Kneading is so yesterday

I know, I know, no knead bread, the brain child of Jim Lahey, has been kicking around the interwebs for years now. Forgive me for being so late onto the bandwagon. I can't remember where I first saw it mentioned. I thought it sounded really interesting, and then promptly forgot about it. Then I saw it somewhere else, and my ears pricked up, I remembered the first mention, read a bit more. And then promptly forgot about it.

You see, I already have a bunch of really good bread recipes, and I know that once I start getting more and more into bread making, I will get buried in the subject, never to return. I used to think this might be a bad thing, but given just how much I LOVE bread (I definitely think it's a genetic thing, my father is the same, it's more of a compulsion for bread than a love), I am beginning to realise that actually this could be the best thing ever. I keep wanting to try my hand at sourdough, but have always been too scared in case I kill off my starter, or come home to a kitchen that has been taken over by a huge bubbling mass that looks like something from a The Blob.

So I swing from "let's start a starter this weekend" to steadfastly ignoring the numerous books I have on the subject. Then I saw this. Seriously, how good does that loaf look?! It was at that point, quite literally about four and a half minutes later, that I began my love affair with the no knead bread.

I am now fully on the wagon. So far on the wagon in fact that I have made this bread five times in the last week and a bit. Call me crazy, call me obsessed, and I will say, yes! Because it's just so darn good! I should also point out that I have no only made this loaf five times, but I have adapted it each and every one of those times. First off I didn't have any walnuts, so I decided to draw on a loaf I'd had in Italy once and add some ground fennel seeds. Delish! Then I made cranberry and pecan, with a little bit of wholemeal flour, then fennel and black pepper...the list goes on.

This loaf is easy, amazingly tasty and can be adapted to pretty much whatever you have in the house as far as I can tell. This is my new go-to loaf, I shall be forever thanking Tracy for opening my eyes to the truth and starting a whole new bread adventure in Our Lovely Flat.

No Knead Bread - My favourite way (so far) 

3 cups bread flour (I sometimes use 1 cup of wholemeal in the mix)

1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 3/4 tsp salt (I never measure this, I'm lazy, I just throw in a large pinch)

1/2 cup raisins

2 tsp fennel seeds, slightly bashed in a pestle and mortar

1 1/2 cups water. 

The night before mix all the ingredients together in a medium to large bowl, it should form a dough, but be a sticky one. Leave, covered with a tea towel until the next morning (aprox. 12-18 hrs). 

Flour your work surface. Turn the dough out in one piece and gently form into a ball, tucking the corners in underneath it to form a nice tight shape. Liberally flour a tea towel and place the dough in the centre, and wrap the edges around it. (I usually place the towel and dough back in the bowl to help hold the shape as you can see in the pictures!) Leave for another hour or so, until doubled in size. 

Half an hour into the second rise preheat your oven to 240C and place your casserole or dutch oven inside for half an hour, with the lid on. Then once the bread is ready, gently turn it from the tea towel, into the hot pan, and return, covered, to the hot oven. Bake for 30 mins, and then remove the lid and bake until the shade of golden brown that suits you most! Remove the pan from the over, and gently tip out the loaf and allow to cool before cutting and eating.

The taste of summer

The last couple of days here have been glorious sunshine, the kind of summer I long for now. I think I've mentioned before that I didn't used to be a summer person, and in some respects I still thrive in the autumn (like Siri, it's the spiced warm flavours and more wintery recipes that dominate my repertoire), which is probably why our shrugging off of the hot weather here and holidaying in the New Zealand winter felt more like a bonus season than a missed opportunity for beach trips and sunbathing.

However, there are many things about summer that draw me in every time, and make me realise that what I really want is a true mix of seasons rather than the seemingly eternal "blah" that most people associate with the British weather (it's not that bad. Well, not always at least). There are two things for me that would make me wish for longer summers, and that's tomatoes and bread. Throw basil into that mix, perhaps with a dry white wine and you've got me, hook, line and sinker.

You can probably guess that we spend most of the summer combining tomatoes and bread as much as possible. Okay, frankly I tend to force this into the depths of winter if I can, so it's not strictly a summer thing, but we all know that those summer tomatoes beat everything else hands down. Usually I roast a bunch of tomatoes whilst making bread and then we have dinner that involves dipping bread into warm roasted tomatoes and their juice. Then suddenly last week I was hit with inspiration, and honestly, I can't believe I hadn't done it before. This time I took some semi-dried tomatoes, chopped them up with some of their oil, tore a whole load of basil and mixed them together, then poked the mix into my rising dough.

The result? Heaven! N said he thought it might be the best thing I've ever made. Fortunately I'd made a huge batch, so for lunch the next day I sliced the pieces in half and made sandwiches. Oh-so-good. So, before the summer is over, before those light evenings disappear, make some of this, pour yourself a glass of wine and relish that vitamin d while it lasts.

