This dough is a cross between brioche and white bread and belongs to the family of ‘milk doughs’. I love it because it isn’t too sweet, yet it’s sweet enough to carry the likes of chocolate and, although it is enriched with milk and butter, it isn’t so rich that you couldn’t use it, in its basic form, to make a brilliant tuna sandwich, croque monsieur or serve it lightly toasted with foie gras.
For the recipes in this chapter, preheat the oven to 220°C instead of 250°C.
250g Full-fat milk (250ml – weighing is more accurate)
15g Yeast (fresh if possible)
500g Strong bread flour
60g Unsalted butter at room temperature
40g Caster sugar
10g Salt
2 Large eggs
To make the dough
• Pour the milk into a pan and warm gently until it is about body temperature – it should feel neither warm nor cold when you dip your finger into it. (You can use a microwave to do this if you prefer – about 1½ minutes at full power.)
• To mix by hand, rub the yeast into the flour using your fingertips as if making a crumble. Rub in the butter, then add the sugar and salt, then the eggs and milk. Continue according to the method, but check your recipe to see if you need to add any other ingredients at this stage.
I first made this when experimenting with a Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding made with brioche and a dash of Grand Marnier. Instead of using brioche as a base, I wanted to try a more unusual bread that would really carry the flavour of the liqueur. From the starting point of orange, I tried infusing the dough with mint. The flavour was fantastic, and the bread kept well for several days, so I tried toasting it and serving it with a pot of fresh minted butter – and it was even better. I’ve also toasted it at breakfast time with scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. I love bread and butter pudding – such an English thing! However we do have something similar in France, which we used to do in the bakery to use up all the leftovers at the end of the day: croissants, pain au chocolat, you name it, everything would go into a big mixer with sultanas, crème anglaise and some alcohol, until it became a thick paste, which we would bake for about 2 hours, cut up into portions and then dust with sugar. It tasted fantastic.
Quantity: 2 large loaves
Preparation: 20 minutes
Infusing: 1 hour (for the milk)
Resting: 1 hour
Proving: 1½ hours
Baking: 22–32 minutes
1 Batch Sweet dough
1 bunch of fresh mint
Zest of 2 Large oranges
1 tablespoon Cointreau
1 Egg beaten with a pinch of salt for an egg wash
Flour for dusting
A little butter for greasing
To prepare
Infuse the milk for the sweet dough with a bunch of mint by warming it through over a low heat, then take the pan off the heat and leave it for 1 hour before straining.
MIx the orange zest with the Cointreau. Lightly grease a baking tray with butter.
Make the sweet dough in the usual way (see here) but using the mint-infused milk. At the end of working the dough by hand/mixing in a mixer add the orange zest and incorporate it well. Form it into a ball, lightly flour the bowl, and rest the dough for 1 hour.
To make
• With the help of the rounded end of your scraper, gently turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured work surface and divide it into two equal portions. Mould each piece into a loaf shape and place on the lightly greased baking tray. Brush the top of each loaf with a little egg wash. Let the egg wash dry for a moment, then cover the loaves with a tea towel and leave to prove for 1½ hours, or until the dough has nearly doubled in volume and is springy when prodded with your finger. Brush again with a little egg wash. Using a pair of scissors held at 45° to the surface, make cuts along the length of each loaf. Put into the preheated oven, turn down the heat and bake at 210°C for the first 2 minutes, then turn down to 200°C for a further 20–30 minutes until the loaf is dark golden brown. Serve, toasted if you like, with mint butter.
For the freezer: The loaf can happily be frozen, wrapped in freezer bags, and kept for 2–3 months.
Put half a packet of butter and a bunch of mint (leaves only) into a food processor and blitz until combined. Chill in a bowl in the fridge until required.
You can use the Orange and Mint Loaf for this – or alternatively buy some brioche. Whatever you choose, you will need two loaves.
Preheat the oven to 210°C and soak 200g sultanas in 4 tablespoons of Grand Marnier, while you make the crème anglaise. Do this by bringing 1 litre of full-fat milk to the boil in a heavy–bottomed pan along with a vanilla pod (split lengthways and with the seeds scraped into the pan). In a bowl whisk 10 egg yolks and 150g caster sugar until they are a pale straw colour and take on a mousse-like appearance.
To make the crème anglaise: Pour the milk into the egg mixture, whisking well as you do so. Return the mixture to the pan over a medium heat. Using a wooden spoon stir continuously in a figure of 8 until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. (To test, lift the spoon out of the crème and draw a line down the back of the spoon. If the line stays clean it is cooked.) Strain immediately into a clean bowl and continue stirring for 1 minute.
