Brendan Bakes

The first one I made was a large, round, sweet version that contained chocolate, but I have adapted it to be a savoury version in the recipe below. Excellent for a tear and share informal party over the festive season, or for any time of the year. Can be made in a large, round baking […]

Ingredients 300g of organic, all-purpose white flour ½ tsp salt 160ml lukewarm, whole milk – warmed 1 envelope of active dry yeast (7g) 30g melted butter – cooled 1 egg yolk 1 tbls caster sugar Finely grated zest of 1 large orange ½ tsp orange flower water (optional) Filling: 40g butter, melted and cooled 3 […]

Ingredients 1 ½ kilos of strong flour 3 pkts fast-action dried yeast, or 60g fresh 1 ½ tbls caster sugar 3 tsps fine salt 2 large jars olives – whole and unpitted. But if in hurry, use pitted olives. 2 medium onions finely chopped – or pulsed in a food processor. (Finely chopped does not […]

Along with the ‘Doggy Hot Dog’ rolls, these buns came out of an afternoon experimenting with dough. They are fun to make and will surely delight your younger customers, especially when filled with jam and whipped cream or perhaps some whipped cream blended with Nutella. Am still working on pussy cat and rabbit buns. Watch […]

I was playing around with dough the other day seeing what shapes I could come up with. Monty-the-Labradoodle sat watching me with his calm, and sometimes unnerving, gaze. Looking at his face I had the idea to create these little rolls. They are simple to make and great fun for children. You could fill them […]

Perhaps it’s just coincidence but in the last few weeks I’ve met a number of people – online and in person – who have asked me about gluten-free bread. Making bread suitable for coeliacs has been become much easier with the wide availability of flour mixes (I use Dove Farms). However, it seems that people […]

Recently I was invited to the launch of an initiative to raise awareness of bowel cancer. This is a collaborative effort of Bowel Cancer UK and Sharpham Park, a company producing organic spelt flour and various spelt products. I decided to bake something using spelt flour for the launch event and came up with this […]

This tea bread exists in various forms. In Wales it is known as ʻBara Brithʼ and in Scotland as ʻSelkirk Bannockʼ. ʻBrackʼ reportedly comes from the Gaelic word ʻbreacʼ which means ʻspeckledʼ – a reference to the bountiful dried fruit in this moist loaf. Traditionally served at Halloween, this bread is delicious spread with butter […]

I got the idea for this bread in the patisserie section of a smart department store in Stockholm. Intrigued by the sound of chopping I took a peak into the kitchen and saw the baker using a metallic dough scraper rapidly to cut up his dough. He kindly explained to me the technique. I loved […]

Bagels are a relatively recent departure for me, particularly sweet bagels. When asked to make some of these for the Great British Bake Off I tried out various combinations. I was keen to produce something that looked interesting as well as tasting good, but there is only so much you can do to jazz up […]