Semi-dried tomato and basil focaccia - makes lots.

I cut it into probably 8 pieces, and careful it is very hard to resist not stuffing your face with all of them, there was nearly a fight in our flat over the portions. N won, in case you're wondering, because coming between that man and food is a dangerous business and no mistake (it's almost as bad as coming between Sniff and food, and you don't wanna go there).

500g strong white flour (or plain if you're out, like I was)
15g fresh yeast (or 10g dried instant)
50ml olive oil (the better the quality, the better the bread)
320ml water (I weight mine for accuracy)
Large handful of basil
semi-dried or roasted tomatoes (it's up to you, I used some from a local deli, but next time will just roast my own: punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved and laid cut-side up in a roasting pan, spray with oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar if you like it, sprinkle of salt and some more basil, cook at 190C until just going black at the edges, which will depend on the size of your tomatoes, usually about half an hour for me)

Place the flour and yeast into a bowl with a pinch of salt and stir (if it's fresh yeast crumble it over the top of the flour), make a well in the middle of the flour mix and pour in the oil and then the water. Mix until just coming together and then turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and kneed for about ten minutes, until it is smooth, elastic and no longer sticking to the work surface. Alternatively, place in a mixer with a dough hook and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place bag into the bowl, slightly oiled and leave to rise for about an hour in a warm draft-free place, covered with a cloth.

Meanwhile, oil a large sheet baking tray (like a shallow swiss roll pan).

Once the dough has doubled in size, knock it back gently and then place the dough in the centre of the oiled pan and gently spread it out to the sides using the balls of your hands. You can oil your hands it if helps. Leave to rise for another 45mins or until almost double again.

Meanwhile tear the basil and place in a bowl with either a dash of olive oil, or oil from the semi-dried/roasted tomatoes. How many tomatoes you use is up to you, I like to have lots, so used a large handful. Chop the tomatoes into about thirds and toss with the basil. Leave to stand for five minutes.

Preheat the over to 200C. When the dough has risen, gently poke bits of the tomato and basil mix into it reasonably evenly all over it, any leftover oil rub over the dough. Then cook for 25-30mins until just going golden at the edges. Remove from the over and stand for five minutes before eating.

un peu de la vie française

I found myself walking back from the local knitting shop not only empty handed, but also empty stomached. Not a good sign. When you take grumpy from lack of sleep, and add grumpy from lack of food. Well, that's a whole host of grump I can tell you.

I was envisaging returning home and indulging in a healthy morning snack, like a piece of grapefruit, or a glass of orange juice, when out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a pile of sourdough baguettes in the organic cafe. Before I could stop myself I was through the door and buying not only bread, but cheese and tomatoes too!

With the sun shining, and the pleasant realisation that I didn't have to frantically cobble some bread together when I got home (having failed to bake all weekend due to other responsibilites...such as knitting and to cooking a roast for six people!), I suddenly felt light and carefree. I tore off the crunchy end of the baguette and smugly chomped on it all the way home.

Ah, my subconscious wanting to go to Paris manifests itself so subtly doesn't it?!

Needless to say the grapefruit and orange juice is waiting for tomorrow. Honest.

Sweet oniony goodness

I didn't used to be a big fan of onions. I wouldn't mind them chopped up in a sauce, but offer them to me on their own and I was likely to refuse, quite possibly pulling a face whilst doing so. Then I met N, and he showed me some magic things. The first was his onion gravy. Now gravy was another thing I would spurn, I think because I have never liked meat juices, and the out of the packet alternatives didn't seem to have anything to offer except cloying pasty saltiness. I was much more likely to smother my mash in brown sauce and mustard. Not anymore. N's onion gravy, made very simply with stock, fried onions and red wine is the business, I had it for the first time last Christmas and I've never looked back.

Which is how I discovered fried onions. Oh yeah! Veggie sausages with fried onions, makes my stomach rumbling just thinking about it, and would make me reconsider tonight's dinner plans if it wasn't for the fact that we have no more onions!

Why are we out of onions? Because last night I made a caramalised onion topping for the focaccia we were going to have with the soup. And it was delicious. I might have to make it again, soon, like as soon as the box comes with more onions on Wednesday!

It's really simple too...

caramalised onion topped focaccia - Serves two, generously. (It would probably stretch to four, but we're not sharing!)

bread:

250g strong white flour
10g course semolina (or 10g more flour if you don't have it)
7g yeast
5g salt
25g olive oil
160g water

topping:

4 small onions
1 tbsp oil
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
pinch brown sugar

Mix the dry ingredients so they are combined and then add the water and olive oil and form into a sticky dough. Knead for a few minutes until it becomes elastic and smooth, leave to rise for an hour in a warm place covered with a clean dry cloth.

