White Bread Rolls

I had the weekend off which usually means that at least one of the days i end up having some sort of sandwich or roll for breakfast,containing either bacon or sausage.To this end i decided to make some White Bread rolls.I just used a White Bread recipe then after the first rising of the dough i cut the dough into small pieces and made the rolls.

Ingredients

500g white bread flour.
2 tsp easy dried yeast.
330 ml water.
1 tsp salt.

Recipe

1.Add the flour to a mixing bowl.
2.Add the salt to one side of the mixing bowl.
3.Add the yeast to the other side of the mixing bowl.
4.Add the water and mix until the ingredients are all combined and the sides are dry.
5.Lightly flour your work surface and turn out your dough onto it.
6.Knead for at least 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
7.Place in a bowl and cover with clingfilm.
8.Leave in a warm place to rise for at least one hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
9.Lightly grease a baking tray or 2.
10.Lightly flour your work surface again and turn out your risen dough onto it .
11.Knock back your dough for a few minutes.
12.Cut your dough into equal sized pieces.
13.Roll each piece of dough into a small ball with your hands.
14.Place onto your prepared baking tray/s.
15.Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place to prove for at least one hour or until doubled in size.
16.Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees c/400 degrees f/gas mark 6.
17.Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown.
18.Take out of your oven and place your rolls on a wire rack to cool.

My rolls didn't rise as well as i would have liked.Part of the problem this time seemed to be that they spread outwards more than rising.
I need to find a way to stop them spreading outwards.Maybe i will put each rolled out dough ball in a section of a large muffin tin.

 

 

The Monday Baker

 

Cheese And Bacon Loaf

 

To make my Cheese and Bacon Loaf  i just used a recipe for an ordinary white loaf and added cheese and bacon to the dough.

Ingredients

500g white bread flour.
2 tsp easy dried yeast.
330ml water.
1 tsp salt.
175g cheese.
175g bacon.

Recipe

1.Fry the bacon until lightly cooked.
2.Grate the cheese.
3.Add the flour to a mixing bowl.
4.Add the salt to the mixing bowl.
5.Add the yeast too the mixing bowl.
6.Add the bacon to the mixing bowl.
7.Add the cheese to the mixing bowl.
9.Stir the above ingredients in.
10.Make a well in the mixing bowl and add the water.
11.Mix the ingredients with the water till they are combined.
12.Lightly flour your work surface and turn your dough out onto it.
13.Knead for about 10 minutes or so.
14.Put your dough into a bowl and cover with cling film.Leave in a warm place to rise for at least an hour or until doubled in size.
15.Lightly grease a large loaf tin.
16.Lightly flour your work surface again and turn out your dough.Knock back for a few minutes then place in your prepared loaf tin.
17.Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place to prove for at least 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.
18.Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees c/400 degrees f/gas mark 6.
19.Bake your loaf in the oven for 35-40 minutes.When it is done it should sound hollow when tapped on the base.
20.Remove from the tin and leave on a wire rack to cool.

 

The loaf turned out really well although it rose quite a lot in the loaf tin causing it to overhang the tin.Having said that this did give the slices the old traditional look of bread when it was cut,with a larger,curved top end.

 

The Monday Baker

  

Banana Loaf

I was given some walnuts by a colleague of mine who had picked them whilst out on a constitutional.I looked for something i could use them in and found a recipe for a Banana Loaf.This recipe used pecans so i just substituted my walnuts instead.

 

Ingredients

100g demerara sugar.
150g soft light brown sugar.
2 eggs.
2 ripe bananas.
280g plain flour.
2tsp baking powder.
140g unsalted butter.
50g walnuts.
2 tsp ground cinnamon.

