Week three - Paul Hollywood's baguettes

Week three already!  Hand made bread is a nemesis of mine. We make our own bread, but always in the bread machine, which removes the hard work of kneading!  So I was thankful when I downloaded this week's recipe (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/paul_hollywoods_55351) to find it suggested to use a mixer with a dough hook. Hurrah!

So once the dough was ready I popped it in an oiled plastic container. I didn't have a square one so I used a tall rectangular one, like those used to hold breakfast cereals, and left it to rise. The plastic box worked really well, so I might use that method again.

Next I carefully removed the dough from the container and gently divided it into four pieces. The dough was still quite wet and sticky so this part was quite tricky. I had to roll the dough into baguette shapes and then place them into a couche. A couche being a sheet of linen traditionally used to keep the dough in a baguette shape during the second prove. I, surprisingly, don't own a couche so instead I substituted a tea towel for this purpose. It worked quite well, until I had to remove the dough!  Perhaps I hadn't used enough flour on the teatowel but the dough got a little bit stuck...anyway my three-year old son also wanted to make a baguette. You can see how sticky the dough was from this photo. 

Once I'd persuaded the dough and the teatowel to part ways, the baguettes were placed on a baking tray, lightly floured and then slashed. Baked in the oven for 20-25 minutes and here we are:

They're very 'rustic' looking!  The smallest one was actually made from the dough that my son was playing with, I'm surprised how well it turned out!

See you next week for desserts. 

On your marks, get set...

Good evening Bake Off fans...

I am poised and ready, with a brand new look you will also notice, for this year's self-induced challenge of baking.  Inspired by what is one of THE best things on British television these days (closely followed by The Great British Sewing Bee and (now just re-runs on Dave of) Top Gear) I will attempt each technical challenge every week and will post the results here for you to feast on (only with your eyes though - unless you live close enough to me then you may get to feast on the real thing!).

So sit back and enjoy...first up (sometime this weekend) is Mary Berry's Frosted Walnut Layer Cake (link to BBC recipe here).  Yum!

Week seven - Paul Hollywood's Kouign Amann

I was looking forward to this challenge, as it looked quite simple from the recipe (and obviously as I had the full version, I didn't need to guess where the sugar had to go!)

So Kouign Amann (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/kouign_amann_09102), here's a little interesting fact for you. The name derives from the Breton words for cake ("kouign") and butter ("amann"). Kouign-amann is a speciality of the town Douarnenez in Finistere, Brittany, where it originated in around 1860.  

First stage was to make the dough - time for my Kitchen Aid to have another work out.  I love this  machine so much. Prove the dough for an hour, then batter the life out of a block of butter. 

The next steps were simple enough - roll out dough, place butter on top fold, roll, fold, roll, chill...until it was time for the sugar layer.  Then fold again, then roll again, more sugar and cut into squares.  Or if like me you don't know the difference between a square and a rectangle...

Place the 'squares' into your prepared muffin tin, like a "four-leaf clover" and prove for 30 mins.  Then baaaaake!

Mmmm, they're delicious, will definitely be making these again.  I hope you like my lamination!

Week six - Mary Berry's Princess Cake

Oh my, oh my...what a challenge this was.  Anyway before I begin I must apologise for the delay in writing this post.  Since completing the challenge I've been a bit busy with the small matter of childbirth and subsequent recovery of.  I'm writing this one handed whilst feeding our new little bundle of joy.  As you may say, I had my own 'bun in the oven' and what a Showstopper he is.

Back to the matter in hand. Once again this recipe called for all manner of ingredients that once combined could potentially cause a coronary just by looking at them.  Here's the recipe if you'd like to challenge yourself: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/prinsesstrta_17336.

First step was to make the creme pat (custard to you and me!). I've never made this before, but I didn't find it particularly difficult and was pleased with the result.  Next up, the sponge.  I missed out the raspberry jam making stage as we already had some homemade jam from my in-laws to hand.  The sponge, I believe, is of the Genoese type which again I've never attempted, but I was pretty pleased with this too.  The rise was amazing, I thought it was going to come out of the tin!

