The baking thread

[BLD]

The green was for his excellent choice of beverages, drinking tequila flavoured beer and baking is not easy

[Mendip]

^ To be fair he also made opening that packet of pre-made pastry look easy!

[dirk diggler]

Desperado will ruin your life.

I love it.

Those twistie cheese sticks look good.

Too expensive for free bar snacks but the salty bread sticks get the punters scoofing.

[PAG]

On something of a roll () with picture posts this morning, and speaking of which, our freezer is bare of bread rolls, courtesy of M'Sahib's developing a habit of actually eating them. No worries, a fresh batch of a dozen was called for.

Bread flour, instant yeast, some sugar and salt, and a couple of spoons of canola oil in the mixer.



Slightly warm water added, and mixed for a few minutes.



Turned out, shaped into a ball, and into a lightly oiled bowl to be covered for an hour for the first proving. I use a shower cap to cover, better than pissing around with clingfilm.



After an hour, doubled in size



Divided into what will become 12 balls



and into a lightly greased oven dish



covered with lightly oiled clingfilm, and left for a second proving of an hour.



Into the oven for 15 or 17 minutes, and they're ready



brushed with some butter before cooling and going in the freezer.

[Reg Dingle]

Beautiful Pag

To be fair he also made opening that packet of pre-made pastry look easy!

We don't all have the luxury of having the time to sit around watching dough poove, mate

Today I've exerted myself with a Fajita style traybake dinner of chicken thighs garnished with red onion and peppers with salsa and mature cheddar

[PAG]

In the 'Soup' thread, I posted about the French onion soup I have in the freezer, but lacked the croutons that were needed. That soup calls for large, sliced baguette croutons to be able to float and hold the cheese in the soup. Lack of baguettes in the freezer, so started with making a 'poolish' yesterday (a 'poolish' is a mix of equal parts water and flour, with a pinch of yeast, that ferments on a counter top overnight and is added to the ingredients of the baguette to add flavour).

The 'poolish' when first mixed and covered with clingfilm.



This morning, turned into a sponge like mat.



All the ingredients ready.



Poolish mixed into some warm water.



Then flour added.



All mixed together.



then autolyse (essentially resting) covered with a cloth in the bowl for 20 minutes.



Start mixing again, firstly adding the yeast and malt powder, then some salt.



That gets covered and again left for 30 minutes before stretching and folding a few times.



Shaped into a ball, and left coverd for at least an hour.



By which time, doubled in size.



Turned out onto a floured surface, and divided into four roughly equal pieces, which again are covered and left for 20 minutes.



Each piece shaped into a rough rectangle.



before being tightly rolled approximately 12 inches long, tapered at each end.



and placed onto a 'couche', coverd again, and a final prove of 45 minutes.



Tops sliced with a lame before going into a very hot oven on a stone for around 20 minutes.



and allowed to cool.



M'Sahib couldn't resist having one whilst still warm, with peanut butter and apricot jam.

[PAG]

A bit of nostalgia this morning, made some Lancashire oven bottom muffins (aka Barm Cakes). Growing up in Manchester, these were typically eaten with egg, sausage or/and bacon as a breakfast roll.

Pretty easy to make. Start with flour, yeast, sugar, salt, butter and vegetable oil in a bowl, and mix until very rough breadcrumbs.



Next, warm water and some milk added, and mixed for around 5 minutes until formed into a dough. The dough shaped into a ball, then the bowl covered and left for an hour to prove.



It will have doubled in size, so it's removed from the bowl onto a floured surface and divided into 6 roughly equal pieces.





Each piece formed into a ball, then I used a small chopping board to press them flat.



They're placed into a lightly greased baking pan, covered with a tea towel, and rested for 30 minutes.



after which, they're pressed down again to roughly half their width, and an indent made by thumb in the centre of each one.



About 20 minutes in the oven and they're done.



Couldn't resist trying one out for a late breakfast, in this instance with pan fried sliced 'northern sausage' to which I added some leftover grated mozarella cheese.



topped with a fried egg.



Talk about 'all our yesterdays'. Eeee, when I were a lad......

[Topper]

Excellent, was thinking they'd be great with some kind of spicy dip as well.

Or marinara sauce..

[PAG]

A Swedish friend of ours is visiting at the moment. Formerly, she and her husband owned a very nice property on Cape Panwa, but sold it just over a year ago. She's been back a couple of times since, for a month or so each time, touching base with friends again. The hotel she's staying at this time looks quite pleasant. Large well furnished bedroom, decent size balcony/terrace with it's own large jacuzzi, next to the beach and with a sea view all for 1700 baht a night. These photos are from a video she sent us, me pausing the video on my Mac to make stills.







