Wheat flour in baking explained

Introduction

What we call flour in baking often refers to different blends of wheat flour. Wheat flour is produced as a powder by grinding cereal grains and is by far the most commonly and vastly produced flour for human consumption and this particular flour is the topic of this blog post. However, there will be future posts discussing the properties of other types of flours, including rye, corn, rice, potato, almond etc. But for now, let’s focus on wheat flour properties and its role in baking! The type or types of flour used in baking are mostly determined by 1: the quantity and quality of gluten content, 2: other ingredients that have been incorporated and 3: the fineness of the flour. So to understand flour, we need to understand gluten, what it is and what it does.

Gluten

Flours contain two main components, starch and protein. One protein in particular is highly abundant; this is gluten, which can form 7-14% of total protein content in wheat flour. Gluten is a viscoeleastic protein, and it literally means it has both elastic and viscosity properties. These properties are results of its composition from two different polypeptides or proteins, gliadin and glutenin. In broad terms, gliadin contributes towards the viscosity whilst glutenin provides elasticity. The physical properties of dough are partially dependent on the ratio between gliadin and glutenin level. However, it has been observed by others that the rheological properties (liquid, solid state) of dough are also dependent on the amount of water used, methods of mixing, mixing time and resting time, suggesting a set of highly complex chemical reactions in dough. It is speculated before the addition of water to the flour, gliadin and glutenin exist as separate proteins and in the presence of water they combine to form gluten. The general rule is, the higher the gluten content, the more strength it will provide to dough. How gliadin contributes to coeliac disease is also a heavily researched area, but we will not discuss this in this post.

What we have no control over

There are things we have absolutely no control over and this is the quality of wheat and the milling process. The conditions in which the wheat was grown in such as soil, light availability and nutrients all play a role in the growth of wheat and subsequently affect the quantity and quality of gluten present. The milling process, i.e. how the wheat was ground, can affect the degree of bran and endosperm (Fig 1) separation and the properties of the final product. However, these are all things we, as consumers have no control over and have to rely the manufacturers to do their job properly, but it is worth bearing these in mind when a new batch of flour you got does not perform as well as your previous one.

Common types of wheat flour

Strong (bread) flour

This is probably the flour that you can purchase that contains the highest percentage of gluten, at around 13% or even slightly higher in some cases. These are almost always made from hard wheat, i.e. wheat with a hard kernel or seed of the plant. The higher level of protein present also allows the protein strands to entrap more CO₂ produced during the proofing

process by yeast.

Plain (all purpose) flour

This type of flour contains about 10-12% gluten and it’s the most versatile flour you will encounter (hence the name). It can be used for cakes, pastry and bread.

Self-raising flour

This flour is odd, it’s actually the same as plain flour but with about 2-2.5% (w/w) raising agents added to it to help with the rise of the batter.

Cake flour

This flour very often confuses people, many people believe it is the same as self-raising flour, but it’s not. It contains an even less gluten content compared to self-raising flour, which contains the same level of gluten as plain flour. Cake flour contains 7-9% gluten and in theory, should be finer than plain flour and the bran should be completely separated from the endosperm. Cake flours are normally bleached, which allows the cake to be lighter and a higher amount of sugar to be used. However, the use of many bleaching chemicals on flour is prohibited by the European Union.

That’s it for now, next time, I will be going through the raising agents in cakes, chemical structures and reactions, general proper science!

Bûche de Noël (Yule Log)

This is a simple recipe, it should work every time (famous last words I know, but let's hope not, it's christmas!). You only need very simple equipments for this, I actually went to my mum's and she barely has any baking equipment around, but it still turned out ok. This is a very nice alternative to traditional christmas pudding, which can be heavy and boozy, but if you are not a fan of those like me, then, please try this!

Ingredients 

• 100g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 60g plain flour
• 40g coco powder
• 400 ml double cream
• 200g plain chocolate in small pieces (about 50% coco)

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C (fan assisted) 
2. Line 23 x 33 cm baking tray with baking parchment and push it down into the corners
3. Sift and measure flour and coco powder and set aside
4. Put sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk over a saucepan of simmering water, make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the hot water
5. Whisk until the eggs become a very light pale yellow and thick enough to leave a trail behind when you lift the whisks out of the egg
6. Very gently fold in the flour and coco powder with a metal spoon until they have evenly incorporated into the egg
7. Spread mixture onto the baking tray 
8. Bake in pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until risen and sponge springs back when touched lightly with a finger in the middle 
9. Let sponge cool down slightly in tray for 5 minutes and lift it out of the tray
10. Tip the sponge upside down onto another sheet of baking parchment paper and carefully lift off the parchment paper on the other side
11. Trim off 1cm of sponge from all 4 sides of the sponge
12. Cut with a sharp knife about 1cm in on the length of the sponge from one end, do not cut all the one through, half way would do
13. Use parchment paper to roll in the slightly cut end to start the rolling process and tightly roll the rest
14. Let it rest in that position for 10 minutes
15. Meanwhile prepare chocolate ganache by heating 200ml double cream until boiling and then take it off the heat and let it cool down for 3-5 minutes
16. Pour hot cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate has melted and let it cool down until room temperature
17. Carefully unroll the log and let it cool down in that orientation
18. One roll has cooled down completely, whip the rest of the double cream until still peaks and spread across the inside of log and roll up the log again and trim off a bit from either end of the log
19. Cut about 8-10cm from one of the log diagonally and place it on the side of the other roll 
20. When the ganache has thickened, spread a generous amount evenly over all sides of the roll including the 2 ends
21. Use the end of clean stick/fork/spoon or anything to make longitudinal longs across the length of the logs and swirls at the ends to create the bark effect 
22. Dust with either icing sugar or chopped white chocolate for snowy effect 

This recipe is entered to classic french challenge a thttp://bluekitchenbakes.blogspot.co.uk

Chocolate chestnut chiffon cake (CCCC)

Again, another chiffon cake, but this time, I used the chiffon for a reason, not just because I love it! The main character of this cake is the chestnut, first it's in season and second it's also festive as we are approaching christmas! However, one thing to be aware of is that chestnut flavour can be quite subtle and you can't really combine it with heavy flavours as they WILL mask the chestnut completely and this is the reason I have chosen a plain vanilla chiffon. When done right, not only can you taste it, but you can also smell the sweet aroma of the chestnut too! 

