How to Make Finger Rolls - Recipe

Finger Rolls or are they Bridge Rolls?  Either way they are very light and tender due to the milk content. We ate ours with sausages, lightly fried red onions and a good squeeze of sauce.

Everything is in the jug of the TM5 waiting to be mixed into dough

The finished dough after 6 minutes kneading

Dough prior to proving

Shaped finger rolls

Fresh from the oven

Conventional Recipe Using a Stand Mixer

Makes: 12
1 egg
milk
1 tsp dried instant yeast
500g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
40g butter cut into small pieces

1. Place the flour, salt, caster sugar and dried instant yeast into the bowl of a mixer, add the butter and mix to fine breadcrumbs.
2. Beat the egg and make up to 300ml with room temperature milk. Add the dough hook and pour the beaten egg and milk mixture into the bowl and knead 10 minutes.
3. Oil a large bowl and add the dough, lightly coat the dough with olive oil.
4. Take a large piece of oiled clingfilm and place over the top of the bowl. Leave the dough in a warm place until doubled in size.
5.  Remove the dough and cut into twelve equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and then into fingers 13cm long.
6. Place the fingers on a large floured tray 1cm apart. Cover loosely with oiled clingfilm and rise until almost double in size.
7. Preheat the oven to 220ºCFan/200ºC dust the rolls lightly with flour.
8. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
9. Remove to a cooling rack and dust again lightly with flour.


Thermomix TM5 Method

Makes: 12
1 egg
milk
1 tsp dried instant yeast
500g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
40g butter cut into small pieces

1.   Mix the flour, salt, caster sugar and dried instant yeast 5 Secs/Speed 8.
2.   Add the butter and chop - Turbo/1sec/3 times.
3.   Beat the egg and make up to 300ml with room temperature milk. Pour the beaten egg and milk mixture into the jug and knead 6 minutes.
4.   Oil a large bowl and add the dough, lightly coat the dough with olive oil.
5.   Take a large piece of oiled clingfilm and place over the top of the bowl. Leave the dough in a warm place until doubled in size.
6.   Remove the dough and cut into twelve equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and then into fingers 13cm long.
7.   Place the fingers on a large floured tray 1cm apart. Cover loosely with oiled clingfilm and rise until almost double in size.
8.   Preheat the oven to 220ºCFan/200ºC dust the rolls lightly with flour.
9.   Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
10. Remove to a cooling rack and dust again lightly with flour.

Note: To make in a bread machine place the ingredients in the bread pan according to the manufacturers instructions.

You may also like:
Fougasse
Easy Bread Rolls
Goat's Cheese and Rosemary Buns

Mixed Vegetable Bake Thermomix TM5

I recreated this tasty vegetable bake, which was one of the dishes made at the Thermomix TM5 demo by Marta the demonstrator, it has a bechamel sauce and is topped with a parsley and Parmesan breadcrumb mix.

The vegetables are cooked in a vessel called a Varoma which fits on top of the jug. Unfortunately I loaded them up incorrectly, obviously the vegetables which take the longest to cook should be at the base.

The vegetables took 20 minutes to cook, they don't want to be cooked completely because they are baked in the oven later.

The bechamel sauce looks a little strange at this stage -  this is the fat and flour cooked and mixed together before adding milk.

The milk is added before it is cooked through and whizzed to make a smooth sauce. Or make using the all in one method which takes even less time.

Making flavoured breadcrumbs (I used the ends of the loaf), garlic, parsley and Parmesan.

The vegetable bake is topped with the bechamel sauce and flavoured breadcrumbs before cooking for 20 minutes or so.

On this occasion there isn't a recipe because it's the one used in the demo but you can easily make this dish in the conventional way.

Back soon!

New In My Kitchen The Thermomix TM5

Over the years I've juiced and whizzed fruit with varying successes and if you, like me, love gadgets then you too no doubt will have worked your way through a plethora of gadgetry. I've now sent the juicer to the charity shop, it has sat unused in the cupboard for ages, mainly because I feel that we should be eating the fibrous stuff the juicer spews out and not throwing it away. I bought my juicer many years ago and it was only used at weekends - I've enjoyed every single drink we made but not enjoyed cleaning five separate parts, or the dreaded filter which hubby was employed to scrupulously clean.

I've been blending drinks too over the years but my new kitchen toy really does make fast work of the task. Those pesky redcurrant seeds will take a little longer to blitz and I found adding another 30 seconds to the blend time did the trick. So in 'Thermie talk' here's the method: Chop 5 Sec/Speed 5 - Blend 1 Min/Speed 10 - Add more water if necessary Blend 20 Sec/Speed 3.

In my freezer there always seems to be frozen fruit coated in ice that I haven't used up quickly enough and these are perfect to use and saves adding too many ice cubes.

My drink is made from frozen blackcurrants and redcurrants (from my garden), a peeled orange (chopped), 1 x quartered apple (Braeburn always taste lovely) and a little water to loosen the mixture and thin down the drink.

I struggle with green smoothies and drinks and to date they aren't on my agenda for blitzing and I can't comment on these, but I've used a variety of fruits over the past few weeks and find that adding an orange to lots of blended drinks makes a huge difference to the flavour.

I'm definitely not going to wax lyrical about how living off fruit drinks and smoothies will change my life in 2016 - I try to blend a few times a week, when I fancy a refreshing drink or need to use up the last of the fruit bowl.

Well, I'm loving my new present from hubby and whizzing up things in seconds, come on what's not to love!

Pop over to my Pinterest Board for amazing drinks, smoothies and juices.

Back soon.

