A Great British Bake Off Disaster

I love baking. I bake at least once a week. So all my friends (and fans!) encouraged me to apply for British Bake Off 2012. So I downloaded the application form... It's about 12 pages long! And my only real baking experience is cakes and biscuits. I had never made pastry before. I had never made bread before. I had never made patisserie before. I had a long way to go.

So this year, I've decided to give myself a different Bake Off Challenge every month, in addition to my general baking. I tried Paul Hollywood bread and it was amazing, so this month I thought I'd try pastry.

I decided to make a chocolate ganache tart - yum!

I made Mary Berry's sweet pastry (from her tarte au citron recipe) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tarte_au_citron_94480

Disaster Number 1

Everything was going to plan - my pastry was lovely and thin (I know Paul and Mary don't like it thick!), It was perfectly shaped to my flan tin, and my blind bake was perfect. then I popped it back into the oven to finish off - because I definitely did NOT want a 'soggy bottom'! Unfortunately, I don't know how, the sides of my pastry burnt! They tasted delicious, but they were unsalvageable presentation wise.

So I had a bit of a tantrum, then decided to just trim the edges off before filling the case.

Disaster Number 2

Then I made the chocolate ganache. I love chocolate ganache, it is SO easy to make.

I followed the Green and Black's cookbook recipe:

• Break 275g of 60-70% dark chocolate into a bowl.
• Heat 250ml double cream in a saucepan.
• Once boiled, pour over the chocolate and stir gently (The residual heat will melt the chocolate)
• Once melted, add 50 g butter and stir.

Next disaster - and this never happens to me! - the chocolate split and went all oil slicky. I managed to salvage it by using a hand blender, which saved it (I don't know why, it just does!)

Disaster Number 3

My third and final disaster - I used 85% chocolate because I thought it would make it richer. It didn't it was just horribly bitter :( So I added plenty of icing sugar to my mixture which made it much sweeter!

I poured it into the case and left it to set.

So, long story short, after three major disasters, and a lot of experimenting and salvaging, I ended up with a delicious chocolate tart. But blimey it was stressful!

Mother's Day - sugar free trifle

For Mother's Day this year, my mother informed me that she would love it if I would cook her a 3 course meal. My answer was that I would much rather take her out for dinner - but mother (as mothers always do) won the discussion.

For starters, I made my (now famous) Paul Hollywood bread with bruschetta and Camembert. For main, I made veggie toad in the hole with roast potatoes, sweet potato mash, and the rest of the trimmings. Lastly - and much more interestingly in my opinion - pudding!

My mum is intolerant to refined sugar, I first made a sugar free trifle. It was ridiculously easy! First I made a refined sugar and fat free sponge. I recently bought tate and lyle fruit sugar and I wanted to try it out - it was brilliant I definitely recommend it! It's much sweeter, so you hardly need to use any at all! I got the recipe from this site: http://www.jamandclottedcream.co.uk/2012/01/fat-free-and-reduced-sugar-sponge-cake.html but I halved the amount of sugar.

Then I layered the sponge with low fat greek yoghurt and sugarfree jelly. I then topped it with a layer of custard - it was delicious!

Paul Hollywood Bread!

As many of you know, I am an avid Bake Off fan. My mum very kindly got me the Bake Off book for Chrimbo, and I have decided to set myself a different baking challenge every week, either Bread, Cakes, Biscuits, Patisserie, Pastry or Showstoppers!

My challenge this week was to make Paul Hollywood's White Bread.

I used the recipe from the Bake Off book, but you can also view it on the BBC site here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/paul_hollywoods_crusty_83536

It worked really well! The only issues I had were:

1. The dough over rose from my bowl! So I need to get a massive bowl to do the proving in, as a normal large bowl proved too small.
2. I tried experimenting and making bread rolls from the same dough mix, but they burnt ever so slightly on the bottom and they were a bit doughy - I think they need a lower temperature.
3. The dough hooks on my mixer did hardly anything, I had to get it out eventually and knead by hand. They are good for starting a loaf off, but to knead it to the 'elastic stage' you really need to do it by hand.

Overall, it was much easier than I thought, and it was delicious! It takes a long time, because of the proving process, but you can leave it on a sunny windowsill to rise and then go off to do some shopping or watch telly lol!

It was so yummy, I had some everyday for my lunch! Will definitely be doing it again!

Please post a comment if you would like to set a challenge for me. My self set challenges are going to be:

• A quiche
• A baked cheesecake
• A chocolate celebration cake (for my brothers bday)

Have a go at Paul's bread and let me know if you have any bread making tips! :)