Learning to make bread - month four: maneesh

I will be honest, I had not heard of Maneesh before I came across the recipe in Paul Hollywood's Bread book.  It is, apparently, a classic flatbread from the Middle East.

To be a true Maneesh the dough should really be covered with za'atar, a mix of herbs and sesame seeds.  Not having any sesame seeds in my store cupboards, I improvised and went for a mix of thyme and rosemary.

 My first response when I took the bread from the oven was that my effort at this flatbread recipe was probably my least successful bread-making attempt so far.  A bit like Goldilocks, I ended up with one bread burnt on the bottom, another stuck to the paper, and a third that looked like it was probably just right.

However, I needn't have been quite so pessimistic; none of the three would win any beauty competition, but they taste really very good.  This is probably partly down to the sugar in the recipe and partly down to the thyme and rosemary on top.  The texture is nice and soft.  In all, a bread that is very easy to pick at - and one which can disappear quickly!

 

So not my most successful bread-making attempt, but something I would do again.  Only next time, I think I will add another ingredient to the recipe: patience.  I think my results would have been better had I cooked the three breads in the oven one at a time rather than together.

 

Chocolate orange cake

As I have mentioned before, I have a particular like for chocolate orange as a flavour.  So when planning cakes to make for a gathering of my friends for my birthday, a chocolate orange cake was a natural choice.

Not being able to find a recipe, I decided to adapt recipes I did have for chocolate sponge and for chocolate frosting.

The chocolate sponge is based on Nigel Slater's recipe for a chocolate coffee cake - instead of 3tbsp of espresso coffee I added 3tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice and some orange zest to the cake mix.  The recipe makes a cake with a lovely texture, and this amount of orange worked well to give the chocolate sponge a yummy flavour, without the orange taking over.

For Christmas Mum had given me some Orange Blossom water, and this seemed a perfect opportunity to try it out.  I used it to flavour the chocolate frosting; it took a bit of trial and error (lots of tasting required!) to get the balance right - a couple of tablespoons seemed to do the trick.

Then all that was needed was some orange zest to brighten up the top of the cake.

This is a grown-up chocolate cake, in that it is not a sweet chocolate cake.  I love chocolate orange as a flavour, and I was a bit worried that this cake (which I basically made up based on nothing more than the fact that I really like chocolate orange) wouldn't live up to my expectations; I needn't have worried.  It was delicious and went down very well with my friends.  Definitely one to make again.

Learning to make bread - month three: hot cross buns

Perhaps not technically a bread, but the recipe requires yeast, so I say it counts.  I love hot cross buns; delicious and versatile, they can quite legitimately be eaten for breakfast, elevenses, afternoon tea, or supper - take your pick.  Hot cross bun season signifies that spring is well and truly on its way, and my bread-making resolution seemed a perfect opportunity to learn how to make them.  Easter being late this year, I thought nevertheless that the beginning of April was a perfectly respectable time to start baking hot cross buns (and gave me time to practice before Easter!).

I used the recipe from the Great British Book of Baking;  there's a Paul Hollywood recipe on the BBC website, the basics of which are similar, and Felicity Cloake compares a number of different methods to come up with her take on how to cook the perfect hot cross bun.

There's a good history of hot cross buns here.  It doesn't mention anything about ancient Greece or Rome though; according to the British Book of Baking, the ancient Egyptians offered similar small round yeast cakes to the goddess of the moon, and the ancient Greeks and Romans made them for the goddess of light; it was the Saxons, apparently, who added the cross.  There's a detailed reading selection on the history of the hot cross bun here.

The recipe I followed used mixed dried fruit, with nutmeg and mixed spice for added flavour.  Making these buns was a process that required time, but was well worth the wait; the buns are delicious.  I've already made a second batch and will be making more over Easter weekend; in fact, they are so good I may even have to extend hot cross bun season beyond Easter!



Ingredients mixed and ready for kneading

Kneaded and ready to rise



The risen dough is knocked back then divided into twelve buns

I left the dough for about one and a half hours to rise.  You then knock the air out of it, and divide into twelve buns, which you place on the prepared tray.  A large plastic bag is then placed over the tray and it is left for about 45 minutes, until the buns have about doubled in size.  However, the British Book of Baking explained that as an alternative you could put the tray (in its bag) in the fridge overnight.  I went for the latter, which then meant I had buns ready to go in the oven first thing in the morning.  All I had to do was add the cross.  This is made from flour and water, which forms a paste.  Rather than using a piping bag, I rolled small bits of the paste between my hands to make the lines which I then laid over the buns.


Glaze as soon as they are out of the oven

Still warm from the oven...what a treat.