I have set myself the challenge to complete every technical challenge ever set on the Great British Bake Off – a substantial task but I will persevere! I’ve already done quite a few, and recently made Paul Hollywood´s Cottage Loaf from the first Channel 4 season back in 2017. I have adapted Paul´s Cottage Loaf recipe to suit my flatmate´s vegetarian dietary requirements and wanted to share my results with you below.
What is a Cottage Loaf?
Apparently, at least according to Paul Hollywood, the Cottage Loaf is a British bread classic! Two balls of dough stacked on top of one another with slashes around the sides. Personally, I had never heard of it before it was a Bake Off technical challenge, haven´t heard about it since and also haven´t ever seen one in a shop/bakery here! But hey, if Paul says it’s a classic… Perhaps they have it in bakeries in England – do let me know if that´s the case and I´ll keep my eye out next time I´m there!
Quite frankly, whilst the bread isn´t bad, it really isn’t anything to write home about and I´m not sure I’d make it again, haha! The taste is okay, but it tastes a bit too buttery for my liking, so I´d maybe recommend reducing the amount of butter if you are following my vegetarian version below. But nothing that can´t be fixed with a good lashing of soft cheese or when dunked into my favourite Red Lentil Soup!
Furthermore, the shape is very strange, because it is basically just two loaves of bread stacked on top of one another! So slicing the bread is difficult, and I will admit that we just ended up tearing the loaf apart and treating them as two separate loafs! So yes, this would be a not-highly-recommend, but I did want to document this bake on my blog and will direct you to my better bread recipes below!
Adaptations and Tips for Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf Recipe
The original recipe (which can be found here) calls for using 50g of lard in the dough. As my flatmate is vegetarian, I decided to use butter as an alternative. To best incorporate it, it is good to use very soft or even melted butter. I used the same amount of butter as Paul Hollywood used for lard, but as I said above, I might reduce the amount of butter if I were to make this bread again, as the bread tastes very buttery.
One pro-tip I have recently developed for my bread baking regards the proving process. With a very cold kitchen at the moment my bread is taking for ever to rise, so I have an amazing tip for you! Simply place a bowl of boiling water into the bottom of the oven (keeping the oven turned off), which will create a warm, humid environment for your bread to prove and rise in. Just place your bowl with the dough and later tray with the shaped bread into the oven on a rack above and it will work an absolute miracle!!!
More (better) Homemade Bread Recipes
I know this is very unusual for me to say (or anyone to write on their recipe blog for that matter!), but I wouldn´t whole-heartedly recommend making this Cottage Loaf recipe. There are loads of better breads you can make, and I have loads of suggestions on my blog for you! I have listed some of my favourites below, so make sure you go check them out!
- Crusty Homemade Sourdough Loaf
- German “Laugenbrezeln” | Pretzel Recipe
- Seeded Sourdough Loaf
- German “Bauernbrot” | Classic German Bread Recipe
- Smaller Pesto Star Bread
- 3-day French Baguettes (totally worth it!)
- Caramelised Red Onion and Balsamic Soda Bread
- Cheese and Chive Soda Bread
- No-knead overnight “Twist Bread” | 3 Ways
- Tomato and Mozzarella Focaccia Bread
Paul Hollywood´s Classic Cottage Loaf | Great British Bake Off Technical Challenge
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 500g strong white bread flour
- 7g (1 sachet) fast-action dried yeast
- 7g fine sea salt
- 50g butter, softened/melted
- A little oil, for kneading
Method:
- Tip the flour into a large bowl and add the yeast to one side and the salt to the other. Add the butter and pour in about 225–250ml of water. Mix together, then add a further 75–100ml of water if necessary. Add only a little at a time, until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is soft but not soggy.
- Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 5–10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and stretchy.
- Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to prove for about an hour, or until doubled in size (see tip above for best way of proving the dough).
- Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using the knuckles of your hand, deflate the dough and knock out the air. Then remove roughly one third of the dough and set aside.
- Take the larger piece of dough and stretch and fold the outsides of the dough into the middle to shape into a rough ball. Turn the dough so that the seam is facing down, then cup the ball of dough in your hands. Move the cob around in a circular motion, tucking the dough under as you go until you end up with a smooth ball with a taught surface. Then set onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Repeat the shaping process for the smaller piece of dough, then place the smaller ball on top of the larger ball. Dust your forefinger and middle finger with flour and push them through the centre of the loaf all the way to the bottom to join the two balls of dough together. Use a bread lame, razor blade or sharp knife to make 8 evenly spaced out slashes in the surface of both the top and bottom part of the bread.
- Loosely cover the bread with clingfilm or place into a large proofing bag. Leave to prove again for roughly an hour until well risen and springy when prodded. You can use the same oven-trick for proving as you did for the first prove (see tips above).
- Preheat the oven to 230°C and put a roasting tray in the bottom of the oven to heat up.
- Lightly dust the risen loaf with flour. Once the oven is hot, pour some cold water into the heated roasting tin to create a burst of steam, then put the bread in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 190°C and bake for a further 20-25 minutes until golden brown, crusty and the base sounds hollow when tapped from below.
- Place the bread onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
