TWD - Twist Loaf

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie (Baking with Dorie) recipe is Twist Loaf. Dorie takes her Daily Bread recipe and makes it fancy, with a cocoa/spice/sugar/cranberry filling and braiding.

 

It looks really complicated to make, but it was actually quite easy with the instructions in the recipe. It turned out very impressive looking.

The loaf was most delicious served warm on day 1. It was fine afterwards toasted, but the magic is on Day 1, so make sure you share it.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Brioche Sticky Buns

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie (Baking with Dorie) recipe is Brioche Sticky Buns.

It starts with making a half recipe of Dorie’s brioche dough. It is then proofed, chilled, rolled, filled, put into a caramel sauce and baked.

And this is the end result:

It is definitely a labour of love requiring a fair amount of time, but the end result is delicious:

 To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Whole Wheat and Flax Daily Bread

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie (Baking with Dorie) recipe is Whole Wheat and Flax Daily Bread.

As the name suggests, this bread includes whole wheat flour and flax seeds in the ingredients. Powdered milk is an unusual inclusion in the ingredients, but which seems to make Dorie’s bread recipes so good.

This bread is best eaten fresh on the day it’s made - I enjoyed the crust piece slathered with Bonn Maman chocolate orange spread. After that, I recommend toasting this bread.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - White Bread

 

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is exactly what it says on the tin - White Bread.

The recipe features milk powder, which is unusual to me. It produces a rather lovely fluffy white loaf of bread. It isn’t hard to make - you just need to have the time (3 rises of  ~ 1 hour each) and sufficiently warm weather to activate the yeast.

On day 1, this bread was a treat - I ate a slice slathered with butter and jam, and it was just as good as cake:

As with all bread, it wasn’t quite as good the next day, but was perfectly good without toasting.

To see what everyone else baked this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Helen Goh’s Perfect Hot Cross Buns

 I couldn’t resist trying out Helen Goh’s recipe for hot cross buns on @goodfoodau - and they are just as fluffy and delicious as promised. 

This is my first time baking buns using a tangzhong and I was impressed with the results. 

I didn’t have citrus peel, so I just replaced it with more fruit.

These buns are so good, especially served warm with butter.

TWD - Brioche Sandwich Buns

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Brioche Sandwich Buns. A rich brioche dough is formed into buns for your favourite sandwich filling.

Here’s a peek at the crumb:

The buns have nice browned crusty tops, the way I like my bread rolls.

I made one of my buns into a chicken and salad sandwich:

To see what everyone else baked this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

 Today’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Cinnamon-Raisin Bread. This bread is super easy to make and smells heavenly when baking and cooling.

The raisins are soaked in water or tea. I soaked mixed fruit in Peach and Pineapple tea because - why not?

The cinnamon spiced dough is then made in a stand mixer, and the soaked raisins kneaded through the dough.

The dough is left to rise (it took mine ~ 90 minutes to double in size) before being shaped, put into a buttered loaf tin, and rising again for 45 minutes.

I glazed the top of my loaf with heated jam and sprinkled it with sugar before baking. Forty-five minutes later, you end up with a golden brown loaf that smells divine. 

Once cooled, the loaf can be sliced and enjoyed however you like:

To see what everyone else made this week and their thoughts on it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website. 

TWD - Chocolate Babka

 This week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Chocolate Babka.  This epic recipe takes at least 2 days to make due to the need for the dough to rise, then chill.

However, the end result is simply stunning, and tastes great.  The bread component is a buttery brioche dough, its filled with spices and cocoa, and finally topped off with streusel.

It was pretty exciting shaping the dough - when the rolled log is cut in half, you get some impressive stripes:

Th dough is then braided - pretty, right! 

And after all of that effort, you get a rather handsome looking chocolate babka:

I can't tell you how it compares with the Bread's Bakery chocolate babka, but it was really good.

To see what everyone else made this week, and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Whip It Up Quick Cornbread

This week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Whip It Up Quick Cornbread from Baking with Dorie.   This cornbread is quite versatile in that the basic cornbread recipe has lots of optional mix-ins, including corn kernels, bacon, cheese and shallots. 

I didn't use any mix-ins other than sprinkling cheddar cheese on top.  I made the cornbread as individual muffin-sized  pieces, making 5 muffins from a quarter of the recipe.  So that the cornbread could be eaten by the rest of my family, I left out the peppers (black and cayenne). 
 

I think the muffins make great individual serves to have in a bread basket or similar at the meal table.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website. 

