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. 

...bake!

Week one - Mary Berry's frosted walnut layer cake.

Well here we are again, week one's technical challenge. 

I'll be honest with you here...I wasn't looking forward to this bake. Why?  Well, it's just such a big cake, and really a special occasion type of cake...who's going to eat it all?  Ok, don't all rush at once.

Onto the recipe. First up make the sponge mixture. Straight forward enough, that is after you've spent far too long finely chopping walnuts (life is too short for this). Out came the Kitchen Aid (woop woop!), and we're off.  The resulting mixture was quite firm, so I was a little dubious about how it was going to pan out (plus the added risk factor of having found out that I didn't have enough baking parchment to line the bottom of my tins - I like to live life dangerously!).  Anyway, I proceeded, undeterred, and the layers of sponge turned out just fine, as you will witness below. 

Next step, caramelised walnuts. Ooh, a new skill required here. I'd never before attempted caramel so this was going to be interesting. The recipe called for 100g caster sugar and 2 tbsp of water. Sounds all well and good...but no, first attempt crystallised.  Not sure why, I thought perhaps I'd bottled out and not left it long enough. Second attempt, better but still no cigar. Third attempt (after a quick bit of caramel making research by my husband and a lunch break) success, ever so slightly burned, but success all the same.  Hurrah!  On this attempt I used the 'dry' method, i.e. no water. Higher chance of burning (erm) but more success!

Step three, make the buttercream. Kitchen Aid at the ready, again!  Vanilla extract, splash of milk, and heaps of butter and icing sugar later - voilà. 

Lastly, boiled icing (?!). I'd never heard of this before so apart from seeing the results on Bake Off on Wednesday, I had no idea how this would turn out. Again so much sugar that you think your teeth will fall out, egg whites, water and cream of tartar (I've only used this previously to make play dough). Suffice to say, I don't think I'll make the frosting again, way too sweet, and also in the mighty words of Paul Hollywood, it came our "granular". 

So there we have it...week one completed!  I hope you've enjoyed reading about my kitchen escapade this week. If you have, then make sure you don't miss out on future posts by subscribing to email notifications (pop your email address in the 'Follow by email' box). 

Until next week xxx

P.S if you live nearby, and fancy some free, all be it granular, cake...let me know. 

P.P.S if you want to attempt this for yourself, check out the recipe here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/marys_frosted_walnut_15679

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 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 eight - Paul Hollywood's Povitica

Hi Bake Off fans, sorry this post is a bit late, but life has been a bit busy since baby number two arrived.

Today was Povitica day...http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/povitica_92623.

Making the dough and the filling was easy enough, but then it was the rolling out the dough to as large and as thin as possible...I decided on using the Martha method (cling film) since I didn't fancy using a sheet as suggested by the recipe. This worked quite well, but in the end I still didn't get it to the recommended size of 1m x 50cm!  To be honest I started to lose the will to live. 

Next step was to add the filing and then roll it.  Because the dough was on cling film this part was really easy.  Then pop it in the tin.  I must admit it doesn't look very pretty until you've baked it.  I had a hole in the dough which whilst proving for the second time expanded quite dramatically, and then whilst baking part of the bread fell off as the hole got so large.

Here is the finished Povitica...I only managed a loop and a half hence there's only two swirls.  But not a bad first effort...and I don't think it's raw!

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!