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Crusty Sesame Seed Dinner Rolls

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.

Apple Crumble

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I have the perfect recipe for this this time of year. It’s for a simple yet hearty apple crumble.

Although this recipe is perfect for all year round, there is just something about tucking into a bowl of crumble in the cooler months, especially during Autumn.

If you have never tried a crumble before, where have you been?! You get the sweetness and tartness of the apples, which is then topped with a crisp and slightly spiced crumble – the combination is always going to be a winner! IF plain apple isn’t your thing, I have a recipe for apple and blackberry crumble.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Apple filling:

600g Cooking apples.

50g Water.

70-100g Granulated sugar (depending on how tart you like the apples).

Crumble:

75g Granulated sugar.

75g Light brown sugar.

60g Porridge Oats.

100g Plain Flour.

1 ½ tsp Ground Cinnamon.

120g Butter.

Method:

Start by doing some prep work. Weigh up the ingredients, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and get any equipment you may need ready.

To start on the recipe, you’ll want to make the crumble topping.

To start on the crumble, you’ll want to get yourself a food processor and into it you’ll want to place the plain flour, spices, granulated sugar and light brown sugar and pulse them together.

Once they are combined, you can then add the butter, which is in small pieces. Once all the butter has been added, you can pulse until the butter has been incorporated and the mixture has become crumblier looking.

Remove the crumble from the food processor and place into a large bowl, then you can add in the oats and stir to incorporate. If your crumble has lumps that are large, use a silicon spatula to break them down into smaller bits.

Set the crumble aside until its needed later.

To make the apple filling, you’ll want to start by getting yourself a large saucepan. Into the saucepan, place the cooking apples, water and granulated sugar and give it all a good mix, then place it on the hob over a medium-high heat.

Cook the apples on a medium-high heat giving a stir once the mixture starts to warm up. You want the apples to have softened and slightly broken a little, so once the apple mixture is done, it will be a mixture of softened apples in an apple sauce.

Once the apple filling is done, remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.

Take a small size oven proof dish (I used my Pyrex 1.4L dish) and place the apple filling on the bottom, levelling out with a heatproof silicon spatula. Then top the apple filling with the crumble tipping you made earlier on, spreading it out so it’s consistent and press it down a little bit just to compress it down.

Place the finished apple crumble into your preheated oven and bake for around 20-25 minutes or until its golden brown all over the top.

This is best served hot, straight from the oven on its own or it can be served with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or custard.

That’s all for this week 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 next week with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.

How To Make A Battenberg

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

This week’s recipe is a classic, if you’re from the UK, you’ll know it. I’ll be showing you how to make a Battenberg cake.

If you have never tried or heard of a Battenberg, I’ll give you a quick run down. A Battenberg is a vanilla sponge cake, which is coloured pastel pink and yellow. It’s held in place by apricot jam and finished with a layer of marzipan. You should have a check pattern on the inside as you alternate the layers of cake.

Making the cake isn’t at all difficult, you’ll be using the traditional creaming method (this is where you start by creaming the butter and sugar together, adding the eggs and vanilla, incorporating the dry ingredients and then colouring the cake batter.

The marzipan coating/finishing may not be for everybody, but it’s needed on this recipe. Traditionally you would use standard marzipan but I only had golden marzipan left in my cupboard (this was from Christmas and when I didn’t use it, I was going to make a Simnel cake at Easter but that didn’t happen so I needed to use it up and this was the perfect recipe for it).

As with all my recipes, before you get started, you’ll want to do some prep work. Get your ingredients measured/weighed up, prepare your tin (if you want to, I didn’t but you know your tin) and get any equipment you may need ready. Taking these few extra steps can lower the chance of making a mistake.

Ingredients:

175g Butter.

175g Granulated sugar.

3 Eggs.

250g Plain flour.

2 tsp Baking powder.

½ tsp Vanilla extract.

Pink and yellow food gel/pastes.

60-80g Apricot jam.

350g Marzipan.

Method:

Before you get into making the cake, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, line your tin (if you decide to) and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and get any equipment you intend on using.

To start on the cake, you’ll want to get yourself a mixing bowl and place the butter and granulated sugar into it. Then beat the two together until they are fully combined.

Once they are combined, you can add the eggs one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Once all of the eggs have been added and are incorporated, you can add your vanilla in and mix to incorporate (if your mixture scrambled a little at this stage, don’t worry. We will correct it in the next stage).

