Bread

Potato and onion rolls

January has been a weird month already, hasn’t it? Well, take your mind off everything by making a batch of these potato and onion rolls!

If you’re looking for light and fluffy rolls that can be used as dinner rolls or burger buns, these super versatile rolls are the perfect addition for all of your bread and/or roll needs.

You haven’t had potato in bread, you’re missing out. It sounds like a weird ingredient that may make the bread heavy and stodgy but its actually the opposite… It’s light and fluffy and doesn’t add too much of the starchy potato flavour, thats where you can get creative with the flavours you add. The perfect flavours you can add are onion, garlic or even mint (the choices are endless).

You may have noticed these are completely vegan as well, which is another added bonus!

The bread is super soft and ultimately pillowy, this is due to the addition of the potato into the dough – I know it sounds weird but it also adds moisture, so you don’t need to add so much water to start with.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Strong bread flour.

5g Salt.

15g Fresh yeast.

30g Vegan spread or White shortening.

210ml Water.

250g Potatoes (peeled, boiled and fully cooled down).

150g Red Onion, roughly chopped.

Method:

Before you get into making this loaf, you’re best to do some prep work. I like to start by weighing up all of my ingredients, preparing the loaf pan with a slip of greaseproof paper and get any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and a spatula. Don’t forget to peel and boil your potatoes and allow them to cool down almost fully before you use them.

To start on the dough, take your mixing bowl and place in the bread flour and salt, giving them a good mix, just until they are incorporated.

You can then go ahead and add in the fresh yeast, vegan spread/white shortening and water.

Mix on low speed to start with for around 2 minutes, followed by 6 minutes on a high speed. You will notice the dough isn’t as soft as usual, this is normal and will change.

Once the dough has been mixing for around 6 minutes, stop the mixer and place in all of the potatoes and onions and then continue to mix on a low speed for around a minute, followed by 1-2 minutes on a high speed. By this time, you’ll notice the dough is looking a lot better, much lighter and fluffier.

Lightly flour your work surface with a small amount of flour, then place the dough onto it and give it a brief knead. You just want the dough to be smooth and elastic.

You can then transfer the dough into a bowl which has been lightly oiled with a splash of flavourless and colourless oil.

Place the dough into the bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm until the dough has doubled in size (which usually takes around 45-60 minutes, depending on how warm it is wherever you’re leaving the dough to proof).

While the dough is proving, it’s the perfect time to get cleaned down and ready for when the dough is proofed.

Once the dough is well proofed, you can then go ahead and flour your work surface with a small amount of flour, then you can go ahead and add the dough on to it and knock it back. Knocking the dough back is the process of removing the gases that have built up in the dough.

Once the dough has been knocked back, you can bring it back into a ball shape, then take the weight of the dough and divide it by 12 – this will give you the weight for each roll.

Scale the dough to said weight and round the rolls of using your hand and the work surface. Place the rolls onto a lined baking tray leaving a small space around each roll, ensuring they have room to expand as they prove for the second time.

Cover loosely with clingfilm and leave to proof for a further 30-45 minutes.

Now you can see your rolls have risen well, you can preheat your oven to 230˚c/445˚f.

Remove the clingfilm from on-top of the rolls and place into the preheated oven and baked for 12-15 minutes, they should be well coloured.

Once the baking time is done and the bread is baked, remove from the tin/tray and allow to cool fully before you slice it up. If you’re not sure your bread is full baked, turn the loaf upside down and tap the bottom – if it sounds hollow, its baked.

Slice and enjoy, once the loaf has cooled down fully. This is the perfect bread for sandwiches, toast and if you allow it to go stale, bread pudding.

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.

Vegan Brown Bread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Well… I’m back!

I’ve taken a short break but I’m back and better than ever. I will be partaking in the remaining weeks of Veganuary – this is where you consume a plant based diet for the entire month.

Keeping things super simple to start, with this vegan friendly brown bread. I know that brown bread can be known for being heavy and stodgy but not anymore. When you keep a recipe super simple and straightforward, you will have the best end result. No more heavy and stodgy bread, just light and fluffy bread with a far superior taste and texture over the store bought version.

