What are you baking this week?

[Sakkarin]

I'll leave the fish and finger pies to Sir Paul McCartney, I think...

Today's batch of rolls have come out a particularly gorgeous golden colour! Click the pic for maximum effect!

I was experimenting with the amount of water needed for the poppy seeds to stick, they were well and truly sprayed with warm water, maybe that was the key to the (techni)colour. It was a bit of an afterthought just before I put them in the oven, hence the patchy seeding. I wonder if there is some sort of shaker for poppyseeds, they are relatively expensive, and 70% of them end up on the tray (i.e. in the bin) not the bread...

[Uschi]

I made the same mistake, but didn‘t spill as much.
Axel said it is easier to take the bun before the final proving, basting it with water, putting poppy seeds in a small bowl and dipping the bun into that, wet side down.

Anyway, yours look very lecker.

[aero280]

Agreed. I use sunflower seeds to cover some of my bread rolls and dipping them in a small bowl of water and then in a bowl of seeds is working well. I tried sprinkling at first, but the seeds went everywhere and most didn’t stay stuck during the baking.

[Earthmaiden]

Cheats baking here. I unrolled a sheet of semi thawed puff pastry and spread it with a jar of nice mincemeat I'd planned to use at Christmas with added cherries but didn't.

Rolled up into a 'Swiss roll', cut into pinwheels and popped into the aircfryer for 30 mins (turned for the last 5-10 mins) - cooked them on the paper that the pastry comes rolled in so washing up consisted of one spoon.

I resisted opening a tin of custard but what an easy store cupboard pud that would be in emergencies (even if you made custard from scratch or had cream or ice cream in stock)! They're in the freezer now or I might have been tempted to pick at them.

[herbidacious]

I made some Danish bread rolls, proved in the fridge overnight. Can you do this with whole loaves of bread? They worked really well and were so easy. Just mixed the bread mix with yeast in the Kenwood Chef then left in the fridge in a bowl, then divided into 8 and baked for 20 mins.

I used (half of) this to make 8 rolls:

https://www.scandikitchen.co.uk/product ... s-mix-1kg/

Not that pretty, but, really, I've not made bread without the bread maker since about 1988... (so I am pleased).

[Earthmaiden]

They look excellent. I wish I had a Kenwood Chef (though its probably just as well I haven't!).

[aero280]

They look fine. Did you leave the rolls to prove after you had shaped them?

I've done an overnight prove in the fridge and it's worked, but I left the rolls for a further hour to prove before putting them in the oven.

I tried doing hot cross buns like this but only under duress. The dough was enriched with butter, etc. and took an age to rise. I wasn't going to have time to finish them unless I stayed up half the night. So I put the bowl in the fridge overnight. I still shaped and proved the buns before baking. It was a late breakfast! I ought to try the shaping before bed and leaving the individual buns to rise in the fridge overnight and see what happens. I didn't want to risk that on a first attempt. Maybe this year...

[aero280]

I mentioned the kumquats in Chatterbox earlier.

I decided to make an upside down cake. Just a Victoria sponge mix poured over some halve kumquats. I guessed the baking time, and maybe left it 5 mins over. If I do something like this again, I think it would be moister if I used less sponge. But it tastes OK, but not amazing.

[herbidacious]

No aero, no second prove. The texture was good.

Do you think you can do this with a whole loaf?

They did have a lot of yeast in them. 12.5g to 500g of flour.

[aero280]

I have done a couple of loaves in the past with just the one prove, when I needed bread in a hurry. It wasn't as nice as the double prove, and it had a lot of big holes in it I haven't done a slow single prove, but if it's slow enough the flavour should come through.

[Ameew]

Made some nice little pastries today … on a sheet of puff pastry , I spread some pesto all over , topped with torn up pieces of ham from the butchers , then some smoked cheese . Rolled it all up like a Swiss roll , cooked in the airfryer for 10 minutes at 185 then sliced into rounds

[aero280]

Sounds tasty!

I do a bread version like a ham, cheese and mustard Chelsea bun. The dough is enriches with a little butter, onion and caraway. It's a Dan Lepard recipe.

My favourite quick pastry roll is a puff pastry Apple Strudel. Diced apple, sultanas and muscovado rolled up and baked

[Ameew]

Oooh I might have to try that , I love any pudding /dessert featuring apples , especially if there’s clotted cream involved !!

[aero280]

I forgot to mention the clotted cream, but that’s not baked!

There are extras. I think this is the recipe I used, but slightly modified since. It’s quite a lot to get in the roll. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/26160 ... e-strudel/

[Ameew]

Thank you

[KeenCook]

I just made Suelle's gingerbread and realised I forgot to add the milk - I couldn't understand why it was so hard to pour into the tin ... it is for friends tomorrow, do you think it will still be edible? Or should I make something else?

Arrghh, I'm so distracted, as lots of you already know we haven't had a fridge for a week, and the phone kept going while I was cooking ...

Anyway, please tell me what you think?

Thx

[Suelle]

I just made Suelle's gingerbread and realised I forgot to add the milk - I couldn't understand why it was so hard to pour into the tin ... it is for friends tomorrow, do you think it will still be edible? Or should I make something else?

Arrghh, I'm so distracted, as lots of you already know we haven't had a fridge for a week, and the phone kept going while I was cooking ...

Anyway, please tell me what you think?

Thx

I'm not sure which recipe you used, but the recipe on my blog for a traditional gingerbread uses quite a lot of milk. Leaving it out would seriously affect the end result, I fear. The only way to be sure is to try a piece.

I wouldn't throw it away though - when you've got more time (and a fridge) and are not so frazzled it might make a base for something else, such as a trifle with tinned pears. Wrap it tin foil meanwhile.

[KeenCook]

Thank you Suelle, that's a really good idea about the trifle. Yes, it was your traditional gingerbread recipe, which I have made several times now, and has never failed to please It's a really good recipe

I had thought about turning it into a sort of pavlova, with a lot of whipped cream (an entire small pot!) and chunks of stem ginger in it.
I managed to make it sink in the middle as well so there is quite a deep crevice to fill with cream!

You're right, we should taste it.

[aero280]

I have just baked another batch of two dozen bread rolls.

But earlier, I was reminded of something I read in an old newspaper cutting where it was suggesting that some baking, not necessarily bread, got better results when the items were put in a cold oven and allowed to warm up with it. Has anyone tried this?

[KeenCook]

The gingerbread worked out well in the end. I inverted it so the crevice was underneath, trimmed the sides so they were straight,and made a very rich and utterly delicious mascarpone and d. cream frosting. I used a lot of the syrup from a jar of stem ginger. It went down very well with our guests.