British

Iced Fruit Cake Slices

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’s recipe is for a really simple iced fruit cake slice – this way you’re having the element of a fruit cake without having a whole fruit cake this is the perfect treat to make and give to friends and family wrapped up as a present or just to share with them, as it tis the season to share.

Even the people who don’t like fruit cake will like this you have a semi traditional fruit cake which is topped with a thin layer of marzipan, which is then topped with a thin layer of icing sugar and finished with a sugar paste holly leaf.

Like most people are feeling right now, it doesn’t feel very festive at all. 2020 has been the weirdest year of my life (as it has for many others), however you’re celebrating Christmas it wouldn’t quite be Christmas time without some form of fruit cake and that’s why I’m sharing my recipe today. It’s a little different he’s not a traditional it’s more of a twist on a traditional so I hope you don’t mind that.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Cake:

150g butter.

150g light brown sugar.

3 eggs.

125g plain flour.

50g ground almonds.

1 tsp ground cinnamon.

½ tsp ground mixed spice.

A dash of ground ginger, cloves, all spice and nutmeg.

450g mixed dried fruit.

Decoration:

150g marzipan.

150g white sugar paste.

25g green sugar paste.

apricot glaze.

water.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of the ingredients, lining an 8×8 inch square cake tin with parchment and grabbing any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and spatula. Don’t forget to preheat the oven to 150˚c/300˚f.

To start on the cake, grab a bowl and place in the butter and light brown sugar – beat the two together until they are combined. You’re not looking for he mixture to be light and fluffy, just well combined.

You can then add in your eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition. Don’t worry if the mixture curdles a little, we’ll correct it now.

Over a sieve, add your plain flour, ground spices and ground almonds and sift that into the mixture. You can then go ahead and add in the fruit.

Mix everything together until everything is incorporated – try your best not to over-mix the cake batter, otherwise the end result will be tough.

Give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in earlier on.

Then transfer the cake batter into your lined cake tin and spread/level the cake better out until its smooth and level, them place into your preheated oven and bake for 60-90 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool fully (while still in the tin).

Whenever the cake has cooled and you’re ready to decorate – you can remove the cake from the tin.

Dust your work surface with a small amount of icing sugar and place on the marzipan and roll it out until its big enough for the top of the cake. I eyeballed this but feel free measure and be more accurate.

Take a small amount and apricot jam and melt it in the microwave/on the hob until smooth and spreadable. Brush this generously on top of the cake and then place the rolled out marzipan on top – set the cake aside while you prepare the final layer.

Dust your work surface with some icing sugar and roll out the sugar paste to be big enough for the top of the cake. To secure the sugar paste in place, brush over a small amount of water and then place the rolled out sugar paste on top.

Roll out the green sugar paste and cut out holly leaves and dampen the back, then secure to the top of the cake .

The you can slice them up into 16 generous portions and enjoy, this is the perfect recipe to make and share with friends and/or family.

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.

Chocolate Orange Mince Pies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

The recipe I’m about to share with you, may change your festive favourite forever (seriously, I’m not kidding). How do you feel about chocolate orange mince pies? A little different but honestly, it’s a good different.

I’ve taken the classic mince pie and twisted it to make it better. Don’t get me wrong, theres nothing wrong with a mince pie but they can get a little boring, so why not add a little more flavour?

The main difference is in the pastry. Instead of plain pastry, I’ve made it a chocolate orange. The filling is almost identical, the mincemeat hasn’t changed but under the mincemeat filling I have added a button of 100% very dark chocolate – it helps balance the sweetness of the mincemeat filling and compliments the orange in the pastry perfectly.

To make this recipe even better, you’ll want to use good quality ingredients. That’s why I’ve used Cocoa Runners new baking range, including cocoa powder and unsweetened dark chocolate but they also offer milk chocolate, dark chocolate and cocoa nibs. I have also used them in my best ever brownies recipe, don’t forget to check them out if you’re interested!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Pastry:

1 Egg.

90g Granulated sugar.

