Blog

Stuffed pizza rolls

I am very excited to share a recipe from my upcoming new book with you! These stuffed pizza rolls are perfect for a family get together, pretty much for any meal, for a pack up, a picnic, a party, a snack, breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, and really any event. They also freeze and defrost perfectly, and are fun to make yourself or with kids or as a shared baking project. There’s minimal shaping, the muffin tin does it all for you, just roll them up, chop them up, stuff them into the muffin pan wells and bake!

I hope you will give them a go, give them your own twist, and that you love them…

These pizza rolls are made using one of my favorite processes—stretching out my dough after the main overnight proof, covering it with my favorite ingredients, rolling it up, chopping it up and baking the pieces into filled rolls. In this recipe, I have updated my process and use a standard muffin tray to bake the rolls in. This works perfectly to provide a uniform size but also helps to shape the rolls. It means that even if the dough gets messy or hard to handle, you can stuff it into the muffin spaces and it will still bake up beautifully to even sized muffin shaped rolls.”

🌟🌟🌟 watch the video of my recent international bakealong and you can see me making these rolls in my kitchen 🌟🌟🌟 click here to watch.


Equipment: Have a 12-hole muffin tray ready, preferably nonstick. If your muffin tin is not nonstick, lightly spray or grease inside the wells with a neutral or flavorless oil or butter.

Makes 12 roll ups

Ingredients:

Dough

50 g (1⁄4 cup) active starter

325 g (11⁄3 cups) water

500 g (4 cups) strong white bread flour

7 g (1 tsp) salt, or to taste

Filling

150 g (3/4 cup) pizza sauce

200 g (2 cups) grated cheese (I use hard “pizza mozzarella” that I can grate. You can also use a mix of mozzarella and Monterey Jack)

Additional pizza toppings of your choice (for example, thinly cut mushrooms or sliced meats such as pepperoni or chorizo [avoid anything too thick or chunky])

Method:

Step 1: In the early evening, in a large mixing bowl, roughly mix together all the ingredients, except the pizza sauce, cheese and any other filling ingredients, leaving the dough shaggy. Cover the bowl with a clean shower cap or your choice of cover and leave it on the counter for 2 hours.

Step 2: After the 2 hours, perform the first set of pulls and folds on the dough; it will be sticky at this point, but stretchy. Cover the bowl and leave it on the counter.

Step 3: Once the dough has rested for at least an hour, complete two more sets of pulls and folds on the dough throughout the evening, covering the bowl after each set. The dough will be nicely stretchy and will easily come together into a firm ball each time. Complete the final set before going to bed.

Step 4: Leave the covered bowl on the counter overnight, typically 8 to 10 hours, at 64 to 68°F (18 to 20°C).

Step 5: The next morning, place the dough, untouched but still covered, in the fridge for at least an hour, until you are ready to use it; this could be for lunch, dinner or a meal the next day. The dough will firm up, making it easier to work with later.

Step 6: When you are ready to bake, decide whether you would like to bake in a preheated oven or from a cold start. If preheating, set the oven to 400°F (200°C) convection or 425°F (220°C) conventional.

Take your bowl of dough from the fridge. Sprinkle flour over your kitchen counter. Using a bowl scraper or your hands, gently ease the bubbly risen dough from the bowl onto the counter. Use your fingertips to start stretching and pushing out the dough, until it becomes a rectangle that measures 18 x 12 inches (45 x 30 cm) with an even thickness all over. The dough will want to pull back as you stretch it; continue to pull it gently, careful not to make holes in the dough. If the dough starts to tear or seems very hard to stretch, let it rest on the counter for 5 to 10 minutes allowing the gluten in the dough to relax and try again.

Spread the pizza sauce evenly all over the stretched dough and sprinkle the grated cheese evenly over the top, right up to the edges. If you are adding extra fillings, place them over the sauce and cheese. Roll up the dough from one of the longer edges toward the other to make an even, tight roll of dough. Using a dough knife or sharp knife, cut the dough into 12 equal pieces, approximately 11⁄2 inches (4 cm) wide. Place them, cut side down, in the muffin pan hollows. If the rolled up portions of filled dough start to fall apart, or you struggle with the dough holding together, push them into the pan hollows however they come. Do not worry about perfect shaping; the muffin pan will create the roll shapes for you as they bake.

