Peaches And Cream Brioche Pudding

Different people have different things they treat themselves to when on holidays. My Dad favours a car show. My mum, bird watching. Me? I get to go to Waitrose. Yes, Waitrose the supermarket. I don't want to make myself sound like a complete freak here, of course I enjoy the other aspects of holidaying (especially in the beautiful landscapes of Wiltshire - see photos!), but for me, a posh supermarket trip is right up there. For those of you that don't know, Waitrose is an uber upscale Marks and Spencers, which is an uber upscale Sainsbury's, which is an upscale Asda (or Walmart, to Americans). Basically, it's very, very posh, and so very, very expensive, and also quite sparse in Wales. Hence, sadly the trip is only annual. You may be asking why on earth I get so excited at the thought of walking round a supermarket. If you are wondering, I urge you, go to Waitrose, you'll see where I'm coming from. The atmosphere, the produce, the packaging! Oooh it's all too much. Anyway, on this annual trip I get to choose ingredients to make a 'Waitrose meal'. I'm adamant that Waitrose produce tastes better than any other supermarket's, and so it should, at £30 for ingredients for a two course meal!! the meal is a treat for us all, though, and as we're on holiday...why not.

So, I had the main sussed days in advance (chicken stuffed with Gruyere and basil, wrapped in prosciutto, with wild garlic mushrooms, rice, and a mushroom cream sauce, in case you were wondering) but the dessert was a little more tricky. I wanted something that wouldn't require loads of ingredients (I wasn't working in my own kitchen and didn't want to have to lug back bags of flour and sugar on the journey home), so! to Pinterest! There I spotted a 'peaches and cream overnight french toast'. Well, as usual I decided to give the recipe my own little twist. Eliminate the overnight element, swap stale bread for buttered brioche and add a few handfuls of fresh raspberries to the peach topping and you've got yourself the most fantastic bread and butter pudding, but kicked up about 10 gears. Can you hear that? That's the sound of British bread and butter pudding purists shaking their fists in rage. If it helps you can think of this as the most wonderful peach, raspberry and cream summer pudding instead. Breathe, pudding purists, breathe.

In the supermarket, I toyed with the idea of just getting normal sliced white bread, which would have made this a more 'traditional' bread and butter pudding (not that that was what it was intended to be in the first place, but that's what I had in mind for my interpretation). The white loaves were bigger than the brioche loaves, and cheaper, too. But I'm so, so glad I chose brioche. Even if you don't make the fruit and cream topping, please, please try your B&BP with brioche at least once. It adds a whole new flavour, a new richness, and although it's undoubtedly worse for you than the sliced white, it's so, so worth it. Being an enriched bread adds flavours that you just won't get from non enriched doughs. Butter the already buttery brioche and now we're talking. If it's any consolation to the nutritionists who are collapsing at the thought of so much fat, I did only do one layer of the bread, not three or four, as traditional recipes would ask. (There I go again, deviating.)

I was doubtful of the 'and cream' part of the original recipe. It called for reducing a measure of double cream by half in a saucepan, then pouring it directly over the soaked bread and sliced fruit, and finally baking it in the oven. I didn't really see how this would work and was interested to see what the result would be. It was a kind of really creamy (obviously) set custardy drizzle over the top of the peaches and raspberries, that became really sweet when it was baked and began to caramelise on top. It was delicious. My advice? Double the cream quantity in the base recipe. Triple it. Go all the way. You can't get enough of the stuff. 

Finally, the addition of raspberries was purely for my own enjoyment. I love the combination of peach and raspberry (especially with that baked cream custard!!) but you could use most fruits, I imagine. I would recommend, however, at least trying this recipe with peaches. It's original creator was really onto a winner there. The peaches soften in the oven slightly, not to a jammy mush, but to lovely warm and sweet segments, and don't you dare take the skins off them! The raspberries work nicely by cutting through all the sweet with their tartness. Other fruits I can imagine working well are blackberries, strawberries, bananas, nectarines or pears.