225g Butter, chilled.

350g Plain flour.

25g Cocoa powder.

A generous pinch of salt.

Zest of 1 orange

Filling:

Cocoa Runners 100% cocoa chocolate.

A large jar of sweet mincemeat (homemade or shop bought works well in this recipe).

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up your ingredients, grab any equipment you may need such as a food processor, muffin tin, whisk and spatula. You will also need clingfilm (to wrap the dough in) and for when the time comes, you will need to preheat the oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

To start on the mince pies, you’ll need to make the pastry. Into a small/medium bowl, place the egg and sugar into a bowl and whisk them together until they are well combined. Set aside until its needed later on.

Take a food processor and place in the flour, cocoa powder and salt, then pulse them together until they are combined.

Then add in all of your butter and pulse until it’s incorporated. At this stage it won’t come together as a dough, this is normal.

Now you can go ahead and add in the egg/sugar mixture, then pulse the mixture until it starts coming together but don’t let it fully combine. If you fully combine it in the food processor, it may overwork the gluten and make the pastry tough in texture.

Flour your work surface with flour and place the dough onto it and give it all a brief knead until everything is fully incorporated, bring the dough into a smooth round and then wrap in clingfilm. Place in the fridge and chill in the fridge for around and hour (or you can make this the day before to save time).

Once the dough has chilled for a least an hour in the fridge, you can work with it. Flour your work surface and place the dough on top of the flour, then roll it out until the pastry is around 5mm.

Using a 3 1/2 inch round cookie cutter, cut out 12 circles. Gently push these into your muffin tin, to create the main body of the pastry case. Don’t worry if they’re not perfect, you can fix this with the lid plus these don’t need to look perfect, nobody will bat an eyelid at them, especially once they try them!

You can then go ahead a generously fill the unbaked pastry cases with mincemeat. When it comes to the mincemeat, feel free to make your own or use shop bought, which ever you have to hand.

Take the excess pastry and roll it out, this will be the second roll – I don’t recommend rolling it out more than twice as it can make the pastry quite tough and not very nice to eat.

Roll the pastry out to 5mm in thickness and use a 2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter to cut the lids for the mince pies. Make sure you cut out the exact same amount you have for the pastry cases – for me this was 12. There should be a little bit of roll out pastry left, feel free to use a small festive themed cutter and make some decorations for the tops of the mince pies.

To assemble the mince pies ready to be baked off, place the lids on top of the mince pies and secure the lid to the pastry case by pressing down a fork into two. Repeat this for all of your mince pies.

Egg wash the tops of the pies, then place on the decoration, for me it was a snowflake shape. You will also want to egg wash the decoration, once you have done this, you can place the mince pies into your preheated oven and bake off for 20-25 minutes or until they turned a toasty brown colour.

When they are done baking, remove from the oven and allow to cool I the tray until you can remove them, then allow to completely fo cold on a cooling rack.

I will be honest, I have one that was still warm and its probably the best way to enjoy a mince pie, so enjoy slightly warm if you can.

As an optional finish, once they are cooled down, you can dust them lightly with some icing sugar.

Wholemeal Bloomer

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

500g Wholemeal flour.

8g Salt.

25g Fresh yeast.

30g White shortening.

10g Granulated sugar.

310ml Water.

Method:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

50/50 Bread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

250g Strong White bread flour.

250g Wholemeal flour.

5g Salt.

18g Fresh yeast.

30g White shortening.

12g Milk powder.

10g Granulated sugar.

310ml Water.

Methods:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cherry Bakewell Flapjacks

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

For this weeks recipe, I took two treats and combined them to make a super easy and tasty treat for you to enjoy. Today I’m sharing my recipe for a batch of cherry Bakewell flapjacks.

If you like the plain traditional flapjack recipe, then you should like these. It’s the original chewy and gooey flapjack with elements of a cherry bakewell incorporated… It’s honestly a winning combination.

