Magic Bread Dough

Since I embarked upon my quest to make better food bread has been a big focus.  I started looking at ingredients in shop bought bread and before I had done much research at all I decided action was needed.  This is the second bread recipie I have tried so far and I love it... but this one is magic.

As much as I love making sourdough it takes it's own precious time and I know that finding the time to do all that's needed to make it can be a challenge.  To this end I decided to stretch my skills and this felt like a sensible way to stretch them.

This is Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall's Magic Bread Dough recipe and I bloody love it.  I am experimenting with different things to do to it and I will keep you updated.

This dough can be used for:

pizza bases,
flat breads,
rolls, (see below)
bread,  (see below)
bread sticks,
stuffed bread sticks (work in progress here), and,
pitta breads.

You can also freeze it (according to Hugh), I have some in the freezer at the moment so I will report back...

Enough waffle, let's make bread.  These are the shortest instructions ever...

Take 250g of plain flour, 250g of string white flour, 10g of salt, 5g of fast action yeast and 325ml of warm water.  Put all of these things in a bowl and combine them together.  Then knead till it comes together, it will be stciky but try not to add too much flour, just stick with it.  Once it's come together and you have put 10 or so minutes kneading into it leave it to prove in a warm, dry place for up to two hours, till it's doubled in size.  Knock it back and it's ready do do stuff to!  How easy was that?

For a loaf or rolls shape it now and leave to prove again till it's doubled in size and then bake.  For rolls take a squash ball sized lump and round it off, it will be a tennis ball size when it's proved.  Then bake them in the oven at 220 degrees C for up to 12 minutes till they sound hollow.  For a loaf shape it and prove it, then tip it onto a hot floured oven tray and put it in the 220 degrees Celsius oven for 25 minutes to start, and bake for longer if needed till it sounds hollow.

This is my new quick bread recipe.  You could make up the mixture at the start of the day, prove all day and then knock back and bake in the evening.  Easy!  Coming later on this week I will have an even quicker bread recipe for emergency eatings (but I need to decided which recipe I prefer, oh no!  I need to make more bread!) so keep your eyes peeled for that!  Enjoy!

Homemade Pizza

We love pizza in this house, we like lovely fat, unhealthy take away pizza, we like crispy, slightly healthier oven pizza and we adore the pizza from the kebab shop in the village.  We have never made pizza at home however... till this weekend.  

Pizza base, with home made tomato sauce, mozzarella,cheddar cheese, green olives, Parma ham and sun dried tomatoes.  Brian added some Franks Hot Sauce because he's a spice monkey. The bases are an odd shape, but we tried!

Pizza Base:

This mix makes 6 bases of this size (and is freeze-able) and it has many other uses.  It is Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall's Magic Bread Dough.  Once you have made the dough as in the link above and it has been knocked back  flour your surface, hands and rolling pin and take a sixth of the dough and roll it into a... erm... a shape.    Brian's one, above, was 'inspired' buy the Millennium Falcon.  Let it rest while you do the rest of the preparation so it has time to form into a stable structure and doesn't behave like a jellyfish.

Pizza Sauce:

This is an improvised 'what do we have in the fridge, Babe' recipe.  Take a big-ish handful of tomoatos (I had cherry ones needing used so that's what went in) and put them in a pan with a chopped onion and some chopped celery.  Add a little oil and let the tomatoes pop.  I imagine if you were using salad tomatoes chopping them might be an idea.  Once the tomatoes were soft and happy add a tin of tomatoes and let this simmer.  Season it with salt, pepper and mixed herbs, or some oregano.  Once it has all come to the bubble and reduced transfer it to a blender and whizz till smooth.  The put it back in the pan and let reduce till it's a spreadable consistency.  This made far too much sauce for just two pizzas so we had the remainders on pasta for dinner the next night.

Toppings:

This bit is easy!  Grab what you want and throw it on but don't over do it, or your base won't cook in the middle.  When I was a student I worked in a kitchen making pizzas and I learned that less is for sure more when it comes to all toppings (except cheese, in my book).  Throw on what you want and enjoy!  It would suggest making the pizza up on the pizza tray, Brian topped his first and then the pizza tray went in the oven so I thought I'd try and make mine on the board and transfer it... fail.  I had a calzone.

