Last year, so many of you fell in love with bread making for the first time. So many of you found there is massive value in kneading, in baking, in simply creating something out of nothing. I believe there is HUGE value there…

I always kind of suspected there was something about the quiet nature of bread making, the patience involved, the connection, that helped me keep my feet on the ground when life got a bit much but I don’t think I ever fully appreciated it until the world turned upside down.

Things got a little crackers last year hey? And it seems it is continuing just a little more into 2021. Amongst everything going on in the world, schooling the kids at home, and trying to make the best to piece together Bake with Jack in a world where classes just can’t happen, I must admit that while many may well have been taking up their new bread making hobby I didn’t make bread for a LONG time. And you know what? I got stressed out. Properly. I felt tense, down in the dumps, rushed off my feet and overwhelmed the vast majority of the time.

When I picked up that dough scraper to make bread again for the first time in so long, it was like a weight had been lifted and I could think clearly again. It was exactly the thing that I needed, and I had no idea until I did it.

And then I remembered. It’s a story I’ve heard time and time again over the past eight years. People finding bread for the first time and realising just how powerful and grounding it can be to make something so satisfying with your own two hands. What’s more, that exact story is the reason why Bake with Jack exists in the first place.

If you are new here, take a look around. There are 150+ videos, countless recipes and blog posts all to help you to understand bread so you can reap the benefits yourself in their full glory. In your full glory.

I hope you find as much pleasure as I do in the following recipes from Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch this week.

Blueberry Teacakes

I have a soft spot for teacakes I must admit. I’ve always been a fan of an underdog, and a teacake is a truly humble, less fancy version of a Hot Cross Bun. They don’t make a fuss, they don’t have a “season” where they all show off, they just simply are. They are here for us when we need them, at afternoon tea time, take them or leave them.

I personally, will take one. Or maybe two ;-)

Notes

This recipe will make 12 Teacakes, should you want GIANT ones, divide into 8 instead and bake for slightly longer.

This time I came across dried blueberries which I’ve never tried before, so I swapped out the traditional sultanas for those for a change. They are quite pricey though, so do feel free to swap back if you like.

Difficulty: Easy to make, easy to bake.

My Kitchen Temperature: 20°C/68°F

Start to finish:  4-4.5 hours

Ingredients

For the dough

300g     Room temperature Water

60g      Caster Sugar

15g      Fresh yeast or 7g dry yeast

500g    Strong White Bread Flour

8g        Salt

1 Heaped tsp of Ground Cinnamon

Zest of 1 Orange

Zest of 1 Lemon

50g      Room temperature butter

For the filling

150g    Dried Blueberries

To glaze

1 beaten egg

Method

Ahead of time

The day before you make your dough, it’s a nice idea to soak your fruit to plump them up a little.

Place them in a shallow bowl or container and pour over enough water to come half the way up the sides. Cover and leave them on the kitchen side overnight to absorb the moisture.

Before you make the dough, drain them in a sieve and spread them out on some kitchen paper to help dry the outsides a little.

Making the Dough

In a large mixing bowl weigh your water, sugar and yeast and mix together until the yeast is dissolved.

Next add the flour, salt, cinnamon, and orange and lemon zest.

Mix everything together with your dough scraper until it comes together into a dough with no particularly dry bits or wet bits, then, break up the butter and poke it into the dough with your fingertips.

Turn the dough out onto a clean table and knead your well for 8 minutes without dusting with any flour. Expect it to be slippery as the butter gets incorporated, use your dough scraper to help unstick yourself from time to time and clean up a bit and it will come together I promise.

After eight minutes let your dough rest and relax on the table for a further five. This makes the next part easier.

Adding the fruit

Use your fingertips to press your dough out flat and sprinkle half the blueberries over the top. Fold them up inside, press flat again and repeat with the second half of the fruit.

Roll your dough into a ball and place it back into the bowl. Sprinkle the top with a little flour, cover with a clean cloth and rest at room temperature for 60 minutes.

The cheeky mid-rest fold

At this point I like to give my dough a little fold up for two reasons; One is that it will help to build structure in the dough so that the final buns will puff up higher and be lighter and secondly it helps the fruit to be more evenly dispersed throughout the dough.

Lightly flour your table and turn the dough out of the bowl upside down. Press to flatten with your fingertips into a circle and then make it back into a ball again by pinching and lifting an edge into the middle and continuing all the way around. Place back into the bowl, smooth side up, cover and rest again for 30 minutes.

Dividing and Shaping

Use your dough scraper to turn the dough out, upside down onto the oiled table.

Use your fingertips lightly to flatten the dough and cut into twelve equal size pieces with your dough scraper. If you want to get them exactly the same size, you can weight them out at around 90g each.

Roll each piece up into a tight ball and line them up on your table to rest for 10 minutes.

Next, take a rolling pin and roll each one on the top to flatten them very slightly. This is to make sure that the final teacakes fit inside your toaster!

Final Proof

Space your teacakes equally on two parchment lined trays, cover with a cloth and let prove for 60 minutes.

While the loaves rest and puff up, make some egg wash and preheat your oven to 180°C Fan/356°F/ Gas Mark 5 with two empty shelves and a deep tray on the bottom oven floor. Fill half a kettle of water ready to go for later if you are baking with steam.

After an hour your teacakes should have risen but still be firm enough to be able to glaze. Brush with your egg wash and leave to rest again uncovered for a further 30 minutes.

When your teacakes have clearly risen and is slightly delicate to the touch get ready to bake.

Baking

When you are ready to load your bread into the oven, boil the kettle.

Gently place your teacakes in the oven and pour the hot water into the tray beneath (be careful!) and close the oven door.

Bake your teacakes for 12-15 minutes.

