Cakes & Bakes: Home-made hops bread

When I was young, back in the early 1970s, there was a little bakery located across the road from our house. They baked their bread in a wood fired oven – half a century before this method became trendy. The bakery made the most fantastic hops bread – a queue would build up, just before they opened their doors – people with their paper bags in hand – to buy fresh, hot hops bread.

Hops bread has been on my ‘to bake’ list for a long time; I just needed to find the right recipe. When I was back in Trinidad last year, one of my friends shared her family’s recipe. The recipe calls for ‘shortening’ which, over there, would probably mean Prize or Cookeen – things I have no hope of getting my hands on in rural Wales. I swapped it for plain old butter.

I’ve made two batches of hops bread so far, but I’m yet to master the process. I’m still to duplicate that perfect, golden brown crusty domed top with a soft pull-apart centre that’s similar to Hokkaido milk bread. Practice makes perfect!

Enjoy them plain – spread with butter, with slices or grated mounds of strong cheddar or stuffed with buljol. I filled my first one with a delicious crispy fried tofu slice… I’ll be sharing that particular recipe next week!

Click here or on the image below to save this hops bread recipe to Pinterest

Home-made hops bread

2020-09-23 17:53:22

Yields 20

Cook Time

20 min

Cook Time

20 min

Ingredients

1tbsp/9g instant yeast
600ml/20fl oz warm water
1kg/2.2lbs plain flour
60g/4oz butter/margarine/shortening
1¼tsp salt
2tbsps granulated sugar (you can use brown sugar)

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Instructions

Activate the yeast in warm water and 1tsp of the sugar (approx. 10 minutes) before adding mixture to other ingredients
Combine all ingredients in bowl
Knead to a soft dough for about 5 mins
Place in a greased bowl and allow to rise for about 1 hour
Punch down and divide into 85g/3oz balls
Place on greased sheet and let rise for another 35 mins
Heat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas mark 7 and bake for 15-20 mins

Notes

Place a pan in oven while it is heating and throw some ice cubes to create steam when trays are placed in the oven

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Sourdough burger buns

I’ve been wanting to treat myself to some mini bannetons since I saw them on Amazon a while ago. They’re the perfect size for making bread rolls or sourdough burger buns. I came across a seller offering a set of ten for £48.50 with free P&P which I thought was good value.

They’re 13cm/5″ in diameter and can hold around 225g/8oz of sourdough – enough to make an extra-small boule. On this occasion, I only put 140g/5oz of dough in each – a perfect amount for sourdough burger buns.

Prior to use, give each a wipe with a clean, dry cloth or tea towel and sprinkle with flour to stop the dough from sticking. For this, I’ve used plain flour and semolina; however, I’ve found that rice flour is by far the most successful option.

I’ve tweaked and speeded up my favourite 24-hour sourdough loaf recipe to make half a dozen rolls.

The addition of a sprinkling of black sesame seeds makes them look pretty and adds a lovely nutty flavour.

They may be burger buns – however, they’re also perfect for bacon sandwiches, sausage sandwiches, fried egg sandwiches… or a combo of them all!

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Sourdough burger buns

2018-04-11 18:56:18

Serves 6

Ingredients

290ml/10¼fl oz water at 27ºC
90g/3oz 1:1 (100% hydrated) fresh, active sourdough starter
450g/15½oz strong white bread flour
4g/⅛oz fine sea salt
1tbsp sesame seeds (I used black sesame seeds)

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Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the warm water and starter and mix well
Add the flour and, using the dough hook, mix until all the ingredients just about come together into a ragged ball shape. Cover with a damp tea towel or large plastic bag/cling film and allow the dough to rest in a warm place for an hour
Sprinkle over the salt and knead until it is evenly distributed. Cover again with a damp tea towel or large plastic bag/cling film and allow the dough to rest in a warm place for about 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size
Dust each bun banneton generously with rice flour
Lightly sprinkle a work surface with bread flour, pour out the dough and divide it into 6 equal portions (you can weigh them out) - each piece should be about 140g/5oz)
Carefully form each piece of dough into a ball and place them into the bun bannetons
Sprinkle with rice flour and cover the bannetons with a damp tea towel. Allow to prove in a warm place for an hour or two, or until the dough has doubled in size
Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas mark 7 (put your baking stone in now, if you have one)
Once the oven (and baking stone) has reached the correct temperature, dust a peel with rice flour, turn the buns out on to it and slide them onto the baking stone. If you don't have a peel, dust the baking tray with the rice flour before turning the buns out on to it
Using a spray bottle on the fine mist setting, dampen the tops of the buns and sprinkle with sesame seeds
Carefully slide the buns off the peel (if using) on to the baking stone (if using) or slide the baking tray into the hot oven
Bake for 5 minutes before turning the heat down to 200ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5. Bake for a further 5-10 minutes until the tops are golden brown and they sound hollow when knocked on the bottom

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Express rolls

I’ve nicknamed these dinner rolls ‘express rolls’.

From start to finish they take 60 minutes or less to make.

What other people call them depends on where they are or where they’re from. To me, they’re bread rolls…

To people from ‘up north’ they’re barms, barm cakes or muffins.

If they were a bit wider and flatter they’d be oven bottoms or oven bottom muffins. If they had a crusty top they’d be cobs.

Other people may say nonsense to all those terms and call them baps or buns.

Whatever you chose to call them, they’re soft and delicious straight out of the oven.

They’re perfect little rolls for having with a bowl of soup, making an afternoon sandwich or as mini-burger buns.

It’s a foolproof way of speeding up the proving process that I’ll definitely use again in the future!

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Express rolls

2017-03-10 11:41:35

Yields 15

Prep Time

40 min

Cook Time

15 min

Prep Time

40 min

Cook Time

15 min

Ingredients

525g/18½oz bread flour
50g/1¾oz granulated sugar
1tbsp dry active yeast
1½tsp salt
175ml/6 fl oz water
155ml/5½ fl oz milk
60g/oz butter, diced
1½ tsp lemon juice
20g/oz butter, melted

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 85ºC/180ºF/Gas mark ⅕
In the bowl of an electric food mixer, gently combine the flour, sugar, yeast and salt making a well in the centre
Add the water, milk and butter to a medium-sized mixing bowl and heat in a microwave on high for about 1 minute
Stir to partially melt butter and to make sure it's softened
Pour the milk mixture into the well of the dry mixture and add the lemon juice
Attach the dough hook before setting the mixer on low, gradually increasing to medium-low
Mix for about 3-4 minutes until the dough is smooth & elastic
Cover the bowl with cling film/Saran wrap and allow to rest for 5 minutes
Grease a 30cm x 23cm (13" x 9") baking tin
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, shape into an evenly level square, about 20cm²
Cut into 16 equal(ish) portions and shape into 15 balls, using the excess dough from the 16th piece to add to smaller rounds as needed
Put the dough balls into the prepared baking tin
Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the dough with water
Put the tin in the oven, close the oven door and turn the oven off
Allow the rolls to rise in the oven for 20 minutes
Remove the rolls from the oven and preheat to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5
Bake in for 15 minutes until the tops have turned a golden brown
Remove from the oven and brush the tops of the rolls with the melted butter
Serve straight away or allow to cool before storing in a cool place in an airtight container

Adapted from Cooking Classy

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/