Gluten Free Easter: Paleo Banana Muffins Recipe Review

Paleo banana muffins

As well as making a carrot cake for Scott’s mum I also made these amazing banana muffins for Scott’s dad. I chose another gluten free recipe because I didn’t want to contaminate the kitchen with flour but also because it is better for you. I imagine the cake and muffins will get shared around the family, always a scary moment when it’s your own cooking!

I found these muffins on ‘With Style and Grace Blog’, an absolutely stunning gluten free recipe blog. I have found loads I want to cook and the photography is inspiring.
I was really drawn to this recipe because there is no added sugar and it includes flax seeds, it is also sweet enough to be a nice present…healthy yet a treat!

I was really pleased with how crumbly they were!

I have read bits and bobs about the Paleo diet and I found it really interesting, but its not something I am going to be trying any time soon. It has some amazing health benefits but at the moment cutting out meat, dairy and gluten is enough for me to concentrate on!

You need really ripe bananas for banana bread, I quite enjoyed picking out the oldest looking bananas knowing I may have saved a few from being thrown away at the end of that day. I personally can’t stand eating ripe bananas by themselves but in baking they add a necessary sweetness.

I think the different sizes make them rustic…..

I doubled the recipe which made 15 and most made it up to the family but a few got eaten straight away…and I snuck 2 in the freezer to have next week

I’d definitely recommend these, they were really easy to make and they’d be perfect for a breakfast or snack!

Gluten Free Easter: Nigella’s Carrot Cake Recipe Review

I had to include this photo because it just looked like a giant pac man cake!

What is everyone doing this Easter holiday? Me and Scott are travelling up to the midlands (north of the Watford gap so I say we’re going up north but its technically the midlands!) to visit his family which I’m really looking forward too. I wanted to take something a bit more personal than the usual Easter eggs so I decided to bake cakes! (although we still have plenty of brightly coloured chocolate eggs for the kids, somehow I think a gluten free Venetian carrot cake may be disappointing to them!) Scott’s mum has celiac disease which means she cannot eat wheat and gluten so this was a perfect time to have a go at some gluten free baking.

Carrot cake feels very easter friendly and I found this Nigella Lawson “Venetian Carrot Cake”  recipe when I was browsing online. I decided to try it because it was so different to cake recipes I had seen before. It uses ground almonds, carrots, sultanas soaked in rum and olive oil instead of butter!

Moist and crumbly

The problem with baking a cake as a present is that you can’t cut it open or taste it without ruining the look of it. Because this recipe was so different to anything I’d tried before and i really wanted it to be perfect I actually made two. The cake pictured here is my first attempt which, although delicious, had its flaws. I found that my oven was too hot so the top darkened too far and the middle was a little dense. Also I felt it could do with a little more carrot.

For my second cake I turned the oven down from 180c to 160c because mine is a fan oven and I think that is why my first cake cooked too quickly. I also checked it after 25 mins, 30 mins and finally took it out after 35 mins. Maybe I was a bit paranoid but it was a much lighter golden colour and it felt cooked through.

Gluten free and full of flavour!

I found some parts of the recipe really frustrating as it was not very descriptive, for example at one point it says “…when well whisked, fold in the ground almonds…” As someone who is unfamiliar with using olive oil in a cake I had no idea at what point my mixture would be “well whisked’. I kept whisking but it never turned the fluffy pale cream a cake with butter would so I just went along with it.

A part from that each stage was quite simple to follow and I felt I was getting each stage done quickly and correctly. Which is a change from the often messy rush my baking can turn in to the end result is a deliciously sweet, crumbly, carrot cake which is completely different from any other carrot cake I have ever tried.

What’s your favourite baked good for Easter? I can’t resist hot cross buns freshly toasted with lashings of butter

Coconut, Cherry and Dark Chocolate Cake

I know it’s not the end of the month but today I made my own recipe of a cake and had to share it! I might try another of my ideas next week or I may call it a day on the cakes because I am having to visit the gym more frequently

Coconut cake with a cherry and dark chocolate layer topped with flaked almonds and brown sugar

I absolutely loved the Bakewell cake I made last week with the fruits layered in between the cake sponge mix. I decided to take this idea but put my own flavours into it, Cherries are at the end of their season and I picked up a large bag from my local market for cheap, if you can’t get cherries any more and don’t want to wait untill next summer then any berry would work just as well. Preferably a sweeter berry such as a raspberry or strawberry.