Next you’ll want to add your dry ingredients, passing through a sieve first, this is just to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix. Incorporate the dry ingredients over a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium-high speed (you shouldn’t be able to see a single trace of any ingredient but try to not over-mix the cake batter at this stage).

Divide the cake batter in two and colour one pink and the other yellow. I recommend that you start by adding a little and working in more, it’s easier to add colouring rather then trying to take it away…

Put the cake batter into the tin and level it out as best you can, don’t overlap/combine the colours too much. You can make a little divide using some cardboard wrapped in tin/silver foil but I didn’t do this. Once they are levelled and sorted, place into your preheated oven and allow to bake for 30-35 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).

Once your cakes are baked, allow to cool completely before you intend on using them. Once they are cool enough, you’ll want to level the top off using a cake leveller or a knife and then trim the sides as well, this is just to remove the caramelised edges. Cut each cake in half so you end with 2 strips of pink and yellow cake.

Place your apricot jam into either a small saucepan or microwaveable bowl and warm your jam until is much more spreadable. While that warms, you can roll out your marzipan on a surface which has been dusted with icing sugar.

Once your jam is warmed, brush each of your cake slices with the apricot jam and with the remaining, brush it over the marzipan. Place the sticks of cake together and then place onto the marzipan, around 1cm away from the edge and then wrap the marzipan around the cake, applying a little pressure to ensure it stays in place.

Trim away the ugly edges and enjoy!

Zero Waste Raisin Oatmeal Cookies | The Clean Kilo

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’ll be showing you how to make my favourite cookies of all time, raisin oatmeal! These are a chunky variation, perfect for dunking in milk.

Today’s post is a little different to my usual as I tried a zero waste supermarket. In the past few months I’ve seen a few documentaries about how our food and plastic waste are at ridiculous levels, so I decided to make a change and cut mine down to the very minimum I can. Since January 1st 2019, I’ve managed to get my waste down by 75% and all done by making changes which were easy to implement. While buying your ingredients in bulk from the supermarket or wholesale may work out more convenient or cheaper, how much of the packaging is recyclable? How many of you are going to put the ingredients into jars/container once you’re

I had seen these zero waste shops before but never really tried one before as it seemed confusing but its far from it. The nearest one for me is in Digbeth, Birmingham and it’s called The Clean Kilo. If you haven’t visited before, you’re missing out. I would recommend taking your own jars and/or containers but if don’t have any, don’t worry, they have some you can purchase in-store.

The Clean Kilo offers a wide range of products from baking ingredients, dried fruit and eggs through to oils and vinegar, locally grown vegetables and nuts & seeds, perfect for when you may need an exact amount – the prices are very competitive.

The aim of zero waste shopping is to lower the amount of packaging wastage as well as food waste. I don’t know about you but I’m guilty of buying a certain ingredient that I may not use every time I bake, then it gets stored (and sometimes forgotten abou) and I may not need it until it’s gone past the use by date and that’s not only annoying but also wasteful. If you’re like that, don’t forget FIFO (first in first out), that’s the one super useful thing I learnt at college.

The one thing I wasn’t sure about was how it all worked I regards to weighing and getting the final price, it’s actually really simple. The day I visited the women working behind the counter was called Dominika and she was really helpful and informative which was great, she couldn’t have been more helpful. When it comes to weighing and measuring your ingredients, you’ll want to start by getting your empty container and placing it onto the scales, then print out the sticker (this sticker is simply for the weight of the container, keep this one on the container if you intend on using it again in the future, you won’t have to print another one off that way), then you go and fill your container with the product you wish, go back to the scales then scan the bar code on the sticker you printed out earlier on and reweigh the container and print out your final sticker which is the price you’ll pay. Finally you can then go and pay and know you’ve saved some packaging waste from going into the bin.

I’d seen some videos and blog posts online where people had tried zero waste recipes and this would normally be fairly hard, unless you have a local shop. If you’d like to see more zero waste recipes from me, let me know by commenting on the blog post. This is something that’s helping to prevent both packaging and food waste.

Making these cookies doesn’t take too long, to make, so you don’t need an awful lot of time to make them.

Ingredients:

100g Butter.

100g Golden Caster Sugar.

100g Light Brown Sugar.

1 Egg.

225g Plain Flour.