I use some ground almonds in the dry mix, this helps to add to the flavour and texture of the bake but I also use almond extract to get the most flavour into this bake.

When it comes to the jam, I used cherry to further add to the cherry flavour, however, traditionally in a Bakewell you’re more likely to find a plum jam but you can use whichever jam you like (homemade is better but shop bought works well).

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

175g Butter.

175g Light brown sugar.

175g Golden syrup.

1/4 tsp Almond extract

350g Oats.

50g Ground almonds

50g Cocktail or glace cherries, halved.

(up to) 200g Cherry jam.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. I like to start by weighing up all of my ingredients, lining my 8×8 inch cake tin with parchment paper and grab any other equipment you may need such as a mixing bowl, spatula and saucepan. You may also want to preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

To start on the recipe, you’ll want to grab a medium saucepan and place in the butter, golden syrup and light brown sugar and place the saucepan on the hob over a medium-high heat and just leave it for around 60 seconds, then you can start to stir it constantly until everything has melted together and become smooth. The mixture should be clear, meaning you can see a single trace of a single ingredient.

Set the mixture aside for a moment while you prepare the next step.

Into a large mixing bowl, you can g ahead and add in all of your oats, the the ground almond and just mix the two together until they are fairly well combined.

Now you can go ahead and pour the melted mix over the oats and almond mixture, giving it all a very good mix. You want all of the oats to be coated in the melted mixture, this will only help to make them taste as yummy as possible.

Just before you’re finished with mixing the dry and wet mix together, you can go ahead and add in some cherries (cocktail cherries or glace cherries work well), fold them into the mixture until they have been fairly distributed throughout the mixture.

Grab your lined cake tin from earlier on and add around half of the flapjack mixture. Spread it out and level it out as best you possibly can – I found using a small cranked palette knife works really well.

Directly on top of the bottom layer of flapjack mixture, you can add the cherry jam and spread it out to get it as level as possible – then you can place the remaining oats on top of the jam layer and spread it out to achieve a consistent level. If you can still see some jam under the flapjacks, don’t worry it’s not the end of the world.

Place the tray into your preheated oven and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a nice golden brown colour all over with darker edges.

Once out of the oven allow to cool down fully before you attempt to finish them off.

This is optional but on a cherry Bakewell you get a thin layer of icing, so to add that element into the flapjacks, I’ll be making a glace icing to drizzle over the cooled traybake.

Simple drizzle over the icing in whichever pattern you’d like and place in the fridge for 20 minuets just to allow the icing to firm up.

Whenever you’re ready, you can slice them up. How you do this is completely up to you – I went with 16 bitesize pieces of flapjack but you could always half that and yield 8 more than generous portions but its up to you.

Victoria Sponge Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’ll be showing you how to make a Victoria sponge cake, it’s a classic. If you’ve baked any cake before, I can almost guarantee that you’ve attempted this at one point or another.

If you haven’t heard or tried this cake before, where have you been? I mean its such a simple and straightforward cake, yet its the perfect cake to make for most occasions – that’s for certain!

You can get one of these cakes made in next to no time at all, well if you follow my recipel. The method used to make this cake is the creaming method, this is where you mix the butter and sugar together until they become lighter and fluffier in consistency, then you add in the eggs and extract followed but your dry ingredients then bake your cakes and allow them to cool. Finish the cakes by sandwiching them together with freshly whipped cream (or buttercream) and your choice of jam – don’t forget the light dusting of icing sugar.

Sound like something you’d like, you’ve got this!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients –

Cake –

200g Butter.

200g Granulated sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla bean paste/extract.

3 Eggs.

200g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

Filling –

3-4 tbsp Jam (Strawberry or raspberry work well, but it’s your choice).

200-250ml Double cream, whipped (you can sweeten it with 1/2 – 1 tsp vanilla and 75-100g icing sugar).

