GBBO Bread Week

This week it was bread week on The Great British Bake Off. 

The challenges were...

Signature Challenge: 2 Quick Breads
Technical Bake: Baguettes
Show Stopper: 3D Bread Sculpture

It was fairly easy for me to choose which challenge I would partake in..... well, it was more of a deduction of the other challenges and seeing what I was left with. There was no way I was making a 3D sculpture - I'm too lazy for that. And I didn't want to buy the fancy cloth for the baguettes, I found one from Lakeland for £12 and I realistically thought 'Would I ever make baguettes ever again after the challenge?? Probably not!' So by default I ended up making 2 quick bread loaves.

When it came to choosing a recipe for my signature challenge I went straight to the one and only bread book I own, 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood. How could I not do a Paul Hollywood recipe in bread week! It would just be breaking all the rules!

 Deciding what type of bread to bake was easy, I didn't want anything flavoured with things like stilton or bacon or other cheeses - so plain soda bread it was!

500g Strong White Bread Flour
20g Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon of Salt
75g Butter
200ml Buttermilk
150ml Milk

1. Put the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and work in the butter. Stir in the remaining ingrediants and mix well.

2. Line a baking tray. Combine the mixture with your hands to make a dough, then divide the dough into two and shape into balls. Flatten the balls out and cut crosses in the top of each, then put on the baking tray and leave to rest for 20 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 200c/400F/mark 6. Dust the dough lightly with flour and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Recently I bought the Lakeland non-stick magic liners and so I used them to line my baking tray. They did exactly what they said and the bread didn't stick to them at all - I will most certainly be using these liners from bread making in the future!

I was really pleased at how my quick breads turned out! The recipe is fairly simple and I would recommend it to everyone. I kept one loaf and gave the other to my parents; I don't really need two loaves of bread! My parents and I shared their loaf of bread while it was still warm, just a little bit of butter and it was delicious! We were all so impressed especially as it was my first time making bread, let alone without using yeast! The bread itself had the smell of scones and it tasted so yummy. I will definitely be making soda bread again!