What are you baking this week?

[aero280]

Disappointed. The stollen turned out badly. The recipe said "30-40 minutes, or until golden". It got past "golden" at 35 mins, so I took it out. It was almost raw in the middle I tried to recover the situation, but the outcome is a very dry stollen. I think it was so cold in the kitchen that the rise was incomplete. It can be eaten, but it's not for consumption outside the house.

[Suffs]

Sounds as if some slices of it could be turned into a very tasty Pain Perdu.

[aero280]

We are eating with the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren today, so the stollen will be taken with us and probably dunked in tea or coffee. I won’t be doing any cooking today, and we will probably be bringing home leftovers to keep us going until the weekend.

[Cheezy_Jazzy]

I made Lemon Meringue Cheesecake yesterday for the first time in several years.

[Sakkarin]

Oh dear, sorry to hear about the Stollen Aero!

I've perfected a particularly fab soft olive bread which made a stupendous sandwich with roquefort cheese and finnoccia salami for my Christmas Eve snack, and I will be baking another tomorrow. Later this week I will be trying my last piece of frozen yeast, it's been in the freezer for many months now, so I suspect it may not do the business.

Couldn't be bothered with any sweet bakes, I will be having American Pancakes with Whipped Cream and Maple Syrup tomorrow instead as they are super quick to knock up. Probably this will be the first Christmas ever that I've not had mince pies, christmas pud or christmas cake. Or stollen for that matter...

EDIT: Here's my Boxing Day Olive Bread!

[Suelle]

My daughter usually makes mince pies for Christmas Day, but this year there was a disaster with her pastry, and by the time she realised that it couldn't be rescued she was too frazzled to try again.

I've just made a batch of Mincemeat and Marzipan Shortbread Squares to replace what we should have had yesterday:
https://mainlybaking.blogspot.com/2018/ ... bread.html

Making the shortbread this way is very easy, and the whole thing is a lot faster than making traditional pastry mince pies.

[slimpersoninside]

They look good Sue!

[miss mouse]

They do sound good.

[aero280]

I think I might try this.

But maybe not until next week when things are quieter.

[patpoyntz]

Your olive bread looks wonderful saks, I’d love the recipe please.

[KeenCook]

Yummm, the olive bread looks fab, Sakk.
Love your mince pie subs, suelle, I must give them a try!

[Rainbow]

They do look good, Suelle.

I also like making mincemeat and oat squares/slices - easier than pastry!!

https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/col ... eat-slices

[Sakkarin]

PROBABLY TOO MUCH INFORMATION! MAY EDIT LATER...

Your olive bread looks wonderful saks, I’d love the recipe please.

The video linked below is the recipe and method that inspired me PP, if you want fab rolls, just copy it! It takes a bit longer than my usual method (adapted Dan Lepard), but it's worth it.

"WET FOLD" is what I've called what she does in the video at 1'38". My dough is slightly tighter because of the wholemeal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dILfFnF733Y

I've tweaked the ingredients, timings and method, including a second "wet fold" for my loaf. I used Aldi's 89p green olives (cut into quarters), a jar has enough for 4 loaves give or take a couple of olives.

I suspect my method makes it look a lot more complicated than it actually is.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
INGREDIENTS

350g strong flour (90g wholemeal, 260g white) 26p
1.5 tsp (6g) fast action yeast 10p
1 tsp salt
0.5 tsp sugar
45g green olives 23p
240ml warm water

Total ingredient cost 59p (yeast cost includes S+S)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
METHOD/TIMING

Combine all ingredients in a bowl until there's no dry flour (I find the best utensil is a knife) then fold and punch it a few times in the bowl until it is a coherent lump.

Leave 30 minutes covered in warm, then WET FOLD 1

Leave 15 minutes then WET FOLD 2

Leave 1.25 hours to rise.

Pull gently into a rectangle on floured surface, and roll up, but push ends slightly under to make more of a bloomer shape. Pinch the end together (as final pinch of rolls in video) and "tuck under*", put on lined baking tray/sheet cover with cloth.

Warm prove 30 minutes, should look nearly risen.

Oven on for 15 minutes 220 degrees (EDIT: total 45 min prove), put an extra tray in bottom of oven for the steam.
Just before baking, throw a cup of water into the hot tray, leave it a couple of minutes to create steam
Dust loaf with flour, three slashes not too deep, slight angle (as video 2 suggests)

Bake 25 minutes, slightly more if needed, (no cover unlike video)

Put on rack to cool, top covered entirely with a cloth, the steam softens the crust. Leave at least half hour to cool.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
TIPS

Proving in the oven: My oven on for exactly a minute gives enough warmth for proving without cooking the dough. For the final 15 mins proving on the baking sheet while the oven is properly heating up, I rest the tray on a bowl with a couple of inches of boiling water in it.

I use those Poundland silicone sheets to line the baking tray.

*"tuck under", not sure how to describe this, it's basically tucking the dough under the loaf several times so the top surface is taut. Anyone know what I mean and got a better description?

Slashing, video 2:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qlJg3vkLvEs

[patpoyntz]

Thank you so much for the recipe. Very good instructions! I make most of our bread, usually Dan Leppards no knead, which I tweak for different variations, focaccia for instance works very well. Love olives, and will be making this very soon. Thanks again.

[Suffs]

The remains of the cockerel were turned into a creamy chicken, leek and tarragon pie

[Uschi]

Looks delicious, Suffolk!!!! Lecker, lecker!!!!

[slimpersoninside]

Oooh, that looks nice Suffs! .

[Uschi]

I availed myself of some Pumpernickel, for my faux caviar, egg and mayo canapees and have baked a spelt and sunflowerseed bread and spelt rolls with sesame or poppyseed.

It is a fairly light bread, to contrast with the pumpernickel. I think Brie with cranberry compote will go with it.

[Stokey Sue]

All looking good.
I have made Felicity’s Onion Tart (minus bacon) to take tonight, bit of a major work but went ok I think, will see when it’s cut. The melted butter pastry was dead easy and seems to have worked well, but next time I’ll hol back a little bit for crack repair, I thought there would be trimmings but there weren’t. It wasn’t bad but a few smiles to plug with a scrap of hastily approximated shortcrust p.

Recipe
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/m ... ity-cloake

[Uschi]

It does look delicious!!! Right up my street!!!!