Just because today was a crappy day, I feel the need to post about some real feel good food, classic, dependable, unfussy and fuzzy wuzzy. Bread and butter pudding is my saviour – since I bake my own bread, there’re always times when the bread is a little too dry but would taste simply lovely in blankets of eggy custard and sprinkled with cinnamon or vanilla sugar.

This time I had a slightly failed batch of buns (let’s not get into this so much as to say that I need to use some more common sense) to work with – they were barely risen, hard lumps, but I knew how to comfort myself. These look prettier than your average perfectly risen buns, because they kept their shape, but really, anything sort of slightly stale bread will do.

For those of you who already have a go-to recipe and what to know whether this one is any different: this is not a watery/liquidy pudding. It goes “glop glop” when serving rather than “squish squish.” It does not have chocolate, and personally I doubt that chocolate would improve things, or too many other over excited additions. Sorry, but this is a classic, okay? If you’re pregnant and have a craving, I would understand, but otherwise, try not to overwhelm the flavours.

Thanks goes to Laura at Hungry & Frozen for the original recipe, and delicious prose.

Bread and butter pudding

serves two

2-4 buns or enough thickly sliced bread to fill a small ovenprood dish about halfway. Don’t use that cottony soft supermarket sliced bread, it’s too thin and too soft – unless you like a soggy pudding.
25g softened butter
30g brown sugar
2 small eggs
1c milk (none of this low fat stuff, y’hear?!)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (best stuff you can find, or home made)
optional: extra sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Heat the milk and vanilla in a small saucepan until hot to the touch but not boiling. Layer buns or thikc slices of bread in a casserole dish or ovenproof fish. Beat butter and sugar together, then beat in eggs one at a time. Slowly whisk in the hot milk, and pour the mixture over the buns. Preheat the oven to 170C (330F) and let the pudding sit until the oven is up to temperature (about 10 minutes). Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake in the center of the oven for about 40 minutes.

For those of you who have ne’er wandered past your supermarket aisles for a loaf of bread (this was pretty much me a year ago…I know, shocking), brioche is a kind of bread – a bit confused perhaps, as it can taste like a muffin. Basically, it’s bread with extra butter, plus eggs and usually honey. Yes, that does make it delicious. Despite how much glee it would bring me to know that students made brioche, I have to warn that it is not the sort of thing you should attempt if you want to do much else the next few hours. However, like much baking, playing around with brioche is incredibly fun (not to mention rewarding on the tastebuds), and you’ll almost certainly be brought back to better times, where all you had to worry about was your play dough set being eaten by your siblings or what your Action Man would be battling next. Brioche is the base, and from there…your imagination is the limit. Braid it, turn it into scrolls, a roll filled with surprise fillings, or even just make the traditional Brioche à tête. I made up a batch of chocolate ganache and some cinnamon and sugar to create scroll shapes, surprise rolls, a scroll cluster, and chocolate croissant shapes. The great thing is you can freeze your shaped dough on a tray in the freezer, then transfer to a container once frozen, and you’ll have treats that you can pull out without most of the effort normally involved.

If you get them right, the whole process can give you guaranteed warm fuzzies. This is going to be a process, so roll your sleeves up!

Thanks to the wonderful partnership that resulted in the wonderful book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, this version of Brioche yields great results with a bit less hassle. I’ve added some of my own notes from making Brioche various times, and given the half recipe (which should be more than enough for most to get started with). Normally I encourage being creative with altering the basic dough recipes of breads, but don’t try to use margarine instead of butter or anything similarly crazy – you just won’t get the same results.

Basic brioche dough
makes about 1kg of dough – easily doubled, just use a massive bowl, or divide the dough into two bowls.

This dough isn’t very sweet, so fillings, toppings or spreads can be generously used!

