My Daily Bread: Experiments in baking

It's a bit scary. I'm afraid of yeast. I've only ever cooked Hot Cross Buns successfully, and even they were tough and stale by the next morning.
Baking bread is also scary because it feels like a huge investment in time. Weighing, mixing, rising, kneading. Especially kneading.
So I've been working up to a real loaf of bread. I started with tortillas, but that was mostly accident. Do you have a mental inventory of your freezer? You know, a rough idea of what's in there behind the frozen peas...
I thought there was flat bread in the freezer, but there wasn't! And it was 6.30 on Monday night and I really wanted burritos for dinner. How hard could tortillas be?
I used a recipe from Hillbilly Housewife, and it was dead easy. The only issue was cross-cultural - would polenta do instead of cornmeal? I don't know how authentic the result was, but it certainly tasted great.
Exhibit One:My courage bolstered, it was time to find a yeast recipe. Jules at Domestic Goddess in Training posted this recipe for perfect pita, and it was just the thing. There was yeast involved, but no rising time. If I'd pulled them out of the oven two minutes earlier, they may have been perfect. As it was, they were a bit crispy on the bottom. But watching them puff in the oven was awesome!
Exhibit Two:The next week, I saw these awesome Garlic Cheese Twists by Peabody. Garlic, cheese, yeast and a romantic back story, all in one. How could I resist? Ryan came home while I was busy twisting. He asked what we were having for dinner, and I didn't have an answer. But there would be garlic cheese twists!
Exhibit Three:
Oh, hang on, I forgot to take a picture of these. You'll just have to believe that they looked as good as the original.
So now I am on the look out for a simple loaf recipe. I'm happy to knead, but I need to work the rising time around work and dance classes and stuff. Any suggestions gratefully recieved!

Hot Cross Buns - redux

I love Easter. I love autumn, and I love the four-day weekend. We managed to fit in a lot of socialising, heaps of climbing, heaps of baking - and get four loads of laundry done! Why can't every weekend be this long?

Anyway, we made Hot Cross Buns. They turned out dense and fruity and good. I used the same Donna Hay recipe as last year, but used golden syrup for the glaze instead of gelatine. Here they are.

Hot Cross Buns

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk

4 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted

2 teaspoons mixed spice

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

50g butter, melted

1 egg

1 3/4 cup mixed dried fruit (Donna used sultanas and candied mixed peel)

1/2 cup plain flour, extra

1/3 cup water

golden syrup, to glaze

Place the yeast, 2 teaspoons of sugar and all the milk in a bowl and set aside for 5 minutes. If it doesn't start to foam, you might need new yeast.

Add all remaining ingredients (except extra flour and water) to the yeast mixture. Stir with a butter knife until a sticky dough forms. Knead on a floured surface for 8 minutes, or until it feels elastic. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and stand for an hour in a warm place, or until it's doubled in size. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll into balls.

Grease a square cake tin and line with baking paper. Place the balls in the tin, cover with a clean tea towel and set aside for another half an hour, or until they've risen. Preheat the oven to 200C.

Combine the extra flour and water, place in a plastic bag with one corner snipped off, and pipe crosses on the buns. Bake for 35 minutes or until well browned and springy to touch. Brush with golden syrup while still warm.