Bread

Kulich (Russian Easter Bread)

Today I’m sharing my take on a Kulich – a little different as I’m making individual ones rather than one large one. I find the smaller ones are more enjoyable and can be shared more easily amongst friends and family.

I won’t lie, it had been some time since I made one of these last time, probably about 6-7 years. However, I was going through my old notes and found a full written recipe and method, so thought now would be the ideal time to share the recipe with you.

Although this may not be the most traditional recipe available, it’s a pretty stable and easy recipe. A Kulich is a traditional Russian Easter bread, it’s enjoyed by many countries which has an orthodox christian population. It’s notably consumed between Easter and the pentecost – it’s very similar to an Italian panettone but a kulich is heavier and more dense.

Anyway, lets get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Bread Dough:

150g strong white bread flour.

125g plain flour.

1/2 tsp salt.

1 tsp ground cinnamon.

7g dries yeast.

100ml milk, tepid.

50g butter.

50g granulated sugar.

2 eggs.

50g raisins.

1 tsp almonds, chopped (I used flakes but it all works).

Glaze:

225g icing sugar.

3 tbsp milk (or as many as needed to get the desired consistency).

100s and 1000s.

Method:

To get started on the recipe, y0u’ll want to do some prep work. I like to start by weighing up all of the ingredients, lightly oiling a bowl with some flavourless oil and get stay equipment you may need, such as a mixing bowl and dough hook. When the time comes, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

To start on the dough, take a mixing bowl and place in both the flours and salt – mix them together until they are well combined. No go ahead and add in the remainder of the ingredients and then mix on a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium high speed. The dough won’t really pull away from the sides of the bowl like a usual dough, as this is enriched and much stickier to handle.

Transfer the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm, then leave it somewhere warm and allow to prove. It should double in size, almost touching the top of the bowl – the amount of time this takes will vary due to factors like climate and humidity.

Once the dough has doubled in size, you can go ahead and knock it back. This is the process of removing the gasses that have built up in the dough during the first prove.

Now is the perfect time to process the dough, so simply scale into 100g balls of dough and round them off into more rounded shapes, then place into your individual cases, cover loosely with closing film and allow to have the second prove, just until the dough has domed and is touching the top of the case – this is how you know its time to finish them by baking.

Simply, remove the clingfilm from on the dough and then place into your preheated oven and bake for 14-16 minutes or until they’re well coloured on top.

Once baked, remove the Kulichs from the cases, I used disposable ones but you can use silicon if you’d prefer. Cool on a cooling rack and once cool enough make the icing glaze.

For the icing, simply place icing sugar into a bowl and add enough milk into the icing sugar, so you have a thick but spreadable consistency, this is best made as you intend to use it.

Pipe the icing over the top, allowing to drip down the side a little but not majorly. Finish each with a generous sprinkling of 100s and 1000s or similar sprinkles.

Enjoy – best enjoyed on the day or the day after.

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.

Bath Buns

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Here’s something a little different – a batch of Bath buns!

These buns are sweet and delicious without too much effort. They’re fairly similar to a brioche but better as they have mixed dried fruit studded throughout the dough and are finished with sugar knibs – what more could you ask for?

A little time and you’ll have a batch of these buns, perfect for sharing as they’re huge! They may not be 100% authentic but this is as close as I’m going to get – I hope you try them out soon!

Anyway, lets get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Ferment:

100g strong white bread flour.

14g dried yeast.

10g granulated sugar.

1 egg.

210ml water (at 42˚c).

Dough:

400g strong white bread flour.

75g butter, at room temperature.

50g granulated sugar.

15g milk powder.

5g salt.

Additions:

150g sultanas.

50g mixed peel.

1/2 egg.

50-100g sugar nibs.

Method:

Before you get started oil the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep. I like to start with weighing up all of the ingredients, getting any equipment ready such as a stand mixer and dough hook and when required, preheat the oven to 220˚c.

Place all of the ferment ingredients into a bowl, mix everything together with a hand whisk until fully combined. Cover with clingfilm, place somewhere warm and prove for 30 minutes.

