The good life mum: September 2013

This week on the Great British blogger off we are returning to bread once more this week will see a selection from

signature tea loaves
technical couronne
showstopper sweet buns

Wanting to push myself and learn yet another new thing i went for the couronne which took me a while to find out what it was and it is a twisted bread that's like a crown. As my hubby is fond of all things savory mores the pity i am making a Serrano and mozzarella brioche couronne.

This has to be one of the lightest doughs i have ever worked with.

Ingredients

10g yeast
170ml warm milk
1 teaspoon honey
add all of the above together to activate

500g strong white flour
10g salt
4 eggs
add the above plus the yeast milk together mix till a silky dough

250g butter
gradully add the butter the leave to prove i find it rather handy having a helper with small fingers who can do this job

10 slices of Serrano
125g mozzarella
Fresh basil
knock back dough and then pull out to 1 1/2 cm and line with Serrano and mozzarella and scatter basil.

Then roll up the dough into a long sausage and cut in half length ways so there are 2 long strips and then twist tightly together to make a rope then join the two ends up to make a ring or crown

leave to prove for a further 1/1/2 hours then brush with egg and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese then cook at 200c for 25 mins its best not to cook this in a fan assisted oven and luckily for me my oven does all sorts of settings and i choose the setting where the heat rises from the bottom of the oven. i also put a pan of water at the bottom of the oven to create a bit of steam.

Once again this is linking up with the Great blogger bake off Helen and Jenny

I love Custard tarts but ones with a bit of something going on and these Portuguese tarts do it for me every time, they are super fast to make and taste great.

Ingredients
Pre rolled puff pastry
Cinnamon
125g Creme fraiche
1 tsp vanilla paste
5 tbsp golden caster sugar
1 egg
1 orange

Mix the Creme fraiche and the egg, vanilla paste, 1 tbsp of sugar plus the zest of the orange

unroll 1 sheet of the pastry (i did 2 sheets as we had a party) and liberally cover in cinnamon then roll back up again slice up into 6-8 bits and depending on how big the sheet is you have bought but roughly a good inch slice.

Sophie and i take each slice and shape into the muffin tin so there is a flat bottom and the sides of the tin are covered and we have a hole for the custard to go. These then need to be cook for 8 mins at 200c When the tarts come out of the oven they would have puffed so get a spoon and and press gently the pastry back to the side and fill each tart with the Creme fraiche mix and return to the oven for another 8 mins

Mean while boil up the remaining sugar with the juice from the orange until you make a caramel so when the tarts come out the oven they should still be a bit wobbly you can top them off by pouring the caramel over the top.