GBBO 2016 Week 4 - Coconut Churro Hearts with White Chocolate and Pistachio Custard

Week 4 in the tent saw a first – batter! All of these challenges looked fun, and nothing seemed too meticulous/fancy for me :D

 I started with some churros – I was really impressed by Benjamina’s tropical churros, but also loved Jane’s white chocolate and pistachio sauce, which turned out to be more of a custard.

So, I decided to combine the two.

I was really happy with my churro hearts – the dough was lovely to pipe, and fried really nicely. I don’t own a deep fat fryer, so used a large pan with a sugar thermometer. Just make sure to check the temperature of the oil regularly, as if it drops too low the churros will get greasy, and too high, the churros might explode!

I adapted the custard recipe slightly, but the end result was chocolately and nutty – very nice. I might try the same recipe with milk chocolate in future though – I do love churros and chocolate :)

Easily makes 18 churros

Ingredients:

For the custard:

• 150g (1 cup) shelled pistachios
• 65g (2/3 cup) icing sugar
• 125ml (1/2 cup) milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 25g (2 tbsp) butter
• 50g (1/4 cup) white chocolate, finely chopped

For the churros:

• 130g (2/3 cup) dessicated coconut
• 60g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
• 300ml (1 1/3 cups) water
• 180ml (3/4 cup) milk
• ½ tsp salt
• 25g (2 tbsp) butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
• 180g (1&1/2 cups) plain flour

Method:

1. Start by making the custard. Preheat the oven to 200c/400f/gas mark 6. Line the base of a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

2. Pour the pistachios onto the tray and roast for 3-5 minutes, until fragrant. Leave to cool, then blend with the icing sugar until it is a fine powder.

3. Heat the milk in a medium saucepan until it is just bubbling. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and pistachio/sugar mixture. 

4. Once the milk is bubbling, pour the milk onto the egg mixture slowly, whisking constantly.

5. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, and cook on a low heat, stirring constantly, until it has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. This only takes a few minutes.

6. Sieve the custard to remove any larger fragments of pistachio. Add the butter and white chocolate to the sieved custard and stir until melted. Set aside.

7. Make the churros. Take 30g of the dessicated coconut and blend it with 50g of the caster sugar. Set aside as this will be used for dipping after baking.

8. Add the remaining 100g dessicated coconut to a frying pan (without any oil), and toast on a medium heat. Once it changes colour to a light brown, take off the heat and set aside to cool.

9. Pour the water, milk, butter, salt, vanilla extract, 10g of sugar and coconut oil into a large saucepan. Heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is bubbling.

10. Combine the toasted coconut and plain flour, then tip into the saucepan with the bubbling mixture.

11. Beat vigorously until the dough is pulling away from the side of the pan. Set aside to cool – I found the mixture incredibly hot so left it for a good 10 minutes before using.

12. Whilst waiting for the mix to cool, line two trays with greaseproof paper. Place a large star nozzle (1M) into a piping bag, and snip the end off the bag, so that the tip of the nozzle is fully emerged from the bag.

13. Once cool enough, spoon half the churro dough into the piping bag. Pipe heart shapes onto the greaseproof paper – mine were about 7-8cm in height, but make them as big or as small as you like. If you find the piping bag is getting very hot, use a tea towel to cover the bag and help piping.

14. Place in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.

15. Heat the oil to 190c. Once at temperature, place 2-3 churros into the oil carefully! I started by placing the churros onto strips of baking parchment, then placed the churro + paper into the oil. After a few batches, I just picked up the churros and placed them in without the paper. Both worked well, so it’s your choice what to do.

16. Fry for 2 – 3 minutes, flipping them once during the cooking time. Once they are golden brown all over, use a slotted spoon to remove them from the oil. Place on kitchen roll to drain off the excess oil. Whilst warm, dust in the coconut/sugar mixture.

17. Repeat with the remaining churros. Serve immediately using the custard as a dipping sauce.

18. Enjoy!

GBBO 2016 Week 3 - Chocolate Bread - With Sweet Potato and Rye

This week on the Great British Bake Off it was bread week, and there were so many recipes I wanted to try! The first challenge was the signature - chocolate bread. I took the challenge a very different way and made a savoury chocolate rye bread. Sounds crazy - even crazier when you know there's sweet potato in the dough too! 
I made an eight-strand plait for the bread, which kind of worked - not my neatest creation but I'll put the sequence in the recipe, so you can have a go :)
I also had some spare dough, so make a couple of rolls as well. They require slightly less baking - about 20 minutes.

Makes one plait

Ingredients:

For the light dough:

• 75g finely grated sweet potato (peeled)
• 75g rye flour
• 210g strong white bread flour
• 5g instant dried yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp poppy seeds
• 2 tbsp runny honey
• 160ml water

For the chocolate dough:

• 75g finely grated sweet potato
• 75g rye flour
• 210g strong white bread flour
• 5g instant dried yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp instant coffee granules
• 2 tbsp honey
• 160ml water

Method:

1. Prepare the light dough. In a bowl that attaches to a stand mixer (with the dough hook attached), sieve in all of the dry ingredients, making sure the yeast and salt go on opposite sides of the bowl.

2. Add the honey and 120ml of the water. Turn the stand mixer on, and gradually add more water until a firm dough is being worked by the machine. You may not need all of the water.

3. Knead using the mixer for 8 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, and cover with cling film. Leave for at least one hour to prove, until it has doubled in size.

