Ok, so I might be a little behind on the whole milk, egg, wheat and soya free technical challenges for this year's Great British Bake Off, but better late than never. I blame Paul and Mary, why do they insist on picking laminated pastries and whipped creams? Both of which are very difficult when you can't use any of the above ingredients.
My puff pastry for week 5 seriously needs revisiting (hard, greasy, not remotely flakey) so I needed another plan for this week. Kouign-Amann, for those of you who don't know it well, originated from Brittany and is a crusty cake made up of dough with layers of sugar and butter. You know, the kind of thing that needs good stretchy gluten in the flour, and nice tasty buttery fat for flavour! Oh well, at least it doesn't contain eggs!
In a moment of inspiration, I remembered a recipe from 'Warm Bread and Honey Cake' that brushed thin sheets of dough with melted fat and rolled to give a flakey pastry for pasties. I used to use it a lot, pre wheat free days, and did have partial success using the same technique to make wheat free paratha.
This made 6, plus some scraps…
15g Fresh Yeast (or a sachet of dried yeast) - sorry, experimenting with fresh yeast since I found out I could get it from Ocado!
200mls Milk Substitute and Water - hand hot (I used 150mls cold oat milk and 50mls boiling water)
1tsp Sugar
Add the sugar to the 'milk' and stir. Check the temperature is no hotter than your hand (or it will kill the yeast) and crumble (or sprinkle) in the yeast.
Set aside for 10-15mins until starting to froth.
250g Gluten and Wheat Free White Bread Flour
10g Arrowroot
Pinch Salt (optional)
25g Dairy and Soya Free Spread (Pure Sunflower/Vitalite)
1tsp Baking Powder
80g Vegetable Shortening (Cookeen/Trex)
1/2 tsp Vanilla Paste (optional - but helps give better flavour if not able to use butter)
Extra flour and/or polenta for dusting
2-3tbsp Caster Sugar
Muffin tin, lightly greased
Cling Film to allow for rolling out very thinly without sticking
Put flour, arrowroot, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.
Rub in spread.
Add yeast mixture and bring together with a blunt knife.
Kneed lightly to bring together (sprinkle on a little extra flour if too sticky).
Cover and refrigerate for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the vegetable shortening, then leave to cool slightly until it turns opaque and spreadable and stir in the vanilla paste.
Gluten free dough is notoriously difficult to handle in large pieces, so I did this in 2 batches.
Lightly kneed half the dough, then place on lightly floured cling film (don't add too much flour as you want the dough as moist as possible).
Top with another sheet of cling film and roll out to a rectangle about 2mm thick.
Remove top layer of cling film and spread evenly with half the vegetable shortening mix.
Sprinkle lightly with sugar, polenta and flour.
Use the bottom layer of cling film to help roll it up tightly and smoothly (it helps stop cracking).
Wrap in the cling film, flatten slightly and put back in fridge while you repeat with the other half of the dough.
Chill for at least half an hour.
Roll each piece into a rectangle about 30 x 10cm (still between 2 sheets of cling film).
Trim edges (otherwise you won't get your layers) and cut into 3 squares about 10cm square.
Sprinkle with a little extra sugar.
Fold in the corners of each square (if you lift the cling film to help with this, it stops it cracking) and very carefully lift into the muffin tin.
Repeat with the other roll of dough.
Cover tin with cling film and put back into the fridge for at least 4 hours (or overnight), to allow to rise slowly.
Bake at 180ºC for 25mins until they are well risen and the sugar has caramelised.
Remove from tin and cool slightly before eating.
Ha, Paul Hollywood, week 7 and I still haven't given up!
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 1 - Cherry Cake
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 2 - Florentines
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 3 - Ciabatta
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 2 - Florentines
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 3 - Ciabatta
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