Take On A Bake - (Off!) / Cranberry and Orange (Sweet) Soda Bread

This week I wanted to try a Soda Bread or 'Quick Bread', which I think was the first challenge attempted by the contestants this week. (Okay technically it was last week, but for the purpose of this blog it was this week - heh)

We are using Paul's  recipe this week - as in the contestant... not Hollywood, although they weirdly look alike??? (weird) I found that this recipe was so easy to follow and it was really quite quick too. Honestly, the longest process was the cooking time!

Anyway, for Paul 'not Hollywood's recipe you will need;

- 400g Plain Flour
- 50g Caster Sugar
- 50g Caraway Seeds (I found these at the spices section in my local supermarket)
- 50g Unsalted Butter
- 100g dried cranberries
- 175ml Buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 Unwaxed Orange (only the zest)
- 1 tsp table salt
- 2 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.

^ First step was nice and easy wasn't it - 'easy peasy lemon squeezey'. Onto step 2!

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, caster sugar and caraway seeds. Using your fingers, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the cranberries and orange zest.

Here we go, as always I will put images of my attempts at each step on here for you - to simply give you a vague idea of how it should - or kind of - look like!

This is the flour, salt, baking power, caster sugar and caraway seeds looked after being mixed together.

This is the butter before it ended up looking like breadcrumbs! I cut up my butter into little cubes simply to make it a little easier as it wouldn't be very pleasant to try and rub a whole block of butter between your fingers... *shudders*.

As a side note I always loved doing this at school when we did cooking - I don't know why there is something kind of soothing about the whole technique. I don't know. I'm weird.

Admittedly its not the best picture but is after rubbing in the butter.

Ta-da breadcrumbs!






Okay so all that is done lets go for step three!

3. Mix the egg and buttermilk together then stir into the dry mixture using a wooden spoon. Use your hands to bring the dough together, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball.

 Basically this is just a very weird picture of the egg and buttermilk before being beaten together.

And this is the egg and buttermilk combo being added to the original mixture.

As you can see the cranberries have just appeared magically, this is because someone silly - A.K.A. me, forgot to add them when I should have in step 2. However, FEAR NOT, this didn't ruin anything, I just mixed the cranberries and orange zest in with the egg and buttermilk. It just meant a little more mixing in to make sure the cranberries were separated into the mix well.

The orange zest decided to make an appearance.

And now we have our soda bread dough, on the lightly floured surface, shaped in a ball with no missing ingredients, all ready to go into the oven. Hooray! Now we head to the final step - step 4!

4. Place the dough on the prepared baking tray and cut a cross into the top using a sharp knife. Bake for 30–35 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

This is how my soda bread looked before being placed into the oven with my cross in the middle. Looks a little bit like a Hot Cross Bun doesn't it?







30 minutes later...

Voila! Soda Bread! Sweet Cranberry and Orange Soda Bread!





Just as a side note Paul 'Not Hollywood's recipe said to leave it in between 30-35 minutes, I personally had to leave mine in a little bit longer than that as at 30 minutes my dough wasn't quite cooked. However I'd just suggest cooking it for the recommended time and just keep checking it.

And that it for today! Yet again I am super excited by how this bake turned out as I've never made a soda bread before. I felt it looked nice in appearance and it tasted delicious!

Thank you again for reading and I hope you have a lovely day... or evening!
If you do try this bake let me know and see you guys again next week for another Take On a Bake -(Off!) post. ♥

Ricicle x

Take On A Bake - (Off!) / Arlettes

Arlette's. They are something I had never baked, eaten or even heard of before! But I love cinnamon so they had to be the task I chose to bake this week! (I ended up regretting this halfway through making them as they are so faffy! - but we persevere in the face of annoying recipes! ... right guys? *yeah*)

This week I chose to follow the recipe set out by the Hollywood himself - and my gosh was it frustrating. Not through anything he had done in the recipe, just because of how many steps where actually needed to make the biscuits. I had probably underestimated the amount of work needed for these biscuits... like - really underestimated! But hey ho, here we go!

It looks like pop art!

So for the Arlette's you will need:

• Strong white bread flour (I didn't even know this was a thing?)
• Plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• Unsalted Butter
• Granulated Sugar 
• Ground Cinnamon 
• Icing Sugar

Lets get started with Paul Hollywood's recipe; (like last week I will place images of each step to help give you a idea of what it should look like)

1. Put the flours, salt, butter and 50ml/2fl oz cold water in a bowl and gently mix to form a dough.

So in the bowl is 60g of strong white bread flour and 60g of plain flour, alongside 1 tsp salt and 40g unsalted butter (which needs to be slightly melted) this was just before I mixed it all and got it into a dough form! 

DOUGH FORM

2. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth. Shape the dough into a square, wrap in cling film and chill for an hour (or freeze for 20-30 minutes).