4. Repeat the above process for the chocolate dough.

5. Once both doughs have doubled in size, lightly knead them. Divide each dough evenly into four.

6. Lightly oil your surface, then roll out each of the segments into a long sausage shape. Try to get the "sausage" as long as possible without it looking like it's about to tear - I managed about 25cm. Also try to keep the width the same across the entire piece.

7. Pinch the tops of all of the segments together, then fan out the pieces (like an octopus).
To plait, from left to right, the segments are labelled 1 to 8. Every time a piece of dough moves, the dough pieces are re-numbered from left to right (1-8). 

8. Step 1: place 8 under 7 and over 1 
Step 2: place 8 over 5 
Step 3: place 2 under 3 and over 8 
Step 4: place 1 over 4 
Step 5: place 7 under 6 and over 1 
Repeats step 2-5, until all the dough is braided.

9. Neaten up the sides of the dough by tucking them under the plait. Carefully place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Cover with cling film, then prove for 30-40 minutes.

10. Preheat your oven to 200c/400f/gas mark 6.

11. Bake the bread for 25-30 minutes, until the base sounds hollow when knocked against. Leave to cool.

12. Enjoy!

GBBO 2016 Week 2 - Pagoda Gingerbread House

I couldn’t not try a gingerbread house from week 2 of this season of Bake off. So even after week 3’s episode aired, I still needed to make one. It took a while to come up with an idea, but finally I decided on a pagoda, a Japanese-style building. It took a long time to make all the gingerbread, but it actually stood tall and didn’t collapse!! Although I think I need to practice my piping, I’m pretty happy with the result. I even added a bridge with a fish, as well as a horse (to keep with the challenge of having additional characters in the piece). The pagoda was also over the 30cm height required :)

Here’s a rough template – there are most likely areas improvements could be made, so if you think of one, try it, and let me know how it goes!

I found leaving my gingerbread overnight before assembly worked well – it makes sure the gingerbread has dried slightly, so is less likely to collapse. If you don’t have time for this, make sure all of the gingerbread is completely cool before assembling.

Makes one huge gingerbread creation

Ingredients:

• 500g butter
• 400g dark brown sugar
• 200g golden syrup
• 1.2kg plain flour
• 4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 tbsp ground ginger

To assemble:

• 200g granulated sugar
• 200ml water

To decorate:

• 300g royal icing sugar
• 30-40ml water

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 200c/400f/gas mark 6.

2. In a large saucepan add the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup. Heat gently, until the butter has melted.

3. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a large mixing bowl. Pour over the melted butter/sugar/syrup, and beat until you have a smooth dough.

4. Roll out clumps of the dough to about 3/4cm thick on baking parchment or kitchen foil. 

5. Start cutting out the gingerbread using the templates. I started with the biggest pieces, which are the base and top of the bottom layer of the house.

6. For the side pieces (B,D, G, J and M) cut out the doorways before baking.

7. Remove any trimmings (these will be re-rolled out for the remaining pieces). Place the baking paper/foil (that you rolled the pieces onto) onto a baking tray, and bake for 6-8 minutes, until slightly darkened on the edges and firm. 

8. Place the template back on the warm cooked gingerbread, and trim to size. Leave to cool.

9. Repeat with the next set of gingerbread pieces, and keep going until you have baked all of the gingerbread.

10. Make the sugar syrup. In a saucepan heat together the granulated sugar and water until it is a caramel colour – it will be slightly thicker than water. Keep on a low heat to make sure it doesn’t thicken too much – if the caramel does start to overly thicken, turn the heat up and the caramel will become thinner again.

11. Assemble the gingerbread! This is the scariest bit, but have patience and it will work J Be VERY careful with the sugar syrup – it is insanely hot and will cause bad burns it you get it on you (I learnt that the hard way…)

12. For the bottom layer start with one of the 20x20cm squares (A). Dip the base of one of the 10x20cm sides (B) into the caramel, then stick on one of the edges of the squares. Hold for a few seconds until the caramel has firmed.

13. Repeat with the other sides – dipping both the bases and sides in the sugar syrup to enable sticking to the other sides of the house.

14. Paint some caramel carefully along the edges of the underside of the top 20x20cm square (A). Stick to the sides of the base layer.

15. Take the roof tiles (C). Dip the 20cm long side in the caramel and stick the roof so that the piece is slanted downwards. Hold until the caramel is firm – if you’re worried, use a glass to balance the piece on.

16. Repeat with the other roof tiles.

17. Start assembling the next layer. Take the 16x8cm (D) sides, and stick them to the roof of the base layer as previously (try to get it as central as possible). Stick the 16x16cm square (E) on top.

18. Repeat the process of adding the next roof tiles (F).

19. Continue this assembly process – the next level has 12x 6cm sides (G), 12x12cm roof (H) and 12 x 16cm tiles (I).

20. The level after that has 8 x 4cm sides (J), 8 x 8cm roof (K) and 8 x 12cm tiles (L).

21. The final layer has 6 x 4cm sides (M), 6 x 6cm roof (N) and 6 x 8cm tiles (O).

22. To finish, stick the figurehead squares (P and Q) onto the roof of the top layer. Dip each of the S shaped templates (R) into the caramel and stick at right angles on the top of the top square.

23. To decorate, add 30ml water to the royal icing sugar, and beat until it is a thick paste. 

24. Place in a piping bag, and snip off about 2mm from the tip of the bag.

25. Pipe the icing onto the pagoda, in whatever style you'd like :)

26. Enjoy!!