When they are done remove them from the tray and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. To serve, split and toast and butter thickly!

No Knead Baguettes

Baguettes are a real craft. That’s code that roughly translates as this: these baguettes probably won’t come out perfect first time, please expect that and please be ok with it too because as you practice, it is my hope that you’ll fall in love with the process and they will get better and better. Each and every time that you simply do it you’ll be rewarded with a little more knowledge, a little more accomplished feel for the process until you are cracking out incredible crusty baguettes time after time.

Trust me. And trust the process.

Oh, and one more thing. In class we often get carried away rolling our baguettes super long so we can carry them over our shoulder down a Parisian passage but remember… Roll them too long and they won’t fit in your oven!

Notes

This recipe makes four baguettes.

You’ll need to stone bake these to get that burst on top and crispy crust and for this you’ll need: A baking or pizza stone, a wooden bread peel or flat tray you can use to slide them into the oven, a kettle and large roasting tray.

Difficulty: Tricky to make, tricky to bake

My Kitchen Temperature: 20°C/68°F 

Start to finish:  3.5-4 hours

Ingredients

For the dough

350g     Room temperature water

12g      Fresh yeast or 7g Dry yeast

500g    Strong white bread flour

10g      Salt

Method

Making the Dough

In a large mixing bowl whisk together your water, and yeast until the yeast is dissolved.

Next add the bread flour and salt.

Mix everything with your dough scraper until it comes together into a rough dough and continue to mix until there is nothing particularly dry left in the bowl and nothing particularly wet either.

Cover your bowl with a clean cloth and rest on the kitchen side for 30 minutes.

First Fold

Dust your work surface with a little flour and turn your dough out of the bowl onto it. Flatten it with your fingers a little and then, with fingers and thumb, pinch and pick up any edge of the dough, lift it, and fold it over the top to stick back to itself. Work your way around all edges repeating the fold 12-15 times. The idea here is to fold the dough into a smooth ball, all joins and seems happen on that one side, the side facing up, and so the underside becomes a smooth surface. Then, turn your dough over, revealing that nice smooth “top” surface, place it back in the bowl, cover again and rest for 30 minutes.

Second Fold

Next, you’ll be doing exactly the same as the first fold but only 10 folds this time. Make sure to turn the dough out of the bowl upside down before you start folding, then turn it smooth side up again before placing back in the bowl. Cover and rest again for 30 minutes.

Dividing and Pre-shaping

When your dough has rested and risen, turn it out of the bowl and knock back very gently with your fingers and knuckles. Divide it into four pieces. Roll each piece into a rough, loose sausage and allow 15 minutes for them to rest and relax on the table, seam side down, ready for the final shape.

Final Shape

Place a proving cloth on a large baking tray and dust it well with flour

One by one shape up your baguettes by turning over a sausage of dough and pressing gently with fingers and knuckles once again to flatten. Roll up the dough into a sausage in stages; starting from the side furthest from you fold a little of the dough towards you and pinch the seam to stick. Then repeat again folding the now fatter top edge down and pinching the seam to stick. Continue until the sausage shape meets the bottom edge and pinch the seam to stick one final time.

Roll out with your palms to around 30cm making the ends pointed if you like. Line your baguettes up, seam side up, on the cloth and make a pleat in between each one so they don’t stick.

Rest and Bake

Rest your baguettes for 30 minutes. In the meantime, place a baking stone in your oven on the middle or top shelf, and a deep roasting tray on the floor of the oven, and preheat to 230°C fan / gas mark 8.

When you are ready to bake, boil the kettle. Carefully transfer your baguettes onto wooden peels, seam side down. Make a few diagonal cuts with a Grignette and slide them onto the hot baking stone. Carefully pour about 2-3cm deep of boiling water into the tray below and shut the oven door. Bake for 15-20 minutes (see note on crust below).

Cool on a wire rack.

For a great crust

The aim for a good crust is to bake the baguettes on as high heat as possible for as long as possible, providing nothing burns! That’s one reason why steam helps. You’ll need to bake for 15-20 minutes to make sure they are done, so keep the heat high if you can, and depending on your oven, turn down to 180C if you need to.

Olive and Herb Sourdough Loaf

For those of you who have fallen head over heels for your sourdough starter, this loaf is a variation of my classic Sourdough Loaf for Beginners recipe. In fact, it’s that exact recipe with the addition of some nice olives, and some herbs from my garden.

Sourdough is tricky, that’s the nature of it! Quite often with bread, the most delicious ones require the most attention, effort is always rewarded, and sourdough is the perfect example of that. If you picked it up last year and had a tricky time with it then I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage you to give it another go. So often I see people so close, with amazing sourdough bread within their grasp, giving it all up and that’s such a shame.

My recipe is built for practicality, to be as faff free as I believe is possible while making a great loaf as well and just remember, once you’ve cracked it, once you understand your sourdough, you’ll be making it a success for the rest of your life.

Here’s my recipe:

 Here’s some videos and articles that might help:

 And here’s how to add your olives and herbs:

Ingredients

Per loaf you’ll need:

150g    Pitted olives, is used queen green and kalamata

3g        Chopped rosemary and thyme leaves

Method

Ahead of time

Tear your olives into pieces and lay them out on some kitchen paper to drain off any excess moisture.

Adding them to the dough

Follow the method in the recipe above and at the second fold stage really spread out your dough well on the table. Sprinkle the olives and herbs over the dough, right to the edges, and fold them up inside like a parcel. Return the dough to the bowl as it says in the recipe.

With the olives now inside, be a little gentle with the third fold, pre-shape and final shaping stages and you should end up a with a little olive everywhere in the dough.

If some fall out, please don’t worry, poke them back in or… eat them.