Ingredients

• 115g self raising flour
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 3 tsps pure vanilla essence 
• 170g caster sugar (put 90g, 30g and 50g into 3 separate bowls)
• 3 egg yolks
• 4 egg whites
• 80 ml cold water
• 90 ml vegetable oil
• 250g chestnut (sainsbury's whole chestnuts cooked and peeled works great)
• 400ml double cream
• 1 tbsp dark rum
• 50g milk chocolate
• 20g white chocolate
• 50g dark chocolate

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C and grease an 8 inch tin with unsalted butter
2. Sift and weigh flour, baking powder and 90g caster sugar and mix together
3. Add 2 tsps vanilla essence, egg yolks, water and vegetable oil to the flour and mix with metal spoon until a runny creamy mixture
4. Whisk with electric whisk egg whites  until soft peaks and gradually add sugar from 50g one tbsp at a time to egg white until it forms firm peaks and glossy
5. Gently fold in a third of meringue into the cake batter at a time until all the meringue has been folded in
6. Pour cake mix into baking tin and bake for 60-70 minutes. The surface should start to brown, but don't worry, it's supposed to. Turn the cake upside down immediately when it's out of the oven to prevent collapsing It is better that it is slightly brown as it will prevent the sponge to fall out of the cake tin when it's turned upside down
7. When the cake is completely cool (I usually just leave it upside down for 2 hours, start preparing chestnut cream at this stage), use a sharp knife and cut the edges of the cake to get it out of the cake tin
8. Cut the sponge horizontally with a sharp knife to divide the sponge in half for when the fillings are ready

Chestnut cream (creme aux marrons) 

1. Put chestnut and 200ml double cream and 20g caster sugar into a saucepan and heat over medium heat with occasional stir with wooden spoon
2. The cream should start to boil and thicken, add the rum and 1 tsp vanilla essence and let it simmer for a 2-3 minutes on low heat
3. Crush the chestnuts and mash them up slightly (it's almost like making potato mash)
4. Puree the chestnut cream with a electric blender, you can make it very smooth or leave some small lumps in (I actually prefer them with small lumps, but some people will prefer a smoother finish)
5. Whisk 100ml double cream until it thickens and spread a thin layer of cream across the inside of the sponges and put a very generous amount of chestnut cream on top of the double cream (I had about 5 mm high chestnut cream as the filling) and then put another layer of whisked double cream on top of chestnut cream
6. Put the other sponge on top 
7. Use remaining chestnut cream to cover the top and sides of the cake, smoothen it with a palate knife

Decorations

1. Make chocolate decorations by melting dark chocolate over a pan of simmering water and pipe it into any shape you want on a piece of parchment paper and let it cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour, you may even want to make tempered chocolate, but I haven't tried that yet myself
2. Make milk chocolate ganache by melting the milk chocolate (cut into small chunks) in 50ml of hot double cream and let it cool slightly, do NOT add any sugar
3. Pour over the top of cake to get a smooth finish 
4. Melt white chocolate over simmering water and pipe a swirl on the surface of the milk chocolate ganache
5. Use the tip of a blunt knife to run in and out of the white chocolate swirl to create a lovely flowery pattern
6. Lift the dark chocolate patterns off parchment paper and stick them onto the sides 

Garlic mushroom and walnut quiche

This quiche is rather simple to make but it's packed with flavour, texture and a lovely fragrance. To give it a bit more texture and substance due to the fact that it lacks meat, I have used oyster mushrooms and small pieces of walnut to give the fillings some crunch. The quiche can be served warm or cold, in fact, the fragrance of the shiitake mushroom develops somewhat in the cold quiche. But I like it warm. 

Ingredients

• 250g plain flour
• 150g unsalted butter
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tbsp milk 
• 8 large closed cup mushrooms
• 15 medium size shiitake mushrooms 
• 12 oyster mushrooms 
• 40g walnut
• salt and pepper for seasoning 
• 284ml double cream
• 2 tsp ground garlic / 2 fresh garlic cloves
• 2 tsps parsley
• 110g guryere cheese, finely grated

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C
2. Rub flour and butter together to form bread crumb structures
3. Add 1 egg and milk to flour and combine to form a dough 
4. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 2-3mm thick
5. Place pastry into a flan tin and prick numerous holes at the bottom with a fork
6. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, this should reduce the amount of shrinkage when baked
7. Cover pastry with a sheet of parchment paper and baking beans
8. Blind bake the pastry for 15 minutes, take it out and trim off the edges to make a nicer finish
9. Return to oven and bake for another 10 minutes to see if the bottom of pastry is dry, if not bake for another 10 minutes and check again
10. When the base of pastry is completely dry, remove baking beans and parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes
11. Take the pastry out and let it cool slightly whilst preparing fillings
12. Rinse clean the mushrooms and slice the closed cup and shiitake mushrooms up into rather thick slices and just leave the oyster mushrooms as they are
13. Heat mushrooms up over medium heat, sprinkle salt, pepper and 1 tsp of ground garlic/ finely grated garlic from 1 clove over the top and mix thoroughly, do not use any oil
14. When you can start to smell the shiitake mushrooms and the closed cup mushrooms are starting to reduce in size, take them off the heat and let it cool down, drain excess fluid from mushrooms with a clean piece of kitchen paper 
15. Beat 2 eggs and the cream together and then fold in the cheese
16. Put in 2 pinches of salt, sprinkle of pepper, remaining garlic and parsley into the egg mix to season
17. Wash and break walnut up into small chunks and fold them in to the egg/cream mixture
18. Place the mushrooms into the bottom of the baked pastry case 
19. Place egg mix over mushrooms evenly
20. Bake at 200 degrees C for 25-30 minutes 
21. Serve warm or cold (preferably warm)

Le chocolat chaud (parisian hot chocolate)

Chocolat chaud, or hot chocolate is consumed across the world and all hot chocolate lovers should know not to buy the powdered hot chocolate that you just add hot milk to! Honestly, there is no point in having those rubbish hot chocolates (if you can call them hot chocolates at all) when a nice one can be made in 5 minutes! Follow this very simple recipe to make your own very delicious chocolat chaud! 

