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

 

 

Homemade Glazed Brioche Doughnuts

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!)