Peaches And Cream Brioche Pudding

Serves 6

1 small loaf sliced brioche

Butter

350ml milk

50g caster sugar

2 eggs

2 peaches

2 handfuls of raspberries

150ml double cream

1. Preheat oven to gas 5. Butter your brioche slices. Lay them in an ovenproof dish/tin, slightly overlapping.

2. Whisk together the eggs, milk and sugar. Pour over the brioche in the tin, set aside for 10 minutes to allow liquid to soak into the bread. All the liquid will get absorbed by the bread and will set when cooking, so don't worry if there seems to be a suspicious amount of liquid at the bottom of your tin at first.

3. While the bread is soaking, quarter the peaches, remove the pits and slice each quarter into 3 slivers. Arrange the slices over the brioche. Scatter over the raspberries.

4. In a small saucepan bring the double cream to a simmer and continue to cook until reduced by half and the cream is thick. Pour the cream sauce over the top of the peaches, raspberries and brioche.

5. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the custard and brioche is set and no liquid leaks from the bread. Serve warm or cold with extra cream or ice cream.

Now, some holiday shots:

beautiful Wiltshire

Honey, Apple And Peach Crumble Bars

Another refined sugar free dessert for you readers. I'm too good to you. This recipe is adapted from a Fairtrade Foundation recipe - crumbly banana squares. Like most of my other posts, I've given the original recipe a few twists and tweaks. You can find the original recipe quite easily by searching for 'crumbly banana squares' on google. That recipe is great but mine, if I do say so myself, is sublime. The crumbly wonderfulness of these honey, apple and peach bars was purely an accident. All set to enjoy a week away with the family, I realised there was quite a large amount of fruit left in our fruit bowl that needed to be eaten before we left home. I wanted something quick and easy, that would use a lot of fruit and wouldn't be too unhealthy. And then 'ah-ha!' turn those crumbly banana squares into an apple crumble equivalent!

The bars are made by pressing a crumble topping-style oaty mixture into a pan, spreading a thick layer of fruit filling on top, and then covering with a sprinkle of extra oaty, honey-y goodness. The pressed down crumble layer bakes into a sort of part-cake, part-biscuit, flapjacky kind of base, making the finished bar sturdy enough to hold in your hands. The apple and peach layer gives enough natural sweetness that the bars don't require any refined sugar, (though I would recommend a finishing dust of icing sugar, mainly for aesthetics) and the top crumble layer bakes just like a normal crumble, partly crisping on top and partly soaking up some of the apple and peach flavour from underneath.

the base mixture should be a sort of cookie dough consistency...

...that can be easily pressed into your tin.

I appreciate that my instructions for the fruit filling below may seem rather odd. As the apples in my fruit bowl were pink ladies (eating apples) they were already quite sweet and not the obvious choice for stewing. Normal eating apples are difficult to stew in the way that you stew cooking apples. They don't soften very easily using this method and can take an age and a lot of care to reach the desired apple sauce consistency. I've found that eating apples can be 'stewed' quite quickly and successfully by cutting them into small chunks, boiling, then draining and mashing. The natural sweetness of the fruit means you don't need to add pounds and pounds of sugar to make them edible, making it a healthier alternative to regular apple crumble fillings. It sounds weird but it really works, trust me! Especially with the peaches that break down and help make the apples extra puree-like, whilst at the same time giving a wonderfully fresh and sweet hint of a peach flavour. If you want to forego the apple filling, feel free to stick to the original suggestion, and go with bananas. 3-6 (depending on how much you like bananas!) mashed with a splash of vanilla and spread over the base is great. If you're using bananas, try adding in a handful or two of sultanas to the crumble mixture withe flour!

boiling apples? no, I'm not mad.

perseverance! have faith!

I'm sure you could partner the wonderful crumble biscuity base/topping with almost any fruit (pear, berries, rhubarb - let your imagination run wild! Just make sure your filling isn't too liquidy, or the base and topping won't cook properly) but filled with a delicious eating apple & peach combo, these bars taste like the best apple crumble you've ever had, and you can even hold them in your hand, making them perfect on-the-go treats. Wonderful.

keeping the skins on the peaches give a wonderful texture surprise

the crumble topping should be drier, more of a 'traditional' crumble

Honey, Apple, And Peach Crumble Bars
Makes 12 Slices

175ml honey (you can use 175g of sugar, but if you have honey, why would you? Make these refined sugar free!)
175g margarine or butter
250g porridge oats
6tbsp self raising flour
4-6 eating apples, such as pink lady, depending on how thick you want your fruit layer to be
3 ripe peaches (the riper the peaches, the sweeter the filling will be)
splash of vanilla extract
icing sugar, to dust (optional)