After the ferment has has its 30 minutes, place the dough ingredients into the ferment mixing bowl. Mix on a medium speed until a smooth dough forms – this will take as long as it needs.

Once the dough has formed, you can add in your sultanas, mixed peel and egg. Mix on a medium speed until everything is equally distributed throughout the dough.

Sprinkle a small amount of flavour over your counter and place the dough on to it. Give it everything a brief knead together to bring the dough into the perfect smooth ball.

You can then go ahead and process the dough straight away (it doesn’t require proving right now due to the ferment at the start).

I like to scale the dough into 135-140g, rounding and smoothing each ball of dough into a smooth ball, before placing onto a lined baking tray and covering loosely with clingfilm and allow to prove until well sized.

Just after the proving period and before the baking process, you’ll want to take the sugar knibs and sprinkle them all over the top of the buns, ensuring even coverage. Then place into your preheated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes (or until well coloured all over).

Allow to cool, then enjoy. They can be enjoyed plain, with cream, butter and/or jam – the choice is all yours!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

We are now in the dying days of summer, its finally almost autumn time. When I think of autumn, I think of all the ground spices and pumpkin, all very warming, that’s why I’m making these pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

If you’re thinking, pumpkin isn’t strongly flavoured or it’s boring – you’re wrong. When it’s added into baked goods, it makes them more tender and can be used as an egg replacement or along side eggs to act as binding ingredient or to add moisture – all without ruining the flavour.

These rolls won’t be the most seasonal variety available (I have another recipe coming up in Autumn which is going to be for a pumpkin spice flavoured roll) but let me assure you, they’ll be pillowy soft and perfectly spiced to get you through until next time.

I know, these aren’t exactly revolutionising the bread making world but flavour wise, they are special.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Bread:

500g white bread flour.

8g salt.

7g yeast.

125g butter.

50g granulated sugar.

3 eggs.

100-150g pumpkin puree.

75ml whole milk.

Cinnamon Filling:

200g Light brown sugar.

200g Butter.

15g Ground cinnamon.

Cream Cheese Icing:

85g Soft cheese.

60g Butter.

200g Icing sugar.

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 ready. When the time comes, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

Bread:

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

Then place the remaining ingredients into the bowl, then mix them all together on a medium-low speed until a dough has formed. The dough should be soft, if it’s sticky, add a little flour.

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 takes around 5-7 minutes, depending on how well mixed it was in the first place.

Place the dough into the lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl with cling-film and allow to proof/prove for around 60 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

While the dough is proving, you can make the cinnamon sugar filling. Into a bowl, place the butter, light brown sugar and cinnamon into a mixing bowl.

Beat all the ingredients together until they are all well combined, they should come together and form a cinnamony-brown coloured spreadable paste (it looks questionable but smells unbelievable).

Once the dough has completed its first proof/prove, 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.

Now the dough has been knocked back, onto a floured worktop, 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 30cmx30cm.

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

While your dough still laid on the counter, use a knife and cut 1 inch strips of dough, rolling them up individually. Repeat this process for all 12 rolls.

Place the rolls into a deep sided tray, into my 9×13 trays I was able to get all 12. Although it looks a little snug, this will help the buns batch together while proving and baking.

Cover the tray with cling film and allow to double in size. Prove for around 30-45 minutes – these will batch while baking, this is normal.

Bake in your preheated oven at 180˚c/350˚f for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Now that the cinnamon buns are baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool down, while you make the icing.

Into your mixing bowl of choice, place the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract. Beat together all of the ingredients have become fully combined.

You can start to add the cream cheese icing on to the buns. I start with a little on each and adding more as its needed – add as much as you’d like.

I personally like to add the cream cheese icing on top while the buns are still warm, this way the icing seeps into the buns and just sets better – which is what I prefer but you can also add the icing once the buns are fully cool.

Then to finish the rolls, you’ll want to give them a light dusting of some ground cinnamon. This is optional but I really like cinnamon, so why not?

