All Breaded out - August Break 26 - 27.

Inspired by a chap I saw baking on this programme, who said he was challenging himself to bake every possible world bread that he could find the recipe for; I had a bread making weekend over the bank holiday.

To check out the recipes I used  just click the links above and below.

First I wanted to conquer the eight strand plaited loaf , and great fun it was too! You could hear me chanting "one over seven and under three" and the like.

Plaited Dough - August Break Day 26

And not too bad a result either. All who tasted it were mightily impressed.

My Eight Plait Loaf - August 26th 2012

My next challenge was to make bagels for the first time in my life, (and probably the last as the poaching of these lovelies was extremely hot and sweaty work which left me pink cheeked and impatient!)

Figgy Bagel Dough - August 27th 2012

At first I  was rather worried about the size of my bagels, as for a while they did not appear to be growing and swelling as per the recipe. However they did rise a little in the end.

Proving the Bagels - August 2012

After poaching, I attempted to get the bits of crushed walnut to stick onto the egg glaze, which they refused to do without some degree of force!

Poached, Glazed with Egg and Sprinkled with Walnuts

Apart from a few knobbly burnt bits of walnut, these finished bagels were very tasty indeed! There was one with paper stuck to it's bottom, which was a little tougher than the rest. This was also the one that I had to re-roll and re-hole! You can see it looks different to the others. (It is the one in the top right hand corner of the photo above.)

Slightly Burned Walnut and Gruyere Cheese Bagels

 Next I attempted to make middle eastern taboon flatbreads.

Taboon Flatbreads Proving

I had the chance to use the Zaatar , a middle eastern spice mix that my sister bought me back from the Lake District earlier in the year. Yes. It is a strange present from the Lake District, but she knows I love middle eastern foods and hate Kendal Mint Cake, so it was just the right present for me.

Flat out - August Break Day 27

Spending quite a few hours baking, kneading and proving last weekend, was just the ticket. When you are engrossed in following recipes and timing each bagel as it is poached for 75 seconds each side, there is not a lot of time for past/future thinking and worrying is there? I may be baking again this coming weekend.