Step 7: If you preheated the oven, bake the rolls uncovered for 25 minutes. If you are using a cold start, place the filled muffin pan in the cold oven, set the temperature as above and set a timer for 30 minutes.

Step 8: Once they are baked, remove the pan from the oven, carefully remove the rolls and let them sit briefly on a rack before serving. They are best eaten freshly baked, but my testers also informed me that they were still great eaten a few days later and reheated in a microwave for 30 seconds.

Top Tip: If you would prefer to bake them later, follow step 6 to fill, roll and cut the dough up into pieces, and then place the rolls into the muffin tin. Cover the tin with a large plastic bag or damp tea towel and place it into the fridge. When you are ready to bake, you can bake them directly from the fridge, following the directions above.

Happy baking! Happy making, rolling, cutting, baking, and EATING! If you choose to order it, I truly hope you like my new book xx

Shana’s oatmeal buttermilk sandwich loaf..

 

I’m happy to share another great recipe from Shana, this one used my enriched recipe as it’s inspiration..if you try it, let me know!

Are you looking for a soft and tasty sandwich loaf that’s perfect for any meal? Look no further than this oatmeal buttermilk sandwich loaf recipe! By simply adding eggs, milk, and butter or oil, this bread is sure to be softer than your traditional sourdough loaf.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 250g buttermilk
  • 80g starter
  • 500g flour
  • 50g old fashioned oats
  • 10g salt
  • 40g sugar
  • 60g room temperature butter

Instructions

  1. On a scale, place your bowl and add two eggs. Slowly add in buttermilk until it reaches 350g. Mix together and leave out until room temperature (or you can slightly warm the buttermilk in the microwave).
  2. Add 80g starter, 500g flour, 50g old fashioned oats, 10g salt, and 40g sugar to the mixture and mix. If the dough seems too dry, add 10g water.
  3. Wait 1 hour, do 25 stretch and pulls
  4. Wait 30 minutes, do 6-10 stretch and pulls.
  5. Wait 30 minutes, do 6-10 stretch and pulls. Cover and wait till your dough has doubled. Keep dough covered between all the steps.
  6. When it has doubled (about 8 hours) put it out on a lightly floured surface and make into a rectangle. You can use a rolling pin or just your hands.
  7. Roll the dough up, folding in the sides if it’s getting longer than your loaf pan.
  8. Butter or line your loaf pan
  9. Pinch the seam and have a plate of oats ready. Dampen the top side with water and roll in the oats till covered. Place seam down in the loaf pan. Wait 2-3 hours for the dough to recover from shaping, until it fills out the pan.
  10. Bake at 375 on the middle rack for 30 minutes. Then tent with foil for 20 more minutes to stop the top from burning.
  11. Please ask questions, I am new to writing recipes and I am sure I have left out details. Enjoy!! Please tag me if you try this recipe🥰❤️

“Thanks for trying out this recipe from Shana’s Sourdough! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we do. If you’re looking for more delicious sourdough recipes or any other things sourdough, be sure to visit our site. We’ve got a wide variety of recipes and sourdough equipment to choose from, so you’re sure to find something you love. Thanks for visiting, and we hope to see you back soon!”

Shana’s wholewheat heart loaf..

Welcome to Shana‘s whole wheat heart loaf, a loaf Shana made for Valentines Day but would be lovely any time of the year.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and what better way to show your loved ones how much you care than by baking them a homemade heart-shaped sourdough loaf? This recipe uses a whole wheat starter and a combination of whole wheat and white flour, making it a healthier alternative to traditional white bread. Not only is it delicious, using the heart shaped banneton adds the perfect touch for a special occasion.

