Great British lockdown bake off: homemade bread and cake recipes

published 15 April 2020

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

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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.

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.