My first attempt with the Bon Appetit Vanilla Cloverleaf Bun recipe

This was carried out well before our baking session last Sunday so we can see how our experimentation progressed!

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=30706324#editor/target=post;postID=4450841113344552789

Sweet Dough Session Photos!

Chocolate and Original sweet pretzels. With pearl sugar! Without Pearl Sugar! With Cinnamon Sugar! With Plain Sugar! Oh MY!

Thank you to everyone who came to bake at this, our first session of the (academic) year. And Congratulations to Zhu Yi, who won this month's draw and a huge quantities of freshly-baked yumminess!

Our new FB Page!

Dear all, we now have a FB presence here.

(URL is: http://www.facebook.com/hotcrossoxford)

So, as they say.... "Like us on Facebook!"

Cake Wrecks

And anyway, this is *the* best site if you need a laugh to cheer you up!

Always good to remember...it could have gone worse

HOT CROSS Aprons?

Would anybody be interested in buying a Hot Cross Apron if we were to design such a thing?

My 2012/13 Bakery HIT LIST

At the meet & greet today we discussed our ambitions for the coming year. I have quite a few, and as I'm on maternity I have a *little* bit of time to make them happen. My hit list is below, so if anybody knows how to make any of these please let me know...I would love your tips! Most of these are pretty complicated so we may not want to do all of them in the club, but I will be pursuing them in my own time, and I will keep everyone posted of my experiments (and results!); so if anybody wants to join me in having a go, just let me know!

1. Macarons (left)
2. Brioche (my favourite!)
3. Madeleines
4. Cannelés (below)
5. Financiers
6. Choux pastries
7. Some Viennoiseries.
and last but not at all least, I am going to begin the big project of making:
8. my own sourdough bread including cultivating my own sourdough starter.

For those who don't know about the special qualities of Sourdough bread and why it is one of *the* big challenges have a look here.

(nb Anatolij, there are some desirable bacteria in these breads, so we *have now* found a cross over between your DPhil and baking group!)

I'd like to get a bit creative with sugarpaste too...I tend to do buttercream icings because they are tasty and I'm lazy. 

Please do feel free to share your HIT LIST for the year. It's good to be ambitious, and I can't wait to see your ideas.

Freshers' Fair Coconut Milk Bread

The recipe for this delightfully fragrant bread comes from the amazing book Warm Bread and Honey Cake by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra. It's great right out of the oven with or without butter and makes wonderful toast, especially yummy topped with peanut butter, reminding me of the classic peanut and coconut flavour combination in some Chinese and Southeast Asian desserts like the wonderful gluey "Snowballs" that you can buy in Chinatown bakeries or sometimes find on the dim sum trolley. I will be adapting this recipe to try as a steamed bread for a coconutty mantou soon!

Good for the lactose intolerant because the melted butter can be replaced with vegetable shortening.

Ingredients:
750g/1lb 10oz/5 cups strong white bread flour
2 1/4 tsp easy blend (active dry) yeast
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
100g/3 1/2 oz/ generous 3/4 stick butter, melted and cooled slightly to blood temp.
350 ml/12 fl oz./ 1 1/2 cups lukewarm coconut milk

2 x 450g/ 1 lb loaf tins, greased

Makes 2 loaves

Method:

Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix to moisten the dry ingredients. Use a heavy duty mixer fitted with a dough hook to knead thoroughly until smooth and supple. This is a medium-soft dough. Alternatively, turn out onto a floured surface or a non-stick silicone mat and knead until smooth and supple. Bring together in a ball and return to the bowl. Cover the bowl with clingfilm (plastic wrap) or a damp tea towel, and set aside in a wwarm, draught-free place until doubled in size.

Knock back the dough and knead lightly until smooth again. Divide into 2 portions and roll or flatten each piece out into a recangle that is as wide as your tin is long, with a thickness of about 1cm/ 1/2 inch.

Roll up the dough, starting at a short side, and pinch the seam to seal. Place it seam-side down in the tin and shape the other loaf in the same way. Cover both loaves loosely with lightly oiled clingfilm and leave in a warm, draught-free place until almost doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6

Bake in the oven for about 30 mins. To test remove the loaves from the tins. Tap sharply on the top and bottom; they should sound hollow. Cool on a wire rack.

The loaves with keep well for a day or two if well wrapped and can also be frozen.