Week three - Paul Hollywood's ciabatta

Ok, I have a disclaimer to make about this one...I'm not good at making bread...I cheat, I use a bread machine.  So here goes.

Week three is Paul Hollywood's ciabatta (recipe here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/ciabatta_05418). I like ciabatta, but I don't often make it as it requires me to remember to start it off the night before as I need to leave the dough starter in the machine for 12 hours.

This recipe was straight forward enough, but takes time.  I can see why Paul told the contestants to "be patient".  Also I was excited to be able to use my Kitchen Aid food mixer, whoop! 

I started the recipe on Monday morning and the bread was baked by about 7:30 Monday evening...yeah, I told you it takes time.

All seemed to be going well until we cut one this morning.  Not very holey...hmmmmm.  Oh well, I had some for lunch and it still tasted nice.  Not sure what went wrong as the dough was very stringy all along, even though I didn't use a plastic tub to prove it in.

In conclusion, I won't be making ciabatta by hand again...back to the good old bread machine for this one.  Roll on week four - desserts.

Voila!  

Week two - Mary Berry's Florentines

So here we are, my second blog post, that's quite an achievement in its self!  This week is Florentines. I've never made these before and it's not something I would normally buy.

So I gathered all the ingredients together this morning...unfortunately my local neighbourhood shops don't stock unsalted butter or candied peel - fail.  But I persevered, instead of butter I used margarine with the lowest salt content I could find and ignored the candied peel.

Recipe was very straight forward and easy to follow, I don't think I would make any adjustments next time around, apart from perhaps melting slight less chocolate as I had a bit left (which I spread on some baking paper and refrigerated, then broke it up to use in cookies).  What I didn't manage to do was temper the chocolate properly as I'm lacking in a chocolate thermometer.  Also I left the chocolate to set too much so couldn't add the zigzags properly.

Ta da, my take on Mary Berry's Florentines:

Recipe can be found here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/marys_florentines_49833.

Week one - Mary Berry's cherry cake

I've decided to take it upon myself to attempt the technical challenge (where the full recipe is available) from this year's Great British Bake Off.  Mainly for two reasons.

1. I thought it would be good to try bakes that I may not normally attempt.

2. I've just started maternity leave so may have a little more time on my hands

3. I like cake...sorry that's three reasons.

Anyhow, week one was Mary Berry's cherry cake.  Here it is:

What d'ya think?  I know, I know it's not been baked in a bundt tin.  But I don't have one and didn't see the expense was worth it.  Also you'll note the icing is perhaps a little runny.  It was late and I was tired of trying to get the right consistency.  Note for next time - gradually mix the lemon juice with the icing sugar.

Otherwise this was a really easy bake.  The recipe can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/marys_cherry_cake_17869

Next week: Mary Berry's Florentines.

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