Before kneading. 

After kneading - I wasn't sure of the size the square needed to be so I took a guess. Once this is done plop it into the fridge and start on the butter layer - dun dun dun. 

3. For the butter layer, cream the butter and flours together using an electric mixer. Sandwich the mixture between two sheets of cling film and roll out to a rectangle the same width as the square of dough, but twice as long. Chill in the fridge for 25 minutes.

 So this is after I mixed the 125g of unsalted butter and 25g of strong white bread flour and 25g of plain flour. It took maybe a good 2 minutes to get it nice and creamy.

I got a little confused by this step - I'm not really sure why I was just a bit unsure on how I could shape the butter. The clingfilm kept splitting on me so this was the best shape I could get! But anyway, once you have something like a rectangle, plop it in the fridge like the dough.

4. Unwrap the chilled dough and butter layer. Place the chilled butter layer, short end facing towards you on a lightly floured surface and place the square of dough in the centre of the butter sheet. Make sure it is positioned neatly and covers almost to the edges. Lift the exposed butter sheet at the top and fold it down over the dough, then fold the exposed butter sheet at the bottom up over the top, so the dough is completely enclosed in the butter sheet.

So this is what happened when I did this step.. I don't even know what happened. It was just a mess, butter was everywhere and well I really don't know how I fixed it. A lot of flour I guess. But I wanted to share it because retrospectively it was kinda funny. But don't worry if yours goes wrong either, its nothing flour wont fix! #TeamFlour

5. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, short end towards you. Roll out to a rectangle, keeping the edges as even as possible. Fold the top quarter down and the bottom quarter up so they meet neatly in the centre. Then fold the dough in half along the centre line. This is called a book turn. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 25 minutes.

See? Flour is the hero for your dough problems! From here it went back into the fridge for.. you guessed, another 25 minutes.................................

6. Remove the dough from the fridge and make another book turn. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 25 minutes.

ANOTHER BOOK TURN GUYS - DO THE BOOK TURN.

Original photo found here!, but that masterpiece was edited by yours truly! (sorry Paul) 

7. For the filling, mix the granulated sugar and the cinnamon together in a bowl. On a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry to a rectangle as before and sprinkle over the sugar.

 So here is the 50g of granulated sugar mixed in with the 2 tsp of ground cinnamon

8. Make another book turn to incorporate the sugar, then roll out the pastry 1cm/½in thick, to a rectangle 12x20cm/4½x8in. Roll up the pastry from the short end like a Swiss roll. Wrap in cling film and chill for 25 minutes.

So above is how my pastry looked with the cinnamon all 'book turned' in and before I rolled into a tight swiss roll shape. As you can see its not a perfect rectangle shape but it really doesn't matter as in the next step we will chop the wonky ends of the swiss roll! So don't worry too much. Also so I can give credit, the second photo of Hollywood before I edited it was found here!

9. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Line 2 baking trays lines with silicon sheets or non-stick baking paper.

Easy step! We can do that!

10. Trim the ends of the roll and cut into 8 x 1cm/½in thick slices. Dust the work surface heavily with icing sugar and roll each piece of dough out very thinly, turning to coat in the sugar and to prevent sticking. Place the biscuits on the prepared trays and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, carefully turn the biscuits and cook for a further 3-4 minutes, or until golden-brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

This is the Arlette before being chopped up! As you can see the ends have been cut off so no matter what each section will be near enough equal! So like I said don't worry too much about forming a perfect rectangle.

Unfortunately I was engrossed in rolling out each biscuit that I forgot to take a picture of this step! Sorry!

This is what my Arlette's looked like before going into the oven! I made some smaller ones too out as I was able to make more than eight! I ended up using three different baking trays as I didn't have one that fitted them all in! They went in the oven for 5 minutes, and then what I had to do was flip them over and wait either another 3-4 minutes or until they were golden brown! I must add here that they smelt, delicious!

And here are the finished Arlette's -

They don't look too shabby do they? I am so happy with how they turned out as I have never attempted something as time consuming as this. I love how you can still see the swirl and the layers of cinnamon. I think its safe to say the frustration was worth it in the end!




And that's it for this weeks 'Take on A Bake - (Off!)', I hope you enjoyed this post and if you attempt this bake yourself be sure to let me know! I hope you all are enjoying The Great British Bake Off too, I know I am. Thank you again for reading and have a lovely day. (Sorry if there were any mistakes)

Ricicle x

P.S. I'm also sorry this post was up pretty much at the last minute, with tomorrow being the third episode of 'TGBBO', I've had a pretty busy and stressful few days so today was pretty much the first chance I've had to make them. But I did and I'm so glad I had time to do them as it was a great experience and learning curve baking wise! Hooray! ♥

Take On A Bake - (Off!) / Madeira Cake

Hi guys! So this is the first of my little series called 'Take on a Bake - (Off!)'. This is inspired by the new series of The Great British Bake Off - a show I really enjoy. Each week I will choose a recipe that was attempted by the contestants on the show and basically 'have a go at it'. This is purely for fun and I hope you enjoy seeing my attempts. So anyway on with this week!

