Sourdough Baguettes

I'm having a go at sourdough again. It's a funny thing - something that seems a little scary, looks a little weird and smells quite strong. But it makes amazing bread, like nothing you can buy (except from lovely bakeries) and it feels like such an achievement to make yourself.

I made my own starter a few years ago but it didn't go so well, it came out smelling a bit like paint and the bread I made also had a very chemical taste. Fellow Cambridge food blogger Ivana offered up some sourdough on Twitter so I thought it was about time to have another go - plus maybe an already active and healthy starter was the way to go this time.

This starter is very low maintenance, it stayed in it's jar for a good 5 days before I started to prepare it for baking - I think you can leave it along for up to a week between feeds. It becomes more of a pet when you are preparing for a bake, requiring a feed every 12 hours.

For the actual dough it takes about a day of going in and out of the kitchen to knead, rest, knead again, prove etc. Ivana gave me a Hilary Cacchia recipe which I'm not sure if I am allowed to reproduce but this Dan Lepard recipe looks similar. I used 150g starter, 225 very strong white bread flour, 5g salt and 100ml room temperature water.

It's then a case of kneading for a few minutes, leaving for 30 minutes. Then a process of kneading for 20 seconds, leaving for 10, then repeating 3 times. Then leave to double in size. Then dividing the dough, leaving for 15, shaping into baguettes and placing on the baking tray. Leaving to double in size. Then bake for about 15 minutes in a hot oven til golden.

I think the crumb could have been a little more 'open' but overall the bread was fantastic. A beautiful crispy top and soft fluffy interior. I sliced them lengthways and we had them simply with fried garlic mushrooms and a little parmesan on top.

I've still got plenty of starter left, sitting happily in my fridge, so hopefully there will be more recipes coming here soon! Watch this space :)

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Hot Cross Buns

Homemade hot cross buns are one of the best things you'll make and are nothing like the flabby supermarket ones. I shouldn't have left it so long until I made them again, the last time I baked them was 4 Easters ago. 

I watched the Great British Bake Off Easter Masterclass a few days before the Easter weekend and because I am very easily influenced I decided that I absolutely had to revisit them and bake them over the long weekend.

Incidentally, I was going to name this blog post "Paul Hollywood's Buns'' and I wondered if this would drive lots of traffic to my blog, but I couldn't do it. I don't get the Paul Hollywood thing, is he a dish? Maybe I am a little young to see it (ha). Anyway back to the buns, hot cross ones.

Yes it is not Easter anymore, but I made these over the Easter weekend and they were lovely, so I decided to tell you about them. And you know, it is ok to make them after Easter, Jesus won't be mad. And it might make a nice change from the mounds chocolate eggs you have in your kitchen.

A few notes on the recipe, I used only mixed fruit instead of mixed peel & sultanas, I had a pear so I used that instead of an apple - both worked fine. I think the fruit would benefit from being soaked before baking, maybe in some tea, to stop it blackening whilst baking, and for a little more juiciness.
Also, I used honey thinned with a bit of water instead of apricot jam, to glaze, which worked a treat.

Hot Cross Buns - recipe by Paul Hollywood

300ml milk
500g strong white flour
75g caster sugar
1tsp salt
1 sachet (7g) fast action yeast
50g butter, softened
1 egg
125g mixed fruit
1 pear (or apple) cored and chopped (no need to peel)
zest of 1 orange
1tsp cinnamon

Extra flour and water for piping crosses
1tbsp of honey, for glazing

1. Boil the milk and then leave to cool until lukewarm
2. Mix flour, sugar, salt, yeast (keep salt and yeast apart on different sides of the bowl, so as not to kill the yeast), egg and softened cubed butter in a bowl. Slowly add cooled milk, mixing at first with a fork and then your hands to form a soft and sticky dough
3. Add orange zest, pear/apple, mixed fruit and cinnamon. Knead for about 5 minutes to form a soft springy dough.
4. Leave the dough in a warm place, to prove, in an oiled bowl covered with oiled cling film, for one hour, til doubled in size.
5. When proved place the dough back onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 even pieces. Transfer to a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Cover again with oiled cling film and and leave to prove for another hour. The buns can be close together as it is ok if they stick together during baking.
6. Heat oven to 225c / Gas mark 7.
7. For the crosses, put 5 tablespoons of flour in a bowl and then slowly add cold water to form a thick paste. Put into a piping bag with a narrow nozzle (I used a wider one and it came out a bit more like a splodge!) and pipe crosses on to the buns when they are proved.
8. Bake for 20 -25 minutes til golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Glaze with honey when they come out of the oven and leave to cool.

