Adventures in bread

When I was in year 7 (age 12) my class at school were given few 'cooking lessons' as part of our design classes. I don't remember everything we cooked but I do remember the first lesson making toasted cheese sandwiches and hot chocolate, I don't know how we did it but somehow we managed to make that class last two hours.

As the class went by things got a little more taxing, I remember doing flapjack one week and I can distinctly remember the pizza with the pre-made frozen pizza base, you wouldn't have gone back for a second slice, that's for sure.My last class was right before we split up for the Christmas holidays, and this time there was actually some cooking involved, we were going to make stollen. As you'd expect the marzipan was ready made and the dough was leavened with bicarb not yeast but still, it was cooking and I loved it!

My stollen was a disaster, the bread split as soon as I took it out of the oven, searing hot liquid marzipan gushed out across the worktop and on to the floor and I was lucky not to have been burnt! But that's not the point, I learned to love food and cooking and I've never stopped since.I'm not really going anywhere with this other than to show how far my baking has come along, I've made cakes, buns, scones, puddings and breads and more besides.

From top left clockwise: Chocolate Guinness cake, Sticky Chelsea buns, Clotted cream scones, Christmas pudding, Pumpkin bread

Although I am quite good at making simple breads I know that with a little work I could be a lot better. So I've set myself a challenge to improve my bread making as much as possible, I want to be able to make bread that's crisp on the outside but soft and chewy in the middle, the kind of bread you can buy in French bakeries that has great big air holes in it and bags of flavour. It's no easy task but I'm off to a good start, I've got myself a copy of Daniel Stevens River Cottage Bread Handbook and It's fantastic. I've already got books of bread recipes but where this one differs is that it explains why bread is made the way it is rather than just telling me to do it. No book I've had before has been so clear on what the consistency of the dough should be or how I should fold it, but those little points make the difference between good bread and great bread.These two loaves are my first attempt at making bread using the pre-ferment method, this involves making a small amount of very wet dough at least a day before the make the main batch. The pre-fermented dough is then added to the new dough giving it an amazing boost in flavour and vastly improving the texture. I actually couldn't believe how much difference such a simple technique could make until I tried it. I'll posting about my bread making every couple of weeks or whenever I discover anything new, hopefully by this time next year I'll have successfully baked sourdough and if things go really well croissants...Some other tips I picked up from the book were: -

• Use Canadian bread flour if you can get it, it has the highest gluten content that results in the best bread.
• The dough should be relatively sticky before you begin kneading it will begin to feel dryer and more elastic the longer you knead it.
• Placing a tray of hot water in the oven prior to baking creates steam which keeps the crust softer for longer and allows your bread to rise higher during baking.
• Most importantly of all, good bread takes time. Be patient!

Does anyone have any tips for making really good bread?

Tomato and basil bread

For me fresh bread still warm from the oven slathered with melting butter is one of the greatest culinary joys there is, it's just one of the reasons why I've almost entirely stopped buying bread from the supermarket. Not only does fresh homemade bread taste amazing but it's also cheaper to make and much better for you than most supermarket breads.

Normally I just make plain white or wholemeal loaves, all purpose bread that's as good with Nutella as it is with a big wedge of cheddar. Every now and then though I like to be a bit more creative by adding different flavours to my bread or making it using new methods and techniques to make it. A few weeks ago I came up with an idea for making tomato bread, instead of adding water to the flour to make a dough I used a tin of chopped Italian tomatoes.The result is this beautiful loaf of bread not only did it taste amazing and have a fantastic soft texture but it also had a brilliant reddish colour, I only used white flour so all the colour you can see is purely from the tomatoes. I added some basil simply because it works really well and is one of my favourite combinations.This would make the perfect accompaniment to soup, especially something Italian such as minestrone, it also works really well with cheese, ham and obviously tomatoes!

Tomato bread recipe

Ingredients:

• 500g Strong white bread flour
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Sugar
• A 7g Sachet of dried instant yeast
• 2-3 Tablespoons of oil
• A 390g Tin of chopped tomatoes

Method:

• In a large bowl combine the flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Mix well.
• Make a well in the flour mixture and add the tomatoes and oil, bring everything together to form a dough using either you hands or a wooden spoon. Alternatively use a stand mixer with a dough hook attached. You may need to add a little more flour if your dough is too wet, it should be slightly sticky but not cling to your hands.
• Knead the dough (by hand or in the mixer) for around 10 minutes then cover with a piece of clingfilm which has been smeared with oil (this stops the dough from sticking to the clingfilm) and leave to rise for around half an hour or until doubled in size.
• Once the dough has doubled in size knock it back and knead for a few minutes more then, either shape the dough however you want it and place it on a baking tray or place it in a loaf tin.
• Cover again and leave until it has doubled once more then bake in an oven preheated to gas 6/200c/400f for about half an hour until the top is golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
  

Panzanella - Italian bread salad

There has been a noticeable change in the vegetables I've been getting in my organic box recently. Now the weather is warmer and the days are longer it's goodbye to swedes, turnips, Brussels sprouts and winter cabbages, hello to tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and asparagus.