3/4 c warm water (around 40C or 105F)
3/4 Tbs instant dried yeast
1/2 Tbs rock salt (or 1/3 Tbs fine sea salt)
4 eggs, lightly beaten (use room temp eggs)
1/4 c honey (to measure, dip measuring cup in butter before pouring honey in to prevent half the honey sticking), preferably liquid honey or something runny.
170g butter, melted
3 3/4c plain flour

Whisk everything but the flour together in a large bowl, until slightly frothy. Add flour, and stir, to incorporate the wet and dry ingredients into a soft, wet dough. It may be a little lumpy, and that’s fine, but make sure there are no floury bits. Cover the bowl with a plastic bag or tea towel, and allow to rise at room temperature (21C) for about 2-5 hours (2 hours absolute minimum). Once it has doubled in size, it is ready to shape.

Lightly flour a chopping board or your working surface (straight on the benchtop for example), and your puffed up brioche dough. Now it depends what you want to do with it. I’ve given a few examples below, the instructions of which you’d want to insert at this stage. Then, you can proceed with the instructions in the next paragraph. Relax, I’m making it sounds far more complicated than it actually is.

Ok, so now you’ve shaped your dough. Let it rest at room temp (21C) for about an hour and a half, or until the shapes have puffed up a bit (maybe 1.5 or 2 times their original size). Preheat your oven to 180C (350F), with a rack arranged on the very top (unless otherwise specified in the ideas section below). Do not bake anything below it, or place anything below it that could obstruct the heat fom the bottom of the oven, unless you want to complicate things! Once your oven has reached 180C or 350F (the oven light should turn off, otherwise just wait 5 mins), pop your tray or loaf in, and let cook for the specified amount of time. Once taken out, let the brioche cool on the tray/in the tin for about 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. This is quite important – if you don’t use a cooling rack you may get soggy bits, which is not nice.

Brioche is best eaten slightly warm on the same day you made it (preferably in the next few hours!). If eating the next day, warm in the oven for about 5 minutes (from cold oven) at 100C or microwave for 10 seconds. Otherwise you can always freeze cooked brioche, and once defrosted, follow the previous rule of reheating. Enjoy!

Brioche shape ideas (check next section for filling ideas)

Small scrolls (makes 8-12)

Grab a piece of lightly flour dusted brioche dough (about the size of a 2″ wide ball). Bring the dough together by stretching the surface and tucking it into itself, and form a smooth ball with a bunch of ends at the bottom. Roll out to a square-ish shape about 2-3mm thick, lightly flouring as you go to prevent severe sticking to the rolling pin or working surface. Spread lightly with your filling to the very edges for 3 edges, then roll up, and pinch together the seam (the edge the filling is not spread to) to form a log. Using a large, sharp knife, cut across the log at 2cm intervals (try to just press the blade down into the dough, rather than sawing. The dough will flatten but you’ll be able to re-shope it back to a circle). Pick each scroll off and re-shape to a circle, then place on a lightly greased baking tray or in a lightly greased muffin tray. Place at least an inch apart (unless you’re doing a cluster, pictured below).
Cooking time: 15 minutes at 180C or 350F, top rack.

Surprise stuffed rolls/muffins (makes 6)
Grab a piece of lightly flour dusted brioche dough (about the size of a 2″ wide ball). Bring the dough together by stretching the surface and tucking it into itself, and form a smooth ball with a bunch of ends at the bottom. Pull the ball in half, then pull each dough half into thirds to create 6 small rounds. Flatten the round with your palm, dot the centre of the round with about half a teaspoon of filling, then bring the edges up together to a single point, pinching the edges together and sealing. You can roll these in a mixture of cinnamon and raw/white sugar to give them extra sweetness if you wish. Pop them onto a lightly greased oven tray or muffin tray.
Cooking time: 15 minutes at 180C or 350F, top rack.