Meanwhile make the topping: Chop the onions into round slices. Heat the oil over a low heat in a non-stick deep frying pan that has a lid. (I find this dish the best for the job, but a small saucepan with lid will do), add the onions and stir to keep the cooking even. The aim is to gently cook them so they go soft, and at no point get it hot enough to burn or char them. They should be translucent, then golden, rather than brown. Once the onions are very soft (about 20 mins) add the vinegar and sugar and stir to coat the onions. Place the lid on the pan and cook for a further 10-20 minutes until the liquid is absorbed and the onions are caramalised. Remove from the heat and allow to cool,

Preheat the oven to 200C

Once the bread has risen to twice it's size place on a baking dish and spread out into a rectangle, add the topping and leave to rise for 45 mins. Place in the oven on a middle shelf and cook for 25-30 mins, until the edges are just browning, but before the onions get too dry. Remove from the oven and serve warm.

All hail the loaf pan!

The loaf pan has been mighty and victorious in the North London Kitchen recently.

I have finally realised that the key to the perfect loaf is the perfect pan and having made this discovery I don't think I'll ever look back. At the end of last week I made another attempt at a plain white sandwich loaf. Previous attempts had been rather disappointing, yielding either long flat loaves, or even the dreaded mutant bloomer. I was thus understandably wary or trying yet again. However, having had success with the spelt loaf in the newly discovered pan (okay, it should be re-discovered as it has been in the cupboard unused for eight months), I figured one more try wouldn't hurt.

I measured, proved, rested and baked and three hours later this is what I had:


A delicious, tall almost fluffy loaf with just enough crunch to the crust. Whoo!

I'd like to think it was my skill and precision as a baker, but we all know that my skills are still somewhat limited and I have never managed to be a precise baker. So the credit must go to the pan.

Recipe:

10g yeast
500g strong white flour
10g salt
350g water

Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and combine, then add the water and work into a dough. Once the dough has come together well enough to no longer stick to your hands form into a ball and leave in the bowl covered with a tea towel to prove for an hour, or until doubled in size.

Once the dough has doubled, knock it back and place it in a loaf pan gently spreading it to fill the pan, cover again and leave for an hour or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 200C.

When the dough has doubled in size again place in a middle shelf in the preheated oven and bake for 35mins.

Remove from the oven and when slightly cooled turn out from the pan and leave to fully cool on cooling rack.

I've finally done it.

Ta da! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, after eight months of experimenting with bread I have finally managed to produce a loaf that has risen fully and produces full sized slices for sandwiches. I am so chuffed. I think it was all about the loaf pan. Before I was using a longer pan and so getting long, but shallow loaves. This time I used a shorter higher pan and look how great it turned out! It tastes great too. I used some wholemeal spelt flour given to us by my Mum, it has a slightly nutty flavour and is great with cheese and pickle as I discovered this lunchtime. I highly recommend it and will probably hunt out the flour myself.

Spelt bread - one loaf

10g instant yeast
10g salt
500g wholemeal spelt flour
350g water

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and combine, then add the water and mix until you get a ball of dough (about five minutes if you're doing it by hand). Shape the dough into a tight ball and leave to rest in a warm place, covered by a tea towel, for about an hour, or until doubled in size. Knock the dough back with your fist, and place in the loaf pan, gently shaping it so it fits the whole pan. Leave to prove for another hour, or until doubled in size. Place in an oven preheated to 200C for 35 mins. Take out of the tin when cooked and leave to fully cool on a rack.

p.s. I think the bread looking so good is also helped by my shiny new camera! Our food might not always taste amazing, but at least it'll look brilliant!

From a North East kitchen

We've been on a bit of a jaunt; a sojourn up North to visit my parents for a couple of days, and take some in-person birthday wishes to my father.

It wouldn't be a proper birthday without cake, and it wouldn't be me unless I took a little of the North London Kitchen to the North East. So I whipped together another Ottolenghi recipe to try for D's cake.


I also plotted with my Mum to make some bread on Friday so we could have a dinner of bread and salad. As I think I've mentioned, my adoration of all things bread comes from D, and this especially applies to the Italian breads, so with my Mum dutifully having made the ferment for the ciabatta before we arrived I promised to finish it and add some focaccia to the feast.


It all worked out very well indeed; the cake was ready for tea and cake when D got home from work, and a few hours later we had mounds of bread with fresh salad from the garden, roasted tomatoes and cheeses, served with great glasses of wine. Wonderful.

Apart from the great food and company there are other exciting things about being home: I get to use D's amazing camera. The pictures today come from his amazing Nikon, which somehow made even the ciabatta starter sitting on the side look exciting and professional. I've definitely got to get me one of those!

p.s. The only disappointing aspect of the weekend was the icing for the cake. It was supposed to be a lovely thick cloudy maple syrup cream cheese icing. Instead it was so runny when I mixed it that I had to add a tonne of icing sugar, which rather ruined the effect. According to everyone else it was fine, but I was very disappointed. Methinks perhaps it was because I used low fat cream cheese. I have never yet managed to get cream cheese icing to work. I think it'll get one more try, with a full fat cheese, then I might just give it up and look elsewhere for icing ideas.

