Anyone up for a weekly GBBO challenge?

[evilwem]

I've been wanting to have a go at the 8 strand plaited loaf since they did it in week 2(?), but never get round to it. I wondered if anyone else has been itching to have a go at anything else - we could share triumphs and disasters :) No judges proclaiming our bottoms are too soggy or anything though.

Wem - our local tesco had almond croissants on 2 for £1 when I nipped in this morning.
I just don't understand why the baby weight isn't shifting

ooh, I want to try making fancies now, one for the list.

Yorky - almond croissants are on my mind because I saw a pack of 6 in Costco for about £3. I managed to resist because a) they wouldn't have been as good as the ones in France, and b) I would have eaten them all anyway. But I was deliberating over them for a loooong time.

According to the GBBO book, you should spoon the fondant over each cake and guide it with a palet knife if necessary.

that sounds easier- though on an large scale you'd waste more icing unless you has a tray underneath.
long day at work today so looking forward to a day of baking on Friday! Plaited loaf here i come!!

sorry i can speak and spell, am typing in near dark room !!

Oh, I thought it was Friday and I was going to ask how your day of baking had gone bluebird. But it's not Friday. It's Thursday.

Friday tomorrow though, eh? :)

Now you're just showing off because you know what day it is.

I generally have to ask my 5 yr old. And he quite often knows the date too. More use than I give him credit for really

D'ya reckon I could mix the dough, then leave it to prove while I take DD1 to her SALT appt, then carry on when we get back?

Ooh, I don't know, bread's not my speciality. How long will you be out for?

Can't see the appt lasting more than hour, its only a 10min walk away, just hope they won't be running too far behind

I need help with my plaited loaf.

1 The dough kept sticking where it was not supposed to and stretching.
2 Are the instructions right? It didn't look like a plait at all!
3 I gave up and made a cottage loaf, even that wasn't that good, too dense I think.

Bread is not my thing.

hugoagogo I think it's quite tricky to use the right amount of flour to get the strands rolled out so that they don't stick to each other when you are plaiting it, but do once they're proving so that it doesn't crack in the oven. I used a fair bit of flour and found them ok to work with, but then there were places where it cracked while baking.

The instructions are right, but it takes a while to look like it's working. It doesn't look like a standard three strand plait - there's sort of one of those running along the middle, with the other strands looping beneath it as you go.

Sorry you didn't get much out of it - will you try again?

Yorky - I think you'd be ok to leave it while you're at the appointment. At a guess maybe it'd need less proving the second time round, which might affect the final shape, but I really am pulling that out of thin air, no idea really!

It rose beautifully while DD was impressing her speech therapist (so nice when they have a good day at the right time!)
Not at all convinced by the plaiting though - looks a bit like a dyspraxic epileptic spider doing macrame!

Interesting thing I noticed in the recipe is the lack of sugar - never made a loaf which didn't have sugar to 'feed' the yeast. MAybe its a breadmaker thing?

Its now proving again, so fingers crossed it tastes OK.

Next time I'll have to try for an evening so not fitting around appts and nursery pick ups

i'm making mine too! its on its first proving.

gosh- far harder than i thought it would be. 1. to concentrate completely and not forget which step i was on for plaiting and 2. the last bits of dough?? they were getting thinner and thinner as i tried to finish off, in the end i tucked quite a lot underneath. now proving.

i've never added sugar to regular bread dough so must be a breadmaker thing.

I did a simpler version of the loaf as the plaiting required too much brain power. It tasted ok actually .... SO whats next ??? Treacle tart sounds nice but think it is too sweet for my household. Noo to the fondant fancies I felt so sorry for them as it looked really hard !

I'm better at baking than technology - trying to work out how to get photo from phone to profile!

DH sabotaged it - set the timer but was feeding DD2 when it beeped so I told him to tap it and see if it sounded hollow. He came back and said it wasn't dark golden, but light, so I said it mattered more what it sounded like. When DD2 had finished I went to see - pale golden? it was anaemic! had to put it back in for 5 minutes, but the bread and the oven had both cooled a bit so worried about it being a bit dried out :(
Fingers crossed

there were a couple of nods on Queen of puddings. I'm not sure if i can make it work for me under current set up at home. (too complicated to go into but basically DC have fled the nest and DP doesn't ever eat anything sweet ). Generally sweet things are for me , work colleagues and the occasional guest. Might have willing victim on sunday but not sure yet- can't take leftover Queen of puds to work! (though could take Treacle tart)

i would love to try flatbreads at some time. In pauls book he has flatbreads with bacon and epoisse cheese ( whatever that is- something creamy i think) and stilton and grape flatbreads. both sound yum

Epoisse cheese is very smelly.
In a good cheese way, I must add.

Well it tasted very nice :)

Um, I see your dilemma Bluebird. Would your DP prefer a pithivier? they sound nice. Queen of puddings is probably the least sharable round the office dish we could have chosen

I've just been noseying through the list of recipes and fancied the Caramel and Cinnamon cake - but 13 eggs in 1 cake seems slightly OTT to me!

i'd love to do a pithiver- may well do that next weekend anyway.
I'm ok with Queen of puddings, just looked again and it can be scaled down easily so maybe i'll do a solo one .

well picture of plaited loaf up. Tastes nice but still too salty for me and i used 5g rather than 10g. Not happy with the plaiting, the start and ends are wrong but hey ho- first time so not going to beat myself up. The bread itself has come out very well. Lovely texture.

Perhaps we could pick a savoury and a sweet each week and people could choose which suits them?

:)

bluebird you need to make your profile public so we can admire your loaf :)

I'm currently waiting on the dough to rise for my plaited loaf. I agree Evilwem it looks like too much salt for my taste buds. We shall see though.

I shall load a picture up later....watch this space.

ok done that! my elderly neighbour locked herself out and whilst waiting for locksmith in my flat admired my plait (which was nice of her). Come on DP get home and say nice things.

I just looked at yours yorky its very good. Did you measure the length of the strands? I found it hard to get mine to behave and stay at 40cm or longer, they kept pulling back again- maybe i wasn't assertive enough with them!

Longevity of the thread? well i did enjoy making same things as everyone else in cookery classes at school but now older its nice to put own spin on things- like in the show when they got to make their own variations, plus then bakes can be adapted to own family situation. I think time is also an issue and making something every week may not be possible for everyone- but that shouldn't put people off making things when they do have time.

Bluebird that looks brilliant. Not sure that i'll have time for anything this weekend.
Lots of the recipes look really tricky so not sure what I'll try next.

bluebird and Yorky, yours both look great! Very tidy :)