Adventures with bread dough

thriftlady_2

As many of us have discovered making bread, whether by hand or in a breadmaker, is immensely rewarding. But, there is much more fun to be had from bread dough than just putting it in a tin and baking it. Pizza is one delicious thing you can do with it. Here are some more ideas which I have had fun with and which my family can't get enough of.

All these ideas require a lump of kneaded dough, enough to make a 2 lb loaf -white or wholemeal. I use a roll dough recipe which has milk in and sometimes some butter. Any dough will do though.

Bread strips
This is an idea I've pinched from Elizabeth David. Roll out the dough into a thin rectangle to fit a large baking tray. Use a sharp knife to cut it across horizontally. Then cut vertically at 1 inch intervals. You should have strips about 1 inch by 6 inches. Leave them on the tray stuck together.

Brush the strips with milk, melted butter or olive oil. Sprinkle them with a flavouring. This can be; sesame seeds, caraway seeds, fennel seeds, chopped rosemary, thyme, parmesan cheese, other cheese, spices. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Leave to rise again for about 15 mins and then bake at 200 for 15-20 mins.
Leave to cool before pulling the strips apart and scoffing.

They make great lunch box/after school snacks, or as Elizabeth David suggests a pre-dinner nibble if you are posh. We have them with soup.

I think they'd be good with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on too.

Bread whirls
This is where you roll out a rectangle of dough (thicker than for the strips), spread it with all manner of goodies. Roll up swiss roll fashion, slice and bake.
Grease a tin about 13 inches by 10 and about 1-2 inches deep (a tray bake tin is perfect). Put your whirls flat side down, I usually get 12 to a tin.

Filling ideas
spread with soft butter or marge and one of the following; cinnamon sugar/fresh fruit like apples or mashed banana/ dried fruit/chopped chocolate/mincemeat
spread with Nutella or other choc spread (add chopped hazelnuts if you want)
a mixture of cheese, ham, bacon, salami (any cured meat really), crumbled sausage
a selection of olives, sun-dried tomatoes, pesto, herbs, fried onions, seeds, nuts
You get the idea

Leave the rolls for 15 mins to rise again, then bake at 200 for 30 mins. They might need a bit longer or a bit less -keep your eye on them.

The sweet ones are nice iced with a glace icing.

Pull apart breads
These are best avoided if you are trying to lose weight.
Melt a load of butter or marge. Make up a mixture of cinnamon sugar.

Pull off lumps of dough and roll into walnut sized balls. Drop them into the butter, then roll in the sugar. Toss them all into a greased tin. Leave to rise for 15 mins and bake for 30 -40 mins.

This kind of bread can be made with any shaped pieces of dough if you can't be bothered to roll it into balls.

Vary the spices in the sugar, or add golden syrup or maple syrup to the butter instead of rolling in sugar. Try a cheesey version by rolling in grated cheese. Or just put pieces of cheese in between the dough pieces. Hmmm what else could you put in .....?

Free-form bread
This is similar to a pull-apart bread, but with less butter. I've adapted the idea from a book called Mad About Bread by Diana Buonaparte.
Simply add stuff to your dough as you get to the end of the kneading (cheese, ham, roasted veg, fruit like bananas, rhubarb, apples, chocolate, sugar, spices, I'm sure you get the idea by now). Knead them roughly in, then use a knife to cut the dough into pieces. Pile the pieces up on top of each other and cut again. Repeat this process until you have made a sort of craggy looking mountain of bread and filling. Dump the whole lot on a baking tray. Leave to rise 15 mins, then bake 30-40 mins. Fantastic for a weekend lunch with soup (unless it's a sweet version).

So, there you go the versatile lump of bread dough. Run with it and enjoy

TKP_3

Great ideas :T Thank you!
I am new to using my BM, so new bread ideas are great!

seraphina

I've just done my weekly bake -if you'd posted this a few hours' earlier we'd be having Nutella whirls for lunch rolls!

Will definately be giving this a go next week - I usually use a paste of brown sugar, butter and cinammon in the roly things to make cinammon buns.

Gingernutmeg

I like making 'monkey bread' - roll balls of dough in melted butter, then in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. I put the balls into a greased 'ring' tin, and then let it rise a bit more then bake until golden. It makes the kitchen smell lovely and it's fun to share the balls of dough by pulling them apart. If you have a few spare pecans it's nice to mix them in with the sugar/cinnamon mix.

Zed42

Oooh, thank you for these suggestions ....

Many many years ago I lost a load of weight ... then I bought a Bread Maker ... oops!!!

Now, we're enjoying my making bread "by hand" (well, ok, with the aid of my trustee Kenwood Chef).

These look like some scrummy ideas and a real bit of variety.

thriftlady_2

Gingernutmeg wrote:

I like making 'monkey bread' - roll balls of dough in melted butter, then in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. I put the balls into a greased 'ring' tin, and then let it rise a bit more then bake until golden. It makes the kitchen smell lovely and it's fun to share the balls of dough by pulling them apart. If you have a few spare pecans it's nice to mix them in with the sugar/cinnamon mix.

Mmm yum, there seem to be a lot of versions of this kind of bread. I've seen a recipe for one called 'crazy bread' too which was very similar.

spiddy100

Ooh, I think I will give the spiral ones a try for our party at the weekend

Penelope_Penguin

thriftlady wrote: »

Free-form bread
This is similar to a pull-apart bread, but with less butter.I've adapted the idea from a book called Mad About Bread by Diana Buonaparte.
Simply add stuff to your dough as you get to the end of the kneading (cheese, ham, roasted veg, fruit like bananas, rhubarb, apples, chocolate, sugar, spices, I'm sure you get the idea by now). Knead them roughly in, then use a knife to cut the dough into pieces. Pile the pieces up on top of each other and cut again. Repeat this process until you have made a sort of craggy looking mountain of bread and filling. Dump the whole lot on a baking tray. Leave to rise 15 mins, then bake 30-40 mins. Fantastic for a weekend lunch with soup (unless it's a sweet version).

So, there you go the versatile lump of bread dough. Run with it and enjoy

The Small Penguins made this - flavoured with sultana, flaked almond and cinnamon. Delicious!



We're going to try next week with olives, sun dried tomato and fresh herbs to have with lunch.

Penny. x

thriftlady_2

That looks delicioue PP -thanks for reviving this thread -I'd forgotten about it. I haven't made any of these breads for ages, I shall be making some bread strips for lunchboxes this week now

thriftmonster

Great thread - can I add in Pretzels. Roll out the dough in thin "worms" and form into pretzels. Bring a pan of (salted) water to the boil and drop in the pretzels, a few at a time. Boil for 2 mins and then drain. Egg wash if you want. Bake at 200C for 10 - 15 mins. Good for afterschool snacks or packed lunches.

Angelraesunshine

wow my mouths watering at all this

i adore pull apart breads but would eat the whole thing on my own.

i like the bread strips as i often cook tescos part bake baguettes to dip in the soup and real should start doing my own