Ingredients 

• Milk (full fat or semi-skimmed)
• single cream
• Plain cooking chocolate
• Milk cooking chocolate
• granulated sugar (optional)
• A small saucepan 

1. Fill 3/4 of your mug with milk and then top up ALMOST to the top with single cream (with maybe 2-3cm spare)
2. Pour milk and cream into a saucepan and put it over low heat
3. When it starts to steam up, put the plain and milk chocolates into the hot milk. How much you need depends on your mug size. BUT, I think the golden ratio is 5:1 plain chocolate to milk chocolate. So let's say you are using 30g plain chocolate, then you will use 6g milk chocolate
4. For a mug roughly to the one I used in the picture, you will need about 25g plain chocolate and 5g milk chocolate 
5. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon or plastic whisk continuously until the chocolates have all melted, this should be fairly quick, my chocolates were melted within 30 seconds. But you want to keep whisking until the texture turns smooth, which will take another minute or two
6. Now pour the chocolat chaud into your mug and voila! Your delicious hot chocolate! I actually put in half a tsp of sugar at this point as I like my hot chocolate quite sweet, but this is completely optional!

Link to recipe of the soufflé in this photo: http://bakingscience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/lemon-and-citrus-honey-souffle.html

Mixed fruit genoise cake

This cake is not special, and I mean it's NOT special at all. There's nothing new about this cake when compared to the rest of the blog posts. But I think there is a take home message from this, don't use mango to make mousseline, it just doesn't work! Most of the mango flavour goes when heated and you are just left with a sour-ish custard! I had to resort to shoving lots of mango chunks into the filling to make it mango-y. 

This recipe is for an 8 inch cake tin. 

Ingredients (genoise sponge)

• 110g self raising flour
• 110g caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 45g unsalted butter

1. Line an 8 inch baking tin with parchment and pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C
2. Measure flour and set aside
3. Heat butter until melted and set aside to cool down for at least 20 minutes
4. Beat sugar and eggs together in a large mixing bowl briefly
5. Now whisk eggs with an electric whisk over a pan of simmering water until it has more than doubled in volume and when whisk is lifted off the batter, it leaves a thin trail behind
6. Fold in flour and butter separately, careful not to lose too much volume in the cake batter
7. Bake for 35-40 minutes, it's done with a knife comes out clean (start preparing mousseline during baking)
8. Cool in tin for 5 minutes and then take cake out to cool down completely

Ingredients (mango mousseline)

• 450g mango chunks
• 30g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tbsps corn flour (about 20-25g)

1. Puree the mango chunks and heat the puree over low heat
2. Beat sugar and eggs together until smooth
3. Add corn flour to eggs and beat again until smooth
4. When puree starts to simmer, add a tbsp to your egg mixture and whisk, then add another tbsp and repeat the whisking, continue until the paste starts to get runny
5. Pour the egg flour mix into the rest of the puree and continue whisking to prevent the eggs from cooking and put it on low heat until it boils, again continue whisking throughout
6. When it boils, continue heating and whisking for 2 more minutes and the mixture should thicken considerably
7. Take the mousseline off the heat and let it cool to room temperature

Assembly

1. Cut genoise sponge horizontally into 2 halves
2. Pipe 2/3 of mousseline into the middle of the sponges as filling, don't try to spread this, it's too thick for spreading I think, you'll risk breaking the delicate sponge if you attempt to spread it too hard
3. Use the remaining mousseline and fruits such as melon, remaining mango and strawberries to decorate the top

Special tips

I really would avoid using mango for the mousseline, the flavour just goes, not diminishes, it goes pretty much completely. Try using another fruit, I've tried melon before and that's fine, I reckon pineapple would be ok too. Try not to use canned fruits, as the resulting mousseline just don't taste as nice! 

chocolate and strawberry mousse chiffon cake

This is just like the previous chiffon I've blogged about. It's a light and airy cake (if it rises well) and I think it's an absolutely delight. Though I admit I find the chocolate chiffon harder to make than the lemon one. Maybe I'll try a different recipe for this next time, but for now, this works well! So, this is a chocoalte chiffon, with a thick supportive layer of strawberry mousse in the middle, lots of ganache on top and chocolate bits around the side. My piping is rubbish as per always, but it says  "Congratulations Dr Gammons" for a friend who will be passing her PhD viva today (SO EXCITED for her actually). 

Ingredients (Chocolate chiffon)

• 125g self raising flour
• 150g + 50g caster sugar (in separate bowls)
• 4 egg yolks
• 5 egg whites
• 80ml vegetable oil
• 50ml cold water
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 25g coco powder

1. Grease 23cm (9 inch) baking tin with butter and pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C
2. Sift and mix flour, coco powder, baking powder and 150g caster sugar together
3. Add water, oil and egg yolks to the mix and whisk until smooth
4. Now beat the egg whites until foamy, then add 1 tbsp of the remaining 50g caster sugar at a time to it until it forms soft peaks and glossy
5. Add 1/3 of meringue to cake mix and fold it in, then add the rest of the egg whites to it and gently fold in the rest 
6. Pour cake mix into baking tin (put it as close to tin as possible to prevent the batter dropping from a great height, this should help to keep some of the air in)
7. (I melted the dark chocolate and piped it to form the side structure onto a baking parchment at this stage and put it into the fridge to set)
8. Bake for 60-70 minutes, it should almost double in height and when tested with a clean skewer, it should come out clean as per usual 
9. Tip the tin upside down with cake inside and let it cool upside down on a wire rack for 40 minutes
10. When it has cooled, cut it horizontally into 2 equal sponges