Ingredients

  • 350g water
  • 100g whole wheat starter
  • 200g whole wheat flour
  • 300g white bread flour
  • 10g salt
  • 60g room temperature butter

Instructions

  • Mix water and starter in a bowl
  • Add in the flours, salt and butter
  • Mix and cover, and let rest for 1 hour
  • Do 25 -30 stretch and folds
  • Cover and rest 30 minutes
  • 6-8 stretch and folds
  • Cover and rest 30 minutes
  • 6-8 stretch and folds
  • Cover and let prove till the dough has doubled in size (8-10 hours)
  • Perform the in bowl shaping and place the dough in a rice floured banneton
  • Cover and put in the fridge 6-10 hours
  • Turn dough out onto parchment paper, score and put in a roaster.
  • Cover and bake at 450 for 55 minutes.
  • Bake with lid off 3 minutes at the end for extra color.

“Thanks for trying out this recipe from Shana’s Sourdough! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we do. If you’re looking for more delicious sourdough recipes or any other things sourdough, be sure to visit our site. We’ve got a wide variety of recipes and sourdough equipment to choose from, so you’re sure to find something you love. Thanks for visiting, and we hope to see you back soon!”

 

Hot cross buns…

Sourdough hot cross buns! Who wants one? I promise, they’re good!

For these rolls, I use my lighter enriched sourdough recipe from my book The Sourdough Whisperer as my base, and here I have 2 versions: one all white flour, and one wholegrain version.

Sourdough hot cross buns are never going to be as light and fluffy as shop bought yeasted hot cross buns, these have more texture and depth to them, as you’d expect from a sourdough version, plus I did pack in a lot of dried fruit and peel! But, I am very happy to say that each of people that taste tested them (and there was quite a few) gave them a big thumbs up!

Dough notes: please keep in mind that these doughs are slow to fully prove, even without the additions, enriched and milk based doughs are slow growers; add in the dried fruit and peel, and they‘re even heavier; add in the spices and especially the cinnamon, and it slows them down even more. So don’t worry if they haven‘t fully proved in the morning, just leave them and give them a few more hours to do their thing.

My hot cross buns

Makes 12 rolls

Dough Ingredients

White flour version:

50 g active starter

330 g reduced-fat or 2% milk or plant-based milk

1 large egg yolk (reserve egg white for brushing)

50 g butter (I use slightly salted butter), at room temperature

50 g runny honey

500 g strong white bread flour, plus more for dusting

150 g mixed dried fruits and peels

7 g salt, or to taste

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground allspice

Wholegrain flour version:

50 g active starter (I used my wholewheat starter but you can use any starter made with any flour)

330 g reduced-fat or 2% milk or plant-based milk (I used oat milk)

1 large egg yolk (reserve egg white for brushing)

50 g butter (I use slightly salted butter), at room temperature

50 g runny honey

250 g strong white bread flour, plus more for dusting

250 g wholegrain spelt flour

150 g mixed dried fruits and peels

1 tsp salt, or to taste

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground allspice

Note: I used a mix of dried fruit and mixed dried peel, mine included sultanas, raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots, orange peel and lemon peel.

For the crosses, for use just before baking only

100 g plain/all purpose flour

100 g water

For the glaze, for use after baking only

100 ml water

100 ml honey

Equipment

A medium baking tray lined with parchment paper

Icing bag with smallest nozzle, or sandwich bag with tiny hole cut in one corner

Method

Step 1: In the early evening, in a large mixing bowl, roughly mix together all of the dough ingredients, except the reserved egg white. It will be a very sticky dough, even sticker if you are using the wholegrain spelt flour, and it may be easier to use a bowl scraper or spatula to mix it at this stage. Leave it roughly mixed, cover the bowl with a clean shower cap or your choice of cover and leave the bowl on the counter.

Step 2: After 2 hours, perform the first set of pulls and folds on the dough. Lift and pull the dough across the bowl as far as you can, turn the bowl slightly and repeat, round and round the bowl, until the dough come into a soft studded ball, then stop; it will be a sticky dough, but will eventually easily come into the soft ball. You may find that you have to fold the dough over onto itself rather than pull it and stretch it at this point. Cover the bowl again and leave it to sit on the counter.

Step 3: Over the next few hours, perform three more sets of pulls and folds on the dough, covering the bowl after each set. The dough will remain sticky but will become stretchier, and should come together into a nice soft ball each time. Do the final set before going to bed.