Oh yes, I could live by bread alone.

It's been glorious in London the last few days. Hot, sunny, with slight breezes, everything you could want from summer. It can't last, this is Britain! But while it does I can't help but want simple light summery foods: breads, salads and of course lashing of British strawberries and cream.

On Sunday we spent pretty much the whole time in the garden. The test match finished by lunch and it gave us no more excuses. We left Sniff curled up on the sofa soaking up some vitamin D and finally did all the bits and pieces jobs we'd been meaning to do for ages. I potted up plants, put copper defenses on pots to ward of the pesky, and persistent slugs and snails and made sure everything had a feed. Meanwhile N cleared out the gutters, striped the weeds from the wall and dispatched any and every lurking slimey pest he could find. It was pretty hot and exhausting work, but very satisfying indeed, especially as we too got a nice vitamin D fix, a bit of colour on our skin, and in N's case a heavy dose of high pollen count induced wheezing. Oops.

After all this work I couldn't face cooking, and having had a baking day cupcake with a cup of tea neither of us wanted a particularly heavy meal. So I opted for my most favourite of all meals ever: "bread and stuff". This meal can never let you down, as long as you get one thing straight; the bread has to be good. Get the bread right and you're sorted. I threw together a half batch of my usual focaccia dough knowing it would rest and prove faster than usual due to the heat and humidity. I then went a bit off piste and sliced half a red onion, and soaked it in balsamic vinegar to add to the topping in addition to the rosemary and rock salt. It was a total winner, adding just a bit more depth to the bread.

Red onion and herb focaccia, adapted from "Dough" by Richard Bertinet.
Makes one big slab (I halved this recipe)

500g Strong white flour
20g coarse semolina
15g yeast
10g salt
50g olive oil
320g water.

topping:
one red onion, sliced and marinated in balsamic vinegar
fresh rosemary
rock salt.

Place the yeast in a large bowl, followed by the flour, semolina and salt and mix. Then add the olive oil and water and mix well until you have a slightly sticky, but workable dough. Leave to rest for an hour, or until doubled in size. oil a baking tray and place the dough on it, slowly pushing it until it fills the tray. Leave to rest for five minutes, glaze with oil and then leave to prove for an hour. Sprinkle with rock salt and rosemary and then carefully place the onions evenly over the surface, being careful not to depress the air from the dough. Bake at 200C until the top is golden. I did mine for 25mins, but a large loaf will probably need 35mins. Remove from the tray to cool slightly, cut into chunks and serve. Best just dipped into oil and vinegar.

We had it simply with oil and vinegar, a little salt and some salad. Va Bene!

Wait a minute, this bread is cake

There seems to always be a glut of kiwi fruit in this house. I'm not really sure how it happens, we get them in our Abel and Cole box every so often but I swear they multiply in the fruit bowl. N has renounced them as a lunch box fruit after I insisted on packed them for him every day for about three weeks. This is acceptable for bananas, but not kiwi fruit apparently. I try and do my bit, eating them as "dessert" after my lunch, but somehow they still build up.

Last week I decided to try and do something different with them, and stem the glut, at least for a week. So I searched the Abel and Cole recipes, kindly provided on their website, and found one for kiwi fruit bread. Perfect, I thought, I can use up the excess and overripe fruit and at the same time produce some bread for lunch. I quickly wrote the recipe up into my scrapbook, not really paying attention to it, and put it aside for later in the week when our bread ran out.

Then, on Saturday morning, I got up, donned my apron, fished out the recipe and began to assemble the ingredients. "kiwi fruit, walnuts, raisins, sugar, honey, mixed spice, flour, eggs..." hang on a minute, that sounds an awful lot like cake! Oops. What the recipe was for really was kiwi loaf, like apricot loaf, you know the "loaf" that is actually just a long shaped cake. So much for my virtuous attempts to use up some leftover fruit.

Oh well, I decided to make it anyway, we'd just have to cope somehow!



It was rather nice in the end. Not as sweet as I'd expected, and with a definite kiwi tang, and slight crunch from the seeds. It went rather well with strong cheese and salad. We just had to remember that it was actually cake and so eat less of it at a time. Yeah, right!




Here's the recipe. From the Abel and Cole website, but adapted slightly by me. It's certainly a winning way to use up all those sneaky kiwi fruit that end up lazing at the bottom of the fruit bowl. But it's not really bread!