I got the idea for the brown sugar topping from a comment left by Loustar on my courgette and lemon cake and I loved it, so much nicer than a sweet icing (which this cake definitely did not need) and a bit more interesting than icing sugar. When I sprinkled the brown sugar on top it looked beautiful like glitter! This topping is completely optional but does look so rustic and pretty.

Love the beautiful cherries piled on top!

I had enjoyed the flavours of the ground almonds in the BBC Bakewell recipe and I decided that with the rich chocolate and cherries I would also need an element of the cake which would break through those flavours. I decided on desiccated coconut because it is quite earthy and would top off the chocolate beautifully (any one else love bounty bars??)

I also couldn’t help but pile flaked almonds on the top for that crunch! This topping is also optional but delicious, maybe it would also work with the coconut sprinkled on top!

The cherries and chocolate ooze out from in between the cake sponge

Makes 1 cake to serve however many you fancy!

140g Unsalted Butter
140g Caster Sugar
140g Self Raising flour
70g desiccated Coconut (not the sweetened variety)
3 Medium Sized Eggs
300g unpitted cherries
50g Dark Chocolate chips (or grated chocolate if you’re using a bar of chocolate)
Brown Sugar for decoration

NB: Pitting the cherries is a very mundane job if you don’t have a fancy little gadget that does it for you. I found halving the cherry then digging the stone out of one side was the easiest and quickest. Put a handful of whole cherries to one side to decorate the top.

Pre heat the oven to 170c (fan oven) and butter/ line a 22cm/ 9 inch diameter cake tin. Lining it is annoyingly time-consuming for someone inpatient like me but if you are wanting to take it out of the tin easily this is an important part of the process.

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar using an electric whisk (you can use a food processor if you have one but I don’t so I find that putting a clean tea towel over a bowl will help stop the mix flying everywhere. It’s insanely unhealthy but also impossible not to just dip a finger in at this point! but yes maybe don’t eat the mix quite yet!

Once the butter and sugar is light and fluffy sift in the flour and add the sugar, coconut and eggs. Mix well untill everything is combined and you have a moist cake batter.

Tip half of the cake mixture into the cake tin and spread out to form one even layer. Cover with a layer of pitted cherries and evenly sprinkle over the chocolate chips then top the whole lot with the rest of the cake mixture and gently smooth it down using a spatula or the back of a spoon (or your finger) so that the cherries are completely covered. At this point if you are using the flaked almonds then sprinkle those over.

Put on the middle shelf of your oven for 30 minutes. Check the cake is cooked but inserting a knife or poker and if it comes out clean then the cake is done. It should also be golden on top.

Leave it too cool in the tin then remove and place on a wire rack untill it is completely cooled. Sprinkle with brown sugar and pile some fresh cherries on top.

surprise colours when you slice into the cake

Blackberry Bakewell Cake (BBC Goodfood recipe): Friday Challenge!

I can’t believe I have gone from only making a very small handful of un successful cakes to now baking good cakes every week! Is it because I have more patience now to follow a recipe? or because I really want to learn this time? Whatever it is I am really enjoying it and have a feeling it may be something I continue to practise, especially over the christmas period! (I know I did it – September and I’m thinking about christmas!)

The cake before being sliced to reveal the fruits

So this cake is actually named “Raspberry Bakewell cake” but I have a freezer full of blackberries from my garden so it seemed this was a perfect opportunity to use them. I think the cake was delicious with blackberries, slightly less sweet than a raspberry maybe but a lovely subtle match to the almond flavours. You can get the recipe by following this link

It uses a mix of self raising flour and ground almonds to give it a more crumbly texture and a lovely almond flavour then it is topped with flaked almonds to give it a little crunch. I had thought the flaked almonds would burn on the top of the cake however they came out just lightly toasted which was a relief.

Once sliced in to you can see the layer of fresh blackberries in the middle of the sponge

What I liked about this cake was that the outside was a little crunchy and the outside layer of cake went abit crispy, then the inside is beautifully moist and crumbly with the sweet fruits giving so much flavour. I really think this is be far the best cake I have made so far!

It is very simple to create this layered fruit effect, simply make a cake batter and pour half into a lined cake tin, cover the mix with a single layer of fruits and then top with the remaining cake mixture, top with flaked almonds and bake in the oven. The main difficulty I had was trying to spread the cake mixture over the top of the berries without moving all the berries or ending up with some berries on the top. Some poked out of the side but when I looked at the original picture they had the same effect so I’m happy!