Step 4: Leave the covered bowl on the counter overnight, typically 10 to 12 hours, at 18 to 20°C/64 to 68°F.

Step 5: In the morning, hopefully the dough will have grown to double in size, with a smooth surface. If the dough has not doubled yet, allow it a few more hours to continue to prove. This is a very slow and heavy dough, even heavier than usual with all the added dried fruits, and it may take longer to fully prove.

Once ready to shape, turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Have your lined pan ready. Cut the dough into 12 equal weight pieces. Shape each portion into a smooth ball, and place the dough balls onto the paper lined pan, spaced evenly, with 1-2 cm gaps between them. Cover the pan with a large plastic bag or damp tea towel, and leave it on the counter.

Allow the balls of dough to prove again, letting them grow to double the size. This may take 2 to 6 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

Step 6: Mix the plain/all purpose flour with the water and stir it until it make a smooth paste. Spoon it into your piping bag. Use a small nozzle or cut a 2mm hole in your piping bag and test piping the paste on your counter, ensure that it holds its line when you pipe some out.

Note: testing the paste before piping it onto the prepared rolls is a tip that I was given from the brilliant Cherie Denham. She also said that if you do test the paste on your counter and it’s too sloppy to hold itself, add more flour to the mix to thicken it up, and then test it again. If it’s holds a nice smooth line, go for it..

Mix the egg white with a tablespoon (15 ml) of water and brush the top of the balls of dough gently with it.

Pipe lines of flour paste across all of the buns to form the crosses.

Step 7: When you are ready to bake, decide whether you would like to bake in a preheated oven or from a cold start. If preheating, set the oven to 200°C (400°F ) convection or 220°C (450°F) conventional.

If you preheated the oven, bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes. If using a cold start, place the uncov-ered pan of dough in the oven, set the temperature as directed and set a timer for 30-35 minutes and bake until the rolls are browned.

Heat the water and honey in a pan over a medium heat, let it simmer and thicken slightly.

Step 8: Remove the pan from the oven and allow the rolls to cool briefly. Brush with the warm honey water to make them shiny. Remove from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool briefly before tucking in!

Note: you can also make a glaze using sugar and water, or there’s various other ways which you can find online.

Wholegrain version

Eat them warm!!! They’re also great reheated over the next few days 🤩

New episode out now!

I am SO excited about our new podcast episode, I hope you smile whilst listening as much I did whilst recording it. I this episode, I visit the fabulous Cherie Denham at home in her kitchen to discuss her food influences, hear her Top Tips and get some recommendations for leftovers while Cherie bakes traditional Irish Soda Farls and regales us with stories from her Northern Irish childhood. There’s also a recipe for a delicious vegetarian tart with roast aubergines, basil and caramelised cherry tomatoes served with rocket and parmesan shavings, AND you can watch it all as it was filmed on YouTube.

So join us for a taste and sensory overload as “˜Cherie Denham Cooks”, find it all here:

Spotify : Podbean : Amazon : Google

We had great fun as you’ll hear!

Site: https://foodbodpod.com

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@foodbodpod

One to one sessions

If you would like some personal assistance with your sourdough, I now have 1:1 zoom sessions available, these are one hour long consultations with me to answer whatever you’d like some assistance with. We can plan a time and date to suit you and plan accordingly exactly what you’d like to cover to ensure you get the most out of the time.

Whether you’re just starting out or have been baking for years, this session is perfect for anyone looking to improve their sourdough game.

The booking page is shown in US dollars but will be converted to your currency at time of payment. The booking page also shows my typical available slots and once booked, we will be in touch to agree a time and date. Chat soon!

Shana’s sourdough pizza..

Welcome to the first guest recipe on my blog, this great pizza recipe is brought to you by Shana from Shana’s Sourdough. If you are in the US and would like to find the equipment that I use to make my sourdough recipes, Shana is your person, PLUS she is a great baker and I’m happy to be able to share some of her recipes here too.

Note: Shana uses my master recipe as her starting point for making her dough.