1/2 tsp Baking Powder.

150g Oats.

100g Raisins.

Method:

Before you start on these cookies, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all your ingredients, line a baking tray with greaseproof/parchment paper and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.
Start your cookies by placing the butter, golden caster sugar and light brown sugar into a bowl and beat on a medium-high speed until they are well combined.
Once they are all combined give your bowl a good scrape down and add in your egg and mix on a medium speed until it’s fully incorporated.
Give your bowl a good scrape down, to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked in.
Sift in your dry ingredients and mix them in on a low-medium speed until almost fully incorporated, then add in the oats and raisins and give a mix until the flour is fully incorporated and the oats and raisins are well distributed within the dough.
The dough doesn’t require being chilled before use, so you can use it straight away.
Take a cookie scoop and scoop up two balls of dough per cookie, roll them together into one and he flatten them slightly before placing onto your baking tray, these cookies don’t spread very much while baking.

Place the baking tray into your preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly coloured around the edge.

Once out of the oven, an optional finish would be to add a few raisins on top.

Allow to cool on the baking tray until fully cooled, then enjoy them. I had mine with a glass of cold milk!

*These cookies can be frozen before being baked, just make sure that they are flattened before you freeze them or after they are baked, just keep them wrapped in clingfilm/plastic wrap.

Strawberry Tart

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

This tart is the perfect addition for any warm day, its sweet and perfectly balanced for the warmer weather. Get your strawberries and we can get started.

To start on the tart you’ll want to start on the crème pâtissière, this will need time to cool before you use it but feel free to make either the crème pâtissière or pastry first, they both need time before you use them. Like with all my recipes, I recommend you do some prep work first by winging up your ingredients, preheating your oven to 180˚/350˚f and getting any equipment you need ready before you start.

For the crème pâtissière, get your medium saucepan and place your milk and vanilla extract into it and place on the hob over a medium-high heat. Bring the milk to a boil. While you wait for your milk to come to a boil, you can make the other part of the crème pâtissière.

Into a separate bowl add the egg yolks and sugar and whisk them together until well combined, then you can add in your plain flour and whisk that in until fully combined. You will notice that the mixture thickens, don’t worry this is normal. You want this to happen, the flour is the thickening agent in the custard.

So, once your milk has reached a boil, you can then add around 1/4 of the milk mix into your egg mixture and whisk that through, then continue pouring the boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking continuously until they are well combined. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and place back on the hob over a medium-high heat, whisking continuously until the mixture has become thicker – make sure you don’t burn the mixture, keep whisking the custard.

Get yourself a shallow sided cake tin and pour the hot custard onto it, spreading it out as thin as possible. This is just to help with the cooling process, cover the mixture with clingfilm/plastic wrap, making sure its touching the top of the custard (this stops a skin from forming on top, which nobody likes). Allow it too cool fully before you intend on using.

The pastry isn’t exactly hard to make, all you need to do is beat the sugar and egg together, then set it aside until later on. Into a bowl or food processor place the flour, salt and butter then combine them together by either rubbing the butter into the flour or pulsing them together in a food processor (I went with the food processor method on this occasion).

Once they are combined, add in the egg/sugar mix and work it into the flour/butter mixture. This will bind the dough together, work them together until almost fully combined then tip out onto a floured surface to knead the pastry together. You’re looking for a clear dough, with no traces of a single ingredient. Wrap in clingfilm/plastic wrap then chill in the fridge for around an hour, this is to allow the butter to firm up and the gluten to relax.

After about an hour in the fridge, the dough should be firm. Take it from the fridge and cut it in half (keep the other half chilled in the fridge), flour your surface well with some plain flour. Place the dough onto the floured surface and roll it out until its slightly bigger than your 8 inch pie dish. Place the pastry over the tart tine and work it into the tin, fix any cracks with the remaining pastry and trim the excess from the edges. You can then dock the pastry with a fork, this is just to stop it from rising while it’s baking, place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes, then give it a good coat with some egg wash then place in the preheated oven and bake for 23-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Once your pastry case and crème pâtissière are fully cooled down, you can start to assemble your tart. Place the custard into a bowl and whisk it until its smooth and more pliable, once you’ve got it spreadable, add it into the pastry case and level it off as best you can using an offset palette knife or the back of a spoon. Set aside (or in the fridge) while you slice your strawberries.