Whilst the sponge was in the oven, I made the rose decoration out of some spare marzipan I had (not fondant I know).  Then once the sponge was cooled it was assembly time.  First of all to slice the cake into three horizontally then assemble the first layer.

That was pretty straightforward, thin layer of custard, then pipe around the edge and then a layer of jam. I think in hindsight I would have added a bit more jam, just because it was so yummy. Then whip up some cream and mix with the custard and add some on top of the jam. 

Next place the second layer of sponge on top, spread over the remaining custard cream.  Third sponge layer then goes on top of this and the remaining whipped cream got added to the top and shaped into a small dome.  Now somewhere around mixing the whipped cream and the custard, I must have got confused and didn't seem to end up with enough whipped cream, so my dome wasn't as impressive as some from the Show.

Just looking at that photo makes me laugh.  I soldiered on and once chilled it was time to add the green marzipan (bought, not made) and to decorate with the rose, melted chocolate and whipped cream piping...

And there you have it, one Princess Cake.  I don't know what all the fuss was about!  

See you next week for Paul's Kouign Amann.

Week five - Paul Hollywood's Mini Pear Pies

I I feel so sad, we're already half way through the Bake Off.  How can this be?

Sniff, sniff...anyway here is this week's Technical Challenge.  Mini Pear Pies (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mini_pear_pies_77186).  I found these less of a stress than last week's Tiramisu Cake, but I didn't have to keep leaving the house like I did last week.

Again the recipe was very straight forward.  I haven't made rough puff for years, actually not even sure I've ever made it, but hey, I'm pleased with how it turned out.  The only thing I didn't like was having to grate the lard and butter...just messy.

Poaching the pears was easy peasy, here's a pic of them bubbling away...

Then I left them to cool and reduced the poaching liquid down to a syrup.

Once all was cooled and chilled it was time to assemble.  This was quite straight forward, just needed a steady hand to cut the strips and then wrap them around the pears.  As you'll see from the following picture, I had to construct a form of scaffold for one pear as it was leaning over!  

I was half expecting the pastry to slide off the pears a la Richard, but it all stayed on and cooked beautifully.  And voila!  My version of Mini Pear Pies.

They didn't last long...yum, yum!

See you next week with a European cake delight (and perhaps a brand new baby!).

Week four - Mary Berry's tiramisu cake

Good evening Bake Off fans,

Sorry this post is a day late, but I didn't fully complete the challenge until this morning. 

So, when I watched Bake Off last week I was filled with dread at the prospect of attempting this bake. So many things could go wrong.  I think my heart was in my mouth when they had to slice the sponge in half, let alone attempt making the rest of it!

Anyway, I bravely soldiered on and as you will see, I don't think my first attempt is actually half bad.  First step was to bake the sponge.  I was very pleased with my effort, and even took a photo to show you.

Then came the tricky slicing in half and constructing the cake.  Slicing was ok, but then my sponge did end up getting stuck to the wire cooling rack so not all layers were perfect.  But hey, you can't see it all.  Next putting all the layers together was quite easy, just needed to guesstimate how much of each ingredient to use per layer - which consisted of half a tonne of mascarpone, the coffee and brandy mix and grated chocolate.

Here's the result.

And here's what my kitchen looked like after all that effort.

Next up was the chill, then the chocolate decoration.  I had a problem with creating the chocolate decoration as I'm lacking in a proper chocolate thermometer, so improvised by using a meat thermometer.  Even still I think I was impatatient and didn't wait until the chocolate was quite cool enough before I started piping pretty shapes.  Which resulted in only a few good designs,  which didn't end up nice and shiny.

But as a first attempt I'm pleased, and both my husband and an independent taste taster who happened to be visiting today thought it was tasty.

So final results...taa daa!  If you'd like to try it out for yourself here's the recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tiramisu_cake_13686

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 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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