Great British lockdown bake off: homemade bread and cake recipes

Brits are staying home and they’re cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

With restaurants closed and many not offering delivery, millions of people across the UK are getting creative when making their own food.

Thanks to the popularity of TV shows such as The Great British Bake Off it seems that breads, cakes and sweet treats are on the menu.

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According to a report by Reuters a baking frenzy has taken hold across Britain to such an extent that online recipe searches have hit all-time highs and flour is running low.

The Derby Telegraph, citing a study by Tap Warehouse, found that searches for “how to cook” on Google have increased 3,600% in Britain since the coronavirus outbreak.

With baking on the rise for the stay-at-home lockdown, here’s a few recipes to get you started...

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Jamie Oliver’s homemade bread

As part of his Keep Cooking and Carry On series on Channel 4, the popular chef bakes a simple homemade loaf. He also makes a mean banana bread too...

Ingredients

• 650ml tepid water
• 1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast
• 1kg strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting

Method

• Pour 650ml of tepid water into a large bowl.
• Add the yeast and mix with a fork for a couple of minutes.
• Pour in most of the flour and half a teaspoon of sea salt, then use a fork to mix together until you can’t move it anymore.
• Now get your clean hands in there and bring it together as a ball of dough, adding more flour as you need to stop your hands and the dough sticking.
• Transfer the dough to a flour-dusted surface and keep it moving, kneading, pushing and stretching it for 5 minutes, or until you have a silky and elastic dough.
• Use your floured hands to shape the dough into a rough ball, put it in a bowl, flour the top and cover with a clean, damp tea towel. Allow it to prove for about an hour or an hour and 30 minutes, or until doubled in size – ideally in a warm, draught-free place.
• Once the dough has doubled in size, knock the air out by punching it with your fist, then kneading for 30 seconds.
• You can now shape it or flavour it as required – folded, filled, traybaked, whatever – and leave it to prove for a second time, for 30 minutes to an hour, or until it has doubled in size once more.
• Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.
• Carefully transfer your bread dough to the oven and gently close the door. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until golden. You can tell if it’s cooked by tapping its bottom – if it sounds hollow it’s done; if it doesn’t then pop it back in for a little longer.
• Once cooked, place your loaf on a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Aldi’s Rocky Road Chocolate Tray Bake

The supermarket chain’s in-house chefs have got creative with this treat.

Ingredients

• 500g leftover easter eggs
• 1 x 200g pack bourbon cream biscuits
• 1 x 154g pack cookies ’n’ cream biscuits
• 1 x 200g bag large marshmallows
• 1 x 75g bag dominion dolly mixture
• 1 x 80g bag mini chocolate eggs
• 100ml maple syrup
• 1 x 25 x 20x 3cm tin – lined with non-stick baking parchment

Method

• Break up the chocolate eggs and chop up half the marshmallows.
• Put the broken-up chocolate, chopped marshmallows and the maple syrup in an ovenproof bowl.
• Put the bowl over a pan of boiling water – make sure the bottom of bowl doesn’t touch the water and melt the chocolate and marshmallow mix.
• Put all the bourbon biscuits and half the cookies in a food processor and blitz to crumbs. Add the biscuit crumbs to the melted chocolate mixture and mix well.
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin.
• Cut the remaining cookies and marshmallows in half.
• Whilst still warm - decorate the tray bake with the biscuits, marshmallows, dolly mixtures and chocolate eggs.
• Allow to cool and serve.

1932 Peanut Butter Bread

The internet has been going wild after Reddit user trixietravisbrown made Peanut Butter Bread using a recipe from the 1932 Five Roses Flour cookbook via Glen & Friends Cooking.

Subway footlong hot cross buns

Hot cross buns are not just for Easter, they can be enjoyed any day of the year. Subway is famous for its meatball marinaras but the chain has stepped up its baking game for this favourite.

Some of our favourite video recipes from YouTube...

RecipeTin Eats: World’s Easiest Homemade Bread recipe

The Domestic Geek: Homemade Bread recipe

Yummy: Lock-Down Birthday Cake recipe

Emma’s Goodies: Three ingredient Lock Down Chocolate Cake recipe

Main image: PXhere.com

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