Pinwheels are seriously easy to make and they taste great. You can play around with sweet and savoury flavours and pretty much whatever you have in the fridge. If you’re having friends over for drinks, make these as the perfect snack accompaniment to have on the table or serve as canapés.

My savoury pinwheels:

I used tomato purée, a little leftover feta, some parmesan and oregano.

Then I made a sweet batch with raspberry jam, cinnamon and raisins:
 Here’s what you do: Take a sheet of puff pastry, spread on your chosen filling. Roll it up. Cut them into equal portions and bake in a preheated oven, 200′c for approximately 15 minutes. That’s it.
 

Here’s a few flavour combinations ideas for you.

Sweet

• Cranberry and walnut
• Nutella
• Jam and mint
• Honey, cinnamon and nuts
• Mincemeat filling
• Apple cinnamon
• Shredded coconut and dried fruit
• Jam and chocolate chips

Savoury

• Pesto and cheese
• Goats cheese and sun dried tomatoes
• Mango pickle and cheese
• Cheese, pickle and mustard
• Walnut and goats cheese
• Spinach, dill and paneer
• Red onion and goats cheese
• Jalapeños and cheddar
• Blue cheese and walnut

They are quick, simple, inexpensive and delicious!
Enjoy
Peace and loaf

Basic pancake recipe
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
pinch of salt

That’s it! whisk it all together and you have your pancake mix. Easy as. Now add any flavour you like. For my savoury pancakes I added wilted spinach, spring greens and spring onion. Add to a hot oiled pan and fry on either side for a couple of minutes or until golden.
You will be surprised at how many pancakes this mix makes!

A few savoury ideas:

• Potato
• Spinach
• Corn
• Tuna
• Onion
• Mushroom
• Leek
• Parsnip
• Honey and mustard
• Chives or other herbs
• A base topped with cream cheese and smoked salmon

I also made some sweet pancakes. Use the same recipe as above including the pinch of salt and add a few tablespoons of sugar. I added grated apple and pear.

Please note, once I had added my grated fruit the mix was a bit wet from the water content in the fruit. If yours looks the same add a few more tablespoons of flour. Had I only added one fruit it probably would have been fine.

A few sweet ideas:

• Apple
• Pear
• Cinnamon
• Blueberries
• Lemon juice
• Maple syrup or honey
• Bananas
• Orange or lemon zest

These pancakes are great for a breakfast, brunch, a snack, glammed up as dessert or as part of a meal. They are also a basic Yorkshire pudding recipe.

Enjoy and Happy pancake day!

Photographer Ted Sabarese with designer Ami Goodheart of SOTU Productions

I love it. Being made of bread I took an instant liking to it. I don’t know that I could pull it off but the model wears it well.

Ukrainian pastry chef Valentyn Shtefano

This was made by the Ukrainian pastry chef Valentyn Shtefano for his bride’s wedding dress. This is taking the croquembouche to the next level!

Made by the German bakery group Lambertz

Well I think it looks really good, however the second it got warm, your outfit would start to melt on you, not a good look.

Photographer Ted Sabarese with designers Daniel Feld and Wesley Nault

I think this dress is beautiful and could be recreated and sold as a dress made of – dare I say it, a material such as silk.

South Korean artist Sung Yeonju

This beautiful dress created by the artist Sung Yeonju is made of egg-plant (aubergine) as part of her “wearable food” collection.

South Korean artist Sung Yeonju

Another stunning dress by Sung Yeonju made of chives.

Enjoy
Peace and loaf

I do not own any of these images. They have been sourced from http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/edible-dresses-2420301.html and http://www.delish.com/food-fun/food-fashion.

Confetti cupcake - any occasion

Different cupcake decorations

Football cupcake, great for birthdays, parties or match day

Great for special occasions

Butterflies, hearts, lips, flowers, stars and many more decorations available

Any occasion

I hope you enjoyed that
If you would like to make an order send me an email detailing what you would like: danyasbakery@gmail.com

Peace and loaf

I first found out about this bread as part of my product design and development unit in the second year of my degree. The class was split up into groups and each given a bread product to develop. My group was given Fougasse. We researched, came up with our own flavour combinations and designed our own shape and finished look for the product.

