A Great British Bake Off Squid!!

When my friend recently got tickets to be in the audience for the Great British Bake Off's Extra Slice show, I knew this was my chance to really impress them with my baking. The theme was bread for that week, and while bread isn't my strong point, I really gave it my best to produce something out of this world to grab their attention!

Great British Bake Off Squid Bread - a giant squid made of bread holding Jo Brand, Sue Perkins, Paul Hollywood, Mary Berry, Mel Giedroyc and the Bake Off Squirrel! (Clockwise from top right)

If you're wondering "why a squid?", this was a special tribute to my friend who got the tickets in the first place, who, bless her, struggled to understand that squids are not in fact baby octopuses, but a completely separate species. We have been trying to educate her through the medium of bakes ever since. And to complete the link with GBBO, I thought why not make a giant squid that is grabbing all the presenters of the show! 

Us outside ITV Studios (I guess since the move to Salford, the BBC have to rent out studios from other TV companies)

It was very difficult to get in, if you ever get tickets to be in the audience for any BBC show, make sure that you arrive 1.5 - 2 hours early, because they over book, and when I say overbook, I mean almost double booking every single seat. So if you arrive 1 h before doors even open (as we did) your chances of getting to see the show are extremely low (unless you have an awesome bake to pull out of the bag). I felt like it was quite mean, but I guess they've got to fill every single seat. 

To cut a long story short though, we did manage to get into the audience, however, we weren't chosen to be picked to go to the very front (or First Class seating, as the compere guy called it). Nevertheless, we had a fun time, and it was interesting to see how such a show is filmed, and also got to see Jo Brand and Josh Widdicombe live. It was a bit like going to see stand up, but where the gags are all about baking!

Recipe for the Squid Bread:

Ingredients:

Bread:

450 g strong white bread flour
70 g sugar
30 g butter
180 ml milk
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks (freeze the egg whites in small sandwich bags to use later for macarons/meringues/marshmallows)
1 satchet active dried yeast

Filling:

50 g dried apricots (chopped)
50 g white chocolate (chopped)
You can however add any other type of filling that you'd like

Figurines:

Modelling chocolate of appropriate colour for your choice of figurines

Bread recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 180oC/350 F. Put the milk, sugar, salt and butter into a saucepan, and heat gently until the butter melts. Take the saucepan off the heat, and when the temperature reaches lukewarm (body temperature), then add the two egg yolks and mix in with a fork. Careful, the mixture should not be above 50 degrees, because the yolks will curdle! If you have fresh yeast, you may dissolve the yeast in to the milky mixture once it has reached 37 degrees. Otherwise, proceed as follows:

2. If you are experienced with bread, you may mix the milk with the flour and yeast by hand, knead and prove yourself as you normally would. However, I usually use a bread machine on the dough setting, as it provides a consistent result, and also allows extra time to do other things while the machine is going. With most bread machines, you would put the liquid at the bottom, and then add the flour, and yeast on top. Leave the machine to do the kneading and proving

3. Once the bread has finished proving, remove from the machine or your bowl, and split the dough into two. Wrap one in clingfilm whilst shaping the other roll. 

4. Roll out one of the halves to about half an inch thickness (1 - 1.5 cm), and then sprinkle the filling ingredients on it. Roll up the bread like a swiss roll, but making one side thinner than the other, to create a cone-like shape, which will make the squid's head.

5. Put the squid head to one side, and remove the clingfilm from the second half of the bread. Divide this into 8 further pieces (to make each of the tentacles). Roll them out by hand to make long, cylindrical legs.

Arranging the tentacles of the squid bread

6. Attach each of the tentacles to the head of the squid, keeping two at the front to be the feeding tentacles. Curl the remaining tentacles at the side to be prepared for grasping your characters. Keep the tentacles open during proving and baking by placing large metal piping tips inside the tentacles' grasp.

7. Leave to prove for a second time for 30 mins in a warm place. I normally don't leave the bread to prove a second time for too long when doing a bread sculpture, because the shape may become distorted.

8. Bake at 180oC/350 F for ~ 15 minutes, or until golden brown. The tentacles will bake quicker than the head roll, so you may place some baking foil on top of the tentacles after they start to take on a little colour, in order to stop them burning, or you may choose to bake them separately for different times, and then put them together after the baking is complete.

The Squid Bread after second proving and baking, prior to decoraiton

9. Whilst the bread is cooling down, you can progress with making little figurines as you wish! You can adapt this recipe to any occasion, and could make figures of friends and family to put into the tentacles for a light-hearted bake. However, make sure the bread is fully cooled before placing the figurines into the tentacles, because otherwise, they may melt!

Hope you enjoyed that bake. Who do you think will be this year's winner?