Finish –

Icing sugar (to dust).

Method –

Before you start, you’ll want to do some prep work. I recommend starting by weighing up all your ingredients, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and prepare your 6 inch cake tins and get any equipment you may need such as a stand mixer and silicon spatula.

Place your butter and sugar into a mixing bowl of choice and beat them on a medium/high speed until they are well combined and the colour and consistency of the mixture has changed to become lighter and fluffier.

Go ahead and give the bowl a quick scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Then you can go ahead and add in your eggs, one at a time beating well in-between each addition. You’ll also want to add in the vanilla at this stage.

Once everything is combined, scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl.

Sift in your dry ingredients and fold them in using a spatula (or mix on a low speed) being careful not to overmix the batter when incorporating the dry ingredients – otherwise your cakes won’t have a light and fluffy end result, instead they’ll be tough in texture.

Divide the batter between your two 6-inch cake tins and bake in your preheated oven for 25-30 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).

When your cakes are baked, allow them to cool in the tins for 10 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack.

Take your double cream and add in the vanilla extract and icing sugar and whisk on a high speed until you reach a stiff peak consistency, this is the ideal consistency. It’s firm enough to support the second layer of cake, without failing and making a mess.

Add your whipped cream onto the cake, I opted to use a piping bag and pipe the cream on but feel free to do it however works for you. Add your jam on top of the cream and sandwich the cakes together. Finish the cake with a light dusting of icing sugar and enjoy.

Tottenham Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’m sharing my take on the infamous Tottenham Cake.

I recently had a comment on my YouTube channel, asking for me to share a Tottenham cake recipe, so here it is.

I hadn’t made this specific cake in quite a while, so was quite happy to try something different and new to my channel. This isn’t exactly a traditional version of the traybake but it will certainly hit the sweet spot the same way.

If you’re not sure what this cake is, I’ll tell you. It starts with a vanilla sponge cake which is topped with a simple icing, coloured pink. This is from the use of berry jam or berry puree in the icing.

If you like sprinkle cake, you’ll love this recipe. I recommend you check out my other ‘old school’ recipes, including jam and coconut cake, chocolate concrete, chocolate hedgehogs and small cornflake tart/large cornflake tart.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Cake:

220g Butter.

220g Granulated sugar.

4 Eggs.

220g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

Pinch of salt.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Icing:

400g Icing sugar.

50g Raspberry jam, seedless and slightly warmed.

Milk, as much as needed to achieve the perfect consistency.

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract.

(optional) Desiccated coconut or 100s and 1000s.

Method:

Before you get into the baking, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up your ingredients, lining your 9×13 inch cake tin with parchment paper, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and grab a large mixing bowl and mixer.

To start on the cake, take the mixing bowl and place the butter and granulated sugar into it. Beat the two together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once they are combined, you can give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Then you can go ahead and add in your eggs and vanilla, roughly one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. You will notice the consistency changes as you add the eggs, this is normal.

Give the bowl another good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in earlier on.

Take a sieve and pass the plain flour, baking powder and salt through it. I do this as the dry ingredients can sometimes have lumps in the mixture – start the mixer on a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium-high speed, add a tablespoon of milk at a time, just until you have the perfect consistency.

Transfer the cake batter directly into the lined baking tin and spread it out using a small cranked palette knife or the back of a spoon.

Now place into your preheated oven and bake for roughly 25-30 minutes (or it should be golden brown and a tester should come out clean when in interred into the centre).

While the cake is baking, you can make the icing – which is super easy.

For the icing, grab a small-medium bowl and place in the icing sugar, milk, vanilla extract and raspberry jam. Whisk together until you have a thick but spreadable icing, you may need to add more milk or icing sugar to achieve the perfect consistency, so take your time with it to ensure you get it right. Set the icing aside until its needed later on.