It is a French flat bread called fougasse and is a variation on the Italian foccacia. Fougasse was traditionally used to assess the temperature of a wood fired oven. The time it would take to bake, gave an idea of the oven temperature and whether the rest of the bread could be baked. One of the distinguishing characteristics of fougasse is that it’s often baked into a shape that is somewhat like a tree or leaf, with one end resembling the trunk and the wider opposite end being more or less round in structure, the holes represent the stems of the leaf. It’s a great snack bread, to eat on the run or as part of a meal.

Recipe
500g Strong white bread flour
300g Water
50g Olive oil
8g Yeast
10g Salt

Additions
Red onion
Olives
sun-dried tomatoes
Anchovies
Pepper
Chillies
Mozzarella
Goats cheese
Caramelised balsamic onions
Feta
Bacon
Capers
Rosemary
Thyme

The flavour combinations are endless and are great fun to play with. You could also try sweet additions.

Yield
4 at 220g
Oven temperature 200′c

Mix all the ingredients together till a dough is formed. I always use my kitchenaid with a dough hook on speed one for about 10 mins. If you are kneading by hand, once the ingredients are combined stretch and knead the dough for approximately 20 minutes until a soft dough is formed. Place it in a lightly oiled bowl to ferment for 1 hour, cover with cling film. After 40 minutes you need to knock back the dough. This is done to get rid of excess air bubbles. Push the dough a few times with your knuckles (like a light kneading) until it looks at it did before fermentation, cover and leave for the remaining 20 minutes.

Then scale at 220g (approx 250g if you have added many different ingredients). Mould into rounds and leave for a 10 minute intermediate prove. On a lightly floured surface using a rolling-pin ,roll out the dough to your chosen shape. Then with a sharp blade cut the dough and separate using your fingers to shape the holes. Place on a tray and prove for 25mins. Once proved bake in a preheated oven for 10-12mins. Remove from the oven when golden and leave to cool. Some bakers brush the finished bread with olive oil to add shine and flavour.

Bread baskets - they always look awesome

Enjoy
Peace and loaf

After letting the sour-dough bulk ferment we pinned out the dough and topped with passata and garlic to prove

The Baked pizza.

The pizzas were topped with: onion, mushrooms, courgette (zucchini), swiss chard from the garden, olives and finished with rocket (also from the garden).
I usually go for thin and crispy pizzas, but the addition of sour-dough created such a light aerated fluffy pizza base that I actually really enjoyed it. It didn’t have that heavy, doughy characteristic usual to a thick base pizza.

You may be thinking that my photos are not of my usual standard and yes, you are right. Apologies, it was all so exciting and delicious I was far too busy eating to get my good camera out and used only the camera on my phone…… I know, I know.

The aerated sour-dough base

He he he, I couldn't help myself

The courgette loaf was beautifully risen and topped with a lemon glaze

I had found a recipe online, but it called for 2 cups of sugar which I felt was too much, so only added 1 1/2 and we added lemon extract. Then we decided to top it with a lemon glaze. Our baking instincts were spot on and the lemon just brought the whole loaf together. It was unbelievably moist, light and fluffy and full of flavour. I am so blown away with this courgette loaf I think it will become a favourite bake of mine.
 This morning I got out my camera to take some good shots of the remains of the courgette loaf. 

The lovely soft and moist structure with the speckle of courgette

All in all it was a delicious day!
Peace and loaf

I love the kind of presents which you can eat. They are home-made with love and care. Also sometimes you might not have the money to buy lots of presents. So, this year I decided to make everybody in my family dark chocolate dipped ginger. So delicious and warming, they can be given as gifts for Christmas, new year, new home or any family and friend event.

What you’ll need:

• Dark chocolate
• Crystallised ginger
• Dipping forks
• Thermometer
• Tray lined with silicone paper

First you need to temper the chocolate. To do this melt 3/4 of the chocolate over a pan of simmering water making sure the water is not touching the bowl and heat to 45’c. Then remove from the heat and lower the temperature by adding the remaining chocolate which has been chopped up, for dark chocolate lower to 32’c, if using milk and white chocolate lower to 30’c. Continue stirring until all chocolate has melted and the desired temperature is achieved.

Set up your equipment in a line so you can work methodically and in the correct order. Ginger on the left, chocolate in the middle and tray on the right (if you’re left-handed you may find it easier the other way round), this will stop chocolate trails going everywhere. Okay, we are now ready to dip! Drop a piece of ginger in the chocolate, turn it over using the forks so it’s completely covered, and then tap off the excess using the forks and tip onto the silicone paper. Simple, right?