It’s a natural way to bring colour to a cake and it would look beautiful served at any tea party. I’d like to try it with pears or apricots or apples with a toffee sauce, the ideas are endless!

Soo pretty inside the cake!

What I have learnt about Cake?
You can mix different types of flour with ground almonds to create a more crumbly texture with a slightly more natural rustic flavour. Also adding fruits such as berries in the middle of the cake mix makes it moist but not as wet as the courgette cake I previously attempted.
I was also really happy with the effect of the flaked almonds, I have loads left over from this recipe so I will definitely be using those again soon!

Oh I also really really liked the lack of icing in this recipe, I’m not a fan of icing at all and would rather get the sweetness from fruits as done in this recipe

Marbled Chocolate and Sponge cake: Friday Challenge

My Friday Challenge has become a bit of a Sunday Challenge. There is just something about baking, it feels more natural to bake a cake after a nice lazy sunday morning when your feeling relaxed and you have a day free from distractions. Also it feels more accepted to have a slice of cake…or two…on a weekend rather than during the week!

A slice of pretty marbled cake AKA Zebra cake

I saw this technique when browsing pinterest for cake ideas and it looks so simple yet impressive I really had to try it, I followed the link back to a great blog called My Cake School where I found a visual tutorial. The recipes I found all used instant cake mixes, which I was very tempted by, however this challenge is to help me learn to bake so I made my own cake mix.

I decided to dip into my Delia Smith “Complete Cookery Course” which I knew would have a simple sponge recipe I could adapt for this marbled technique. I used the “All in One Sponge” which was so easy to make. I’m also starting to notice that cake recipes use equal measures of flour, sugar and butter so I feel I could begin to put together my own recipe.

Ok so here is how I made the cake:

Split the cake mix in half and add melted chocolate and cocoa powder to one half

Place a scoop of the sponge mix in the tin and then a scoop of chocolate cake mix in the middle

Place another scoop of plain sponge mix on top of the chocolate. Continue this alternating the two mixes untill it is all used up and the cake has spread out to fill the tin

Mine’s not beautiful round rings but you get the idea of what you are looking for

I think my cake mix was a little too thick to allow it to smoothly begin to spread as I added each layer, I would suggest using a looser thin cake mix. Also I really liked the chocolate flavours but you could also experiment with different colours!

Marbled/ Zebra Cake

I don’t think the chocolate flavour came through massively but over all it was a light, sweet sponge. Also I preferred it with no icing, instead I added some fresh strawberries to add some moisture and fresh sweetness. So much nicer than sugary icing!

Frosted Courgette and Lemon Cake (BBC Goodfood): Friday Challenge

I’ve once again dived into the foodie world of BBC Good Food to find some inspiring recipes for my Friday Challenge. I originally was going to make a Twix and Banana cake from a cookbook I have at home but my dad gave me a big bag of vegetables from his garden including some big courgettes so I decided to incorporate those into this weeks cake challenge.

Look at the size of it! I only needed half for my cake

I’ve always loved the idea of using vegetables in baking, I’ve seen beetroot and chocolate cakes, parsnip breads, potato scones and now courgette cake. The recipe can be found following ‘this link’. The recipe had good reviews with some good tips on how to prepare the courgettes however when I made it I don’t think it worked quite to plan.

The recipe calls for you to put the butter, sugar, grated and drained courgettes and other ingredients into a bowl and beat until a creamy batter, but mine became really wet and the butter separated from everything else. I decided to drain some of the liquid out of the bowl and carried on beating but it was still far too wet so in the end I just added the flours anyway and carried on.

A slice of the cake – you can see the courgette but it’s not a strong taste!

This is probably why my cakes are quite flat but they actually tasted amazing and the texture of the cake was crumbly yet moist. The lemon flavour is quite intense because of the glaze and the lemon in the icing but it wasn’t too sweet against the actual cake mixture. I think I will definitely make this again however next time I will make sure I have drained my courgettes completely to avoid another soggy batter mix. I also have a feeling that home grown courgettes would be more watery than shop bought but that’s just a theory.

What I have learnt about cakes:
When adding something like a vegetable or fruit to a cake mixture the level of moisture can effect the texture of the crumb, too wet and you end up with a very dense moist cake. Drain the grated courgette as much as you can! I also learnt that adding a glaze to the cake as it cools can really lift the flavour balance and add more moisture (not that this cake needed that!)

