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PEA, PESTO & POTATO SOUP WITH PARMESAN SCONES

A delicious soup with minimal prep time, which pairs beautifully with our savoury scone mix made up with parmesan cheese.

A firm favourite in the house of happiness

Keyword cheese scones, gluten-free recipes, gluten-free scones, soup recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

• 1 kg Maris Piper potatoes
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 litres water
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 700 g petit pois
• 1 jar basil pesto (green)

Instructions

• Clean the skins of the potatoes then cut into bitesize cubes.
• Put the potatoes into a large pan with the water, stock cube, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil.
• Simmer until the potatoes are just starting to soften, then add the peas. Simmer for a further three minutes.
• Remove roughly 1/3 of the peas and potatoes from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to a bowl.
• Add the pesto to the pan.
• With a stick blender, whizz the soup in the pan until smooth.
• Add the reserved peas and potatoes back to the pan.
• For the scones you will need one pack of our gluten-free savoury scone mix.
• Follow the instructions on the back of the pack to make up the scones, adding in 50g finely grated Parmesan cheese before baking.

Notes

I love this soup. It is ridiculously easy to make and tastes absolutely delicious.

You can peel the potatoes if you prefer, but I like the additional nutritional value they add. I think it’s a shame to confine all that healthy fibre to the peely bin! 

Depending on which brand of pesto and vegetable stock you use, you may need to adjust the seasoning as some will contain more salt than others.

Both the soup and the scones are suitable for freezing.

The post RECIPE: PEA, PESTO & POTATO SOUP WITH GLUTEN-FREE PARMESAN SCONES appeared first on The Little Bakery of Happiness.

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GLUTEN-FREE CHEESE & HAM MUFFIN BITES WITH BBQ DIPPING SAUCE

Dunk yourself happy with a batch of warm and squishy savoury muffin bites, which pair perfectly with our smoky BBQ sauce mix.

These cheese and ham muffin bites are quick and easy to make and taste absolutely delicious!

They are also incredibly versatile, meaning you can adapt them to suit your tastes. Try swapping the ham for cooked bacon rashers or adding a few jalapeno flakes to spice things up a bit.

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 30 bites

Ingredients

• 100 g Magical plain flour blend
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 90 g butter, chopped
• 30 g extra mature Cheddar cheese, grated
• 4 slices ham
• 2 large eggs
• 135 ml milk

Instructions

• Heat your oven to 160c fan / 180c.
• Weigh the flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl.
• Add the chopped butter and rub it into the flour using your fingertips.
• Stir in the ham and cheese.
• In a jug, lightly whisk together the eggs with the milk using a fork.
• Pour this mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined.
• Spoon teaspoons of the mixture into the holes of a non-stick mini muffin pan (this recipe makes about 30 mini muffins, so you may need more than one pan, depending on the number of holes yours has).
• Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
• Tip the muffins onto a cooling rack *immediately* on removing them from the oven (they will stick if you leave them in the pan).
• Make your BBQ dipping sauce using our smokey barbecue sauce mix.
• Dunk yourself happy!

The post RECIPE: GLUTEN-FREE CHEESE & HAM MUFFIN BITES WITH BBQ DIPPING SAUCE appeared first on The Little Bakery of Happiness.

Brace yourself for Soggy Bottom Bingo – it’s Pastry Week!

Hands down, this is my favourite week! Pastry is the king of beige foods. And for one very good reason: life is better wrapped in pastry.

So what did the pastry-themed week have in store for the remaining seven bakers? Would it be all puff and nonsense? Would the bakers crack and flake under the time pressures?

Let’s find out!

**** SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of the outcomes of each of the challenges, this week’s star baker and the sixth of The Class of 2025 to go home. Please don’t read on if you have yet to watch the Pastry Week episode and don’t want to know the outcome! ****

THE SIGN OF A GOOD BAKER

According to Prue, pastry week is one of the most important weeks in Bake Off because if you can’t make pastry then ‘frankly, you’re not much of a baker.’

Phew, that’s me flying under the radar for a little while longer then

Aside from my love of all things pastry, I think that’s why it’s my favourite week. This week (and bread week) are the two that I feel really show more of the bakers’ technical talents rather than their creativity and artistic flair as some of the other weeks tend to major on.

THE SIGNATURE: SAVOURY PASTRY PLAITS

For the first of the pastry challenges, the judges were expecting the bakers to produce crisp, flaky, laminated pastry with a savoury filling, shaped into a beautifully plaited design.

They were given two and a half hours to complete this task, which for once seemed like a decent amount of time! Even though the pastry making process is quite protracted (laminated doughs require chill time in between each roll and fold), the fillings typically go into the oven uncooked, so this takes away the time that would otherwise be needed to make and cool the filling.

Hopefully the bakers remembered that and didn’t try to make their lives harder by choosing a pre-cooked filling…

AMAZINGLY BRAVE

As we learnt what each of the bakers had chosen to create for the pastry signature, Lesley told us that she was using a Paul Hollywood recipe for her filling. But she had decided to pimp it up a little bit to improve it. Bold.

And then there was Toby. Who decided he was going to do a full puff pastry, even though it wasn’t required for the challenge (rough puff pastry is a lot quicker to make and is still a laminated dough). Amazingly brave is how Prue described him. Paul looked slightly incredulous and told him he wouldn’t have enough time to make it.

I must admit that I feared Toby may become a victim of his own ambitions on this one. I’ve seen [more than] enough TV reality food programmes in my time to know that, for those contestants who decide to go over and above the brief, it usually doesn’t end well. It’s so much better – and safer – to knock it out of the park with what is expected than to go rogue and not quite pull it off.

But then Toby has shown us time and again that he’s a risk taker. And I kinda like that about him.

FORTUNE FLAVOURS THE BRAVE

Anyone who works a lot with pastry knows that you need really punchy flavours for your fillings. For them to cut through the pastry, they need to be a bit, well, extra.

So what did the bakers opt for in an attempt to wow the judges?

Tom used his time living in Hong Kong as inspiration for a fermented soy and chilli oil infused sausagemeat filling, wrapped in red pastry shaped like the severed tail of a dragon. Lesley’s take on Paul’s sausage plait had a layer of homemade gooseberry compote through the middle. And Jasmine added leek, apple, thyme and smoked paprika to her sausagemeat.

Toby and Nataliia both picked chicken as their main meat content, with Toby adding bacon, leek and cheese and Nataliia wrapping her chicken and bacon around garlic butter sticks in a nod to her Ukranian roots and its national dish, chicken Kiev.

Aaron chose beef as his meat filling, which he flavoured with vibrant Jamaican curry spices and Scotch bonnet chilli.

