Dampfnudel (steamed buns) - GBBO2016 - Week3

I think this is the 4th Bake Off since I was challenged to create milk, egg, wheat and soya free versions of the technical challenges. The last couple of years, recipes have been few and far between as real life has got in the way. 

For those of you who don't follow me on twitter, I'm off work at the moment following eye surgery. In theory, this should give me more time to bake and to write up some of the 90 odd 'drafts' I have on the site. In practice, my eyes can't focus properly to type and my altered depth of vision makes cooking slower. 

I struggled with precision needed for topping the Jaffa cakes with chocolate on week one and my mum was here to do week two's Viennese Whirls for me. But while the contestants seemed to struggle with bread week, it was finally something, less precise, I could do more easily. The typing up less so, this is my second attempt as I tried doing it on my phone (easier for me to see than laptop), but it doesn't save automatically like my laptop does and I lost it all! 

I've been making bread for as long as I can remember, but since Mini Monster went wheat free too, I found it a struggle as it needed much wetter mix that couldn't be shaped so easily. I have regained my love of bread making over the last year, thanks largely to the discovery of Bakels and Coori Mixes. Both of these produce a 'workable' dough, which means some of our old favourites are producible again at home.

Like me, I suspect last week's Bake Off was the first time most of you had ever heard of Dampfnudel. I had a look at Paul's recipe and decided that for my first attempt I'd use the Coori Puff Pastry Mix that I have found is great for making a free from equivalent of a rich dough, which would usually contain milk, eggs and butter (also, I'd run out of the Bakels white mix, using my last bag to make a chocolate and cherry Couronne the day before).

My next problem was lack of a shallow, heavy based pan with a tight fitting lid. As you'll see from the pictures, I improvised with a glass bowl over a cast iron frying pan…

Not entirely sure if it would even work, I went for a smaller quantity of dough, which made 7 dampfnudel about 8-10cm across. This was enough for 4 of us, but the kids had finished off the plum sauce and custard before we had ours, I'll make the full quantity of those next time! 

This recipe is for double quantity I used (but closer to Paul's amount for 12 in the original recipe). I made this amount of the basic dough, but then split it in two and used half for the next step of the dampfnudel and half for sausage rolls. If you only want to make a small amount, just use half quantities for dough below.

Dough

400g Coori Puff Pastry Mix (this is already sweetened, so you don't need the extra sugar)

260mls Milk Substitute (warmed to hand hot)

7g Sachet of Dried Yeast

70g Dairy and Soya Free Spread (I used the hard Stork)

1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

Grated Zest of 1 Unwaxed Lemon

Extra flour for kneading if too sticky (use a basic gluten free plain flour for this as it's cheaper)

Mix yeast with the milk and set aside to foam.

Put flour mix in a bowl (wide enough for you to knead in).

Add yeast mixture to flour and mix with a blunt knife until the dough begins to come together.

Sprinkle with a little extra flour if sticky and use your hands to knead lightly until you have a smooth dough.

Cover and set aside to rise until doubled in size (You can make the plum sauce at this stage).

Flatten dough slightly, then add the vanilla, lemon zest and dairy free spread. Fold over the dough and continue to knead until the added ingredients are well combined and you have a smooth shiny dough (you can use it at this stage, however, I covered mine and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours so I could make them fresh for the boy's dinner).

Divide the dough into 12 (or 7 if using half quantity) and roll into balls. If you made your dough in advance, you will need to knead it again before deciding, to knock out the air.

Poaching Liquid

150mls Milk Substitute

25g Dairy and Soya Free Spread

25g Caster Sugar

Heat the poaching liquid in the pan until sugar dissolved. Remove from heat.

Place the dough balls gently in the warm poaching liquid and leave for 15 minutes until well risen.

Not quite sure if this is what they meant my tight fitting lid...

Return pan to a low heat and cook covered for 25-30 minutes . Remove the lid and cook for a further 5-10minutes until golden and caramelised on the bottoms.

Carefully loosen the bottoms from the pan. Remove dampfnudel and serve with plum and vanilla sauce.

Nice light spongy texture.

Slightly scruffy edges, but the crust was delicious!

Plum Sauce

4 Ripe Plums 

1-2tbsp sugar (I only used one as my kids, but can add more later if too sharp for you)

Juice of an orange (I didn't have one so used a tangerine and half a lemon)

A pinch of ground cinnamon

Cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Chop into small pieces.

Add to a small pan with all the juice and sugar and cook gently until sugar dissolved.

Increase the heat and boil for 10 minutes until thickened and plum pieces soft.

Add the cinnamon and blend until smooth.

Vanilla Sauce

1/2 tbsp Custard Powder (gives a slight, but not too yellow colour)

1tbsp Cornflour

1tbsp Caster Sugar

1tsp Vanilla Paste or extract

300mls Milk Substitute

100mls Dairy and Soya Free Cream 

Follow instructions for custard here. This is supposed to be a thinner pouring consistency, if you want something thicker, just increase the amount of cornflour used.