(S1E3) Bread Week

Signature Bake

Notice: Before doing this challenge, I had the ability to watch the original season 1 (aired in 2010); however, recently, I have lost that ability. To give you a little insight, I would watch the episode completely through once to give me the opportunity to plan my bakes at least a week ahead because I unfortunately can't practice baking hundreds of rolls.

My coworkers, friends, and my own belly would be concerned.

After I complete the challenge, I go back and re-watch the show slower while I write my blog post to make sure I write down all of the rules.

I want to make sure you are keeping me accountable.

For instance, looking at Wikipedia this week, the Showstopper is called, "12 Sweet and 12 Savory Rolls" and then explains, "They can have at least 3 flavors and 6 hours."

I know I said I didn't trust Wikipidia during Biscuit Week, but I have to get episode information somewhere and this has been the best place. But, I was going back and re-watching the episode to confirm details.

However, what I am explaining, is now I can't.

I have no clue what 12 sweet and 12 savory rolls means. I have no idea what 3 flavors means.

Not one clue.

When I watched the episode I understood it as being the bakers needed to bake 3 types of sweet rolls and 3 types of savory rolls.

Where did this 12 come from?

So, I have come across an issue; I don't remember what all the rules are.

I can remember generic rules and I can remember the basic ideas of the bakes, but I can't remember everything.

Outcome: I am going to write about this challenge because I have already completed all the bakes, but after this post I will be jumping forward to Season 3 (aired in 2012); which can be found on American Netflix.

I do apologize for the confusion and the jump, but unfortunately, for me to follow my "rules" for my challenge, I need to be able to watch the episodes and at this time I am unable to finish original season 1 and also season 2.

Please let me know if you are irritated or confused and I would be happy to clear things up because I promise, I was definitely irritated and confused.

Now, let's get back to Bread Week!!!

Bread week has to be one of my favorite weeks. Not because I know what I am doing, but because I have no idea what I am doing and I absolutely love bread.

I would eat bread everyday if I could.

However, I don't bake bread very often and when I do, I stress a lot.

I stress about if I killed my yeast.

If I have mixed my salt and yeast together, which you should not do.

If killed my yeast.

If my water is too hot or too cold for the yeast.

Or if I killed my yeast.

I mean, most the time I am just worried about if I have killed my yeast or not.

Like, 95% of the time.

Also, didn't you just enjoy saying yeast 6 times?

Fun word to say.

So, bread week is my favorite week because I get to see all the bread, but I am not excited to bake my own bread this week.

Signature Bake: Nut Twist Bread (Nusszopf)

Reminder, I don't have all the rules because I couldn't re-watch the episode, but I do know I can only bake One loaf.

Time Limit: 3 1/2 hours

Ready. Set. Bake!

I didn't even know where to start.

My boyfriend mentioned that there is this German bread that has nuts twisted through it, nusszopf, and I knew that was the loaf I wanted to make.

His mum sent me the recipe and I was ready; however, I have no instructions.

That is alright.

We will figure this out together.

The issue with not having any instructions though, is sometimes I fall into this routine where I just toss all the ingredients in a bowl starting from the first one and working my way down.

3 hours and 15 minutes left -

I toss the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt into a large bowl.

At first, I thought this could be wrong.

I would have much rather mixed my warm milk with my yeast; however, I didn't want to waste all my flour, so I kept moving forward.

I toss the rest of my ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and start mixing.

3 hours left -

Another reason I don't like making bread, the kneading process really makes my arms tired.

I am not a weak person, but kneading dough for 15- 20 minutes is a lot of work

Also, again, the risk of it not rising is too scary.

Pretty much, if my dough does not rise, then I fail this challenge.

Fact.

2 hours and 45 minutes left -

The final product is gorgeous!

And then for the fun part, letting it rise. That is why these challenges are so long, it just takes forever for the dough to rise.

2 hours left -

I want to get my nut mixture prepped before the dough is finished, so I toss the nuts into the food processor and grind it into a fine mixture.

1 hour and 45 minutes left -

Great news! The dough has risen beautiful!

I plop the dough onto the counter and roll it out.

