Rebecca Bakes Bread....and it was edible!

Bread, glorious bread, all hail the mighty loaf! For those of you who have been reading for a while you will have realised that I have a lot of favourite foods, but bread has got to be my biggest downfall! Whether it's mothers pride, a crusty cob or gourmet loaf with bits in I love it all. Not good for a girl who has a tendency to hold on to a few excess pounds! I have made my own bread in the past, but I'll be honest I've cheated & used a breadmaker. The breadmaker was sacrificed from my kitchen to make way for my beautiful Kitchen Aid mixer & seeing as that came with a dough hook, I thought it was time I tried it out.

I was going over to Mum's for dinner on Sunday to try out Marks & Spencers new giant ravioli, yes that one off the telly. It was like gold dust trying to find it, whoever said TV advertising isn't effective anymore clearly underestimated the pulling power of an M&S ready meal! I have to say it was delicious...but I digress, the relevance is that I decided to make an olive ciabatta to go with the coveted giant ravioli.

I didn't follow a recipe, I just messed around with quantities based on what I remembered from using the breadmaker. This is roughly what I used...

450g strong white flour
400ml warm water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsps quick action yeast
2 tbsps olive oil
Handful of chopped green olives

There's not much of a method involved, I chucked it all in the mixer, with the exception of the oil & olives, combined it using the dough hook until it turned into a lovely stretchy dough. I added the olives, then finally drizzled the oil over the top. Next is the hardest bit for me...waiting! I covered the bowl with a tea towel & popped it in the airing cupboard for about an hour, after which it had pretty much doubled in size.

OK so doesn't look all that appetising at this point!

Using extra flour to stop it sticking, I gave it a quick knead to combine the oil then shaped it into something resembling a loaf. It baked it in the oven at 180c for about 45 minutes.

Ta da! Was really chuffed with my loaf & it tasted lovely too. There's something very satisfying about baking your own bread & it really is easier than it looks! Do you have a favourite loaf? Till next time, Rebecca x

Week 44 - Crumpets

Hello! Welcome to week 44 of Rebecca Bakes Cakes & this week I've decided to try & make it a full on multimedia experience, so I'm going to attempt to include not only pictures, but video into the post! Hold onto your hats, I'm not the most technically minded so anything could happen, apologies I've recorded the video on my HTC phone so it's not going to be the best quality. But before we get to this weeks baking, I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has voted so far in the Dorset Cereals Little Blog Awards. If you haven't already voted & would like to, just follow the link on the right or click here...

So as you can probably tell from the picture, or there in lack of, the crumpets weren't exactly a success! Some of my recipes have been far from perfect, but I've somehow managed to salvage them into something that at least tastes good even if it looks a bit iffy. These were beyond recovery...but rather than try & explain it, I'll tell you the story through the medium of video! Scroll down after the recipe...

450g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp sugar
7g sachet of fast action yeast
300ml water
300ml milk
As many plain round pastry cutters as you can fit in your frying pan!

1. Sift the flour into a large bowl, stir in the salt, sugar & yeast. Make a well in the centre & add the liquids, beat well until you have a smooth batter. Cover with a tea towel & leave in a warm place for an hour to rise.

So far so good...the batter rose really well!

2. Give it a good stir to knock it back then pour it into a jug to make it easier to pour into the pan.

3. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, then grease the insides of the pastry cutters with a little oil & place them in the pan to warm up.

4. Pour in enough mixture to half fill the mould & leave to cook for about 8 minutes until lots of little wholes appear on the surface. Pop them out of the moulds & flip them over to cook on the other side for 2 minutes. Lift out & leave to cool on a rack - start the process over again!

Crumpets Take 1, here goes....

Want to see what happened?

So not exactly a resounding success! I think the pastry cutters weren't helping, so I thought I'd try a slight variation on the crumpet theme...

Take 2 managed to produce some bubbles, so the piklets were an improvement on the crumpets, but to be honest they ended up with a consistency somewhat resembling those rubber powerballs I used to have as a kid. After 3 attempts, I cut my losses, gave up & put the kettle on instead! I had heard that crumpets were dead simple to make, so I think I must be missing something? So although there's not really anything to show for this week, I hope the videos of my crumpet incompetence at least gave you a giggle! Onwards & upwards for next week, Rebecca x

Week 36 - Fruit Bread

Phew, I'm back from my European tour of the Douwe Egberts offices! It's been an interesting month, I've learnt far more than I ever thought I would about coffee, however I'm really looking forward to having some more time to concentrate on my baking. Apologies, I feel like I've neglected you over the last few weeks & I don't think things have been up to my usual standard. That's probably because I've taken to baking at all hours & I've realised 1am is not my finest hour for creating recipes!

Did you watch the final of the Great British Bake off last night? I don't know how they came to a decision between the final 3, they were so close! I would have been happy whoever won, I kept changing my mind every time they presented another delicious baked goodie. I think my favourite from the final was Ruth's Mint, Ginger & Blackberry cakes, they looked so gorgeous. Just reinforced the fact that I need to go on a cake decorating course to make mine look a little prettier! There's talk of another series for next year...hmm, maybe?? In the meantime I've signed up for the Great Brownie Bake Off that's being hosted by The Chocolate Consultancy on October 9th, so I'll be spending the next 3 weeks perfecting my brownies!

This week, having more time, I decided to have a go at making bread. I've always cheated & used my bread maker, but thats now been banished to the back of the cupboard to make space in my kitchen for my new coffee machine. It was pretty simple to make actually, you just need patience, checking the airing cupboard every 10 minutes to see how it's doing is probably not ideal! I decided to go for a rich fruit bread that I could either eat for breakfast or afternoon tea.

250g strong white bread flour

35g butter melted

35g caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

7g sachet dried yeast

1 egg beaten

1 tsp ground cinnamon

35g sultanas

30g mixed peel

75ml milk mixed with 75ml water

Zest of 1 orange & 1 lemon (plus a little squeeze of lemon juice

1. Put the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, butter & egg into a large bowl. Add the liquid a little at a time, once it's all combined, stir for at least 3 minutes. Tip out the dough onto a surface dusted with flour & knead for a further 5 minutes. Add a little more flour if needed to get a smooth elastic dough. Pop it back in the bowl & leave to rise for 1.5 hours.

2. Mix the fruit, spice & zest together in a bowl. Tip out the dough back onto the board & combine the fruit mixture into the dough. Shape it into a sausage & place it on a baking tray lined with parchment. Leave to rise for another hour.

3. Bake in the oven at 220c/GM7 for 20 minutes until golden brown. Lift out & leave to cool on a rack.

I'm so chuffed with my first from scratch loaf of bread. It's delicious sliced, toasted & smothered in butter, I can highly recommend it! Have a good week everyone, see you next week, Rebecca x

p.s. has anyone else made their Christmas cake yet? I'm starting to stress it's nearly October & I haven't made mine yet...I'm losing valuable alcohol soaking time!!