Ok so next week would normally be my own recipe but I’ve been enjoying making cakes and I still have loads to learn so I’m going to continue it for another month! The not only can I really practise the cake I want to make, I can also take my time with it and make it perfect!

The Great British Bake off and Mary Berry’s Chocolate Cake (Fast Cakes cookbook): Friday Challenge!

Photo Source: http://www.thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/about

I was a bit excited when the other day my friend told me The Great British bake-off was restarting on BBC. Not only does it time perfectly with my Cake Friday Challenge month but also I had already baked a Mary Berry recipe ready to be put forward as one of my efforts to learn the art of cakes (Mary Berry is one of the judges and quite rightly “The Queen of Cakes”).

For those of you who may not know about this show here is a little summary. Twelve amateur bakers all compete each week to be crowned The UK’s Best Amateur Baker, each week focuses on a different theme such as cakes, bakes, pies, bread etc. For each theme they have to do three challenges, a signature bake which gives them a chance to show off individual skills. Then a technical challenge where they all follow the same recipe (usually with quite varying results) and finally the show stopper round where they are allowed to be as creative as possible. This final round includes things like Celebration cakes.

I watched the first episode this week and guess what they were making…cakes! Although I have to say they were FAR beyond my capabilities so I don’t think you’ll be seeing me as a contestant in the near future. They began with a signature dish challenge where they had to make “upside down” cakes. I found this hugely inspiring and helpful because I had actually been thinking of doing something like this as my own recipe and I feel very stupid because in my head I was going to put the cake batter into a cake tin and then pile the fruit on top and put it in the oven. What a mess I would have made!

Next they had to cook Paul Hollywood’s recipe for Rum Baba’s, a doughnut shaped cake with cream in the middle and fruit around the edges. This round is always brilliant because the recipe they are asked to follow is often vague and it is left down to the contestant’s intuition. I felt so sorry for poor Natasha last night when she decided to take a risk and cook the cake in a Bain- Marie where as everyone else baked theirs. They also have to guess how it will be presented!

Finally there is the show stopper round and this week’s challenge was a “Hidden Design” cake. So when you cut the cake in half there is a design hidden within the actual sponge. Some of the creativity and ideas blew me away! One woman Victoria (My current favourite so far) made a cake which looked like a pie with black birds coming out of the top, when you cut into it there was a picture black bird holding on to a coin within the sponge, it was truly fantastic. Unfortunately I can’t find a picture of it but here is a link to her recipe on the BBC.

So on to my own experimentation with cake – Mary Berry’s First Rate Chocolate cake from her book Fast Cakes.

A slice of Chocolate Cake using Mary Berry’s recipe

This recipe was so easy compared to the Victoria Sponge I made last week, and had a lot less sugar and butter. It is literally a case of mixing ingredients in a large bowl, pour into cake tin and bake in the oven. The sponge is flavoured with cocoa powder so is quite light in colour but it made a lovely fluffy cake. I loved the icing on the top too it was very rich and gooey!

My mum always makes notes in her cook books (something I have taken to doing too!) and so when I saw this I knew this was going to be my next cake..

I actually made this cake twice in the same weekend because I decided it was so easy I could quickly knock it up to take around to my dads for his birthday dinner. Over the two times I made it I made a few mistakes -

1. On my first attempt I thought my icing wasn’t thick enough so I poured in some more icing sugar, however this clumped and made it lumpy and speckled with icing sugar clumps instead of smooth and glossy.

2. On my second time making it I was sifting my flour into the bowl and soon realised my scales hadn’t registered the weight so I had to guess. This meant the cake for my dad was a bit drier than my first one which was a shame.

3. I decided to decorate my dads cake with chocolate buttons so made the icing on the hob then let it cool slightly, then I started to ice and decorate the cake. I have no idea why I did this but I very quickly realised that everything was melting and sliding off the cake and then it hit me – I’ve put the cake plate onto the top of the oven over the warm hob! The chocolate buttons were melting quickly! I had to just stick it in the fridge and hope for the best!

This is the sort of recipe I feel I could have fun playing around with, using different flavours of cocoa powder such as orange and layering caramelised oranges on top or mixing in chocolate chips! For this one I used Green and Blacks Organic Cocoa powder it was delicious!

What I have learnt about Cakes:
Getting the quantity of flour right is crucial as adding even slightly too much can result in a dry cake! Also make sure to sift the ingredients, especially in the icing, because other wise it could be lumpy. I think it’s pretty clear that I also learnt that when decorating the cake it should be kept cold and not placed over a direct heat source……..

