Soft White Bread Rolls (Wheat-, Egg-, and Dairy Free)

There are very few things in this life that are better than freshly baked bread. And luckily, using this recipe, it can be enjoyed if you are a spelt eater

 I remember when I was a little girl, Mum used to bake delicious white bread. The excitement of watching the dough rise, then watching the loaf go into the range (yes: we had a range. I was brought up in very rural West Clare in the '90s), then watching it emerge as a delicious treat waiting to happen. When it was St. Patrick's Day, Mum used to tint the dough green, so we could have green toast. It was exactly the kind of novelty that little children revel in, especially my brother, who is called Patrick.

I'm just wondering how many other applications there are for this dough: it seems incredibly versatile. This recipe uses exactly the same bread recipe as I used to make the pork dim sum, but applied to a slightly different context. I also discovered that this bread dough can be used to make delicious thin crust pizza, but I want to experiment with deep dish pizza, which has always been a favourite of mine.
FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts
☑ Eggs
☑ Dairy

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Yeast
☒ Refined sugar products


INGREDIMENTS
For 10 small buns, or 8 medium sized buns

• 12 ounces (340 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 quarter-ounce (7 grammes) package of instant yeast
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) baking powder
• 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) hand hot water
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) sunflower oil

METHOD

First, prepare the yeast dough.

• In a large mixing bowl, mix 8 ounces (225 grammes) of the flour, the yeast, sugar, oil, and warm water together. Mix into a sticky paste, cover, and leave to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes, or until doubled in size and very spongy in appearance.
• Once risen, remove from the oven and sieve in the rest of the flour, the baking powder, and salt and mix together by hand until fully incorporated.
• Knead in the bowl until it forms a dough ball, and until the bowl is completely clean. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead continuously for 4 minutes.
• Return the dough to the bowl, cover again, and leave to rise again for 1 to 1½ hours, or until about doubled in size.

Next, assemble and cook the rolls.

• When the dough is fully risen, take it out and gently deflate it. Gently flatten the dough into a circle, and cut the circle into 10 or 8 pieces. If you like, you can use a digital scale to be more precise with the division.
• Take each piece and wad up into a ball, keeping the surface nice and taught. Place on a floured baking tray about an inch apart, so they can grow into each other.
• Cover lightly with a piece of cling film, put back in the warm place, and proof for a further 25 to 35 minutes, until doubled in size and touching.
• While the dough is proofing, preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F, Gas Mk.7), with a oven proof jug of boiled water on the bottom to make it steamy.
• When the buns are risen, sprinkle with a little bit of flour, score the tops in a cross shape, then place in the steamy preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes, until brown on top.
• Once cooked, allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before eating.

Like with any kind of bread rolls, they are best eaten on the day they are eaten. I follow the adage: today it's bread, tomorrow it's toast, the next day it's for the birds.

However, these can be frozen raw. Once you have formed the dough balls, freeze on a tray before proofing the second time, pack them into bags once frozen, and freeze them for up to 2 weeks. When you want them, line them up on a floured tray as instructed, and allow to thaw and proof in a warm place for about 4 or 5 hours. Bake as instructed.

Caramel Macchiato Ombre Gateau (Wheat Free)

This year's creation for my eldest brother's birthday is a caramel macchiato ombre gateau!

My eldest brother's birthday is the first in the year, which is convenient for the first born, and he--like our dad--likes coffee cake. And after years and years of simple old coffee cakes, you start to crave something a little different. As for the icing, I've never done an ombre, or gradient, effect cake before, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I took my inspiration from an American coffee shop classic: the caramel macchiato. Espresso mixed with some caramel syrup, topped off with a dollop of steamed milk foam. Although I could have done some white icing rosettes on the top of this cake to represent the milk foam, I decided to stick with my two tone pallet.

Using the caramel and coffee flavours and colours, I faded the two colours together nicely for a first attempt! There are countless tutorials on YouTube for ombre icing, and there is no point in reinventing the wheel: I will trust that you will find a tutorial online that best describes the process, because explaining it in writing is actually very challenging. I tried writing a few drafts, but I just couldn't quite capture it.