Recipe

1.Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees c/325 degrees f/gas mark 3.
2.Butter a large loaf tin and line the base and ends with a strip of buttered parchment paper.
3.Put the demerara sugar into a bowl.
4.Add the soft light brown sugar to the bowl.
5.Add the eggs to the bowl.
6.Whisk the above ingredients together until combined.
7.Mash the bananas and mix into the above mixture.
8.Sift the flour into the mixture.
9.Sift the baking powder into the bowl.
10.Fold the above ingredients in using a metal spoon.
11.Melt the butter and add to the mixture making sure it is mixed In thoroughly.
12.Spoon the batter into your prepared tin.
13.Sprinkle the ground cinnamon over your batter mixture.
14.Chop your walnuts and scatter over the top of your mixture.
15.Bake on the middle shelf of your pre-heated oven for about 1 hour.A skewer inserted into the middle of your cake should come out clean when your cake is done.
16.Remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack before slicing.


My cake was browning before the cake was cooked in the middle so i covered it with some foil for the last part of the bake.

The cake turned out really well and tasted fine despite my being worried that the cinnamion sprinkled over the top might overpower the taste.

The walnuts provided a nice crunchy topping although if i was to make it again i may experiment by mixing the walnuts in with the batter mixture.

 

 The Monday Baker

The Monday Baker vs Mrs Monday Baker

I had made a Farmhouse loaf and had shown it to Mrs Monday Baker.During the conversation following we had engaged in a bit of banter between each other.The upshot of it all was that Mrs Monday Baker said she would make a Farmhouse loaf by hand rather than in her Bread machine just to prove to me she could.
There is nothing like a bit of friendly competition,the results of which are presented below.

The Monday Bakers Version
 

Mrs Monday Bakers Version
 

The Monday Bakers Version
 

Mrs Monday Bakers Version
 

The Monday Bakers Version
 

Mrs Monday Bakers Version
 

 

 

I will leave it up to you to decide whose version of the Farmhouse loaf looks the best.

 

The Monday Baker

Chocolate Smartie Cookies

Chocolate cookies with smarties added,whats not to like.I am partial to chocolate and i like smarties so this recipe by Jo Wheatley was right up my street.

Ingredients

200g butter.
300g soft brown sugar.
2 eggs.
1 tsp Vanilla extract.
360g plain flour.
40g cocoa.
1tsp bicarbonate of soda.
Pinch of salt.
1tsp baking powder.
200g smarties.

Recipe.

1.Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees c/325 degrees f/gas mark 3.
2.Line a baking tray(Or two) with parchment paper.
3.Soften the butter.
4.Mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl with a mixer until light and fluffy.
5.Beat the eggs together in another bowl then add to the mixture of butter and sugar a little at a time.
6.Once the mixture is combined well add the vanilla extract.
7.Sift the flour into the mixture.
8.Sift the cocoa into the mixture.
9.Sift the bicarbonate of soda into the mixture.
10.Sift the salt into the mixture.
11.Sift the baking powder into the mixture.
12.Mix it together using the mixer until it reaches a clay like dough.
13.Fold in half of the smarties.
14.Using a spoon put your cookie dough mounds onto your prepared baking trays.
15.Stud your cookie dough mounds with the remaining smarties.
16.Bake for about 10 minutes on the middle shelf of your oven,taking them out at about halfway through and banging your tray on your work surface to knock out the air bubbles and flatten them.
17.When they are cooked leave them to cool slightly before placing them on a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.

Whilst these were fairly easy to make i did encounter a few issues.

1.The recipe said that these made 10 cookies.When i began spooning the mixture out i had done 10 and still had more left.I eventually made at least 12.

2.When they were cooking they began to enlarge and ended up stuck together.This was despite the fact that i had placed them well apart.

3.As ever my oven caused me some problems and i had to bake them for a lot longer.This caused the bottoms of some of them to be little bit burnt.

 

All in all though they were fine if a bit to big for my liking.Next time i make them i would either halve the amount of ingredients or just put a smaller amount in a mound and therefore make even more,albeit smaller ones.
                                                                                        
                                                                   The Monday Baker

Seeds And Grain Granary Loaf

I found a recipe for a basic granary bread which i adapted as i had some flour to use up.Instead of granary flour i used seeds and grain flour.This was topped up with white bread flour to the required amount.

