Baking Made Easy

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F), Gas Mark 6.

Once the dough is well risen, brush with the beaten egg and bake in the oven for 30–40 minutes, or until golden brown and well risen. Using oven gloves, remove the bread from the tin and check that the underside is also cooked, it should sound hollow when tapped. If not, pop the loaf back in the oven without the tin for another 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cold at 4pm with jam and tea.

Almond, honey & orange

Kugelhopf

Kugelhopf, Gougelhopf and Gugelhupf are a few of the many spelling variations of this recipe from Alsace in eastern France. A cakelike bread, it is traditionally served as part of a Sunday breakfast feast, but is also wonderful eaten in the evening with a glass of ambrosial wine. Makes 1 loaf

Vegetable oil, for oiling

450g (16oz) strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

110g (4oz) dried apricots, finely chopped (easiest to cut with scissors)

250ml (9fl oz or 1 wine glass) builder’s tea or orange liqueur

100g (3½oz) ground almonds

1½ sachets of fast-action dried yeast (about 10g/1/3oz)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp soft light brown sugar

Grated zest of 2 large oranges

180ml (6½fl oz) warm milk

3 eggs, beaten

160g (5½oz) butter, melted

2 big squidges of honey Handful of whole skinless almonds

Icing sugar, for sprinkling

Equipment

Large kugelhopf mould

Oil the kugelhopf mould, then dust with flour and set aside.

Put the apricots in a bowl, add the tea or orange liqueur and leave to stand for 30 minutes. Put the flour in another large bowl with the ground almonds, yeast, cinnamon, salt, sugar and orange zest. In a third bowl, mix together the milk, eggs, butter and honey.

Add enough of the butter mix to the flour mixture to make a soft dough. The dough will be softer than most other doughs but it should not be too sticky. Knead the dough for 10 minutes by hand on a lightly floured work surface or for 5 minutes in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, then set aside.

Drain the apricots and add them to the dough. Fold the dough over itself 3–4 times until the apricots are evenly dispersed throughout the dough.

Place an almond into each ‘dip’ of the kugelhopf mould, then carefully make a hole in the middle of the dough and squish it gently into the prepared mould. Cover the top loosely with oiled clingfilm, making sure it is airtight. Leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size. This will take about 1 hour or so, depending on the warmth of the room.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F), Gas Mark 6.

Bake the kugelhopf in the oven for about 35 minutes, or until it is golden brown and comes out of the mould easily. Remove the bread from the mould, place on a baking tray and pop back into the oven for 5–10 minutes to brown up the base.

Remove the bread from the oven and leave to cool. Once cooled right down, sprinkle the top with icing sugar and serve.

Coffee & maple

Panettone

Panettone is an Italian bread usually made with fruit peel and traditionally eaten at Christmas. I wanted to make something a little away from the norm, so I came up with this tasty gem which uses a different mix of flavours. Makes 1 large panettone

560g (1¼lb) strong white bread flour

½ tsp salt

1½ sachets of fast-action dried yeast (about 10g/1/3oz)

200ml (7fl oz) warm milk

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

Seeds of 1 vanilla pod or 2 drops of vanilla extract

100ml (4fl oz) maple syrup, plus extra for drizzling

4 tbsp coffee essence or

1 tbsp coffee powder diluted in the milk mentioned above

200g (7oz) butter, melted

Eggwash

1 egg

1 tbsp milk

Equipment

18cm (7in) deep loose-bottomed cake tin