Ebi-kun is off school at the moment so I am putting him to work in the kitchen, he loves making mac and cheese from scratch but I want him to expand his repertoire. He is starting with bread!
Many people think that making bread is difficult, it's not, it just takes a bit of patience and it's a great recipe for kids.
This recipe is from Paul Hollywoods 100 Great Breads, which has become one of our most used cookbooks, we haven't tried them all yet but we have tried quite a few! No disasters so far, and the recipes are easy to follow, so if you are looking for a good bread book I can highly recommend it.
This is the first time we have tried the teacakes though, slightly adapted recipe:
400g strong flour
1.5 tsp salt
40g caster sugar (he used brown)
20g yeast
1tsp cinnamon
200ml water
50g softened butter
140g mixed dried fruit
1 egg beaten for eggwash
Put the flour, salt, sugar, cinnamon, butter, yeast and water into a large bowl and mix together for 2 minutes. Tip the dough onto a slightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Return to the bowl and let rest for 1 hour.
Line a baking tray or use a silicon tray. Add the mixed dried fruit to the dough and divide into 75g pieces. It doesn't matter how well you measure everything, the last piece will always be under the correct weight.
Shape into a ball (I should have shown him how to pull the dough to make it smooth here but he didn't want any help! Use a rolling pin, flatten using a rolling pin until they are about 2.5cm thick.
Place on the baking tray and leave to rise for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 190C. Brush the top of the teacakes with beaten egg wash and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Try the teacake fresh from the oven, smothered in butter.
Also delicious toasted and yes, smothered in butter! These were really good and although he doesn't know it yet, he will be making these again next week!
