Recipe 10: Crusty Dinner Rolls

I was so excited to make these! They looked so yummy in the picture!



The standard bread recipe once again but this time you didn't have to use your hands! So I only had an electric hand mixer not an actual mixer with a dough hook like you should have so I'm not sure if these turned out 100% of what they should have been!












It was nice giving my arms a rest as there was no kneading involved! It was all done by the mixer! Yay!! It says that this will make the dough very soft and elastic and it does just that! I know I didn't use the correct type of mixer but it seemed to do the job!

Once the mixer has worked it's magic, it's time to leave to rise for an hour. After this it's pretty much the same as standard recipes, knocking the dough, making it into equal pieces and then leaving to prove.









Once proved, a sprinkle of flour and a cross on each of them and it's time to pop them in the oven!

Reviews? Yum! We had them to dip into our casserole!

A very short and sweet blog but we've been through this recipe so many times! The next recipe is Malted Loaf and after that, a few more breads which use different types of flours! 114 Recipes to go!!

Recipe 9: Cottage Loaf

Oh wow, Cottage Loaf – what an epic fail!


I thought it was going to be okay as it's just a normal bread recipe, the only difference is that it's pretty! It is less common in Bakeries today due to it being time consuming to make and difficult to slice.


There isn't much to tell with this recipe as like I said, it is a normal bread recipe but something went wrong! Right from the start I nearly threw the mixture away and started again – which I should of done! The mixture was just being so difficult, I'm not sure what I did, maybe too much water?



















When I started to knead the mixture, it sort of went normal so maybe it needed flour but it still felt far too sticky. Hopefully when I get to understand bread more, I'll know where I went wrong!



It raised quite well but as soon as I started to knock the dough out, it was very sticky again! It was a nightmare when I had to shape it into the shape, I thought it was going well, the cob shape when fine! But then (before the proving) you have to make a hole in the top with your fingers and make cuts in the side which usually you do right before putting in the oven which I thought was odd! As I was putting the cuts in, it felt like it was deflating so I knocked the air out of it, just in case I hadn't done this right but alas, the same thing happened once I shaped it, etc again!
So after you've done the cuts, you then leave it to prove...



It was always a bad shape to begin before it went in the oven for 30 minutes but it looked even more like a fail afterwards! You can see in the picture below my one and in the background the picture from the book – oh dear!!



Maybe when I've got through the whole book, I'll try this again...

Recipe 8: Barm Cakes

Has anyone ever heard of Barm Cakes before? I haven't! I think it's what we would call a soft roll but for anyone still confused this is a brief history taken from Wikipedia: “The original barm cake is found in areas of Lancashire, North West England. In wider northern England, a similar bread roll would be known instead as a "breadbun", "breadcake", "bap", "cob" (an East Midland term), "teacake" (West Yorkshire/some parts of Cumbria; without currants or currant teacake with currants) or even (in the enlarged form of Tyneside) a "stotty".

Chips are a popular filling, sold in most fish and chip shops in the North West of England often called simply a 'chip barm'. Another popular filling in the North West, particularly Bolton, is the pasty barm. Likewise in Wigan pies are a popular filling.”

So, a bread roll mainly used for chip butty, yum! If I realised this before hand, I would so had one of these! Apparently you can have a Barm Cake with black pudding as the filing too, doesn't sound as tasty! :/


So, making Barm Cakes! Pretty much the same as usual bread, except there is also a bit of sugar involved and a lot more water than usual! I liked this mixture, when it came to the kneading it felt so much lighter and easier to handle! I like it a lot, it made it a bit more easy on my non-existence arm muscles! Then once kneaded, leave in a covered bowl for an hour or more.

Time to knock out the dough, it always feels like such a shame to do this! It's risen up all lovely for you to knock it back down! Another thing with this part, is I'm never sure when the air is knocked out enough, in the book it says till it feels smooth but it felt smoothish to begin with!

Then time to divide the mixture and roll into a ball. You then leave this on a floured surface for only 30 minutes and this isn't even the proving part!

Once these have rested, you have to roll them out till their twice the original diameter and placed on a baking tray. After this, it is then time to leave them to prove for an hour!

After all this mixing, kneading, resting & proving it is then finally time to pop them in the oven for 10 minutes!

Reviews? My Grandad had 7 in total, 4 for his tea and the next day he had 3 with his soup, I think it's safe to say he was a fan! 

Recipe 7: Chapatis

Chapatis. There isn't much to say about this recipe, as a lot doesn't go into it. I'm not sure if it was just me, but the mixture is gets dry very easily. There is no yeast or butter involved but Olive Oil goes into the mixture instead.