I really liked just having the one layer of cake, the victoria sponge looked impressive but was soo big it almost felt like having a whole meal with each slice. This chocolate cake was rich but just a small slice would satisfy. I think I will carry on making one layer cakes but we’ll see!

A Classic Victoria Sponge (LEON Baking and Puddings recipe): Friday Challenge!

I had a bit of a disaster when I set my self ‘Bread’ as my friday challenge subject a few months ago. I learnt how to make a pretty decent bread roll but when it came to adding my own flavours and trying to be abit creative I came up short and realised that it would take a bit more practise. With that in mind I decided to try the whole baking thing again but this time with cakes!

I like cake but I’m definitely more of a savoury person so I thought this would be a challenge for me, but I can honestly say that after eating this victoria sponge I am starting to think maybe I like cake much much more than I realised…

I decided to start with a Victoria Sponge because it is the staple cake recipe which has stood the test of time. It doesn’t have too many flavour additions so I can learn how to bake a standard sponge without being distracted by extras and well it is quintessentially British as it was named after Queen Victoria so it seems apt for these Olympic times! Also since I met Scott he has been asking me to bake him his favourite Victoria Sponge and all this time I have promised one day I will, and now 5 years later I finally have! Even if I did tie it in with some blog cooking, to be fair that’s even better for him as I’m now going to make 3 or 4 more cakes for the month.

The recipe is from my current favourite cookbook range ‘LEON Baking and puddings’ (The book I also made gooey chocolate cakes from). The recipe was really simple to follow and although it took a little bit of work, such as alternating adding the eggs with the flour and beating each time, I can honestly say that this was really quite easy to make! You can buy this book and others from the LEON range here. The recipe for this cake is in the Baking and Puddings book.

A big wedge of Viccy Sponge

I was so impressed with the height of this cake and also how light and fluffy the cake was inside, I’m guessing this was from the amount of times I had to beat the cake mix before baking it in the oven. I didn’t have any vanilla essence so I added some maple syrup to the mix, I was scared this would ruin it but it just added the sweetness that the vanilla would have.
I was alarmed at the amount of sugar and butter went into this cake (330g of each!!) but I guess it is meant to be a treat..to be shared…

The inside of my Victoria Sponge

What I have learnt about cakes:
From my first attempt at baking a cake I feel like this is going to be quite acheivable, it was quite simple and I think as long as you follow the instructions pretty closely then you can’t go too wrong. I left my cake in the oven for 30 minutes whereas the recipe called for 40 minutes however mine is a fan oven and I know from cooking other things that it usually takes a little less than the recommended cooking time. I also remember from watching “The Great British Bake Off” that you shouldn’t open and close the door often as you will cool the oven down and your cake might sink so I only opened my oven twice, once to check and the second time to take it out.
I would like to see what would happen when you mix fruits or nuts into the cake mix before baking, would it be too soggy? Would it tip the fluffy cake off balance? If anyone has any suggestions please let me know

Almost there bread rolls and an IOU

Before I begin I should probably just let you know that this post was written on sunday (20th May) and since then I am feeling a little better. Now please continue …

I’m having one of those days…….you know when you wake up feeling wide awake and assume it’s probably around 7am so you start to get up, then you spy the clock out of the corner of your eye and your worst nightmare hits home…it’s 1am and you’ve been in bed for 2 hours!! I then spent the rest of the night waking up every 30 minutes or so and feeling pretty darn sorry for myself the next day.

Then, when it was actually time to get up, a few hours of revision was followed by my attempt to make my own recipe bread rolls. With just an idea and a feeling of adventure I began but very soon my lack of baking knowledge and need for a glass of wine and a nice hot bath took over and by the end I was surrounded by a pile of half decent almost passable but definitely not “shout about” bread rolls and I have tears in my eyes and a sick feeling in my gut. Because that is me out of time for making bread rolls, with a big exam looming and no more fennel I am done!

Now these aren’t a complete disaster, as far as a bread roll goes it is edible, in fact it is quite fine. But my idea as a whole really has not come across well, the flavours are muddled and the beautifully caramelised, sweet and sticky fennel seeds on the top are in fact burnt to a crisp and really better off scraped into the bin! Never the less I have 15 rolls and I am not one to waste food! So I will be eating them of course!