Once your cake is fully baked and cooled, you can go ahead and add the icing directly on top of the cake and spread it out using a small cranked palette knife, ensuring you have given the top of the cake a good coating, this is where you can add the desiccated coconut or sprinkles, but I kept it plain and thats what makes a Tottenham Cake personally.

I place the cake into the fridge, just until the icing has firmed up, which is roughly about an hour. You can then take it from the fridge and take a sharp knife and slice the cake up, I went with 12 very generous sized portions but you could cut them in half and still have a good sized portion.

Fresh Cream & Custard Doughnuts

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you like filled doughnuts, this is the recipe for you. Today I’m showing you how to make your own custard and/or fresh cream finger doughnuts.

These doughnuts are ideal if you want to make a change from the more traditional filled or ring doughnuts, this way you’re still getting a filled doughnut but you’re able to see the filling.

I remember seeing these in some supermarkets and craft bakeries but not all that often – we made these at college quite a lot and thats where I got the inspiration from. I found an old picture of some doughnuts I made at college which has fresh cream and jam, custard and apple (I couldn’t make the apple variety as apples seem impossible to get ahold of).

The one thing I should say, is the custard in these doughnut is a simple creme patisserie. In the ones at college it was a cold custard but either works really well.

While you have the time and might be able to get in the ingredients, why not make a batch of these up and share them with your friends and family (at a locally safe distance of course).

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Doughnut Dough:

450g Strong bread flour.

5g Salt.

35g Fresh yeast.

60g Butter.

60g Granulated sugar.

1 Egg.

100ml Water.

150ml Milk

Fillings:

Whipped Cream:

200ml Double cream.

25g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Strawberry/raspberry jam (in a piping bag).

Custard:

For the custard filling, make sure you check out the creme patisserie/pastry cream blog post.

Method:

Before you get into the doughnuts, you should go ahead and do some prep. Weigh up all your ingredients, get your deep fat fryer or ‘chip pan’, cut some parchment rectangles and get any equipment you may need ready, such as a mixing bowl.

To start, take your mixing bowl and place in the bread flour along with the salt and give them a good mix, just until they are incorporated,

You can then go ahead and add in the fresh yeast, butter, sugar, egg, water and milk. Mix on a low speed to start for roughly 2 minutes. The dough should have formed but it will be very soft. Mix for a further 4 minutes on a medium speed or until you have a clean and soft looking dough.

You can go ahead and generously flour your work surface with bread flour. Place the dough onto it and give it a good knead to incorporate some of the flour, which should help the dough become smooth and elastic, as you knead it.

Once the dough is smooth and elastic (it will be soft, as its enriched), place into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film and leave somewhere warm and allow the dough to proof.

Proofing is simply the process of allowing the yeast to do its job.

After roughly about an hour (or once the dough has doubled in size), flour your work surface and place the dough onto it and knock it back. The process of knocking the dough back is simply to remove the gasses that have built up during the first proof.

Bring the dough back into a ball and cover with the clingfilm. Scale the dough off at 70g per doughnut, round the dough off using the palm/side of your hand and the worktop and then roll into a sausage shape. Place onto a rectangle of parchment paper and place onto a baking tray, making sure they’re loosely covered with clingfilm.

Allow the doughnuts to proof for around 30-45 minutes, they should be doubled in size.

While the doughnuts are proofing for the second time, get your deep fat fryer or chip pan and heat the oil to 180˚c/350˚f.

Once the doughnuts have proofed up well, depending on how big your fryer is you may be able to fry more or less (remember when you add the dough to the oil, it will lower the temperature). I was able to fry off doughnuts at a time. Fry them on each side for roughly 1 minute or until well coloured on each side.

After they have been fried, place onto some kitchen roll (this will help absorb some of the excess grease). Allow them to cool fully before you finish them off.

Now the doughnuts are cooled, slice them downtime middle and then grab a bowl of sugar (I have a container of sugar specially for doughnuts) and roll the doughnuts in the sugar, so they have a good coating of sugar – repeat this stage for all of the doughnuts.