And Iain’s meat-free savoury plait was created from tofu, broccoli and potato (see earlier note about pastry needing punchy flavours )

PLAIT’S THE WAY I LIKE IT

So what did the judges make of their flavour combinations? And their plaiting skills? Did they live up to Paul’s expectations of neat, precise and incredible tasting savoury pastry plaits?

Lesley’s take on a Hollywood classic was a hit, with Paul admiring the colour, structure and overall look of it but saying that it could have been improved with slightly thicker pastry to give it more flake. Prue thought the addition of the gooseberry compote was a little bit of genius.

Tom, Nataliia and Aaron were all told that their pastry was slightly underbaked. Paul found Toby’s flavours boring and Iain’s needing more punch. And Prue said if sausage rolls all tasted like Jasmine’s, she’d eat a lot more of them.

Despite his pastry being ‘a few minutes under’, Aaron received some incredible feedback for his Jamaican beef plaity – none more so than both judges taking a chunk away to eat for their lunch! Nice one, Aaron.

So did Toby pull off the full puff? Kinda. It wasn’t a disaster, but neither was it brilliant. Paul said it had some lamination but with full puff pastry you would expect double what he had achieved. So you probably put yourself through the extra stress for no additional gain there, Toby,

THE TECHNICAL: gala pie

Set by Paul, the technical challenge was a gala pie, described as a spectacular rectangular pork pie made with hot water crust pastry and a line of eggs running through the middle. They had three hours to make it, which would need to be split into roughly two equal parts of making and baking time.

As always, the technical challenge is presented to the bakers with scant instructions. Paul did tell them that they needed to be neat and precise for the recipe to work. And out of their earshot, he told us that it was vitally important they create a steam hole in the lid of the pie. Without it, the chances of pastry blowouts and soggy bottoms are waaaaaay higher.

This was shortly followed by:

Iain: “I don’t think it needs an air hole, but maybe it does?”. Yes, Iain. It does.

And Aaron: “I didn’t put a steam hole in it but I think it’s going to be OK.” No Aaron. It is not.

KNOWING WHICH WAY IS UP

Something I was surprised we didn’t see discussed or highlighted during this week’s technical was which way up your eggs need to go in the tin when you’re making a gala pie.

As a gala pie is sliced through once baked, you need to lay your eggs down horizontally in the tin so that each slice has a full ‘O’ of yolk. If you put them in vertically, you’ll end up with a line of yolk.

I’m not entirely convinced there wasn’t some ‘selective’ footage during both the baking and the judging on this one

Call me a cynic, if you will.

If you’re going for the full aesthetic with a gala pie, you also need to trim the egg white ends off before placing them in the tin. This means that you won’t end up with a slice that is all white with no yolk. The beady-eyed amongst y’all would have spotted during the judging that Lesley didn’t know this

LEAF IT OUT, PAUL

So what did the judges make of the seven gala pies waiting for them on the gingham altar?

Well first off, Paul seemed to have a little bit of an obsession with the number of leaves the bakers had (or, more accurately, had not) decorated their pies with. I mean, in the grand scheme of things and considering it wasn’t specified exactly in the instructions…

Both Nataliia and Toby received those dreaded words that should never be said in the same sentence – soggy and pastry – in their feedback. Prue said she thought Iain’s pie looked like it had been crimped by two different people! Aaron’s was underbaked, Lesley’s was well-baked, Tom’s was a bit of a mess and Jasmine’s was robust with good flavour.

So this week’s baker at the bottom of the technical was Aaron. He did have a great signature, so slightly less worrying for him than if he’d also had a bad first round. Tom was sixth, Nataliia fifth, Toby fourth, Lesley third, Iain second and Jasmine first.

THE SHOWSTOPPER: SCULPTED TARTS

After probably two of his worst rounds in the competition so far, Tom was going to need something pretty special in the pastry showstopper to dig himself out of danger. I was also a little nervous for Toby as I can’t help thinking he’s a little under-marked and over-harshly criticised for his baking.

Anyhoo, onto the pastry week showstopper, which this year was to be visually stunning sculpted tarts. The judges were looking for great textures and flavours and beautifully sculpted tarts that showcased their engineering, design and baking skills and also told a bit of a story.

To make the task trickier, the bakers’ structures needed to be at least a foot tall and could not be made from anything other than the pastry used for their tarts. They had just four hours.

A ROLLERCOASTER OF EMOTIONS

Paul told us that this year’s pastry showstopper was an opportunity for us to be a bit nosey and dig around in the lives of the bakers.

Aaron had other ideas, however, as he told us that he didn’t really want to say on camera what his sculpture was because he would then be admitting to something that had been a secret for years. Relenting eventually, he let out to millions of viewers that his ‘Nobody Gnomes’ tart was based on his antics with a friend and the period of time where they used to move his friend’s mum’s gnome around the garden without her knowing [until now!]

Toby told us that he used to work at a theme park and spent some considerable time trying to tame a goat called Milly that lived underneath a rollercoaster there. He thought he had achieved it – only to be rammed by her

MASTERING THE [T]ART OF PASTRY SCULPTURES IN JUST FOUR HOURS

Yes Toby, that’s four hours and not the four and a half hours you thought you were getting. Kudos for pulling it back, though!

And with Tom’s two biggest fears being structural pastry and Paul Hollywood, how did he – and the rest of the bakers get on?

Lesley delighted the judges with her ‘exquisite’ pastry bees and the depth of flavour of her honey-glazed pecan tart. Aaron divided the judges with his use of jasmine extract – which Paul didn’t like but Prue said was nice although she couldn’t eat much of it.

Ian’s retelling of the story of how the Giant’s Causeway came to be was a hit, described as detailed, clever and a great work of art. Although Prue did say that she thought he’d gone a bit OTT with the whiskey (and we all know that Prue likes her boozy bakes!)

Despite having half an hour less than he thought, Toby managed to pull off his pastry rollercoaster showstopper. His pastry was considered ‘exceptional’, although his structure was a little on the wonky side.

Nataliia’s sculpted swans were a visual triumph but the judges thought her pastry was too thick, overworked and a bit on the tough side. Jasmine’s sculpted tree looked like something you’d seen in a professional patisserie shop window according to Paul, although her tart was missing a texture (like a curd or jam) and was a little on the dry side.

And Tom needn’t have worried about either Paul or the structural pastry as he got a ‘Tom’s back in the tent’ for his Connect Four pastry sculpture.

FAREWELL TO THE SIXTH BAKER OF THE CLASS OF 2025

I thought this was a pretty tough one to predict this week as nobody had a total car crash week and while there were some issues in the signature and technical, everybody put up a great pastry showstopper.

