Paul Hollywood, the much loved King of Bread brought out his own range of cake and bread mixes. There are 12 options to choose from and over the last year I have been working my way through them.
At first the selections were available in bag packaging but they have now moved on to the more traditional box mix option.
Each baking kit has easy to follow directions and a few tips on how to add variations to your dishes. The sets contain all of the dry ingredients you need and all you have to add is some fat or dairy.
These kits are very quick to put together and anything you need to add most homes will have in already. These are a good option to have on standby if you want to impress with your baking but just don’t have the time to put everything together yourself.
Savoury Options
I’ll start with the scones as I love them. You have a choice of two, the classic scone or the Cheese and Herb. My preference is the classic as you can do more with these. Add cream and jam or add some cheese. These are a classic staple and good for any afternoon tea. The cheese and herb version are good but have a bit too much rosemary for my liking, just a personal preference. When working with these mixes I have found that the best way is to use a spoon rather than your hands as it’s very easy to overwork any scone mix.
I cant comment on the flapjacks too much as I don’t like them but I gave them to my mum and they were enjoyed by her. I think I overcooked them as they came out much crunchier than I hoped they would be.
The garlic tear and share bread is something I have made regularly now as it so quick and easy and a great dinner time addition.
The white pleated loaf mix didn’t work for me. I must have proved it too little as it didn’t rise. The flat bread version I ended up with though was still very edible.
I haven’t found the barm cake rolls yet and have still to try the tomato & thyme bloomer.
Sweet Options
Iv’e made the brownies a couple times and they are the nice gooey in the middle kind. These rise quite a bit so make sure you use the right size of tin, if not they turn out too moist in the middle.
The zesty cake worked out well however an accident meant one layer broke, so I couldn’t complete the cake. It was a well flavoured cake and a vanilla frosting in the middle and icing glaze on top would be great.
The muffins are more what I would call cupcakes although they are nice. Add your favourite buttercream and these would be welcome at any party. The cookies like the ‘muffins’ come in chocolate and white chocolate and are quite thin so be careful with your timings. They can go from the nice chew in the middle to all over crunch very quickly.
Paul Hollywood more recently has began offering ready made icing pouches. I tried the Salted Caramel flavour and it was nice but I do recommend adding a splash of milk as the frosting is very thick and the milk will help take down the strong flavour.
I added my frosting to the chocolate cake and while it was nice I think it would go better with a vanilla sponge or caramel. The caramel icing was a bit too strong for the chocolate cake and you don’t get the chocolate fix you need with chocolate cake.
As these are Paul Hollywood recipes you are guaranteed to have a delicious selection which ever ones you choose.
You can find the sets in all major supermarkets but I have found that Asda has the biggest selection of the savoury options and Tesco has the best choice for the icings.