1. Preheat oven to gas 5. Blend the honey, margarine/butter, 200g oats, and 3tbsp flour together in a mixer, a hand mixer should be able to deal with this if you don't have a stand mixer, or you can do this by hand by rubbing the ingredients together with your fingertips, though this will be quite a bit messier! You're looking for a very stiff cookie dough consistency - something that will hold together well, and that is too wet to be a 'traditional' crumble topping.
2. Line and grease a baking tin, I used a 9x9 square, but you could use a smaller or larger tin, the size of the pan will determine how thick your bars are. Firmly press two thirds of the dough-like mixture into the pan, packing it right down. Level off with your hands or a spoon.
3. Add remaining 50g of oats and 3tbsp of flour to the rest of the crumble dough mixture and blend with a mixer. The dry ingredients should transform the 'dough' into a drier, more crumbly mixture, that you can actually use as a crumble topping. If your mixture is too dry, however, add a few squeezes of honey, a little at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Set aside while you prepare the filling.
4. Core, peel, ad chop your apples into small chunks. Place chunks into a saucepan and cover with water, then bring to the boil and simmer until very soft, at least 5 minutes. When soft, drain the apple chunks and mash with a potato masher until you get an applesauce consistency - mostly paste with some apple chunks still remaining. If your apples are soft enough mashing them should be quite easy. Return to the heat and add the three peaches that have been stoned and cut into 8-12 pieces each. Stir these into the apples on a medium heat until the mixture bubbles and they begin to break down. Add vanilla. Mash a little more to coax the peaches into a chunky paste.
5. Pour filling over prepared base. Sprinkle with crumble topping, distributing in an even layer. Bake for approx. 30 minutes until a deep golden brown on top. Cool in tin for 15 minutes, then remove cake in baking paper and set on a cooling rack to cool a bit more. These could be enjoyed (with a spoon!) as a dessert with custard, cream or ice cream, or even by themselves when warm, or you can leave them to cool, sprinkle them with icing sugar if you want and cut into bars or pieces. They firm up a bit when they cool and can be easily handled.

Store in an airtight container for a few days. Though they don't need it, these will last longer in the fridge.

Crusty White Loaf

 

I've mentioned in previous posts that I've never really had much luck with breads and doughs. They would never seem to rise and, after returning hopefully to the mixing bowl after a vigorous ten minutes of kneading and a few hours of waiting, more than often I would be disappointed to find a stubborn little ball of dough that had refused to rise, and would yield tiny little 'rock' loaves of bread. That was the case. Until I found this recipe.

I don't know what it is about this recipe (well, actually, I think it's the double quantity of yeast) that makes the bread so fluffy and light. This dough has risen excellently for me every single time I've made it, and after playing around with some salt/sugar measurements in the last few batches, I think we've found our winner. This loaf was dubbed 'the best bread you've made so far' by my mother, quite a compliment, as none of the others had been bad, some just more successful than others.

This, alas, is not a recipe completely of my own design. I've adapted this from the King of bread himself - Paul Hollywood's 'crusty white bloomer' recipe. The first time I made his recipe, I found the resulting bread to be quite salty. I found this unusual as normally my taste buds have a problem with homemade bread being not salty enough, and having that 'yeasty' flavour, which isn't very nice. Considering shop bought breads also contain a lot of salt, and taste fine, I couldn't work why the salt was bothering me. Anyway, I decided to experiment with different amounts to see what different results I would get. I tried no salt at all, half quantities of salt, mixtures of salt and sugar, and all sugar. I learned after many loaves that, yes, salt is critical.

before second rising

As the family chef I see it in our best interests to not add any extra salt to anything unless I absolutely can't avoid it. This is one of those times. For example, to me, the addition of salt to the Easy Flour Tortillas recipe is just unnecessary, and I really don't miss the salt, but in this bread, an amount substantial enough to feed the yeast is required. Don't get me wrong, you only need a teaspoon, it's not as if I'm telling you to add tablespoons of the stuff, but I like to cut salty corners whenever I can. So this annoyed me for a bit, until I realised that one teaspoon of salt across a whole loaf as part of a very low salt diet wasn't going to kill us. So, to counteract the somewhat salty flavour of the loaf, today, I added one teaspoon of sugar. Oh. My. Goodness. Buttery, light, fluffy, super crusty, crunchy, not-too-salty-not-too-sweet delicious bread that was gone in a mere few hours, it was that good. Fully deserving of the 'best loaf ever' comment.

