Week eighty six and I thought I would be a little adventurous this week and attempt something with yeast! I delved into Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and found the mushroom and garlic stuffed picnic loaf and to complete the savoury theme, cheese straws to compliment.

I made the bread dough as per Mary’s instructions and left it to rise or prove for two hour. With the lovely weather we have been having, this wasn’t an issue for me this time! I read the recipe carefully and Mary suggests either making one whole loaf that is stuffed or rolls so I opted for rolls as they are shared more easily.

The only issue I had was following the instructions for filling and folding the dough which proved to be tricky as it isn’t a sealed loaf. I added the filling and molded, coaxed, prodded and poked the dough until it resembled a roll rather than a wreck and left them to prove for a while longer. Then finally they went into the oven for about 15 minutes. When they came out, I had to brush them with some of the mushroom oil from the recipe and leave them to cool.

The second recipe was for cheese straws. This was an easy dough to put together and then wrap in clingfilm for half an hour. Time ran out and the dough wasn’t used until the following day and needed to be worked a bit as it was a solid block!

I rolled it out and cut the dough into straws and brushed them with egg and sprinkled with fresh Parmesan cheese. Into the oven they went for a short while until golden and brown.

I have been trying to catch up with the Celebrity Master Chef – the episodes are currently stacked up ready to watch but I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Wayne Sleep did and how much he learned in such a short space of time.

I treated my kitchen this week too. I have seen some wall signs where the words are transferred directly onto the wall and found a lovely kitchen sign that reflected my love of baking! It was a bit of a pain to put up but worth it and I love it!