I then see that there is milk in the filling. I have never used milk for a filling like this and like I said before, I don't have instructions.

I don't really have an idea.

However, I have to do something, so I use a pastry brush and brush the milk over the bread so the nuts stick to it.

1 hour and 30 minutes left -

I roll the dough up and make sure the seam is tight.

1 hour 25 minutes left -

After rolling the dough, I slice the roll in half.

It looks really weird...

Super weird.

1 hour 10 minutes left -

However, once twisted together, it looks a lot prettier.

But now, I have a log and not a loaf.

From what I understand, this is what this bake should look like, but 1. I don't have a pan that is this big, and 2. I am not sure if this would be considered a loaf.

But I have a great idea!

I will twist the roll up to make a beautiful giant bun.

1 hour left -

Now I have to let it rise.

40 minutes left -

I toss the bread in the oven; however, I am slightly worried my bread won't be baked through because I have wrapped the log into a loaf.

I just need to keep an eye on it and hope for the best,.

10 minutes left -

The loaf looks pretty good. It is browning and smelling delicious, but only time will tell if it is baked through.

1 minute left -

I have to pull the loaf out and just hope it is baked all the way through.

I knock on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow, but I really can't tell.

Hopefully it is baked through, because time is up.

The Tasting

I slice the bread open and it looks good and smells better.

Like roasted nuts.

I'm drooling and I am so excited to test it out.

The dough seems to have nice air bubbles throughout the loaf. The texture is good, but not great. Unfortunately, the dough seems slightly under baked.

It probably needed about 10 more minutes.

I am not sure if Paul and Mary would have liked this bread.

However, I loved it!

P.S. Remember how I didn't know what to do with the milk for the filling? After this bake, I talked to a coworker and she mentioned that I should have mixed the milk in with the nuts.

Darn...

Technical Bake: The Cob

Rule: (From what I remember) only provided the list of ingredients.

Paul Hollywood's Cob Recipe:

500 grams strong white flour

40 grams soft butter

12 grams yeast

2 teaspoons salt

300 milliliters warm water

olive oil or sunflower oil

Time Limit: 2 1/2 hour

Ready. Set. Bake!

I am not trying to sound cocky, but a regular white loaf should not be too difficult. However, I have never made a cob and I am not the best bread baker.

I know some recipes for bread involve all the dried ingredients, including the yeast mixed together and other involve the water and yeast to sit together for a moment.

However, I don't know how to tell the difference.

Is there some magic bread knowledge where you know if you should mix the yeast with the dried ingredients and the yeast with the water?

Any ideas?

2 hours and 20 minutes left -

I am going to go with my gut and mix my dry ingredients together.

I press the butter into the flour mixture and prep the water to make sure it is not too hot or too cold.

All I am wishing now is that I am putting the bread together correctly.

2 hours and 10 minutes left -

I start to add the water into the dry ingredients little by little to make sure my dough does not get too wet.

I keep kneading the dough, adding a little water at a time until it feels nice and firm.

But, now for the hard part, knead until smooth.

2 hours left -

My arms are starting to get tired and my dough is not smooth.

1 hour and 50 minutes left -

I think my dough is going to be as smooth as it is going to get...

The recipe involves olive oil and I don't think I have ever added olive oil to bread, but I have oiled a bowl and the outside of the dough before, so that is what I am going to do.

1 hour and 45 minutes left -

Now I need to let the dough rest. I will give it 50 minutes and see how it is doing...

Hopefully, it rises.

1 hour and 20 minutes left -

I wanted to check to make sure my dough was growing.

It is not.

The issue right now in Seattle is it is cold, super cold, and I hate turning on my heat.

But, sometimes we just have to make sacrifices.

I turn up the heat and just hope it starts to grow.

45 minutes left -

It seems to have grown a little bit.

Thank goodness.

Hopefully it was enough because I need to get the dough into the oven.

By the way, I am still playing with the ideas of temperatures and baking bead, so I just turn it up to 425 and hope that is the temperature I need.

I drop it onto a baking sheet, not kneading it at all, take a knife and cut a few slits in the top and toss it in the oven.