I feared for Toby a little because, as I mentioned earlier, I think he’s judged a little harshly sometimes. Thankfully, those fears were baseless

The judges’ discussions with Alison and Noel centred around Nataliia and Aaron at the bottom. Tom saved himself from joining them with his great showstopper. Jasmine and Lesley were both in line for star baker after having three great rounds each.

Sadness for Nataliia as she became the sixth baker to leave the tent.

And a third star baker crown for Jasmine this week. Unquestionably well-deserved as she’s exceptionally talented, but I so very much wanted Lesley to get it this week. Let meringue week be yours, Lesley!

Until next week!

The post THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF 2025: WEEK SIX – PASTRY WEEK appeared first on The Little Bakery of Happiness.

Ten bakers, three challenges and one judge who knows *everything* about bread.

I love bread week as it is [in my opinion] one of the most technical of baking disciplines and really starts to show those bakers who shine beyond the design capabilities that cake and biscuit week demand of them.

It was all to play for Pui Man and Aaron this week, who didn’t have the best of results during Biscuit Week and flirted near the bottom come elimination time.

Could Toby hold on to his title of Technical Toby after winning the challenge two weeks on the bounce? And how would Tom cope with the pressure of going into Bread Week as reigning star baker?

Are you ready to dive in? On your marks. Get set. BAKE!

**** SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of the outcomes of each of the challenges, this week’s star baker and the third of The Class of 2025 to go home. Please don’t read on if you have yet to watch the bread week episode and don’t want to know the outcome! ****

TIME TO RISE TO THE CHALLENGE

Unless you are making quick breads (unleavened or chemically-leavened breads like flatbreads and wraps), then you need to set aside quite a few hours if you plan to make bread. Successfully.

But this is Bake Off, where sensible timescales are so last year.

So shall we see how many times ‘under-proofed’ features in the feedback during this week’s judging?…

THE SIGNATURE: SAVOURY MONKEY BREAD

We just can’t seem to get away from challenges that have a strong focus on design in this year’s Bake Off, and tonight seems to be no different.

For the signature, the bakers were asked to make a ‘well-flavoured’ savoury pull-apart monkey bread, which needed to be ‘visually striking’ through the use of coloured, flavoured doughs, glazes, coatings or toppings.

This type of brief usually catches at least one of the bakers out, who can’t resist the urge to throw everything but the kitchen sink at their bake.

MONKEY BUSINESS

The bakers were given three hours to complete Bread Week’s signature challenge. Paul said that the proofing was what would make or break this challenge. I’m fairly sure that’s true of any bake involving a yeasted dough, but hey ho!

Some really interesting flavour combinations from the contestants in this challenge. I really loved the sound of Toby’s umami-fest of Parmesan, porcini and pesto. Yes please! Blue cheese featured in quite a few of the bakes, which is not surprising as it packs a fair old punch. Tom’s croque monsieur and steak with peppercorn dough balls sounded delicious but his French onion soup, not so much (a bit too sweet for my taste).

GO APE FOR THE FLAVOURS

So what did the judges make of their flavour combinations? And was three hours enough to turn out a well-proved, well-baked monkey bread?

Nadia’s bread was deemed ‘rough and ready’ for its appearance but spot on for its flavours. Tom, Jessika and Iain also impressed with their flavour combinations, but Toby split the judges with Paul finding his flavours lacking while Prue found them absolutely delicious.

Nataliia’s bread was too sweet, Lesley’s needed more Stilton (even after she bumped up the cheese content from 120g to 160g after Paul questioned her on whether 120g was enough during his early tour around the tent) and Jasmine’s needed more olives.

Pui Man forgot to glaze her monkey bread, which resulted in the judges describing her bake as dull to look at. They said it also lacked salt. Aaron’s dough balls didn’t rise, which led to some pretty damning feedback. The texture of his bread was ‘so awful that you couldn’t eat it.’ Fair play to Aaron, though, who conceded that the judges’ words were a lot kinder than his bake deserved.

A few of the bakers were told that their bread could have done with proving for a little longer, but overall nothing catastrophic (with the exception of Aaron), so the time set for the challenge seemed to be about right this time.

THE TECHNICAL: GLAZED RING DOUGHNUTS

Mmmmmm, doughnuts. I must admit I’m more of a filled, jammy doughnut gal than a glazed ring doughnut one, but I’d fight you for it if that was the only one on offer

The technical was introduced as a ‘fast food classic’. Now, as a baker of many years, I have to interject here and say that there is nothing fast about making a yeasted doughnut! It’s a time-consuming process and is a bake that needs eating within a few hours of completion, which is why I don’t sell them – even though they’re one of the things coeliacs miss the most.

Two hours and forty-five minutes, a deep fat fryer and minimal instructions to make 12 glazed doughnuts – six with a simple vanilla glaze and six with a strawberry glaze. Let’s do this!

A HOLE LOTTA LOVE

Yeasty, pillowy-soft, sugary-sweet rings of deep fried deliciousness. Hoo yes.

The secret to the signature pale band around the middle of the doughnut is in the proofing time. But of course the instructions for the technical bake didn’t include details of how long to proof the doughnuts for

The bakers also had multiple round cutters on their workbenches, so it was left to them to decide which to use. As we saw from Prue and Paul’s chat about the challenge, this was clearly designed to test whether they knew that picking a ‘hole’ cutter too small would result in the doughnut hole closing up.

Some of the bakers looked a little daunted by the deep fat fryer on their benches. Jasmine, for one, said she had never used one before.

DOUGHNUT JUDGE ME

Unfortunately for the contestants, the walk of shame to the gingham altar for judging is a necessary part of the technical challenge! So how did they get on?

Arriving at the altar, both Prue and Paul exclaimed ‘that’s a lot of doughnuts.’ Umm, you set the challenge…do the maths….10 bakers x 12 doughnuts is 120 doughnuts. Yup, that’s a lot of doughnuts

I always think that the judges must not look at the bakers when blind judging the technical because it’s so obvious from their reactions who has baked what!

This week was far less of a disaster than the technicals of cake and biscuit week. Nataliia, Iain, Nadia and Jasmine all received positive comments. Damning with faint praise (‘acceptable’) for Tom and not good at all for both Lesley and Pui Man.

At the start of the technical, Pui Man told us that she’s made doughnuts many times and so should be OK. If you’ve ever seen The Apprentice, you’ll know that when candidates who go for the project manager job because the task is ‘their thing’, it never ends well. Clearly the same is true on Bake Off

THE SHOWSTOPPER: TIERED SWEET BREADS

Heading into the showstopper, Pui Man, Nataliia and Aaron were in the minds and on the lips of the judges as bakers who’d not had a good day and therefore needed to up their game in the final challenge of bread week. And It was Nadia and Jasmine who seemed at this stage to be in the mix for star baker.