This recipe for crispy sourdough pizza will tantalize your taste buds with its crispy crust, melted cheese, and your favorite toppings. The key to this crispy sourdough crust is simply adding a little extra butter. Follow these simple steps to create the perfect sourdough pizza every time.

Ingredients:

  • 350g water
  • 100g starter
  • 500g white bread flour
  • 10g salt
  • 60g room temperature butter
  • Shredded mozzarella cheese
  • Pizza sauce
  • Toppings of your choice

Instructions:

  1. Mix water, starter, white bread flour, salt, and butter in a bowl.
  2. Cover the mixture and let it rest for 1 hour.
  3. Perform 25 stretch and folds on the dough, cover, and let rest for 30 minutes.
  4. Perform two more sets of 6-8 stretch and folds, each time allowing the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
  5. Prove the dough for 8-10 hours until it has doubled in size.
  6. Spray the countertop with water to prevent the dough from sticking and divide it into two pieces.
  7. Shape the dough into round shapes with a wet bench knife.
  8. Cover the bottom of your cast iron with olive oil to prevent sticking and make the crust crispy.
  9. Lightly push the dough to the edge of the pan with oiled fingertips, allowing it to rest if the dough resists stretching.
  10. Cover the dough and rest for 30 minutes.
  11. Add shredded mozzarella cheese directly onto the pizza dough.
  12. Add pizza sauce on top of the cheese.
  13. Add your desired toppings and more cheese.
  14. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Bake one pizza at a time by placing it on the lower rack for 18 minutes.
  15. Then move it to the middle rack for 3-5 minutes for extra browning.
  16. Enjoy your delicious, crispy, and cheesy sourdough pizza!

“˜Thanks for trying out this recipe from Shana’s Sourdough! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we do. If you’re looking for more delicious sourdough recipes or any other things sourdough, be sure to visit our site. We’ve got a wide variety of recipes and sourdough equipment to choose from, so you’re sure to find something you love. Thanks for visiting, and we hope to see you back”

Thank you Shana xx

Chocolate and chilli loaf..

Let me tell you the story of this huge and beautiful loaf…

For this dough I used my ‘same day’ process as I planned to make and bake the dough within the same day. That meant I used 100g starter instead of my usual 50g, (see ingredients details below) and I mixed the dough up mid morning. I left it in my kitchen to do it’s thing, when really I should have put it in a warm space as per my same day process in my books, but I didn’t, I left it on the counter.

As it was cold, as the day went on the dough didn’t really do much, so I took a risk and left it out all night in addition to the time it had on the counter all day. It was so cold I decided it was worth a go…and luckily, it worked! This is what I woke up to…

A HUGE beautiful dough! And a beautifully structured dough too.

Due to the cold weather this dough had proved for around 18 hours in total and remained perfectly intact and ready to bake into a great loaf. The chilli give it a nice hit of heat and the chocolate adds a richness and brings out the chilli flavour nicely.

NOTE: Below are the ingredients I used, the mixture of the sugars in the chocolate and the oat milk, the added starter and the chilli all added to produce this beautiful dough which baked into such a big loaf it hit the top of my pan, as you can see by the slight dip in the top of the loaf in the first photo.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend using this much starter typically unless you can watch the dough or manage the time and temperature. If I make this again I will use my usual 50g starter and my usual timings.

Ingredients

100g starter/50g starter

350g oat milk/400g oat milk (or milk of your choice)

500g strong white bread flour

50g grated/flakes 80% dark chocolate (use your own choice of chocolate)

30g pul biber/Aleppo chilli flakes (these are quite mild, and gives the loaf a nice heat, if you want more of a kick, use a stronger ground chilli powder/chilli flakes)

Salt to taste

Method

Follow my master recipe or use the same day process in either of my books.

Enjoy!

To answer the questions that came up when I shared this dough: this dough is not over proved. If it was over it would have collapsed and been bubbly and hard to handle; this was a perfectly proved well structured dough.

Introducing my brand new podcast…

🌟🌟🌟 I HAVE NEWS 🌟 I HAVE NEWS!!!!!! 🌟🌟🌟

I am very excited to share that I have launched a brand new food based podcast, The Foodbod Pod, a total celebration of food, by food lovers, for food lovers. Focussed on celebrating home cooks and bakers, I’d love it if you fancied tuning in and having a listen, and let me know what you think.