3 minutes left -

One of my favorite things about baking is that you can start smelling it before it is done.

Oh my goodness, this bread smells good.

Smells great!

1 minute left -

I pull the loaf out; knock on the bottom, careful not to burn myself; and it is good and sounds hollow!

The Tasting:

This loaf is pretty, but it feels pretty dense. I am not sure if that is what the bread should be like and I am concerned I might have mixed my ingredients incorrectly.

However, the flavor is good. It tastes like a nice white loaf.

I could definitely have jam or butter on this piece of toast.

Sometimes, I wish I knew what Paul and Mary would say; however, most times, I am extremely happy that I don't know what they would say.

The Showstopper: 6 Types of Rolls

Rule: Bake 3 types of sweet rolls and 3 types of savory rolls. (I don't know where this 12 sweet rolls and 12 savory rolls rule came from...maybe, 12 total rolls or each, but I have no idea.)

Rule: Have at least 3 different flavors (I am guessing this means I have to have at least 3 different types of dough).

Time Limit: 6 hours

Ready. Set. Bake!

As you can imagine, 6 hours is a bit daunting. I mean, that is most of my working day...

Also, baking 6 different rolls.

This is going to be interesting...

As I have said before, I don't feel very confident in making bread and now I have to bake 6 different types of rolls in just 6 hours.

Also, I know what you are thinking. "Maybe do 1 an hour!"

Well, that does not really work because each dough needs a certain amount of time to rise, and then to be shaped, and then let rise again, and then bake.

However, we got this.

Right?!

Let's get started!

6 hours left -

I start by checking which dough takes the longest to rise, so that way I can get those ones started and I can let them sit while I work on the others.

The first one up is the Nutella Filled Sweet Buns.

I have never baked this dough, but what I found interesting is the dough has no added liquid. It only has eggs in it.

No water.

No milk.

No liquid.

This dough feels EXTREMELY dry.

I can't get it to stick together at all, so I decide to add a little water at a time to make it at least easier to work with.

5 hours and 30 minutes left -

Finally, a got the dough to form.

It took me longer than I was hoping, but I just have to keep moving forward.

This dough specifically needs to sit in the fridge, so I toss it in there and know I won't have to touch it for another 2 hours.

5 hours and 25 minutes left -

I can start on the next dough, which will be my sun-dried tomato and green olive buns.

The dough does not take long to rise the first time, about an hour, but I have to let it sit a second time for another hour after adding the tomatoes and olives.

I toss all the ingredients into one bowl, thankfully it is an extremely easy dough, and start mixing.

5 hours and 5 minutes left -

Thankfully this dough does not take long to come together.

I cover the dough with a tea towel and put it off to the side.

5 hours left -

I have two types of dough which involve letting the yeast rest in warmed liquid.

I first start the warmed milk and yeast dough for my honey and golden raisin buns and set it aside for 10 minutes.

While that one is feeding, I start my warmed water and yeast mixture for the salt and pepper buns.

4 hours and 50 minutes left -

As my yeast feeds, I notice that my water and yeast mixture is doing great.

However, my milk and yeast has not foamed at all.

I need to start it over, so I toss the milk and yeast mixture out and grab a clean bowl.

4 hours and 45 minutes -

As my milk and yeast rest, I use my water and yeast mixture to start my salt and pepper dough.

I get everything mixed pretty quickly, feeling really good about where I am at, but also realize I need to get at least one dough in the oven.

I cover the salt and pepper dough letting it rest for an hour.

4 hours and 30 minutes left -

I have 3 types of dough complete and I need to do two more.

I am going to use 1 type of dough for 2 rolls, the pesto and cinnamon rolls.

I feel like I am doing pretty good on time, but again, I need to get at least one of those rolls in the oven.

I decide to toss the olives and sun-dried tomatoes into the second dough because I will have to let it rise for 30 minutes before baking.

4 hours and 15 minutes -

After I get everything mixed together, I break the dough into buns and lay them out to rest and rise.

Thankfully, as I was prepping the sun-dried tomato buns, my yeast and milk fluffed up a little!