Ingredients (strawberry mousse)

• 250g strawberries
• 150ml double cream
• 30g caster sugar
• 30g corn flour

1. Puree the strawberries 
2. Add sugar to strawberry puree and put it over medium heat until it boils
3. Add 1 tbsp of strawberry puree at a time to corn flour and mix the flour in
4. Put the mixture back into saucepan and stir continuously until it thickens
5. Leave it aside to cool down
6. Whisk double cream until it thickens and sort of stiff 
7. Fold in strawberry into the thickened cream

Assembling the cake

1. Fill bottom sponge with half of strawberry mousse
2. Half strawberries and lay them on top of the mousse and cover them remaining mousse
3. Put the other half of cake on 
4. Make the ganache (in MANY of my previous posts, you will need about 250g dark chocolate for this one) and let it cool down slightly for 10 minutes and pour about 1/3 over the top to make a smooth finish. Let the remaining ganache to cool further for 30-40 minutes or until it is more of a paste in structure and COMPLETELY COOL! Spread that across the side of the cake to hide the filling and also act as the sticking agent for the chocolate structures on the side
5. Use a sharp knife to cut up the chocolate structure and stick them onto the chocolate ganache on the side of the cake, that is why it's important your ganache is cool, or it will melt the chocolate structures. Also, it's important to know, the ganache is FAR less sticky when it has completely cooled after a few hours, so if you stick the chocolate on now, they will stay on. But if you do them later, they won't stick
6. Now the cake can go into the fridge until next morning if you want
7. Melt some milk chocolate and pipe the message onto the cake and decorate with strawberries! YAY, FINISHED!

Orange souffle cheesecake

This is a VERY fluffy and soft cheesecake. So, it's quite different to the normal and heavier baked or unbaked cheesecakes that we are used to. And I think most people, including myself would have never ever associated a cheesecake with this kind of texture. However, unlike a traditional cheesecake, where you get a buttery biscuit base, the souffle cheesecake does not usually have a biscuit base at all (not that I'm aware of anyway). 

You can add all sorts of flavours to it as well just like a conventional cheesecake, but you need to be aware of the extra moisture you're putting in as that may affect the cake's final texture. The ingredients for this cake is for an 8 inch cake tin, so adjust your ingredients accordingly depending on the tin you have.

Ingredients

• 200g cream cheese
• 50g plain flour
• 15g corn flour
• 40g unsalted butter
• 5 eggs, separated 
• 120g caster sugar
• 80ml milk (full fat or semi-skimmed)
• 1 large orange
• 150g plain chocolate for decoration 

1. Heat cream cheese, butter and milk together until everything has melted
2. Sift the mixture to remove any lumps and let it cool to room temperature for 40-50 minutes
3. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees C and line an 8 inch baking tin with parchment paper
4. Add all the egg yolks, zest from the whole orange and juice from half an orange to cheese mixture and whisk until smooth
5. Sift plain and corn flour into cake batter and whisk until combined
6. Measure caster sugar and set it aside 
7. Whisk egg white with electric whisk until foamy and add 1 tbsp of sugar to it at a time until all the sugar has been added and the egg white forms stiff peaks
8. Add a quarter of the egg white to cake mix and whisk together
9. Add the rest of the egg white to the cake mix and fold in the egg white gently, avoid bursting any air bubbles trapped inside the egg white
10. Bake for 75-90 minutes (Some would suggest a bain marie with this to avoid a cracked surface, but I didn't think that was a problem)
11. The cake is done when a knife comes out clean when poked inside 
12. Let is cool down very gradually inside the oven for 30 minutes. Then open the oven door slightly and let it cool down for another 2 hours before taking it out of the oven
13. Whilst cooking the cake, prepare chocolate decoration, melt chocolate over simmering water and pipe it randomly to form a fenced structure onto a baking parchment and let it cool down in the fridge for at least 3 hours 
14. Decorate cake with chocolate and orange slices when it has cooled down completely to room temperature 

chestnut loaf cake with caramelised nuts

Did you notice a massive chunk at the end of this cake is missing? Well, I cut a slice off and ate that before I remembered I forgot to take a photo for the blog. And the cake is not actually that yellow/golden, special effect of the sunlight from the window making it look sparkly! 

Ingredients

• 110g plain flour
• 110g caster sugar
• 140g unsalted butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 6 medium sized chestnuts
• 3 large eggs
• 3 tbsps milk 
• about 100-120g nuts, chopped into small pieces (I used walnut, cashew nut and pistachio)
• 100g white granulated sugar
• 30g butter
• 3 tbsp water

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C and line loaf tin with baking parchment
2. Sift and mix flour, caster sugar and baking powder together 
3. Cream the dry ingredients together with the butter, make sure the butter is at room temperature
4. Beat the eggs and milk together until silky, no need to over whisk this
5. Mix in a third of the egg into the cake mix and fold it in, then add in the rest and mix well
6. Chop cooked and peeled chestnuts into small pieces and mix them into the cake batter
7. Pour the mixture into loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes, the batter should start to become firm, but the inside is not cooked completely yet
8. When the cake has been baked for 20 minutes, start measuring white granulated sugar and put into a saucepan with 3 tbsp water and give it a good stir  with wooden spoon at low-medium heat
9. Take away spoon and let it boil without any stirring (N.B. very important, do not stir, or the sugar will crystallise and you will have to make it again)
10. Watch your caramel like a hawk, it can go from clear to amber quite quickly and once it is amber it can turn into a brown colour and become burnt within a minute
11. When the caramel is a golden/dark amber colour, but not brown, take it off the heat and add the butter to it
12. Let the butter melt without stirring
13. Once butter has melted, add in the chopped nuts and stir to coat nuts with caramel
14. Quickly lay the caramelised nut onto the cake and continue baking for another 15-20 minutes 
15. Take cake out of oven and test with a clean sharp knife, it should come out completely clean when it's done

Mint and fresh berries tartlets

This is a refreshing and not too heavy dessert that is great for mid afternoon tea. Or you can have it any time of the day, it really does fit in any time. The recipe to this is simple, most of which have been covered in previous blog posts. But there are slightly variations. 

