Olive and Sun-dried Tomato Bread

Still on my pursuit for purification therapy, I made this bread it made two loaves one was supposed to be with the olives and the other with sundried tomatoes, I love both but Glen, try as I might is not so keen. So I made one with just the sundried tomatoes and the other with both. The only complaint I got from Glen was the salt on top, which he picked off, I have a sodium deficiency and I tend to salt everything that I eat, including pizza and toast at times. I’ve also been caught dipping my finger in any leftover salt on my plate, before any lectures my bad habit, my bloods get checked regularly and everything is within a normal range.

 

Olive and Sundried Tomato Bread

3 ¼ cup/400g unbleached white flour

½ cup buckwheat flour

1tsp salt

¼ oz/7g quick active yeast (activate with a little warm water and sugar)

Black pepper

1 ¼ cup/300ml lukewarm water

1tbsp olive oil, extra for greasing

1 cup/125g Jar sundried tomatoes

1tbsp parsley

1tbsp chopped fresh basil

1 tbsp sea salt

1. In a large bowl, tip in the flours, salt and pepper. Stir to mix, make a well in the middle pour in the yeast, oil and water – a little at a time, to form a soft but not sticky dough.
2. Lightly oil the bowl, knead the dough into a round until smooth and elastic, put the dough into the oiled bowl and cover with lightly oiled cling film, then leave for 1 – 1 ½ hours in a warm place.
3. Prepare a baking sheet by lightly oiling it, punch the dough in the middle and then knead again for 3-4 minutes, divide the dough into two pieces, rolling each one out into a rectangle about 23x25cm/9”x10”. On one of the rectangles sprinkle the olives. Put the sun-dried tomatoes and basil on the other one.
4. Starting with the long end, roll up the dough, placing it seam side down on a baking tray, repeat with the other rectangle, diagonally slash each loaf 4 or 5 times, cover with oiled cling film, leave to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
5. Brush each loaf with a little water and sprinkle with sea salt, for 15 minutes bake it in the oven at 230˚C/450˚F, then reduce the heat to 190˚C/375˚F and bake for a further 15 minutes, until they’ve risen and a lovey golden colour.
6. Tap the bottom of the loaf, if it sounds hollow it’s baked properly.

Cheese and Herb Bread

After I did the white bread I went a little nutty for homemade breads, I got this major sense of satisfaction from baking my own bread. Just getting it to rise, seeded this inane sense of purity. We should all bake bread from scratch, by hand, if for no other reason than it’s therapeutic significance – think of all the money we could save on not having therapist. All that kneading and pummelling of the dough, either pretending it’s someone’s head or metaphorically all the stress you have been feeling and then just beat the living day lights out of it. The longer you pummel the nicer your bread, so bonus’ all round, one you get to beat the object of your disdain for ages without getting arrested for GBH, ABH or whatever the new abbreviation maybe, and secondly you get deliciously satisfying bread at the end of it…… WINNER!!!!

 

Cheese and Herb Bread

4cups/500g unbleached white flour, plus extra for dusting

¾ cup/90g mature cheddar cheese

1/3 cup/30g grated fresh parmesan

2tsp dry mustard (powder)

2tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 ½ tsp salt

¼ oz/7g sachet quick rise active yeast

½ tsp golden caster sugar

1 ½ cups/350ml hand hot milk

Olive oil for greasing

Beaten egg for glazing

2tbsp grated cheddar cheese for sprinkling

 

 

1. Activate the yeast, place the yeast in a small bowl with a ½ tsp of sugar and a little hot water, mix well to combine all the yeast and sugar together and then leave to one side.
2. Place all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well to evenly combine all the ingredients, make a well in the middle and add the yeast mixture and the milk. Mix into a soft dough.
3. Pour a little olive oil onto kitchen paper and grease a large bowl and enough cling film to cover the dough, place the dough into the greased bowl and cover with the cling film. Place the dough in a warm spot to prove, it should rise to about double size, taking about an hour to an hour and half.
4. Once risen punch down on the dough and knead again for 2-3 minutes, shape into a round and place onto a lightly floured baking tray, cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave in a warm place to rise for a second time, this should only take 20-30 minutes this time.
5. Glaze the dough with the beaten egg, cut a shallow cross on top and sprinkle with the grated cheese ensuring some gets into the grove of the cross. Bake in your oven for 10 minutes at 230˚C/450˚F then reduce the heat to 200˚C/400˚F, and bake until the loaf is well risen, about  20 minutes.
6. If you find the loaf is browning to quickly cover it in foil to help reduce browning. Leave to cool on a wire rack once done.

