Baking 101

[clarion]

Hot cross buns this morning.  Just rising.

[SteveC]

MrsC has just started our hot cross buns (but as she's Cornish there will be a heavy saffron influence)

[clarion]

Mine may or may not get crosses (depending whether ICBA).  Pentacles and hammers & sickles are so much harder

[Mrs Pingu]

I had far breton when I was out for dinner last night. It was amazeballs.

[clarion]

Kewl.  I've never seen it on a menu in the UK.  I might have a go at an improved Far next weekend

[clarion]

Meanwhile, today was Hot (Cross) Buns.  The 'crosses' included a pentagram, a Yin-Yang (at TGL's suggestion), initials and a hammer and sickle.



And the texture was lovely:

[Mrs Pingu]

*salivates lots*
I like the pentagram

[clarion]

Took a bit of work that one.  And I've been put off doing HCBs in the past because all the recipes specified shortcrust pastry for the crosses.  Sod that.  I don't do pastry.  That's just flour & water.

What I learned: The oven was a bit hot at the lowest setting for the buns to rise properly.  When I came to put the crosses on, the buns were already forming a crust.  And the oven was too hot for baking.

So I'll make a note to let them rise at room temperature with a tea towel over the top.  And then cook at a lower temperature for a bit longer.  But it's always worth following instructions the first time as a starting point.

I rather expect HCB* to become part of the repertoire.


* I find this amusing. HC-B to me means Henri Cartier-Bresson.

[Butterfly]

Yum yum yum 

[Pingu]

Wot, no CND?

[clarion]

Wot, no CND?

They'll all be that next time.

[clarion]

Apple cake. 

That was a big hit

[clarion]

So it continues.  I adapted the Far Breton recipe, adding more sugar and flavourings, and some parboiled apple.

I did two trays full of little ones, and two circular cake tins.  It rose well, then sagged a bit (cook opening the door to look too often ).  Tastes great, but the little ones are pretty stuck to the tin

[RJ]

Muffin cases?

[clarion]

That would have to be the answer, I think.  Bit late for this time, though

[Sergeant Pluck]

Check these babies out:



Wholemeal cheese and onion scones: nom 

[clarion]

Great stuff!

[delthebike]

Where'd you get wholemeal cheese? Is it organic too? 

They look good, what do they taste like?

[Sergeant Pluck]

Where'd you get wholemeal cheese? Is it organic too? 

They look good, what do they taste like?

Cheddar, parmesan, half and half wholemeal and plain flour.

They taste really nice, I am inordinately pleased with them. Texture is excellent. Quite filling too, compared to plain flour scones.

My only fear during cooking was that they'd stick to the baking tray - the recipe calls for parchment cups but I don't have any - but they came out easily.

BTW, they are not really red in colour, not sure what's up with the colour balance there.

Bread next. For some reason I'm a bit afeared of bread making. How do you know when you've kneaded it enough?

[Mrs Pingu]

Kneading is easy enough.. Paul Hollywood was going on about kneading hard for 10m but I use the Dan Lepard method - knead for 30s, leave for 10m and then repeat twice more. Works for me. If you're using wholemeal put a bit of vit C in - see the bread thread.

[clarion]

One of the Partners is leaving at work tomorrow.  Rashly, I said I'd bake a cake.  We baked three:

Ginger cake, courtesy of the bread machine:


Apple cake:


And two halves of a Victoria sponge, with Butterfly's great help:

[clarion]

Although they were initially viewed with suspicion - what? The boss has baked cakes? But he's a man, so he can't possibly etc - eventually, people got to tasting the cakes, and there was a lot of appreciation going on.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Finally, I baked a loaf:



And it was good. Very good in some ways, especially the crust (I put some boiling water in the pan at the bottom of the oven at the beginning). Could have done with more olives perhaps.

I used this recipe + added actual olives, and a pinch of vit C:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1162642/

The texture of the bread could have been better, I think. I wanted it to be a bit more stretchy and hole-y inside. As it was, it was moist, very nice and all that, but very even and "small grained". Any suggestions? How do I know when I have kneaded the dough enough?

[Chris N]

Nice!  Same recipe I use, though I put less salt in (and no olives or Vit C).  I don't think you can over knead dough - ten minutes is good, and a good workout.  It should no longer tear when you stretch it and it will spring back a little when you press it with your fingers once you've kneaded enough.  Maybe try a little more water and leave it to rise for longer.

[matthew]

Question, the olives are quite salty, did you reduce the amount of salt called for in the recipe? Salt is toxic to the yeast and therefore the olives will supress the yeast and cause the loaf to rise less and the dough to be finer grained