The tiered sweet bread challenge was going to need to be pretty special in both looks and taste for some of the Class of 2025 then!

SAY IT WITH BREAD

This year’s Bread Week showstopper challenge was a celebratory sweet bread with at least three tiers, made from an enriched bread dough with a design to represent a celebration that had meaning to the bakers – in five hours.

Prue described it as like a wedding cake – but made out of bread. And Paul said he wanted to see beautifully flavoured and well-baked loaves that really showed off the bakers’ skills.

BAKED WITH LOVE

Aaron chose a ‘celebration of life’ sweet bread in memory of two friends he had lost in recent years, which he made from a four-tier couronne filled with pistachio, marzipan, cherries and apricots. Keeping to the French bread theme, Nadia baked a brioche tiered wedding cake with a raspberry crème pâtissière.

Iain hoped to spook the judges with his celebration of the Irish precursor to Halloween – Samhain. Sticking with an autumn theme, Tom’s tiered bread was a three-tiered cinnamon bun tower with chocolate decorations to celebrate his boyfriend’s favourite time of year.

Toby was surely onto a winner with his Christmas-themed stollen-flavoured tiered bread – I mean, who doesn’t love Christmas and stollen (don’t even look at me, marzipan haters ).

A FULL ON FIVE HOURS

This was quite an intense five hours for the bakers as they first had to make their doughs ready for bulk fermentation, then shape them ready for the second proof before baking them and allowing them to cool for long enough before stacking and finishing off with their chosen decorations.

There were buttercream roses, sugarpaste flowers, dough skulls, chocolate trees, sugar lace and more all being created in the tent, ready to adorn their doughy tiered creations.

Clearly there was enough time for the showstopper challenge this week as Jasmine even had time to spare to fire sugarpaste octopus (left over sugarpaste daisies!) at an unsuspecting Tom who was huddled over his modelling chocolate, desperately trying to make it look less phalic and more like a tree

WHO CRUMBLED UNDER THE PRESSURE OF BREAD WEEK?

Time for the final judging of Bread Week. Eep, a hard one to predict!

Jasmine’s midsummer flower crown was such a pretty bake! Beautiful, delicate and spot on were some of the comments from Paul and Prue. A bit wonky but looks very good was how Paul described Toby’s Christmas-themed sweet bread. Even though the bread was a little stodgy and under-baked, Prue said it was the best tasting stollen she had ever had.

Tom’s nod to autumn was both dramatic and bold and the judges loved his orange, cinnamon and pecan flavours. Jasmine’s design and presentation was a little clumsy but her bake was lovely, although Paul thought she could have done more with the flavours.

Prue loved the look of Lesley’s bread and both judges thought she did a good job on both the look and the bake. Nataliia’s showstopper was highly decorated but clumsy and the dough was claggy because it was, you’ve guessed it, under-proved. And both judges loved Nadia’s bread wedding cake. But the excessive use of red colouring – not so much

FAREWELL TO THE THIRD BAKER OF THE CLASS OF 2025

Heading into the showstopper, it looked like Pui Man was on the ropes, but she seemed to pull it back with her coconut cocktail wedding cake sweet bread and Prue even described her as the comeback kid.

During discussions between the judges and Alison and Noel, both Iain and Nataliia looked vulnerable as neither had a particularly great showstopper and had not faired brilliantly in previous rounds (Iain 6th and Nataliia 8th in the technical).

But it wasn’t to be for Pui Man and she became the third baker to be sent home from the tent in series 16 of The Great British Bake Off.

Congratulations to Jasmine for becoming Bread Week 2025’s star baker, you should justifiably be happy that you got star baker this week, your bakes were outstanding

Until next week!

The post THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF 2025: WEEK THREE – BREAD WEEK appeared first on The Little Bakery of Happiness.

Leighton had it all to play for this week after serving up a Cake Week showstopper that was on the wonk with a sponge that was described by Prue as ‘very tough’. Not a good look.

Iain gained the title of Comeback King in Cake Week after salvaging what pretty much everyone thought was going to result in BinGate 2.0 and producing what Paul described as an ‘incredible’ showstopper.

A calmer week than last week for these two, then?

Roll the titles

**** SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of the outcomes of each of the challenges, this week’s star baker and the second of The Class of 2025 to go home. Please don’t read on if you have yet to watch the biscuit week episode and don’t want to know the outcome! ****

WHO WILL CRUMBLE UNDER THE PRESSURE OF BISCUIT WEEK?

In theory, biscuit baking is a relatively simple process made from relatively simple ingredients. But this is Bake Off, so Biscuit Week 2025 was unlikely to pass off without at least a modicum of drama.

Surely, though, it couldn’t be as dramatic as last year, which saw Jeff quit the show, Illiyan faint and Dylan fall off his stool.

Let’s dive in…

THE SIGNATURE: SLICE AND BAKE DESIGN-INSIDE BISCUITS

Continuing the arty theme we saw with the Swiss rolls in Cake Week, the eleven bakers left in the tent were tasked with making slice and bake biscuits with a picture or design running through the middle (Blackpool rock, anybody?)

It goes without saying that they weren’t given a realistic timeframe for completing this fiddly and labour intensive process! They had just two hours to make, flavour and colour their biscuit dough, craft their design out of the dough, chill it, slice it, bake their masterpieces and present them ready for judging.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

Knowing that Bake Off is notorious for not giving the bakers long enough to achieve the task at hand, you’d think they might opt for a simple-design-done-well over an intricate-design-done-badly/rushed/not finished.

Jasmine, yes. Pui Man not so much. When asked by Prue if she had ever got her intricate design done in time during practice (they get the signature and showstopper challenges ahead of time so that they can practice at home), she answered: “No. Never.” Oh.

DESIGN SPOTLIGHT

So what did they create and how did they fare?

Nadia’s avocado matcha biscuits got a thumbs up for the design but were criticised for not being bold enough with the flavour. Toby’s flavours of cinnamon, honey, banana, cream cheese and peanut were a little OTT and a lesson in what happens when you throw too much at the problem. Iain’s winter-spiced biscuits filled with mincemeat ganache had me eyeing up the spice drawer and checking my dried fruit stash! And I completely disagreed with Paul’s comment on Nataliia’s biscuits not really looking like a rose. Has he never seen the white rose of Yorkshire emblem?!