Ingredients shortcrust pastry, makes about 6 tartlets)

• 175g plain flour
• 100g unsalted butter
• 30g icing sugar 
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tbsp cold water

1. Rub flour, sugar and butter together until it resembles breadcrumb structure
2. Add in egg yolk and water and knead until combined, you can overwork this, so watch out not to knead it for too long and too hard
3. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes
4. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C 
5. Lightly flour bench top and rolling pin and roll out the pastry very thin (about 2-3mm)
6. Get a circular cutter and cut out the pastry and put it into the tartlet tins
7. Gently push the sides in with a piece of spare dough, if the pastry broke, don't worry, you can just stick some spare over and push it in gently to fill in the hole
8. Use a fork to prick a few holes at the bottom of the tartlets 
9. Put a piece of baking parchment over the pastry and put baking beans on top 
10. Blind bake for 15 minutes and then take out the baking beans
11. Bake again for 10 minutes
12. Take the tartlets out and cool in the tins 

Ingredients (creme patissiere)

• 4 large egg yolks
• 100g caster sugar
• 6 stalks of fresh mint leaves
• 260ml milk (semi-skimmed or full fat)
• 25g corn flour

1. Whisk egg yolks and caster sugar together until creamy
2. Add in corn flour and whisk until smooth
3. Chop mint stalks into approximately 2cm long pieces and heat them in the milk over medium-low heat, switch off heat when the milk boils
4. Leave it to cool down for 5 minutes
5. Sift milk into the egg/sugar/corn flour mixture and whisk while you put the milk in 
6. Pour the cream back into saucepan and put it on medium-low heat, continue whisking with wooden spoon/whisk whilst heating (this is important, or your eggs will get cooked and form lumpy bits)
7. When the creme patissiere boils, keep whisking until it thickens, this can take 1-2 minutes
8. Once the creme patissiere has thickened, take it off the heat and let it cool down to room temperature
9. Pipe the creme patissiere over the bottom of the tartlets until it is completely filled
10. Decorate the top with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, either whole or sliced, decorate however you want

Puff pastry, Pear and cinnamon tarte tatin

This post will cover puff pastry AND tarte tatin together. The pastry I used is the full puff pastry, not rough puff. Don't know why, I just find this easier to work with. Every time I attempt rough puff I get butter everywhere and just gets very messy.

Ingredients (puff pastry)

1. 250g plain flour
2. 200g +  30g salted butter
3. cold water
4. 1 tsp lemon juice

• Rub in 30g butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumb slightly at parts
• Add in the lemon juice and 1tbsp of water into the flour/butter mix 
• Use your hands to combine the ingredients and try not to overwork the dough
• Add another tbsp of water and mix again (if you added all the water at the same time, I find it harder to make the dough), after the 2nd tbsp, add 1tsp at a time until you get a smooth dough that is still a little bit wet, but not too wet as that is difficult to work with
• Wrap the dough in cling film and chill int the fridge for 30 minutes
• Weigh out 200g of butter and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes 
• Lightly flour the bench top and rolling pin and roll out your dough to about 20cm x 10cm
• Take the butter out of freezer and roll it out between 2 pieces of cling film or parchment paper to about 10cm x 8cm 
• Remove top layer of cling film/parchment parchment paper and put butter onto one side of the rolled out dough and take off the cling film on the other side. This will give your first dough-butter-dough layer 
• Use the other half of the dough to fold over the butter and roll it out to about 20cm x 10cm again 
• This time fold a third of the dough into the middle and then fold the other third on the other side over the top, i.e. a single fold (look this up if the instruction is not clear) 
• Wrap it in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes
• Repeat the rolling and single fold process again x 2 and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes 
• Finally repeat the single fold process again x 2 and here is your puff pastry! 

Ingredients (tarte tatin)

1. 3 conference pears (preferably not that ripe)
2. 2 tsps cinnamon
3. 75g demerara sugar
4. 75g unsalted butter

• Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C
• In a saucepan, put sugar and unsalted butter on medium heat until both dissolved
• DO NOT STIR, this will promote crystal formation and you won't get a smooth caramel
• It's going to be extremely difficult judging the colour of caramel in this recipe, as the butter will make the caramel go yellow and demerara sugar is brown anyway, you will not be able to judge the amber colour of caramel
• Simply heat your caramel for 3 minutes after butter has melted and pour into an 18cm tin (not loose bottom or the caramel will leak out)
• Sprinkle 1tsp cinnamon evenly over the caramel 
• Peel and core 3 conference pears and quarter them
• Arrange them on the caramel however you want, but make sure you don't have large holes between the pears
• Sprinkle another tsp of cinnamon directly onto the pears 
• Put the tin into the oven and bake for 15 minutes to get the pear juice into the caramel and to heat off the excess moisture
• When the pears have 3 minutes left in the oven, take pastry out of the fridge and cut into a 22-24cm circle, i.e. slightly bigger than the tin
• Take tin out of oven and immediately put the pastry on top of the fruit and tuck the sides into the side of the tin
• Use a sharp knife and make a few small holes (3-4 is sufficient) in the pastry and put it back in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until the pastry is well risen and golden brown in colour
• Tip out excess fluid into a bowl , you can use this and reheat it and put it on top of the tarte tatin 
• Put a large plate on the tin and immediately and swiftly tip out the tarte tatin 
• Put the heated fluid on top and VOILA! Amazing tarte tatin!

Patisserie Leila, Bristol

How did I discover this place? Well, I've actually walked past it several times before on my way to friend's place. But I have NEVER been inside the patisserie. Yesterday, I was frustrated and essentially quite pi*ssed off in the morning at work so I decided to leave and work from home instead. At lunch time, since I had nothing in the house to make anything sweet with and I was in the process of proving my bread dough, I decided to go and buy myself some sweet treats! That's where Patisserie Leila come in. 