White Bread

I am still really bad at baking, still very hit and miss, but I enjoy it so I keep trying. My hands are too warm for pastry so unless it’s the middle of the winter and my kitchen back door is open, freezing me and the house, I just stick with store bought, it’s a cop out and I feel defeated, but the lengths I have to go to, to even make a half way decent pastry are insane. I also have an uncanny ability to beat batter to death, maybe I should think of bunnies? I don’t want to batter bunnies. I can make bread though, in fact I am quite good at making bread, I was having issues in the beginning getting it to rise twice, but with a little practice and experimentation I got there in the end. I tend to stick it onto radiators now which works, and despite the fact that I buy the kind of yeast you can sieve straight in with the flour (instant yeast) I still ‘activate’ it in a little warm water and sugar first. I find I’m much more likely to get good

 results that way. There is nothing like the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven, or any baking for that matter. Having a slice of  bread before it’s cooled, slathered in butter, now that is my little slice of heaven.

White Bread

700g strong white bread flour

1tbsp salt

1 sachet of easy blend yeast (7g)

1tsp golden caster sugar

425ml hot water (you should be able to touch it, hand hot)

1.       It’s best to start by warming the flour in your oven for about 10 minutes first, you don’t have to but I have found this recipe to be the most effective. You won’t need the oven straight away afterwards so you can turn it off.

 

2.       Using a little of the hot water and the caster sugar mix it with the yeast, to activate it. Sift your flour and salt into a bowl, then make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast and the water, mix into a dough, use a wooden spoon first and then use your hands, if you have a few dry bits you can add a little extra hot water.

3.       Turn out your dough onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and knead, you need to compress and stretch the dough, over and over again, so start with your dough, flatten the dough away from you in a pushing stretch motion, it should look oblongish, then fold it back, that it is in half and sort of looking like a cube, flip it over and repeat the motion, you need to do this repeatedly for at least 3 minutes, you can’t over knead bread dough and the longer you can knead the better it is for the dough, I read somewhere that about 20minutes is a good amount of time to knead, but it can be hard work, so at least 3 and then just do it until it’s not fun anymore. It will have a sheen and look blistered underneath the surface.

4.        Put the dough back into the bowl and cover with lightly oiled cling film, place it in a warm draft free room and let it rise this will take about two hours, until it has doubled in size.

5.       Once the dough has risen, punch it down in the centre to knock the air out and knead it again for a few minutes, next divide the dough into two, if you are making two loaves, pat each piece of dough into an oblong shape, fold one end into the middle and then the other end over top. Place the dough into two well, buttered baking loaf tins, put the tins into lightly oiled plastic bags leaving the dough to rise again until it is above the top of the tin.

6.       Preheat the oven to 230˚C/450˚F and bake your loaves for 30-40 minutes on the middle shelf (one big loaf will require 35-45 minutes) You’ll know when they are done, if you tap the bottoms and they sound hollow. Gently turn them out of their tins and place upside down in the oven, to crisp up the bottom of the loaves, this will only take about 10 minutes, remove them from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Finally a Baking Success!



bread dough

I keep saying how utterly rubbish I am at baking, and I will not begin to assume that I am out of the woods so to speak in the baking department. That said in the last week I have managed to successfully make a dozen hot cross buns and the pastry and I have made pizza dough, and a loaf of bread.

I would like to sit here and claim all the credit for my success how ever in truth it’s in part down to my wonderful Mother and Delia Smith, the recipe was Delia’s, the trick behind my success was my Mothers.

bread freshly baked

warm bread with jam

hot crossed bun dough

hot cross buns

I shall impart the secret of my success on you all now. The recipe required a teaspoon of yeast and a teaspoon of sugar, and however much warm water it was, all of which I carefully measured out, the recipe said to sieve the yeast, flour, salt and sugar together, well I didn’t do that, I sifted the flour and the salt, but I put the yeast, sugar and a little of the water into a separate little bowl, gave it a good stir and let the yeast activate. Once this had occurred that’s when I made a well in the flour, added the activated yeast first and then the rest of the warm water, gave it a good stir with the wooden spoon first and then kneaded it for about three minutes, before placing it in a bowl, covered it with cling film and then placed it on the radiator for 2 hours to rise. Then I turned out my risen dough, kneaded it on a floured surface for a few seconds, made a oblong shape, folded one end into the middle, then folded the other end over the top. Then I placed my dough into the baking tin I was using, covered it once again with cling film, and returned it to the radiator to rise a second time, once it had risen to just above my baking tin, and filled in to the ends (which actually happens first) I placed it in the over to bake!