I added gold glitter to finish but you could leave them plain or decorate in any way you fancy really.

Once they have set, package them however you like, you could use gift boxes or clear bags with ribbon. I printed of little labels and tied them around my gift bags.

They taste and look great, and you put your thought and love into making them. They should be greatly appreciated!

Enjoy

Recipe
327g Strong white bread flour
186g Water
55g Rye sour
7g Yeast
7g Olive oil
6g Salt
2g Sugar
4g Dried chilli (flakes are best)
20g strong hard cheese cut into chunks
Makes 4 large baps at 160g each or 5 at 130g

As it was already afternoon and we wanted the baps for dinner I decided to add yeast as well as the sour to quicken the fermentation time without compromising on taste.

Method
Mix all the ingredients together till a dough is formed. I always use my kitchenaid with a dough hook on speed one for about 10 mins. If you are kneading by hand, once the ingredients are combined stretch and knead the dough for approximately 20 minutes until a soft dough is formed. Then place it in a lightly oiled bowl  to ferment for 2 hours, cover with cling film. After an hour and 20 minutes you need to knock back the dough. This is done to get rid of excess air bubbles. Push the dough a few times with your knuckles (like a light kneading) until it looks at it did before fermentation, cover and leave for the remaining 40 minutes.

 Remove the dough from the bowl and scale into the size required. Lightly mould into balls and leave covered for ten minutes. This allows the dough to rest and be more manageable when shaping.

Giving the dough an intermediate prove

After a ten minute rest re-shape the dough, I chose to make mine round baps. Place on a baking tray making sure the dough has enough space to rise and leave covered in a warm place to prove for 35 minutes. After proving top with extra cheese (if you really like it hot you could add chilli powder or pepper to season the cheese) and add to the top of the baps.

Ready for the oven

 Bake in a pre heated oven at 210′c for 15-20 minutes( if using a fan oven lower the temperature to 200′c). If you’re unsure as to whether it’s fully baked tap the bottom of the bread, if it sounds hollow it’s fully baked, if not it needs a bit longer in the oven.

The dough structure

They tasted really good and went very well with all the dips and salad! I am very happy with the way these turned out, especially as I made the recipe up on the spot. It gave me a real boost of confidence in myself, a great feeling! The combination of rye sour and white flour worked well and the dough structure was lovely.

Enjoy

Basic pancake recipe
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
pinch of salt

That’s it! whisk it all together and you have your pancake mix. Easy as. Now add any flavour you like. For my savoury pancakes I added wilted spinach, spring greens and spring onion. Add to a hot oiled pan and fry on either side for a couple of minutes or until golden.
You will be surprised at how many pancakes this mix makes!

A few savoury ideas:

• Potato
• Spinach
• Corn
• Tuna
• Onion
• Mushroom
• Leek
• Parsnip
• Honey and mustard
• Chives or other herbs
• A base topped with cream cheese and smoked salmon

I also made some sweet pancakes. Use the same recipe as above including the pinch of salt and add a few tablespoons of sugar. I added grated apple and pear.

Please note, once I had added my grated fruit the mix was a bit wet from the water content in the fruit. If yours looks the same add a few more tablespoons of flour. Had I only added one fruit it probably would have been fine.

A few sweet ideas:

• Apple
• Pear
• Cinnamon
• Blueberries
• Lemon juice
• Maple syrup or honey
• Bananas
• Orange or lemon zest

These pancakes are great for a breakfast, brunch, a snack, glammed up as dessert or as part of a meal. They are also a basic Yorkshire pudding recipe.
As it is the season I’m sure you could use some Christmas leftovers the next day and turn it into something new. A Christmas pancake?

Enjoy

The array is quite astounding; you can pretty much get anything you want. Then, of course, there’s also all the cupcakes mixes for children with different cute toppers. I couldn’t help but be intrigued and while my initial reaction was some what of a snobbery baker, I found myself compelled to buy the Tesco brand and do a taste test. (Watch this space!) I was pretty gob smacked by the price too as they are all well under £1.

There are many other brands such as Betty Crocker, Mcdougalls, Dr Oetker and celebrity chefs own brands. As I continued shopping I was wondering why people buy pre-made mixes and came up with a number of suggestions. Maybe they don’t enjoy baking? Maybe they think it produces a good product? Or maybe its just so much quicker?

Tell me what you think and take my poll!