Bread

Baguettes

Keeping it super simple with my recipe for the simplest baguettes/batons/french sticks ever… I promise you they’re easy and cheap to make.

These are readily available normally at bakeries but with the current situation in the world and everybody suddenly becoming bakers, people are doing more home baking. Plus who doesn’t like fresh homemade bread?!

You only need 4 simple ingredients, thats really it. Nothing special or fancy, just a very basic recipe with tasty end results, sometimes simplicity is the key to success. Especially when it comes to baking.

I was thinking of compiling a blog post with ‘baking basic’ recipes, perfect for everybody to make and try. Is this something you’d be interested in?

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Strong white bread flour.

8g Salt.

15g Fresh yeast.

290ml Water, warmed.

Method:

Before you get into making the baguettes, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all your ingredients, prepare your baguettes trays (only if its needed) and get your equipment ready, I recommend a mixing bowl.

To start on the dough, grab a mixing bowl and place the flour and salt into it. Give the two of them a good mix until they are fully incorporated.

Then you can go ahead and add in the yeast and water. If you’re using a stand mixer, mix on a low speed for 2 minutes, followed by 4 minutes on a medium-high speed.

Once mixed, the dough should be clear and leave the bowl almost spotlessly clean.

On a lightly floured surface, give the dough a brief knead just to make it smooth and elastic, bring the dough into a ball.

Give a clean mixing bowl a light brushing with some flavourless/colourless oil and place the dough into it. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm and allow the dough to proof for roughly around and hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

After it has proofed, you can flour your work surface and place the dough onto it and you can knock it back. This is simply the process of removing the gases that have built up in the dough while it was proofing (plus it shows the yeast you were using is active and not dead). Bring the dough back into a ball.

Now you can scale your dough up into 275g balls, round them off into a ball shape and cover with clingfilm (so a skin doesn’t form on top).

Roll the balls out to long sausage shapes, keeping them as consistent as possible. Only roll them out to be as long as the baguette tray you’re using. Once they are rolled out, you can then place them onto the trays and cover loosely with clingfilm.

Allow to proof for a further 30-45 minutes (or until they are well risen). While your bread is proofing for the second time, it’s the ideal time to preheat the oven to 230˚c/445˚f.

Once they have finished the second proof, remove the clingfilm and get a sharp serrated edged knife. Using the knife, slash 3 cuts into each baguette, then place into your preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes (your oven may or may not need more or less time, use the baking times as a guide).

Now they are baked, you can allow them to cool fully on the tray, then enjoy them as a filled baguette or turn them into garlic bread, which is what I’ll be doing next week, so join me then.

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.

Flour Tortillas

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’m sharing a recipe for these super simple flour tortillas.

These are super simple and require minimal ingredients and with a little time, you’ll have a batch of fresh tortillas. A freshly homemade tortilla blows the store bought version out of the water.

These aren’t the most authentic but during lockdown and I wanted to make some quesadillas. The one thing that can be changed with the recipe is the lard, you can replace it with butter, shortening or flavourless oil – any of them will work well, just use the same amount.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

300g Plain flour.

7g Baking powder.

3g Salt.

30g Lard, melted.

180ml Milk.

Method:

Before you get started, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all your ingredients and get any equipment you may need, such as a mixing bowl and a spatula.

To start, grab yourself a medium mixing bowl and place in the plain flour, baking powder and salt. Give them a mix, just until they are incorporated.

Then you can go ahead and add in the melted lard and the milk. Mix until a rough dough forms, once you’ve got a rough dough, place the dough onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth.

Transfer the dough into the mixing bowl and cover with a damp cloth or tea towel, allowing to rest for about 30 minutes.

After they have rested, weigh up your dough on the scales and divide it by 10. Scale each ball of dough off at the required weight and place onto a plate, keeping them covered with some clingfilm, allowing them to rest for about 10 minutes.

While the dough is resting, you can clean down and place a large frying pan onto the hob, over a high heat (no fat or oil needed).

After the resting period, take your balls of dough and roll them out to be 8-9 inches, thats the perfect size. If you want them bigger, I recommend dividing the dough by 8 instead of 10.