Like with most baking, once you master the basics – you’re pretty set to go and work your way up to more advance stuff. The best thing about this loaf is the fact its 100% vegan – a majority of breads can be made vegan pretty easily, which is ideal.

Anyway, let’s get stated, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Brown bread flour.

40g Fresh yeast.

8g Salt.

10g White shortening.

310ml Water, warmed.

Method:

Start by doing some prep work. Weigh up all the ingredients, prepare your loaf tin (if needed) and get any equipment you may need ready. When the time comes, preheat your oven to 230˚c/445˚f

Into your mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer bowl) place the brown bread flour and salt and mix the two together using a whisk.

Now you can add the white shortening, granulated sugar, fresh yeast and water. Mix on a low speed to start with for 2 minutes and then a low-medium speed for 6 minutes, so it will be mixing for 8 minutes in total.

Once it’s fully mixed, the dough should be clear (you see no traces of any other ingredients), it shouldn’t be sticky and should be well formed and hold its shape.

Give the dough a brief knead on a floured surface Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and then cover with cling film and leave to complete its first proof (roughly about an hour or) until its doubled in size. Ideally, you’ll leave this somewhere warm, it will help the yeast work.

Now that the dough has doubled in size, you’ll want to remove the dough from the bowl and place onto a floured surface and knock the dough back. This is the process of removing the gasses that have built up during the proof.

Bring the dough back into a ball shape, then bring it back into a ball and roll it out into a fat sausage shape (just big enough to fit into your loaf tin, no bigger). You can then place the sausage shape into a prepared loaf tin and cover loosely with cling film and leave somewhere warm to proof for a second time, roughly 30-45 (or until roughly doubled in size).

Now is the ideal time to preheat your oven to 230˚c/445˚f.

Once the second proof is done, remove the cling film from the top and place the loaf into the preheated oven and baked for 30-35 minutes or until baked and well coloured.

A good tip for testing if a loaf of bread is baked, is to turn up upside down and tap the bottom, if it sounds hollow, its fully baked!

Mini Stollen

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

If it’s your first bakemas here, welcome. It is my annual mini-series in which I show you how to make a various Christmas themed baked goods – perfect if you want to impress your family and/or friends or if you’re hosting a festive get together.

Today I’m sharing my take on stollen – if you haven’t tried this bread before, you’re for sure missing out.

This bread is the perfect addition to any festive celebrations you may be having this year. It’s sweet, rich and indulgent – the perfect bake to bring to the table. I have taken inspiration from a traditional stollen that you’d find in Germany – it’s commonly eaten around Christmas time when it may be called Weihnachtsstollen.

Starting with an enriched dough, studded with a selection of dried fruit. A marzipan centre and finished with a generous amount of melted butter and a copious amount of icing sugar.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Dough:

375g strong bread flour.

1 tsp salt.

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg.

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon.

60g butter.

45g granulated sugar.

30g fresh yeast.

175ml milk.

1 egg.

1 lemon zest

85g currants.

55g raisins.

35g mixed peel.

55g glacé cherries.

40g flaked almonds.

175g marzipan.

Finishing:

melted butter.

icing sugar.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, lining baking trays with parchment paper and grab any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer, mixing bowl and spatula.

To start on the bread, grab a large mixing bowl and place in the bread flour, salt, grated nutmeg and ground cinnamon. Whisk these together until they are combined.

Then you can go ahead and add in the butter, granulated sugar, yeast, milk, egg and lemon zest. Mix everything together over a low speed to start with for 2 minutes, followed by 6 minutes over a high speed. The dough will come together but will be soft, this is because it’s enriched.

When there is about a minute left to the mixing time, you can go ahead and add in the dried fruit and flaked almonds – just mix these in until they are fully incorporated and fairly distributed throughout the dough.

Transfer the dough from the mixing bowl and place onto a well floured surface and give it a brief knead, just to incorporate some flour to help with the stickiness of the dough. Bring it back into a ball shape and place into a lightly oiled bowl, covering with clingfilm and then leaving it somewhere warm to prove for around and hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Once the dough has had its first prove, you can go ahead and remove it from the bowl and knock it back. The process of knocking the dough back is to remove the gasses that have built up in the dough during the first prove – ring the dough back into a ball shape.

