Thursday 8 August 2013

Baking bread - you are my Everest

I mentioned on Monday that I'll happily spend $50 on baked goods.  Reason being I have never been able to successfully bake decent bread myself.  I haven't worked out why but bread is my Everest.  Most other things I am capable of baking.  I think it's the yeast that trips me up.  Or the proofing.  I have no patience for proofing.

Well yesterday work sent me home after 2 hours (something about spreading my germs around cough cough).  I've been sick for almost a week and not improving at all.  Anyway I digress....

I'd like to announce that I successfully made a cinnamon pull-apart loaf yesterday!  You can find the recipe here so I won't copy and paste it, but I highly recommend listening to her tips, mainly these 2:

  1. Reduce the sugar in the filling part of the recipe to 3/4 cup. I had so much extra sugar left over, I sprinkled all of it over the top creating a toothaching sweet outer crust.
  2. Don't add too much flour to the sticky dough, it's meant to be sticky. My loaf turned out a lot denser than it should have been since I continually added flour to prevent it from sticky while I was kneading it.
Anyway, this is how mine looked along the way...

The calm before the storm

Sticky... really sticky

Try to use as little flour as possible - just enough to roll it out without having it stick to the bench

I've made a right hot mess

Melted butter brushed onto dough

The best bit - cinnamon sugar layer!!

Chop chop chop

Laid into a loaf tray

After it's proofed for a further 30 mins
 And 30 minutes in the oven gives you...


Oh it's so damn good.  I cut the amount of sugar from 1 cup to 3/4 but next time I'll cut it further to 2/3.  The bread is so light and fluffy - a vast improvement from my previous attempts.  I think the trick was not to over-flour as I was rolling it out (something I was guilty of doing previously).  Maybe next time I'll also substitute half the flour for wholemeal flour?

11 comments:

  1. Yummy, that cinnamon pull-apart loaf looks so delish. Feeling hungry now ;)

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  2. Might give it a go...thanks for the step by step guide Hope you are feeling better!

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    1. It does take a little while so set aside about 2-3 hours if you're going to tackle it!

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  4. Looks amazing. I might try it this weekend. Hope you feel better soon hun x

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    1. So 5 days later I'm STILL sick, can you believe it! So annoying :(

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  5. Oh delish! I want to save this recipe to try later one day!

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    1. Oh it's definitely worth an attempt. Let me know how you go if you tackle it :)

      Kx.

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