Triple Chocolate Hot Cross Buns

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Imagine, a classic hot cross bun but reworked into a chocolate version but not just any chocolate version, it’s triple chocolate.

I know that Easter has become much more of a commercial celebration and is already brimming to the top with chocolate, so why not add more chocolate to the occasion? Chocolate is always a good idea.

A few years back over on my YouTube channel, I made double chocolate hot cross buns and they were great but this year, I needed to vamp up the chocolate element and make these the most chocolate packed buns possible.

I’ve stripped my traditional hot cross bun recipe back and added chocolate in every possible element – the welcome additions are cocoa powder and chocolate chips. Each roll is generously studded with a mixture of white, milk and dark chocolate chips – these are the perfect bake for the chocoholic in your life.

If easter and chocolate are you sort of thing, why don’t you give these a try? They’re the perfect way to spend an afternoon and who doesn’t want a tasty treat?

While making these, I made a double batch as they are that good – like honestly they are. I will leave the recipe don below for a batch of 12 hot cross buns, which is ideal but can be halved if needed.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Bun dough:

450g strong white bread flour.

5g salt.

25g cocoa powder.

50g fresh yeast.

15g milk powder.

75g butter, at room temperature.

75g granulated sugar.

1 egg.

175ml water, at blood temperature.

100g white chocolate chips.

100g milk chocolate chips.

100g dark chocolate chips.

Crossing Paste:

A small amount of strong white bread flour.

A small amount of water.

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 9×13 Ince cake pan with parchment paper and get any equipment you may need ready, such as a stand mixer and spatula.

To start on the dough, take your mixing bowl and place in the bread flour, salt and cocoa powder, then mix until everything is incorporated.

Then go ahead and add in the fresh yeast, milk powder, butter, sugar, egg and water.Mix on a low speed to start with for approx. 2 minutes, followed by a further 4-6 minutes on a high speed – stopping around half way through the high speed, to add in all of the chocolate chips allowing them to become equally distributed throughout the dough.

Take the dough and give it a brief knead on a lightly floured surface, just until its smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, covering with clingfilm, allowing it to prove until its doubled in size (which takes roughly about an hour, in a room which is moderately heated).

Once the dough has doubled in size, you can go ahead and knock the dough back. This is the process of removing the gasses that have built up in the dough during the proving period. Bring the dough back into a ball shape and process it straight away.

As the dough doesn’t require any time to rest at this stage, you can go ahead and weigh the dough, then divide that amount by 12 and you’ll have the weight for each hot cross bun – scale the dough for each bun and roll into a smooth rounded ball and place into your 9×13 inch tray. Allowing each bun to have a little room around it as these expand while having the second prove – these are supposed to batch up, it’s normal.

Cover loosely with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm for a further 45 minutes or until the dough has proved up well.

Now is the ideal time to preheat your oven to 200˚c/390˚f and now make the crossing paste. Simply place a small amount of flour and water into a bowl and mix until you have paste – transfer the mixture into a piping bag.

Take the clingfilm from on top of the dough and pipe over your crossing paste over, so each bun has a ‘+’.

Place into your preheated oven and bake for around 15-18 minutes (check them at 15 minutes and judge whether they need more or not).

Remove from the oven and brush over with a simple syrup glaze and allow to cool fully and the enjoy them.

Lemon Rolls

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Keeping things super simple and laid back this week with a batch of homemade lemon rolls.

If hot cross buns aren’t your thing, don’t worry – give these less than traditional lemon rolls a try. They contain a lot of natural lemon flavour, mostly coming from the zest and the super easy homemade lemon curd filling (don’t worry, you can always use shop bought if you’d like to).

I’ll be honest, these rolls came around after having a look through instagram and Pinterest. I wasn’t going to actually make them but once I did and I tasted them – I knew I had to share them with you.

These are perfect to make, as they can be customised to suit you and easily shared with others, as they just tear away from one another – ideal if you’re celebrating Easter or other special event soon. Who doesn’t like a delicate lemon flavour? It’s not going to knock you over with citrus flavour but it also won’t underwhelm you.