Brioche loaf – makes one 9×4x3 sized pan loaf
This may require the full amount of dough if you want a decently sized loaf, but if you want a smaller loaf, you can use 3/4 or 2/3 of the dough the above recipe makes. Grab out the desired amount of flour dusted brioche dough, and bring the dough together by stretching the surface and tucking it into itself, forming a smooth ball with a bunch of ends at the bottom. Elongate into an oval shape (long enough to fit your loaf pan), and drop into your lightly greased non stick loaf pan. You may roll the log in some cinnamon and sugar before this step if you wish, but then don’t use the egg wash. Otherwise, coat with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tbs water)
Cooking Time: an hour and up to an hour and half, until the top is deeply browned, at 180C or 350F (you can turn it down to 150C later if the outside is browned but the inside is still not fully cooked – to test if fully cooked, press down in the center, and if it is cooked, it should spring back easily). Bake one rack below the top shelf.

Brioche plait – to whatever size you like.
Grab out the desired amount of flour dusted brioche dough, and bring the dough together by stretching the surface and tucking it into itself, forming a smooth ball with a bunch of ends at the bottom. Divide the dough into thirds, and elongate each third to a rope about 2cm wide. If you want you can roll each rope in cinnamon and sugar before plaiting. Pinch the top of the three ropes together, and start braiding. Pinch together at the bottom, and tuck both ends under the braid. Move to a lightly greased tray, and brush with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tbs water) if cinnamon sugar was not used.
Cooking Time: depends on the size of your braid – bake at 180C or 350F (you can turn it down to 150C later if the outside is browned but the inside is still not fully cooked – to test if fully cooked, press down in the center, and if it is cooked, it should spring back easily).

Brioche knots – makes six
Grab a piece of lightly flour dusted brioche dough (about the size of a 2″ wide ball). Bring the dough together by stretching the surface and tucking it into itself, and form a smooth ball with a bunch of ends at the bottom. Pull the ball in half, then pull each dough half into thirds to create 6 small rounds. Roll out each round to a 2cm thick sausage shape, and tie in a knot, arranging how you want on a lightly greased oven tray. You can roll the ropes in a mixture of cinnamon and raw/white sugar to give them extra sweetness if you wish. Otherwise it would be best to brush with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tbs water).
Cooking time: 15 minutes at 180C or 350F, top rack.

Brioche croissants/rugelach – makes 8
Grab a piece of lightly flour dusted brioche dough (about the size of a 2″ wide ball). Bring the dough together by stretching the surface and tucking it into itself, and form a smooth ball with a bunch of ends at the bottom. Roll the ball out into a circle 2-3mm thick. Spread lightly with filling to within 1cm of the edge of the circle. Cut into 8 wedges. For each wedge, roll up (from the outer edge inwards to the pointy end), tucking the pointy end just under. Curve the two ends around to make a croissant shape.
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes at 180C or 350F, top rack.

FILLINGS!

Oh, goodness. The possibilities!

Cinnamon and brown, raw or white sugar (pictured above)
Mixed spices (ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger) and brown sugar
Dried fruits: Sultanas, chopped dates, chopped dried apricots or peaches, dried cranberries
Chocolate ganache (melt equal amounts cream and dark chocolate eg, 100g choc to 100ml cream, on a low heat in a small saucepan. Taste the ganache before using and add appropriate amounts of sugar or honey to sweeten if you want)
Lemon zest and sugar (just use coarse grained sugar)
Lemon zest and honey
Orange zest and sugar (just use coarse grained sugar)
Vanilla bean seeds and white chocolate ganache (melt equal amounts cream and white chocolate eg, 100g choc to 100ml cream, on a low heat in a small saucepan. Then add vanilla bean seeds scraped from the pod with a small sharp knife)
Caramel or dulce de leche
Raspberry or other sorts of jam
Chopped roasted hazelnuts/almonds, brown sugar and cinnamon, or with maple syrup
Nutella (omg, I sooo did not just suggest that :P)
Maple syrup and cinnamon
Golden syrup and roast sesame or poppy seeds

Remember you can always drizzle leftover filling over your brioche or spread it on slices too, so you never need to throw out leftovers! After 2 days, your brioche will be best eaten as french toast or in a bread pudding (you can do this with rolls as well, just cut them in half first…delicious!).

Comment with your favourite, or your own ideas…go on!

