Inspired by the Spring sunshine and this book...
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...which was a lovely Mother's Day present from Miss U-t-B
(even if I'm not sure where on the groaning shelves I am going to put it)...
I decided to do one of Paul Hollywood's 'Technical Challenges' from the last series of The Great British Bake-Off.
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| At least I wasn't going to have to do it under the watchful and steely gaze of the piercing blue eyes! |
I fancied something a bit physical, so settled upon the hand-made delights of 'Iced Fingers'.
How hard could it be - after all I had the full instructions in front of me, and all the useful 'fail-safe' tips that the contestants were deprived of.
I carefully weighed all the ingredients and settled to the task of 'massaging' the ingredients together for four minutes. I made the disastrous mistake of massaging with both hands (not the one, as shown in the photo) so that I very soon had a yeasty-smelling gloop all over my hands, which was then transferred to nearby door handles and containers as I had failed to have flour ready for the kneading stage!
My mixture, even after ten minutes kneading, was a lot wetter than that shown in the photo. I'm beginning to question my digital scales. I proceeded with the proving and knocking back the dough, then weighed and shaped the buns. Given the fact that the recipe was meant to make 12 x 70g buns, and I had 14, I think my scales may be for the bin!
I did not manage to make each of my buns the requisite 12.5cm long, and once in the oven they browned somewhat unevenly. Had I been on 'The Great British Bake-Off', I think the lack of uniformity would have counted against me.
And the fact that I decided that I couldn't be bothered to get a piping bag out and fill each bun with some left-over whipped cream, and pipe a line of strained strawberry jam down each one, instead adopting a 'do-it-yourself-if-you-can-be-bothered' approach, would have sealed my fate, and my future in the programme would have been doomed...
But my!
Did
they
taste
G
O
O
D
!
PS Drawing my giveaway tomorrow at 7pm!
