It’s Bread week on the Great British Bake off and to inspire you our bakery assistant, Dan Thompson, has shared his own recipe for a Stilton and Pesto Bloomer. Along with his top tips for baking Bread.
” My top three tips for baking bread are:
1. Most bakeries will happily provide you with some fresh yeast if you ask them nicely, we always want to encourage home bakers to experiment!
2. Always make sure you carefully weigh your ingredients, you would be surprised with the difference that 1g of salt can make to a loaf’s flavour.
3. For an extra tasty crust, I like to brush the bread with some cool water when it comes out of the oven.
I hope you enjoy the recipe and good luck if you are entering the Prima bake off Competition” Dan Thompson – Bakery Assistant Prima Bakeries
Stilton and Pesto Bloomer
• 500g strong white flour
• 350ml tepid water
• 20g fresh yeast OR 7g sachet dried yeast
• 8g salt
• Stilton and pesto for the filling
Method
1. Weigh the flour, salt, yeast, and water into a
mixing bowl, being careful to keep the salt and
the yeast separate.
2. Proceed to mix together your ingredients until they form a dough that is neither too dry not too
wet. Fold the dough in on itself to achieve this.
3. Now it is time to leave the dough to rest. This helps the flavours in the dough to develop
naturally, and will make the dough much easier to work with when you come back. Leave the
dough for approximately 30 minutes. If you’re in a hurry you can skip this step and proceed to
kneading, but it pays to wait.
4. Knead the bread thoroughly with your hands, taking care to work in as much air as possible
into the dough, which helps to develop the gluten in your bread, giving it a rich and
wholesome flavour. The best way to check that your dough is well kneaded is to take a small
amount of dough and stretch it between your fingers, if the dough is letting light through, then
you’re ready to move on to shaping the dough. This test is called the ‘Windowpane Test’.
5. Cover and rest your dough for approximately one hour, or until it has doubled in size.
6. With your hands, fold the dough into a parcel shape, and roll it into a long cylinder.
7. Using a rolling pin, flatten our the dough into a rectangular shape that is about 1/2cm in
thickness.
8. Leaving a 2cm margin around the edges, proceed to spread the Stilton and pesto according to your
own personal tastes.
9. Carefully roll the dough tightly into a cylinder shape, and place the dough on a greased baking
tray, seam side down.
10. Leave the dough to prove for approximately an hour, or until it has doubled in size.
11. Preheat the oven to 210C or Gas 6 1/2.
12. Using a sharp serrate knife, or a lame, score your dough diagonally 4 times. This helps to control
the direction the bread will expand in the oven.
13. Place the baking tray in the preheated oven and bake for at least 30 minutes, or until the crust
turns a deep golden brown.
14. Remove the bread from the oven and place on wire racks and leave to cool.