Weigh the dough and divide that amount by 6 – this will be the weight for each stollen. So scale the dough to said weight and cover with clingfilm while you work on them.

Take the marzipan and divide that by 6 and form little batons – this is the centre of the stollen.

Roll your balls of dough out to be about 1cm in thickness, then on the one side place the baton of marzipan with a small space to the outer edge. Roll the dough over the marzipan until its covered and theres only a little flap on the other side (this is how I was taught to make them at college while I was there).

Repeat the process with the remaining dough and marzipan batons and then place onto lined baking trays and cover loosely with clingfilm and allow to prove until they have proved up well. While they are having the second prove, preheat your oven to 180˚c.

Now they are finished with the second prove, you can go ahead and remove the clingfilm from on top of the dough and then bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until well coloured.

Once baked, remove from the oven and place straight onto a cooling rack and generously brush with melted butter, then you can go ahead and dredge them with icing sugar, don’t be tight with the icing sugar.

Then they are ready to eat, I’d allow to cool down before you try to eat them.

Pumpkin Ring Doughnuts

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’m taking things back to basics, well a seasonal basic – pumpkin ring doughnuts.

Doughnuts are always a good idea, that’s a straight fact. These doughnuts are almost identical to a regular ring doughnut but have a less than secret ingredient in them to make them a little different – pumpkin of course (otherwise these wouldn’t be pumpkin ring doughnuts, would they?).

The doughnut dough is an enriched dough as it contains butter, egg and milk but theres also another ingredient which helps enrich the dough – pumpkin puree. On it’s own, pumpkin puree doesn’t have a very strong flavour but it helps to keep baked good moist and add a richness, you’ll understand what I mean if you’ve ever had any sort of pumpkin baked good…

I didn’t add any ground baking spices into the dough, as I found it was easy to over do the spices, a little went a long way. So instead of adding spices into the dough, I thought why not coat these doughnuts in cinnamon sugar? Trust me, that makes up for the lack of baking spices in the dough, honestly.

If these doughnuts sound like your sort of thing, why don’t you try them this autumn? I promise, you won’t regret it.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Doughnuts:

450g Strong white bread flour.

1 tsp Salt.

35g Fresh yeast.

60g Butter.

1 Egg.

100ml Milk + 50ml Water (lukewarm).

100g Pumpkin puree.

Coating:

200-250g Granulated sugar.

Ground cinnamon (use as much as little as you’d like).

Method:

Before you get into the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, cut squares of parchment paper (for the doughnuts to sit on, while proving) and get any equipment you may need ready, such as a stand mixer and a bench scraper.

To start on the recipe, you’ll want to work on the dough. Grab a mixing bowl and place in the bread flour and sale, give them a brief mix until they are incorporated.

You can then go ahead and add in the remaining ingredients, starting with the yeast, butter, egg, milk, water and pumpkin puree. Then mix everything together for 2 minutes on a low speed, followed by 6 minutes on a medium-high speed. A dough should form and be fairly soft, this is normal – this occurs due to the dough being enriched.

You can then place the dough onto a floured work surface and give it a brief knead. This is to incorporate a little more flour and alleviate the stickiness of the dough. Try your best not to incorporate too much flour, as it will ruin the texture of the doughnuts later on.

Bring the dough into a ball shape and place into a lightly oiled bowl and the leave somewhere warm to prove for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size. The amount of time this take will vary on how warm it is wherever you place the dough.

Once the dough has doubled in size, you can knock it back. This is simply the process of removing the gases that have built up in the dough during the first prove. You may find lightly flouring your work surface to knock the dough back on will be easier to work with.

After the dough has been knocked back, bring it back into a ball shape and divide by 12, these will look like regular doughnuts but don’t worry we will make them ring doughnuts easily. Make sure you round the balls of dough off and cover them with clingfilm while you turn them into ring doughnuts.