All but one of the bakers presented under-baked biscuits, which probably tells us everything we need to know about whether two hours is enough time to make slice and bake biscuits with a design inside

THE TECHNICAL: CHOCOLATE & CARAMEL HOBNOBS

There were no one-dip wonders in the Biscuit Week technical as the bakers were tasked with making the marine of all biscuits – the hobnob. No taste-testing to determine the ingredients this week, but a return to the suitably vague recipe and instructions (The first step: make 12 biscuits. The second step: bake. That’s it). Baker’s instinct it is, then.

Unlike the conventional hobnob, Prue’s technical challenge for the bakers was to top the oaty classic with a thin layer of caramel before finishing with two different types of feathered chocolate design.

If you’re wondering what the caramel coloured-chocolate used by the bakers is, by the way, it’s Callebaut Gold. It’s a slightly salted, caramelised white chocolate. And it’s delicious. Which is why I use it in my black and gold chocolate cookie baking kit.

HOW HARD CAN IT BE?

Seemingly, very. Hobnobs are a crumbly biscuit but some of the bakers took this to a whole new level. Eyes, on you, Pui Man.

I was quite surprised that so few of the bakers managed to feather their chocolate neatly. Or at all in some cases – looking at you, Tom, Leighton, Jasmine, Aaron. It really isn’t difficult (says she, free from the pressure of the GBBO tent!)

Not everyone had a hard time with the challenge, though. Toby played a blinder, taking the technical win for the second week in a row.

His hobnobs were neat, uniform, evenly proportioned and well baked. Prue even said she thought Toby’s biscuit was the perfect hobnob. And the male judge?* “It’s nice.” Knock yourself out with the praise levels, Paul.

* We still love you for this, Nancy Birtwhistle!

THE SHOWSTOPPER: BISCUIT TIME CAPSULE

And finally, for the showstopper, a highly decorated biscuit time capsule filled with at least five edible mementos. In just four hours.

Pui Man didn’t have a great signature bake as she ran out of time to complete her intricate ‘year of the ox’ design. And she came last in the technical. So she was going to need something pretty special to survive Biscuit Week. Or, as Prue said, would need someone else to do really badly!

The biggest question at the start of a biscuit structure challenge like this one is always whether the bakers will have remembered that choosing melt-in-the-mouth shortbread for their time capsule is only marginally less foolhardy than serving up a chocolate fondant on Masterchef.

TO THE FUTURE, MARTY!

The pressure was clearly on for this challenge with plenty of confidence-boosting self-talk from many of the bakers. “I can do this” (Pui Man), “Move fast but think a lot” (Tom), “I just want to do OK. Middle of the road is absolutely fine.” (Aaron).

And it’s not hard to see why when we were told by Paul that the bakers would need engineering skills, architectural skills and artistic skills to make the time capsule look amazing. And then Prue piled on the pressure by adding that the mementos inside the capsules needed to be really exquisitely decorated. Phyoosh!

FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE

Tom’s reconstruction of his Granny’s cottage promised to be an absolute knockout if it was as amazing in biscuit form as it looked in the doodle form we get to see whenever the bakers describe the bake they are about to make.

Pui Man’s four-tiered gingerbread floating restaurant design looked like exactly what she needed to save herself from being jettisoned from the tent this week. If she could pull it off.

And both Toby and Nadia made us nervous as they announced they were shunning the trusted, sturdy, construction-friendly gingerbread for their time capsules. Nadia even fessed up that she was worried her biscuit choice wouldn’t be strong enough so had chosen to make it a bit thicker. Did you clock Prue’s face? Gulp.

So with Prue looking for the bakers to be brave, the biscuits to be tasty and the design to be witty, how did they get on?

JUDGEMENT TIME

Jessica’s stained glass time capsule was a representation of places she has been and places she has lived. Prue said that she was worried Jessica had bitten off more than she would be able to chew but that she’d done a great job. The judges weren’t in love with her biscuits (quite chewy and hard work to eat) but loved the biscuit selfie with moveable parts (until Paul broke it, that is).

The judges thought Lesley’s happy memories time capsule was a very clever design, that her gingerbread flavours were good and her melt-in-the-mouth Viennese biscuits were delicious.

Leighton’s piano lacked finesse (to which he agreed) and some of his biscuits were underbaked. And Toby’s treasure chest was dry and didn’t taste nice either – described as a classic case of style over substance. Ouch!

Aaron was close to tears as he was told by Paul that he was happy with his baking but everything else, not so much.

And then there was Tom. Prue described his showstopper as absolutely perfect and Paul thought the textures, flavours and design were pretty much untouchable. Wow!

Such glowing feedback could only mean one thing. Yup, we saw our first Hollywood Handshake of series 16! It turns out that Tom’s biscuit version of his granny’s cottage was indeed every inch as good as the doodle of it.  

FAREWELL TO THE SECOND BAKER OF THE CLASS OF 2025

Oh Leighton. I love how we learned that you got a Blue Peter badge as a child by collecting used tinfoil from all of your neighbours and sending it off to the programme. And that you raised money for Help The Aged in the process. But it was never going to sway the judges when you served them underbaked, ‘wet’ biscuits, was it

Well done to Pui Man for absolutely delivering when she needed to and keeping her place in the tent based on her outstanding showstopper and not because someone else had a bad bake.

Congratulations to Tom for becoming Biscuit Week 2025’s star baker *and* the first recipient of a Hollywood Handshake this year. Let us know how that conversation with your boyfriend goes, eh?*

 * See my memorable moments from this week, below.

Until next week!

The post THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF 2025: WEEK TWO – BISCUIT WEEK appeared first on The Little Bakery of Happiness.

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GLUTEN-FREE ALMOND AND ORANGE PINWHEEL BISCUITS

A simple slice and bake gluten-free biscuit dough that is stacked and rolled before slicing and baking, resulting in pretty pinwheel biscuits flavoured with orange and almond.

Keyword Baking, Biscuit week, biscuits, gluten-free baking, gluten-free biscuit recipes, The Great British Bake Off

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 20

Ingredients

• 230 g butter, salted (divided into 2 x 115g)
• 160 g caster sugar (divided into 2 x 55g)
• 2 large eggs (one per biscuit flavour)
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 3 tsp orange extract
• 30 g ground almonds (divided into 2 x 15g)
• 430 g Magical Plain Flour Blend (divided into 2 x 215g)
• 30 g cornflour (divided into 2 x 15g)
• 4-5 drops orange food colouring (depending on strength of colouring)

Instructions

TO MAKE THE ALMOND BISCUIT DOUGH

• Beat 115g of the butter with 80g of the caster sugar and 1/2 tsp almond extract in the bowl of a stand mixer until combined.
• Add one egg and 15g ground almonds. Beat to combine.
• Add 215g Magical Plain Flour Blend and 15g cornflour. Mix until a ball of dough forms. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 10mins.