…It’s like having pesto IN your bread. With bread this flavoursome, you won’t need any dips or sauces, which is a great time and money saver. This bread is slightly adapted from the parmesan and sundried tomato loaf in Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day (sigh…such a great book). If you’re a basil pesto fan, try fresh basil leaves in place of sundried tomatoes, or use basil pesto. Either way, you can imagine how amazing this smells – tangy yet salty, the perfect bread for a picnic if you dont want to take half-opened containers of pesto (ahem…which leak). The recipe below if enough for 3 large-ish loaves, or 4 littler ones, and thanks to the artisan bread technique, it’s easy to have the dough on hand for plenty more, with half the effort.

I have to admit I was tempted to try and make this healthier by adding wholemeal flour, but boy am I glad I didn’t (shhh). This was so heavenly soft, and without melting any butter either.

The crust is nice and crisp, which is so nice for bread that has a cheesy aroma.

Cheese and sundried tomato bread (based on the vermont cheddar bread in Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day)

makes 3 large-ish loaves or 4 smaller ones

2 3/4 c water, at body temp.
1  Tbs salt
1 1/2 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 Tbs yeast
6 1/2 c all purpose or high grade (bread) flour, plus lots more
1 c grated cheese (edam or a mild cheddar or similar)
1/4 c grated parmesan
sundried tomatoes, chopped

Mix first four ingredients in a large bowl, then add flour. Mix flour in without kneading, adding up to about a cup of extra flour if it doesn’t come away from the sides of the bowl at all when the dough is pushed up against the sides of the bowl. Add cheeses, then keep mixing until the dough is uniformly moist. Cover (not airtight), and leave somewhere that’s at least 21 degrees C (room temp), for 2-5 hours, until the dough is doubled in size and the surface of the dough is almost flat.

Divide the dough roughly into 3-4 equal size portions, and put each in a box except one and freeze for up to 2 weeks. Or you can refrigerate a portion if you’ll use it within the next 4 days, but I don’t recommend this as the dough sometimes ferments and tastes a bit yeasty if left for more than 2-3 days.

Using one of your portions, dust it with flour, as well as a board. Knead to incorporate it into a ball, stretching the surface of the dough and feeding it back into itself.

To make it in your loaf pan (thanks to Smitten Kitchen for posting the technique!): Stretch or roll out into a rectangle, and scatter with chopped sundried tomatoes. Roll the rectangle up, stretching and pulling the dough as much as you can without breaking it. Seal the edge with your fingers, and fold the top and bottom ends into the centre of the roll, ensuring the length is approximate to your loaf pan. Drop into a lightly greased metal loaf pan, preferably non stick.

To make it into a round loaf: Seal the bottom, and let the dough ball sit seam side down.

Let rest and rise at room temp. for 40 minutes (1 hour if you’re using defrosted dough). After 20 minutes of resting, preheat your oven to 230C or 450F, with a rack arranged in the centre and bottom. Put a small metal pan (roasting or brownie pan) on the bottom shelf, and a baking stone if you have one on the centre rack (if making a round loaf).

After resting, pop round loaf onto your baking stone or your loaf tin onto the centre rack, and quickly at the same time, add about a cup of water into the empty metal pan on the bottom shelf*. Close the oven door quickly, and let bake for approximately 30-35 minutes, rotating halfway for even browning. If the top of the loaf is already brown 15 minutes in, reduce the temperature to 180 or 160C or 350F. Take out when the top is a darkish golden brown, and sit the loaf on a rack to cool (or in the pan for a few minutes, then pop out onto the rack). Serve warm or cooled.

Note: I don’t recommend salty dips or pesto with this bread, as it’s already relatively salty. If you can’t bear to eat it plain, use unsalted basil butter or cream cheese or something similar.

*This method helps to make the crust nice and crisp, as does using a baking stone/pizza stone.

When using frozen dough: let defrost completely, preferably overnight, then knead on a floured board and continue from there.