To make them ring doughnuts, take a ball of dough and roll it out until its about 1 cm in thickness, try your best to keep the doughnuts round in shape. Then using a standard piping nozzle, cut out the centre and place onto a square of parchment paper and onto a baking tray and cover loosely with clingfilm and prove until they have almost doubled in size, around 30-45 minutes should be perfect.

The one thing you should know with doughnuts its that its better to underprove them rather than overprove them, thats one of the things I remember my bread lecturer saying.

While the doughnuts are proving, you should heat the oil to 180˚c/350˚f – make sure it’s at this temperature, otherwise it’ll ruin the end result.

When your doughnuts are ready, you can place them into the oil and fry for about 60 seconds on each side – this is the perfect time for me so use that a guideline.

Once they have been fried, place onto some kitchen paper to absorb the excess grease. Leave them to cool fully, before you finish them off.

To make the cinnamon sugar, you simply place the granulated sugar and ground cinnamon into a bowl and mix together until they are fully combined.

Take your doughnuts and roll them in then cinnamon sugar, ensuring they have a good coating and then enjoy.

These doughnuts are perfect for the current time of year as they’re seasonal but these can be made all year round.

Monkey Bread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Keeping things super simple and seasonal with this monkey bread recipe. It’s super simple recipe, which is perfect for all your autumnal bread needs (or whenever you fancy something easy and sweet).

This bread is surprisingly light and fluffy, with flecks of cinnamon sugar running throughout the dough… Delightful. This can be enjoyed at any time of day, at breakfast is a real treat.

I have seen these made on various cooking tv shows in the past and never tried it before. After trying and sampling different recipes and techniques, I found a recipe that worked super well and I’m sharing it with you today!

Theres nothing not to like about this bread, it’s super easy to make, the perfect treat to make for your friends and/or family during lockdown and it’s sort of seasonal, just because of the use of cinnamon… Why don’t you get something new a try this year?

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Dough:

500g Bread flour.

5g Salt.

50g Fresh yeast.

75g Butter.

75g Granulated sugar.

15g Milk powder.

1 Egg.

175ml Milk.

Cinnamon Sugar:

150g Granulated sugar.

15-30g Ground cinnamon.

Methods:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up your ingredients, grease your bundt pan with butter and flour it and grab any other bits you may need, such as a stand mixer and a dough hook.

To start on the recipe, grab the mixing bowl and place in the flour and salt then mix the two together until they are fully combined.

Next you can add in the fresh yeast, butter, sugar, milk powder, egg and milk. Start by mixing the dough on a low speed for 2 minutes, followed by a medium-high speed for 8 minutes. Once the dough is formed, you will notice its quite soft – don’t worry too much. This is normal for this dough.

Flour your work surface with some bread flour and then add the dough onto the floured surface. Knead the dough until its smooth and elasticated, you may need to add more flour but only use as much as you actually need, try not to add too much as it will ruin the dough.

Bring the dough back into a ball shape and the place into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave somewhere warm and proof for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

While your dough is proofing, have a clean down and get tidy.

Flour your work surface with some more of the bread flour and knock the dough back. This is the process of removing the gases that have built up in the dough during the first proof. Once you have knocked the dough back, bring it back into a ball shape.

Take the ball shape and cut it in half, then section off the dough and cut small amounts off (you should have around 45-50 pieces in total). Take each piece and roll in the cinnamon sugar and place into the greased bundt pan, ensuring they are as level as possible once they are all in the pan.

Cover loosely with clingfilm and leave to prove for a second time, for around 30-45 minutes or until the dough has almost reached the top of the pan.

Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

When the time is right, remove the clingfilm from on top of the bundt pan and place the pan into the oven and bake for around 35-minutes or until golden brown on top.

Allow the bread to cool down before you remove it from the pan. Place a cooling rack on top of the bundt pan and flip it over and the bread should fall out.

Allow to cool fully cool and then enjoy!

Wholemeal Bloomer

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

While we are in the midst of autumn (and a second national lockdown pending), homemade bread is one of those simple pleasures. That’s why I’m sharing my recipe for a super simple wholemeal bloomer.