A few things I would say about this dough: 1. Use butter if you can. The original recipe used butter, and for a good reason, you don't need that much, but boy does it make a difference to margarine. It gives a wonderful buttery flavour that you can taste right through the loaf and makes it extra delicious. 2: Don't put your dough in an 'extra warm' place to rise. Room temperature is just fine, do not be tempted to stick your dough in an airing cupboard, please! The temperatures in there will be too hot and will harm the yeast. Place the covered bowl of dough in the warmest room in your house, and, even in winter, it will rise, I promise. 3. You can choose how you want to shape your loaf. I like the round slashed bloomer loaf style, but feel free to experiment. I've never tried making this recipe into rolls, but I'm sure they would be successful. I've experimented before with a proper loaf tin, but had difficulty removing the bread once baked, so I find it easier to stick to the foolproof baking sheet.

Crusty White Bread
Makes 1 Large Loaf

500g strong white bread flour
2 packets easy bake yeast (14g)
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
40g butter (salted or unsalted, your choice)
approx 300ml lukewarm water (about body temp.) you may need more or less, depending on the consistency of your dough.

1. Place the flour into large mixing bowl. Add the butter, breaking it up into small chunks so it will be easier to incorporate. Add the yeast on one side of the bowl, and the salt and sugar on the other. If they are added together too soon, apparently the salt/sugar will kill the yeast, listen to Mr Hollywood, children, he knows what he's talking about.
2. Stir the dry ingredients with your hands, rubbing in the butter a little. Add about half of the water and mix again with your hands, continue to add water until a dough forms. According to Paul 'you want a dough that is well combined and soft, but not sticky or soggy'.
3. Tip out your dough onto a very lightly floured surface. Avoid using too much extra flour, as it will change the consistency of your dough to the worse. If you're having big problems with the dough sticking while kneading (which I have never had with this recipe) spread a small amount of olive oil on your counter top, and knead the dough on top of this instead, which will not alter your finished dough.
4. Knead until smooth and elastic. You should be able to gently pull a piece of dough and it will spring back. Most recipes say this takes about 8-10 minutes but with this recipe, it takes much less, about 5-7, but see what works for you.
5. Tip the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave in a warm (but not hot!) spot until doubled in size, about an hour max. For me, this also happens a lot quicker, about half and hour, but that may just be the temperature of my house at this time of year.
6. Remove the dough from the bowl and knock the air out of it. This is simply kneading the dough a few times to remove any huge air bubble, about 10 times should do the trick. With your hands tuck the edges of the dough underneath the ball to form a nice smooth shape. Continue to shape like this until you have the shape that you want. Place the shaped dough on a baking tray scattered well with flour (to prevent sticking) and cover again with a damp tea towel, leaving to rise in the warm spot until doubled in size again. While this is happening preheat your oven to gas mark 6.
7. Once the dough has doubled in size, scatter the top lightly with flour and run it over the dough for an even coating. Slash the dough with a serrated knife a few times using long strokes and cuts no more than 1cm deep, these will expand with cooking.
8. Place the loaf onto the middle shelf of your oven (this is important as otherwise the bread will hit the top of the oven when baking and burn, trust me, I know!) Place a roasting tin filled with 2cm deep of cold water in the bottom of the oven, the steam released when the bread cooks helps give it a wonderful crust.
9. Bake for 25-40 minutes, depending on your oven. The bread should be a deep golden brown on top, and should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Leave to cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.

The Wedding Cake Saga - Part 7 - Final Thoughts

Overall, this cake making couldn't have gone better for a first attempt. Everything went smoothly, including the slicing and serving of the cake to my more than willing family (who were also sent home with HUGE pieces of each tier). The outside shots are from our al fresco Sunday lunch this afternoon (it'd be a shame to waste the sunshine, after all!) and I got very excited about the vintage tea cups and saucers my mum dusted off and the not-so-vintage Cath Kidston cake stand I got for my 18th. I thought the whole thing was very Pinterest.