According to the patisserie's website, all the chefs/patissiers there were trained at Le Notre in France and the window display did look wonderful (and it's literally 5 minutes walk from my flat), it tempted me to go inside and buy something. As soon as I walked in, I was greeted with a smile and the waiter and waitress were very nice and welcoming. Me, being a typical difficult customer asked them if they can tell me what each of the display is and genuinely been quite thorough in what I asked. Again, they were very helpful! 

So moving on to the desserts. I bought 5 different flavours of macarons, a black forest gateau and a strawberry tart. The macarons were all delicious and looked ever so tempting. Both the texture and the flavour were great and You can definitely taste what is meant to be in each macaron. 

The black forest gateau, or what they insisted was a black forest gateau was also very good, the chocolate sponge was very moist and the flavour really complemented the fillings. Though the cream is just a little too sweet for me. Also, they have used strawberries instead of the traditional cherries to my surprise, hence I'm not sure if I can still call that a black forest gateau.

The strawberry tart also tasted very good. The creme patissiere was light and sweet, but a bit too runny for my liking, I would like it to hold its shape slightly better, but all in all, very good. 

So, I would really recommend this little cafe/patisserie to everyone who visits Bristol. It's fairly centrally located just off gloucester road and about 10 minutes walk from Bristol city centre. Another thing is, since it's not a chain, what it has to sell and on display varies from day to day, which I think is a good thing. 

So here is the address to this wonderful patisserie:

Patisserie Leila

88 Stokes Croft

Bristol, BS2 3RJ 

Cashew nut and walnut white loaf bread (version 2.0)

This is an improved version of my first bread, so don't judge me by how it looks (again). You won't win any competitions with the look of this, but it actually tastes quite ok and definitely beats normal bread you buy from stores. So, I'd recommend this to beginner bread makers, if I can do it, then you can too!

Ingredients

• 130g strong white flour
• 20g salted butter
• 4g fast action dried yeast
• Half tsp salt
• 130ml warm water (I actually measured it on my scale as I don't possess a measuring cylinder at the moment, but by the law of physics 1ml=1g surely)
• 15g walnut
• 15g cashew nut

1. Melt butter in microwave and leave it to cool to room temperature for 20 minutes 
2. Mix flour, salt and dried yeast together
3. Add butter and a third of the water and combine it with dry ingredients, then add another 1/3 and then the last bit. I find it hard to add all the water in one go, as it becomes too wet and the water doesn't get absorbed by the dry ingredients as well
4. Combine until it forms a wet and sticky dough
5. Then knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes. The dough should become smoother and should no longer stick to your hand very quickly into the kneading process, you will know when it's done by poking it with a finger and the dough should spring back slightly
6. Sprinkle some olive oil in a large container and put the dough inside and seal with cling film. Let it prove for 2 hours in a warm room and the dough should double in size. If your kitchen or room is cold, then you should leave it to prove for 4-5 hours 
7. Chop nuts roughly, they don't need to be very finely chopped as you would want the nutty texture
8. Flatten the dough and sprinkle the chopped nuts on it 
9. Work the nuts into the dough until it is distributed evenly within it and continue kneading for another 2 minutes
10. Put the dough back into olive oil sprinkled container and seal with cling film again and prove again. The size of the dough may not double, but it should increase in size. Let it prove for the second time for about 1 hour, or if your room is cold, let it prove for 2
11. Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees C when you can see the dough increasing in size and proved for at least 50 minutes 
12. Take the proved dough and put it on a baking tray with a piece of parchment paper and egg wash if desired and bake for 40-50 minutes 
13. When it's done, the bread should sound hollow inside when you tap the bottom. OR, if you have a meat thermometer, then follow this link and it will tell you something interesting: http://bakingbites.com/2008/02/how-do-you-know-when-bread-is-done-baking/ 

Long story short, the inside of your bread should be about 94 degrees C if it's cooked according to this website, not sure how true this is, but it's worth a try I guess if you have the equipment anyway. 

christmas decoration cake (attempt no.1 + 2)

attempt 1 

attempt 2

Christmas is fast approaching, ish, it's still more than a month away, but I suppose some of us do get ahead of ourselves sometimes. 

This is a visually nice looking cake, easy to make, but does take quite a lot of time making all the different components and assembling them. Most of the components used here have been covered by previous blog posts, so I'll simply put a link to the ones I've covered already. As each person has their own way of decorating things, I'll leave out the detailed decoration instructions and leave that to your imagination!

Macaroons: http://bakingscience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/macaroons-for-those-who-are-struggling.html
Profiteroles: http://bakingscience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/chocolate-cream-profiteroles-cream.html
Caramel: http://bakingscience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/caramel-and-caramel-sauce.html

Ingredients 
victoria sponge

• 220g caster sugar
• 220g unsalted butter
• 220g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs

1. Line a 20cm x 40cm (or similar size) baking tray with baking parchment
2. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C 
3. Cream sugar, butter, baking powder and flour together
4. Add one egg at a time to the mixture and mix until combined and then add the next egg, etc until all the eggs have been added
5. Mix in vanilla extract
6. Put all the batter into the baking tray and bake for 30-35 minutes
7. The cake is done when you press the sponge gently and it springs back, and when poked with a knife, it comes out clean

Chocolate and cinnamon cookies

• 125g unsalted butter
• 75g icing sugar
• 130g plain flour
• 40g coco powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon 

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees C
2. Mix butter and icing sugar together until the mixture is fluffy
3. Sift flour and coco powder into the mixture and knead into a smooth dough
4. Roll out the dough to about 3mm thick 
5. Cut out your rolled out dough into desired shapes (you will need to do the measurements beforehand)
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes 

Marzipan candy sticks
You don't actually need a recipe for this, it's quite straight forward really.

1. Get some marzipan, and some red sugar paste
2. Roll each of them out into a long strip
3. Twist them together and roll again and shape it into a candy stick!