The recipe doesn't take too long, once mixed and kneaded (boo!) then you just leave to rest for half an hour. It doesn't really rise, but then it hasn't got any yeast in it so I wasn't too sure why you needed to leave it to rest.
Once rested, I needed to divide the mixture into 6 equal pieces then roll into a think disc.














These then go onto a frying pan for around 2 minutes each time but I think I kept most of mine on for longer as I was worried they wasn't cooked through enough.
















I don't think my Chapatis came out like they should have done, proper ones look like they have more of a puff to them when my ones look more like a very flat bread!

 Reviews? Apparently they tasted nice despite my judgements!  

Recipe 6: Pitta Bread

Pitta Breads look really complicated don't they? Well, they aren't you're be pleased to find! I think everyone should have a go, especially if you're just starting to learn how to bake!

The main difference with this bread is that instead of butter in the recipe, there is olive oil instead, it really makes the mixture feel silky when your scrunching it all together, it's nice! And also because it's so smooth, it feels like its easier to knead, you still have to knead for the same amount of time and again I checked the dough by doing the 'Windowpane Test' to see when it was ready to prove.

There isn't a lot of preparation that goes into this recipe at all, once you've done the usual – mix, knead & prove you can pretty much put it in the oven!


I placed a baking tray with a little sprinkle of flour in the oven to heat up while I rolled the dough into shape, it really helped later on as the breads just slide off, but I'm getting ahead of myself...
Back to after proving! You divide the mixture up and roll upwards from the middle to create that pitta shape! It advised to keep the other bits of dough under a tea towel - not sure why you did this...

Then once in the oven, they take no time at all! It's pretty worrying as you can't let them let colour which is fair enough but I feel like I've got an anaemic piece of bread then. But once I took the first batch out, the side that was on the baking tray had golden edges which made me feel better, like they were actually cooked! Of course I trust the recipe but still worried it wasn't cooked through enough!

Reviews? Well, they were well cooked through, everyone liked them, they turned out better than the wraps did anyway! Alice & Mum had them for their lunch the next day and I was asked to do them again for a dinner one night, then we can put chicken in them, etc. AJ said they were a 'good bake' haha.


Anyone see the advert for the Comic Relief Bake Off? Looks funny!


117 Recipes to go!!

Recipe 5: Wraps

Wraps, I'm not sure what I make of wraps.


It starts with scrunching the mixture, the different part about this recipe is that it has caster sugar! I would of though there would have been sugar in wraps! I think added a bit more water than needed as I panicked thinking the mixture was not sticking together well enough. It took a little longer to knead due the mixture being more soggy than it should have been.

Once kneaded, it's time to leave it to rise. This dough did get to a good size, it was more airy than some of the previous doughs.
Then when doubled in size, knock out the air. 



I had to divide it into equal amounts and roll into balls. This recipe did not need any time to prove, so I heated the frying pan with a little vegetable oil and rolled out the the mixture big enough for the pan.

It's really odd when you first put the dough onto the heated pan, it all starts to bubble up, you're suppose to do 2 minutes one side and 1 minute the other side. I think the first wrap I had a little too much vegetable oil in the pan as the side that first went onto the pan when I flipped it over looked more like a pancake than a wrap! But as I started to do the others and less oil, they started to look more colourful!

With the wraps, I'm not sure if it was my fault but when they came out the pan, they felt too stiff to be able to wrap round the home made chicken goujons I was doing with them! I wanted to keep them warm so I placed them at the bottom of the oven and when I took them out, they were more flexible so I'm not sure what did this, the warmth in the oven or once they are out of the pan, do they do naturally soft?! Big debate!

Anyway, the reviews, everyone liked them, the chicken goujons were yummy too if I do say so myself! My Dad said they looked more like naan breads though! Would I do them again? Not too sure, maybe to see if I could do them differently! 

Recipe 4: Soda Bread

Recipe 4: Soda Bread

I like Soda Bread, it's quick, it's easy and no kneading involved, it gave my arms a much needed rest! :)

I've never actually tried Soda Bread before so I had no idea how different it was to making the usual loaf!

It starts with mixing all the dry ingredients together (no yeast involved, so odd!) and then adding the Buttermilk. It is such a sticky mixture! I was thinking, it's never going to all stick together to make a nice dough. Once you've done this part, you flour the surface and roll it into a ball.