This week one of the challenges was for the contestants to make a Madeira Cake. If you're a little bit of a history nerd like me and want to know the history of the Madeira Cake - CLICK HERE. So here we go with our attempt at the - dun dun dun - Madeira Cake!

For this recipe I actually used the very same recipe that one of the contestants used - Marie's! I felt this made it more 'Bake Off-y' (my attempt at word play) as it was from one of the contestants! I have provided a link to the recipe but if it makes it a little bit easier for you I will copy what you will need so you don't have to open too many links! (Just know that all credit obviously goes to her!)

LOOK AT ALL THE COLOURS

Okay so these are all the ingredients you will need -

• Caster Sugar
• Unsalted Butter (However I used Stork because Stork is my favourite butter to use for cakes)
• Self Raising Flour
• 3 Eggs
• 3 Oranges
• 2 Lemons
• Icing Sugar 
• A pinch of salt!

P.S. Ignore the pineapple chunks in the picture! (I had already uploaded the picture before I realised - silly me!) 

Okay the first step in Marie's recipe is;

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/165C Fan/Gas 4. Grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin with butter and line with baking parchment. 

Pretty simple stuff - so now for the second step;

2. In a bowl, cream the sugar and butter until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Fold in the flour, a pinch of salt and the citrus zests.

I photographed each stage of this step so hopefully it will give you a guide at what the mix should look like.

After creaming the 150g of caster sugar and the 150g of butter!

Adding in each egg one at a time (I didn't pre-beat the eggs - I just cracked them straight into the mix and beat them from inside that - but one egg at a time).

The recipe didn't say whether the flour needed to be sieved in but I did anyway. #Yolo

- Additionally when it comes to folding in flour I tend to use a spatula as I think it allows me to make sure every little bit gets mixed in!

After folding in the 200g flour!

This is where you also add the pinch of salt!

ADD IN THE ZESTS AND MIX IN WELL!














Onto step 3! -

3. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, smooth the surface and bake for 1 hour. Check the cake after 40 minutes, if it is starting to brown too much cover with aluminium foil for the remaining cooking time. The cake is cooked when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

 All ready to go!

ONE HOUR LATER ...

It went ok guys!

We have one half of a Madeira Cake! Hooray!

So continuing on from Marie's recipe we have step 4 -

4. Leave the cake to cool in the tin while you make the sugar syrup.

Another simple step - we like those. 

5. To decorate, cut the lemon and orange rind into very thin strips. Add 100ml/3½fl oz water and the caster sugar to a saucepan over a low heat, stir gently until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil then add the rind to the pan, reserve a few strips of rind for decoration. Cook for about 5 minutes until a syrup forms and the rind is translucent.

Like I did for step two I will include images so it will give you a rough idea of how it should look. 

My very thin strips of both the orange and lemon skins! (rinds)

 The 100ml of water and 75g caster sugar. The caster sugar will eventually dissolve!

After the caster sugar has dissolved you need to wait for the water to boil and then add the orange and lemon bits. After a time it will begin to bubble and turn into a syrup! This also smells delicious!












Step 6 now!

6. Brush the syrup over the still-warm cake and set aside to cool completely. When the cake is completely cold, remove it from the tin.

Looking pretty yummy

At this point I was getting really excited because I've never made this type of cake before and I was pretty chuffed with the candied fruit and syrup. But anyway, now is time for the final step - step 7!

7.To make the icing, mix the citrus juices. Mix the icing sugar with enough juice to make a thin icing. Drizzle the icing over the cooled cake and finish with a few thin strips of citrus rind.

For the first half of the step I didn't take any pictures however it was pretty simple, I just added a teeny bit more icing sugar as the icing wasn't as thick as I would have liked it - but once I got icing I was happy with it looked something like this; 

Shiny!

I chose to not add any more strips of citrus rind for the top of the icing as for me the ones in the syrup were enough.

Anyway once all that properly dried I tidied it up a little and here is the finished product - 

So I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed baking the cake! I have never attempted this kind of cake before so I am pretty proud of myself. Like I said this 'Take on a Bake (Off!)' series is inspired by the show 'The Great British Bake off' and the credit for the recipe goes entirely to the lovely contestant Marie. (To whom I wish all the best for in the show) 

As far as I'm aware next week's episode revolves around biscuits so that should be fun! 

Thank you for reading and if you are a fan of the Great British Bake Off be sure to let me know who your favourite contestant is! (I'm so far undecided - however my past favourites were Howard and Norman!) 

Ricicle x