Next, you’ll want to slice your strawberries, I slice most of mine into 3 or 4’s so there is the right thickness but you do it however you like, you could even place the strawberries on whole, just slice the green bit off the top.

Now you can place the strawberry slices on top of the tart, starting on the outside working your way into the middle of the tart, this is the way that works best for me personally but feel free to change it, I’m just providing the basic information. Once all your strawberries are on, you can then warm up the apricot jam and then brush it over the fruit. This acts as a preservative and adds flavour.

Ingredients:

Crème pâtissière:

500ml Milk.

1-2 tsp Vanilla extract.

120g Egg yolks.

100g Granulated white sugar.

60g Plain flour.

Pastry:

1 Egg.

90g Granulated white sugar.

225g Butter.

375g Plain flour.

Pinch of salt

Finish:

Strawberries, sliced.

Apricot jam, for the glaze.

So that’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed this recipe. It’s a pretty quick and easy recipe and perfect for this time of year (especially if the weather is decent), so make this and enjoy the weather with your friends and family. I’ll see you again next week guys!

As always, I’ll leave the YouTube video down below if you’re interested in watching it!

Scone Recipe

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you’re looking for a simple and straightforward recipe for plain scones, I have the perfect recipe for you right here.

These are really quick and simple to make, you can whip a batch up in under 60 minutes, what’s not to love? Incase you haven’t ever tried a scone before, I’ll give you the rundown on what they are exactly. Scones are a slightly sweetend confection, which are that interesting on their own, however, when they are partnered with clotted cream and jam it makes them a whole lot more interesting.

These scones are smaller than the ones you’d get in tearooms but are roughly the same size as the ones you’d find in supermarket bakeries here in the UK (which is still a decent size, it’s bigger than bitesize but smaller than the giant versions). The filling is also pretty simple, it’s just clotted cream and jam (I went with strawberry jam as I think this is the most traditional plus it’s what I had made not to long before this recipe) and depending on where you are will depend on whether you place the jam first or the cream first… To be honest, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day, you’re still going to eat it either way.

The process behind these scones isn’t hard at all and best of all, you don’t even need any specialist equipment. All you need are your hands, this is the best way to make them but feel free to use a food processor if you have one.

To start, you’ll want to weigh up all of your ingredients, preheat your oven to 200˚c/400˚f and prepare your baking tray with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.

place your milk into a small-medium bowl and add in the sugar and mix until the sugar is fully dissolved, then set aside (ideally in the fridge, until you need it. Try and keep the cold ingredients as cold as possible). Into a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt and give a brief mix, then add in your cold cubed butter and work it in by rubbing the butter and flour together until they come together. To tell if this stage is done, you’ll notice a slight change in colour (a slight yellow-ish tint) but the most noticeable change would be the consistency, it will become more of a bread crumb or sandy texture. Once the correct consistency has been achieved, you can then add in your milk/sugar and mix this in using a spatula or you can do this by hand. Try not to overmix at this stage, as it’s very easy to do, so once a dough forms, you can stop mixing it.

Generously flour your counter, then add your scone dough onto the floured surface and knead a bit of the flour into your dough if its sticky. Just knead until the dough becomes smooth, try not to overmix as this will result in a tough textured scone. Roll out your dough slightly, it won’t take many rolls to get it to the right thickness (the right thickness would be around 3cm) you can then cut out your scones, I chose the plain edge but feel free to use the crinkled edge if you want to (use the 2 1/2 – 3 inch cookie cutter). Transfer your cut outs onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and brush the tops of the scones with egg wash (the egg wash I recommend using is simply a egg beaten in a small bowl) and then bake them in your preheated oven for around 15-20 minutes, they should be golden brown once they are fully baked. Once baked, allow to cool on the baking tray for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Once they have cooled completely, you can then slice them in half and place your clotted cream onto once half and the jam onto the other half. Sandwich the two together and finish the scones with a dusting of icing sugar. They are really that simple, nothing to complex about them at all, so I really hope you get to make a batch soon!