* 1/4 cup liquid honey (I cut this down ever so slighty)
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I didn't have quite enough so just used what I had)
* 1 egg
* 1&1/2 cups wholewheat flour
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice (I used this rather the
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* dash salt
* 1 cup raisins
* 1 cup chopped walnuts
* 1 cup kiwifruit pulp ( about 3 or 4 kiwis)

Beat the honey, oil and egg well. Sift the flour, spices and bakng powder and salt and add to oil mixture. Lightly stir in remaining ingredients. Spoon into an 8-inch oiled loaf tin and bake at 350°F / 180°C for 40-45 minutes and allow to cool before serving.

I'm all about the dough

You'll be pleased to know that my adventures in bread making ares still going strong. I tend to stick to the favourites most of the time because it's easier, and a lot of the time recently I have been throwing bread together at night to try and have it ready for the next day. However, every so often I throw caution to the wind and try something totally new.

This week I tried something I have been wanting to attempt for a while; fig and orange bread. As I think I mentioned in a previous post Mildred's, my favourite veggie restaurant here in London, does fantastic bread, and every time we go I must order the bread side order, if only to get the fig and orange bread.

I wasn't quite sure how to go about it, so did my usual trick of guessing and hoping for the best. I'd bought some malthouse multigrain flour and decided to mix that with some plain white to form the base of the dough, then I added figs, orange zest and substituted orange juice for some of the orange juice. The result was absolutely delicious. A lovely moist bread, with a hint of sweetness that went really well with cheese. A total winner that I think will become a regular treat for us. We've got some Stilton coming this week so I think it may well get made even sooner than we anticipated.


This would make a great picnic bread, or one to share, if you can bring yourself to!

Recipe: Makes one large loaf

300g Malthouse multigrain flour
200g Strong white flour
10g yeast
10g salt
200g dried figs (as dark and soft as possible)
zest of one large orange
juice of aforementioned orange,
enough water added to the orange to make it up to 350ml

Put the yeast in a large mixing bowl, then add the flours and mix together well, then add the salt and orange zest, mix again and then add the water/juice mixture. begin to mix the dough together and whilst doing so add the figs. Mix it all together until a sticky dough is formed. Form it into a ball and leave to rest for 1 hr. After resting scoop out of the bowl again, and form into another tight ball, rest for five more minutes, then place on a flat baking tray, leave in a warm place to prove for an hour. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 220C. Once the dough has doubled in size place in the oven. Bake for 5 mins at 220C, then turn the over down to 200C and bake for a further 30 mins. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

A photo essay: Total bliss, or; al fresco dining in Our Lovely Garden (tm).

Ciabatta: stage two

Here finally is my slightly belated ciabatta update. Everything got a bit mad in the preparations for Easter, but I shall post it all in good time.

Having rested the ferment for the ciabatta for 24 hours it was looking and smelling all yeasty and bubbly and really seemed like it had a life of it's own! Look it's all stretchy and fermented:



I added it to the rest of the ingredients and began the final process that would take us through to having fresh hot ciabatta to welcome in the four day weekend. I was slightly concerned as the dough was really wet and in the end I did end up adding lots more flour with it to make it manageable. I wasn't sure if I should have, but I wanted a dough I could shape properly.

The massive amount of dough the total mix made meant I could make four large loaves.



They rested again once they'd been shaped, and then I stretched them out slightly and put them in the hot oven. Having added lots of additional flour I really wasn't sure how they'd eventually turn out, they smelt good, but would the taste and texture be alright?

Oh yes! They came out of the oven smelling amazing and actually looking like ciabatta.



Then we cut into them. I wish the steam had been picked up in this photograph, along with the smell. It was so satisfying.

So, while it was still hot, we divided the bread between us, dished up some of the roasted tomatoes I'd also made earlier, added olives, freshly grated parmesan and a touch of balsamic vinegar and oil. Voila! A perfect and extremely delicious meal served with cold white wine.

There really couldn't have been a better way to welcome in the weekend. Well, at least we didn't think so.

p.s. recipes for the ciabatta and roasted tomatoes to come later when I can be bothered to type them up. Right now there are more important things to be doing: the Arsenal match is about to begin...

Ciabatta: stage one

It's Easter weekend coming up and N and I are taking advantage of the long weekend to escape into the country for a few days. It's a break that we both definitely need and as ever I have been plotting and planning all sorts of little treats to take with us.

I was daydreaming earlier (while I should have been working) thinking about how tomorrow night is officially the start of our amazing long weekend and how we should have something special to celebrate. I was also thinking about how it's been a little while since I did something crazy, different and difficult in the bread department. Since we started the fresh homemade bread resolution I have been sticking to the easy breads, not wanting to try anything too difficult or out of my comfort zone. But, seeing the bushy basil plant on the side, the great mix or large and cherry tomatoes that arrived from Abel and Cole this morning I was reminded of our conversation about how delicious simple food is when it's just right (this during some gushing over the bread, oil and salt starter when N took me out for a celebratory dinner on Sunday night - yes, I know, he's amazing).