Another very summery day in the middle of spring – and this salad was perfect for it. Crunchy sweet carrot strips, sweet and slightly peppery radish chunks (that colour is so so pretty), and cooling sticks of cucumber – such a simple combination, and so well paired with fresh chunks of bread and a zingy yoghurt basil dressing. It was also properly filling – the bread was made using stoneground flour, so the goodness and fibre of wheatgerm was fully intact, and the fibre from the carrots and other veges kept me full for hours (although that could also have been due to the fact that I didn’t do much all day…anyway).

Did I mention it’s pretty? This was before I added pumpkin seeds (both ways tastes lovely though), which also went quite well with the flavour and texture of the other things. The loveliest thing about this was that it felt so nice to eat – here is an uncomplicated, flavoursome salad that is packed with goodness. It makes a pretty complete lunch with the yoghurt and seeds, and if you wanted to bulk it up even more, you could add any nuts (apart from peanuts…they’re a bit strong) you wanted. Salads are so easy to wash up after too! One bowl, a small cup for the dressing, one knife and a chopping board that just needs a rinse. The radishes were straight from the garden – and I recommend growing them yourself, they mature quickly and are so easy – you can plant them straight into the soil or into pots if you’re moving.

Ah, life’s good.

Refreshing bread salad

serves 1 for lunch/dinner or 2-3 as a side

2 half inch thick slices of very crusty fresh bread (eg. proper ciabatta or Artisan Bread in 5 master loaf)
3 radishes, chopped into little cubes
1/2 carrot, grated or julienned
3 inches off a telegraph cucumber, chopped or cut into strips
salt and pepper

dressing:
3-4Tbs all natural unsweetened yoghurt
1 Tbs best Olive oil or whatever the best oil you’ve got
4-5 basil leaves, torn up into teeny pieces
1 tsp or so white wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Mix the dressing all up roughly, it doesn’t have to be uniform. Toss other ingredients together in a large bowl and drizzle over dressing. Eeeaaasy. If you’re having guests or something, keep bread and veges and dressing separate until you’re ready to serve.

This dough is from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (one of my favourite cookbooks), and I love it for how quick it takes to make, especially if you do the dough the night before or have some in your fridge. It’s also highly versatile – sprinkle some dried herbs on baking day, top with chopped garlic, rosemary, or even add some grated cheese. The possibilities are endless, and always delicious.

If you prefer your bread lighter and softer, with a little packet of flavour without fancy sauce or dips, this is perfect. The dough stores in the fridge for over a week – thus it’s absolutely great when you have people coming over the next day, as you’ll already have dough on hand, that will be flavoursome without needing to make other embellishments.

Spring Onion focaccia
makes enough dough for two 8″ breads, or one really large focaccia (but you can halve or double the recipe if you want lots of dough on hand throughout the week)

just under 1 1/2 c water at body temperature
3/4 Tbs granulated yeast (no need for breadmaker’s stuff)
1/2 Tbs sea salt (preferably the rock stuff)
1/2 Tbs raw sugar
1/8 c olive oil (or cooking oil), plus extra for greasing and brushing
3 1/4 c flour (any flour – I used stoneground organic flour)

spring onions, chopped (about 2 Tbs)

Mix first 5 ingredients, then add flour. Mix with a spoon without kneading, until a wet and loose dough forms, and the dough is uniformly moist. Cover (not airtight), and let rest at room temp (approx 21C) for 2 hours until the dough rises, collapses flattens at the top. Use now, or refrigerate and use over the next 12 days.

When it’s baking time, sprinkle some flour over dough and pull out half the dough. Dust a board, and quickly shape into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball slightly as you do so. Flatten to a 1/2″ (2cm) thick round. Grease a tart pan or baking tray, indent the dough several times with your finger, pushing in chopped spring onion. Brush top of dough with oil. Leave for 20 minutes, preheating your oven to 200C or 400F 10 minutes in.

Fill a roasting pan with about 1c water, and place in oven at the same time you put the dough in. Bake for about 20-25 minutes on the middle rack, until lightly golden. Cut and preferably serve warm (great with a soup, on its own, and for gatherings).