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

45g butter

45g sugar

150ml milk

1 egg (for egg wash)

Methods:

Start by preheating your oven to 200˚c/400˚f, weighing up your ingredients and preparing your baking tray with greaseproof paper.
To start the scones, place the milk into a small-medium bowl and add in the sugar. Whisk the two together until the sugar is dissolved in the milk, you can then set this aside (I recommend placing it into the fridge until you need it).
Into a large bowl, place your plain flour, baking powder and salt and give it a brief mix.
Into the dry ingredients, add in the butter and rub the dry ingredients and butter together until they become combined. You can tell when this stage is achieved but checking the colour of mix (if it’s got a slight yellow-ish tint, then you’re good) or the most obvious way is to check the consistency. If its a bread crumb or sandy texture, that’s what you’re looking for.
Once you’ve reached the correct consistency, you’ll want to add in the milk/sugar mixture and stir it in using a spatula just until a dough forms (try not to overmix at this stage, otherwise it will result in a tough textured scone).
Roll out your dough so its roughly 3cm thick, then using either a plain or crinkled edge cookie cutter (thats between 2 1/2 inch and 3 inch works well) cut out your shapes and place on a baking tray (if you re-roll the dough, make sure you only do it once, you should yield between 8-10 scones.
Once your scones are on the baking tray, brush the top of each scone with the egg wash and then place in your preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top.
Once baked, remove from the oven and allow the scones to cool for a few minutes on the tray before transferring them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Once fully cooled, slice the scones in half and top one half with the clotted cream and the other with your jam and sandwich them together and finish with a dusting of icing sugar.
Make yourself a hot drink and enjoy your freshly finished scone.

So thank you for reading my blog post today, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, please show your support by sharing this recipe with your friends and family. If you do make any recipe of mine, don’t forget to share your pictures with me!

Viennese Whirls

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

I have the easiest and most straightforward recipe for these classic treats. Today I’m showing you how to make a batch of homemade Viennese whirls.

If you’re from the UK then you probably recognise these from a well known cake brand, which is available in in most supermarkets. Forget about those, once you make a batch of these up for yourself, you will not look back!

The biscuits themselves only require 4 ingredients, so they are cheap, quick and easy to make. They can be enjoyed on their own or with the vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam fillings, which compliment the biscuits pretty nicely and the other thing to know about theses that they are fairly bigger than the ones you’d get in the box from the supermarket (I’m a greedy git), so feel free to lower the amount of filling compared to what I used.

The mixing process is easy, it doesn’t matter if you’re using a wooden spoon, electric hand mixer or a stand mixer. It’s the piping that can be a bit difficult and this is because of the amount of flour which is used in these biscuits, it’s a lot. The dough can easily be handled with your hands but to get the signature piped look on top you need to use a piping bag and star tip nozzle, I recommend using a open/wide star tip as to a closed star. If you find your dough hard to pipe out, use the warmth from your hands to warm the dough through the bag (if you try and pipe the dough while it’s too stiff then you will be pushing too much pressure towards the bottom of the bag and it will more than likely split open plop a good amount of the dough out of the bag).

So to get started, you’ll always want to prepare your baking tray, I drew around a circle cutter so my biscuits would be roughly accurate in size to one another, this is ideal if you’re not sure on sizing them. Also, don’t forget to weigh up your ingredients and preheat the oven to 190˚c/375˚f. Now you can start by placing the butter and icing sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat the two together until well combined. Then add in your first weight of flour and mix that until well combined, scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, then add in the second weight of flour and mix it in until well combined and thats the dough done. Place a open star nozzle into a piping bag and add around about a handful or so of the biscuit dough. If the dough isn’t piping well, use the heat of your hands to warm it up just enough to pipe out your rosettes. These don’t really spread in the open so feel free to pip quite a few onto one tray and place them in your preheated oven and bake for around 18-20 minutes (or until they start to colour around the edge.

As for the filling, I have recommended using vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam but feel free to replace those if you don’t like my choice. Make your buttercream while your biscuits are baking, start by placing the butter into a bowl and beating until lighter in colour and consistency. Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl and place roughly half the amount of icing sugar and beat until fully incorporated, repeat this stage with the remaining icing sugar. Once all the icing sugar is fully incorporated, add in the vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste an mix until well combined, if your buttercream is a little too thick, add a splash of milk just to get it to a more spreadable consistency. As for the jam, feel free to use whatever you’ve got, homemade or shop bought will work well here.

For the assembly of these biscuits, pair your biscuits up and onto one half of them, pipe on a good amount (or a generous amount if you have a sweet tooth) and then pipe on a small amount of jam in the centre of the buttercream and gently place the other biscuit on top of the filling, sandwiching them together. Just before you tuck into one, you’ll want to give them a justing of icing sugar to finish them off, now sit back and enjoy one of these.

