Baked by you during lockdown.

We have seen some lovely lockdown loaves and cute quarantine cakes created. Here are just a few of what you have all been up to over the last few months with our bread flours, bread & cake mixes – thanks to all of you for staying safe & special thanks to Emma for saying it with our Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix in this featured cake.

Deb the Bread

Well, some are calling this a Focaccia Garden, some Focaccia Art. To me its a nice nutritional thing to create during lockdown & a great way of getting vegetables into children.  So grateful to Richard who baked this beauty over the Bank Holiday using our quick & easy Garlic & Rosemary Focaccia bread mix as a base.

Of course, the multi talented Karen Mary had to have a go at what she called “the focaccia thing that is doing the rounds”. She too used our Garlic & Rosemary Focaccia to produce this beauty. To me they look beautiful as a decorated dough as well as baked!

Always a thrill when we hear from our Phil – yes, the baking biker off The Great British Bake Off.  During lockdown, Phil created a quick tear & share bread in a Bundt tin, using our Ciabatta mix. A spoonful of poppy seeds was added to every other round, then it was glazed with hazelnut oil before baking – Phil said it was “Delish”.  It just baked up beautifully in that Bundt tin & we christenened Phil’s creation, a Ciabundtta loaf!

Thanks to Chris for sharing his beautiful Bakewell Tart Cake made with our Madeira cake mix. What a lovely idea – you all amaze me with what you do with our cake mixes

Thanks Chris – he created our Orange cake mix with Tesco Island Mix (apricot, papaya, pineapple and raisins) with a small amount of freshly squeezed orange juice to make up the mix too. Looks like summer on a plate!

Another from Chris – he seems to like our Orange Cake Mix with the addition of the Island Fruit Mix. This time he baked the mixture in a lovely heart shaped tin!

Many bread making machines have been bought out of lockdown – during the lockdown if you like! During my 25 years here at the mill I am proud to have rescued many bread making machines from the back of the cupboard due to the ease & convenience of our bread mixes.  Valerie had not used hers for years & although I refreshed her memory a little to use the 1 hour 55 minute programme with our Premium White mix in her Panasonic machine, she kindly sent me this image of her recent bake! 

After being unavailable for so long, Adele’s local farm stall had stock of our Cheddar Cheese & Onion bread mix. Her family are delighted with a fresh loaf for lockdown lunch – made in her Panasonic bread making machine. Lovely loaf! Thanks.

Carrying on with your machine bakes and Michelle used our Mixed Grain saying “it comes out so well, it’s a large loaf cooked on a 2 hour program (which on my bread machine happens to be a gluten free setting) I just gave it a try and boom!” – what a beauty – thanks Michelle.

Monika does a great deal of baking using our mixes and this time she used our Ciabatta in her new 5lb loaf tin. That’s value for money & terrific when toasted.

Always saving the best until last and I see our Premium White mix is performing perfectly as usual & not just because it was #WorldBakingDay when Helen sent it in to me.

I can only imagine the flavour of our Toffee cake mix baked up with a browned butter frosting but here it is, created by Sarah-Lee. Thank you.

Thanks Robert for sharing your gorgeous Garlic & Rosemary Focaccia bread, made from our mix. Robert enjoyed half of it with Tagliatelle & said it “was scrumptious”. Robert has been baking for years & suggests “if you’ve had a go and not been happy with the results, you could do worse than have a go at these mixes”. What a lovely message & what a stunning looking loaf!

Another nice thing to do during the lockdown is to create a topping for home made Tiger Loaf. Alison’s first ever Tiger Loaf was made with our Premium White bread mix & I think she will probably make another one soon! Alison said it was “lovely and crunchy”. Fancy a go? Tiger bread is created by mixing sesame oil and a little flour together in a small cup then painting it onto UNRISEN dough. As the dough rises the coating cracks and gives you this great effect when baked.

The topping consists of :

Rice Flour 150 grm
Water 150 grm
Sugar 9 grm
Sesame Oil 8 grm
Salt 3 grm
Fresh Yeast 3grm (or half a teaspoon)

Mix all ingredients for the Tiger Skin together till smooth – set aside – this should be slightly thicker than wallpaper paste by the time you come to use it. Make up your usual Premium White bread mix, mould or tin it, prove the bread until it is half risen, spread tiger mix evenly on top of dough, then continue proving until doubled in size then bake as per instructions on the back of the pack. In “spreading” the mixture you can gently massage this on with your hands or a pastry brush but be careful not to de-gas your half risen loaf by doing this.

Whilst we were busy fulfilling home baking orders of flour, bread and cake mixes over the past few months, Jayne in Swindon was pleased with her delivery and showed off her Premium White and Malty breads to us with their beautiful floury tops. I trust the loaves went well with the Malbec?

Chris received her order from us and had a nice little bake up. Presenting our Premium White, again performing perfectly in her bread making machine whilst creating a wonderful aroma in the kitchen. Can’t beat it!

These are pleasing little loaves as they are a mix of two of our bread mixes. Brian’s half Premium White & half Mixed Grain loaves – created with 310ml water creates two 1lb loaves that he puts end to end in a long bread tin for two lovely little loaves. The secret of his crusty tops is that they are baked in his Aga at home.

Nicky’s Garlic & Rosemary Focaccia arrived from our on-line delivery service & she said “everyone loved the first one we made tonight in a heart shape. Thank you so much, my family absolutely love it. we will definitely be ordering some more and trying other types in the future”. Another lovely lockdown loaf – love these different shapes in different varieties – it certainly rings the changes during quarantine.

Another shape is to create a Boule type of loaf on a baking sheet as Nikki did with our Premium White. Cuts nicely and looks beautiful – thanks.

Another half and half loaf made with our Strong White Flour and some Strong Wholemeal to create this handsome looking hunk of a loaf. This is sourdough bread at its best from the Our Live Blogged Team – nice one – thanks.

Thanks Laura – your Leek and Lancashire cheese pull apart bread looks lovely! Making good use of cheese & leeks you may have left over – amalgamate them into our bread mix for a tasty treat!

Gosh Steph – you got that right! Our marvellous Mixed Grain Bread Mix with the addition of some extra seeds, (sesame, linseed & poppy seed) + crushed caraway, fennel and dill seeds into the dough itself! Terrific taste & texture too! Thank you.

For those who have had to work and had little time to embellish their bakes, Till made a ginger & syrup pudding in the microwave with our Ginger cake mix.  Saying it was “so easy; took less than 10 minutes” then thanked us for the recipe!

Oh nice one Alan, speaking of our Madeira mix, he said “Like most cakes, they don’t last long enough, here is the last Gin & Tonic cake I made, topped with Lemon icing”. Just amazing – thanks – not surprised that didn’t last long! Great cake to create for Father’s Day if Dad likes a gin!