First bake: milk bloomer

Last month, my boyfriend announced that his new year’s resolution is for me to bake more bread. Yes, me. To support this resolution, he kindly got me a copy of Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake book, which is full of bread recipes. I sighed and got on with it.

The first recipe I decided to make was this milk bloomer, based on a recipe for milk loaf (which, funnily enough, I’d already ripped out of a magazine with the intention of baking it at some point in the distant future).

I have vague memories of milk roll from my childhood, although whether I actually ate any or simply gawped at the packet in Asda and wondered what Blackpool Tower had to do with bread is a question for another day. I was more drawn to what the addition of full-fat milk would do the texture of the bloomer, being a fan of a sturdy outer crust and a lovely soft crumb when it comes to bread.

I don’t have the most amazing track record with bread, bar some Spanish bread I made last year, so I was surprised when everything seemed to go to plan. The milk is added warm to the mix, and everything is kneaded for a good 5-10 minutes – I managed to knead for the full 10!

The rise was rather impressive – the dough doubled in size in the space of an hour on the first rise, then expanded massively on the baking tray after I’d knocked it back and left it to rise inside a plastic bag, as advised by Mr Hollywood.

By this point the dough was nothing like the shape I’d originally envisioned, but I pressed on, baking it for the full cooking time. It seemed fully baked when I took it out of the oven. I should have left it to completely cool, but I only managed to leave it for a few minutes before I started circling it like a vulture with a bread knife.

Unsurprisingly, it was very soft due to just coming out of the oven – but in a lovely, fluffy way, rather than in the dense, undercooked way that I’ve previously experienced with most breads I’ve tried to bake. The taste was wonderful – rich, nutty and full-flavoured, it was the perfect accompaniment to a wedge of mature cheddar and a slick of butter.

Sliced milk bloomer – apologies for the gloomy pic!

The two of us managed to polish off the entire bloomer in a little under 3 days, which I’d like to say is testament to the deliciousness of the bread rather than our greed. I will definitely make this again, and soon!

The recipe

Can be found in How to Bake by Paul Hollywood.

First bake: Not a Christmas cake (part 2)

Well, I finally got round to decorating the Christmas cake I made in December – and it almost looks too good to eat!

I’ve had this recipe from Asda magazine for a Christmas decorated with rather crazed-looking penguins for a few years, but have never quite got round to making it. So, I’m very pleased to have finally attempted it with a moderate level of success.

The cake had matured for around 2 months before I decorated it, and I diligently fed it brandy every week over that period. Thankfully, it turned out to be sturdy enough to hold the weight of the icing, despite all the booze!

I started off by covering the cake with marzipan, then a layer of sugarpaste. I deviated from the recipe here as it called for more sugarpaste to create an iceberg/ravine scene, but I felt it would make for ridiculously thick icing, so I kept it simple.

Then my boyfriend and I started on the fun task of creating the penguins. This was fairly easily done with pre-coloured icing and a couple of cake decorating tools to help with cutting and placing tiny, tiny blobs of icing on other tiny blobs of icing.

We also made piles of snowballs to show that the penguins were in the middle of a snowball fight, and a snow penguin just for fun! My favourite bit is the ‘secret’ penguin on the cake board, who is definitely going to win the fight by popping up out of nowhere.

I was surprised at how easy it was to decorate the cake overall – despite taking a cake decorating course a couple of years ago, I have zero confidence in my ability to make cakes that actually look nice! I would love to attempt this again with another scene like this – would a woodland scene be too adventurous…?

So, what does the cake actually taste like? It does indeed taste like an extremely drunken Christmas cake! I shared it out with friends last night, and the brandy was the first thing we all commented on – not that the booziness detracts from the loveliness of the cake in anyway! It is extremely delicious, especially with the marzipan, and all the different kinds of fruit make for a great flavour. I’ll probably give it another go for next Christmas, albeit actually in time for December 25th!

Re-re-bake: millionaire’s shortbread

I’ve long had a love-hate relationship with millionaire’s shortbread. I absolutely love to eat it, but making it is such a pain when you cannot for the life of you get the caramel to set! Happily, I think I’ve actually managed to nail it this time thanks to the power of social media.

The shortbread base itself was nothing particularly special – just good ol’ butter, sugar flour and a little salt. No problem.

I was absolutely determined to find out how to make the caramel properly, so I took to Facebook to ask my friends on there for any tips. Lo and behold, Rachel over at A Jar of Happiness came to the rescue with what looked like (and actually was) a foolproof recipe.

I made the caramel, poured it over the shortbread base and left it in the fridge overnight to set. And yes, I may have resorted to a spot of ‘fridge and pray’ action, for any Great British Bake Off fans out there!

I was incredibly, incredibly relieved when I took the tin out of the fridge and I could actually touch the caramel without it coming away on my finger. Maybe there is a baking god up there after all…?

After that, it was a simple matter of melting some milk chocolate, pouring it over the caramel and giving it another few hours in the fridge to set before slicing it up into bars. I used a bar of Choceur chocolate from Aldi, which is an excellent range of chocolate and very reasonably priced (I’m nibbling away at their rum raisin and nut chocolate as I type).

Taste-wise, the shortbread was absolutely divine. At first, I was a little worried that it might have been too salty due to using salted butter and then adding more salt on top, but the sweetness of the caramel and chocolate makes a pleasing contrast – I probably wouldn’t add any salt if I used dark chocolate in this recipe in future, though.

If you too have struggled with making the perfect millionaire’s shortbread, give this recipe a go!

The recipe

Makes 16 small squares, 12 small bars or 8 large bars

For the shortbread:

• 225g plain flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 175g butter
• Pinch of salt

For the caramel:

• 100g butter
• 100g dark brown sugar
• 397g can of condensed milk

For the chocolate:

• 200g good quality milk or dark chocolate (if you choose the latter, opt for 50-60% cocoa content)

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan/gas mark 2. Line a shallow 20cm square baking tin with baking paper.
2. To make the shortbread, sift the flour and salt into a bowl and stir in the sugar.
3. Rub in the butter until it forms clumps, then press the mixture into the bottom of the tin.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until it’s a pale golden brown. I had to leave my shortbread in my gas oven for about 50 minutes before it got to this point, but your oven may differ to mine! Leave the shortbread to cool in the tin.
5. To make the caramel, melt the butter and sugar in a pan, stirring all the while. Keep stirring as you add the condensed milk and turn the heat up to boil for 1 minute.
6. Pour the caramel over the cooled shortbread and set the whole lot in the fridge, for a couple of hours minimum but ideally overnight.
7. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and pour over the set caramel, tilting the tin to make sure it gets into all the corners. Return the shortbread to the fridge to set for a further 30 minutes or so.
8. Cut up the shortbread into squares or bars. Stuff your face and feel happy!