Ingredients:

Biscuits:
225g Butter.
45g Icing sugar.
115g Plain flour (1).
145g Plain flour (2).

Bake them in your preheated 190˚c/375˚f for 18-20 minutes.

Filling:

Buttercream:
150g Butter.
300g Icing sugar.
1 tsp Vanilla extract/bean paste.
(optional – milk).

Strawberry jam (but feel free to switch this to a jam or spread you might prefer).

Method:

Biscuits:

Weigh up all of your ingredients, preheat your oven to 190˚c/375˚f and line your baking trays with greaseproof/parchment paper.

Start the biscuits by placing the butter and icing sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat them together until well combined and lighter in colour.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, to incorporate any bits from earlier on. Then add in your first weight of flour in and mix that in until just combined.

Scrape down the bowl again to incorporate any bits that have worked up the bowl. Add in the second weight of flour and just mix that in until its just combined.

Prepare a piping bag by placing a 12mm open star nozzle at the end and place a good amount of the dough into the piping bag.

Pipe out the dough onto your lined tray (draw some templates if you want to get your biscuits more uniform), these don’t spread very much while in the oven so leave a small space in-between each biscuit. Place the tray in your preheated oven and bake for 18-20 minutes (or until they start to colour around the edges).

Once fully baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking tray, then transfer them over to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Buttercream:

Weigh up your ingredients in advance.

Place the butter into a mixing bowl an beat it over a medium-high speed until lighter in colour and consistency.

Once lighter, you’ll want to add in around half of your icing sugar (make sure you’ve sifted it first, to remove any big lumps) and beat that on a low speed working it up to a high speed, scrape down the bowl and repeat this stage for the other half of the icing sugar.

Add in the vanilla (and milk if the buttercream is too stiff, this will help loosen the buttercream down) and mix until well incorporated.

Place the buttercream into a piping bag with a 12mm star nozzle and set aside until its needed.

Assembly:Pair your biscuits up with

After Eight Cheesecake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

You know I love a good no bake cheesecake – that’s why I’m sharing one of the best cheesecake recipes with you today!

Recently I made an after eight no bake cheesecake, which is creamy, minty and smooth all at once – what’s not to like?

Being honest with you, when it comes to using mint in desserts you have to find the right balance, otherwise it can be like eating toothpaste – which isn’t really what you’re looking for while having a nice sweet treat. When it comes to using any sort of strong extract, it’s always best to start with a small amount as a little often goes a long way.

This cheesecake starts with a super easy buttery biscuit base, which is then topped with the minty cheesecake filling and finished with a drizzle of dark chocolate, rosettes of freshly whipped cream and after eights – sounds good, right?

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Base:

125g Digestive Biscuits.

50g Butter, Melted.

Filling:

300g Soft Cheese.

8 After Eight (or alternative chocolate mint thins), Chopped.

50g Icing Sugar.

150ml Double Cream.

(Optional – Green Food paste, I used Sugarflair party green).

1/4 – 1/2 tsp Peppermint extract (optional – I recommend Nielsen-Massey peppermint extract).

Decoration (optional) – 50g Dark Chocolate, melted.

Whipped cream, in a piping bag.

A few After Eights (or other chocolate mint thins).

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. I like to start by weighing up all the required ingredients, grabbing your 6 inch cake tin and getting any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and spatula.

To start on the cheesecake, I recommend making the base first. To do that, take your digestive biscuits and blitz them down into a fine crumb, which should look like breadcrumbs. Add in the melted butter and mix the two together until they are fully combined – it will resemble wet sand.

Press the mixture into the base of your 6 inch cake tin, compress down so its compacted – this adds stability to the finished cheesecake. Place in the fridge to firm up while you make the filling.

Making the filling is super easy – start by taking your mixing bowl and placing in the soft cheese, chopped after eights, icing sugar and peppermint extract (if you’re using). Mix all of the ingredients together over medium-high speed until the mixture has thickened considerably and should be able to hold its shape well – if it isn’t at that stage, don’t worry too much.

Give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been worked in – then go ahead and add in the colouring, if you’re using it and whisk until the colouring is fully incorporated – then give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in.

Now add in the double cream and whisk that over a medium-high speed, just until the cream has been fully incorporated and the mixture is thick enough to hold its shape – if it isn’t at this stage, continue to whisk on a high speed.