Find the full details and how to listen on my new website Foodbod Pod, click to visit and hear all about it…

The Foodbod Pod, a brand new podcast, all about FOOD!

We will be bringing you monthly podcast episodes – click over to listen to our very first episode, available NOW, worldwide, and hear us tell you all about it and what’s coming up. I am so excited about this, I truly hope you love it, and that you’ll join us for the ride – let me know what you think!

How to have a super starter..

Q. Want to know how to make your starter into a super starter?

A. Get to know it, intimately.

Before I explain… No one else’s starter is like yours; only yours lives in your kitchen, which is all part of what makes it unique. Add in the flour you use, the water, your management of it, and it is uniquely and solely yours. And to get the best out of it, you need to get to know it. You need to know every nuance of your little bowl of magic.

Here’s my tips and insights:

🌟 I have always used the same flour in my starter – you may see me play around with other flours or different starters but I’ve either made them from scratch or I’ve used a spoonful of my Star to experiment with – I never ever risk or experiment with my precious, loyal, consistent starter.

🌟 I know exactly what part of my kitchen my starter likes to sit in once fed.

🌟 I know which part of the fridge it likes best to sleep in.

(to answer the question about the best place to store your starter in the fridge: if it keeps getting hungry in the fridge, it may be in a part of the fridge that is too warm, or too near the front so that it gets warmed up each time the fridge is opened. The best place in the fridge will be where your starter remains still, gets thick, not frozen, and not hungry.)

🌟 I always feed her with equal WEIGHTS of flour and water, never volume.

How do I recommend you do that?

🌟 Be consistent.

🌟 Develop a good relationship with your starter.

🌟 Watch and learn how it looks, behaves and smells when it’s happy and healthy. This will help you to detect if there’s any issues or changes.

🌟 Take photos if it helps.

🌟 Give it the best food you can.

🌟 Use the best quality flour you can for your starter.

🌟 Test your tap water; mine loves tap water, yours might too; if you want to test it, take out a small portion of your starter and place it in another jar and feed it with your tap water and see what happens. For some people, tap water gives their starters the boost they’ve been lacking.

🌟 Keep it in a good environment, scrape down the jar after each feeding. Keep its home tidy and safe.

🌟 Learn it’s personality.

🌟 Do. Not. Compare. You really will be wasting your time if you compare your starter to others; they don’t live in your kitchen or use your flour or water so why would you think they should be the same?

🌟 Stop reading everything you find online, you’ll drive yourself crazy. Learn about YOUR baby and you’ll fly.

🌟 Don’t focus on bubbles. Not all starters are bubbly, and they don’t need to be; different flours produce different looking starters, in particular, white starters may have a bubbly surface, whole grain starters rarely have a bubbly surface, but they have wonderful texture throughout instead.

🌟 Give it what it needs: feed your starter with equal weights of flour and water too, UNLESS it needs it to be different, and here’s why it’s important to know your starter: by watching and noting it’s consistency and behaviour, you will be able to see if there’s any changes that you need to respond to. If it’s getting a little thin, use less water in the feed next time. If it’s getting a little slow, give it more time, or some warmth. If it’s give really flat and the consistency has become smooth like paint, try feeding some portions with a new/fresh bag of flour.

🌟 And always always make notes. 🌟

Log the following to build a picture of how your starter behaves:

1. The starting consistency before feeding

2. How it smells and looks

3. What time you feed it

4. What you feed it with

5. Exact flour you used

6. Exact water you used

7. Exact quantities you fed it with

8. The room temp at the time of feeding

9. What time it fully responding ie had grown to double in size

10. How it behaved in your dough.

Use this log to fully understand how your starter behaves throughout the year and you will benefit so much for taking that extra bit of time.

The biggest way to know if your starter is working well is if it lifts and grows your dough. If your dough grows, your starter works. Don’t focus on looks, focus on power and the job it does.

I hope this helps, you know where I am if you need me xx

Find more tips here, and here.