Salted Caramel Baguette

Salted Caramel Baguette

Image of a salted caramel baguette served with butter on a dark blue background

This Salted Caramel Baguette recipe, from famous pastry chef, Chrisophe Adam of L’Eclair de Genie fame, is something a little different. In fact, it’s so genius that I’m jealous that I didn’t think of it first!  It starts with a dark caramel which is turned into caramel water and then used to make the bread dough. The result is a chewy, crusty bread with faint toffee/salted caramel flavour  that’s not sweet. It is ridiculously moreish. On cold days, I love to bake bread! This is one of my favourites and so is this. Baking bread not only fills the house with the most wonderful smell, but being in front of the warm oven gives me that snuggly feeling. There is nothing more satisfactory than pulling your own bread out the oven. Nothing except devouring said fresh, handmade loaf with ridiculous amounts of butter, that is. I urge you to give this salted caramel baguette a try – it may seem daunting, but with a little practice, you’ll hopefully find bread-baking as therapeutic as I do!

Image of a salted caramel baguette broken in half and served with butter in a bowl with a wooden knife

SALTED CARAMEL BAGUETTE

Makes 2 loaves

 

Caramel water:

100g white sugar

400ml water

 

Salted Caramel Baguette Dough:

300ml caramel water, cooled

5g active dry yeast

350g strong bread flour

1 tsp fine salt

 

Salted butter, to serve

 

Start by making the caramel water; place the sugar in a small saucepan with enough water to wet the sugar and give it the consistency of wet sand. Place the saucepan over medium heat and allow the sugar to caramelize to 160 degrees celcius (if you don’t have a sugar thermometer, it should start smoking slightly and be quite dark). Carefully pour in the rest of the water and allow it to dissolve. Set aside to cool completely.

To make the salted caramel baguette dough, place the cooled caramel water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (you could also do this by hand). Add the yeast and mix to dissolve completely. Add the flour and salt and mix until a sticky dough forms – it will be stickier than what feels comfortable but hang in there. Knead for 8 minutes or until the dough is smooth (it will still be sticky, that’s okay). Cover the bowl with a plastic bag or clingwrap and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Remove the dough from the bowl and knock it down by kneading it gently. Divide the dough into two balls. Using your palms, press each ball out into a rectangle about 10cm wide. Roll the rectangle up lengthwise, pressing the edges down with your palm each time, to form a sausage. Roll the sausage back and forth to form a baguette about 25cm long. Place on a floured baking sheet, cover again and allow to double in size. Preheat your oven to it’s highest setting, 250 degrees Celcius is ideal. Bake the baguette for 13-15 minutes or until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool slightly then devour it with lashings of salted butter.

 

TIP If it’s a cold day, turn your oven into a prover by setting the temperature to 50 degrees celcius. Place an oven dish of water in the bottom to create humidity then allow your dough to rise inside.

Image of a salted caramel baguette broken in half on a dark blue background served with a bowl of butter

 

 

4 Doughnut Recipes You Knead In Your Life

4 Doughnut Recipes You Knead In Your Life

To be honest, sometimes I think we have too many food days. It feels like every day is ‘Coconut Macaroon Day’, or ‘Nutty Fudge Day’. You just need to visit Days Of The Year to LOL at some of the more ridiculous ones. But more importantly, who decides these things? Is there a board of directors who sits somewhere and thinks, hang on, let’s make the 3 June Doughnut Day? And do they eat doughnuts while they do it? If so, then I’d like that job, thanks. Despite some of them being a tad ridiculous, I’m all for any excuse to tuck into (Insert relevant sweet, baked treat) on International (Insert relevant sweet, baked treat) Day! So to celebrate Doughnut Day (it’s DOUGHnut not DOnut, thanks) I’ve rounded up my favourite deep-fried sugary carbs – feast your eyes on these babies:

1. Glazed Brioche Doughnuts

You’ll never try another doughnut dough again – it makes doughnuts that are rich, buttery and light!