What's this got to do with baking? Well, the hotel doesn't supply breakfast, so M'Sahib has put together an emergency ration pack of yoghurts etc, I've contributed a couple of barm cakes that I made the other day, and just made a new batch of bagels from which she'll be getting a couple.

Mixed the dough



Proved for an hour, doubled in size.



Deflated and divided into 8 roughly equal pieces.



Shaped into balls, pushing a finger through the centre, and resting in a tray whilst a pan of water with some honey added comes to the boil.



Batches of 4 into the boiling water/honey mix, a minute each side.



Onto baking trays and brushed with a mix of egg white and water.



20 minutes in the oven, and cooling on a couple of racks.



They'll be fine in her fridge for a week or so.

[cyrille]

M'Sahib has put together an emergency ration pack of yoghurts etc.

Hope she pulls through.

[Topper]

Damn PAG, you must have a really big....err finger. Looks great!

[PAG]

Damn PAG, you must have a really big....err finger. Looks great!

[PAG]

So, used the last of a previous batch of naan bread the other day, dipping into a pork and pineapple Thai curry. Time for a new batch.

First off, mixing the flour, yeast, castor sugar, milk, vegetable oil, egg, yoghurt and baking powder and salt.



10 minutes kneading and you have a decent dough which goes into a lightly oiled bowl.



Covered and left for an hour, doubles in size.



Divided into six pieces.



I'm going to bake them on a pizza stone, which takes two at a time, so rolled out to the required size.



Onto the hot pizza stone and into the oven.



Only takes 3 or 4 minutes and they're done. They inflate almost immediately they're in the oven, gradually deflating once taken out.



Next pair.



and they're all done. They freeze great, separated with baking paper in an airtight box.

[Topper]

Nice!!!!!!

[PAG]

Loafing around again. This time of year it's good to have some bread type items in the freezer. Today was the turn of my favourite sandwich bread, courtesy of a Nigella Lawson recipe. Worth making for the smell as it bakes wafting through the house.



Cooling on a rack.



Sliced and into the freezer in bags.



Also started some barm cakes (Lancashire oven bottom muffins), but a different recipe this time, requiring first prove of 24 hours in the fridge, so will be finished tomorrow.

[BLD]

I enjoy your cooking and baking threads pag. I'm pretty sure that no matter how much inspiration and instruction I get I'm just not a good cook,probably worse than Joe? My wife's also not a fan of cooking but she occasionally produces some gems. Anyway I'll.be in Lao in a few days time availing myself of the French bread , pastries, and croissants,.thank you France .it's the only decent legacy they left as far as I can see

[PAG]

^

I'm sure that you and the family will have a great time back in Lao BLD, and of course the stopover in Bali. There must be good bakeries in Australia also?

[BLD]

There is..mostly Vietnamese run. It's awesome

[PAG]

So, started off the Barm Cakes (Lancashire oven bottom muffins) yesterday, mixed the ingredients first off,



then hand kneaded for a few minutes until fairly smooth and shaped into a ball. Into a covered bowl and in the fridge overnight.



Had doubled in size with its cold prove, so then divided into 8 roughly equal pieces.





Shaped into balls, pressed fairly flat, and dusted both sides with semilina flour before going into a lined tray for an hour's second prove.



Into the oven for about 15 minutes, turned over about half way through.



One by one they go into a very hot dry frying pan to get some colour on both sides, only about a minute each one. And they're done.



Took the opportunity whilst the oven was hot, of making another batch of bagels.

[Mendip]

It's never nice to follow PAG in a cooing thread...

I don't know how this fell under my remit, but today it was a batch of cookies with the daughter... well, before she lost interest anyway.

[Reg Dingle]

^ They look more like...

Rock cakes recipe - BBC Food

[hallelujah]

Reg Dingle giving advice about baking.

Like listening to Fred West talk about childcare.

[Mendip]

Rock cakes are a light, crumbly tea-time favourite. Eat while they are still warm from the oven. So easy to make, and lots of fun for children to join in too.

These things certainly ain't 'light and crumbly'. More soft and gooey, but the daughter was happy and that's what counts.

Those black things ain't currants either, the disgusting things. Half of these were chocolate chip cookies!

[Bettyboo]

It's never nice to follow PAG in a cooing thread...

Listen to your own advice...

(Did you run out of chocolate chips for two thirds of them?)

[Bonecollector]

Excellent PAG, some fine baking skills!