GTBBO Week 3: Bread
The Great Taisty Bytes Bake Off
Welcome to #GTBBO—The Great Taisty Bytes Bake Off! 🍰
With the new season of Bake Off gracing our screens, I thought why not join in on the fun and attempt as many of the weekly challenges as I can? It’ll be a great way to push my baking skills in real time, try new recipes and give me the perfect excuse to create some chaos in the kitchen!
For more info and to see how Week 2 went, check out this post:
Hello, friends and welcome back.
It’s here… Bread Week! —SCREAMS— This is the week I’ve been dreading since starting this challenge. I’ve tried a few easy bread bakes before, and by that I mean I’ve attempted a few focaccias. Known to be the gateway bread because it’s so easy - but was still fudged up by yours truly! It looked the part from a top-down view, but was actually almost as flat as a pancake.
This long introduction is really just to say - I just can’t bloody figure out dough! Despite following recipes to a ‘t’ with previous attempts, the dough always turns out way too wet, or is tough as leather. I know with time and experience I’ll get it - so I’m attacking this week’s challenge as a learning experience.
Before we get started, I thought it would be useful to let you know that I picked up a food thermometer to check the temp of the water going into the flour and also a heated proofing mat, as my kitchen is pretty chilly.
Oh - and a little disclaimer, as I’ve had a few questions asked: the recipes I’ve been using throughout this series are the official ones from the new Bake Off book / website. Unless stated otherwise. I don’t share recipes that you’d have to ‘pay for’ or that I can’t link to to credit, but they’re easy enough to find!
Right… let’s see how we got on with the challenge!
Week 3: Bread Week
Signature Challenge: Bread Rolls
As we’ve established, working with yeast smacks me with all sorts of anxiety. When a recipe calls for “warm but not too warm and not too cold water or you’ll MURDER the yeast”, you really start to reasses what warm actually means. This is, I’m sure, the culprit as to why my first few attempts at baking bread early this year were a total flop.
And so, discarding the stick-finger-in water-and-guess-if-said-water-is-goldilocks-temperature method (that’s the technical term if you didn’t know) and opting for a food thermometer seemed to work an absolute treat.
Bang on 40°c is the ideal temperate, by the way.
As I was already dreading this week but was adamant to make something edible, I kept my buns simple. No flavour or fillings, unless you consider ‘bread’ a flavour!
Rolls, buns, barms, cobs, baps - whatever it is you call them (they’re a barm for this northerner) I think they turned out pretty great! I tried one straight from the oven with some butter and a few sea salt flakes, and wow - I‘ve got to say it was pretty epic.
No doubt the euphoria of realising that I’d successfully baked my very first batch added to the flavour, too.
The great thing about these challenges is that not only am I learning new skills, it’s also giving me the knowledge and confidence in making stuff that is useful for every day life. I know how to make barms now - if I want a bacon butty on a Sunday then I can just whip up a batch over the weekend to use. As a relatively new baker, I still feel that sort of wonderment when realising things like that. It’s pretty bomb, isn’t it!
Before we move on, I must know… Bap? Barm? Cob? What do you call yours?
Technical Challenge: Plaited Wreath
I hope you can understand how elated I feel going from ‘it can never be done’ on Friday, to baking that yesterday. I bloody made that!
Ok sure, it’s not in proportion and it’s not uniform - but it’s got a hole and you can see the plaits pretty clearly I would say.
To be honest throughout the whole process I was pretty sure that it wasn’t going to turn out as well as it did. Doubt aside, I read that your dough is ready when you can stretch it thin enough to pass light through it - the windowpane test. After plenty of kneading, my dough was stretching to a point, but then tearing slightly.
After the first proof it was stretchier still, but then when rolling out the strands for the plaits it was ever so slightly tearing again and snapping back a tad, too. I’m looking forward to learning dough better - about gluten and proofing and feeding yeast are all factors to take into consideration.
I carried on however, and thought, well - we might as well see how it goes. It’ll turn out how it’s going to turn out!
Plaiting was pretty easy if I’m honest - thankfully! Plaiting my horse’s mane/tail ready for shows back as a teen is a skill that has stayed with me, I’m pleased to say. Not quite the same with wonky, uneven, almost rubbery-like dough, mind.
After the second proof, I was so chuffed to see/feel that the dough had doubled and become super fluffy, almost fragile-like to the touch. Which I’d heard is a good thing for bread!
A quick wash of egg and 25 mins in the oven turned this ugly ducking into something I’m really quite proud of! Perfectly imperfect :)
And there we have it - bread week is officially completed! The week I thought was going to be a total failure actually turned into the most rewarding yet. Funny, isn’t it… how each time seems to be a little reminder to just believe in yourself a little more, and doubt yourself a little less.
If you’re baking along this season, let me know in the comments and I’d love to see how your bakes turn out!
What I’m listening to
It’s been a bit of an eclectic week this week, I must admit - and I’m fairly confident that my music choices may not be for everyone this time. Fun fact, I was very much an ‘emo/rock kid’ and grew up listening to Linking Park, Sum41, Good Charlotte… the list goes on. Every now and then I like to put some of my old favorites on and have a good belt!
This week I heard Going Under by Evanescence on the radio, which put me well and truly back in the mood to reminisce with them for a while. The band version of My Immortal is heartbreakingly stunning.
Taking you in a completely different direction for this one, Future Friends by Superfruit is one of those albums that never fails to put me in a good mood. And perfect to bop around the kitchen to. Sexy Ladies and Goodbye from Lonely will give you all the good vibes!
Creators to follow
Each week I want to give a shoutout to some amazing creators who I’ve been loving lately. This week I’ve been loving:
JP Clark - HOME & HORT
Another person I followed for a long time on Instagram before finding him on Substack: JP is endearing, hilarious, and is genuinely bloody lovely. His content is so aesthetically pleasing and his posts on here have been some of the most emotive I’ve read. Always makes me want to work on my home and get out into the garden. I’m still yet to, mind - but the willing is there!Terra Kelly - Butter Add More Newsletter with Terra Kelly
The lovely Terra writes about daily life, shares amazing recipes, and is a pretty awesome author too. Beyond her fantastic content, Terra has been a massive support to me here on Substack from day one. Kind, encouraging and always there with a friendly word or helpful advice. If you’re looking for someone to follow who’s filled with warmth and authenticity - pop over to Terra’s page and say hello.
Well, that’s all from me today my friends. Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my little corner of the world.
As always, feel free to leave a comment or just say hi. I love hearing from you!
Until next time,
Mark
Ha ha - I reckon focaccia remembers you. Make it for the first time in a while and it sulks, but make it a couple of days later and it will love you! A wet dough - wetter than you think - is usually best with focaccia in my opinion. Great looking rolls and plait!
I've had a wretched week or so with family in the USA being very badly affected by the hurricanes so this has cheered me up no end. I love your self deprecating humour and can identify with Trouble With Dough. Than you for being a light in the gloom and you bakes look great to me - I always want to eat whatever you make, which I guess is the acid test.
PS I am a Cheshire/Montgomeryshire girl so it's barm or batch to me.