The FastDay Forum

WOW!!!
I checked your recipe out of curiosity and WOW! Your blog is fantastic! I make my own bread because I love doing it and it's good to find other bread-making lovers.
In Greece, for Easter, we make a special bread stuffed with cheese and I canny wait to make it for my family in 4 weeks.
We also make some sort of sweet bread with mastic, mahlep, cardamon, eggs and butter. That is the most difficult recipe I've ever made because it tales special kneading in order for the bread to form cords when you cut it.

I did find a recipe for sourdough hot cross buns on the Fresh Loaf although I adapted it a little to include the Earl Grey/Cointreau mix that I'd soaked the fruit in and a couple of egg yolks...

Here are the final results... my modifications did mean I ended up with more than intended but hey, there are now some in the freezer for weekend treats.

Great stuff, Applespider! Lovely looking buns!

About sourdough, it's horses for courses, really, isn't it? And adapting and changing recipes to suit are all part of the never-ending fun of breadmaking.

I'm not one for a pastry cross on a bun, it adds nothing to the bun flavourwise, IMO - I usually just press a cross in the buns with the back of a knife - but I made several batches this year with thin strips of marzipan in the crosses, which went down well. Trouble is, when the bread rises and expands, the marzipan doesn't, so for the last batch I put small crosses of marzipan on the buns just before they went into the oven, and they were declared a hit!

Forgot to take pics, though!

Next time!

WOW!!!
I checked your recipe out of curiosity and WOW! Your blog is fantastic! I make my own bread because I love doing it and it's good to find other bread-making lovers.
In Greece, for Easter, we make a special bread stuffed with cheese and I canny wait to make it for my family in 4 weeks.
We also make some sort of sweet bread with mastic, mahlep, cardamon, eggs and butter. That is the most difficult recipe I've ever made because it tales special kneading in order for the bread to form cords when you cut it.

Thanks, TML - I do enjoy blogging about stuff, especially bread!

I know the sweet bread, that's the one - Tsoureki? - that often has red coloured eggs stuck in the top, isn't it? I'm a vegan, so that's not for me. But I'm sure youll enjoy making it when the time comes.

[carorees]

Made your hot cross buns yesterday. Very nice but I failed to get them as light as I'd like. I just can't get the dough wet enough and still be able to roll it into balls. Any tips?

WOW!!!
I checked your recipe out of curiosity and WOW! Your blog is fantastic! I make my own bread because I love doing it and it's good to find other bread-making lovers.
In Greece, for Easter, we make a special bread stuffed with cheese and I canny wait to make it for my family in 4 weeks.
We also make some sort of sweet bread with mastic, mahlep, cardamon, eggs and butter. That is the most difficult recipe I've ever made because it tales special kneading in order for the bread to form cords when you cut it.

Thanks, TML - I do enjoy blogging about stuff, especially bread!

I know the sweet bread, that's the one - Tsoureki? - that often has red coloured eggs stuck in the top, isn't it? I'm a vegan, so that's not for me. But I'm sure youll enjoy making it when the time comes.

Yes, tsoureki!
But this year it's the turn for hot cross buns. I have a recipe from my great-great grandmother which I adjust and I also make a batch with the tsoureki spices (no raisins, spices or any other fruit).
I will also make my famous cheese bread (also with a red egg in the middle) because my mum claims that it is not Easter without it. I guess that the big lamb and red eggs don't say much to her, LOL!

Made your hot cross buns yesterday. Very nice but I failed to get them as light as I'd like. I just can't get the dough wet enough and still be able to roll it into balls. Any tips?

Caro, just a quick one before I go to bed (I saw your schedule earlier, so I think you may see this tonight! ):

To incorporate more water into a dough, increase the liquid content to 70% hydration - that means, for every 100g of flour, use 70g of liquid. When you first start to knead it'll be extremely sticky - but just knead for 20 seconds or so. Scrape as much dough off your hands as you can, then 'wash' your hands in a little flour over the dough before washing them properly.

Invert the bowl over the dough and leave it for 10 or more minutes - at your convenience, come back and knead it again for 20 or so seconds.

Repeat this process several times - and each time you come back to the dough it will be a little drier, until eventually you're kneading without it sticking. Then cover again and leave it for an hour or so - or longer, if you wish.

When you're ready, shape and put to prove.

HTH!

[carorees]

Going to make pizza tonight so will try the intermittent kneading approach!!

I have a friend whose great-aunt used to make a vary famous pizza. The dough is thin but VERY fluffy, it's like froth.
Her secret is that she uses milk instead of water. It's either low-fat or non-fat milk but it makes a whole lot of difference.

BTW, I checked Breadandwine's recipe for the buns and if I remember correctly there is no milk? My recipe for HCB has milk AND butter, which do make a difference in their lightness.

[carorees]

I have a friend whose great-aunt used to make a vary famous pizza. The dough is thin but VERY fluffy, it's like froth.
Her secret is that she uses milk instead of water. It's either low-fat or non-fat milk but it makes a whole lot of difference.

I have to come clean and admit that I did use milk and butter in my HCBs despite them not being in B&W's recipe, but they were still a bit dense.

The pizza was yummy but I didn't use IK (intermittent kneading ) as I let the bread machine make the dough while I had coffee with a friend

Then perhaps it was the flour. Try a different brand next time. Flour is very important, I try to buy mine from villages while on a holiday. The flour that we buy from the supermarket id full of chemicals.

[carorees]

Mmm, the flour was Marriages Organic Stoneground Strong White...no chemicals. Yeast was Dove's Farm. Milk was organic as was the butter, so hopefully not too many chemicals!

Hmmmm... perhaps it was just bad luck.

Marriages is a lovely flour so perhaps just was unlucky. Did you let it prove for long enough - it's such an enriched dough that the proving time can be quite a bit longer than you'd expect?

Another top tip when doing intermittent kneading is to lightly oil your hands and worksurface rather than flouring it (just a very light spray) before you knead.

That is good advice!!!
My great-grandmother use to oil her hands when she did her special cheese pies with potato in the dough and in the filling. Oh no, now I really want one!!!