I learnt a good tip from Paul Hollywood on his Bread programme, bread should be left to cool when it is finished baking, so that the inside cooks with the residual heat - something which explains the doughy insides I have been suffering with! I did this with the hot cross buns, for as long as I could, and they came out perfect inside.

Enjoy spread with butter and a large cup of tea.

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Christmas Telly! Nigella, Bake Off, Nigel Slater and more...

It's Christmas Food programmes week! Over the last few days I've seen loads of adverts for various Christmas specials, so in order to do a service to you, my lovely readers, I thought I'd do a round-up so you don't miss out on Mary Berry's top tips, Nigella and her soft focus kitchen or those rather fabulous baker brothers.

Nigellissima  - An Italian Inspired Christmas
BBC2, Monday 17th, 8pm

I've enjoyed the Nigellisima series, she has toned down the ridiculous and I've tried a few of the recipes which have been good, although I don't think I'll be giving her Meatzza a go anytime soon. Hoping the Christmas special will be good, and that she might do some edible gifts as I have some to make still! Also, if someone can tell me where her dotted top is, that would be great. 

The Fabulous Baker Brothers Do Christmas

More4, Monday 17th, 9pm

Being advertised as Christmas with a twist 'with not a sprout in sight.' Seems like less of the baking this time and more about general Christmas recipes including spiced mulled cider, lobster and the ultimate Christmas hangover cure. Sounds greedy!

Great British Bake Off Christmas Special
BBC2, Tuesday 18th, 8pm

Another masterclass episode from Mary and Paul, I've already mastered mince pies but I'll be looking forward to their tips anyway! They're also making Christmas pudding and cake so if you need to improve this years effort, makes some notes for 2013's festivities.

Heston's Fantastical Christmas
Channel 4, Wednesday 19th, 9pm

Heston being crazy and trying hard to use up his massive budget again. I've found his latest series a bit too silly, but it has been interesting sometimes. In this episode, he has challenged himself to make the biggest Christmas pudding ever, as you were probably expecting. That or a mince pie.


Nigel Slater's 12 Tastes of Christmas
BBC2, Friday 21st, 7.30pm

This is episode 2 of 2, I missed one but I'll be catching up on iPlayer whilst making jewellery one evening this week. For me the latest series, Nigel's done, Dish of the Day, has been a bit bonkers (banana in a crumble anyone? Almond lentil stew? Not sure) so I'm not expecting great things from the usually great man. But I am addicted to food programmes so I shall tune in nonetheless. Am not coveting his Christmas jumper the same way as Nigella's top though.

The River Cottage Christmas special was also on on Sunday night, with Steven Mangan, Mark Heap and Kathy Burke - some good recipes and the programme was quite funny too - catch up on 4oD.

Happy Watching & Eating! :)

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Cambridge Clandestine Cake Club - GBBO special!

A couple of weeks ago, on the night of the final of another fantastic series of The Great British Bake Off, the Cambridge Clandestine Cake Club gathered for an evening of GBBO themed cakes and a screening of the show itself.

The fantastic First and Last pub kindly gave us a venue to watch the programme and eat cake, there were 25 cakes in all kinds of flavours - flourless chocolate hazelnut, grapefruit bundt cake, hummingbird cake, orange and almond cake.. the list was indeed endless!

I baked the Apple Pie Cake from Edd Kimber's first book, The Boy Who Bakes - it is a fantastic recipe which makes a rather large cake! It was my first three layer cake - the sponge is light and gently spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon cream cheese frosting between the layers and finally topped with lightly cooked apples and golden spiced caramel.

Watching the bake off in a room full of 25 other keen bakers was brilliant, we shared the tense moments, the oohs and aahs and giggled at Mary Berry's double entendre. I'm really pleased John won too, he was a fantastic baker and learnt so much from the start of the series.

Our cakey evening also featured in Cambridge Evening News, and my silly face got in the paper later that week, along with my cake of course.

Following the cake club evening I'm really pleased to say I've agreed to be Miss Sue Flay's co-host for future Cambridge Clandestine Cake Club's - so watch out for more announcements from both of us about the next bake off - coming very very soon!

Find your nearest cake club on the site: www.clandestinecakeclub.co.uk

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