Great British Bake Off Week Seven

Bake Off week seven and this times it was festivals. I don’t think that’s a theme they’ve used  previously and I wasn’t too sure what to expect. In the end it turned out to be food for festivals in the sense of Christmas or Easter, not what you might expect to find to eat at a music festival. So there won’t be any vegan burgers here.

The challenges set for the bakers this week were a batch of festival buns as the signature bake, Sicilian cassatelle for the technical bake and a Sarawak layer cake for the showstopper. Options two and three were both new things to me and both very quickly ruled out.

Cassatelle are traditional Sicilian pastries that are served at Carnevale. Half mooned in shape, looking a bit like a pasty, they are filled with ricotta and chocolate and deep fried. I’d certainly like to try them but for the moment the lack of a deep fat fryer in our kitchen ruled out making any.

Sarawak_layer_cake, otherwise known as Kek Lapis, is one of the oddest things that I’ve ever seen on Bake Off. A multi layered , multi coloured cake where each part is grilled rather than baked. A completely over the top creation where I can’t help thinking that the look might far outweigh the taste. To be fair I’m probably not doing them justice and as you can see from the link they are a cake with a fascinating history.

That left festival buns as my weekend bake. First thoughts were Hot Cross buns but I decided against them on a couple of accounts. Firstly because I’ve already made them and one of the best parts of doing these posts is trying and sharing new bakes. Secondly because I wasn’t too sure if the rest of the people I was baking for would approve. To briefly explain, my partner and her mother, nether of whom are particularly religious or church goers, both have an objection to Hot Cross buns other than in the immediate Easter period. I’ve never really understood this and often bake them long before or after Easter just to spark another lively discussion. However even I felt that perhaps October was a bit too long after.

So it was back to the cookery books and a trawl through the indexes looking for references to festivals recipes. I have a couple of books based on Scandinavian baking and they offered the best choices. In the end I opted for Swedish St Lucia buns, which are apparently a Christmas favourite. The texture and taste of the buns is very similar to brioche and the addition of saffron infused milk in the dough makes them something special. They are fine eaten cold but even better  if you warm them under the grill first.

If you fancy having a go this is the recipe

Ingredients

250ml Milk

1tsp Saffron

50g Unsalted butter

500g Strong White Bread Flour

1tsp Salt

1x7g pack dried yeast

50g Castor Sugar

100g Quark Cheese

Method

1. Warm the milk is a saucepan over a gentle heat. When steaming take it off the heat and add the saffron and butter. Set aside for the butter to melt and the saffron to infuse the milk.
2. Mix the flour, salt yeast and sugar in a bowl.
3. Strain the saffron infused milk into the flour bowl, add the quark and mix together to form a dough.
4. Knead the dough for about six minutes until it’s smooth. Then set aside in a covered bowl to prove for approximately 90 minutes.
5. When the dough has proved knock it back to take any air out. Then split the dough into twelve pieces. Roll each piece into a 30cm sausage.
6. Bend the pieces into S shapes. Coil the end of each S tightly into a scroll. Place onto a baking tray that has either been brushed with oil or dusted with flour. If you are making 12 you will probably need two trays.
7. When the tray is full cover it and leave to prove for another 45 minutes.
8. Toward the end of this prove heat the oven to Gas 6 / 200C
9. After the second prove brush the buns with beaten egg and press a raisin into the scroll at the end of each S
10. Bake for 12 minutes. The buns should be a light golden brown

If I make these again I might be tempted to add some raisins into the dough rather than just as a final adornment. If you have difficulty finding quark, as I did to begin with, natural or greek yoghurt should work as a substitute.

Next time it’s pastry week. Something tells me that we might talking about pies next time.