TO MAKE THE ORANGE BISCUIT DOUGH

• Add the remaining 115g butter, 80g caster sugar, 3 tsp orange extract and 4-5 drops of orange food colouring to the bowl. Beat until combined.
• Add an egg and 15g ground almonds to the bowl and beat again.
• Finally, add 215g Magical Plain Flour Blend and 15g cornflour. Mix until a ball of dough forms. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 10mins.

ASSEMBLE THE DOUGH

• Roll out the almond dough to a depth of roughly 4mm (the green rolling pin spacers, if you have them) in the shape of a rectangle approximately 20cm wide and 30cm long. Set aside.
• Now roll out the orange dough as above.
• Carefully lift the orange dough on top of the almond dough and press gently into place. Trim the dough if necessary to remove any overhangs and ensure you have a nice, neat rectangle.

  **This is quite a soft dough so if you are making it on a warm day, you may find it easier to chill the slabs of dough in the freezer for 10mins before stacking.**
• Turn the dough so that the long edge is facing you then roll the dough away from yourself until you have a cylinder of dough and a nice pinwheel pattern through it.

  **If you have chilled the dough before stacking, you MUST allow it to come back to room temperature before rolling, otherwise it will crack.**
• Wrap the cylinder of dough in clingfilm and freeze for 20mins (this will make for nice clean slices when you cut it).

BAKING YOUR PINWHEEL BISCUITS

• Heat your oven to 180c / 160c fan.
• Line three baking sheets with baking parchment.
• With a sharp knife, quickly and carefully slice through your cylinder of dough to create biscuits. Each one should be roughly 1cm thick. Will will end up with just over 20 pinwheels.
• Transfer them to your lined baking trays and bake for 15 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and carefully transfer the baked pinwheel biscuits to a wire rack to cool.
• Pop the kettle on, make yourself a brew and get stuck in. Enjoy!
• xx Millie, Marcus, Milo, Maddy and Me xx

The post RECIPE: GLUTEN-FREE SLICE AND BAKE ALMOND AND ORANGE PINWHEEL BISCUITS appeared first on The Little Bakery of Happiness.

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CHOCOLATE & MARZIPAN SWISS ROLL

A deliciously chocolatey Swiss roll, sprinkled with marzipan and filled with silky almond buttercream – topped with a triple chocolate drizzle and crushed mini eggs (because, well, why not!).

Course Cake

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

FOR THE SWISS ROLL

• 65 g Magical plain flour blend
• 25 g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 large egg white
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1 tbsp milk

FOR THE FILLING

• 80 g butter
• 200 g icing sugar (sifted)
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1-2 tsp water (to loosen, if needed)
• 20 g marzipan, grated (frozen)

FOR THE DECORATION (OPTIONAL)

• 1 small amount chocolate, melted
• 1 handful mini eggs, crushed

Instructions

FOR THE SPONGE

• Grease and line a Swiss roll tin.
• Preheat your oven to 190c / 170 fan / gas 5.
• Put the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on a high speed for eight minutes until the mixture is pale and creamy and leaves a trail when you lift up the beater.;
• Add in the almond extract and then whisk for another minute.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, coffee and salt until completely blended and then gently fold into the egg mixture along with the milk using a metal spoon. Be as careful as you can when you are folding in the flour because you want to keep as much air as possible in the mixture.
• Pour the cake mixture into your tin ensuring it reaches the sides and edges. Bake in the oven for 7-10 minutes until a skewer comes out clean and the top of the sponge springs back when you press lightly on it. Be careful not to over bake your sponge as this will make it more susceptible to cracking when you roll it.
• Roll up your sponge while it is still warm.

FOR THE FILLING

• To make the buttercream filling, put the butter and almond extract in the bowl of a stand mixer with the balloon whisk attached and beat for a good few minutes until much paler in colour.
• Add in the sifted icing sugar and beat to combine. 
• Whisk in the water, if necessary, to loosen the buttercream so that it is a nice, spreadable consistency.

TO ASSEMBLE

• Once your rolled sponge is completely cool, carefully unroll it so that you can add the filling.
• Grate your frozen marzipan over the top of the sponge.
• Now spread an even layer of buttercream over the sponge using a palette knife if you have one. The secret here is to use sweeping motions across the sponge with your knife and *not* to lift the knife up off the sponge or you may well pull chunks of sponge with it! Don’t spread the buttercream to the ends of the sponge – leave a gap round the edges so that it doesn’t ooze out when you roll up the sponge!
• Time to complete your Swiss roll by rolling it back up again. Your sponge should have ‘retained a memory’ of the roll you put in earlier and so shouldn’t be too difficult to manoeuvre. Be firm with your rolling but try not to push down too hard or you’ll squeeze out the filling!
• Melt a small amount of white, milk and dark chocolate and liberally drizzle each over the top of your Swiss roll. 
• Scatter some crushed mini eggs over the top.;Putting your finished Swiss roll in the fridge for five minutes to firm up slightly will make it easier to cut.
• Enjoy! xx Millie, Marcus and Me xx

AN ADAPTABLE RECIPE!

I originally created this chocolate and marzipan Swiss roll for a feature in The Evening Standard on Easter baking – hence the marzipan and the mini eggs.

If you’re not a marzipan fan you can omit it from the filling and take out the almond extract from the recipe for a plain chocolate gluten-free Swiss roll.

You could give it an orangey twist by adding orange extract and zest to the sponge and orange juice/extract to the buttercream and spreading a layer of orange marmalade over the sponge before rolling it up.

And if you’re a lover of Black Forest gateau but don’t have time to make one, you could spread lashings of cherry jam over the sponge and add a splash of Kirsch to the buttercream

Happy baking!

The post RECIPE: GLUTEN-FREE CHOCOLATE AND MARZIPAN SWISS ROLL appeared first on The Little Bakery of Happiness.

BAKE OFF IS BACK!…

Squeeeeeeee! It’s back again for 2025! Now in its sixteenth series I’m every inch as excited about it as I was all those years ago when Edd Kimber won the very first series.

Every year I start off thinking I will do a little foodie chatter post about the Bake Off each week, throwing in some baking tips and recipes where I can. But every year I realise that I just don’t have the time and my posts fall by the wayside a few weeks in.

Will this year be any different? Only time will tell but in the meantime, let’s get down to a reflection on week one: CAKE WEEK.

**** SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of the outcomes of each of the challenges, this week’s star baker and the first of The Class of 2025 to go home. Please don’t read on if you have yet to watch the cake week episode and don’t want to know the outcome! ****

THAT OPENING SEQUENCE, THOUGH

Before I get down to this week’s baking challenges, I think we just need to take a moment to admire how utterly magnificent Prue looked as David Attenborough in the opening skit. I mean, props to the make-up and wardrobe teams, right?!

LET THE BAKING COMMENCE

With the japes of the Jurassic Park-esque opening sequence over, we got our first look at The Class of 2025. Six lads and six lasses from all over the UK and spanning a range of professions from hairdressing to fitness coaching and software engineering to wedding dress design.

One to catch my eye when reading the biographies that were released ahead of the new series was Hassan. As a chemistry graduate, I thought his scientific background would be a massive strength – much like it was for Rahul back in series nine (yes, it really was all that time ago!)

I also wondered if Pui Man (a wedding dress designer) might treat us to some of the creative masterpieces produced by Frances Quinn (a clothes designer), the winner of series four.

Anyhoo, on to the baking and the first of this week’s cake challenges: the signature…

THE SIGNATURE BAKE: SWISS ROLL

The signature bake is the one where the bakers get to show us their favourite flavour profiles, their creative flair and their style of baking – their baking personality, if you will.

The cake set by the judges for CAKE WEEK 2025 was a classic teatime treat (well it was in my household while growing up) – the Swiss roll. Bake Off Geeks (hi!) will recall that the contestants in series five (the year that Nancy Birtwhistle won) also had to bake Swiss rolls for the signature challenge in cake week.

This year, the bakers were asked to create an inlay design on the outside of their Swiss roll, with filling flavours of their own choosing.

THe swiss roll flavours and designs

There was some incredible creativity on show with the inlay designs. Iain’s recreation of Queen’s University Belfast was mind-blowingly good and Jessica’s hand and flowers design was very pretty.

The flavours chosen included lemon and raspberry (Jasmine), rhubarb and custard (Toby), cherry and almond (Nadia) and chocolate, coffee and caramel (Hassan).

It didn’t take long for the drama to unfold. Toby’s crème pâtissière filling was lumpy and Hassan’s caramel seized, so both decided to start again, piling more pressure on themselves as time ticked on. And with the fillings needing to be cold before being added to the sponge, many of us could see where this was heading…

ROLL UP! ROLL UP! ROLL UP FOR THE JUDGING

This very first judging session must surely be the most nerve-wracking of all for the bakers. So how did they fare?

Iain’s Queen’s University inlay design was a huge hit with the judges (“a mighty impressive looking Swiss roll.”) Prue had been nervous that his filling would be too sweet (it was based on the Northern Irish ‘fifteens’ no-bake fridge cake) but thankfully for Iain, she concluded that it was not.

Pui Man was criticised for using too much matcha and over-filling her sponge, Toby was told the texture of his sponge was wrong – not helped by his crème pât. filling being warm still and Leighton’s sponge was deemed claggy and tough. Ouch!

FLAVOUR HITS

Putting aside the negative comments about claggy, stodgy, over-baked and cracked sponges, many of the bakers received some glowing comments for their flavour combinations.

Aaron was praised for his beautiful, balanced flavours, Jasmine got a thumbs up for the tartness of the lemon in her filling, the judges thought Nataliia’s flavours of mango and passionfruit were stunning and they loved Hassan’s coffee, caramel and chocolate fusion.

But Hassan. Oh, Hassan It’s never going to end well when the judges’ opening gambit is “…Not your best morning.”

“Flavour wise it’s stunning. But it looks like it has been dropped out of a tree.”

Double ouch!

THE TECHNICAL CHALLENGE: fondant fancies

Not something I’ve ever managed to muster up much enthusiasm for, I have to say. Which is probably just as well as you’re not exactly tripping over yourself with choice of gluten-free fondant fancies!

Anyhoo, for this year’s cake week technical challenge, the contestants were instructed to bake nine identical fondant fancies in just two hours and fifteen minutes. The twist came (of course there was a twist!) when the bakers were told that their benches contained one fondant fancy already baked, all the ingredients to make theirs…and a few more ingredients besides.

Their first task was to taste the fondant fancy and work out which of the ingredients on their bench were needed to produce nine of them. I love this twist on the technical!

WELL FANCY THAT!

It came out during the programme that Jasmine had said, while discussing what the technical challenge might be with the other contestants, that the one thing she hoped it wouldn’t be was fondant fancies. Oh

Heaven only knows what she must have thought when she discovered it was. And that she was going to have to guess both the method and the ingredients!

It turns out that the flavour of the fondant fancy was raspberry and almond, which most of the bakers identified (ahem, rosewater, Pui Man. Really?!) One of the red herrings on their benches was a pot of ground almonds – because the almond flavour came solely from the almond extract also on the bench.

THE WALK OF SHAME

Judging time again and the bakers walked up to the gingham altar (many with a pained expression on their face) to present their efforts to the judges.

Interestingly, most of the bakers were criticised for using the ground almonds to make their fondant fancies. They were told that they shouldn’t have and that their inclusion inhibited the rise.

Why interesting? Because Prue’s recipe for fondant fancies on the GBBO website contains…you guessed it – ground almonds!

This wasn’t a great first technical for any of the bakers and even though it was won by Toby, Paul told the other bakers not to clap for him because his were the best of a bad bunch. Harsh. But fair, I’d say!

THE SHOWSTOPPER: landscape cakes

This is the cake challenge that really plays to the strengths of the super creative bakers and I had high hopes for Pui Man with the showstopper (she came 11th in the technical challenge so really needed to pull something out of the bag).

And with Hassan’s fondant fancies being ranked 10th in the technical, he was going to need something pretty special to save himself from eviction from the tent.

Jessika, Nataliia and Aaron all looked in pretty good shape for a return in week two, but anything can [and usually does] happen during the showstopper challenge.

HOLD ON TO YOUR BAKES!

As the showstopper challenge approached its crescendo, it became pretty clear that Iain was going to need nothing short of a miracle to save his creation. We had to watch in horror as it slipped, slopped and fell apart all over his bench after he had sculpted it.

And so it would seem that the cake gods were shining down on him! He somehow managed not to have a complete meltdown but instead pull on his deal-with-it-pants and crack out an absolutely belting ‘It’s all downhill from here’ landscape cake.

Fair play to ye, Iain. But let’s just hope the naming of your cake wasn’t prophetic, eh?

FAREWELL TO THE FIRST OF THE CLASS OF 2025

Ah Hassan, cake week was not your week, was it?

Two pretty disastrous bakes in the first two rounds meant that his showstopper really had to be next level. But sadly it wasn’t and he became the first baker to leave the tent in 2025. So much for my high hopes of him being as brilliant as fellow scientist Rahul!

