Dampfnodle

I love bread week on the Great British Bake Off.  More than any other week I can imagine what I would do in the signature bakes (chocolate and salted caramel chelsea bun type loaf) and despair about my lack of artistry in the show stopper.

It shows the power of GBBO that I suddenly, desperately, excitedly longed to make a bready dumpling like thing I'd never even heard of before - Dampfnodle.

 

Dampfnodle with Custard and Blackberry and Sloe Gin Sauce

Essentially a steamed enriched bread dough served with custard and a fruit sauce (Mr Vitty doesn't like the recommended plum so I substituted blackberry and sloe gin)  I quite enjoyed pottering around the kitchen making these having picked some of the blackberries this afternoon.  Making the dough was quite straight forward, it was the steaming process that was novel, but seemed to work well - even caramelising the dampfnodle on the bottom

Dough - a pretty straightforward enriched bread dough

Dampfnodle beginning to steam - I think I shaped them too tightly, as I would bread rolls

Steamed Dampfnodle

A Sticky Bottomed Dumpling

Washed down with a well deserved drink

As for the other technical challenges I followed the recipe on the Bake Off Website (http://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/paul-hollywoods-dampfnudel-technical-challenge/).  I liked them more than the viennese whirls of last week's technical challenge, but probably not enough to make them again (although they'll be less easy to buy than the first week's Jaffa Cakes).

 Blackberry and Sloe Gin Sauce

 

My blackberry and Sloe Gin Sauce involved heating blackberries over a medium heat until they'd given up all their juice.  I then passed them through a fine sieve to remove the seeds and then add some sugar, erring on the side of too little rather than too much as I could always add some later.  I then reduced the blackberry juice to a thin syrup, checked the sweetness and added a shot (or two) of sloe gin.