United Cakedom: Jen's Food

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Sweet Potato & Sweet Smoked Paprika Bread

This summer has been pretty disappointing. We had some glorious weather early on and that was about it. With the cooler weather lately I have already been thinking of fall/autumn flavors. Dinner has already started changing from chicken salads and sandwiches to creamy delicious macaroni and cheese and cottage pies! If dinner is already changing why not my baking!

With bread being the star of The Great British Bake Off this week, plus I just received a new bread book, and I had a whole bag of strong white flour in my cupboard I thought I’d make a loaf of bread! With fall/autumn like weather I decided to go with a sweet potato and paprika flavored bread.

You know how when decorating a room you either have plain walls with decorative accessories or you have fun wall paper and plan accessories. That’s how bread is. You either have plain bread with flavor packed toppings or flavor packed bread with butter or for dipping in soup. If done tastefully you can decorate a room with wallpaper and colorful accessories and that goes for bread too. If you know how to pair it just right you get yummy fillings/toppings to go with your flavor packed bread.

Well, after that load of ramble here is how I made this loaf of Sweet Potato and Paprika bread. The recipe comes from Simply Good Bread: Delicious home-baked recipes for everyone by Peter Sidwell. Somewhat adapted as my method varied from his direct instructions. The title says it all the recipes all seem pretty simple and easy for everyone. There are even instructions for those who are using a bread maker.

Sweet Potato & Sweet Smoked Paprika bread

200g sweet potatoes, baked/soft
500g strong white bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fast action yeast (about 1/2 of a 7g sachet)
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
300ml water
1 tablespoon smoked sweet paprika

Start by baking the potato(s) and mashing them. Set aside.
Mix the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a measuring jug measure the water before adding the yeast, sugar, and paprika - stir to combine.
Make a well in the centre of the flour/salt and pour the liquid mixture in the middle. Add the mashed potatoes before using a spatula gently bring the dry and liquid ingredients together before using your hands to start to work the dough. Once it starts to come away from the bowl tip out on to a well floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes. The dough is sticky so keep floured and have a dough scraper near by.
Once kneaded place back in the bowl and leave to rise until doubled in size should take 30-40 minutes in a warm place.
When it’s ready gently tip it out and knock it back or gently knead for about a minute. Then place in a 1kg or 2lb loaf tin, grease if it’s not non-stick. Leave to double in size while you pre-heat the oven to 200C.
Bake in the heated oven for 40 minutes until golden brown on top. Gently tip the loaf out and knock on the bottom, if it sounds hallow then it’s ready. If not cook for 5-10 more minutes.
Slice and enjoy!

notes: I hope break week on The Great British Bake Off encourages you to give bread a go! If you do you should enter it into Jen’s Food and Utterly Scrummly’s Bread Challenge - Bready Steady Go! I did!

To see a few other books I recently added to my bookshelf beside's Mr. Sidwell's check out my last post here!

Blueberry Cheesecake Strudels

The theme for this month’s Pastry Challenge was something that could be baked fairly quickly and with minimum fuss. It’s summer so usually it’s too hot to be heating up the oven to bake, but this last week has been pretty horrible actually.

 We needed the rain, the back yard/garden was brown and already after a few days of rain the grass is already turning green. As green is my favorite color I’m all for rain and green grass. Let’s just hope we get more sun soon!

I bought filo (phyllo) pastry without having a plan for it. It was an assumption that it would be a quick pastry to work with; an assumption proved right!

Not 100% sure when I decided to also use blueberries, but it was only a matter of time before the idea of adding cream cheese came about. The longest part of this recipes is the cooling of the blueberry mixture. Either make it before hand or buy blueberry pie filling.

These are actually pretty big as well so be sure you have people to share with, half was plenty for me!!

Blueberry Cheesecakes Strudels

360g fresh blueberries
60g sugar
2 tablespoons of corn flour
pinch of salt
12 filo (phyllo) pastry sheets
about 100g unsalted butter, melted
280g cream cheese, whipped with 1 tablespoon sugar

In a medium saucepan boil the blueberries, sugar, corn flour, and salt until the berries have burst and it has thickened. Cool completely.
Heat oven to 205C and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Cover the pastry sheets with clingfilm and a damp towel. On a work surface lay the first sheet of pastry with the short side facing you, brush with the melted butter. Lay a second sheet on top and brush with butter before laying a third sheet on top. Gently spread 1/4 of the whipped cream cheese on top leaving a decent border around the edges. Then spread 1/4 of the cooled blueberry mixture on top. Fold the short end of the pastry nearest you up and then fold in the sides before rolling up. Lay seam side down on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat again until all the pastry sheets are used will make 4 in total. Use the leftover melted butter on the top and sprinkle a little sugar on top of each. Cut 2 slices into each as a vent before baking in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.

