

But we're not here to listen to me moan; we're here about cake!  Hectic work life meant there was little time for baking in the last few months but when I was doing reports it was something I just had to make time for.  Writing reports is so so dull and takes forever!  I had to break it into smaller blocks per day and then even smaller ones after that.  Baking was then fitted in between the blocks to keep me sane. 

 

This looked like a nice, summery bake.  I like baking with fruit, even if I am not keen to eat it.  I also think it looks aesthetically pleasing too without being too complicated.  I ended up making two of these; one for home and one for school.  I bought a mixed box of fruit from Sainsbury's which had strawberries, raspberries and blackberries in.  I then bulked it out a little with an extra tub of blueberries.  I also decided I would zest up the cake with some lime in the batter rather than just using the juice in the drizzle.  It worked really well.  It is a really moist cake with a nice tang to offset the sweetness of the fruit.  Both cakes were gobbled up very quickly.

And just before I let you have the recipe, I want to give a shout-out to my Hubby.  One of the biggest tragedies of not baking much has been the lack of food photography I have gotten to do!  Doubly so because that wonderful, sweet husband of mine gave me a DSLR camera for Christmas!  I was so surprised and felt so spoilt.  It has been so fun to use and takes such lovely pictures.  I am still getting to grips with it but I think I did a pretty good job with these snaps!

Recipe -  Adapted from BBC GoodFood
Makes a 2lb loaf cake


Cake:

• 175g/6oz butter
• 175g/6oz golden caster sugar
• 250g/9oz self-raising flour
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Zest of 2 limes
• 100g/3.5oz mixed summer fruits 

Drizzle:

• 75g/2.5oz mixed summer fruits
• 1-2tbsp lime juice
• 140g/5oz granulated sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin with butter.  Line the base with a long strip of greaseproof paper so that the ends hang out over the sides of the tin (it will help you remove the cake from the tin later).
2. In a large bowl mix together the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, lime zest and vanilla extract  until the batter is smooth, pale and creamy.  It will be very thick.
3. Put a third of the mix into the cake tin then scatter half of the fruit over the top.
4. Spread another third of the cake mix over the top and then scatter on the rest of the fruit.  
5. Finally top with the last of the cake mix and smooth over with a spoon.
6. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7. Put the fruit and sugar for the drizzle in a bowl with the lime juice and stir together, mashing the fruit a little as you do.
8. When you have removed the cake from the oven poke it all over with a skewer.
9. Spoon the drizzle over the cake then leave inside the tin until the cake is cool and the topping is set.  
10. Use the strip of paper to help remove the cake from the tin.

French Baguette

I decided we needed to have soup for tea today, mostly down to me considering my lack of vegetable intake this week due to hectic schedules and just no desire to eat them.  Also the fact that the fiancé is away tomorrow night and Monday is usually soup day.  Hence Sunday had to be soup day!  And with soup comes bread, and it being a Sunday with no work meant that I could in fact make the bread myself.  

Originally I thought I'd just end up making the basic loaf or the bloomer again, because as I flicked through my book there were a lot of overly fancy flavours or things which just didn't appeal to me.  What can I say, I have a boring taste range.  But then I found the recipe for French baguettes and it all looked easy enough.  I even had all the ingredients...or I thought I did.  Turns out I didn't have plain flour so had to make a quick dash to the local shop for some.

Anyway, it was fairly successful.  I don't think it looked entirely like a French baguette.  It ended up much shinier than I think it's supposed to.  I also thought the taste wasn't quite right.  Not bad, it was still quite nice, but it didn't taste like the baguettes I'm used to.  The fiancé was perfectly happy though.  He ate most of it.  I will say though, it certainly smelt like a French baguette does, so that was something at least.  I may investigate different baguette recipes at some point because I do love me some baguette.

