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Week 10: Ginger Biscuits

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GBBO 2017 has finally ended, with (spoiler alert!) Sophie being crowned the winner! This week's technical challenge was Prue's Ginger Bisuits. Perhaps more simplistic that one might expect for the series' final technical challenge, however, the complex design the bakers were expected to produce within the short space of time given upped the difficulty level quite considerably. I got my recipe from the GBBO website this week. It took roughly 45mins of hands on time, 1 hour of cooling time, and 10 mins of cooking time. ...and then about 2 hours to decorate! Ingredients 150g butter 100g light muscovado sugar 2 tsp molasses 3 tbsp beaten egg 225g plain flour ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground ginger ¼ tsp salt ¼ tsp ground cloves 3 large egg whites 750g icing sugar 1 tsp lemon juice Blue, yellow, green, red colour paste   Ginger Biscuits 1) Lightly grease 2 baking sheets with butter 2)  Beat the butt

Week 9: Choux Buns

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Recipe by Katie Lyon. Taken from GBBO website. Ingredients 110g plain flour 50g unsalted butter 100ml water 100ml full-fat milk ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon caster sugar 3 medium beaten eggs 425ml creamy milk finely grated zest of 2 large oranges 6 medium egg yolks 60g caster sugar 50g cornflour 50g unsalted butter 1) Heat the oven to 230°C/210°C fan/450°F/Gas 8. Draw 20 circles with a diameter of 4cm onto a piece of paper, well spaced apart, and place this on a baking tray.  Choux Pastry 2) Sift the flour into a bowl. Melt the butter, water, milk, salt and sugar over a low heat. Once the butter has melted, turn up the heat so the mixture comes to boil. Remove the pan from the heat and quickly add the sifted flour all in one go.  3)  Rapidly beat the mixture using a wooden spoon. Place the pan back over the heat and beat for a minute until the dough is very thick and forms a ball that leaves the sides of the pan clean. Tip the dough into

Week 8: Savoy Cake

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Forgotten Bakes week was always going to filled with recipes I had never heard of, and safe to say, I had no idea what any of this week's three recipes were. I decided to go for the Savoy Cake (rather than the technical) because I don't much like rum. The Savoy Cake, as made in the showstopper, seemed quite complex but actually it is quite a basic sponge recipe, caked in sugar for longevity.  This recipe is taken from a random website I found off Google (link below) and took me between 1 hour and 1.5 hours to make. The Ingredients 6 eggs 250g caster sugar 150g flour 50g cornflour Grated zest of lemon You will need a fancy cake mould. I have used a bundt tin 1) Pre-heat your open to 180'C / Gas Mark 6. Grease your mould well, and then line with caster sugar 2) Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites 3) Beat together the egg yolks and the caster sugar to form a white, frothy mixture 4) Mix in the flour, cornflour and

Week 7: Margherita Pizza

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It's not Italian Week without a pizza! I decided to stick to the recipe as rigidly as possible this week in order to make a classic, thin base, Italian style pizza. However, unsurprisingly, I do not have a peel or a pizza stone, so I had to make a few changes to the order of some of the steps. This recipe is taken from the GBBO website and took me about 1.5 hours, including proving. The Ingredients 10g fresh yeast pinch of caster sugar 115ml lukewarm water 200g ‘00’ flour, plus extra for dusting 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing semolina, for dusting 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 4 garlic cloves, peeled & finely chopped 400g can San Marzano tomatoes juice of ½ lemon ½ tsp caster sugar 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 125g ball Mozzarella 6 fresh basil leaves 1) For the dough, mix the yeast to a thin cream with the sugar and 1 tbsp of the water. Sift the flour and half a teaspoon of salt into a bowl

Week 6: Pasteis de Nata

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Pasteis de Nata is a Portuguese creation, and (roughly) translates to Custard Tart. I tried one for the first time a couple of years ago, and they are AMAZING. Little bites of sweet, creamy goodness. I would recommend getting some from a proper Portuguese bakery. Or, follow the recipe below and try some homemade! This recipe is taken from the GBBO website. I've not included the bit for rough puff pastry below, but there are loads of recipes for this floating around (or ready made ones in the shop if you're short on time like I was!) The Ingredients 300g puff pastry 375ml whole milk 45g plain flour 2 strips of pared lemon zest 1 cinnamon stick 185ml water 375g caster sugar  7 large egg yolks The Pastry 1) Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface, into a rectangle measuring 20cm x 30cm 2) Roll the pastry tightly, from the short side, into a log. Cut the log into 12 even sized rounds. (TOP TIP: lightly pre