Leftovers leftovers leftovers...

Oftentimes I have so much dough left over from various bits and bobs... courses, workshops and demonstrations often leave me with bowls of dough overflowing in the car or the fridge, but it never goes to waste!

Take my most recent recipe for example, the Pane di Pasqua. It's a traditional Italian Easter bread and I spent quite a lot of time, and dough, creating my own version for my new Easter bread making course, and again, to bring the recipe to you. I had so much dough left over after my trials. Fortunately, it's a rather tasty number, so not too tricky to use up!

So, with a bit of knowhow I was able to create a couple of tasty things with it and I thought I would share those two ideas with you for a couple of reasons. One is that there should be no real reason why a dough should ever get binned, and secondly because with the same knowhow that I have, you can try out whatever you like with any leftover dough you might have too! That’s why I try to share as much as possible with you in various articles and videos.

So here are two ideas to use up leftover Pane di Pasqua dough, or any sweet bun dough for that matter. Iced ring doughnuts baked in the oven for minimum hassle, and an enriched loaf fit for toasting and buttering on the side of a strong coffee.

All that is left to do then is eat them all up... easy!

Baked Doughnuts

Rolled out to a thickness of about 2cm, you can cut your dough with pastry cutters into these little ring doughnuts. I got about 14 out of half of a batch of dough in the end.

Line them up on a parchment lined tray, brush them with a little olive oil, and let them prove up for 45 minutes or so.

Bake them in the oven at 180°C Fan/Gas mark 5 for 8-10 minutes. Any longer and they will dry out too much and become crunchy. Let them cool.

Mix the juice of half a lemon or orange with enough icing sugar to make an icing thick enough to coat the top of a doughnut without dripping too much, add a little food colouring if you wish. You can use water for your icing but I feel like a little citrus juice really takes the edge off the sweetness. Dip a tester one before you dip them all to check for the right consistency. Adjust it if you need to and then dip the rest.

Add some sprinkles of choice to finish, in my case pearl sugar.

Pane di Pasqua Loaf

For this one I used around half the quantity of dough I had left after a Pane di pasqua trial. So, a whole batch will make 2.

Shape your dough into a tight round ball, and let it rest and relax on the table for 15-25 minutes.

Flip over your dough onto a lightly dusted surface, press it slightly to flatten and roll it up like a swiss roll. Seal the edge by pinching with your fingers. Place it on a parchment lined tray.

Beat an egg in a cup and brush the top with a thin layer of the egg wash. Then with a serrated knife or a Grignette make diagonal cuts across the whole length of the loaf, around half a centimetre deep.

Sprinkle a little pearl sugar over to stick and allow 45-60 minutes for the loaf to prove up nicely.

Bake in the oven at 180°C Fan/Gas mark 5 for 25-30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.