This week I got some fantastic sweet peppers and a bunch of beautiful tomatoes on the vine, the perfect ingredients for making Panzanella.Panzanella is an Italian summer salad which can contain all manner of ingredients but always contains tomatoes, basil, olive oil, vinegar and most importantly bread. Panzanella was originally a peasant dish designed to use up leftover bread, -isn't it funny how peasant dishes are almost always the most delicious?- to make this salad chunks of old bread are torn up and tossed with the other ingredients where it absorbs all the delicious juices and takes on a fantastic flavour.I don't think it's possible to find an 'authentic' recipe for this, by it's very nature it's made from whatever people had to hand at the time. My version uses tomatoes, peppers, olives, capers and mixed salad leaves. I also added some flaked trout fillets to make it more substantial, you could add salmon or chicken to equally good effect or just leave it out altogether.

the bread I used was an Italian ciabatta but any firm textured bread will do, just don't use anything too light and airy.

Roasting peppers gives them an amazing flavour

Panzanella recipe: (Serves one as a light meal, two as a side dish)

Ingredients:

• One large red or yellow sweet pepper roasted (see method)
  
• Two large tomatoes chopped into eight moon shaped wedges.
• A handful of olives, green or black.
• A tablespoon of chopped capers.
• Sea salt, extra virgin olive oil and white wine vinegar (or lemon juice).
  
• Mixed baby salad leaves, I used spinach, rocket and watercress.
• As much leftover bread as you want to eat torn into chunks.
• Flaked trout or salmon - optional.

Method:

• First up you need to roast you pepper, you can do this either in the oven, under the grill or if you have a gas hob like I do you can use that. Basically you need to char the skin, and I mean really char it, it should be black.
  
• What I do is stab the pepper onto a fork and hold it above the flame on my gas hob so the skin crackles and blackens, do this all over. I f you using an oven or grill the same rule applies, it needs to be black.
• Once your pepper is blackened all over place it inside a plastic bag and leave it while you prepare everything else, when you come back to it the skin will slip right off and the pepper will taste amazing.
• Next put the tomatoes, olives, capers, into a large bowl. Add as much oil. vinegar and salt as you like, personally I like mine quite sharp but it's entirely down to personal taste. The salt is really important here as it's the salt that draws the juices out of the tomatoes and peppers, this is the juice that will soak into your bread.
• Now to the peppers, remove them from the plastic bag and pull the skin away, it should be really easy. Slice the pepper open, tip any juice that has collected inside into the bowl with the tomatoes then chop the flesh and add that to the bowl too.
• Leave the salad to stand for at least 15 minutes, preferably longer so that the juices can be drawn out and the flavours can meld together.
• Just before you want to serve toss in the bread and salad leaves, mix everything well, check the seasoning and the oil/vinegar is perfectly balanced then serve. Top with flaked trout or salmon if you'd like.
  

Hot Cross Buns

Q: What do you get if you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?
A: Hot cross bunnies!

Sorry, I couldn't resist!

As Easter is now fast approaching I thought I would share with you the recipe for one my favourite Easter treats, hot cross buns.

So what are hot cross buns? They are spicy, fruity bread buns which are made and sold for Easter. They have a cross marked on top, usually made of flour dough but sometimes icing or pastry is used. Traditionally they were made for Good Friday but these days they are available throughout Easter, some supermarkets have even started selling them year round.Hot cross buns are fantastic toasted, spread with melting butter they are just sublime, in fact I wouldn't eat them any other way.

Of course you can just buy them from any good bakery and I'm sure they would be fine but there's something special about making them yourself, homemade just tastes that bit better. Making your own also means you're free to tinker with the recipe, you can choose your favourite fruits and spices, and you get them at their freshest, straight from the oven. I've adapted my recipe from this one, it's a good recipe, the buns were spicy, fruity and delicious!

They do take a lot longer to rise than the original recipe stated, I left mine for a good 90 minutes before baking. You may also need to add a little more flour than is listed, your looking for a dough that is slightly sticky but you should be able to handle it without it clinging to your hands.

