Category Archives: Bread

How does an elephant ask for a bun?

Elephant buns

with many thanks to Dan Lepard for teaching me how to make milk breads in the first place and for advice on UHT milk

Sponge

15 g fresh yeast
500 ml UHT milk – at room temperature or slightly warmer
320 g strong white bread flour

Dough

All of the above plus
a dessert spoon of golden caster sugar
40 g of melted butter
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 medium egg
13 g salt
175 g chocolate chunks and chips
350 g strong white flour

1463 g dough in total

Mix the sponge 2 – 4 hours or so before you want to make the dough. I am currently using a very strong flour which seems to absorb a lot of liquid, you may wish to reduce the amount of milk in the sponge if your flour is not so strong or add more flour to the final dough.

When the sponge has risen and flowed gently all over the worktop, while you were out walking the dogs, scrape it back into a bowl, take a deep breath and add the melted and cooled butter and the egg, vanilla essence and a spoonful of sugar.

Mix these well and then add the rest of the flour, leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes.

Add the chocolate last to the dough; chips, chunks, whatever you have, try and get them distributed evenly through the dough.

I don’t do intensive kneading if I can avoid it, only enough to make sure the dough is well mixed. Leave for half an hour, come back to it and give it another light knead, oiling the worktop lightly with oil if the dough is very sticky to make it easier to handle. You can do this again later if it makes you feel better, but I forget.

Total time for first prove is about one and a half hours.

Divide dough into 14 balls. You might need a dusting of flour to help with this part. Shape and place on baking parchment lined trays. Leave to rise for another hour. Cover the trays with either a plastic box or clingfilm or put them inside a carrier bag and prop it up with something.

Bake at 210 degrees C in an ordinary oven for 22 minutes till golden brown and sound good and hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack, and brush the tops with a glaze of 2 spoons of boiling water, 2 spoons of sugar and a teaspoon of Fiori di Sicilia ! The air will fill with the glorious perfume of orange and vanilla and make you think momentarily of Jacobs Club Biscuits and school trips. Actually it’s better than that and a little goes a long way. Thanks Lynne for that inspiring gift! Enterprising importers and artisan baking suppliers please note we want you to stock this, please please please! You’ve got until Christmas to sort it out.

To print the recipe click here

I really adore these buns, they look like traditional english bread rolls, but they are soft and rich tasting from the addition of the egg and the butter and have just enough chocolate in them and a hint of panetonne taste as you take the first bite!

I tell myself they are less fattening than croissants or pain au chocolat with its layers of buttery pastry, but are still yummy enough to please a fussy elephant!

Answer: ‘May I have a bun please?’ (muttered coyly from underneath a flowering dandelion :) )

How much do I love this bread? – Nils’ 60/40 ryebread

A lot! Thank you Nils and Ye Olde Breade Blogge for this wonderful formula! When in doubt make this one….it always behaves beautifully and boosts your rye bread making confidence. It’s more rye than the light deli rye but not as seriously rye as some. Nils calls it ‘ze 60/40 rye’. A great introduction to rye breads for people who want to try their hand at making it, but aren’t quite sure where to start…

I use half and half light and dark rye usually to approximate the German rye flour that Nils uses. Sometimes I make the starter with the light rye and add the dark rye to the dough or vice versa. It works very well :)

Extra pic for Blue: Here is the dough fully proved and turned out from its form and slashed, it was quite firm enough to hold its shape at this point in time, didn’t spread out or anything….

‘Barleycorn’ bread and pizza light

‘Barleycorn bread’

I made a loaf yesterday using Doves barleycorn flour which I had bought out of curiosity. I would quite like to buy all the bread mixes available on the shelves of my local supermarket and try them just to see what they are like, but I resist usually.

I didn’t use the recipe on the back of the packet but made the loaf using the following:

250g mature white starter
1/4 tsp fresh yeast
500 g barleycorn flour
1 tsp spray malt
275 grams water
1 and a half tsp salt
20 grams melted butter

The finished loaf tasted slightly malty and was quite soft, and for my taste a bit boring and bland, I think I will add some whey or yoghurt to it when I use up the other half of the bag and maybe make rolls with it. I don’t think I would buy it again as I prefer to mix my own flours and seeds. I also prefer it when the grains and seeds have been soaked before mixing into the dough. Here as the flakes and linseed are already in the flour you don’t have the opportunity to do that and when you slice the bread you can see the little dry bits of cut grain or flakes or whatever it is.
I’ve just been back to read the list of ingredients.

No idea what the last line means. Does it mean there is Ascorbic Acid (Vit C) plus something else? The mouth feel is definitely soft, like it has a fair bit of malt flour in it. Reminds me of a shop loaf somehow even with a white leaven starter. Not a bad shop loaf, but still a shop loaf.

Doves Barleycorn Flour