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. 

Week ten - The Final!

Hello Bake Off fans. It's been a while since my last post, but I'm sure you haven't been waiting with baited breath!, I had to make some crucial baking purchases to be able to attempt the final technical challenge. 

So without further ado here are the final results (drumroll please). 

Tarte au Citron, mini scones and mini Victoria sponge cakes. All very yummy!

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventures in my imaginary Bake Off world!  Now to consider applying for the next series and what to blog about next.

Cheery bye...for now x

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 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 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!