Take one of your dough roll outs and place into the hot frying pan, allow to sit on each side for a couple of minutes, or until it puffs up and starts to colour well. If the air bubbles are too big, pop them.

They should be golden brown and look like the perfect tortilla, cook the remaining tortillas and stack them, keep them in a airtight container and used within 2 days.

These tortillas are totally worth the time they take, they are ideal to make while in lockdown as they are quick, easy and only require a few ingredients.

Milk Bread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you’re looking for an easy bread recipe, look no further. Today I’m sharing my recipe for milk bread – it’s perfect for all of your bread needs, especially toasted with some salted butter.

If you have been here a while, you may have noticed that the bread recipes I’m sharing at the moment have gone back to basics. I have decided to take the recipes back to basic, especially seeing as we are currently in the midst of a lockdown and more people are baking at home. You will not need many ingredients, this loaf is as simple as my white bread recipe.

Will you be trying to make bread at home while you have the time?

You’ll notice that this recipe is using dried yeast and that is because I didn’t have any fresh, when it comes to converting from fresh to dried yeast, you simple use half the amount. Example 20g of fresh yeast would be 10g of dried yeast.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Strong bread flour.

8g Salt.

10g Dried yeast.

20g White shortening/butter.

40g Milk powder.

290g Water, warm.

Methods:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’re best to do some prep work. Strat by weighing up all of your ingredients, lining a loaf tin with a strip of parchment paper, lightly oiling a large mixing bowl with some flavourless oil and getting any equipment you may need, such as stand mixer.

Into a large mixing bowl, place the bread flour and the salt, then give the two a good whisk together until they are fully incorporated.

You can then go ahead and add in the yeast, shortening, milk powder and water. Start the mixer on a low speed to start (for approx. 2 minutes), then crank the speed up to a medium speed (mix for approx. 4 minutes) – after the roughly 6 minutes mixing time, the dough should be a clear dough (it’s left no traces in the bowl) and easy to work with.

Flour your work surface with some bread flour and give it a good knead until its smooth and elastic.

Once it’s smooth an elastic, place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave it somewhere warm for about 60 minutes or until its doubled in size.

After the dough has had its first proof, you can go ahead and knock it back. This is simply the process of removing the gasses that have built up in the dough during the first proof (and it shows the yeast was working).

Once it has been knocked back, bring it into a ball shape and then weigh your dough and divide equally by 3. Take those balls of dough and round them off and cover with cling film and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Take one of the dough balls and roll it out into a sausage shape, it should be about 20 inches in length. Repeat this for the remaining dough balls.

Now you have all of your dough sausages, you’ll want to do a 3 strand plait. This is probably the easiest one to do, if you don’t know how to do a plait, just watch my youtube video for how to do it.

Grab the plait and place it into your line loaf tin, ensuring the ends of the plait are underneath. Cover loosely with clingfilm and allow to proof for a further 40-60 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

When there is about 10 minutes left to the proofing process, preheat your oven to 200˚c/390˚f.

After the second proof, remove the clingfilm from on top of the dough and egg wash the top of the dough, then place into a preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. At which point it should be well coloured and smell great.

Once the baking is done, remove from the oven and remove from the tin straight away, otherwise it may make the bread soggy. Allow to cool completely and then you can slice it as thickly or thinly as you’d like. I enjoy mine toasted with salted butter – how about you?

White Bread Recipe | Easy Bread Recipe | Homemade White Bread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Another week means another bread recipe and today I’m keeping it really simple. I’m showing you how to make a simple homemade white loaf.

This loaf is honestly one of the easiest breads to make. You only need a handful of ingredients, some time and a loaf tin… That’s all you need.

The recipe I’m about to share is the exact same one that I used for my very first loaf of bread. Back in 2013 I started a bakery college course and in the very first bread practical lesson we made a simple white loaf from scratch by hand… I was thrown in at the deep end.

I’m by no means Paul Hollywood but I know a thing to two about bread baking.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Strong white bread flour.

8g Salt.

10g Fresh yeast.

10g White shortening (Trex or Crisco works well).

300ml Water, warmed (blood temperature).

Methods:

Before you get into making this loaf of bread, you’ll want to do some simple preparation. Start by weighing up all your ingredients, grabbing your load tin and getting any other bits of equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer.

