Welcome back to Soggy Bottoms!
This is where I test my baking might by participating in The Great British Bake Off’s technical challenges. So far, all of the recipes have been new to me and this is one no different. I wouldn’t say this is my first challenge fail, but the results weren’t as positive as my previous ones.
Typically, I talk about my process and what it was like to ham-handedly muscle my way through the bake. I’m, at times, a bull in a china shop. At the end, I supply a reading recommendation based upon my experience, which also helps me work out a bit of my feelings – where I thought I failed, the general overall experience of being in the kitchen, etc.
When it comes to picking recipes, I have inadvertently been alternating between savory and sweet, as well as Paul Hollywood versus Mary Berry recipes. I’m more than okay with keeping this pattern from here on out because I think Hollywood’s challenges are a bit tougher and it’s nice to have a break. Or perhaps I don’t enjoy the finished product as much. I do have a major sweet tooth and while bread is very yummy, I’ve never met a cake I didn’t like.
Bake: Plaited loaf
Episode: Series 3, Episode 2
Whose challenge: Paul Hollywood
Time limit: Two and a half hours.
Resources: Here’s is Paul Hollywood’s recipe for an 8-strand plaited loaf.
Process: First, let me preface this bake by saying I have never in my life made bread before. Never. I also do not own a proofing drawer. This meant I had to try and get my bread to rise using some kitchen hacks. After googling, I decided to use this method of turning my oven into a proofing oven.
Right away, I realized the challenge was going to hinge on time management. In the original recipe, the total proofing time is two hours, while the challenge time limit is two and a half hours. There was no way that was going to happen without trying to speed up the proofing time. I decided to cut the proofing time in half using the oven proofer method.
The other step that ate up some time was the plaiting. I know how to braid my hair, but this is a whole ‘nother level of braiding. It was already going to look wonky, given that my strands weren’t even in thickness or length. My poor, lopsided plait.
It was rather obvious that my bake was under proofed and I didn’t get the rise I wanted. Perhaps that particular oven proofing method just isn’t for me. (I have a gas oven, by the way.) And the time constraint was a major cause of stress and anxiety.
When the bread came out of the oven, it looked delicious, but I went over time by about fifteen minutes. I think I could have used even more time, and the shape reminds me very much of one of those braided rope dog toys.
However, the bulbous shape didn’t stop me from eating half of the warm loaf in one sitting with butter.
I wouldn’t say this turned me off of making bread; I knew it was going to tough. I’d much rather give this another shot when I’m not racing against an imaginary clock. If I could let the dough proof on its own, rather than trying to expedite the process, I think my results would be much better.
Reading material: An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard
My wonderful internet friend, Kay Taylor Rea, described this book as a “beautiful stressful fever dream” and she is absolutely correct.
It’s an absorbing read; the time will fly by quickly, but every page heightens your anxiety. Much like me sitting in front of my oven to see if my little bread baby was rising enough. I definitely want to warn potential readers that this book is rather gory and violent, but it also features a heroine who wants to burn shit down and dismantle the racist, sexist magical ruling body.
The book, to my knowledge, is a standalone and I really wish it wasn’t. If you’re like me, you’re going to want more, more, more. Same goes for carbs.
If you enjoyed this bake or just love The Great British Bake Off, you can keep track of my technical bakes in the Soggy Bottoms introductory post.
Any bread baking advice? Did I fly too close to the sun and pick something outside of my experience range?
Let me know which challenge I should try next!
For a first go at bread, this is amazing! You should be incredibly proud of doing so well on your first attempt. Bread has endless variables (what do you like, what oven do you have, what flour you use, your weather) so as you get more experienced, you start to get a feel for how you want to tweak recipes (the opposite of cake baking in fact!), but also it’s always pretty good to eat fresh bread with butter—as you’ve already found—even if it wasn’t quite perfect!
Well done! Even bad homemade bread is good, isn’t it? I think bread and the GBBO are not very compatible. Bread is all about the slow and easy. It tells *you* what the time should be, not the other way round. The kind I like is when you prove it overnight. For pleasure in bread the proper English way try Elizabeth David’s Bread and Yeast Cookery. She remains the Queen of British cooking and does it all without gimmicks or other foolery. Plus the book is full of the history, the science and great stories about bread.
I agree it’s impressive (and ambitious!) for a first bread attempt. I’m a veteran breader and have only strained my braiding skills with three strands because I know my coordination limitations, and I won’t commit to even pizza crust without AT LEAST three hours of prep time for adequate kneading and rising. Ya did good.