2. Giant Doughnut Cake with Homemade Sprinkles

This super fun butter cake is shaped like a doughnut, filled with raspberry frosting and decorated with homemade sprinkles

3. Doughnuts Stuffed with Milk Tart Filling

Light-as-air doughnuts stuffed with a creamy milk tart filling to celebrate one our favourite South African bakes

4. Beetroot Drizzle and Earl Grey Sugar-Coated Doughnuts

You’ve heard of coffee and doughnuts, but have you tried tea and doughnuts? Because you need to!

Pull-Apart Loaf: Two Ways (Cheesy and Chocolatey)

Pull-Apart Loaf: Two Ways (Cheesy and Chocolatey)

#SPONSORED

If ever there was a dessert power couple, my fiancé and I are it. While I am the sweet tooth fiend who insists on going over-the-top with delicious sugary things, he is a chocolate-maker with 25 years experience as a pastry chef. When we’re not baking, he’s making chocolate and I’m eating it – a perfect relationship really. But I’ve always wondered if we would’ve ended up together without our mutual love of food and baking? That’s exactly what Knorr asked when they created this cute video (which has now gone viral) where they matched strangers according to their favourite flavours:

Interesting right?! Now I’m sure you’re wondering, “I love ALL food! I can’t pick a favourite!” – I’m totes with you on that one, but let’s be honest, we all have one or two foods we could eat until the end of time. The fact that you’re here, reading this, most probably means that that food is cake, chocolate, carbs or all of the above but just incase, Knorr made this cute little quiz so you can find out for sure. So what’s my flavour profile? Well, no surprises here:

For fun, I got fiance to take the quiz too. Obviously he was going to be a ‘Roasted Romantic’ too – duh! Well, erm, this is what happened:
And so I’ve called the wedding off. Jokes! 😉 I dealt with my disappointment by baking and eating carbs (obviously). So I made these ‘His and Hers Breads’, they’re made with a beautifully soft bread recipe that allows you to tailor it to whatever flavours make your heart flutter. In our case, I made a super cheesy salty version for him….
And a chocolatey, peanut version drizzled with espresso glaze for me! While we may not like the same flavours, at least we have carbs in common! *phew*
I’m dying to know what flavour profiles all of you are – let me know in the comments below and get your other half to do it too – do you match up or are you a case of opposites attract? Which btw is quite okay because I’ve just realized that if he’s the savoury to my sweet that means more dessert for me! #Winning

Cheesy Prosciutto and Sage Pull-Apart Bread

Makes 1 loaf

 

500g flour

50g sugar

5g salt

75g butter, softened

2 eggs and 2 egg yolks

10g instant dry yeast

75ml lukewarm milk (or water)

½ sachet KNORR Three Cheese Sauce Mix

 

150g mozzarella cheese (or any other cheese), grated

100g butter, softened

3 cloves garlic, crushed

sea salt and cracked black pepper

12 slices prosciutto (or any other cured ham)

12 sage leaves, plus extra for sprinkling

 

Grease and line a 30cm standard loaf tin. Make the dough by placing all the ingredients in a mixing bowl (I use a stand mixer to make it easier) and combine until a soft dough forms. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until it’s smooth and springs back when poked with a finger. Cover the dough and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 hour). In the meantime, make the flavoured butter by mixing the butter, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix to combine. Set aside. Knock down the dough and knead it lightly to press out the air then roll out into a 20x30cm rectangle. Spread the dough with the flavoured butter. Cut into 7cm squares. Stack the squares on top of each other, layering with a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese, prosciutto and sage leaves in between then place the stacked squares on their side into the loaf tin. Cover loosely with cling wrap and allow to rise in a warm place (an oven preheated to 50 degrees with the door ajar and a baking tray filled with water works well) until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 160C (conventional, 180 fan-forced) and bake for 20-30 minutes until golden. Turn out immediately then allow to cool slightly before serving warm.