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Challenges: The Pastry Challenge hosted by Jen over at Jen's Food and by myself.

Breakfast Pastries #thepastrychallenge June Link-Up

Well another month has come and gone and it’s been three since Jen and I started the pastry challenge! Last month the theme was picnics and even though the weather has been touch and go we’ve had some gorgeous days to get out for a picnic!

Jen’s round up is up now! So, go check out the amazing entries over on Jen’s Food!

This month’s theme is breakfast and/or brunch. I’m thinking croissants, Danishes, pinwheels, rolls and delicious excuses to eat dessert for breakfast. Of course that’s the sweet tooth talking over here on my side, but any of those things can be made savory by breakfast staples like bacon, sausage, egg, cheese, and the list goes on!

So, please join us this month in creating and sharing some delicious, mouth-watering breakfast pastries!

source

Rules/Guidelines are as follows:

First bake a pastry that fits the theme.

Second blog about it! Be sure to link back to both myself Lisa at www(.)unitedcakedom(.)com and Jen at www(.)jensfood(.)co(.)uk.

If you tweet use the hashtag #thepastryhcallenge and be sure to include us @unitedcakedom & @jensfood1 we like and retweet any we see!

Please feel free to use the image below in your post as a way to help spread the word. I will be adding the entries to the official Pastry Challenge Pinterest board that you can follow here!

Lastly link it up below, following the instructions on the widget/gadget below.

A few reminders we are looking for new or re-posted posts following the instructions above. Feel free to enter more then one entry. Also if you have a few minutes check out the entry before yours and leave a comment! Any questions please feel free to contact either Jen or myself! We look forward to seeing all your amazing pastry creations!

Oh and one more thing if you're linking up to this blogging challenge why not link up to Maison Cupcake and Made with Pink's Breakfast Club challenge?

An InLinkz Link-up

Treacle Tart & The Parasol Protectorate/Soulless

Over on A Flurry Of Ponderings my friend Missie is hosting a week-long event of Bookies into Foodies; which is a week of book bloggers making food things from their favorite books! I am guest posting over on her blog later this week, but I thought I would join in here on United Cakedom. Plus it fits right in with my Story Book Bakes posts. So, today I am sharing a British classic the Treacle Tart.

It’s not very often I re-read books, with so many different ones to read why go back to something you already know how it ends? However there are several books that have cracked spines and smudged pages due to the amount of times I have read them. Soulless, the first in The Parasol Protectorate series is one of those. As the first of the series it is the most loved. It’s what drew me in and made me want more.

Alexia Tarabotti, the leading lady, resides in England during the Victorian times. However, it’s not exactly like we remember it. Werewolves and Vampires are acknowledged as law-abiding members of society. They hold down respectable jobs in the military and police force as well as host the best balls and start fashion trends.

It is also acceptable to want to become one of the super natural. All you have to do is pay your dues by either being a claviger to the werewolves or a drone to the vampires. Then hope that you have excess soul to survive the transformation. Even if Alexia wanted to go down that route, she couldn't. See she was born with out a soul and that is where the fun begins!

In the first chapter of Soulless, on the second page Alexia sneaks away from a boring ball to take tea and it includes a plate of treacle tart. Only a rude vampire that doesn't know the first thing about proper etiquette squashes it.

It’s the first, but not the last time that this sticky classic treat is mentioned throughout the series’. The whole series offers a lot of fun and shenanigans, mystery and mayhem, and a lot of tea breaks.

Before you sit down to read the series (if you haven’t already) make this treacle tart, a cup of tea, and get stuck in!

Treacle Tart

8oz (226g) flour

4oz (113g) butter

1-3 tablespoons milk

4oz (113g) breadcrumbs

16oz (452g or 1 can) golden syrup

4 teaspoons lemon or Satsuma juice

Heat the oven to 200C/Gas 6 and grease a 8 or 9 inch tart tin with butter and lightly dust with flour. Combine the flour and butter by rubbing together with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add a tablespoon of milk at a time until you can bring the dough together in a ball. Leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough and line the tart tin, using a fork prick holes in the bottom of the pastry. Mix the breadcrumbs, golden syrup, and juice together (I only had a satsuma in my fridge so used that!) and pour into the pastry lined tart tin. Bake in the heated oven for 30 minutes. Slice and enjoy with or without clotted cream.

notes: Check out A Flurry of Ponderings for a week of Bookies to Foodies fun! Thank you Jen for sending me your noted and tried recipe for Treacle Tart!