Eight-strand plaited loaf

The benefit to having a 10 month old baby is that you are forced to get up early, even on the weekend, and therefore have the time to actually do something productive in the morning. We were up at 5.30AM and having got dressed, had breakfast, cleared up and done the washing by 8AM we decided to try a second GBBO technical challenge - the Eight-strand plaited loaf.

Again T and I went head to head. I think both of us could have kneaded to dough for longer but we did have the added difficultly of trying to entertain Milo at the same time. After 10 mins of kneading the dough was still very very sticky and we had to scape it off the table. The plaiting was great fun and surprisingly easy.

Here are pictures before and after baking. In each set mine is the top one.

T let the Facebook jury decide which one they liked best and I have to admit I was utterly defeated. However, in real life I definitely thought mine looked better :-)

They tasted amazing and were ready and still warm at lunch time. The great thing about this recipe is that is actually doesn't involve very much hands on time, so we were able to get lots done when the dough was proving, and the result is very impressive.

Hand-raised chicken and ham pie

Like many people we have been glued to series three of the The Great British Bake Off for the past few months. Now the series has ended and we can't criticise other people’s efforts from the comfort of the sofa anymore, we thought it was time to make an effort ourselves. Where better to start than the technical challenges?

So here's our first effort; the Hand raised chicken and bacon pie. This looked very ambitious and neither of us had made hot water crust pastry before. The recipe is for two pies, so T and I decided to have a pie off.

I've never been very good at following recipes and this was no exception. We don't have pie dollies so used old jars instead, this actually helped when releasing the pastry because the jars could be filled with warm water which slightly melted the fat and allowed the pastry to slide off the jar fairly easily. We used ham pulled from a cooked hock instead of bacon; it just happened that this is what we had at the time. We also used homemade chicken stock instead of the gelatine stock. We boiled the bones of two chickens down to about 500ml so it was really rich and we knew it would set. The pies did leak when the stock was initially added but I think we did it when the pies were too hot. After they had cooled the pies just kept soaking it up. We managed to pack two layers of filling in each pie but even that was a push. 

Here are the pre- and post-cooking results. Mine’s on the left and T's is on the right.

I don't think these photos really do the pies enough justice.  They were moist and sweet and so full of flavour. OK, there were a few air pockets so there is definitely room for improvement but I can honestly say they were one of the most delicious things I've ever cooked. I think the chicken stock really helped. 

So whose pie was best? Well mine leaked less and held more stock but to be honest they were both as delicious as each other. Watch this space for more pie recipes.