I used to proof in the oven, but my current kitchen is like a greenhouse (wall of windows, AC vent too far from the action to be useful, oven in use more often than not), so it’s plenty warm to leave dough on the counter. 90°F air temp provides optimal conditions for balanced puff and flavor development (if you want to go hardcore, there’s science about the optimal internal temperature of the dough, but that’s beyond the enjoyable part of baking for me), so I wouldn’t stick dough anywhere you can’t monitor the temperature. When you’re not racing a clock, patience is bread’s friend.
I proof my bread in the electric oven. I turn it on to the “Warm’ setting and when it’s reached that temperature, I turn it off and leave it off. Then I put the bread in and not touch it for two hours. No opening of the oven door, no peeking, nothing. After two hours I turn on the oven light to see if it’s risen. If it has, great, out it goes and goes back in when the baking temperature is reached. If it’s not yet risen, I give it another few minutes.
Congrats! That looks awesome.
I’d suggest that you get the book Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day. Obviously actually making and baking of bread takes longer, but the time spent literally handling the ingredients and dough? About 5 minutes. It gives you a few good base recipes, then gives you a ton of ways to add things to the bread vases to change them up. An excellent book, and I’ve never been disappointed.
Both my parents baked bread so I grew up with it. I’ve taken classes, had apprenticeships, worked in bakeries in multiple countries. I’ve read a library’s worth of baking books, baked bread at home for most of my adult life, have a starter… and I still fuck it up. Even when it’s not that good it’s still pretty great.
I’m against the very idea of rushing bread, personally. Life doesn’t need added stress. If you have tight time constraints, maybe find a bakery?
You should be incredibly proud of that loaf, Amanda!
This is beautiful! Can I ask a bread-newbie question? If you use the oven to proof, is any oven-safe bowl fine to hold the dough? Or does some specific vessel work best?
@Gina: I just used an oven-safe bowl, but I’m not really an expert, haha.
@Amanda – That is a really impressive first attempt at baking bread, especially when you worked with those time constraints. Congratulations! Homemade is always better, no matter how it turns out. 🙂
My grandmother taught me to bake bread without a proofing drawer. I put the dough in one of my yellow ware bowls and cover it with a tea towel, then keep the dough out of a draft or sun. May take longer to rise, but I’ve had good results over the years.
I love to bake bread, it’s very satisfying. I proof by putting my dough into a very large bowl (I generally make about a dozen loaves at a time), cover it with a dish cloth, then wrap it up in a blanket to keep it warm. I use instant yeast, which cuts the rise time, and I always get good results with this method.
I have been baking bread for over 30 years now, and my first loaves were..well, they were edible, but let’s just say I’ve gotten a lot better at it with practice!
I see the recipe calls for ‘strong bread flour.’ I only use King Arthur all-purpose flour. It’s higher in gluten than most all-purpose flour and can even be used in bread machines which are very snobbish about bread flour. I can’t recommend using King Arthur flour highly enough.
Gina – an oven-safe bowl should do. A friend of mine, trying to hurry up the first rise, put a plastic bowl into the oven with it on low. She ended up with partially baked dough and a melted bowl.
I’ve baked bread in the past – my whole place would smell wonderful and it tasted good, too. I’ve baked challah, as a three-plait bread, and it came out looking good and tasting better. I doubt I’d push myself to do anything more complicated. Although … I got a Fleischman’s Yeast book of recipes that had a “honey bun” recipe for easter. Sweet dough, made into bunny-shaped rolls and covered with a honey glaze. After the first time, I’d make them as plain rolls with the honey glaze and they tasted just as good.
I like to eat bread, but am lazy about baking it and usually make a no-knead version.
And I *loved* An Unkindness of Magicians! So good. (I have her earlier book Roses and Rot as well, but haven’t read it yet–it’s a Tam Lin retelling, which is one of my catnips.)
Excellent job for a first try at bread, Amanda! I can’t believe they include the proofing time in the time constraint, though, as that’s the thing that counts with bread. Like @LauraL above, I proof mine in a glass bowl with a tea towel over top the way my grandma did; she used to put hers on the radiator, here in the South I can usually just leave mine on the counter next to the stove or where it will get indirect sun. I’ve also always proofed mine twice, once after first kneading and again after it’s been shaped and put in the pan or on the sheet.