Take the cheesecake base from the fridge and place the cheesecake filling on top of the base, spreading it out to be smooth, level and consistent on top. I like to use a small cranked palette knife but you can use whatever you have available.

Transfer the cheesecake into the fridge and chill for 6-8 hours or overnight.

Whenever you’re ready to decorate, whip up a small amount of whipped cream, melt a small amount of dark chocolate and chop your after eights into triangles.

To finish and decorate the cheesecake, remove the cheesecake from the tin and place on to your decorative board, plate or stand. Drizzle over the melted chocolate, however you like.

Then around the outer edge, pipe your rosettes – pipe as many or as little as you’d like – I went with enough to make the cheesecake look decorated without it being too much or too little, if that makes sense.

Finally, top the rosettes with additional the after eight triangles.

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.

Belgian Buns

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

These Belgian buns are probably one of the easiest things to make, a simple dough, filling and icing is all you need.

I’ll be honest, these should be in all bakeries. People absolutely love classic bakes and that includes these buns, so easy to make and people across all ages love them but finding a proper one in chain bakeries, yes is easy but they just don’t cut it. They’re not properly done, they’re just not the same as people remember them.

I’m not sure if this is controversial but having a thin layer of lemon curd in the rolls really makes these pop…All of the versions I have had over the years have all contained lemon curd and even the recipe we used at college did, so I’m not questioning it – it’s an essential. Not forgetting that it’s not just a plain lemon curd filling, you also have sultanas.

So, if you’re looking for a recipe thats similar to the classic Belgian buns you remember, give these a go.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Dough:

450g strong white bread flour.

7g dried yeast.

50g granulated sugar.

1 tsp salt.

2 eggs.

50g butter.

150ml warm milk.

Filling –

150g lemon curd (homemade or store-bought).

180g sultanas.

Icing –

300g icing sugar.

4-5 tbsp water

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. I like to start by weighing up all the ingredients, lining your tray with parchment paper (if you use it) and get any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and spatula.

To start on recipe, you’ll want to make the dough. Take your mixing bowl and place in the bread flour and the salt, mixing the two together just to combine them together.

Then you can go ahead and place in the yeast, granulated sugar, eggs, butter and milk. Then mix on a low speed for 2 minutes, then a further 4-6 minutes on a higher speed until a clear dough forms – this is where the dough almost leaves the bowl almost spotlessly clean.

Lightly flour the work surface and place the dough onto it, then knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic. Then place into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm and leave it somewhere warm to prove for around and hour (or until the dough has doubled in size).

Now is the ideal time to get cleaned down.

Once the dough has finished its first proving session, you can then go ahead and knock the dough back. This is the process of removing the gases that have built up in the dough during the proof. Bring the dough back into a ball shape and process the dough.

Roll the dough out into a 30x45cm rectangle – this is the ideal size for these rolls.

On top of the rolled out dough, you’ll want to add a thin layer of lemon curd – spreading it out to ensure a consistent coating is applied.

You can then top the lemon curd with the sultanas and roll the dough up – keeping the roll as tight as you can.

Take the roll and cut it into 12 equal portions and place them on to a baking tray, allowing space in between each roll as they will increase in size during the second prove.

Loosely cover with clingfilm and prove for a further 45-60 minutes (or until the rolls are well risen).

Have a quick tidy up and while you have the time, make the icing ahead of time if needed. Not forgetting to preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

The icing is really simple, it’s just icing sugar and water (I know in more traditional bakeries, you’d find a fondant topping but we don’t have this available at home, so this is the next best thing.

Into a bowl, place the icing sugar and slowly add small amounts of water, whisking them together until you have a thick set pliable icing.

Once your rolls have finished the second prove, you can go ahead and place them into your preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until a consistent golden brown colour all over.

Fresh out of the oven, they’ll smell great but don’t eat or finish them off yet. Allow them to cool fully, transferring onto a cooling rack and let cool fully.

Now that everything is done and ready, take your icing and give it a whisk together, just to bring it back to the perfect consistency. How you apply the icing is up to you but use a piping bag and pipe it into the centre and it will flow where it wants from there but you could spoon the mixture on or drizzle it over – whichever way works best for you.

Allow the icing to set a little, then place the half glace cherry on top and you’re done.

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.

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