Do You Knead the Dough?

Every time I bake bread variations of the old panto joke, "Do you knead the Dough?" "Of course I need the dough, I'm skint." run through my head.  I have a bread machine so this doesn't happen very often but it should as  making bread by hand is very therapeutic.

In honour of tomorrow's Great British Bake Off final I decided to set myself a technical challenge from my new birthday present and try Paul Hollywood's 8 Plaited Loaf.  Trying these technical challenges make me respect the candidates even more.

The recipe says to knead the dough for at least 10 minutes.  That's a long time.  Long enough to make your arms really ache but if you think about people who have really annoyed you it's extremely good for your mental health and also helps to get the dirt out from under your fingernails (only joking)

My favourite part is after the dough has risen and you get to punch it in the face.  The book calls it 'knocking it back' but let's be honest we all have someone we'd just love to punch in the face but never would.

I followed the instructions carefully, weighed out the dough to 8 equal pieces and rolled them to the same length.

Then it was time to plait.  Now, I should have known I wouldn't be very good at this.  My daughter never was the child with beautifully plaited hair, in fact I often struggled to just get it in bunches.  It wasn't difficult to follow the numbers but it didn't seem to be as even as it should have been.

It baked beautifully and has a nice firm bottom.  It also tastes great but looks nothing like the picture in the book.

A friend asked me, "What are we going to do after Tuesday, when the Bake Off is finished?"  

I might watch the Danish Bake Off (which I think is online somewhere).  I might do some more baking but I won't be applying for the next series.