So I came up with a plan. I am going to make ciabatta! Then tomorrow night we can have the nice bottle of white wine with fresh hot ciabatta and tomatoes, basil rock salt and balsamic vinegar, perhaps with a hunk of cheese on the side. Good, simple, tasty food to welcome in the weekend. So I have started the process. It takes 24 hours to make a ferment for the bread, so I mixed it this afternoon, covered it and left it on the side. It currently looks like this:



Then tomorrow afternoon I add the other ingredients and then mix again, leave it to prove a while longer, then tomorrow evening we should have tasty fresh homemade ciabatta bread. I'm really excited. Another first for the recipes and omething that pushes my comfort zone and should hopefully bring about not only a feeling of achievement but a delicious dinner too!

Updates to follow tomorrow (and other tasty Easter related treats of course!) ...

Dedication to the cause (Or, bread and books)

We spent our lazy Sunday yesterday pursuing one of our favourite pastimes: buying books. There is something so wonderful about browsing in book shops, and I must admit that N and I do it very well indeed. So well in fact that seven hours can slip by with us barely noticing. Opps!

We returned to the flat very smug indeed with a bag full of lovely purchases, and the smell of secondhand bookshops lingering on our clothing. However, there was no incentive to cook (too many books to look at) and certainly no incentive to bake bread. We ordered a curry and settled down with the taped match in front of us and our newly acquired books littering our laps and sofa.

It was past half eight when we finished eating and I was so tempted to give in and just get some emergency store bought bread out of the freezer (we have three loaves in there from pre-baking resolutions which are agreed to be emergency loaves). But something in me just wouldn't give in. I knew we'd be going to bed late-ish and figured that bread would take a maximum of three hours with resting, proving and baking. So, with N ploughing through one of his new books and yelling match highlights at me down the flat I quickly threw ingredients into a bowl. Using the wonderful pecan and cranberry recipe (mentioned earlier somewhere in my bread making posts), as a guide I made a wholemeal nut and seed loaf using half pecans, half walnuts and a large handful of pumpkin seeds.

Since I know the proportions of flour, water, salt and yeast by heart now all I had to do was work out how much of the nuts and seeds to use (70g nuts, 30g seeds). I then left it to rest and prove as the recipe recommended and baked it for 40mins. By 11.45pm we had a lovely crusty new loaf ready for the morning and the smell of fresh bread to waft through the flat as we lay reading in bed.

It was great, and proves that a little dedication to the cause is always worth it. Books and bread, numbers two and three on my favourite things list.

Another successful lazy Sunday.

Baking Day! (March) Part One: Breakfast

Okay, so technically I start this months Baking Day yesterday, but I figured that since it was February 29th, a sneaky extra day, it doesn't really count! The reason I started early was because I wanted to try out a new recipe for Baking Day breakfast and had no intention of getting up early in order to make it.

The reason it needed making early was because I was trying out cinnamon rolls using a dough that required time to rise. So yesterday morning I donned my apron early and set off on a quest for breakfasty goodness. It was much easier than I expected; a simple sweet bread dough that once rested (for an hour) and risen was rolled out was spread with melted butter and a sugar and cinnamon mix. It was then rolled and sliced to produce the cute looking Swiss roll type chunks and proved for another 30 mins before putting in the oven for 15 mins.

The smell was good before the baking had even begun, and once they were in the oven an amazing cinnamony, bready aroma filled the flat. It was going to be really difficult to hold out trying them before breakfast!



Fortunately I did manage to hold out until this morning. Back they went in the oven for a quick re-reheat to toast up the edges, then they were drizzled with lemon cream cheese glaze and served up with our morning coffee. Totally delicious. They will definitely be becoming a staple of our weekend morning routine.

Lazy bread

Oh we do get through a lot of bread in this flat don't we?!

As I somehow managed to cobble N's lunch together with the last scraps of the seeded loaf (salvaging one measly slice to make sure he had at least something for breakfast) I knew I was in trouble. In about three and a half hours I was going to be wanting lunch, and lunch would mean bread, and oh look, there wasn't any.

Okay, I know that actually bread doesn't take that long to make, especially if I only made a plain loaf that required the least resting and proving. Thing is, I was feeling dopey and lazy this morning and, after the mutant loaf episode, thought that messing around with any dough might be a mistake - especially as I had been planning on making rosemary and sea salt focaccia rolls as my next bread experiment.

Fortunately the combinations of my trusty recipe scrap book and miraculously working memory prevailed. I would make nut and fruit soda bread! *insert 9am sigh of relief here*

Back in the days when we were actually venturing out of the flat on a weekend morning for the papers I had been a regular cutter-outer of the Guardian or Observer recipes if they took my fancy.

