Recipe 11: Malted Loaf

What a total mess! I knew this recipe would be a nightmare from the start as I couldn't find the flour required ANYWHERE!! And I couldn't find anyone that knew what it was either...
Apparently malt flour is present in numerous baked goods where it imparts a natural sweetness. It tends to make baked goods browner and shinier.
In the end I found Malted Flour from Bakery Bits, the same website where I bought most of my bread tins and sourdough bits, it's a really good shop!

So, the flour arrived, I hoped it was the right one, I didn't know any different so I thought it was correct! But right from the start I had trouble with the flour, it was awful! As soon as you opened the packet it smelt, at first I thought someone was cooking tomato soup as that's what it reminded me of! The recipe's instructions are exactly the same as all of the other breads so even though it smelt I didn't think it would be that difficult!

So I added the water with all the other ingredients and the flour seemed to make itself very dry very quickly! Once you've put all the water in with the other ingredients, it just seemed to fall a part! Just completely useless, it felt like you were making clay rather than bread! I really must think I bought the wrong flour as everything else was the same!

Before and after, so it did rise a little...







So, I tried to knead but it was crumbling worse every time so in the end, I gave up and placed it in the bowl and left to rise. The dough (if you can call it that) did rise a little! Then, left it to prove, no better. You can see the below picture what it looked like just before going in the oven...

Finally, time to put it in the oven for the right amount of time, around 35 minutes. It just wasn't cooking!!!! I knew it was a disaster anyway but it was a complete nightmare! Decided to take it out of the oven and what did it do when I touched it? Crumbled to pieces!!

As you can see from the picture, the dough flattened itself too!

I really think that the blame was with the flour, I must have bought the wrong one as I did everything else like normal! I will investigate and see!



Never again though! And I thought the Cottage Loaf was bad!!



113 Recipes to go!!

January Review

So, the first month is over! 

...And I'm on schedule! Which I really thought wasn't possible! The aim was 2 recipes a week and that's just what I've done! Of course, not all of them has been a success (Cottage Loaf!) and some of them I already want to make again (Soda Bread)! 

There is defiantly some improvement needed, mainly in the areas of kneading and proving.

Kneading, I'm just too weak to beat that dough for 10 minutes! I'm getting better though, and I've found some tests to help me, such as the 'Windowpane Test' which can give you a good idea to whether the dough is kneaded enough. 

Proving, I'm just impatient, most of the time the recipe says it's ok to leave it just for an hour, which is what I mainly do but I know most of the time it's not ready as when I poke it - it doesn't spring back as fast as it should!

Making bread is soooo frustrating! First you have to mix it, then knead it then you have to leave it to rise! After that knock the air out of the dough which just deflates all what you've been waiting for! Finally, leave it to prove and then BAKE IT!!!!
It sounds like I'm moaning but I am! I know, it has to be done this way and I will get use to it and I'm sure when the results start getting better I will love this process! But making bread looks so easy! They make it look so easy and some of the recipes are! Actually, all of the recipes are if you get them right and if your patient with them!

But I am liking the experiencing, learning a lot! I only have a few more different loafs in the book and then we get onto favoured breads so that might spice things up a bit!!

 Some of the best outcomes!

And the worst...

                                   ...The one in the book looks amazing though!

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!!