If you’re not sure what a bloomer loaf is, it’s a loaf of bread thats baked on a baking tray rather than in a tin. It’s shaped but finds its way into the perfect bloomer shape while proving – it’s not complex at all, it’s very simple.

Wholemeal bread for me just gives more of an autumnal feeling, in the strangest way it’s ‘warming’. A couple of thickly sliced bloomer with some soup – what a winning combination – give it a try and tell me otherwise.

If this sounds like something you’d like to make – grab your ingredients and have a lazy afternoon as you make this.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Wholemeal flour.

8g Salt.

25g Fresh yeast.

30g White shortening.

10g Granulated sugar.

310ml Water.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up the ingredients, lining your baking tray with parchment paper and getting any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer.

To start on the recipe, grab a mixing bowl and place in the wholemeal flour and salt – whisking the two together until they are well combined.

You can then go ahead and add in the fresh yeast, white shortening, granulated sugar and water.

Mix the ingredients together on a low speed to start with for 2 minutes, followed by 6 minutes on a medium-high speed. Once finished with the mixing process, the dough should be easy to work with (maybe a little soft/sticky, this will go away).

Now sprinkle flour onto your work surface with a small amount of wholemeal flour and place the bread dough onto it and knead until it has become smooth and elastic.

Bring the dough back into a ball shape and place into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm to prove for around 60 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

Once the dough has finished its first prove, you can go ahead and flour your work surface and knock the dough back. This is the process of removing the gases that have built up in the dough during the first prove.

After the dough has been knocked back, bring back into a ball shape then roll out into an oblong shape – cover loosely with clingfilm and leave to prove again for a further 45 minutes or until it has pretty much doubled in size.

While the dough is proving, you can get tidied up and preheat your oven to 230˚c/445˚f. You’ll know the dough has done proving as you’ll be able to gently press the dough and it’ll spring back.

After the second proof, you can remove the clingfilm from off of the dough and make score the dough. I think more traditionally its around 7 cuts but I went with 6 – if you’re making this for home, you can make as many or as few cuts as you’d like. Bake in the preheated oven for around 30-35 minutes.

To test if the bread is done, turn it upside own and tap the bottom – if it sounds hollow, thats a good sign and shows the bread is baked, remove from the oven and take off the baking tray and place onto a cooling rack to cool down fully.

Once cooled down, you can then go ahead and slice the bread to your desired thickness and enjoy it however you like.

Giant Cinnamon Roll

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Cinnamon rolls are always a good idea! So why don’t you give this giant version a go?

If you know anything about me, it’s my love for cinnamon rolls. I have purchased them from all different bakeries and made them at home (a lot) and having individual rolls are great but seeing as October is my birthday month and I’m not a huge fan of cake – this giant cinnamon roll is the perfect alternative.

There is no difference between this cinnamon roll and a batch of 12, well, apart from the size (obviously)!

This giant cinnamon roll is still a light enriched bread, filled with a cinnamon butter filling and topped with a tangy cream cheese icing – what’s not to like about it? If you don’t like cinnamon rolls, I think you best leave my blog… Soz.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Bread:

500g Strong white bread flour.

8g Salt.

50g Fresh yeast.

75g Butter.

75g Granulated sugar.

15g Milk powder.

1 Egg,

175ml Water (Luke warm).

Cinnamon Filling:

250g Light brown sugar.

250g Butter.

25g Ground cinnamon.

Cream Cheese Icing:

85g Soft cheese.

60g Butter.

200g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Methods:

Before you get into any baking, you’ll want to do some prep work first. Take the time to weigh up all the ingredients, lightly oil a bowl and get any equipment you may need ready, such as a stand mixer and spatula. When the times appropriate, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

To start on the bread dough, place the bread flour and salt into a mixing bowl and give it all a good mix to incorporate the two together.

You can then go ahead and place the remaining ingredients into the bowl, then mix everything together on a low speed to start with, for around 2 minutes. Followed by a further 6 minutes on a medium-high speed.

Once a dough has formed, it should be soft and may be sticky (try not to add any more flour, unless its very sticky).

Generously flour your work surface with bread flour and place the dough onto it, giving a brief knead just to incorporate some of the flour to elevate some of the stickiness of the dough.