The final stage, the bake:

Now that you have your sauce, your base, and your toppings you need to preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celcuis.  If you are using a pizza stone then make sure you heat this in the oven and if not then make sure your tray is hot to start. This means you need to work quickly, but that's part of the fun... Put on the sauce, the cheese, and the toppings and get it in the oven quickly!  Ours took eight minutes to cook, but keep an eye on them and do not let your toppings catch, if the base does it will be fine (or better).

When you're happy with the bake take it out of the oven and let it rest.  For goodness sake let it rest for a couple of minutes and it will cut much better and be easier to eat.  And now the wait will be worth it, enjoy!

Bread Porn

I love bread.  Who in their right mind doesn't?  I love toast, I love cheese on toast.  I love tomato toast. I love sandwiches.  I love the taste, the smell, the texture...  I love all of it.  Together. At once. Not exactly healthy but I have made an exciting discovery.

I can make bread. 

If I make it I value it more and I don't just throw it in my face like a child with a tube of smarties and it it is so much easier to make than I had ever dreamed.  I have a favourite kind of bread too... Sour-dough.  It also turns out that sour-dough is one of the easiest breads to make a good job of, with little effort and it is cheap -it costs me around 30p to make a loaf!  If you have water (from the tap), some fast action yeast (£1 for 100g in your local supermarket) 10g of salt (not even 1p!) and some strong bread flour (around 85p for 1.5kg)  then you have no excuse not to make some bread porn for yourself.  

But I need a starter I hear you cry!  Well, you sort of do, but you also sort of don't.  I am planning to embark on starting a starter in the near future so I shall report back on it's lovely bubbly, smelly, glorious-ness in due course.  However if you don't have access to a starter you can still make sour-dough that looks like this:

Please excuse the tattiest breadboard in the whole of the bloody universe but it's what I have. 

So, on to the fun bit.  How do I make this glorious lump of happiness?  This is based on a recipe from River Cottage Every Day by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (which has fast become my favourite kitchen book, but more about that later) and although it takes time it takes it's own time, not yours.  What I mean by that is that you can start it and let it do it's thing while you do yours.  By evening it's ready to go in your face with dinner and by the morning it is perfect to toast, or to eggy up and millions of other options... then the rest is ready for bread crumbs, for sandwiches, for anything you take your mind to.  

So now you know how it fits into my eating day let me tell you what goes into it.

250g and then 250g of strong white bread flour

5g of fast action yeast

325ml of warm water

10g of table salt (or milled, so long as it's fine)

Any time of an evening (for me normally about 2100 when I make Brian's packed lunch): Combine the 250g of the flour, the yeast and the water together to make a firm dough.  Leave it in the bowl, cover it loosely with film and let it sit over night in a warm place (but not hot, we don't not want a dough monster all over anywhere).  

In the morning I put the dough hook in the Kenwood, add the remaining 250g of flour and the 10g of salt and leave the dough to kneed it self while I have my shower, anywhere between 0700 and 0900.  Then I take the hook out and leave it again in your warm place of choice.  

Come elevenses (predictably 1100) I knock the dough back (which is a posh way of saying that one should give it a good thump. I find it helps if you throw it about a bit too... Then leave it again in the warm and lovely place. 

After lunch (anywhere from 1230 to 1330) I knock it back and shape it into a ball.  I am hoping that some kind birthday husband will bring me a bread basket for my birthday, but till then I am using a big old melaware bowl, oiled and floured.  

Threeses (again, predictably 1500) the oven is preheated to 250 deg C, which is as high as my oven goes and I put a small pyrex bowl of water in the oven along with a flat baking sheet. As the water evaporates it makes a lovely steam in the oven, hence the bread crust comes along nicely. Once the oven is up to temperature I flour the baking sheet, put the dough on it and then put it in the oven for 15 minutes at the high heat.  After that I turn the temperature down to about 210 deg C and leave it for anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes.  

Take it out, tap it's bum and make sure it sounds hollow. Then have patience and  let it cool for at least 20 minutes (or you will ruin it, I promise it's worth the wait) and there you have it.  Loaf.  It will be cool in time for dinner at around 1800.  This is how it works in my day, which I am lucky to do as I am at home all day at the moment, how this will translate to the working day I need to figure out... wish me luck on that one!

Plonk it on the table in front of an unsuspecting guest or a hungry house-fellow and you will have a friend for life (and if you're lucky people will ask you for a loaf and if you deliver...).