I've been thinking about making ice creams for a quite while, and even got a small ice cream maker. But never did much. I have been reading some lovely ice cream blogs from Cherry Teacakes and decided, it's time for me to have a go as well...
I've got some strawberries in the fridge, so I thought, why not.
It's a pretty lay back version of making some ice cream, the end result is good. I guess I will make more ice cream and sorbet this summer.
Strawberry Cinnamon Ice Cream
1 punnet – 250g strawberries
1 cup sugar
300ml thick cream
100ml milk – full cream
2 eggs
1.5 tsp gelatine
1 cup water
1 tbp ground cinnamon
Whisk eggs till light and fluffy.
Simmer the strawberries, sugar and water in a pot to make coulisse.
Sift coulisse, push the strawberries through sift.
Add gelatine to coulisse once cooled a bit.
Add cream and milk to eggs and whisk well to mix.
Add cinnamon and the coulisse.
Mix well and put the mixture in a freezer friendly container, in the freezer for an hour, and then bring it out and put it in the ice cream maker to finish the process (my ice cream maker is not big, so needs a bit of help, some other ice cream makers, you don't need the freezer.)
Once there's a nice plain dough for any keen baker, the choice is endless.
The best plain dough for my breads so far is the Pain Viennois Dough recipe I got from Emmannuel Mollois, and I've made my adaption version using some wholemeal flour, and have since reduce the quantiy to:
200g strong bread flour
150g wholemeal flour
160ml milk
1 egg
40g butter
30g sugar
5g salt
2 tsp fresh yeast
for a normal every day loaf and been using the bread in plain toast, basically everything.
Today, whilst making bread again, I thought, it's the last week before we are going on our holiday, why not make a bigger loaf and without the wholemeal flour.
And half way through, I changed my mind, so I end up with 2 loaves, one plain, one Cinnamon Caramel Fruit Twist loaf, hubby just loves his cinnamon fruit breads...
For today's 2 loaves:
For the dough:
480g strong bread flour, extra for dusting.
60g butter
250ml full cream milk
2 large eggs (59g)
3 tsp dry yeast
40g sugar
5g salt
For the filling of one loaf:
2/3 cup mixed dry fruit with peels
4 tbsp brown sugar
40g butter
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp all spice powder
extra cinnamon powder and raw sugar for dusting.
Syurp wash made from hot water, sugar and gelatin.
Method:
Heat milk up and then cool back down to around 40-45C.
Add in dry yeast and wait 10-15 minutes for it to get frothy.
Put salt at the bottom of the mixing bowl (make sure it’s away from the yeast), add flour and sugar and make a well in the middle.
Add yeast mixture liquid – I’ve used the bench top mixture for this recipe, but you can use hand….
Turn the mixer to low spead with dough hooks, start kneading till a soft dough is formed, add eggs, one by one till dough is smooth
Keeo the mixer working the dough, gradually add soft room temperature butter which was broken into small cubes, and until all lumps are gone and dough is smooth, that will take around 15-20 minutes.
On a nice clean bench , spread some dry flour, and knead with the help of a dough scraper if you need to use one, as the dough can be wet and sticky.
Set the dough to rest for a while in between kneading, until the dough pass the window test.
Get a big bowl and grease the bottom a little, put the dough in.
Cover the dough with cloth and leave it to proof for 2-3 hours till it's double the size.
Knock the bubbles back, cut the dough into 2 portions, the plain loaf takes 3/5 and the cinnamon loaf takes 2/5.
Grease tins, shape the plain dough and leave it for proofing.
Using a rolling pin, roll out the smaller dough, until it's quite flat and spread on the fillings (melt butter and work it with the brown sugar and spices, mix very well).
Spread on the sugar butter mix first and then the mixed dry fruits, roll up into a long thin log, twist and form a hook shape, cut sides so it shows the layers.
Leave in another greased loaf tin, cover both tins with clean cloth and proof for another 2 hours (it's cold in my house, probably not so long in warmer environment.
Brush both on syrup wash. Spread on more cinnamon and some raw sugar on top of the fruit loaf.
Bake in preheated oven 190C or 375F for 25 minutes.
The bread is really light and fluffy!
So happy with the tast and submit this to Yeastspotting!
Although I love my wholemeal sourdoughs, hubby's not a big fan, and we do need different breads... He's got super sweet tooth so I normally make him something sweet for his brekky.
This is one of his favourite bread:
Cinnamon Raisin Loaf
• 380g Strong Bread flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp instant dried yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp raw sugar
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 whole egg lightly beaten
• 50g softened butter
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp all spice
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
Method
Mix flour salt, all spice, cinnamon and half of raw sugar and brown sugar.
Heat milk to moderate temperature, lukewarm, add half of raw sugar and yeast, and stand for 10-15 minutes till frothy.
Rub softened butter into the flour mix, until it resembles bread crumb and add vanilla essence and egg.
Add yeast mixture and egg, and add mix to a rough dough.
Add raisins and knead. It’s better to knead 6 minutes rest the dough for 30 minutes – and repeat the process for 6 times, until it’s smooth elastic and not sticky to hand.
Leave dough in a clean lightly greased pot and cover to proof till double the size.
Cut dough in 5 different portions and roll up to smooth rolls, set in a greased tin, proof till full size.
Brush on egg wash.
Bake in 190C oven for 30 minutes.