Hot cross buns recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Caster sugar
• 1 sachet (7g) of easy blend yeast
• 1 lb plain flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 oz Raisins, sultanas or other dried fruit
• The finely grated zest of an orange
• 2 oz mixed peel
• 4 fl. oz. Water
• 4 fl. oz milk
• 2 oz melted butter
• 1 beaten egg

For the Cross (optional)
Mix these together to form the paste that is piped into the buns

• 4 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons water

Method:

• In a large bowl add the sugar, yeast, flour, salt and spices. Mix well
• Add the dried fruit, zest and peel to the bowl and mix
• Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and add the water, milk, butter and egg, bring the mixture together with your hands to form a dough. If it feels too sticky add more flour now.
• Knead the dough on a hard surface for 10 minutes until it fells smooth and elastic.
• Put the dough back in the mixing bowl and cover, leave to rise until it has doubled in size, up to 2 hours.
• Knock the dough back until it is the original size and split into 12 pieces.
• Roll the pieces into buns and place on an oiled baking tray, cover and leave to rise for around 90 minutes or until they have doubled in size.
• To make the cross mix the flour sugar and water together in a bowl, put the mixture into a small plastic bag. Snip the corner off the bag and pipe the mixture in a cross shape onto the buns.
• Bake in a preheated oven at gas mark 7/220c/425f for 15-20 minutes.
• To glaze warm some honey or golden syrup and brush over you buns with a pastry brush

Fantastic focaccia bread

Focaccia is a delicious Italian flat bread which can be topped with all kinds of delicious things, herbs, olives or cheese are common toppings and a great place to start. What I really love about focaccia, what makes it really special is the olive oil which is both mixed into the dough and drizzled liberally over the top before baking. This is THE recipe for using that expensive bottle of extra-virgin you've got stashed away in the cupboard, nothing will show off it's flavour quite so well.
Recipe:

For the dough:
350g/12oz Strong white bread flour
200ml warm water
50ml Extra virgin olive oil
One 7g sachet of quick action yeast
1/2 tsp Salt

For the topping you can use whatever you like although the olive oil is essential and the salt highly recommended, I used:
1 Small onion cut into wedges
A handful of black olives, halved
Mixed Italian herbs
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt flakes

To make the Foccacia:

• Mix the flour yeast and salt together in a large bowl, make a well in the centre and pour in the oil and water.
• Bring everything together to form a dough (it will be quite sticky) knead for a few minutes on a well floured surface (you will need to rub some flour on your hands too, it is sticky!)
• Cover the bowl with oiled clingfilm and leave to in a warm place to rise for at least 1 1/2 hours but preferably overnight.
• Once the dough has risen knock it back and press out onto a large baking tray (you could make smaller breads by cutting up first)
• Pre-heat your oven o gas 6/400f/200c
  
• Using your fingers press dimples all over the surface of the dough, this will stop all the olive oil running off.
• Sprinkle over your toppings, drizzle generously with olive oil (don't be stingy with it!) and sprinkle over some sea salt.
• Leave to rise again for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
• Bake for around 30 minutes.
  

Super nutritious walnut and seed bread

Sylvie over at A Pot Of Tea And A Biscuit has tagged me to bake bread as part of the worldwide blogger bakeoff. I love baking bread and as this was for a good cause too I was more than willing to participate.Breadline Africa is a charity that is working to put an end to poverty in Africa by helping communities help themselves. The aim is that the communities will become self sustaining and therefore require no further aid.

On Blog Action Day, Breadline Africa launched their Worldwide Blogger Bake-Off campaign. The aim is to raise $1 million in funds for a project to convert shipping containers into locations for food production and distribution in Africa. It is hoped that these sustainable community kitchens will not only provide food such as bread and soup to those in need, but also opportunities for skills development within poor communities.

So how does it work?

• Join our campaign.
• Submit your bread baking recipe.
• Make a donation to Breadline Africa.
• Vote for your favourite recipe.
• Bake a loaf of bread and blog about it.

My submission for the bake-off is my super nutritious walnut and seed bread. Not only does this bread taste really good but it is really nutritious too!Soft light and full of flavour it is particuarly good with cheese of for dunking in soup.I'm not going to tag anyone in particular, if you've read this consider yourself tagged! Go on you know you want to join in!

Recipe

Ingredients:
150g Strong wholemeal bread flour.

350g Strong white bread flour.

1 7g Sachet of instant yeast.

2 Tsp brown sugar.

1 Tsp Salt.

30g Each of crushed walnuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

2 Tbsp olive oil.

300ml Warm water.

2 Tbsp olive oil.
Method:
Prepare a baking sheet by lightly dusting with flour or lining with baking paper.

In a large bowl mix the two flours together.

Add the yeast, salt, sugar, walnuts and seeds and mix everything together.

Make a well in the centre and add the oil and warm water.

Gradually incorporate the flour into the water and work into a dough. Knead for a good 10 minutes. (if it's too wet or dry and this point add a little more flour or water, it should feel just slightly sticky)

Cover the dough with a place of oiled cling-film and leave in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to gas 6/200c/400f.

After the dough has doubled in size knock it back and knead for a minute more, shape into a round and place on the prepared baking sheet. Cover and leave to double in size once more.

When the dough has doubled bake for around 30 minutes or until golden.

