Thursday 29 September 2016

Tear and Share

I treated myself to this book a few weeks ago which accompanies this year's Bake Off series. It mostly consists of recipes by Linda Collister but it does feature some recipes from the contestants and a handful of "Judges Recipes" too. Hey... call me Sherlock but I have deduced that all the Judges recipes are actually the technical bakes from the show.


So armed with this knowledge, in my quest to bake all of this year's technical challenges, I tackled this week's challenge, to bake two fresh herb Fougasse, on Wednesday afternoon several hours before the show aired. It was a bit of a guess that this would actually be the technical bake this week... but my guesswork paid off.


I used my stand mixer to knead the dough as it was very soft and sticky to begin with but not too difficult to work once it got going.


You can find Paul Hollywood's recipe here. I didn't have fresh thyme so used some dried herbs with my fresh Sage and Rosemary... I don't think it made that much difference. Other than that I pretty much stuck to the recipe and made it within the time given. For once the contestants had enough time.


It smelled really wonderful as it baked. The eagle eyed among you will have spotted I only made five cuts up the side of the "leaf" not the six specified. No doubt I would have lost marks for that


But it didn't effect the flavour! If I made it again I would probably increase the amount of herbs as I was fairly cautious but other than that it was pretty good. I fancy trying some herbs in a sweet bake too after seeing that Jenny had successfully used basil in her strawberry cake. My mind does tend to go off on tangents...I was reading this article about Jo Malone after having signed up for email updates from The Business Bakery. I'd not heard of The Business Bakery before,which doesn't really have anything to do with baking but is a source of advice for small "kitchen table" businesses. Having read about it on Planet Penny I was intrigued and have already discovered several interesting and possibly useful articles. But I digress... reading about Jo Malone I started to wonder if someone with a good nose for putting fragrances together would have a similar talent for putting flavours together. And when I read about her lime,basil and mandarin fragrance I remembered Jenny's basil cake and thought that if these three things smell great together maybe they would taste great together too. Watch this space!

Anyway... back to the fougasse... I took one along to our book club meeting last night to tear and share... there were certainly no complaints and I didn't bring any home so I guess it was a success.


Once again, as well as completing my own challenge to complete all the technical bakes, I'm also joining in with Jenny of Mummy Mishaps for the Great Bloggers Bake Off.
Mummy Mishaps

17 comments:

  1. I must admit the bread did look good on the show.....but the cakes!!! :(
    Your bread looks wonderful!

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  2. I'm enjoying reading these blogs about your take on the GBBO. Tempted to have a go at this weeks technical challenge, especially as you had success using a stand mixer.

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  3. You must be a popular member of your book club, Gina. Your herb fougasse looks good. Watching the GBBO is still one way to sit back, relax and be entertained on a Wednesday evening and I'm enjoying your technical challenge blog posts too.

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  4. I loved the look of the fougasse on the GBBO and yours looks great, too. I am trying to eat less bread but tempted by a fragrant fougasse, I would tear into it in a jiffy. x

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  5. Your fougasse looks wonderful and so tempting. I think the artist in you thought that five cuts look better than six. Odd numbers are always best!

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  6. It looks delicious. Today I'm baking a fougasse, I love baking bread and I wanted to try it since I saw it at the GBBO.

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  7. Yes, Gina is a very popular member of our book group! The fougasse was superb.

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  8. So impressed! Love your blog Gina. Have a great weekend. Haven't felt much like writing this week.... maybe next week x

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  9. Gina, I can just imagine how wonderfully fragrant your kitchen must have been while the pretty fougasse bread was baking. Yes, your book club is most fortunate.

    I like how you played detective with the book's recipes. Most clever! xo

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  10. That looks lovely - nothing can beat fresh homemade bread. Ing keeps badgering me to make the Pippa Middleton fig and goat cheese fougasse, from this infamous article in the Waitrose magazine http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/10034974/Pippa-Middleton-plans-expensive-picnic.html
    I only made the bread, and it is very good! Couldnt quite stretch to the £100 needed to make everything!

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  11. Your fougasse looks perfect to me. I'm sure basil will work well in sweet cakes as the flavour is closely related to cinnamon - if I haven't any fresh basil (it doesn't dry well) then a sprinkle of cinnamon added to tomato based pasta sauces is a perfect substitute.

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  12. I admire your creative flavour mixing thoughts! It sounds just like painting :D

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  13. Looks delicious, I must say. I like the idea of herbs in cakes and have a fancy for a chocolate and basil number which I've read about somewhere.

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  14. I can fully understand why your book club didn't leave any for you to bring home, it's just so yummy isn't it. I too make a fougasse this week 9along with a meringue) and I too put five slashes doen either side ...I just think odd numbers look better than even ones!! Well that's what they always say on gardening shows as well (to plant in odd numbers!)
    Angela x

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  15. That bread looks so good no wonder it was all eaten by the book club!

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  16. mmmmm it looks really good despite the fact it does not contain as many slits as Paul's does. I have to admit i cannot wait to discover of lime, mandarin and basil work in a cake xx

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  17. Oh how you spoil you book club!! this looks really great Gina! We need to visit each other I think.. for cake and conversation! Haz x

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