Recipe - adapted from The Big Book of Bread 

• 200g/7oz strong plain white flour
• 62g/2oz plain flour
• 1.25 tsp salt
• 1/2 sachet (3.5g/0.125oz) yeast
• About 170ml/6fl.oz warm water
• 1/2 tsp cornflour

1. Sift the flours and 3/4 tsp of salt together in a large bowl, then stir in the yeast.
2. Add the water a bit at a time until you get a soft dough.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface, or inside your bowl if it is big enough, until it is smooth (about 10-15 minutes of kneading).
4. Roll into a ball and place in an oiled bowl.  Cover and leave in a warm place to rise until it has doubled in size.
5. Punch the dough in the bowl and then turn out onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead for another 10-15 minutes.
6. Shape into a baguette that is about 25cm/10inches long.  Place between the folds of a pleated tea towel and cover.  Leave to rise until doubled in size.
7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 and place a roasting dish full of water on the bottom shelf of the oven.
8. Make a glaze for the bread by mixing the cornflour and the remaining 1/2 tsp of salt together with 1 tbsp of water.
9. Put 65ml/2.3fl.oz of water into a small saucepan and add the cornflour mixture.  Bring the boil, stirring the whole time, and then take off the heat.  Set aside.
10. When the baguette has risen, slide onto a baking tray which has been floured.
11. Use a sharp knife to cut slashes into the top of the bread at even intervals.
12. Use a pastry brush to cover the bread in a layer of the glaze.
13. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes.  Every 10 minutes add another coat of the glaze to the bread.
14. The baguette is ready when it is brown, crisp and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
15. Cool on a wire rack.

Baby Bloomer

Ah, the baby bloomer.  So called because it is a bloomer, but a small one, since I only needed to feed two of us with it.  Today the boyfriend suggested he make soup for our dinner and because we usually buy a nice loaf of bread to have with it I figured I would make some for a change.  And I actually had time to do so today, so why not?

I decided to try a bloomer.  The recipe wasn't that different from the basic white bread I made the other day, except for the inclusion of milk, not using a tin and giving it an egg wash coat.  I got a bit confused with the rolling bit but it came together easy enough and whilst I was a bit concerned with its size, after the second rise and going in the oven, it beefed up a bit.  It made a nice accompaniment to the potato and leek soup.

It tasted lovely.  Once again we polished off the entire loaf.  Possibly the only complaint was that the crust was overdone.  Not inedible but it certainly took a bit of extra effort to cut it.  I think I had my oven slightly higher than I meant to for the first stage of baking.  Oops.  Definitely need to get that oven thermometer.

Recipe - adapted from The Big Book Bread

Makes 1 small-ish loaf

• 350g/12.5oz strong white flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp caster sugar
• 3/4 tsp dried yeast
• 12.5g/0.5oz butter
• 75ml/2.5fl.oz warm milk
• About 150ml/5fl.oz warm water
• 1 egg

1. Grease a baking tray and set to one side.
2. Sift the flour and the salt into a large bowl.
3. Add the sugar and yeast and mix together.
4. Rub in the butter.
5. Make a well in the centre of the mix and pour in the milk and half the water.  Mix.
6. Keep adding the water a bit at a time and mixing together until you get a soft dough.  If 150ml of water isn't enough then add more but only tablespoonfuls at a time.
7. On a lightly floured surface, or in your bowl if it is big enough, knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic.  This is about 10 minutes of kneading.
8. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl.  Cover with clingfilm and put in a warm place to rise until it has doubled in size.
9. Once it is risen, punch the dough in the centre to deflate it and knead for another 5 or so minutes.
10. Roll the dough out into a rectangle with a rolling pin until it is about 2.5cm/1 inch thick.
11. Start from a shorter side and start to roll the dough up like a swiss roll.  After you make each roll of the dough, pinch it together along the seam.
12. When the dough is fully rolled up, pinch the final seam together, tuck the edges of the loaf underneath it and place on the baking tray with the seam at the bottom.
13. Cover and leave to rise until doubled in size.  Again, I switched my oven on to preheat at this stage and sat the bread on top covered in a tea towel to let it rise.  So turn on your oven to 230°C/450°F/Gas Mark 8.
14. Once risen, beat the egg in a small bowl with a couple of tablespoons of water and brush over the top of the loaf with a pastry brush.
15. Use a sharp knife to cut 4 diagonal slits into the top of the loaf and then coat the insides of them with more egg wash.
16. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes then turn the oven down to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 and cook for another 25-35 minutes.  The bread should be golden brown and sound hollow when tapped underneath.
17. Remove and let cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes before serving.