One week Dan Lepard had included a recipe for walnut and honey soda bread in his "learn how to bake" column. Knowing that Lepard is very highly regarded in the bread world (yes, his book is on my wish list!) and knowing our joint appreciation of both bread and honey I dutifully cut it out. Although it was a few weeks before I tried it, once I had it became a weekend breakfast regular. Deliciously moist, not too sweet (once I cut down the honey slightly), easily adaptable (hehe, you know me, I just can't resist!) and quick, so quick - it takes less than ten minutes to mix then you can just bung it in the oven immediately for 40 mins, and poof! bread!

I have since tried the recipe with all sorts of things in place of the walnuts, either wholly or in part. Our favourites have been walnut and apricot, and walnut and cranberry with a hint of spice.

Today, lacking walnuts completely I turned to our stockpile of winter unshelled nuts and dutifully shelled the hazelnuts. I still didn't have quite enough so I added dried cranberries to make up the weight. I also dramatically reduced the honey as I wanted a more lunchy loaf. The result was:


Very tasty indeed. It's more like a traditional soda bread when made without the walnut meal and with less honey as the baking powder really comes through, however it is also less dense and sticky, which was exactly what I'd hoped. I was really pleased, not only with the result, but with the fact that I remembered the ole favourite to dig out in times of need. Oh, how I shall never neglect you this long again.

I will still aim to make the focaccia rolls at some point, but for now the soda bread shall reign in the North London Kitchen.

I guess since I've raved about it so much you'll want the recipe. I am posting here the one I actually used, and will post the original (or something more like it - it's bound to have some additions and adaptations!) next time I make it.

Hazelnut and cranberry soda bread (adapted from Dan Lepard's walnut and honey soda bread recipe)

600g wholemeal flour
4tsp baking powder
50g hazelnuts (bashed a bit in the pestle and morter)
50g dried cranberries
50g honey (the clear runny sort)
300g water (plus I needed a bit more when I actually mixed the dough as it was rather dry)

Preheat oven to 200 C

In a large mixing bowl combine together all the dry ingredients. In another microwavable bowl (or in a pan on the stove) mix together the water and honey and warm slightly so they combine together. Then add the water/honey liquid to the dry ingredients and mix together well until it forms a slightly sticky dough. Turn out onto a floured work surface and shape into a slightly domed ball. Place on a baking tray and whack in the oven for 40 mins. It should be crusty and risen once this time is up (I've never needed more or less time remarkably). Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. I ate mine for lunch while it was still every so slightly warm. Delicious!

It's all gotten a little bit seedy here.

Yesterday was that time again, we'd run out of bread.



There is something so comforting about bread, and wholemeal in particular just screams homey goodness. (home-meal perhaps? hehe). Our store bought bread of choice was the wholemeal seeded batch and I figured that since we liked it so much from the shops, why not have a bash at adding seeds to the plain wholemeal loaves I'd been making. So I did. N arrived home last week with a nice selection of seeds from a local health food shop and yesterday morning I set to work adding them to the wholemeal mix.




It's worked out pretty well flavour-wise, but the dough didn't rise as much and it very dense, so I think using less seeds next time would probably be better, especially as it is totally packed with them. But still, let the experiments continue!

As you can tell from the dough resting picture it's been pretty sunny here lately. It's still not warm, but it's bright and Spring is definitely preparing itself to make an appearance. It's so wonderful to wake up to sun streaming in. Not long now til the veggies are growing, flowers showing and breakfast in the garden starts becoming something to contemplate. *sighs*

Anyway, enough of that smug contemplation for one post, on to the recipe!

Wholemeal seeded loaf.

10g yeast
300g wholemeal flour
200g strong white flour
10g salt
350g water
150g mixed seeds (this is what I used, but I think 100g is probably enough, use whatever seeds you fancy, I used linseed, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame)

Mix the yeast and flours together, then add the salt, mix again until combined then add the water and seeds. Mix until it forms a dough, then shape into a tight ball and leave to rest covered by a tea towel for 1 hour. Once rested remove onto a floured surface and form into a tight ball again and leave to rest for a further ten minutes. Then transfer into a proving basked (bowl with a well floured tea towel lining it more like) and prove for an hour. Meanwhile put the oven on to 250 C with a baking stone or flat baking tray inside. After the proving hour the dough should have risen to double it's size. Mine hadn't, but I baked it anyway! Place on the stone or tray in the centre of the oven and mist the oven with a water spray and then wet the bread slightly (to encourage a good crust) Bake for the first five minutes at 220 C then turn the oven down and bake for a further 35mins on 200 C. It should be slightly crusty and sound hollow when tapped. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

The Mutant Loaf from Outer Space!

Our delicious pecan and walnut bread about to run out (oh no!), I decided it was time to get on the bread case again. This time, it about to be the weekend, and having some lunch ideas in mind (post to follow no doubt), I decided to take a step away from out usual wholemeal preferences and make a simple fluffy white loaf. Or so I thought.