Chocolate Peanut Pull-Apart Loaf with Espresso Glaze

Makes 1 loaf

 

500g flour

75g sugar

75g butter, softened

2 eggs and 2 egg yolks

10g instant dry yeast

75ml lukewarm milk (or water)

10g salt

 

Melted butter, for brushing

150g The Kate Tin Dark Baking Chocolate, chopped

¼ cup roasted peanuts, roughly chopped

 

Espresso glaze

1 cup icing sugar, sifted

2 tbsp espresso coffee

 

Grease and line a 30cm standard loaf tin. Make the dough by placing all the ingredients in a mixing bowl (I use a stand mixer to make it easier) and combine until a soft dough forms. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until it’s smooth and springs back when poked with a finger. Cover the dough and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 hour). Knock down the dough and knead it lightly to press out the air then roll out into a 20x30cm rectangle. Spread the dough with a little butter and sprinkle over the chopped chocolate and the peanuts. Cut into 7cm squares. Stack the squares on top of each other, then place the stacked squares on their side into the loaf tin. Cover loosely with cling wrap and allow to rise in a warm place (an oven preheated to 50 degrees with the door ajar works well) until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 180C (conventional, 160 fan-forced) and bake for 20-30 minutes until golden. Turn out immediately then allow to cool slightly before serving warm. Mix the glaze ingredients together and drizzle over the warm loaf.

 

*This post was created in collaboration with Knorr.

Disclaimer: This post has been sponsored by Knorr, however, I only work with brands I think are awesome and that I actually use myself.

4 Doughnut Recipes You Knead In Your Life

Homemade Glazed Brioche Doughnuts

Craving something yeasty, buttery and deep-fried?  Silly question. The correct answer is ALWAYS!  As if doughnuts (by the way, none of that ‘donut’ spelling around here, please!) needed additional oomph, these ones are made from a super-easy rich brioche dough that’s packed with egg yolks, rum and butter making these babies as light as air and full of flavour!

Incase you can’t tell, I had a ridiculous amount of fun making these! While kneading the dough, all I could think of was colour schemes and glitter – oooh and sprinkles! Maybe silver – no gold! Pink with the blue or no wait, how about swirly frosting! I dug up every sprinkle, pot of glitter and food colouring I could find (unrelated side note: anyone know how to remove that edible glitter off clothing?!). Besides doughnuts, you could use this dough recipe for a few different things; here in South Africa we have big puffy round doughnuts without holes called ‘Vetkoek’ (literally translated means ‘fat cakes’) which we fill with jam or savoury mince. You could make them similiarly (without the holes) and pipe jam, Nutella or buttercream inside. Dredge them in cinnamon-sugar, cover them in chocolate – oooo or dip them in caramelized white chocolate!

Glazed Brioche Doughnuts

Makes 24

 

200ml milk

50g fresh yeast (10g instant yeast)

4 large eggs

1kg cake flour

100g butter, softened

100g castor sugar

50g honey

pinch of salt

Finely grated zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon

4 egg yolks

50ml rum

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

 

GLAZE

275g icing sugar, sifted

Few drops lemon juice

Food colourings of your choice

1-2 tbsp hot water

Sprinkles, to decorate

Place the milk and yeast in the bowl of a mixer and stir to dissolve. Add the eggs, flour, butter, sugar, honey, salt and zest. Using a dough hook, knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until a soft, smooth dough forms. Cover with clingfilm and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Mix in the egg yolks and rum then cover again and allow to rise in a warm place until puffy and doubled in size. Knock the air out of the dough by kneading it gently then roll out on a lightly floured surface until 1 cm thick. Using a 7cm round cutter (or drinking glass) cut out rounds from the dough, then cut out a smaller hole from the middle (I use the back of a large piping nozzle for this). Place the doughnuts on a floured baking tray and cover with greased clingfilm. Prove in a warm place until doubled in size and puffy.

 

TIP For best results I preheat my oven to about 50 degrees celcius and place a large dish of boiling water in the bottom of the oven then I place my covered tray of doughnuts in the warm humid oven to prove.

Preheat the oil to 180 degrees celscius (or when a cube of bread dropped into the oil turns brown in 10 seconds) and place the doughnuts upside down in the hot oil. Fry on one side for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown, then flip over and cook the other side. Remove from the oil and drain on kitchen towel. Allow to cool.

 

 

TIP At this stage you can dredge them in cinnamon-sugar – while they’re still hot! Make the glaze by mixing the icing sugar with the lemon juice, colouring and enough hot water to form a paste that runs slightly.

Dip the tops of the doughnuts in the glaze, allowing most of the glaze to run off before placing on a wire rack. Decorate with sprinkles and allow to set. Enjoy on the same day (why am I even telling you that, they’ll be gone in one day!)