Make sure you bring the dough back into a ball shape and place into the lightly oiled bowl, then cover with cling film and leave somewhere warm to proof for the first time.

While your dough is proofing for the first time, you can go ahead and get fully cleaned down and prepare your 10 inch round baking tin (I like to use a springform pan but feel free to use whatever you have) with parchment paper.

You can also make the cinnamon sugar filling. To make the filling, grab a bowl and place the butter, light brown sugar and cinnamon into a mixing bowl. Whisk everything together until everything is combined and you can’t see a trace of a single ingredient – set aside until needed, later on (you may want to place it into the fridge).

Once the dough has completed its first proof, you’ll want to generously flour your worktop and place the dough onto it. You can then knock the dough back – this is just the process of removing the gases that have built up in the dough.

Onto a floured work surface, bring the dough into a ball shape and start to roll the dough out using a rolling pin. The dough may resist being rolled out, this is a sign that the gluten has formed, this is a good sign. You’ll want to roll the dough out to roughly 40cm x 60cm.

Take the cinnamon sugar filling and spread it all over the dough, until you have a generous and level amount spread on the dough.

Now the cinnamon filling has been spread all over the dough, you can slice the dough into 5 equal (ish) parts and start to roll the dough up. Start with a piece and keep it as tight, so the swirls of cinnamon will be consistent – where the one piece of dough ends, you’ll want to start with another piece until you have used all of your dough up.

Place onto/into your prepared 10 inch round cake tin and loosely with clingfilm and proof for about 45-60 minutes or until it has proofed well. While it’s proofing, you can go ahead and preheat the oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

After the second proof, you can go ahead and remove the clingfilm and place into your preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the bread is a golden brown colour.

Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool fully before you finish it off. Now is the perfect time to make the cream cheese icing.

Into your mixing bowl of choice, place the butter and icing sugar and beat them together until they are lighter combined. Once they are combined, you can then go ahead and add in all of the cream cheese and mix over a medium-high speed until everything ins well combined and a spreadable consistency.

Place in the fridge until your cinnamon has almost cooled down.

To finish the cinnamon roll, make sure your cinnamon roll is still slightly warm (the cream cheese icing will seep into it). Take the cream cheese icing and spread it all over the cinnamon roll (use as much or as little as you’d like, its really your preference).

Allow the icing to harden/skin over and then enjoy – this is the perfect alternative to a birthday cake for those like myself who don’t really like cake!

50/50 Bread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you eat a lot of bread and want to try something a little different, why don’t you give this 50/50 bread a try? You get the best of white and wholemeal bread in one loaf – what’s not to like about that?

This bread is perfect for those who just like bread. If you like wholemeal but find it too heavy or you like white bread but want something a little healthier, why not combine the two and get a loaf of bread thats lighter than wholemeal and a little healthier than white bread – that way you get the best of both worlds!

I know that this bread is readily available in most supermarkets in the UK (I’m not sure about else where in the world) but why buy something filled with preservatives an added nasties when you can make it yourself, pretty easily at home? It’ takes next to no time, perfect for those lazy winter days/nights that are coming up!

This is the perfect loaf of give a go if you’re new to bread making as it can be made by hand or stand mixer (no bread machines, they’re honestly a waste of time). It uses only simple ingredients, which if you’re a baker should have in anyway, so why not try something new? At the time of making this recipe the UK was in a national lockdown, so was using everything I had in storage up before I bought more (when this recipe is due to be shared, there will probably be new guidelines and some sort of lockdown, so use the time to learn a new skill).

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

250g Strong White bread flour.

250g Wholemeal flour.

5g Salt.

18g Fresh yeast.

30g White shortening.

12g Milk powder.

10g Granulated sugar.

310ml Water.

Methods:

Before you get into this recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up your ingredients, lining a loaf tin with a strip of parchment paper and getting any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and scotch scraper ready.

To start, grab your mixing bowl and place in the white flour, wholemeal flour and salt. Give them a brief mix together until they are combined.