So this post is not just one massive excuse to my offering of a bread roll, this is infact the epitomy of my friday challenges…a chance to learn! Well… I think it started to go wrong when I cooked the fennel in a cup of vegetable stock and began to panic that maybe that would strip all of the flavour out, or make it too soggy. It seemed ok so I left it to cool to room temperature and then made the dough. Before the first rise I scrunched all of the fennel and zest of an orange into the dough and soon had what can only be described as a slimy ball of dough sliding around my kitchen top. I added flour…more flour….more flour untill I felt it was back to a consistency of dough I recognised then I started to shape it into rolls.

In comes Scott “I thought you let it rise once before shaping it”….. Me “No, do you, I don’t know I can’t remember”. Frantic scramble through my Jamie Oliver book. “Oh yeah I do, aahh”. I quickly squished all the perfectly shaped and weighed out rolls back into one big ball and leave it to rise.  One hour later I re shaped them into rolls and then left to rise for a second time. At this point I’m feeling fine and the rolls are looking good!

I dry fried some fennel seeds in a pan untill lightly toasted then added sugar and the juice of an orange. This idea originated from my Braised Cabbage recipe because when I added the fennel seeds and sugar to the cabbage magic happened, I had to stop myself eating it all there and then…caramelised fennel seeds were the bomb!
My fennel seeds unfortunately started to clump together and when I did try and put them onto the rolls they wouldn’t come off the spoon, or my finger and I ended up squashing alot of rolls trying to get the seeds on to them. Never mind I thought, it would still turn out amazing, my faith was still in these rolls!

I followed the cooking method from my LEON Baking book and added ice cubes to a preheated oven and put the rolls in for around 17 minutes. When I took them out the first thing I noticed was that the fennel seeds were black; clumped black little bitter balls of charcoal fury ready to make you wince at every mouthful! (At this point I was on the phone to my mum who sensibly suggested I just scrape them off, but in my over tired bad mood I insisted the whole world was over and this bread was the end of my life, how could I put burnt fennel seeds on my blog!?!?).

I tore one open straight from the oven, burning my fingers and my mouth and of course the inside was under cooked. At this point I should have known this was coming. I popped them back in for 3 minutes then left them on the side to cool down. Later on, me and a very nervous looking Scott decided to try another roll, after Scott pointing out that it’s never an exciting moment when the chef presents you with food and says “This is going to be disgusting, tell me what you think?”. I instantly didn’t like it even with the seeds scraped off. The fennel flavour was lost and a weird texture, the orange didn’t mix well and the bread had an over powering taste of flour!

So I won’t be sharing my recipe this time, but I am giving (promising) an IOU for my own recipe bread roll. Not everything turns out how you imagine and sometimes life can get in the way of even the most dedicated blogger (in my case a rather important exam) but it’s important to remember to laugh about it, learn what you can and move on to the next challenge! Which I can reveal is “Artichoke”, a vegetable I have been dying to conquer for a long time!

Pesto Pinwheel Rolls (Purple Foodie Blog recipe): Friday Challenge!

I found this recipe online after googling “Interesting bread rolls” and the colour and shape caught my eye straight away! You can see the recipe and method for making these here on the Purple Foodie Blog – there are a lot of nice recipes and gorgeous photos too!

I don’t think mine look as nice as the originals because I used some wholemeal flour I had left over which meant the pesto was not so noticeable against the bread (In the original the rolls are pale white and the pesto is bright green). However they tasted amazing, especially just out of the oven! I actually made 12 but we quickly devoured a few before I photographed them!

I bought a jar of pesto but this would work with a whole manner of home made pestos and I think it would taste really nice with some parmesan or fresh herbs tucked in there too!

I was pleasantly surprised with how simple this was to make, I love the idea of rolling the dough up with the flavour inside! And once again I found that my initial expectations of how the dough would react were wrong – I thought it would remain quite flat but actually they rose very nicely!

What I have learnt about bread:

The addition of an oily flavour such as pesto was delicious because the flavour seeped into the dough when rising. I also really like the contrast of colours. Again I have realised that letting the dough rise a second time one shaped is vital to create a nice big fluffy roll. I think for my own recipe I definitely like the idea of creating a more interesting shape with the bread roll and adding a strong flavour.

Serving Suggestion: On it’s own just out the oven (sooo good!) or served with a nice simple and fresh salad – such as my Virtual Vegan Potluck Kohlrabi Ceviche – recipe here