Making Frangipane Mince Pies With a Thermomix TM5

The Thermomix is new in my kitchen and an early Christmas present from hubby. I love kitchen gadgets and whilst I don't believe for one moment they make you a better cook, for me they're fun.
I'm not going to say it will replace all my other stuff or that it's going to save me money (I wish), how can I make sweeping statements when I've only used it for a few weeks.

I went for this brand because they have a history of making a well engineered product, are the best on the market and I didn't want to have buyers regret. There are no sharp edges on the jug, the blades are fearsome, there is an integrated digital scale, it whizzes at unbelievable speeds, it will even steam and every piece can be washed either by hand or will go into the dishwasher but not the main part obviously, and the product is totally awesome (if I'm allowed to say that).

This new model is digital and has a recipe chip on the side with ingredients and method and it's extremely user friendly.

There's lots of online help with forums where people are passionate, freely give their time and expertise to answer questions and importantly the Thermie community are friendly too.

When the machine arrived I hoped and longed that we would bond and I'm pleased to say that it's a little helper and I'm in awe of this magnificent piece of kitchen equipment, little wonder it's used in professional kitchens.

Sadly the cost is eye watering........

I went a little off piste and didn't use the Thermomix recipe on the recipe chip and used a favourite pastry recipe for the mince pies. To make the pies all you have to do is weigh in the ingredients, yes it's got built in digital scales which I think is very cool.

The dough takes 25 seconds at Speed 4........

Nothing wrong with this pastry, although it does take a while to understand how you can throw everything in and hey presto pastry!

I was really happy with my block of pastry and all I had to do was wrap it in cling wrap and pop it into the fridge for half an hour.

The pastry rolled out a dream.....

Now for the frangipane......

Weigh in all the ingredients, butter, egg, ground almonds, flour and caster sugar. 1 minute/Speed 3

A few seconds later frangipane!



Pastry, mincemeat and a dollop of frangipane topped with a few flaked almonds.

The baked mince pies

Conventional Recipe

Makes: approx 18

Pastry
175g plain flour
75g butter, cut into cubes
25g icing sugar
1 large egg, beaten

Frangipane
100g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs
100g ground almonds
1 level tbsp plain flour
1⁄2 tsp almond extract, or to taste

Filling and Topping
Jar mincemeat, homemade is best!
a few flaked almonds

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
2. Add the flour, butter and icing sugar into the bowl of a food processor, whiz until the mixture is the consistency of breadcrumbs. Add the beaten egg and pulse until the dough starts to come together. Knead lightly, Wrap in clingwrap and chill for approximately 30 minutes.
3. Now make the frangipane, place the butter and sugar into the food processor and blend until soft. Add the eggs and whiz again. Add the ground almonds, flour and almond extract and mix briefly.
4. Roll the pastry out thinly preferably on a silicone mat and cut out 18 x 6.5cm circles. Now line the tins with the pastry rounds. Place a teaspoon of mincemeat into each pastry circle and top with the frangipane mixture.  Sprinkle over a few flaked.
5. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the tins from the oven and cool for a while on a wire rack.

Note: This is a private purchase and there isn't any brand involvement.

Bread Maker Recipe

Crusty bread fresh from the oven

I know bread makers are a bit 'Marmite' but I wouldn't be without mine and it doesn't matter whether the bread is being made from start to finish or it is simply being used to make dough, the results are always foolproof.  It's easy peasy adding a load of ingredients into the pan, set the menu, leave it for a couple of hours knowing that it's working for you and return to a pan of glorious dough that only needs shaping, proving and baking. It always works for me.......

This crusty bread has a light crumb and texture, it is ideal for sandwiches, eat with cheese or place on the griddle pan.

The recipe can be made in a food mixer or by hand but the amount of water may need adjusting. Also if using organic flour this can take more water.

To ensure a crusty loaf - place an old tray close to the base of the oven, preheat the oven, place the risen loaf on a tray on the middle shelf, pour cold water into the tray below and this will create steam. Close the oven door and voila a crusty loaf of bread.

Recipe:
1 tsp Easy Bake yeast
500g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
350ml water

You will need: A large baking tray sprinkled with flour and semolina

1. Add the ingredients to the bread pan in the order as outlined in your manufacturers instructions.
2. Set the dough setting.
3. When the machine has finished tip the dough from the pan carefully onto a floured baking tray.
4. Flour your fingers and gently shape the dough trying not to knock the air out, Flour the top of the dough and leave to prove uncovered until doubled in size. Sprinkle semolina over the bread and slash the dough several times with a sharp knife being careful not to deflate the dough.
5. Preheat the oven to 220ºC.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.
7. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

You may like:
Tomato and Caramelised Onion Focaccia
Goat's Cheese and Rosemary Buns
Apple and Ginger Buns

Traybake Chicken Dinner - Steam Combination Oven

After a visit to Bridgnorth market there's nothing to beat a one tray roast chicken dinner and cooked in the steam combination oven it saves time and a load of washing up, the whole meal took approximately one hour to cook.

The potatoes take the longest and from freshly peeled they are tossed in oil, seasoned and added to the tray.  After 15 minutes I added the chicken legs, and then for the final 15 minutes the onions and carrots.  I cooked the sprouts in a pan before adding to the tray because to date I haven't experimented cooking these on the steam combination setting, these were also added to the tray for the last 15 minutes of cooking at 200ºC.

The Good Food Show Winter in Birmingham is just around the corner, I don't know if there will be any demo's using these ovens but I wouldn't be without mine.

More steam combination recipes:
Potato Boulangere
Traybake Vegetables