You can then go ahead and add in the fresh yeast, white shortening, milk powder, granulated sugar and water and then mix on a low speed for 2 minutes followed by a high speed for a further 6-8 minutes, depending on how your dough is looking. The dough should be well formed and not sticky – the bowl will be almost perfectly clean.

Lightly flour your work surface with some flour and just give the dough a brief knead just to ensure the dough is fully ready.

Then place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and leave somewhere warm and leave it somewhere warm for around 60 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size. Please use the time I have given as a guide, depending on the climate of your location, it may take more or less time to prove up.

While the dough is proving for the first time, its the perfect time to get cleaned up and ready to work with the dough again.

Once the dough has proved, you can then take it from the bowl and place onto a lightly floured work surface and knock it back. This is just process of removing the gases rear built up in the dough during the first proof. Bring the dough back into a ball shape and roll into a fat sausage shape, just big enough to fit into a loaf tin.

Place the dough into the lined loaf pan and cover loosely with clingfilm and prove for a second time, this time for around 45 minutes or until the dough has proofed up nicely.

While the dough is have its second proof, you can go ahead and preheat your oven to 230˚c/445˚f.

Once the dough has finished its second proof, you can go ahead and remove the clingfilm from the top of the dough. Place it in the preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the bread has become well coloured.

To check if the bread is fully baked, turn it out of the loaf pan and tap the bottom. When you tap the bottom, it should sound hollow. If it doesn’t, place it back in the oven to bake for a little longer.

Otherwise, you’re done! If you can resist cutting into the bread while its warm, wait until its fully cooled down and then enjoy it as if it were a loaf of normal bread.

Apple & Blackberry Loaf

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

This weeks bread recipe is for something a little bit different – today I’ll be sharing my recipe for a blackberry and apple loaf!

When I say this recipe is a little different, it’s because the bread is naturally coloured purple and this is through the use of blackberries (which are still in season, I think). Normally when you add additional ingredients which may colour or tint the dough don’t add that much colour, this isn’t the case with blackberries.

This bread is made with an enriched dough, which means it’s going to taste good (the addition of butter and eggs) – this recipe also features fresh blackberries and dried apple. I like to use dried apple as it allows you to have the flavour but not the moisture of fresh apples – when you add too much moisture into a recipe, you have to balance the amounts out and it can get confusing very quickly. To make a long story short, use dried apples instead of fresh for this recipe.

I know that this flavour combination is a little out there and you may associate it with more sweet dishes like a apple and blackberry crumble, it’s very well balanced and tastes amazing once baked – you’ll have to trust me on that one!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Strong white bread flour.

50g Fresh yeast.

75g Butter.

75g Granulated sugar.

15g Milk powder.

1 Egg.

150ml Water (Luke warm).

100g Fresh blackberries.

20-30g Freeze dried apples (I use Liobites).

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, lining a loaf tin with parchment paper and get any equipment you may need ready, such as a stand mixer (or mixing bowl) and spatulas.

I like to start with the dough. To make the dough you’ll want to start with taking a mixing bowl and place in the bread flour and salt, giving them a brief mix just to combine the two.

Then place the remaining ingredients into the bowl and mix them all together on a low speed to start with (for 2 minutes approx), working your way to a high speed (for 6 minutes) until a dough has formed. The dough should be soft, if it’s sticky, don’t worry too much, we should be able to fix this in a little bit.

Flour the work surface with a generous amount of bread flour and place the dough onto it. Knead the dough until the dough is smooth and elasticated. This may take some time, but the dough will become easier to work with as some of that flour is incorporated.

Place the dough into the lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl with cling-film and allow to proof until the dough has doubled in size, for me this is usually about an hour but depending on the climate where you live this time may require adjusting.

Once the dough has completed its first proof, you’ll want to generously flour your worktop and place the dough onto it. You can then knock the dough back, this is just the process of removing the gases that had built up during the first proof.

You can then go ahead and bring the dough into a ball shape, then roll it into a fat sausage shape or a loaf shape, just big enough to fit into a standard loaf pan.

Cover loosely with clingfilm and place somewhere warm to proof for a second time. The dough should only need about 45-60 minutes but depends on the climate where you live – if you live somewhere warmer, the dough will proof quicker.

Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, around 15 minutes before you intend to use the oven.

After the dough has proofed, it should be well risen and ready for the oven. Just before you place it into the oven, sprinkle over some oats and then go ahead place it into your preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven and empty straight onto a cooling rack and tap the bottom of the loaf – if it sounds hollow, thats a good sign and shows the bread is baked.

Allow to cool until fully cooled down, then you can slice it up and enjoy it however you like. I like it toasted with butter but you can use it however you like!

Sourdough Bread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

This week for the bread recipe, I’ll be sharing my recipe for a super easy sourdough loaf at home!

You may remember that last week, I shared my sourdough starter recipe with you – this is a very important component in sourdough bread. So, if you want to make a batch of sourdough bread, you will need to make a starter.

This style of bread has gained popularity over the past few years, even being sold at smaller craft/artisan bakeries but what’s the point in that? You can make it home with some time and effort… Don’t get me wrong, it may take you a couple of attempts to get a loaf that looks like a bakery style version but trust me, it’s fully worth it.

The thing I love about this bread is how easy it is to make and the simplicity of the ingredients you need to make such a recipe. All the ingredients I mention below are pantry essentials, so you should have most of them in. This is honestly one of the perfect recipes to make if you’re looking for something to make that doesn’t require a lot of your time, the perfect weekend bake!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

250g Strong white flour.

4g Salt.

125g Sourdough starter.

125ml Water.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep. Make sure that you have made a sourdough starter and it’s at the perfect place to work with, weigh up all your ingredients and grab anything else you may need like a mixing bowl and a scotch scraper.

To start on the dough, you’ll want to grab your sour starter and test it to ensure its ready to be used. All you need to do for the test is get a small bowl of water and scoop a teaspoon or table spoon of the sour starter into it – you’re looking for it to float. If it doesn’t, then your starter isn’t correct and you will need to make it again.

Into a clean large mixing bowl, you will want to add the water and sourdough starter and mix together until combined using a spatula or a whisk (whichever works best for you).

Then you can go ahead and add in the bread flour and salt and mix the dough by hand until everything is fully combined and a dough has formed. The thing to note about this dough is the fact it’s fairly wet/loose – this is normal and will partially fix itself later on.

You can the cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave it at room temperature to ferment for about 60 minutes (or until it has risen well).

Take the dough and place it onto a lightly floured or lightly oiled work surface and use a scotch scraper to round and smooth the dough out – you will want to try and not to handle the dough too much, use a scraper to do most of the work. Once you have achieved a smooth ball, set aside for a moment while your prepare the next stage.

For the net stage, you can use a fancy proofing basket which cost £25+ online or a simple hack is to use a medium sized bowl and place a clean cotton tea-towel inside. Flour the tea-towel well with some bread flour. Place the ball of dough into the tea-towel upside down, so the bottom of the dough is showing, then flour the side of the dough you can see with more bread flour and cover with the remaining tea-towel.

Leave somewhere at room temperature and leave to proof until the dough is almost touching the top of the bowl, around 40-60 minutes was the sweet spot for me but that time may vary, depending on the climate of where you live.

When the dough has almost reached completion, you can go ahead and preheat your oven to 230˚c/445˚f – you can also place a small baking pan of water onto the bottom of the oven at this point.

Once it has proofed, you can then go ahead and line a baking tray with paper and place them directly on top of the bowl, then flip it over so the tray is on the work surface and the bowl is on top. Remove the bowl and gently remove the tea-towel (if you didn’t flour the tea bowl very well, it will stick to the tea-towel and ruin all of the work you have put into it).

Take a sharp small blade or knife and cut the dough however you like. I went with a super simple and straightforward cut across the middle.

Then you will want to take a metal bowl, one thats ovenproof and big enough to fit over the dough and place directly over the dough and place into the oven, then bake.

After about 20 minutes, you’ll want to remove the tray of water and the metal bowl from on top of the bread, them bake for the remainder of the time.

Once it is out of the oven, you can then leave it cool completely on a cooling rack.

Slice into it and enjoy!

Bread

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