I used some delicious Lavazza coffee to make the cakes, and I mixed the brewed coffee with a little instant to up the ante and give it a super coffee kick, as well as including some ground beans in the cake itself.

I made the cake at my companion's house, where he had no fudge pieces to decorate it. Luckily, there were some in my Mum's house, where the celebration was held.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy (dairy substitutes can be found in italics)
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products


INGREDIMENTS
For one large 8 inch (22 centimetre) round cake

• 7 ounces (200 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) baking powder
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) baking soda
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) butter, at room temperature, or margarine
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) brown sugar
• 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) very strong coffee, either brewed or instant
• Optional: 1 level tablespoon (15 millilitres) ground coffee

For the caramel,

• 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) evaporated milk, cream, lactose free cream or cream substitute
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) light brown sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) butter, or margarine
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) golden syrup
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• ¼ teaspoon (2 millilitres) salt

For the buttercream,

• 12 ounces (340 grammes) icing sugar, sifted
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) butter, at room temperature, or margarine
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) vegetable fat, at room temperature
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) caramel, as prepared above
• 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 millilitres) cream, or evaporated milk, or regular milk or milk substitute
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) instant coffee
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) boiling water

For assembly,

• Fudge or caramel sweets, cut into ¼ inch (5 millimetre) cubes

METHOD

First of all, make the caramel sauce.

• Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and heat together over medium-low heat, until all ingredients are melted and combined,
• Once you achieve a smooth mixture, raise the temperature to medium-high and cook vigorously until the consistency becomes thick and creamy. This should take about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on your cooker.
• Pour into a pre-warmed bowl--to prevent the ceramic from cracking, just swish some hot water around in the bowl and tip it out--and allow to cool to room temperature, which should take about an hour or two.
• Once cool, chill in the fridge for about an hour until it becomes thick and spreadable.

While the caramel is cooling and thickening, make the cake.

• Preheat your oven to 170ºC (325ºF, Gas Mk. 3), and grease and flour an 8 inch (22 centimetre) deep round cake tin.
• Prepare the cake according to this recipe, using coffee instead of cocoa powder and hot water, and sifting the cornflour in with the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until fully baked and a skewer comes out clean. Cool as instructed.

For the icing,

• Dissolve the instant coffee into the hot water and allow to cool to room temperature.
• Beat the vegetable fat until creamy with an electric mixer, then add the butter. Continue to beat until fully combined.
• Beat in 4 ounces (115 grammes) of the prepared caramel until smooth and creamy.
• Beat in half the icing sugar on a low speed until combined, then the rest of the icing sugar. Adjust the consistency with the cream, or substitute, if needed.
• Split the icing into two batches, and mix the dissolved coffee into one of the batches.

To assemble:

• Cut the dome off the cake, then slice in half horizontally. Attach the top half of the cake to its platter with a tiny smear of the filling to make the bottom layer. Spoon the remaining caramel sauce onto the cake layer and spread out with a palette knife (or butter knife) until it's about half an inch (1 centimetre) from the edge.
• Using the caramel icing, ice the whole cake with a very thin crumb coat. Chill for a full hour.
• Once chilled, you can ice in a gradient affect: ice the top normally with the caramel icing, then the top half of the sides with a very thick layer of caramel icing; you should use all of the caramel icing in this process. Ice the lower half thickly with half of the coffee icing. Then, smooth out the edges in confident strokes to create the gradient. There are hundreds of videos on YouTube about this, and watching is better than reading when it comes to these things.
• Mix the excess icing with the remaining coffee icing, place into a piping bag with a large round tip, and pipe decorations around the bottom edge and top edge of the cake.
• Sprinkle the top with the cut caramel or fudge.
• You may have some icing left over from making this cake. If so, you can use it for another project, or freeze it for up to 3 months.

