Bread Revisited

I haven't posted for a while, in fact,  I haven't baked in a while, due to actually having some kind of social engagements filling my weekends. Having a life is all good, except it leaves me with precious little time to bake.

However, I had a four day weekend this week so managed to squeeze in some (admittedly not as much as I had planned) time in the kitchen.

I have been meaning to give bread another go for a while, since I documented my first attempt on here a while back, but I gave up bread for July (it will go down in history as "no-bread July," it's like "no-shave November" just a bit more niche!) so I thought it best not to try and attempt to bake it, and tempt myself into falling off the wagon.

But, as we said goodbye to July and August crept in and I was free to eat, and bake, bread again! So,on Friday that's finally what I did; spurred on by this weeks bread episode of The Great British Bake Off.

I wanted to bake something other than the plain white loaf that I have tried before and wanted to do something that involved shaping the dough, so I chose a cheese and onion tear and share loaf recipe from my Great British Bake Off book.

After only one previous attempt I already felt more confident handling and needing the dough than I did last time, and was able to prepare the dough for its first proving easily enough. When it had proved I needed to divide it equally, (I got a calculator and scales out and everything as I've seen how badly different sized buns go down on The Great British Bake Off) flatten each section, fill with a cheese and onion filling and gather up into a bun shape. I placed all the buns in a honeycomb structure and left them to prove again. Before they went in the oven I sprinkled the top with cheese, then sat back and let the smell of fresh bread fill the house.

I was more than happy with the results, they tasted great and didn't look too shabby either. Bread really is time consuming, you need to set aside a whole afternoon, but for me it's one of (if not the) most satisfying things to bake.

 Later that day, to further cement my status as queen of the kitchen I made a chicken risotto for dinner - look what made a perfect accompaniment.

No Cow Pie

I've mentioned my housemate, Sophie, on this blog before, she's one of those people I always feel so, so sorry for- she cant eat dairy OR wheat! She can never enjoy  a smooth and silky Dairy Milk chocolate bar, or a bacon sandwich with fresh, white crustry bread or a camembert cheese that's been left out in the sun to go gloriously gooey - the main things that practically make life worth living!

It also means that she has never been able to enjoy any of the treats I've made since starting this hobby and this blog. So, in celebration of her birthday I decided to tackle the giant that is, a gluten free cake. For my birthday, Sophie and my other housemate Sammy, bought me a baking book - which had a recipe in it for gluten free chocolate cake.

When reading the recipe, I was a little sceptical as to how the cake would turn out; it didnt include any type of gluten-free flour, like rice flour or ground almonds, as I was expecting, but instead was made from cocoa powder and melted dark chocolate (which Sophie can have, as it doesn't contain cow juice!) Luckily, (and somewhat bizarrely) she can have butter though. Without any flour or baking powder - the only ingredient that would make the cake rise, were the eggs, and I wasn't convinced those little guys could do it all on their own.

So with equal measures of anticipation and trepidation, I made up the batter and popped it in the oven. Thirty minutes or so later I returned to see a cake that had actually risen! Although, the rise didnt stay around long after I had taken it out if the oven. It wasn't much to look at but, as always, the proof is in the tasting.
My boyfriend, Sammy, Sophie and I sat down to taste the fruit of my labour together - there was a sense of anticipation probably larger than the one surrounding how London will cope with the Olympics.**Personally I didn't much care for it, although I think mainly that was because I really don't like dark chocolate and there was a large amount in the recipe and not too much sugar to offset the bitterness. It went down better with the others though, both Dave and Sammy said they enjoyed it, and Sophie- whose opinion mattered to me most - said that it was one of the best gluten free cakes she'd ever had. Not bad for a first attempt.
The finished product was more like the texture of a brownie than a cake - so maybe next time I'll cut up the cake and pass them off as brownies instead. Ironically, it probably would have tasted really nice served with a blob of cream or ice cream - although maybe I will have to get my hands on some goats milk ice cream instead.

While, the experiement was interesting and the one person who I wanted to enjoy it, did enjoy it, I think I still believe that if you want to make a cake that looks and tastes great you need a field full of wheat - and maybe a cow.

**Apparently it's impossible to write anything at the moment and not mention the games, so I thought I'd keep this blog topical, or jump on the bandwagon, whichever way you want to look at it.