Into your mixing bowl, place the flour and salt and give them a brief mix, just to incorporate them.

Then you can go ahead and add in the fresh yeast, white shortening and water and start the mixer on a low speed to start and mix for approx 2 minutes, then crank the speed up to a medium-low and mix for a further 6 minutes and by this point the dough should be smooth and leave the bowl almost perfectly clean.

Give the dough a brief knead on a lightly floured surface, just bring the dough into a smooth ball.

You can then transfer the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and then cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm to proof for around an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Once the dough has finished its first proofing period, you can lightly flour a work surface and place the dough directly onto it. Push the dough to remove the gasses that have built up during the first proof.

Next, you’ll want to bring the dough back into a ball shape, then you can roll it out slightly into a fat sausage shape (only roll it out to the size of your loaf pan). Once you’ve done that, you can go ahead and loosely cover the dough with some clingfilm and leave to proof for about 30-45 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

While the dough is proofing for the second time, 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.

Homemade Wholemeal Bread | Whole Wheat Bread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today’s recipe is a super simple one, which is perfect for all of you who are getting into baking – especially bread baking.

I know that bread baking can initially seem like a long and rigorous process but it’s actually pretty straight forward. You only need a handful of ingredients and a bit of time (let’s be honest, considering that most of us are staying home) you can take the time and give this loaf a bash.

From my experience, wholemeal bread can feel heavy and quite stodgy but this recipe makes for quite a soft and light loaf, which is 100% better than the commercially available stuff.

If you have the time, you should certainly look into making bread from scratch. It’s worth the time you put in and is by far more cost effective compared to something at a bakery – use your time wisely and get baking!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Wholemeal bread flour.

40g Fresh yeast.

8g Salt.

30g Shortening (Trex or Crisco will work well).

10g Granulated sugar.

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, such as a mixing bowl.

To start on the dough, take your mixing bowl and place in the wholemeal flour along with the salt and give the two a brief mix, just to incorporate the two.

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

If you’re using a stand mixer like me, I recommend using a low speed to start with, for roughly 2 minutes, then crank the speed up to a medium low and mix for a further 6 minutes – that’s 8 minutes in total.

By this point, the dough should be well formed and the bowl should be pretty clean (just a bit of residual flour at the top of the bowl).

Give the dough a brief knead on a floured surface, then place the dough into a lightly oiled mixing bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm to proof for around hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Once the dough has had time to proof and is ready, you can remove it from the bowl and place it onto a floured surface and knock it back. This is simply the process of removing the gasses that have built up in the dough during the first proof and shows that the yeast is working.

You can then bring the dough back into a ball shape by folding it in on itself. Then you can go ahead and roll the ball into a fat sausage shape, roll it out large enough so it fits into your loaf tin lengthwise.

Place the dough into your loaf tin and loosely cover with clingfilm and leave to proof for a second time for about 30-45 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size again.

While the dough is proofing, you can preheat your oven to 230˚/445˚f.

Once the second proof is done, you can go ahead and remove the clingfilm from on top of the dough and place the loaf into the preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minuses or until the crust has become well coloured.

If I remember anything from college is that to test if the bread is baked, you simply remove it from the tin and tin it upside and tap the bottom. You’re looking for a hollow sound, that means it’s fully baked.

Crusty Sesame Seed Dinner Rolls

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’ll be showing you how to make a batch of crusty sesame seed rolls, they are super easy to make and only require a handful of ingredients – what’s not to like?

If you have been around since the start of the year, you may remember I started my bread series. This series was going to be showing you how to make all different sorts of bread, progressing onto more complex recipes as the year goes on but with the current coronavirus situation, I have decided to take it back to basics, at least for now. I’ll be showing you how to make the few essentials to get you through this time.

This recipe was actually request by a lovely viewer over on my YouTube channel.

I had been planning to simplify my content and had the perfect request – talk about timing right? Anyway, if you have any requests, feel free to let me know via my blog, my socials or on YouTube – I’d love to hear from you.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Strong white bread flour.

8g Salt.

18g Fresh yeast/7g dried yeast.

30g White shortening.

300ml Water.

