Week Ninety Five – Mary Berry’s Crown Loaf and Griddle Scones

Week ninety five here already and after the excitement of last week, I browsed through Mary Berry’s Baking Bible looking for some more savoury recipes after the richness of last week’s recipes and I was wiped out by a migraine which set all my usual housework jobs back by a day. I settle on Mary’s crown loaf and griddle scones.

Mary Berry's Crown Loaf

I began the dough this morning , mixing all the ingredients together for the crown loaf and then spending five minutes kneading it before setting it into an oiled bowl to prove for 1 1/2 hours. After this time, the dough was nicely risen and I had to then knock it back and knead again, divide into 12 balls and set these inside a springfold tin and cover with clingfilm and leave to prove for another half an hour.

Finally , once the last prove is done, bake in a hot over for 25 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack. The crown loaf looked lovely and the smell of freshly baked bread is a winner in our house.

Kim's Crown Loaf

The second recipe was Mary’s griddle scones, these are thicker than drop scones and I followed Mary’s recipe carefully to make the dough, I then rolled it into a circle and cut into segments. I heated a heavy based pan and cooked the segments for about five minutes each side and left them to cool on a rack.

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Mary suggests eating them fresh with butter but we ate some of the crown loaf first for lunch and look forward to these for supper. Sorry chief tasters, no sharing with you guys this week- but I am guessing that you are still wading through your dobaz torte from Thursday.

Kim's Griddle Scones

The Great British Bake Off is coming up to quarter finals now and the three contestants I initially named are still in it so far- lets see how they do this week and if Mary has any more recipes I have yet to do?

Countdown now reaches 78.

Week Forty Eight – Mary Berry’s Cherry Loaf Cake

Here at last is week forty eight’s posting, we came back from holiday mid week and suddenly I had a pile of washing and ironing the size of Ben Nevis and all thoughts of updating my blog went out of the window! The apple and cinnamon cake from last week had just been polished off and we were feeling a bit “caked out” so I chose Mary Berry’s cherry loaf cake because I love cherries– hubby is not so keen, and I could freeze it to enjoy later.

Mary Berry's Cherry Loaf Cake

Mary’s recipe was straight forward, add all the ingredients in a bowl, except for the cherries and mix well. Fold in the cherries which I had to wash, dry and then quarter. Mary asks you to line a loaf tin, but on one of my shopping trips, the 99p store has loaf tin liners which I purchased and I used one of these. In to the oven it went for what seemed like forever- but was actually about an hour and a quarter. When taken out, it smelled lovely and was a golden brown colour. I let it cool and then popped it in the freezer for later enjoyment.

Kim's Cherry Laof Cake

I am loving Tuesday nights when The Great British Bake Off is on. As I said before, my skills are not up to the show’s expected levels but I love watching what they create or tackle the new challenges. I am particularly loving the artistic and creative talent of Frances, but it is early days yet!