I get the rest of my ingredients for the honey and golden raisin buns mixed into my yeast and milk and set it aside for an hour.

I get to the point where I have so much dough sitting on my counter I have to put notes around to make sure I don't get them mixed up.

4 hours left -

I need to get my last dough started. Thankfully, it is my last dough and I can use it for two separate rolls.

I have made these cinnamon buns multiple times, so I feel good about this recipe.

3 hours and 40 minutes left -

I know...there are no pictures of me making this dough, I kind of got caught up in kneading and baking and forgot to take any photos.

Also, hard to take photos when you have sticky dough all over your hands.

However, the dough is done and resting!

Now it is time to get my sun-dried tomato buns in the oven and they look amazing!!!

I toss the buns in the oven and start shaping my next set of rolls.

I know the Nutella ones have to rest for 2 hours after filling, so I need to get these filled and set aside.

3 hours and 35 minutes left -

This dough is extremely hard to work with. It feels really dry and there is nothing I want to add because I could effect the dough.

It sucks because I have never worked with this type of dough before.

I just have to work with what I got though.

I roll the dough out and it starts to crack, but I think it will be okay.

I get the circles cut out and realize how much of a pain in the butt this is because I have actually a lot of dough to use.

I add some nutella to the middle of each disc hoping I don't over fill them.

As I start to pinch the discs shut, I notice that the does is not sticking well together, so I press them closed as well as I can and then rest them seam side down.

However, I have a crap more of these darn rolls to do.

3 hours left -

Finally, I have used all the dough.

I definitely got tired of wrapping these discs up.

But, now I can cover and let them rest for 2 hours.

Also - great news! First set of rolls out of the oven!

The salt and pepper rolls are ready to bake as well, but I have to break them into rolls and salt and pepper them.

2 hours and 55 minutes -

I break them into smaller pieces.

2 hours and 45 minutes -

Roll them into neater balls.

2 hours and 35 minutes -

And then let them rest for 20 min

As the salt and pepper buns are resting I split the last dough in half, my double batch, and start my cinnamon rolls.

2 hours 25 minutes -

The dough is rolled out and I spread my sugar and cinnamon over it to make sure it is compelte covered.

Thankfully, I have made these buns so many times that it takes me no time to complete them,

I roll the dough up and cut them into 4 inch pieces and lay them into a baking pan to rise.

2 hours and 15 minutes -

I am on a roll!!!

Ha!

Do you get it?

On a roll?...

Don't judge me...

Now, stop joking around and let us get back to the bake.

My salt and pepper buns are ready to bake, so cover them with a little egg and water and sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top, that is why they are called salt and pepper buns, and then I toss them in the oven!

2 hours and 5 minutes left -

Second bun in the oven!

Just to keep you updated, because I am also having a hard time keeping track of what I am doing:

I have the sun-dried tomato rolls done.

I have the nutella buns resting and they have about an hour left.

I have the cinnamon rolls resting and rising.

I have the salt and pepper buns in the oven.

I still have to prep my honey and golden raisin buns.

And I still have to fill, cut, and twist the pesto buns.

We are getting there!

2 hours left -

The golden raisin buns should be pretty easy and the dough has already grown, so I mix in the golden raisins and split the dough into rolls and prep them to bake.

Now for the resting and rising.

1 hour and 40 minutes left -

The salt and pepper ones are done!

2 buns down, 4 to go!

I go to grab my cinnamon rolls to toss them into the oven, but realize they have not risen.

I don't really have time to re-due them, so I just have to go with the flow.

I toss them in to the oven and hope they rise in there.

Next step, pesto twists.

1 hour and 30 minuets left -

I roll the dough out, prep my pesto and spread it out over the dough.

However, I do not have enough pesto, so I have to spread it very thin...

Oh well, I don't have more basil, so I don't have anything else I can do.

1 hour 10 minutes left -

Cinnamon rolls are done!

I still have the cinnamon roll glaze to finish, but I want to get the pesto twists done first.

However, I need to get the next roll in the oven before I even do that, so I toss the honey raisin buns in.

They should only take about 15 minutes.

