Bacon and Cheddar Loaf

Now my young daughter Phoebe is approaching her first birthday, she is starting to eat a lot of the same foods as her mum and dad, and that includes bread. So, each weekend Phoebe gets her very own plain loaf baked by her Dad. I am hoping she will grow to enjoy baking as much as I do. So, once Phoebe's loaf is sorted, it's time to bake something for Mum and Dad.

The pictures of this bacon and cheddar loaf in Paul Hollywoods book were so good, that was enough for me to give it a go. The final bake didn't dissappoint. Make sure you eat this slightly warm as you then get pockets of cheesy goodness dotted throughout the loaf. Also, use a good strong vintage cheddar if you can. Delicious.

Cottage Loaf

I thought this looked good in Paul Hollywood's book, so thought I would give it a go. It turned out to be one of the softest and lightest breads I have made.

I have now discovered that the longer you can leave the dough to rest initially (up to 3 hours), the better the bread will be. For anyone who thinks they don't have the time to bake bread, I urge you to think again. Most of the time is not actually spent working with the dough, but leaving the dough to rest and prove. So you can go out for a few hours and come back to it. Plus if I can do it with a 9 month old baby causing havoc all around me, anyone can do it!

Chocolate chip shortbread

To me, shortbread has always been a bit of an enigma. I had assumed it was a real devil to make but it turns out that with a bit of care, its possible to turn out absolutely delicious examples. I turned to my new best friend, Paul Hollywood, for a good recipe but made the addition of chocolate chips. You just need to add these towards the end of the kneading process.

My only advice would be to work quite quickly with the dough as the butter will start to melt and can become a bit greasy. Otherwise, give them a go!

Milky Milky

It has been far too long since my last post. I have still been bust baking most weeks but tended to stick with tried and tested recipes. I thought I would try another milk dough from Paul Hollywood's new book. The milk adds a lovely sweetness to the loaf and is great for mopping up sauces. But I think it's a pretty versatile bread, would be good for most things.

If you try this one, the dough is quite tough at first so you really need to give it a bit of welly with your kneading. I also give it at least 2 hours for the initial resting stage, this gives it enough time to rise sufficiently. Enjoy.

Armenian Flat Breads

These have intrigued me ever since seeing them on the Great British Bake Off, so I thought I would try this variation from Emmanuel Hadjiandreou' book 'How to make Bread'.

It was a very simple dough to make. This is a flat bread designed to be very thin and crispy and therefore doesn't require any yeast. The olive oil gives the dough a smooth, shiny look. The only tricky bit was stretching the dough without it breaking, as you need it to be as thin as possible, but to be honest it didn't make any difference to the end result.(Tip: rub your hands with olive oil before stretching the dough as it makes it a little easier to work with)

We ate this with a G&T pre dinner, all very sophisticated! They were delicious, these ones had poppy and sesame seeds on top, I think the next batch I'll try with Parmesan.

Aussie Damper Bread

When I saw Lorraine Pascale prepare this loaf, I immediately thought of one of my trips to Australia where I spent a few nights sleeping under the stars at Uluru (Ayers Rock). I was taught how to make this bread by my guide as it is one of the simplest loaves to make and requires little preparation.

At the campsite, we mixed up the dough and placed it in an earthy pot with a lid and then buried the pot in the ground amongst some of the hot coals from the fire. About 45 mins later we had a delicious loaf. If I remember rightly, at the time of eating, a sandstorm swept through the camp and we ended up with a very sandy BBQ but you get the drift.

Hopefully if you give this a go at home, you won't have to contend with sand, but its a great place to start if you are keen to bake but unsure where to start. The recipe uses self raising flour, so no need for yeast and also doesn't require time to rise and prove. Lorraine suggests it's a good dipping bread in olive oil and a nice fruity balsamic - who am I to disagree. Give it a go.

Cobtastic

This is probably the best looking loaf I have made...tasted good as well. A trusted recipe from Paul Hollywood.