Slice the orange and mint loaf or brioche – the slices need to be about 1cm thick. Spread with marmalade then cut in half diagonally to form triangles. Strain the sultanas, but don’t throw away the Grand Marnier. Overlap the triangles (points up) in an ovenproof dish, making sure there are no gaps between the slices. Scatter over the sultanas, pour the crème anglaise over the top, slowly, allowing time for the bread to absorb the liquid (there will probably be a good amount left, which you can keep back and serve with the pudding). Put in the preheated oven and cook for 20–30 minutes until golden brown on top.
To serve, warm the Grand Marnier in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and light with a match. Pour over the pudding and then sprinkle with a little sifted icing sugar. Serve with crème fraîche, vanilla ice cream or any remaining crème anglaise.
My son Jack loves pain aux raisins – and chocolate – so he badgered me to make him something that was a cross between the two. You should have seen Jack’s face, lit up and covered in chocolate, when he bit into the first one I made. They are pretty gooey, so he is on rations: only one, for a treat!
Quantity: 24 buns
Preparation: 20 minutes
Resting: 45 minutes
Proving: 1½–1¾ hours
Baking: 12–15 minutes
1 Batch Sweet dough
25g Good-quality cocoa powder
200g Chocolate chips, milk or plain, or a mixture of both, as you prefer
2 Eggs beaten with a pinch of salt for an egg wash
15g cocoa powder
To prepare
Make the sweet dough following the method in here, but add the cocoa powder at the same time as the milk and egg at the end of working by hand or mixing in the mixer. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rest for 45 minutes in a draught-free place.
Make the crème patissière following the recipe, but add 15g cocoa powder to the milk. Pour into a dish to cool.
To make
• Using the rounded end of your scraper, transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and, with a rolling pin, gently flatten it into a rough rectangle. Spread the chocolate crème patissière evenly over the dough and then sprinkle on the chocolate chips. Starting with one of the longer edges, roll the dough up until it resembles a Swiss roll. Using a sharp knife, cut the roll into 2cm slices and place them on their sides on a baking tray. Glaze with a little egg wash and leave to prove for 1¼–1¾ hours until the buns have roughly doubled in size.
• Glaze again and put into the preheated oven, turning the heat down to 180°C. Bake for 12–15 minutes. As the chocolate dough is quite dark it can be difficult to tell when the buns are properly baked, and you need to take care not to underbake them – the best way to tell when they are ready is to lift one gently with a spatula, and check that it is firm underneath.
For the freezer: If you don’t want to bake the buns all in one go, you can freeze some. When they are cut, just before proving, put them on a small tray in the freezer, and when they are hard put them into a freezer bag. To use them, take them out, leave them to prove overnight and bake in the same way.
These doughnuts come with a warning – don’t even think of making them when you are on your own, as you may well end up eating the lot in one go – though if you have immense willpower they will keep for a couple of days in the fridge as long as they haven’t been dusted with sugar first. If I make a tray of them, they miraculously disappear, though mysteriously everyone says, ‘Nothing to do with me!’
Doughnuts (‘beignets’ in France) are of course a great classic, but I hate greasy ones, and I don’t like ones with icing on them. I am locked into the memories of the beignets my grandmother used to make as a treat. I can still see the huge pan, with the risen dough bulging over the top (I would always be told off for prodding it) and I remember the wonderful smell and the anticipation as the first ones were fried, and then dusted in sugar or served with some jam or apple purée – which is still the only way I like to eat them.
Quantity: 30 doughnuts
Preparation: 20 minutes
Resting: 1 hour
Proving: 45 minutes
Frying: 15 minutes
1 Batch Sweet dough rested for 1 hour
500ml Good-quality groundnut oil for frying plus a little extra caster sugar for coating the doughnuts
To fill the doughnuts (optional) either apple compote, raspberry jam or
Flour for dusting
Oil for greasing
To make
• With the help of the rounded end of your scraper, turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and form it into pieces (see here) weighing about 30g each. Roll into tight balls. Lightly oil a baking tray and lightly dust it with flour. Arrange the doughnuts on top (seam-side-down), leaving sufficient space between them so that they will not touch as they rise. Cover the tray with a tea towel and leave to prove until the doughnuts have nearly doubled in size – about 45 minutes.
• Pour the oil into a 20cm saucepan (any bigger and the oil won’t be deep enough) and place over a medium heat. When the oil is hot (allow about 15 minutes to reach the right heat – 180°C), use a fish slice to lift the first doughnut and flip it over carefully into the oil. The doughnut should start sizzling straight away. Add more doughnuts until you fill the pan (I fry a maximum of 5 at a time). Fry for about 30–45 seconds until the doughnuts start to colour and then turn over and fry the other side for the same amount of time. Use the fish slice to remove the doughnuts from the pan and drain on several sheets of kitchen towel. Leave to cool.
