Jarlsberg Twist Bread!!

When I buy a bake book these days it really has to have something different- The Hairy Bikers’ Big Book of Baking offers exactly that! I bought it some time ago now (March), but have just gotten around to using it! 

I don’t watch a lot of TV that isn’t cartoons at the moment so; I was unaware of the TV tie-in Hairy Bikers’ Bakeation. Luckily I have the BBC app and was able to catch a few episodes before they removed them. Does anyone else find that annoying? Find something you want to watch and then it's gone before you get a chance to watch it! Anyhow, the show was really good and I really like the book. It has interesting recipes from all over Europe: Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Austria, Italy, France, and Spain. Also the titles of the chapters! 

As it was Father’s Day this weekend and we aren't big present people. (Both my Mini-Bakers were born the winter. It works for us to spread their gifts throughout the year then all at once.) For little holidays like Father’s Day we celebrate with food and time! It might be we go out for a meal or I make a favorite dinner etc… So, I made our favorite beef roast and instead of a dessert (there has been a lot of sweet stuff in the house recently) I thought why not a bread!! There is so much from this book that I would like to try that it's going to be hard to know what to make next!

With so many books to choose a recipe from, it was hard to decide on one. From watching the show (see above) The Hairy Bikers made bread making look easy! And it is!! I had a little trouble shooting with the dough being sticky, but in the end it’s turned out very well! It’s very tasty and a perfect compliment to the beef roast! I am hoping that one of the loaves holds out until Tuesday for a picnic! ;0) Enjoy!!

Makes 4 mini-loaves

1 x 7g sachet of fast-action dried yeast

1 tbsp caster sugar

250ml warm water

500g plain flour, extra for dusting

275g Jarlsberg Cheese, grated

2 tsp fine sea salt

100ml whole milk

50g butter, cut into cubes

1 medium egg, beaten

sunflower oil , for greasing

3 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Put the yeast and sugar in a medium bowl, add 125ml of the warm water and whisk well. Set aside in a warm place for about 10 minutes or until you can see a light, beige froth floating on the surface of the mixture. Mix the flour, 100g of the cheese and the salt in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Keep the rest of the cheese for later!

Pour the milk into a saucepan, add the remaining 125ml of water and the butter. Over a low heat melt the butter and bring the mixture to a lukewarm temperature. Don’t let the mixture overheat. Stir the warm buttered milk and the beaten egg into the yeast mixture. Gradually stir it all into the flour with a wooden spoon and then mix with your hands until everything comes together to form a soft, spongy dough. Here I accidentally dumped the liquid into the flour mixture so it wasn’t gradually at all!

Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. My dough was very sticky. I don’t have a lot of experience with bread so not wanting to do anything wrong I left it and worked with it the best I could. I think I washed away half a loaf from my hands, bowls, and work surfaces!! Put the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and cover loosely with oiled clingfilm. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place for about 40 minutes or until it has doubled in size!

Return the dough to a floured surface and knock it back with your knuckles. Since the dough was so sticky I heavily floured my surface and hands and it seemed to be okay. Divide the dough into 4 balls and roll each ball into a rectangle about 25x20cm. Mix the remaining 175g of cheese with the parsley and sprinkle over the dough rectangles, leaving a 1cm gap around the edges. Beginning with the short ends, roll up the rectangles tightly like Swiss rolls and squeeze the ends to seal.

Place 1 of the dough rolls vertically in front of you and cut through the center up to about 5mm from the top. Twist each half of the dough over the other to form a braid, leaving the open sides, revealing the cheese and parsley, on top if possible. Repeat with the other dough balls.

Carefully transfer the loaves to a large baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Space them well apart and tuck in the ends neatly to preserve the twisted shape. Leave to rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.  Preheat the oven to 200C/fan180C/gas6. Bake the loaves in the center of the oven for 35-40 minutes or until well-risen and golden brown. The bases should sound hollow when tapped. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before serving.   

Normally I would have taken more pictures of the process, but as it was so sticky (see above)  and I was trying not to get distracted, I didn't. Next time I will though as the more and more I make bread like stuff the more confident I become! 

I like doing a book review with a recipe! Kills two birds with one stone!!