THIS TIME IN 2016: Coffee 'Cheesecake' Gâteau

THIS TIME IN 2015: Orange Mocha Gâteau (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2014: No-Churn, No-Cook, Practically No-Effort Chocolate Ice-Cream (That's as good as Ben & Jerry's)

Spelt Burger Buns, Brioche Style (Wheat Free)

Yayeeee!! First post of 2017!! I have an excite about it! And today, I've rustled up some burger buns.

My bread phase is still alive and kicking after the Christmas period, and myself and my companion thought we'd have some nice lamb burgers. We went to a concert this week, and had planned to stop by Dublin's Eddie Rockets restaurant to have some fine American diner food, but we hadn't timed it well enough. So, the day after we thought we'd make some burgers and chips: he made the lamb mince burgers, and made the buns.

This isn't so much as recipe as an idea for something to do with this dough recipe that I used to make the iced buns. It's a super soft dough, which is firm enough to use for brioche style burger buns. The crumb is firm and strong enough to hold a meat patty, but still soft and fluffy, like an edible pillow.

The difference is this time I used half the quantity of the original recipe, and instead of rolling the dough into fingers, I divided the dough into six equal balls and flattened them to about half an inch (1 centimetre) thick. I lightly greased and floured a flat tray, placed the dough pieces on the tray in a 2-1-2-1 pattern to they'd have soft corners, then allowed to proof until doubled in size. I preheated the oven to the same temperature as the original recipe, brushed each bun with egg wash and sprinkled with sesame seeds. I baked them for 15 minutes, turning the tray through 180 degrees halfway through cooking, until they were golden and brown.

These buns are best eaten on the day they're made, when fully cooled. The next day, they can be eaten as sandwiches. They day after, they can be eaten as toast. But after that, they're best as dog food. I wish I had taken some pictures of them as hamburger sandwiches, but it was night time and the photos didn't come out very well.

If one were to use the full recipe quantity, this would make 12 buns suitable for quarter-pounder meat patties, or 24 buns or slider burgers, which would be super cute and adorable. If you don't like sesame seeds, you can leave them off, or you could also use poppy seeds. I'd personally love to find some black sesame seeds for next time.

I bought a packet of sesame seeds from Lidl, and they had 100 gramme bags. So now I have a load of sesame seeds in my companion's cupboard. If anyone has suggestions for recipes that need lots and lots of sesame seeds, I'm all ears!

This time last year: Rondos: Almond "Fingers" (Wheat Free with a Dairy Free Option)

This time in 2015: Something Savory: Chicken and Ham Pie (Wheat Free)

This time in 2014: Oatie Biscuits (Wheat Free)

Happeeee New Year!!

Happy new year to all my readers here at Sweetie Pie Bakes stuff! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Looking forward to starting a brand new year with you all, with less depression and life altering changes.

As per usual, I will uploading all of my Christmas creations retrospectively. This year, I will try my best to have all my Christmas stuff uploaded before Christmas instead of after!

2016 was incredibly challenging: I suffered a relationship breakdown at the end of 2015; I was having trouble at home and difficulties at work; I had a relapse of depression; I moved city; I started a new relationship, started college, and the place I lived in didn't have adequate cooking facilities; I spent a large amount of my time travelling to see my family and my companion, who each lived an hour and a half away from me in opposite directions; and I then got iron-deficiency anaemia by the end of the year.

As such, my blogging halved: I went from about 65 a year, to only 33 in 2016. This year, I sat down and came up with ideas to try each month, so that every month from February I have at least 4 or 6 ideas to try. Of course as the months go on I'll come up with new ideas on top of the planned ones, which will bring up my monthly average back to normal. Just goes to show what a little planning and forethought can achieve!

This year as well, I will be moving my focus a little bit towards a more holistic approach, sharing both sweets and meals. It's good to enjoy sweets, but they are an important part of a balanced diet, and sometimes people like to learn how to cook dinners as well as desserts.

I'm really looking forward to this coming year. 2016 went from one of the worst years of my life, to one of the best, and I hope that 2017 will continue getting better!

Lots of love, Sweetie Pie xxx