• For plain doughnuts, simply roll them in caster sugar before serving. For filled doughnuts, spoon the filling of your choice into a piping bag with a small nozzle and fill by inserting the nozzle into the doughnut at one side. How much filling you pipe in is up to you!
You might wonder why I have included a tart in this book, but this is based on the sweet dough topped with mirabelles or gooseberries that my grandmother used to make. She would assemble the tart, then leave it for a while, so that the dough rose up around the fruit and then, when she baked it, the juice would ooze out and into the dough. We would sprinkle sugar over the top before eating it, and it was just gorgeous. This is a slightly more elaborate version, with crème d’amande. I promise you, if you make up a big batch of sweet dough one day and use some for this tart and the rest to make doughnuts, you will be very, very popular!
Quantity: 2 tarts
Preparation: 20 minutes
Resting: 95 minutes
Proving: 45 minutes
Baking: 20–25 minutes
1 Batch Sweet dough rested for 1 hour
300g Crème d’amande
12–15 Fresh ripe apricots, or plums if you prefer
1 Egg beaten with a pinch of salt for an egg wash
Flour for dusting
A little icing sugar or apricot jam, to serve
To make
• With the help of the rounded end of your scraper, turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, divide it in half and shape each piece into a ball. Place in a floured bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
• Grease 2 baking trays or line with greaseproof paper. Roll out each piece of dough to a circle of about 25–30cm diameter, place on the trays and leave to rest for a further 15 minutes.
• Quarter the apricots or plums. Spread the crème d’amande over the tart bases starting from the middle and stopping about 2.5cm from the edge. Arrange the fruit quarters on top, skin-side down, packing them together as neatly as you can. Leave the tarts to prove for 45 minutes (when the edges will have risen to about double their original height).
• Brush egg wash evenly over the edges of the tart. Turn down the preheated oven to 200ºC, and bake until the tips of the apricots or plums have browned (if the top colours too fast, turn down to 190ºC) and the base is golden brown – about 20–25 minutes. Remove from the tray and cool on a wire rack. To serve, sprinkle a little icing sugar over the tart or glaze with clear apricot jam, heated in a pan until it melts.
Variation: Apple tart. Mix the almond cream with some apple compote and a drop of Calvados, and use peeled, sliced Cox’s apples instead of apricots.
You know when you have that craving for bacon that nothing else will satisfy? Well, being French, when I was an apprentice in the bakery my cravings would be for a croque monsieur, made with lardons (our equivalent of bacon) and béchamel. We used to make an imitation by folding some bacon and béchamel into a piece of sweet dough and letting it prove, then baking it – wonderful!
Quantity: 6 slices
Preparation: 20 minutes
Resting: 1 hour
Proving: 45 minutes
Baking: 15 minutes
½ Batch Sweet dough rested for 1 hour
200g Béchamel sauce (200ml)
1 Packet Good-quality, preferably dry-cured, organic bacon
1 Medium egg beaten with a pinch of salt for an egg wash
100g Grated Gruyère or Emmenthal
To make
• With the help of the rounded end of your scraper, turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a ball. Roll the dough out to a thickness of about 5mm then cut it into 6 x 12cm squares. Spoon a tablespoon of béchamel in the centre of a square and then fold two opposite corners to meet in the middle. Place a slice of bacon on top and then lift the whole slice onto a baking tray. Repeat with the other slices. Cover with greaseproof paper and then a tea towel and leave to prove for 45 minutes.
• Glaze the exposed dough with the egg wash. Sprinkle some of the cheese on top. Turn the preheated oven down to 200°C and bake them for about 15 minutes until they are a deep golden colour. Eat while they are still warm.
Melt 25g unsalted butter over a medium heat in a heavy-bottomed pan. When it has all melted and is bubbling gently, add 20g plain flour and whisk briskly off the heat until all of the butter has been absorbed and you have a putty-like paste that comes cleanly away from the pan. Add 150g (150ml) full-fat milk, a little at a time, whisking continuously to ensure that no lumps form. Once all the milk has been added and you have a smooth sauce, cook over a low to medium heat until it starts to bubble. Cook for 1 more minute. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and a little ground nutmeg to taste. Leave to cool. This makes 200g (200ml). For a richer sauce you can add 25g–40g grated cheese (Cheddar or Gruyère work well) to the sauce while it is over the heat – make sure it melts completely.
Traditional ‘tea bread’ can sometimes be overly rich and heavy, but this one is nice and light – fantastic toasted, with fruit compote and fresh cream.