Method:

Before you get into the recipe, you’re best to do some prep work. I recommend you start by weighing up all your ingredients, this will honestly save you making mistakes. You should also get any equipment you intend to use ready, such as a stand mixer and a spatula. You may also wish to line your baking tray, but this is completely optional. You will also want to place a 500ml jug of water into the fridge – I’ll explain why later on.

To start on the recipe, grab your mixing bowl of choice and place the bread flour and the salt into it. Give the two a brief mix, just to incorporate the two (if you don’t, the salt has a tendency to deactivate the yeast if they come into direct contact).

You can then go ahead and add in the white shortening (trex here in the UK but any sort of white vegetable fat will work), yeast and water into the bowl and start to mix the mixture on a medium-low speed to start and mix for 5-7 minutes or until a clean dough forms. By clean dough, I mean it should leave next to nothing in the bowl (just a residual bit of flour towards the top of the bowl).

Once your dough is ready, you can flour your work surface and give the dough a brief knead just until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Then you can take a clean large mixing bowl and lightly oil it with a flavourless oil and place the dough into it and cover with clingfilm and place somewhere warm and allow the dough to proof for around 45-1 hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Once the first proof is done, you can then go ahead and flour your work surface again. Then knock the dough back – this is simply the process of removing the gases that have built up in the dough during the first proof (also shows the yeast is alive and working). knead the dough back into a ball shape, then cover with the clingfilm while you process it.

So, take the total weigh of the dough and divide that by 12 – this will make 12 perfectly sized dinner rolls. Scale the dough off into the correct portion size, it was 70g per roll for me but yours may be slightly more or less. Round the balls of dough off using your palm, the side of your hand and the work surface, they should be smooth balls of dough.

Now take each of the balls and dip tops of them in sesame seeds (you don’t need a lot of them, 50g-100g goes pretty far), then transfer onto a baking tray (I lined mine but this is optional). Make sure you keep them covered loosely with some clingfilm, mostly so they don’t skin over.

Leave them to proof for a further 45-60 minutes or until they are well risen and are batching together – this is also the perfect time to preheat your oven to 230˚c/445˚f. For these rolls to be crusty, you need to make steam in the oven. Of course, not everybody (including me) has a fancy oven with a steam feature or a small proofer at home but don’t worry. While the oven is preheating, place a small tin (not a loose bottomed one) on the very bottom of the oven, allowing it to get hot in the process.

Once your rolls have finished the second proof, remove the clingfilm that was on-top and place into your preheated oven and bake them off for 25-30 minutes or until the are well coloured – just before you shut the oven door, remove the jug of water from the fridge and carefully pour it into the tin that is hot. This will sizzle but will also create steam while the door is shut, so don’t open the door until they are baked!

Now they are baked, simply transfer the rolls from the baking tray onto a cooling rack. This will stop them baking any further – then if you can resist, leave them to cool fully to enjoy the fully flavour.

There you go, a simple and straight forward recipe for you to make while you’re in quarantine and trust me, by the time this period of time is over, you’ll never go back to buying bread, you’ll get use to freshly made better quality bread.

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 Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.

Lardy Cake | Lardy Bread Recipe

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’m bringing you a recipe which you’ll either love or hate, there is honestly no in-between on it. Today I’m showing you how to make lardy cake (or you may know it as lardy bread).

If you haven’t ever heard of lardy cake, well I’ll tell you what it is. It’s a layered bread which has a sweet lard and dried fruit filling. If you like the smell/taste of lard, then this is the treat for you. I personally don’t like it, as the smell and taste is just not for me, but if you like consistency and ‘sticks to the roof of your mouth’ feel to it, then feel free to make yourself a batch.

As mentioned above, this is made with lard, which for me personally is a big no-no. This is quite a traditional recipe, it’s not so popular here in the Midlands but in the south and south west it’s still pretty popular and can be purchased from shops there.

If lard isn’t you thing, you can make this with butter but it isn’t really then a lardy cake, it’s a butter version.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Dough:

500g Strong white bread flour.

8g Salt.

55g Fresh yeast.

50g Light brown sugar.

50g Lard.

275ml Water, warmed.

Filling:

250g Lard.

250g Light brown sugar.

200g Mixed dried fruit.

Glaze:

200g Granulated sugar.

200ml Water.