And Pui Man didn’t deliver the visually stunning bakes I had thought she might this week. Perhaps biscuit week will spark her creativity?

A big well done to Nataliia for becoming The GBBO Class of 2025’s first star baker! I loved the personal memories and meaning you injected into your baking and the beautiful way in which you executed them

Until next week!

The post THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF 2025: WEEK ONE – CAKE WEEK appeared first on The Little Bakery of Happiness.

CRIMP MY PIE! TWO EASY WAYS TO CRIMP AND SEAL YOUR PIES…

Let’s face it, pie is generally delicious no matter what it looks like. But a pretty pie is a next level pie

So if you’re about to embark on a spot of pie baking, have a quick read of my tutorial first, which shows you two different ways to crimp your pie lid.

WHY CRIMP YOUR PASTRY LID?

Well aside from anything else, it makes your finished pie look altogether more fancy pants. And who doesn’t love a fancy pants pie?

But it also helps to give your pastry lid a good seal onto the shell, keeping the contents firmly tucked inside and guarding against pie boil-out when it goes in the oven.

HOW TO CRIMP YOUR PASTRY LID

There are lots of different and creative ways to crimp your pie top, but here I have just two quick and easy examples that don’t require anything other than your fingers.

The first thing you need to do before crimping your pastry lid is seal the lid to the shell. You do this by brushing the top of the shell (and any overhang) with egg wash. Then you carefully place your pastry lid on top and gently press down to form a seal. Now you’re ready to choose your crimping method!

TOP TIP!

Have a little pot of flour on your workbench so that you can dip your fingers in it to stop them sticking to the pastry as you crimp.

POKE IT!

Use your index finger for this one and hold it about 1cm in from the edge of the pie and at a slight downward angle.

Press gently down and forward into the pastry to create an imprint of your finger in the top.

Continue all the way round the pie until you are back to where you started.

And there you have it – a beautifully poked pie lid!

PINCH IT!

You will be using the thumb and index fingers of your left hand on the outside of the pie and the index finger of your right hand on the top (or the reverse if you are left-handed).

Place your thumb and index finger up against the side of the pastry. Press gently down and forward into the pastry with your right index finger and pinch the pastry between your left thumb and index finger.

Continue all the way round the pie until you are back to where you started.

And there you have it – a beautifully pinched pie lid!

HAPPINESS IS A WELL-CRIMPED PIE

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HOW TO: A GLUTEN-FREE ROUGH PUFF PASTRY PICTURE TUTORIAL…

Since launching the gluten-free rough puff pastry mix, I’ve had quite a few requests from people purchasing it asking me if I do lessons on how to make it. Unfortunately I am not in a position to run classes at the moment. So I have put together this short pictorial guide on how to make rough puff pastry using the mix.

The pictures are a little rough and ready, but they should give you enough of an idea of each of the steps involved.

You may also find my simple six stage process to becoming the best baker you can be (Prep like a boss: bake like a pro) helpful to read.

A PICTURE TUTORIAL ON MAKING GLUTEN-FREE ROUGH PUFF PASTRY WITH OUR MAGICAL MIX…

STEP ONE: MAKE THE DOUGH

Tip the mix into a bowl and add the Stork. Rub it into the flour with your fingers. You can use a stand mixer for this if you wish (I do!).

Next, add the iced water and mix until the flour is hydrated and you can bring everything together to form a pliable dough.

STEP TWO: ROLL THE DOUGH

If you have a silicone rolling mat, place this on your work surface and lightly flour it. If not, lay a piece of clingfilm on your work surface and sprinkle lightly with flour.

Place the ball of dough on the work surface, cover with another layer of clingfilm and gently roll the dough out to a rectangle measuring roughly 45cm x 15cm.

STEP three: KEEP THE PASTRY MOVING

After every few strokes of the rolling pin, check to ensure that your pastry isn’t sticking to the work surface. If it is, sprinkle a little more flour on your worktop underneath the dough.

Keeping the pastry moving will also help stop it from sticking – so after every few strokes, gently lift the pastry just off the worktop and put it back down again.

STEP FOUR: NEATEN THE EDGES

Once your dough is rolled out, you can fix any cracks that might have appeared at the edges of the pastry by gently massaging the dough with your fingertips.

You can also push a ruler up to the sides of the dough to neaten the edges.

STEP FIVE: SCATTER THE BUTTER

You are now ready to add the butter to your dough. Remove the first portion of grated butter from the freezer and scatter over the bottom two thirds of the pastry.

Aim for a nice, even coverage but don’t spend too much time trying to get it perfect or the warmth from your fingers will melt the butter!

STEP SIX: FOLD THE DOUGH

You are now going to make a ‘letter fold’ with the pastry.

To make this easier, you can make two little indentations along the length of the pastry at the 15cm and 30cm mark so that you know where to make the folds.

The first step is to fold the top third of the pastry down towards you, as shown in the picture.

STEP SIX: FOLD THE DOUGH

Now fold the bottom third up to the top.

Do this carefully but with determination and with one swift motion. This will help the butter stay in place and not make a bid for freedom across your worktop!

STEP SEVEN: NEATEN THE PASTRY PARCEL

You have now completed your first letter fold of the pastry. You now need to neaten the parcel you have created so that it is ready for the second fold.

Use your fingertips to seal the edges of the pastry and to close up any cracks that may have appeared as you made the folds.

Then use your rolling pin to gently but firmly press down across the width of the parcel to further seal the contents.

STEP EIGHT: REPEAT STEPS TWO – SEVEN

Turn your pastry parcel through 90 degrees so that the long edge is vertical.

Repeat the steps outlined above of rolling the pastry into a rectangle, adding the butter, folding the dough like a letter, sealing the butter in and neatening the packet.

STEP NINE: your gluten-free rough puff pastry is ready!

Your gluten-free rough puff pastry is now ready! Wrap it in clingfilm / food safe wrap and chill it until you are ready to bake.

You can also freeze the dough at this point.

Follow the instructions on your recipe and enjoy the fruits of your labour

A NOTE ON DOUGH TEMPERATURE

It is very important that your ingredients (water and butter) are very cold when you start to work with them. So keep them in the fridge/freezer right up until the moment you are ready to use them.

If your kitchen is warm, you may need to chill the dough after the first fold before starting the second fold to stop the butter from melting.

When you are ready to use your gluten-free rough puff pastry to make something delicious, don’t use the dough straight from the fridge. If it is too cold, it may crack as you roll it. So allow it to warm up by a few degrees before starting to work with it.

HAPPY BAKING

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