WWDH - Apple Yoghurt Cinnamon Scrolls

 Today’s Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is Apple Yoghurt Cinnamon Scrolls, with miso glaze.

I made these following one of Donna’s online cooking demonstrations. They are very easy to make.

You can find the recipe here should you want to try making these. 

To check out some more Donna Hay dishes, visit Kayte at Grandma’s Kitchen Table, Margaret at Tea and Scones, and Peggy at Pantry Revisited.  

TWD - English Muffins

This week’s Tuesday With Dorie (Baking with Dorie) recipe is English muffins.

I  buy English  muffins occasionally but I have never made them myself. It takes a little planning to make them as the process takes 4 hours or so. If you want them for breakfast, you have to start the night before.

I was pleased with how mine turned out - here’s one with ham, egg, cheese and tomato chutney:

 

To see how everyone else went with their muffins, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Cornbread

You’ve got to continue to grow, or you’re just like last night’s cornbread - stale and dry. Loretta Lynn

In the past, I had not been a fan of cornbread. I had never made it myself, and the versions that I tried were dry and tasteless.

One of my colleagues, Johanna, posted a cornbread recipe in the COVID cookbook this week, so I decided to give it a go. 

And boy, I was glad that I did.  This cornbread was moist and tasty, and especially good served warm with a little butter.

I added a cup of  frozen peas and corn to my batter, and grated a quarter of a cup of cheddar on top.  Johanna also suggests adding tinned corn, creamed corn, cheese or chilli to the batter.

If you would like to try Johanna’s cornbread, you will need:

125g butter
150g sugar (or a little less if you prefer)
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
175g cornmeal or polenta
150g plain flour
250ml buttermilk
pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and grease and line a 1 litre capacity loaf tin.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly with a fork. Set aside.

Put all of the dry ingredients except the sugar into a large bowl and stir to combine. Stir through any add ins that you want to use.

Put the butter into a medium saucepan and melt over low heat.  Add the sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat.

Beat the eggs into the butter mixture with a fork, then fold in the buttermilk with a rubber spatula.

Pour the butter mixture over the dry ingredients, and use a rubber spatula to just combine.

Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf tin and level the top.  Grate cheese on top if desired.  Place the tin into the oven and bake for 50-55 minutes or until cooked through.  Remove the bread from the oven and cool completely in the tin on a wire rack before unmoulding.  

Slice and serve spread with butter.

Vanilla Glazed Choc Chunk Hot Cross Buns - QBC

It is Good Friday today, heralding the start of the holy Easter season.  For Queen Baking Club this fortnight, the recipe was fittingly Vanilla Glazed Choc Chunk Hot Cross Buns.

These hot cross buns contain a traditional blend of spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves) and raisins, together with the less traditional addition of chocolate chunks.  The finished buns are glazed with a syrup that is flavoured with vanilla.

Here are my buns just before going into the oven:

I found that I needed twice the amount of flour paste suggested in the recipe to make crosses for all of my buns, 20 in all.

Here is a yummy hot cross bun, fresh from the oven and spread with butter:

The smell of hot cross buns is amazing!  Loved these buns, and my colleagues seemed to like them too.

Queen's recipe is quite straight forward, should you wish to try making your own hot cross buns for today.

Wishing you a blessed Easter.

Fitzrovia Buns

I have written before about how much I love the Honey & Co Baking Book.  There are so many recipes in it that I want to make.  I have already made the Pear Ginger and Olive Oil Cake and the Baked Doughnuts with Citrus Curd.

For ages, I have been waiting to make the Fitzrovia Buns, which are Honey & Co's answer to Chelsea Buns.  For the uninitiated, Chelsea Buns are sticky buns, kind of like pecan sticky buns or cinnamon buns in the US.  The Fitzrovia Buns caught my eye as they were filled with dried sour cherries and pistachios.  Sour cherries are hard to get here, so it took me a while to gather the ingredients, and then a while longer for me to find a spot in my schedule to make these buns.

However, I am so glad that I did.  These Fitzrovia Buns are the bees knees of buns - dense, sweet, sticky and packed with flavour. If you don't own the book, the recipe is posted online here.  However, if you love baking, I highly recommend this book - there are many delicious sounding and unusual recipes here that you won't find elsewhere.

The Fitzrovia Buns involve a few steps - making a dough, making a sugar syrup, waiting for the dough to chill, filling and shaping the dough, waiting for the buns to rise and finally baking the buns.  The dough and the syrup can be made in advance if you are short on time.  It took me four hours from beginning to end to have a warm batch of buns on my kitchen bench.