Methods:

Before you get into the recipe, you should do some prep work. Start by weighing up all your ingredients, lining your 8×8 inch square tin with some parchment and getting any equipment you may need ready, such as a stand mixer and spatula.

To start on the dough, grab your mixing bowl and place in the strong white bread flour, along with the salt and give it a mi until they are fully incorporated.

Then you can go ahead and add in the yeast, light brown sugar, lard and water and mix on a medium-low speed until a clear dough forms, this will normally be achieved after about 5-6 minutes of mixing (using a dough hook).

Flour your work surface with a small amount of bread flour and give the dough a brief knead, just until its smooth and elastic.

Now you can take the dough and place it into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave it somewhere to proof for around 60 minutes or until well proofed up.

While your dough is proofing, you can make the sweet lardy filling.

Grab a clean mixing bowl and into it place the lard and light brown sugar, then beat them together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once you’ve achieved that, you can give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked in.

Once your dough is ready, you can knock it back. This is simply the processor removing the gases that have built up in the dough during the first proof. Once knocked back bring back into a ball of dough.

Next, you can roll the dough out to be 30cm x 18cm, it’ should be rectangular in shape. You may notice that the dough keeps springing back to its original shape while you’re rolling it out – this is normal and shows that the gluten has developed. Be persistent and you’ll achieve it in the end, use a little more force if you’re struggling.

Now you can add all of your lard mixture on top of the dough and spread it out to get as consistent level as possible, I find using a small cranked/offset palette knife works really well. Then you can scatter the mixed dried fruit on top of the dough.

This is where it gets interesting. You’ll want to give the dough a book fold, rotate it 90˚ so the middle fold has gone from vertical to horizontal and give it 1 half turn.

Pin the dough so it fits your 8×8 inch cake tin, which has been lined. you may need to pin it into the corners but it should fit pretty snugly.

Cut into the dough using a scotch scraper so you end up with 16 equally sized squares.

Cover the lardy cake and leave to proof up for around 30-45 minutes or until well proofed up. Now is the ideal time to make the glaze that goes on top of the cake once it’s baked.

To make the syrup, place the sugar and water into a saucepan and place on the hob over a medium-high heat and allow it to come to a boil, once thats achieved and the mixture has achieved a thicker consistency, you can take it off the heat and leave it until its needed later on – also preheat your oven to 210˚c/410˚f.

Once the second proof is done, you can then remove the cling film and lace straight into your preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minuets or until it’s a golden brown colour.

Now its out of the oven, grab your syrup you made earlier on and generously brush it over the top of the lardy cake.

Then scatter over some granulated sugar.

That’s all you can do until later. Once cooled down fully, you can go ahead and cut it up, where the lard has soaked through it’s quite dense and sticks to the roof of your mouth.

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 Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.

Crumpets

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today, I’ll be showing you how to make a batch of crumpets – they’re really easy to make and having all the time in the world, why not knock a batch up?

I was hungry the other day and really wanted crumpets, but it’s not an essential is it? So, I found my old college work books and looked for a recipe. Low and behold, there was a recipe for crumpets! I hadn’t made these since I was in maybe first or second year of college… You’re looking a 6 or 7 years ago (yikes).

Anyway, if you’re not sure what a crumpet is, are you alright? Crumpets (or sometimes known as pikelets. I think this is a regional thing, here in the West Midlands, they are known by both names) are a small yeasted breakfast bread, which is baked on a hot plate (or frying pan). They are instantly recognisable as they have holes all over the top of them, this allows whatever you spread on them to permeate through – salted butter is the way to go with these, it’s a classic.

These are normally pretty readily available in the supermarkets but with the current Covid-19 situation, finding anything is still pretty difficult. That’s why making your own is the best thing to do – plus that way, you know what’s going into your food and it tastes a lot better!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Strong bread flour.

530ml Water, at 37˚c/99˚f.

25g Fresh yeast.

8g Salt.

25g Sugar.

155ml Water, at 37˚c/99˚f.

Method:

Before you get into making these crumpets, you’re best to do some prep work. Start by weighing up your ingredients and getting any equipment you may need, such as a whisk and mixing bowl.

To start own the crumpets, grab yourself a large mixing bowl and into it place the flour and salt. Then give them a good mix until they are combined.