1 hour and 5 minutes left -

I prep the pesto dough to twist.

And then twist away!

50 minutes left -

They look beautiful!

I need to let these ones rest before baking as well.

Rest, rest, rest. That is all this challenge is.

It is definitely hard to keep track of the resting, the rising, and the baking of 6 different buns.

Also, the honey buns should be done by now.

However, they are not...they seem goopy.

I check how long they should have been in the oven and realize I have the temperature at 250 degrees F and it should be at 325 degrees F.

Crap!

I turn up the temperature and keep an extremely close eye on them, but I need to prep the nutella buns to bake.

I grab the buns, spread a lovely egg and water wash on top and then press some hazelnuts into the tops.

40 minutes left -

I need to get these buns in the oven.

I check the honey and raisin buns and they look a little funny, but they seem to be baked through.

I toss the nutella sweet buns into the oven and start the glaze for the cinnamon rolls.

30 minutes left -

The glaze is done!

Smells like sweet butter and sugar.

Drooling!!!

20 minutes left -

The nutella buns seem to be done and I sure hope so, because the pesto twists need 20 minutes.

I pull the nutella ones out, toss the pesto ones in and now it is just the waiting game.

2 minutes left -

I am going to wait to the last minute before I pull these guys out.

30 seconds left -

Need to pull these twists out...

Sun-dried Tomato and Green Olive Buns - Done!

Salt and Pepper Buns - Done!

Pesto Twists - Done!

Honey and Golden Raisin Buns - Done!

Nutella Sweet Buns - Done!

Cinnamon Buns - Done!

That is right!

6 buns in 6 hours!

Holly crap yeah!!!

I can't tell you how proud I am of myself.

This is crazy.

But, the most important part, the tasting.

The Tasting:

Sun-dried Tomato and Green Olive Buns:

They are okay.

I kind of wish they had a stronger flavor in the bread itself and not just the bites of olives and sun-dried tomatoes. The bread is almost boring, like it needed a spice as well.

However, the bread has a nice texture.

Salt and Pepper Buns:

These are absolutely stunning. They grew beautifully and the flavor is good, but I would not just eat these buns as normal buns. I would love to eat them with some pulled pork or maybe a beef patty.

My boyfriend had mentioned that salt and pepper buns in Germany are really popular, so I wonder what makes my recipe different?

Pesto Twists:

These taste really really awesome. However, when I was baking them, I mentioned that I wish I had more pesto inside of the twists and that is what is missing. I wish I had about 4 times the amount of pesto in them.

Other than that though, the flavor of the bread itself is really great and the texture is great too.

Honey and Golden Raisin Buns:

Not good. I am serious. These buns did not turn out.

The flavor tastes off. Something did not turn out. Maybe I put something in it that I shouldn't have, maybe I added too much salt. Maybe it was a bad recipe.

No matter what, these will not be shared with anyone.

These are worthy of the bin.

Nutella Sweet Buns:

Oh my goodness!! These taste awesome!

However, the texture seems wrong. It is a little too dry, but the nutella helps with that thankfully.

Now I am wondering if adding water died it out or maybe it needed more liquid.

Who knows?

But, I do like these. I ended up eating three or four for dinner.

Please don't judge...

Cinnamon Buns:

I didn't even get a picture of these things.

They were out of my apartment within a day of making them.

These are gold in the baking world.

They are buttery, they are covered in sugar, and they are light and fluffy.

I could have eaten the whole pan.

With no question.

So, the outcome: I only had 1 roll that came out perfect and delicious; 3 that came out okay, but something could have made them better; 1 would have been better as a hamburger bun; and 1 that was just plain old bad. Just bad.

So, not great, but not horrible...right?

Giving Out the Buns:

Well, like I explained before hand, I was never a bread baker, but I don't think I did all that bad. My first bake turned out okay. My technical bake turned out okay, and my signature bake turned out okay. I just had an okay bake this week.

Better than last week, right!?

However, next week will be extremely interesting. I will be starting with Season 3 Episode 1, cake week again!!!

Also, crazy news! I will be baking this challenge in Germany!

See you all soon!