Quick chicken and mushroom pie

This is my first savoury blog post! Please bear in mind that this is a quick version of the pie, where a lot of the components can be substituted with shop bought ingredients. Obviously nothing beats homemade everything, but for the sake of those who are busy with work, gets home after 6 or 7pm and just don't have the time to prepare everything from scratch. This is a very quick and easy thing to do! 

Ingredients

• 100 unsalted butter
• salt
• 250g plain flour
• 1 large egg
• 4 tbsps cold water
• 3 chicken breast fillets
• 7 large closed cup mushrooms
• Half an onion
• 1 tbsp Parsley
• Sprinkle of pepper
• Rolled puff pastry

1. Pre-heat fan oven to 200 degrees C
2. Mix butter, a pinch of salt and plain flour together until breadcrumb consistency
3. Add in theegg and mix
4. Add 1 tbsp of water at a time and knead the ingredients together, add just enough until the mixture is smooth and combined, you may not need 4 tbsps of water, or sometimes you may need 5 (this really varies)
5. Roll out the pastry to about 3mm thickness and place it inside the 20/22 cm baking tin or tart tray or anything that you can shape your pastry with 
6. Put a piece of parchment paper on the base of pastry and baking beans on top 
7. Place in oven and blind bake for 15 minutes (during this time, start preparing fillings by following steps 12-17)
8. Trim off the excess ridges and check whether the bottom of pastry is dry
9. When the pastry is dry, remove parchment paper and baking beans and return to oven for another 15 minutes 
10. Take pastry out of oven to cool down slightly
11. Lower oven temperature to 180 degrees C
12. Chop chicken into thin slices and sear on a hot frying pan
13. Cook quartered mushrooms and chopped onions (doesn't need to be chopped too small) over medium heat in the absence of oil and water, try to cook off excess water 
14. Mix mushroom, onion and chicken and add pepper, salt and parsley and briefly heat in frying pan
15. Heat up 150ml water with 2 vegetable cubes until the cubes have completely broken up 
16. Measure 20g corn flour and add 2 tbsp of vegetable stock to it
17. Repeat step 16 until the corn flour forms a thin paste
18. Add vegetable stock with corn flour to filling and mix and briefly heat for a minute 
19. Pour mixture into the base of the pie
20. Cut out puff pastry large enough to cover the base of the pie plus 1-1.5cm either side 
21. Place puff pastry over the top of the pie and seal it completely with the extra pastry on the sides and tuck around the base 
22. Poke 3-4 small wholes on the puff pastry lid to allow steam to escape 
23. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the puff pastry lid has risen and turned golden brown

Here is your hearty "homemade" chicken and mushroom pie. Majority of the work is done by you, but the most time consuming parts have been taken care of by your local supermarket! It's not completely completely homemade, but it's still A LOT better than the shop bought ones and it's probably healthier too!

Chocolate cream profiteroles (cream puffs, choux a la creme)

Shop bought profiteroles tend to have a slightly crispy and dry pastry shell, but home baked ones are a little lighter and fluffy inside and should have an almost melt in your mouth texture. It contains no raising reagent, but instead it is extremely wet, so the steam trapped inside the pastry will make it expand. Also the butter should help to make the pastry rise just like a puff pastry. 

Ingredients (makes about 30 large buns)

• 200ml cold water
• 85g unsalted butter
• 5g caster sugar
• pinch of salt
• 115g sifted plain flour
• 3 medium eggs 
• 70g milk chocolate
• 100ml double cream
• 30g dark chocolate

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees, this is VERY important, the temperature must be high enough when the pastry goes in
2. Mix water, sugar and butter together in a saucepan and melt the butter over medium low heat, stir occasionally 
3. Once butter has completely melted and the water is boiling, give the mix a good stir and add a pinch of salt and stir again
4. Switch up heat to medium and add the sifted flour and mix it into the water. The flour should soak up the liquid quite quickly, keep stirring until the batter has become a thick paste/dough
5. Remove the paste from heat and let it cool down for about 30 minutes at room temperature
6. Beat the eggs and add a quarter to the batter and fold it in until it is all mixed, repeat the process until the batter is shiny and just drops off from the mixing spoon (N.B. You may not need all the eggs, in fact, it is likely you won't need all the eggs)
7. Pipe the batter onto a sheet of baking parchment, I used a 2p coin as reference size
8. Use a wet finger to press down the peak on the choux bun to give a flat surface and prevent the peak from getting burnt 
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes, the choux bun should have risen and turned slightly golden brown 
10. Remove from the oven and use a thin skewer to make a hole at the bottom of the choux bun to  allow the steam to escape 
11. Put the buns back in the oven for another 5 minutes to dry off the inside 
12. Leave at room temperature to cool 
13. Melt the milk chocolate over simmering water
14. Whip the cream until stiff and fold the melted milk chocolate into it to make the chocolate cream, use a piping bag with thin nodule to pipe the cream into the choux buns, make sure the buns are properly filled 
15. If you don't have a piping bag or nodules, slice choux bun in half and fill it this way
16. Melt the dark chocolate and pipe stripes of the chocolate over the profiteroles to finish

Viennese fingers

Viennese fingers, viennese fingers...hmmm, nope, can't think of anything clever with this. Except that it looks like a finger with black nails??? For all you people who are thinking of weird things right now, STOP thinking anything disgusting! Anyway, let's crack on with this.

Ingredients (20-25 biscuits)

1. 100g unsalted butter
2. 30g icing sugar
3. 110g plain flour
4. 50g plain chocolate

• Weigh out butter and let it warm up to room temperature, this will soften the butter 
• Once butter is soft, pre-heat oven to 180 degrees 
• Mix in the icing sugar into the butter until it becomes pale and fluffy
• Sift in the flour and mix until it is all combined
• Pipe the mixture into whatever shape you want onto a piece of baking parchment 
• Bake for 12-20 minutes, the surface should be golden brown 
• Take it out of the oven to cool. This biscuit is quite crumbly so be gentle when you take it out of the oven
• Once biscuits have cooled, melt chocolate over simmering water 
• Dip one end of the biscuit into the chocolate and magic! Here's your viennese fingers! 

apple custard cake

This is a very simple cake, genoise, custard and cream. Nothing out of the ordinary and it's definitely something everyone can whip up in 2 hours, ok, maybe 2 and a half or 3. But, it's worth every effort. My family loves apples, especially crunchy ones, so I've made an apple custard for the filling of this cake.