For some good basic bread recipes, try Canadian Living, such as: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/recipe/anne-s-white-bread or http://www.canadianliving.com/food/baking-and-desserts/recipe/rustic-no-knead-white-bread or a gluten-free version: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/baking-and-desserts/recipe/gluten-free-sandwich-bread
Practice, practice, practice…because hungry people want some–it looks yummy
It looks pretty to me! My newest favorite bread book is Bread Toast Crumbs by Alexandra Stafford. All her recipes are no knead and super easy. I can’t bake enough bread from it. My family eats it all in days! I also love her Instastories for her cooking tutorials. Here’s her recipe https://alexandracooks.com/2012/11/07/my-mothers-peasant-bread-the-best-easiest-bread-you-will-ever-make/
I agree that is a great first loaf Amanda! I also agree that letting dough rise at it’s own pace is the best way to go, after all it doesn’t need “[your] time, it doesn’t ask to be watched, and can be trusted alone in the house”*^. Dough will rise at room temperature, it just takes a little longer and can even be put in the fridge overnight if that works better for you.
A point for American readers of English recipes, the every day ‘plain flour’ we buy in the UK is pretty low in gluten, great for cakes, pastry and biscuits (cookies), absolutely useless for bread; for bread we have ‘strong flour’ which is high in gluten and is good for pasta too.
*M Vivian Hughes, A London Home in the Nineties part 3 of a London Family 1870-1900, well worth reading if you can find a copy.
^yes Kathy, I have Elizabeth David’s book
Like Carole Bede, I also recommend King Arthur flour and I’ll add my recommendation for the recipes on the company website. My go-to biscuit and whole wheat banana bread recipes are from King Arthur and are book-marked on my tablet. I am seriously craving some homemade bread now ….
My parents were both excellent bread bakers, and I grew up baking with them. Their hack, which I use almost every time if it’s a cold or cool day: Put the proofing bowl on top of a bowl filled with warm water, then wrap a large dish towel around the whole thing. Sometimes I’ll do the second proof that way, as well, although balancing loaf pans on top of bowls of warm water can get dicey!
You did an AMAZING job for a first time break-maker. That 2.5 hour time limit is insane and it’s the one part of GBBO that always makes me grind my teeth. It seems super unrealistic to impose a short time limit if the desired result is good bread, but I guess Paul Hollywood has his reasons!
The first time I made bread, apparently the yeast was too old and had died, and the bread didn’t rise at all. I gave it the allotted amount of time and baked it, and it was very dense, to put it kindly. So you did a lot better than I did AND recognized what was going wrong!
It’s always fun to test yeast (or baking soda) when you don’t bake enough to be sure it’s alive.
I was surprised at the 8 strand braid – I’ve done 3, 6, 7, and 9 – but 8 just seems weird.
Still – now I want to try it.
You sure jumped into the deep end with this, but you did a good job. I will make one suggestion for something like this. Don’t try to divide your loaf into 8 equal portions at once. It’s easier to divide the dough in half and keep halving the halves until you have 8 pieces. The other option is to weigh your dough so that you know how much each section should weigh. The pros tend to work by weigh and it’s easier if you can’t cheat with the halvies trick. The difference in size of the ends might explain the uneven cooking.
Don’t forget to move the loaf to cool on a rack. Leaving it to cool on or in a pan traps steam between the loaf and the pan, leaving you with soggy bread.
You know this is going to be even better paired with a homemade soup or stew when the weather turns cold later in the year.
Since you ate half of the loaf in one sitting, I call it a definite success. And now I’m hungry for some warm fresh bread and butter.
I just re-watched the episode with the plaited bread loaf, I think yours looks as good as some of the contestants!
I’ve only used yeast once, in a cake-I don’t know why, but I have this kind of mental block of working with yeast. I mean, what is the worst thing that can happen, it doesn’t come out correctly. It isn’t like the ingredients of bread are super spendy. So after reading this post, I went to the store, and bought some King Arthur flour (thanks for the recommendation SBTB commenters) and some yeast. I will peruse my many cookbooks and decide what recipe will be my first foray into the world of bread baking.
Thank you all for such kind words about my first bread! I’d really love to see the results when I can give it the proper time. I also used King Arthur flour, in case anyone was wondering.
King Arthur Flour’s website is my BIBLE for yeasted breads and I’ve found they made me a better baker; I’ve made cinnamon-sugar braided challah from their recipe. It always comes out well!