I thought it was wasn't going to do this at first because of how sticky it was but when you start rolling the dough, it really starts to behave and suddenly comes all together in a nice round ball! Result!

Once rolled, all it needs is a deep cut and to lightly flour and then to pop it in the oven for half an hour!

This was by far (I know this is only the 4^th recipe, haha) the easiest recipe I've had to do. I don't know why more people don't make it! The preparation is so quick, there is no having to wait for it to rise, etc; it's just mix and then in the oven, so easy!

I think this recipe would be ideal for dinner parties, it doesn't need any attention, it looks nice and rustic and it would impress your friends with no effort at all! Maybe it could be done quickly to add with a meal? Would go down a treat with a soup or a stew!

The reviews?  All my family really liked it, Alice my sister had seconds! Mum & Dad both liked it. My Grandad thought it was nice and it was his first experience of Soda Bread! AJ took a piece home to have with her soup and she also enjoyed it!

119 Recipes to go!

Recipe 3: Wholemeal Loaf

Well, here we are, Recipe 3! Wholemeal Loaf.


Like the previous two recipes, this one is much similar, just a different flour. The Wholemeal flour is such a different texture though, it is much coarser. When doing the usual scrunching of the mixture, it did feel like the flour was much drier so I used all the water required, I was worried it was a bit too soggy but once I kept scrunching it a bit more, it was fine!

I kneaded the dough a bit better this time I think, in my previous entry I mentioned the 'Windowpane test' to see when the dough was ready. I think it does actually work as the actual finished product came out more lighter, it still needs more improvement but it's a start and there are a lot more breads to practice on! Of course, these aren't the best examples because of the Wholemeal flour but you get the idea!

I also left the bread for a lot longer this time, I think it was nearly two hours, I didn't want to leave it any longer though in case the structure got too weak and would start to fall back, it's tricky this bread business!

After this, it's time to knock the air out of the dough until it's nice and smooth. Then I shaped mine into a Cob again and did the cuts in the dough slightly different and not as deep this time! It took just over 30 minutes to bake completely and smelt so homely!

Reviews? My mum liked it, she is the Wholemeal Bread expert as the rest of us like White Bread but she agreed that it was lighter than the other two loafs so it must be that kneading getting better and maybe I needed to leave it longer to rise!

120 Recipes to go!

Recipe 2: White Cob Loaf

This time - Recipe 2: White Cob Loaf

Well, it's pretty much exactly the same recipe as the white bread loaf but this recipe a little more ingredient as it's slightly larger bread. 

So again, not letting the yeast & salt near each in the bowl of flour then adding the soft unsalted butter and the water as needed - it means it's time for the fun part of scrunching it altogether with my hands until all the flour in the bowl is in the dough!

Then it is time to knead, I feel this is my downfall, I  think I'm too much of a weakling to knead it properly, how bad is that? Or I think it's done and it's not. I googled about when to be sure the dough is kneaded enough and I found something called the 'Windowpane test' which is where you take off a piece of the dough (around the size of a golf ball) and you stretch it with your fingers and if it breaks, then it is not kneaded enough but if it stretches fine and you can see the light through it, then it's done! I'm definitely giving this a try for the next recipe. 

The difference in size, from start to finish.

Once kneaded (correctly!) it is then time again to leave it to prove, I like this part, keep going into the kitchen and having a sneaky peak to see how it's doing! Once it's doubled in size, it feels totally different to the dough that you put in the bowl! It's so light and fluffy, it feels like it weighs nothing! Then it's kinda mean as it feels so nice and you have to take it out and punch all of the air out of it, I feel like a right bully! haha...

This bread doesn't go on a tin, it goes on a flat baking tray, I have a really good one from Lakeland's, I'll post a picture of it sometime. In the book it has all different ways to shape bread and gives you diagrams, so really helpful. Anyway, so once on the baking tray, cover and leave it to rise. I have to say this one rose a lot better than the first recipe, I was pretty pleased!

Before you put it in the oven, your meant to slice it deeply but I think I may have sliced it a bit too deep as you can see from the pictures! But in the oven it did rise a lot better than the previous loaf!

There is another trick to making the outside of the bread nice and silk looking but again you're have to read the book to learn that one! ;)

So, I think I baked this one for around 40 minutes, there was a bit more pressure to get it out of the oven due to my dad needing it to cook dinner but he let me have an extra 5 minutes and his dinner still came out yummy! haha

Review from the family: Nice, lighter than my previous loaf (those new muscles are getting stronger) and we dipped the bread into our casserole, yum! Can't beat a bit of bread dunking in gravy!