Hi Bold Bakers, we have a very special treat for you today.
My mom is here all the way from Wexford, Ireland to bake with us for Saint Patrick’s day.
We’re going to make something that’s traditionally from the county where my mom is from, Waterford
County.
Mom why don’t you tell us what we’re going to make.
We’re going to make a Waterford Blaa.
Actually it can only be called a Blaa if it’s made in Waterford so we’re taking a bit
of license.
But I do that all the time, there’s nothing new about that.
It’s a soft, relatively soft roll that’s double proofed and has a certain fermented
flavor to it.
Yeah.
And it’s a really popular bread roll in Waterford.
Super yummy, great for sandwiches, great for Rashers sandwiches.
Similar to a bap but not as soft as a bap.
Now how do you pronounce this because Kevin pronounces it kind of fancy, he says Blah.
That’s not how they say it in Waterford Kevin, they say Blaa.
Yeah, probably blaa.
It’s blaa, you know, but they reckon it comes from the French word for corn.
Not sure why, because it’s a wheat roll it’s not made from corn.
Somehow or another, in Waterford, it became Blaa.
The recipe can be found on BiggerBolderBaking.com, it’s my mom’s recipe.
Also she did a lovely write up so check that out.
Ok mom let’s get started with our first step.
Ok so the first thing we’re going to do this time is we’re going to sponge the yeast.
Now that’s not what you usually do.
No because I use instant yeast and I put it straight in the flour.
In Ireland and in other parts of the world it’s very common to have active dried yeast,
which is very similar but the only difference is you’d need to sponge it and that means
putting it in liquid.
That’s right.
So into your warm water put in your little sugar and your active dried yeast.
Give it a stir and after about five minutes, it forms sort of a foam on top.
So these aren’t my normal spoons, they came from a bold baker in Hawaii named Rachel.
She sent them for my mom to have, and they’re very similar to mine, that’s very sweet.
And mom you’re taking them home, I’m taking them home.
Thank you Rachel.
So this is nice and foamy so let’s move on to our next step.
So we’re going to use the mixer because that’s what I would use at home, with the
mixer attached of course.
So Gemma, add the flour and the salt.
So mom in your recipe you use bread flour.
Oh yeah.
A high protein flour.
You know protein, on the side of the pack where you buy your flour, gluten is actually
labeled as protein so the higher for this recipe the better.
Yeah, you can use all purpose flour, I use that all the time for baking, you might need
to just add less liquid.
Yes a little bit less liquid, it’s softer.
Now just turn on your machine to a low speed.
Now you just add your yeasted liquid.
I recommend about three quarters of it in one go, then hold back the remainder just
in case because flour in different places acts in different ways.
For sure, you don’t always need all the liquid so just hold a little back and then
we’ll go from there.
So you can see that this is a little dry, so we’re going to add in the rest of the
liquid.
And then you just want to knead it, for around how long mom?
Around 5 minutes or so, and by hand equally, about 5 minutes.
You can use your hands you don’t need a machine, the tell tale sign that I like to
look for is when the dough cleans the bowl.
When it all comes up and it’s a nice clean bowl, that’s what we’re looking for.
So Blaas are a big part of my childhood because my mom is from Waterford.
So when we were kids going to Waterford we’d always stop at a certain shop to get Blaas.
That’s right, a little shop on the cork road.
A little shop on the cork road where my mom grew up on the cork road.
That’s right.
And I remember that so clearly, getting Blaas and then bringing them home to Wexford where
we’re from, and having them with butter and rashers.
Exactly, absolutely delicious.
And we grew up with them, because it was probably the only bread that we had that was freshly
baked on the day, and people had their favorite bakeries.
Yeah, I remember that one we used to go to, there was another one in Ferrybank in Waterford,
but it’s just kinda those food memories that really stick in my mind, I thought it’d
be a really good idea to show everyone this recipe.
What do you think mom is this looking good?
Yep, perfect actually, it’s a nice clean ball of dough.
That’s what we’re looking for.
So we’re gonna turn off the machine, take out our… oh this is really nice actually.
Nice and smooth.
And mom you’ve got an oiled bowl there?
I do.
The reason why you always want to put dough in an oiled bowl is because it helps it rise.
If it doesn’t have the oil there, it kind of has to struggle and we don’t want the
dough to have to struggle after all that lovely work that went into making it.
Gonna cover it with cling wrap, then put a nice tea towel over top of it.
Mom like you said, it needs to ferment twice or proof twice.
So this first time we’re leaving it for how long?
So I suppose about an hour for the first proofing, then you knock it back, and then proof it
again.
So we’ll come back in an hour’s time and see how it looks.
So it’s been an hour and look at our dough, it looks gorgeous.
It’s nicely risen.
Really this is a big dough.
So what you want to do is go in with your fist, and just knock back all of the air.
There’s a lot of yeast in this dough, isn’t there, mom?
Yes I think it adds to the flavor, it isn’t what we’d normally do.
Normally we’d add a teaspoon maybe.
But there are more like five teaspoons in this one.
It’s just a different bread roll, there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just a different
bread dough.
And it’s proofed twice so it’s doubly fermented, really.
Ok so we knocked out the air, what you wanna do is cover it with a tea towel again and
how long do we proof it for this time?
Thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes and it should rise right up because it’s kind of warm.
Yes exactly.
Ok 30 minutes and then we’ll come back.
Ok so it’s been thirty minutes and this looks gorgeous.
Yep we’re good to go.
You’re the boss for today.
Not very often.
Nice so all we have to do is knock the air out again.
Yes punch it back down.
It’s really funny how fast it rises.
We’ll there’s a lot of yeast in this dough.
Yeah, so from here all we have to do is put it on a floured surface and cut it into rolls.
So when you put this out on the board, and I didn’t do this too terribly even, you’d
cut it in half and then roll it into two sausages.
And then you can cut it.
You know it’s home so you don’t need to be terribly perfect.
So for this one, because I already cut one off the end, I’m going to cut this into
four pieces, quite easily like that.
Then these can be rolled into rolls.
Some will be bigger than others, a bit more generous than others.
I can help with that.
You can do it on the board like that, or you can do it in your hands and that’s actually
really great.
It gets rid of the seams.
It does.
Yours are a bit more perfect than mine.
Well it’s not a competition.
What can I do.
But if it was I’d be winning.
They make nice big rolls.
They make twelve rolls so just make twelve.
Exactly and the greedy person can take the big one.
My mom was probably my first teacher when it comes to baking and cooking.
She also helps with social media, so a lot of you who message on the website, on facebook.
Because we get, I don’t know mom, thousands of messages each week we have to have a team
of people answering them.
And since my mom has such a great background in food and baking, and she knows everything…
I do this is true.
I didn’t know Gemma knew I knew everything.
She’s really good at helping answer questions and it really takes a load off that’s why
you’ve gotten to know a lot of people too.
I have.
Bold Bakers from all over the world.
I do, I even know their names and sometimes their children’s names.
How many kids they have, where they’re living.
I do.
It takes a village doesn’t it?
Absolutely.
So these are looking good so let’s put them in our pan.
So here we have our 9”x13” pan, it’s oiled, so let’s just pop in our rolls.
So mom how many rows?
12, but you know I’m not that accurate, I could end up with thirteen.
Well in this house we’re accurate, we follow the rules.
Nobody cares in my house.
So we’re gonna do four rows of three, lovely.
And they grow together because this is a batch bake.
And that’s a really good point, this is batch baking.
So what you want to do, I like to say give them enough room so they kiss, but they aren’t
making out.
So you give them a little bit of space in between, they proof, they proof again, then
they batch bake which means you end up with, not a round roll, but all of them baking into
each other.
And it looks really nice and makes for really good sandwiches.
So we’re gonna lay over some cling wrap nice and tight, make sure no air gets in there.
And then a nice tea towel.
And mom how long is our las proof.
About thirty minutes, ok great.
If you need to go a bit longer because your room is colder, 45, you be the best judge
of that.
So let’s set them over to the side and let them proof.
So the rolls are proofed which means you now have to do the important part which is dusting
them liberally with flour.
Which is kind of their signature look right?
Right.
You know they.
Used to call this baker’s butter.
Really why?
I don’t know maybe some people didn’t have real butter.
Oh yeah to glaze it.
So it was called baker’s butter.
So that’s another little tiny side story to that.
And it’s kind of their unique… these are floury rolls.
These are the things, it’s one of the things that makes them unique.
Unique to them.
That’s it.
So you dust them with flour… and are these ready to go into the oven?
These are ready to go into the oven.
Perfect, let’s get them in.
So now we just need to bake them off at 425° F / 210° C for 25-35 minutes.
These look amazing, they actually look like real Waterford Blaas.
They do and they’re lovely and floury which is how they should be.
Gorgeous.
And when they come out of the oven they’re really soft.
Yeah.
I mean it’s quite a dense bread, sustaining this one.
I like how we did the batch baking and they all kind of baked into each other.
So tell me this mom, how do we, I know how we serve these but tell everyone else how
we do this.
Nowadays in some cases they would serves these as almost a breakfast roll with bacon, sausage,
egg, pudding.
Rashers which I’m making.
Beans.
Well now that might be a bridge too far.
Beans are great on a roll.
That’s true but that’s a relatively modern invention.
Back in the day you would have had marmelade or butter or things like that.
They make really good BLT’s don’t they?
Absolutely yes.
You know when we’d go to Waterford to visit Rosaline or trips, things like that, when
we’d come back we’d have them with Kerrygold, Irish butter, which is the best butter in
the world.
And Rashers, which is our bacon.
In America we only have rashers so we’ll use those.
So when they’re fresh out of the oven, yeah.
I took a really big bite.
Oh my gosh they’re delicious.
They say Blaas, like champagne from the Champagne region, made outside of Waterford can’t
be considered Blaas.
But these are the closest thing to Blaas that you’re ever gonna get.
And I know I said these are best eaten the day of, but you can refresh them.
And super good out of the freezer.
They’re really good out of the freezer.
We keep so many of these in the freezer becasue Kevin and I just want little sandwiches sometimes,
so we keep them in the freezer.
These are delicious.
Thank you to Patricia Stafford for joining us in California to be on an episode of Bigger
Bolder Baking.
Happy St. Patrick’s day out there to everyone, recipe is on the website and I’ll see you
back here really soon for more Bigger Bolder Baking.