GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 7 - Kouign-Amann

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 4 - Tiramisu Cake

GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 4 - Tiramisu Cake

I always worry about new visitors to the site during the Great British Bake Off Challenge. Honestly, the recipes on the site are usually pretty straightforward, but for a few weeks a year I've been set a challenge… To recreate the technical challenges from the bake off, without using milk, egg, wheat or soya! And the contestants think they have a challenge!

Bear with me though, this one wasn't as tough as it seemed and was well worth the effort. I've already thought how to improve it for next time, I probably should have looked at Mary's recipe first, then I may not have forgotten the layers of chocolate/cocoa too!

I thought long and hard about which sponge recipe to use, then rather than using a tried and tested one, used the Victoria Sponge Recipe from the wonderful Ms Cupcake for the first time. Perfect! - although, I probably should have used a slightly larger quantity to get all four layers this cake should have had (I used 1/3, should have used 1/2 quantity)… I'm still not sure if it wasn't enough 'mascarpone' filling, or if I just ate too much while it was cooling… Will definitely make more of that next time too!

This was enough to make 3 layers of an 18x18cm cake. 

Sponge Layers

140g Self Raising or Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

80g Caster Sugar

2/3tsp Baking Powder

140mls Milk Substitute (plus 1-2tbsp if using GF flour)

50mls Vegetable Oil

1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Add the milk substitute, oil and vanilla and mix to a smooth paste with a wooden spoon or hand whisk.

Pour into a greased lined tin and bake for 25-30mins or until firm to the touch and just coming away from the sides of the tin.

Leave to cool for 5-10mins in the tin, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Carefully slice horizontally into 3 layers.

Mascarpone Cream

200mls Milk Substitute

2tbsp Cornflour

1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

1tsp Caster Sugar

100mls Dairy and Soya Free Cream (e.g. rice/oat/almond)

2 Leaves Gelatine (soaked in cold water for 10 mins)

1/2 - 1 tbsp Marsala Wine (or coffee or almond liquor) - optional

Mix sugar, cornflour and vanilla to a paste with a little of the milk substitute.

Add the rest of the milk substitute and microwave (or cook in pan), stirring every minute until boiled and very thick.

Stir on the Marsala  - If you're worried about adding alcohol if children going to eat it, add it before it's thickened, to allow the alcohol to boil off.

Add the soaked gelatine sheets and stir until dissolved.

Whisk occasionally as it cools to keep it smooth.

When warm, but not hot, whisk in the dairy free cream. Set aside to cool completely.

Topping/Filling

2tbsp Grated Dairy and Soya Free Chocolate (or Plamil Dark Chocolate flakes/Mortimer's Chocolate Powder)

1-2tbsp Cocoa

100mls Strong Coffee/Decaf Coffee 

Line the tin with cling film. put one layer of the sponge back in.

Brush with the coffee mixture to soak through.

Top with 1/3 of the custard mixture and spread out evenly.

Sprinkle over cocoa powder or grated chocolate and continue to layer up.

Leave in fridge for a couple of hours to set.

Mini Monster has requested this for his birthday cake this year, guess that means it was good!

GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 1 - Cherry Cake 
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 2 - Florentines
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 3 - Ciabatta 

GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 3 - Ciabatta

Week 3 of the milk, egg, wheat and soya free versions of the technical challenge and I've still not been beaten! I thought this one was going to be more of a struggle, but trying out a few new bread techniques, I have a passable first attempt. 

Ciabatta uses a very soft dough, which is why you get the lovely lines of flour stretched across the top as it slowly rises. I made Ciabatta for the first time a couple of years ago after treating myself to Richard Bertinet's book Crust. Time consuming, but made a perfect set of loaves. I also made a sour dough starter and made some beautiful loaves. A few weeks later, Mini Monster went wheat free and I stopped being able to make proper bread (too much flour in atmosphere and space in utility room I used for overnight rising, now taken up with emergency snack box…). I passed my starter on to my Mother-in-Law though and 2 1/2 years later, it's still going strong!

So back to a wheat free version…

Ciabatta is another slow risen loaf requiring gluten to give it  stretch and fill it with lovely holes. This was attempt 1, managed to get the outside right, with a lovely crisp crust, even managed a light soft middle, but a distinct lack of holes… Might have another go one day…

165mls Water (hand hot)

1tsp Sugar

2tsp Dried Yeast

1/2 cup + 1 cup Gluten Free White Bread Flour

1/2 tsp Vitamin C Powder 

1tbs ground flax seed soaked in 90mls water

3tbsn olive oil

Mix together water sugar and yeast and leave to foam.

Add 1/2 cup Gluten Free White Bread Flour and stir. Do Not Cover.

Set aside for several hours (or overnight).

Once doubled in size, give it a stir and leave again.

Add the flax seed mixture and oil and stir together.

Put the rest of the dry ingredients into another bowl and mix.

Pour on the yeasted mixture and stir until it all comes together. 

Knead lightly (this will be a very soft dough, do not be tempted to add more flour).

Divide into 2 and shape with oiled hands.

Roll in extra flour and place on a tray which has been oiled and sprinkled with polenta.

Leave to rise for at least 60mins.

Put a bowl or tray filled with boiling water in the bottom of the oven to create steam. This allows it to rise more before a crust develops, but also gives a crisper crust.

Bake at 200ºC for 25-30mins or until lightly browned.

GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 1 - Cherry Cake 
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 2 - Florentines