How To Make A Flower Bread

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Flower Bread tutorial with easy step by step instructions. Impress your friends & make a great centre piece for any table!

This week’s baking challenge theme of ‘GBBO Bread Week’ over at the Twitter Sunday Bake Club (@sbctakeover) provided the perfect opportunity for me to have a crack at something I’ve had my eye on for a while: making a bread flower. You need a bread dough you can rely on to make a shaped bread, so for me it had to be trusty old Ted’s Rolls as it never lets me down.
Ages ago I’d seen a few tutorial pins on Pinterest showing how to divide the dough and shape the flower, so I had a rough idea in my head. I spent a few minutes working out the amount of dough for each piece I would need and made notes as I went along.

I wanted a natural looking flower so instead of turning back the cut triangles in one go, I took each petal layer and gently tugged it into shape, giving the whole thing a more free flow look. At this stage, I was slightly worried as the flower petals looked so ragged I was beginning to wish I’d settled for a more uniform look for my flower bread by taking the less fiddly option of turning back the cut triangles in one piece. Luckily, a good second prove, egg wash and a final rise in the oven saw my flower blossom as I hoped it would, phew !

Will I make a flower bread again? Yes I will, it’s worth the effort of rolling out lots of circles and arranging petals as I reckon it makes a lovely table centrepiece for a special occasion. What about the taste and the texture I hear you ask ? I reckon the layers make this bread so soft and I’m tempted to say even softer than Ted’s Rolls. Dare I say it ? Nope, I daren’t !

It was definitely worth making my flower bread to enter my favourite bake club’s challenge as I won my first coveted golden spoon ! So thank you to everyone who voted for my flower bread.

I make the dough for my Flower Bread in my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer with a dough hook fitted but mixing and kneading by hand produces the same results.

How To Make A Flower Bread

Flower Bread Tutorial with easy step by step instructions. Impress your friends & make a great centre piece for any table!

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Course: bread

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Author: Sarah James

Serves 8 to 12

Ingredients

• 1 kg 7¼ cups strong white bread flour
• 3 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast we use Dove’s Farm
• 8 tablespoons rapeseed oil
• Approximately 600 ml 2½ cups tepid water
• Egg wash
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds

You will need a large baking tray/cookie sheet

Instructions

To make your dough by hand:

• Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
• Add the oil and a little water. Mix well adding a little water at a time until you have formed a ball of dough.
• Transfer to a floured surface and knead for 10 to 12 minutes.
• Check your dough is ready by using the windowpane test.

To make your dough with a KitchenAid:

• Add flour, salt, sugar and yeast to the mixing bowl, make a well and add the oil and half the water.
• Mix on slow speed number 1 for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Add the rest of the water and mix on number 2 speed for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Check your dough is ready by using the windowpane test.

Prove your dough:

• Place your dough in a large greased bowl and cover.
• Leave to rest in a warm place for at least one and a half hours or until doubled in size.

Shape your dough:

• Take the dough out of the bowl and divide into two, save one half in your bowl.
• Divide the other half into 5 equal pieces – approx 170 g. I like to weigh them to make sure they get an even bake but you can divide into 5 equal portions by eye if you prefer.
• Roll 4 pieces into 20 cm diameter circles and the fifth piece into a slightly larger circle.
• Spray your 4 equally sized circles with cooking spray. (I used Lurpak Cooking Spray)
• Place a sprayed circle (sprayed side up) on to the middle of your lined baking tray. Stack the remaining 3 sprayed circles onto the first and then finish with your slightly larger fifth circle on top of the stack.
• Using a sharp knife, dough cutter or pizza cutter, cut your pile of circles into 8 even triangles but do not go all the way to the edge, leaving 2.5 cm (1 inch) uncut. (see photos)
• Fold each layer of the petal triangles outwards (see photo) to reveal your circle of petals. I peeled back each layer individually to give a more natural look but you can fold each triangle back in one go if you prefer.
• Take your second ball of dough and divide into 6 pieces, five pieces all the same and the sixth piece slightly larger (5 x 130 g and 1 x 150 g). Save the sixth larger piece for the centre of your flower.
• Take your 5 pieces of dough and roll out each piece into circles: 4 at 15cm diameter and the fifth slightly larger.
• Spray 4 of your dough circles with cooking spray and stack them up on your work surface before topping with the slightly larger unsprayed circle. This is the same procedure as with your first set of dough circles but they are on your work surface and not yet placed in your flower on the baking sheet.
• Transfer your second stack of circles from the worksurface into the centre of your first stack on the baking sheet.
• Cut triangles as before but make sure each cut lines up roughly with the middle of the petals you formed from your first dough circles.
• Fold your triangles outwards as before.
• Roll your last piece of dough into a ball and place in the middle of your flower.

2nd Prove:

• Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes to one hour.
• Preheat your oven to 475°F / 240°C / Gas Mark 9

Bake:

• Brush with egg wash and scatter with seeds – I used sesame seeds for the petals and sunflower seeds for the centre.
• Place in the preheated hot oven for 5 minutes.
• Turn your oven down to 200°C and continue baking for another 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown.

Notes

Preparation time does not include proving time

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THE WINDOW PANE TEST is a consistently reliable way to check your dough is ready. Pinch off a small piece of dough and gently stretch it apart, pulling and rotating the dough into a thin membrane, or window pane, which is translucent when you hold it up to the light.

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Pin for later:

I’m entering my Flower Bread into a few challenges this month:

• Credit Crunch Munch created by Camilla from Fab Food 4 All & Helen over at Fuss Free Flavours & hosted this month by Charlene over at Food Glorious Food.
• Anca’s GBBO Bake Along over at Cook Style.
• Bready Steady Go co hosted by Jen from Jen’s Food & Michelle from Utterly Scrummy, this month over at Jen’s Food.
• Charlotte’s Food Year Link Up over at Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen.

And linking to:   Fiesta Fridays