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! 

Recipe 1: Basic White Bread

Here we are! Recipe 1: Basic White Bread.

Sounds easy enough, doesn't it?

So, the experience of making a normal loaf of bread has me realise I had muscles in my arms that I didn't even know about, patience is key and wow it is harder than it looks!!

To start with, all ingredients get mixed together, minding that the yeast and the salt are not put together as they don't get along! And then scrunch it all together with my hands (which was kinda fun!), it was so sticky to begin with and I kept putting in water so all of the flour got picked up, which in the end it did, it was a really rough looking piece of dough, I didn't think it would be like that!

Then it was time to knead, something which I have never done before! Your suppose to do it for 5-10 minutes but I tell you, after 2 minutes my arms were hurting, is it over yet?! Nope! That's sounds terrible, but I never use my arm muscles, maybe all this bread making will build them up! But once you get going, you can really start to tell the difference in the dough and it becomes a lot better to handle. 

Once this part is over it's time to put it in a bowl and cover, giving it time to rise, I think I gave it just little over a hour and it had doubled in size, as promised! Then I needed to beat all of the air our of the dough which seems disappointing as it sort of deflates! But it does feel so much smoother!

Before & After Picture!


Once shaped, it needed to be put into the bread tin (I won't give the secret of greasing it, you're have to read the book but it worked wonders!) and left to 'prove'. This let's the bread rise back up again in the tin, again I left this for just over an hour and then popped it in the oven!

It takes around 30 minutes for this loaf of bread to cook, though I left mine in a lot longer, I think around the 50 minute mark as when I took it out at the 30 minute mark and tapped it, I wasn't convinced it sounded hallow, so kept it in! 

So review from my testers (my family, haha)? They liked it, a little heavy but hey, it's my first time! My Grandad also agreed when I took a few slices round that it was heavy but of course he only admitted this after I told him I thought that! 

New Project!

So, welcome to 2013! Who knows what this year will hold for us!

I can imagine for me, most of it will be baking as I mentioned in my first post about the new project I will be starting this year and will hopefully get finished by the end of this year!

Well, as I've expressed I love to bake, I'm not an expert but I would to have a whole round knowledge (not just cake like I've been doing) but all the different kinds of bread and of course there will be cake involved too!

My project is to from start to finish (no skipping, I promise!) bake every recipe in Paul Hollywood's 'How to Bake' book. Why? Because it has a mixture of everything you could think of baking, there are so many recipes I am so excited to try and bake and of course some that I am little nervous to try but I guess with this project there will be success and some disappointments but all in the aid to learn all the essentials to successful baking!

The book has everything you would need to learn for beginners, from basic recipes (which should be fine!) and then some more challenging ones and also some new ideas!

I am so worried about all the bread in the book, I feel it will be my downfall, which isn't good as the first half of the book is pretty much all different types of bread! But it means I will learn lots and at the start of the book it has instructions and diagrams on all kinds of techniques, such as kneading, etc - so will be very helpful!

I believe there are around 123 recipes, starting from breads and then ending in my comfort zone – cakes!

So 123 recipes in one year which I can only do at the weekend due to work, so I need to do at least 2 recipes a week!!

Wish me luck!