If you’re not sure what these are, well, starting with a zesty enriched dough, generously filled with homemade lemon curd and finished with a simple cream cheese icing – this is ultimately the spring version of a more autumnal cinnamon roll, right?

Anyway, let’ get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Bread:

500g Strong white bread flour.

8g Salt.

50g Fresh yeast.

75g Butter.

75g Granulated sugar.

15g Milk powder.

Zest of 1 or 2 lemons.

1 Egg,

175ml Water (Luke warm).

Filling:

Lemon curd – homemade or shop-bought (whichever you prefer).

Cream cheese icing:

85g Soft cheese.

60g Butter.

200g Icing sugar.

Method:

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

To start on the the recipe, you’ll want to start on the bread dough, place the bread flour and salt into a bowl and give it a good mix to incorporate the two together.

You can then go ahead and add in the yeast, butter, sugar, milk powder lemon zest, egg and water – then mix everything together on a low speed for 2 minutes, followed by a further 6 minutes on a medium-high speed. Once completely mixed, the dough should be soft, if it’s overly sticky, add a little flour.

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.

Place the dough into the lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl with cling-film and allow to proof/prove for around an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

While the dough is proving, it’s the perfect time to get cleaned down and make the lemon curd filling (if you’re making your own, recipe here).

Once the dough has completed its first proof/prove, you’ll want to generously flour your work surface 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.

Now the dough has been knocked back, 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 shows the gluten has formed, its all good. You’ll want to roll the dough out to roughly 40cm x 60cm – it’ll be rectangular.

Take the lemon curd and spread it all over the dough, until you have a generous and level amount spread on the dough.

Take the long side of dough (the one nearest you) and start to roll it up. Start by rolling around 2cm of the dough into the first roll and then just continue the rolling until you’ve fully rolled the dough. Make sure that you keep each roll of the dough tight.

Slice the dough at around 1 inch for each roll – repeat for the remaining dough until you have all if your rolls.

Place the rolls into a deep sided tray 9×13 inch tray, they should all comfortably fit into this tray.

Cover the tray/s with cling film and allow to double in size. Prove for around 30-45 minutes – these will batch while baking, this is normal.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

While your cinnamon rolls are baking in the oven, it’s the perfect time to make the cream cheese icing which will top the rolls.

Into your mixing bowl, place the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar. Mix together using a spatula or whisk until all of the ingredients have become fully combined – this doesn’t take very long at all.

Once you have been mixing the cream cheese icing together for around 4-5 minutes, you should notice that the mixture goes from a yellowish colour to a lighter yellow but more white colour and should be much lighter and fluffier in consistency. Set the cream cheese icing aside until its needed later.

Now that the lemon rolls are baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool down, almost fully before you finish them off.

Once the rolls are almost cooled down, you can start to add the cream cheese icing on to the buns. I start with a little on each and adding more as its needed – add as much as you’d like.

Then to finish the rolls, you’ll want to zest over the zest of a lemon. This is optional but I really like lemon, so why not?

Well, that’s how you make lemon rolls my way. They are quick and easy to make, which makes them more enjoyable. If you make too many, bake them off, then wrap them with some cling film and place into the freezer. You can keep the rolls in the freeze for up to 3 months, just make fresh cream cheese icing when you take them out.

Vegan White Bread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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.

I don’t know where you are in the world but here in the UK we are in the third national lockdown and much like during the other lockdowns, there isn’t a lot to do. So why don’t you make a loaf of bread? It’s the perfect way to make a few hours pass and enjoy freshly baked homemade bread – it’s really a win-win!

I’ll be honest, this is probably the easiest bread recipe I’ll share. This was actually the exact same recipe I made in my first bread practice class at college back in 2013… It’s a trusted recipe that works without fail.

This is the final bread recipe I’ll be sharing during veganuary and for the foreseeable.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Strong white bread flour.

8g Salt.

10g Fresh yeast.

10g Vegan Butter/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.

Potato and onion rolls

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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.

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.

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