Ingredients

200g white bread flour.
300g granary bread flour.
8g salt.
1tbsp caster sugar.
7g easy dried yeast.
100ml milk.
200ml water.
1tbsp sunflower oil.
1 egg yolk.
20g pumpkin seeds.

Recipe

1.Add the flours to a mixing bowl.
2.Add the salt to the mixing bowl.
3.Add the caster sugar to the mixing bowl.
4.Add the yeast to the mixing bowl.
5.Heat the milk and water together until it is lukewarm
6.Add the sunflower oil and stir to combine.
7.Make a well in the centre of the bowl containing the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together.
8.Once the mixture has come together lightly flour your work surface and turn out your dough.
9.Knead for about 10 minutes or so until you have a smooth and elastic dough.
10.Shape your dough into a ball and place in a bowl.
11.Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for at least 1 hour until it has doubled in size.
12.Lightly grease a 2lb loaf tin.
13.Tip your dough out onto your lightly floured work surface and knock back the dough for about a minute.
14.Shape your dough and place into the prepared loaf tin.
15.Cover your loaf tin and leave in a warm place to rise foe at least an hour or until doubled in size.
16.Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees c/400 degrees f/gas mark 6.
17.Brush the top of your loaf with the egg yolk and sprinkle the pumpkin seeds on top.
18.Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.The loaf should sound hollow when tapped.
19.Cool the loaf in the tin for 10 minutes once you have baked it before turning it out into a wire rack.

I did not use pumpkin seeds on the top of my loaf as i had already used a seeds and grain flour.My loaf seemed to take ages to rise and certainly didn't rise as well as some of my loafs do.It tasted okay though.

                                                                                                                         The Monday Baker

Blueberry Muffin Loaf

We needed a cake in the house as the chocolate cake that Mrs Monday Baker had made 2 days ago had already been eaten(It was that good).I had some blueberries in the freezer so i decided to have a go at Jo Wheatleys 'Blueberry Muffin Loaf '.

 

Ingredients

Topping

25g plain flour.
20g unsalted butter.
20g caster sugar.

Muffin

200g self-raising flour.
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
75g soft brown sugar.
50g caster sugar.
70g unsalted butter.
160ml milk.
1 egg.
1tsp vanilla extract.
130g blueberries.


Recipe

1.Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees c/350 degrees f/gas mark 4.
2.Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line the base and ends with baking paper or a loaf case.
3.To make the topping-Tip 25 g of plain flour into a bowl.
4.Melt 20g of butter.
5.Add 20g of caster sugar to the bowl.
6.Using your fingers rub the butter into the flour until it resembles a crumble mixture.When you have done this put to one side.
7.To make the loaf-Sift 200g of self-raising flour into another bowl.
8.Sift the bicarbonate of soda into the bowl of flour.
9.Add the brown sugar.
10.Add the caster sugar.
11.Mix the above ingredients together well.
12.Melt the butter and put aside to cool.
13.Add the milk to another bowl.
14.Add the egg to the bowl.
15.Add the vanilla extract to the bowl.
16.Add the cooled butter to the bowl and whisk the above ingredients until smooth.
17.Make a well in the centre of the bowl containing the dry ingredients and pour in the egg and milk mixture.
18.Fold the ingredients together using a large metal spoon until they are just combined.
19.Add the blueberries and fold into the mixture.Make sure not to overwork the batter as it will cause the sponge to become heavy.
20.Spoon the mixture into your prepared loaf tin.
21.Take your crumble mixture that you prepared earlier and scatter over the mixture.
22.Bake in the pre-heated oven for about one hour.It should be golden and well risen.Insert a skewer into the centre of the cake,and if it is ready it should come out clean.
   
I have previously made Jo's 'Blackberry and Apple Loaf Cake' and i had the same problem with that cake as i did with this.When i was trying to remove it from the tin it started to break in two.This time instead of carrying on i left it to cool for a while.This seemed to do the trick as when i attempted to remove it from the tin the second time it came out okay.

                                                                                                                      The Monday Baker