Quantity: 3 loaves
Preparation: 30 minutes
Resting: 65 minutes
Proving: 1½ hours
Baking: 25–30 minutes
1 Batch Sweet dough
150g Glacé cherries, quartered
50g Mixed peel or the grated zest of 2 large lemons and 2 large oranges
2 Large tablespoons Rum
125g Flaked almonds, plus some extra for topping
150g Sultanas
1 Medium egg beaten with a pinch of salt for an egg wash
To prepare
Grease 3 x 500g (20–22cm long) tins with butter.
Soak the cherries and peel or zest in the rum overnight.
Sprinkle the almonds on a baking tray and toast under the grill or in the hot oven, turning from time to time until they are golden brown. Leave to cool.
Mix all the fruit with the nuts and add the mixture to the dough towards the end of working by hand or mixing in the mixer, making sure it is evenly distributed. Shape the dough into a rough ball and place in a lightly floured bowl. Leave to rest for 1 hour.
To make
• With the help of the rounded end of your scraper, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it into three equal pieces. Mould each into a rough ball and leave to rest for a further 5 minutes.
• Mould each ball into a loaf and place them in the tins. Brush the tops with the egg wash. Cover the tins with a tea towel and leave to prove for 1½ hours or until the dough has nearly doubled in volume.
• Brush again with egg wash and, with a razor blade or sharp knife, make one cut along the top. Sprinkle over some extra almonds. Bake in the preheated oven for 25–30 minutes until the crust is dark golden brown. Remove from the tins and check that the sides and underneath are golden. If not, put them back in for a few minutes (out of the tins). Leave to cool on a wire rack.
This dough is the bread you see in parts of France as an alternative to brioche. It’s a recipe I teach regularly in my bread classes, and everyone finds it very simple to make. As kids we used to eat small baguettes made with this dough for breakfast, or at tea-time – which we called ‘le quatre-heure’. When we came home from school we would have them halved, with a bar of Poulain chocolate inside – these were the bars that every child ate, with the picture of a pony on the wrapper. You can also bake this in a tin and slice it for croque monsieur.
Quantity: 5 baguettes or 15 rolls
Preparation: 20 minutes
Resting: 1 hour
Proving: 1 hour
Baking: 8–12 minutes
1 Batch Sweet dough rested for 1 hour
1 Medium egg beaten with a pinch of salt for an egg wash
Flour for dusting
To make
With the help of the rounded end of your scraper, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it into 5 pieces for baguettes or 15 pieces for rolls.
For the baguettes
• Flatten the pieces of dough with your hands into rough rectangles. Fold and roll according to the method here. Place the baguettes on a tray with space between each, give them two coats of the egg wash, and then make a series of small deep cuts diagonally along the tops with a razor blade or sharp knife.
• Leave to prove for 1 hour then bake for 10–12 minutes in the preheated oven until the baguettes are dark golden brown.
For the rolls
• Form the pieces of dough into rolls.
• Place the rolls on a baking tray or trays, with space between each one.
• Glaze each roll with the egg wash, then with a knife or pair of scissors make a cross in the tops, about 5mm deep.
• Leave to prove for 1 hour, then bake in the preheated oven for 8–10 minutes until the rolls are dark golden brown.
Everyone always asks me if I have a good recipe for scones. Well, I do – ever since I first tried them when I came to Britain, they have been my favourite British speciality. We are still talking about dough, and this one has cream in it, which is a bit of a play on the tradition of cream scones. I also like to make my scones square, rather than round.
Quantity: 12–15 scones
Preparation: 20 minutes
Resting: 15 minutes
Baking: 20 minutes
150g Salted butter
600g Plain flour
150g Caster sugar
40g Baking powder
280g Sultanas
190g Double cream
190g Milk (190ml)
2 Eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt for an egg wash
To prepare
Preheat the oven to 220ºC.
To make
• Rub the butter into the flour in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and baking powder. Add the sultanas and mix until they are evenly distributed.
• Add the cream and milk and mix with your scraper until all the ingredients are bound together. Lightly dust your work surface with flour and turn the dough out onto it. Press down, then fold it in half, then press down again, fold again the opposite way, and then repeat, until you have a rough square. Flour the top and bottom of the dough, cover with a tea towel and rest in a cool place for 15 minutes.
• Lightly flour the work surface and then roll the dough out to a thickness of 2½–3cm. Brush off any excess flour. With a sharp knife, cut out the scones into squares (about 6 x 6cm).
• Lay on a baking tray, making sure that the scones are not too close together. Roll out any scraps of dough and cut some more scones until you have used all of the dough.
• Glaze the scones with the egg wash. Wait for 2 minutes, then glaze again. Turn down the heat in the preheated oven to 200°C and bake the scones for around 20 minutes until they are well risen, and the top and underside is golden brown.