For the whipped cream, simply grab a mixing bowl and place in the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract. Whisk together until the cream starts to reach stiff peaks. Try not to over whip the cream as it will have a gritty texture and unpleasant taste.

Place the custard and whipped cream into a piping bah, fitted with a open star nozzle.

Open the doughnuts and pipe in the filling in a shell pattern, this is what looks most pleasing to the eye, but feel free to pipe it however you like.

Finish the cream doughnut by piping a line of jam down the one side, this just adds a little colour and flavour – the flavour of the jam is completely up to you!

Cornflake Tart Recipe | School Cornflake Tart

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

While you’ve got some more time on your hands, why don’t you give this cornflake tart a go?

I have already done a recipe for a cornflake tart but that was only a small one – this one is a large one. Who doesn’t want more of this classic treat?

I’m not sure whether it’s a local or national thing, but at my secondary school it was on the menu, alongside flapjacks and chocolate flapjacks. This recipe is even better than the ones your school could ever serve – I promise you that.

My recipe may not be exactly traditional but it’s my take on it and it’s always turned out well. If you’re not sure what cornflake tart is – are you okay? It starts with a shortcrust pastry case, which is then filled with strawberry jam and topped with cornflake mixture. You’re guaranteed to get sweet and crispy in every mouthful.

I’ll be showing you how to make your own pastry as well as the filling – its all super easy and can be made with a pretty quick turn around.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Pastry:

I already have a recipe showing you how to make pastry, I’ll link it here for you.

Cornflake Filing:

230g Golden syrup.

110g Butter.

80g Granulated sugar.

A pinch of salt.

170g Cornflakes.

250-300g Strawberry jam.

Methods:

Before you get started on the recipe, I recommend you do some prep work. Start by weighing up your ingredients, line your 9×13 inch baking tray (only if needed, or even better, use a disposable tray), preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and get any equipment you may need ready, such as a saucepan and a spatula.

To keep the recipe short and simple, I’ve left a link for the pastry recipe above. Make the pastry and wrap it in some clingfilm and chill for about an hour before you use it.

Once the dough has had some time to chill in the fridge, you can take it and start to roll it out. Start by generously flouring your work surface, then placing the dough onto it.

Roll out the pastry until its roughly 1 inch bigger than the 9×13 inch tin/tray, then you can go ahead and place the pastry over the top and press it down into place. Don’t worry if the pastry rips or tears, you can fix it with the left over pastry.

Dock the bottom of the pastry with a fork, this is just to allow the steam to release and prevents the pastry base rising while it bakes – place in the fridge and allow to chill for an hour.

Once the pastry case has had an hour in the fridge, you can then go ahead and grab your strawberry jam, spreading it out until you have roughly consistent layer of jam.

Place back in the fridge, just while you make the cornflake filling.

To make the cornflake filling, grab a small saucepan and place in the golden syrup, butter and granulated sugar and salt, then place it on the heat over a medium heat.

Allow everything to melt a little and then start stirring it constantly, just until everything is fully melted and is well combined.

Grab your bowl of cornflakes and pour over the melted mixture.

Then you can go ahead and give it all a very good stir until all of the cornflakes have been well coated in the liquid mix. Once you’ve achieved this, you can go ahead and grab your pastry case filled with the jam and add all of the cornflake mixture directly on top of the jam.

Move them about until you have a consistent layer and compress them down until the are slightly compact – this is just to make sure that it stays together while it bakes and once it cools down.

Place into your preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cornflakes have turned a golden brown colour. Whatever you do, don’t touch the tart until, its fully cooled down. Leave it in the baking tin/tray until it has fully cooled.

Once everything is done and dusted, you can go ahead and slice up the cornflake tart. You can cut it however you like but I went with 12 generously she portions but you could get 24 smaller bitesize pieces – its up to you.

Homemade Wholemeal Bread | Whole Wheat Bread

by bakingwithelliott 2 Comments

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.

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