Then you can go ahead and add in the yeast, sugar and 530ml of water. Whisk until a smooth batter forms, this isn’t like other breads as it’s a loose consistency but it’s completely normal.

Once smooth, you can go ahead and cover the bowl with some clingfilm (or like I have, a plastic food bag because I ran out of clingfilm) and leave somewhere warm to ferment for 40-50 minutes.

You will notice that the mixture will have risen well and look a little messy, that’s perfect. The fermenting time is done.

Go ahead and add in the second weight of water, which is 155ml and whisk until the water has been fully incorporated and the batter is perfectly smooth.

The mixture needs between 5-10 minutes to rest, so just leave uncovered on the side while you prepare the frying pan.

Grab yourself a small/medium frying pan and a 10cm/4 inch egg ring/bottomless cake tin. My egg rings weren’t deep sided enough, so made a slightly bigger crumpet using my 4 inch cake tin.

Lightly grease your frying pan and the ring you’re using and place the ring in the drying pan over a medium heat on the hob..

Once the frying pan is preheated, you can go ahead and pour the batter in, filling the ring about 1/3 of the way full as these do rise a little while baking.

You will think nothing is happening at first but as they start to bake, you’ll notice bubbles start to form all on top of the crumpet, thats perfect. This happens over a few minutes, once they are almost done, you should be able to burst a bubble in the centre and it won’t fill back in, if it does, it needs longe.

Once they have done on the one side, remove the ring and flip onto the other side just to colour and finish them off.

Now that it’s done, transfer onto a cooling rack. Although these can be enjoyed while fresh, I preferred to let mine cool fully and then reheat them in the toaster and slather in butter.

From this amount of batter, you should be able to make around 10 generously size crumpets. These are way better than the ones you can buy from the supermarket – let me tell you.

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 Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.

Cheese and Bacon Hot Cross Buns

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Easter is only a few weeks away and with the country being on lockdown due to the coronavirus, why not stay in and make a batch of hot cross buns? I promise, they’re pretty easy and don’t require a lot of ingredients.

How is the self-isolating going? Family or friends driving you nuts yet? Why don’t you get in the kitchen and make a batch of these hot cross buns up! They are different to the traditional hot cross bun, as they are savoury. A ‘traditional’ hot cross bun is made with mixed dried fruit and spices, where as this one has cheese and bacon – quite the difference, huh?

The flavours are simple, mostly because you can add too many flavours to a bread and it simply ruins it but feel free to add whatever you like to the dough.

There is one thing I wanted to say about this recipe and the next few coming up. They were recorded before the coronavirus really started to impact everyday life and when you could go to the supermarket and buy whatever you needed (hope you panic buyers are happy with what you’ve got). I didn’t want anyone to think I was being insensitive with what I was making, especially now that ingredients are getting harder and harder to find.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Strong bread flour.

5g Salt.

50g Fresh yeast.

75g Butter.

50g Granulated sugar.

1 Egg.

175ml Water, warm.

100g Cheddar cheese.

75g Bacon, cooked and chopped small.

Cross paste:

Bread flour.

Water.

Method:

Before you get into making the buns, you’re best to do some prep work. Weigh up all your ingredients, lightly oil a large mixing bowl and get any equipment you may need ready, such as a stand mixer and a spatula.

Into a large mixing bowl, place the flour and salt and give it all a good whisk together, just until the two ingredients are fully incorporated.

Go ahead and add the remaining ingredients, except for the cheese and bacon into the bowl and then start to mix it on a low speed (the second or third lowest is ideal) and mix for 5-6 minutes or until a clear dough forms.

Then you can go ahead and add the cheese and bacon and mix for a further 1-2 minutes, or until they are fairly distributed within the dough.

Flour your work surface with some bread flour and then place the dough on top of it. Give the dough a brief knead, just until the dough is smooth and elastic. Bring it into a ball shape.

You can then transfer the dough into your lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film and leave it somewhere warm to proof for roughly an hour or until doubled in size.

Once the dough has doubled in size, you’ll want to knock the dough back. Start by lightly flouring your work surface with some bread flour and place the dough onto it and press down the dough to remove the gases that have built up in the dough during the first proof.