Ingrdients:

• 6 large eggs
• 125g self raising flour (or plain flour if you prefer the more traditional genoise, but honestly, self raising flour rises better, but over, the difference is not THAT big)
• 175g caster sugar
• 50g unsalted butter
• 3 granny smith apples
• 1 pink lady apple 
• 50g corn flour
• 5 tbsps milk 
• 250ml double cream
• An electric whisk, this is absolutely essential

1. Weigh out sifted self raising flour and leave aside
2. Weigh out butter and let it soften at room temperature for 30 minutes, you want this to be VERY soft but not melted
3. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C and line 2x18cm round cake tins, yes, this is going to be quite a tall cake 
4. Put 4 eggs into a large mixing bowl with 125g caster sugar and whisk over a pan of simmering water, careful not to cook the eggs whilst you are whisking
5. Eventually, the eggs/caster sugar batter will at least triple or even quadruple in volume and thicken. You should keep whisking until the batter comes off the mixer and leave a trail of ribbon behind it and the colour at this stage should be very pale yellow, almost white
6. Add the sifted flour into the batter and very gently fold it in
7. Add in the butter and fold it in until everything has combined or became equally distributed
8. Divide the cake mixture into the two cake tins evenly and bake for 20-25 minutes, when it's done, the edges will shrink away from the parchment paper slightly, test with a clean knife or skewer to see whether it's done inside, it should come out completely clean
9. Take the sponges out of the oven and cool inside the tin for 5 minutes and then take it out and cool on a wired rack
10. Divid each sponge horizontally into 2 equal pieces and cool completely
11. Whilst you are waiting for the sponge to cool, skin and core the granny smith apples and chop into small pieces and blend until you get a puree
12. Mix puree with 5 tbsps of milk  and put it in a saucepan over low heat until it simmers
13. Mix 2 eggs with 50g caster sugar until well combined and then mix in the corn flour and repeat the mixing process until the mixture is smooth and silky
14. Once everything has mixed, add in a tbsp of the hot apple puree into the egg mixture and mix
15. Repeat step 14 twice
16. Pour all of the egg mixture into the simmering apple puree and mix vigorously, keeping the whole thing over a heat source
17. Put up the heat to medium and keep whisking, eventually it will boil
18. Once the mixture boils, keep whisking until it thickens and becomes smooth, but not too thick that it doesn't come off the spoon, set aside to cool completely
19. Chop the pink ladies in half and core the apple
20. Chop half of the apple into small cubes for filling and the other half into thin slices for decoration. Put all apple into lemon water to prevent it from yellowing 
21. Once apple custard has cooled, mix the apple cubes with apple custard and spread an equal amount in between each genoise sponge layer 
22. Whisk double cream until stiff and layer the entire cake with cream 
23. Decorate the top with apple slices into the shape of a flower (simply lay one of the apple on top of each other in a spiral fashion)
24. I also chopped some grapes in half to cover the edges of the cake on top, but that is purely for aesthetic purposes

Caramel and caramel sauce

Caramel is basically the combination of sugar and water. The actual method is very simple, but getting it right can be a little bit tricky. The only things you need are white granulated sugar and water and a stainless steel saucepan and of course a heat source. The amount of ingredients you need is purely based on how much you need.

Ingredients (caramel)
This is actually the Mary Berry recipe, but I've included a couple of things to make process easier from experience.

1. 160g white granulated sugar
2. 6 tbsps cold water

This recipe is enough for 6 creme caramels or caramel sauce to serve about 5 people depending on what you're using it for. So, to make the caramel, follow the very simple recipe:

• Fully dissolve sugar in water over low heat with a wooden spoon until you can longer feel any sugar in the water
• Take spoon away from saucepan once sugar has dissolved and KEEP IT AWAY!
• Turn up the heat until the mixture boils (DO NOT PUT SPOON BACK IN OR STIR AT ALL!!!)
• If you want to evenly distribute the heat over the whole saucepan, gently lift saucepan from one end and swirl carefully over heat source
• The mixture should continue bubbling, just keep heating and it will go from clear to light yellow to amber
• We want an orangey hue to the amber colour (light yellow will be very sweet and there won't be too much of a flavour, and too dark, then the caramel is burnt and will taste very bitter)
• When you're making this for the first time and not sure what colour you're expecting, take a metal spoon and dip it into the side of the saucepan and then put the caramel on a cold surface (preferably something you don't want like a piece of white used parchment paper), the perfect caramel should be a fairly dark amber colour and quite viscous and will solidify quicker than the lighter ones
• When it's at the right colour, quickly take the saucepan off the heat source and add a tsp of cold water to the caramel (the caramel will continue to darken for a little while when you take it off the heat, so it needs to be cooled rapidly to stop it from going bitter. Some people put the entire saucepan into a pool of cold water, but I find putting a tsp of cold water directly into the caramel to work better and actually stops the burning altogether)
• Now you have the perfect caramel, but note caramel harden quite quickly, so you will have to be quick and decide what to do next 

Caramel sauce
You will have to make the caramel first, surprise surprise! You will also need:

1. 80ml double cream
2. 60g unsalted butter

• Heat up double cream until it is hot, but not boiling
• Chop butter into small cubes
• DO NOT add cold water into saucepan once your caramel has reached the right colour
• Switch the heat on caramel right down
• Sift double cream directly into the caramel (Be very careful as the caramel and double cream can bubble up and go everywhere and can splatter) 
• Keep mixing until caramel and cream have combined well
• Take off the heat and pour the sauce into a clean bowl and add butter cubes into the hot sauce
• Mix well until all the butter has melted and mixed in 
• Leave to cool down and thicken, the sauce should be thick enough to be piped once it is set