Saturday 24 March 2012

I did a 'Technical Challenge'...and failed!

Inspired by the Spring sunshine and this book...



...which was a lovely Mother's Day present from Miss U-t-B
(even if I'm not sure where on the groaning shelves I am going to put it)...


I decided to do one of Paul Hollywood's 'Technical Challenges' from the last series of The Great British Bake-Off.

At least I wasn't going to have to do it under the watchful and steely gaze of the piercing blue eyes!

I fancied something a bit physical, so settled upon the hand-made delights of 'Iced Fingers'.
How hard could it be - after all I had the full instructions in front of me, and all the useful 'fail-safe' tips that the contestants were deprived of.

I carefully weighed all the ingredients and settled to the task of 'massaging' the ingredients together for four minutes.  I made the disastrous mistake of massaging with both hands (not the one, as shown in the photo) so that I very soon had a yeasty-smelling gloop all over my hands, which was then transferred to nearby door handles and containers as I had failed to have flour ready for the kneading stage!


My mixture, even after ten minutes kneading, was a lot wetter than that shown in the photo.  I'm beginning to question my digital scales.  I proceeded with the proving and knocking back the dough, then weighed and shaped the buns.  Given the fact that the recipe was meant to make 12 x 70g buns, and I had 14, I think my scales may be for the bin!


I did not manage to make each of my buns the requisite 12.5cm long, and once in the oven they browned somewhat unevenly.  Had I been on 'The Great British Bake-Off', I think the lack of uniformity would have counted against me.  

And the fact that I decided that I couldn't be bothered to get a piping bag out and fill each bun with some left-over whipped cream, and pipe a line of strained strawberry jam down each one, instead adopting a 'do-it-yourself-if-you-can-be-bothered' approach, would have sealed my fate, and my future in the programme would have been doomed...

But my!


Did 


they


 taste


 G


 O


O


 D


!

PS Drawing my giveaway tomorrow at 7pm!

10 comments:

  1. They look like the yummiest failures EVER! My cooking disaster policy is to blame the scales too ;D

    x

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  2. They look delicious! My baking motto is "as long as its edible"!
    Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger

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  3. They do look lovely Alix and I'm sure they went down well indoors, literally. I normally blame my oven for not-so-good results!

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  4. Alix, they look delicious and if thats a failure, I can't wait to see a success. Yummy!

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  5. They looked absolutely yummy!
    Julie xxxxxxxx

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  6. I agree if it's edible then you've succeeded! They look lovely, especially to someone who just started weightwatchers and will not be indulging in such a thing for a very long time.....

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  7. and that is all that matters! Lol that made me smile, no, I wouldn't ditch the scales, they obviously know what measurement results in scrumptiousness, blow the technical stuff.
    Thank you for visiting my blog and trying to help with my darned photo problem. I've tried several different things, including 'system restore', but no luck. Did manage to get some photos up by a circuitous route but want my original method back!
    Hope the sun is out where you are, we have had fog and the sun is only just starting to burn through.
    Carol xx

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  8. Love your buns, hahaha!
    They look pretty successful to me. I enjoy "The Great British Bake-Off" and have a bit of a menopausal crush on Paul Hollywood... but how tricky is all that baking? WAY too tricky for me!
    Love the final series of pics! xxxxx

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  9. They DO look good ! I don't really like that Bake off programme tho do like the very funny presenter. Hubby loves it for some reason ! We do have a Mary Berry cake recipe book though & Jess makes the mouth watering Lemon Drizzle cake from it.

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  10. Made my mouth water looking at those - who needs to be a winner on Bake Off anyway, its what they taste like that matters, so well done!

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