Now it’s been knocked back, you can bring it back into a ball shape and cover with cling film to prevent a skin forming on the dough.

Take the weight of the dough and divide it by 12, then scale the dough up into 12 equal portions and round the balls of dough up into a smooth and well shaped ball then place onto a lined baking tray.

On the tray, you should be able to place 12 buns easily, stick to using the 3 across by 4 down layout. Leave an equal amount of space between the buns as they will batch while proofing and baking.

Now if the ideal time to preheat your oven to 200˚c/390˚f and to make the cross paste. To make the paste, simple add a small amount of flour into a bowl and add as much water as required. Mixing well in between, make sure the paste is thick enough to hold its shape but is loose enough to pipe easily.

Cover with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm for roughly 45-60 minutes or until they are well risen (if they’re batching, thats a good thing).

Place the hot cross buns into the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until well coloured (not like mine, which caught a little due to having a grocery order delivered. I timed it perfectly but the delivery driver came early fgs!).

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 Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.

Brioche Buns

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you’re looking a rich but light and fluffy bread bin recipe, I have the recipe for you. TodayI’ll be sharing my recipe for brioche buns, these are far superior to the ones you can buy in your local shops.

Brioche buns have increased in popularity, mostly due to how well they work with burgers. This is because the dough is enriched with both butter and egg, making for a richer, softer and moister bun.

Using this recipe, you can keep it plain or add in dried fruit or chocolate chips for a sweet alternative. It’s a pretty versatile recipe, for savoury or sweet.

Now, I am aware of the current situation in the world and how trying to buy even the basics is becoming harder each day. The recipes for the next 3 weeks were recorded before this outbreak – I’ll be returning to more basic recipes once the time comes.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g White bread flour.

8g Salt.

50g Fresh yeast.

125g Butter.

50g Granulated sugar.

250ml Egg.

75ml Milk.

Method:

Before you get into the baking, you’re best to do some preparations. Start by weighing up all your ingredients, oiling a large bowl and getting any equipment you may need ready, such as a large mixing bowl or spatula.

To start, take your large mixing bowl and add in the white bread flour along with the salt and whisk until they are well combined.

You can then go ahead and add the remaining ingredients.

Start the mixer on a low speed to start and mix until a dough has formed. When the dough is completely mixed, it will have a softer consistency compared to a standard dough, this is due to the addition of butter and egg.

Generously flour your countertop, then give the dough a knead until it is smooth and elastic. Bring it into a ball shape, using your hands to round it off, then you can place it into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm.

Allow the dough to proof for around an hour or until the dough has doubled in size (the time will vary depending on how warm it is where you’re leaving the dough to proof – try not to exceed 35/36˚c).

While your dough is proofing, it’s the perfect time to wash up and get clean – this is usually what I do. It will save you having a lot more washing up at the end, cleaning as you go along is honestly the best time saving thing you can do in the kitchen.

Once you’re cleaned down and the dough has proofed up, you can then go ahead and flour your surface and place the dough directly onto it. Now you’ll want to knock the dough back, this is simply the process of removing the gases that built up in the dough during the first proof.

Bring the dough back into a ball shape and then weigh the total weight and divide that by 12 to get the weight of each dough ball.

Take the dough balls and round them off using the palm and side of your hand along with the countertop and round it off until its a smooth ball shape. Place around 6 on to a standard baking tray, these proof up pretty big and need space to expand. Cover with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm for roughly 30-45 minutes or until they have doubled in size again.

As mentioned earlier, the proofing time will really depend on how warm it it where you are or where you’re placing the dough, for me, I just keep mine on the countertop in the kitchen but you may need to find somewhere warmer or cooler. I also recommend preheating your oven to 200˚c/390˚f at this point.

Now that the buns have risen well, you’ll want to remove the clingfilm from on top and then place the trays into the preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until they are a very nice brown colour all over (these buns will colour well due to the dough being enriched).

You’ll know once the buns are done as they will have take on a consistent ‘golden’ brown colour and feel light when lifted up. Transfer from the baking tray onto a cooling rack, this will stop the buns going soggy on the baking tray.

So, there you go. My recipe for brioche buns, now all you need is to make some burger patties and you’ll be away!

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 Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.

Bread

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