Notes to myself for next time, and for anyone else who's thinking of undertaking the mammoth (but extremely fun and rewarding) task of making a wedding cake:

1. Don't underestimate the quantity of ingredients you need. The first chocolate layer I baked came out much thinner than the others. The second time I made a chocolate layer I added an extra egg and the same weight as the egg's worth of flour, butter and sugar. It came out perfect.
2. Don't overfill your layers, or, don't spread the fillings right to the very edge, even if they're quite sturdy, but especially if they're soft. I tended to spread the fillings right to the edge because I didn't want the edge pieces to be dry, especially because the layers were so thick. But when the cakes have the pressure of the above tiers on them they get squished down and the icing expands. This wasn't so much of a problem because of the rough texture of the final coat of buttercream, and certainly wasn't noticeable straight after the cake had been made, but the next day (today) I could see a slightly thicker band of icing around the middle of the first and second tiers. That said, don't skimp on the layer of filling. I sandwiched the chocolate tier with Baileys buttercream and before it was stacked this layer of filling was about and inch thick. After a day or two, and the pressure of the above tiers when stacked, some of the filling seeped into the cake, and got pushed to the edges, meaning when the cake was sliced the amount of filling was perfect. Be generous with your fillings, they'll help stop your cake from drying out, but don't spread them too close to the edge.
3. Two days is plenty of time to make, fill and ice the cake. The cakes will just carry on getting drier from the day they are made. That said, all the layers were still lovely and moist today, 2 days after baking. To ensure maximum deliciousness, though, only bake 2 days ahead. Don't bother with freezing, there's too much potential for soggy cakes in my opinion.
4. Buy nice flowers from a florist. Although they were lovely, the Asda roses were looking a bit worse for wear after less than 24 of being cut from their stems. The lighter pink mystery flowers were still as good as new though...maybe some flowers just last better than others. Obviously, for the real thing I'll arrange the flowers on the day, preferably when I get to the reception to make sure they last as well as possible. I wrapped the ends in foil to prevent the flowers marring the flavour of the parts of the cake that they were stuck in. This seemed to work well. Interestingly, I only did this for the lighter pink flowers, not the roses, perhaps that's why they lasted so much better. Experiment with keeping the flowers watered while on the cake.
5. See if you and your cake can withstand the heat. Practise in summer. I now know that my cakes and icings will withstand hot July temperatures, but it's well worth testing this yourself, there'd be nothing worse than your icing sliding all around your cake when on display!
6. The cakes cut and serve wonderfully. Don't know what all the drama and stress was about (mum).
7. It's easier than you think! It may be a bit time consuming and tiring, but if you love baking and getting arty, and have a tiny bit of skill (and pounds of buttercream to cover mistakes) the results, reactions and praise is so, so worth it. Jump at the chance, how often to amateur bakers get to make such giant and exciting creations? It'll probably be another year before I make another wedding cake, but I'd recommend it to anyone.
8. DIY weddding cakes are literally HUNDREDS of pounds cheaper than buying them from professional bakers. You could get charged anywhere from £250 - £650 for a cake of the size I made, depending on where you live and what you want on it. I spent £35. Max. Granted, the results won't be quite as pristine as those from a pro bakery, but they'll be pretty damn good if you give your cake a 'lil bit o' love and attention. And 'rustic' is so in right now (seriously, just search Pinterest). No contest in my eyes.

Cue the mandatory photo montage...

so painful to watch...

look how flat that is!!

More photos of the cake itself, including close ups of icing and piping in Part 6 - Finishing Touches.

The Wedding Cake Saga - Part 6 - Finishing Touches

This post will just be lots of pictures of the finished cake. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. There were no major disasters, and the cake is still standing today! I decorated the cake with a bunch of flowers I bought for £5 from Asda. I actually love the combination of colours from the roses and the other flowers (I've forgotten their name!) and the baby's breath, which I think is much nicer than just having one solid block of colour. Decorating the cake was the best bit. Piping the bead border too a bit of practise, but is easy once you get the hang of it (squeeze, stop, pull, squeeze, stop, pull!). The flowers really brought the whole cake together, and made it really look like a wedding cake. Overall I'm really pleased with the results!!

Part 7, final thoughts.