A dark rich fruit cake with a tang of sourdough that slices well, our Chestnut, Sourdough and Rum Christmas cake keeps for a few months perfectly if wrapped well and stored in a tin. The crème fraiche is boiled with the sugar and baked into the cake, so like butter it will add richness and keep perfectly well. The excellent Mulino Marino Organic Chestnut Flour adds a subtle earthy background to ... Read more
BakeryBits is known the world over for making it easy to buy and enjoy excellent and unusual stoneground flours, heritage grains, as well as the finest roller-milled flours used by the best artisan bakers. So, we thought that this year our mince pies should continue that celebration and combine stoneground flour – from one of our many great millers we stock, or out of your own Mockmill – with ... Read more
This version of panettone I’ve written for you here follows Massari’s now-classic methods, from his & Zoia’s landmark book on sweet dough making, Cresci: The Art of Leavened Dough, but uses commercial yeast as a base for the mother dough. Massai describes this sort of yeasted method as a very respectable alternative to the one made with natural leaven (known as Lievito Naturale, Pasta ... Read more
If you love the flavours on a great panettone and enjoy the ease of making monkey bread - where a bread tin is filled with balls of dough rolled in flavouring – then this combination of the two is for you. I’ve cooked some starch with the milk so the crumb has an extra-soft texture. Easy to make and if you bake it inside one of our panettone paper cases it makes a great gift for ... Read more
Merry Christmas to all you inspiring bakers. If you’re reading this in December it’s officially the start of the annual festive baking season but if you’re reading this in a European summer please put the slice of Christmas cake down and get some sun and exercise outside. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a little Christmas cheer all year round but for me, at least if not for you, winter ... Read more
A crisp, nutty, sugary topping for panettone, with a slight crunch from the ground cornmeal and a hint of chocolate from the cocoa. It can be made up to a week ahead and stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Rice flour gives a more enjoyable texture to the ‘glassa’ when you chew it – in Italy a mixture of potato starch and rice flour is often used – but if you need to ... Read more
I'm writing this in the run-up to Christmas, and if you're like me, you're probably wondering what to make beyond the usual mince pies and some fantastic loaves of bread: a big ol’ fruit cake, maybe, or a yule log? Perhaps you're also finding that it gets trickier every year to find the right gifts for the budding bakers in your family, or something to hint that you'd be more than happy to ... Read more
This is the basic pizza dough that I use when I want a good thin crust. And to get an extra-crisp base I bake them on a Welsh Baking Stone, place on a rack in the oven, and just shovel the pizza onto it with a pizza peel.
Personally, I add a little more water than the recipe uses here to make the dough extra soft and easy to shape and toss, but try this wetter approach later when you’ve got the ... Read more
This is a three-day adventure to take you towards all-butter croissant perfection. Much easier and less effort than classic puff pastry, with much less rolling to do. This recipe only makes 6, but I’d like you to start here, getting your technique as sharp as you can, before you set up making dozens to supply your entire neighbourhood as the local viennoiserie star baker. You can do it, I ... Read more