My faith in how good these buns were was backed up by the rapid rate at which they disappeared at work.  They get a gold star from me.

Hot Cross Buns - Gewurzhaus recipe

Easter is fast approaching, and Good Friday is the first of the Easter holidays.  It wouldn't be Good Friday in our family unless you eat fish for every meal, and you have hot cross buns.

I am enjoying trying the various flavours of hot cross buns that are available now, with my favourite being Apple and Cinnamon Hot Cross Buns from Bakers Delight.

On the weekend, I visited one of my favourite stores, Gewurzhaus, in Hawksburn Village.  Every year they stock beautiful traditional wooden ornaments sourced from Germany.  They also stock a Hot Cross Bun Spice Mix.  Although I couldn't justify purchasing a wooden ornament, I did buy some of the hot cross bun spice mix.  The spice mix came with a recipe for traditional style hot cross buns, so what better excuse would I get to make my  own hot cross buns.    

The Gewurzhaus hot cross bun recipe makes 16 buns.  I was a little overwhelmed by the thought of having so many buns around, so I halved the recipe to make eight buns.

I was a little concerned about how my buns would turn out, but I needn't have been concerned.  Home-made buns are never as fluffy as the store bought variety, but then you have to wonder what they put in the store bought ones to make them that fluffy.  The taste was spot on and they were not too heavy.

The recipe for the Gewurzhaus hot cross buns is as follows:

Dough

500g bread flour or plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
75g sugar
1 sachet dry yeast (7g)
2-3 tablespoons Gewurzhaus hot cross bun spice mix (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, coriander, citrus)
300ml milk
65g butter
1 large egg, beaten
150g currants or mixed fruit

Crosses

4 tablespoons self raising flour
4 tablespoons cold water

Glaze

2 tablespoons sugar
75ml boiling water
1/4 teaspoon hot cross bun spice mix

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the spice, salt, sugar and yeast and mix through.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk over a low heat, add the butter. Once the butter has melted, take off heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the milk mixture. Add the beaten egg and mix well, working from the inside out, slowly incorporating the dry ingredients to form a dough. Add in the dried fruit, and knead through the dough.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough becomes smooth and not sticky anymore. You may need to slightly adjust the mixture if it is too dry/wet with milk/flour. 

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel.  Place in a warm spot to rise for an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Turn the dough out and punch down to remove any air.  Cut the dough into 16 equal sized pieces. Place buns close together onto a baking tray, lined with baking paper. Cover with a tea towel and let rise for a further hour.

In the meantime, make the mixture for the crosses. Mix flour and water into a smooth, thick paste. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Place the mixture for your crosses into a zip lock bag, cut a small hole out of a corner and pipe onto the buns. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

While the buns are baking, make the glaze by adding the glaze ingredients to a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, and continue to simmer until the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens a little.  Brush the glaze over the buns as soon as they are removed from the oven to give them sheen.

Serve the buns hot with a little butter.

Apple and Cinnamon Hot Cross Buns

On Friday night, Tim and I went to see Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osborn in Stories For The Starlit Sky at The Playhouse as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival. I was introduced to Daniel Kitson's work about 12 years ago by my then boss, who had seen him perform in London.  I have previously been to two of Daniel's shows, both in Brisbane, and liked his whimsical brand of story telling.

 Stories For The Starlit Sky is a trilogy in three parts, which goes for three hours and 40 minutes.  Daniel's story-telling is accompanied and intertwined with songs from Gavin.  I was glad that I stayed for the whole show, because all three of the stories were part of a single whole told from three different angles.  Quite a few people left either at the first or second break (we lost our neighbours on both sides), but you would have missed some crucial parts of the story/stories if you left before the end.  To stay to the end was to be rewarded; I think that the last story was the most bitter-sweet of all, and it tied together a few loose ends from the earlier stories.

This week sees Easter upon us, and I am looking forward to seeing my family over the break.  In the lead-up, I spent a cold, wet miserable Sunday making some Easter treats for my friends and colleagues.

First up, I made Apple and Cinnamon Hot Cross Buns.  Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella made these last week, and pronounced them to be the "softest ever" hot cross buns.  I was intrigued, because homemade bread is usually nothing like the fluffy store-bought versions.  Lorraine's secret  weapon is a mixture called a "tangzhong" to make the buns soft and fluffy.  You can find the recipe here.