Sticky Chelsea Buns

In England we are blessed with a long history of baking. Every region has it's own specialities such as the Eccles cake from Eccles, the Bakewell tart from Bakewell and the Bath bun from... well you get the picture!
It seems to me that our history is being lost, I rarely see these regional treats for sale any more. The supermarkets seem to favour muffins and cookies over our traditional baking. As much as I like muffins and cookies I would like to see English cakes as well.
Yesterday I did my bit to keep British recipes alive, I made Chelsea buns.
The Chelsea bun was invented in the 1700's and sold from The Bun House in Grosvenor Row in London. They became incredibly popular, apparently even King George couldn't stay away! Unfortunately the Bun House was demolished in 1839 so I can't sample the original.
I can make my own though, these are deliciously sticky buns made from an enriched bread dough that is rolled Swiss roll style with dried fruit spices and sugar in the middle they are glazed with sugar, syrup or honey.

I used a recipe from BakingMad and modified it a bit, this is my version:
Ingredients

For the dough
250g / 9oz Strong White Bread Flour
5ml/ 1 tsp salt
5ml/ 1 tsp white sugar
5 ml / 1 tsp Dried fast Action Yeast
25g / 1 oz butter, diced
100-120ml / 3-4 fl oz warmed milk
1 egg, beaten
For the filling
125g / 4 ½ oz mixed currants, sultanas and raisins
50g / 2oz Demerara sugar
15g/ ½ oz butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Method

1.Grease an 18cm / 7 inch square shallow cake tin. Sift the flour, salt, sugar and yeast into a large bowl. Rub in 25g / 1oz butter.

2.In a bowl, mix together the milk and egg. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and stir in the liquid. Bring the mixture together with a round bladed knife and knead for 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface until the dough is smooth and elastic. If the mixture is sticky add a little more flour.

3.Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll out to a 30 x 23 cm/ 12 x 9 inch rectangle.

4.Prepare the filling: Mix the dried fruit with the soft light brown sugar and spices. Melt the remaining butter and brush over the surface of the dough. Scatter the fruit mixture over the buttered dough, leaving a 2.5cm/ 1 inch border around the edge of the dough.

5.Starting at the long side of the dough, roll it up like a Swiss roll. Pinch the edges together to seal and then cut into 12 slices.

6.Place the rolls cut edges uppermost in the tin. Cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

7.Pre heat the oven to 190ºC/ 375ºF/ Gas Mark 5. Bake for 30 minutes or until risen and golden.

8.Remove from the oven and brush with honey and sprinkle with Golden Caster sugar whilst they are still hot. Then cool on a wire rack.

I've entered this into the I Love Baking event over at what's cooking? check it out here: http://whatscooking.us/forum

Yeasted pumpkin bread

As I've mentioned before I'm trying to use up all my frozen pumpkin to clear some space in my freezer (thanks for all the great ideas I plan to make some soon!). Well in our house we make almost all our own bread, normally just simple loaves with maybe a few seeds in. While I was searching for things to do with my pumpkin I came across this recipe for a loaf of bread made with pumpkin purée. I like to try new and unusual things and this sounded really interesting so, I gave it a go and the results were brilliant. It rose to a huge size, much bigger than I expected, this made for a very light loaf rather than the dense bread I anticipated. The pumpkin gave it an amazing orange colour and helped to keep it really soft. I decorated the top with pumpkin seeds (what else?) and this is the result.Unfortunately I can't remember where I found the recipe, if anyone can tell me I'll gladly credit it to them, but here it is:

Ingredients (for 12 rolls or 1 loaf):

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of good Active Dry Yeast.

• 1 Tablespoon of sugar

• 1/2 cup of 110 degree (Fahrenheit) milk

• About 4 cups of flour (add more as you need when kneading)

• 1 cup pumpkin canned or home-made

• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg

• 3/4 stick of butter

• 1 egg, beaten a bit

Instructions:

1. Mix yeast and sugar into the milk and let the yeast grow for about 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients into a bowl
3. Chop the butter into bits and mix it into the dry ingredients
4. Add the egg, pumpkin and foamy yeast mixture
5. Mix everything together until its all combined
6. Next, take the dough and knead it on a floured surface (and keep it floured on top and bottom to keep from sticking on you and the surface) for about 10 minutes.
7. If you are in a hurry you can skip this step but your rolls might not be as good. Set the dough in a bowl and cover with a tea towel for about 1 hour (or until it doubles in size). Indeed, I was in a hurry and skipped this step so please comment if you include it and let me know how it turns out.
8. Punch the dough down and separate into 12 balls.
9. Place the balls on an oiled baking tray (or use a springform pan or glass baking dish) and let them rise for another 45 minutes.
10. Bake the rolls for 30-40 minutes or until they just turn golden at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Alternatively do as I did and put all the ingredients in a bread machine on the dough setting, then continue from step 8 onwards.