I was very pleased with the end result:

You can see that they were indeed soft and fluffy inside, and the mild apple and cinnamon flavours made a nice change from the more traditional spiced dried fruit versions.  (Although I have to say I had an awesome chocolate and cherry hot cross bun from Zumbo on Saturday.)

 

I loved this bun recipe - it didn't have the slightly weird taste and texture of most homemade bread recipes, and the buns were beautifully soft and fluffy.

 

If you are keen to try your hand at hot cross bun making, I strongly recommend giving these buns a try. 

Stollen for The Melbourne Cake Club - Traditions

This month's Melbourne Cake Club theme is Traditions, for the festive season.  Apart from Christmas Cake and Plum Pudding, there are no cake traditions in my family for Christmas.  For that reason, I went for what may have been a tradition for my Prussian and German ancestors - Stollen.  Stollen is a yeasted cake filled with dried fruits and marzipan, and which is glazed or dusted with icing sugar as the finishing touch.

The recipe for my Stollen came from Eat the Globe - you can find it here.  I used raisins, cranberries, glace cherries and dried apricots in my Stollen.  Here it is before glazing:

There is a marzipan log encased in the centre of the Stollen, which adds both moisture and flavour.

I decorated my Stollen with water icing, chopped pistachios and cranberries (red and green for Christmas):

The wee Christmas decoration posing with my Stollen came from the Scandanavian Christmas Bazaar that I attended on the weekend.

Here's a peek inside my Stollen - you can clearly see the marzipan in the middle:

Unfortunately I could not attend Cake Club this month because, after I made the Stollen, I ended up in the emergency department of the hospital and had to have a surgical procedure.  This ended all of my plans for what was to be a busy week, but I am grateful that they worked out what was wrong with me and it has been fixed.

What are your Christmas food traditions?   Have you ever made or tasted Stollen?

Cherry Bread Pudding (Kirschenmannle)

Bread pudding is a fabulous way to use up stale bread. Because I rarely am able to finish a loaf of bread before it goes stale, I often have to make breadcrumbs or throw out the bread, depending on the state it is in.  However, a delicious and non-wasteful alternative solution is to make bread pudding.

I also had some frozen cherries in the freezer, so Kitchenklatsch's recipe for Franconian Cherry Bread Pudding seemed like the perfect bread pudding for me to make.  Kirschenmannle, the German name for the pudding, means "little cherry man" - how cute is that!

I just used ordinary stale white bread rather than rolls, buns or French sticks - it worked just fine.  I like the fact that this recipe folds meringue through the bread mixture, making it different to a typical bread pudding.  It also uses milk rather than cream, so it is lower in calories than rich creamy custard bread puddings.

I had some pudding warm for dessert with a scoop of icecream at home, and took the cold leftovers into work and cut it into squares as "cake" for my colleagues the next day.  It seemed to go down a treat, so that is definitely a win.

In the winter, bread pudding is a warming, comforting dessert, so when you are next scratching your head about what to do with your stale bread, I can highly recommend this cherry bread pudding.

TWD - Tarte Tropezienne

For this week's Tuesday with Dorie, I have made Tarte Tropezienne.  This is like a French version of the German Bienenstich, but with nubbly pearl sugar on top.  I adore pastry cream and am partial to a Bienenstich, so it was a no brainer for me to make this one.  I even splashed out on the pearl sugar at a specialty cake decorating shop to ensure that my Tarte Tropezienne looked elegant and authentic.  The Tarte supposedly received its name when Brigitte Bardot tasted it while filming in Saint-Tropez and suggested that the baker give it a special name.

The Tarte Tropezienne tasted as good as I had hoped - crispy light bread layers sandwiched together with light, creamy pastry cream, and nubbly sugar on top to give it a bit of crunch.

The downside to making this is that it is almost a whole day's effort.  I made my dough at 7.30am and only got to taste it at 2.30pm, and even then I cheated a bit with timeframes because I didn't want to wait another 2 hours after filling the tarte to try a piece. There is a 2-3 hour initial rise, then 30 minutes in the freezer, then 2 hours in the fridge, the pastry cream needs 2-3 hours to chill, baking time is only half an hour, but even after cooling and filling the tarte, you were supposed to wait another 2 hours while it chilled in the fridge.

Nah - couldn't wait, and I cut straight into it.  It was good!  I absolutely adored this, but in the future, I will most likely buy my Bienenstich/Tarte Tropezienne and appreciate how much work went into making it.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.