I think I was just a bit distracted by the prospect of the weekend beginning and our night out at the cinema and so wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing. I somehow managed to forget the bit in the recipe about forming the dough into a tight ball and just left it all misshapen during it's proving time. The result?

The Mutant Loaf From Outer Space! ("da, da, da" - *scary Sci-fi music moment).



Not the nice smart rounded loaf I was hoping would fill our weekend, but then again one shouldn't discriminate against shape, and fortunately the bread still turned out lovely and fluffy just as I'd hope. Just not round!

Here is the proof that it all turned out in the end:




Too be honest, it was always going to be alright, it's bread isn't it?! Mmm...bread.

Pecan and cranberry goodness

Oh yes, more bread!

There can never be too much bread if you ask me, and bread experiments will probably take up rather a lot of space on this blog, mostly because since resolving to eat only homemade bread there has been rather a lot of baking going on. I'm still trying to work out the averages of how much bread we get through in a week, and thus how many loaves I am going to be making and how often, but to be honest I haven't actually been paying all that much attention, I just make more when the other stuff runs out - sometimes leaving it to prove whilst at a football match and frantically whacking it in the oven at eleven at night when the winning euphoria finally clears and the bread memory kicks in!

Annnnyway. Last night was another bread making one and as I finally had both cranberries and pecans in the cupboard I decided to have a proper crack at Richard Bertinet's pecan and cranberry bread (minus the orange zest, because of course there is inevitably always one ingredient lacking).

As you can see from the pictures this is a rather pretty bread, and tasty to match (at least that's what N assured me when he tucked into his toast this morning). It's a fortunate one because it works well as a breakfast choice (something the sundried tomato and walnut, although delicious, was less suited for) as well as a lunchbox one. This dual function is pretty vital as I like only having one loaf on the go at a time, and have to make sure N has something to eat before tacking his ride to work.

This bread works well because cranberries aren't too sweet, even when dried, and so they provide a great flavour to complement cheeses in sandwiches whilst being tasty enough on their own to make interesting toast. Add to that the slight crunch of the pecans and this bread is away. Although there is no orange in my loaf I think that this is actually better as two flavours in bread for a sandwich is enough to add flavour but not too much to detract from the filling.

Righty, that's enough bread praise for one day. If I don't stop now I'll be going on forever about the virtues of any and every bread! Plus this has just arrived:



Our weekly organic fruit and veg box from Abel and Cole, full of tasty fresh seasonal loveliness (and that sneaky extra box at the bottom is a tasty bottle of wine, hehe!). So I'm off to put the food away and contemplate what weird and wonderful dishes we can make with parsnips this week...

p.s. In case you're interested, here is the recipe for the bread, adapted from Richard Bertinet's "Dough: Contemporary bread making"

Pecan and Cranberry Bread. (one large, two small, loaves)

10g yeast
200g Strong white flour
300g Wholemeal flour
10g Salt
350g Water (he says weighing is more accurate, and he's right)
100g Dried cranberries
100g slightly crushed pecans (I shelled my own and to be honest they were pretty crushed already once I got finished with the nut-cracker! If you're using ready-shelled just break then into thirds.)

Pre-heat oven to 250 C and place your baking stone (or flat baking tray for us cheap-skate plebs) in the middle.

Put the yeast in the bowl and then add the flour and mix thoroughly with your hands. Then add the salt, mix again, then the water. Mix the whole lot with your hands until it just starts to stick together, then add the cranberries and pecans. As it begins to form a dough put onto a non-floured surface and work into a dough making sure the cranberries and pecans are worked evenly into the dough.

Place in a floured bowl and cover with a tea towel to rest for 1 hour.

Remove from the bowl onto a floured surface and separate in half if you're making two loaves. Shape in to a ball (or two) by tucking the dough into itself underneath until a smallish smooth ball is formed. Leave to rest for another five minutes. Place into a proving basket and leave to prove for an hour (yeah, who has these on had in their kitchen!? - line a bowl with a tea towel and flour generously. You can just keep the floured tea towel after use, with the flour still on it, for any future proving. As Bertinet suggests I have four tea towels dedicated to bread making now, two for "proving baskets," two for covering. Apparently they benefit from re-use (without washing) because they hold the yeastiness of the doughs which help the proving of future loaves).

Turn the oven down to 220 C, mist with a water spray and place the loaf, or loaves on the baking stone. Bake for the first five minutes at 220 C, then turn down to 200 C and bake for a further 15-20 mins for the small loaves, or 30-35 mins for a large loaf. Remove and tap to make sure its hollow. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Then eat, lots of it. Mmm, bread!

A bread retrospective. (Or; I am my father's daughter.)

Hello, my name's Rebecca and I'm a bread addict.

I am indeed my father's daughter and have the bread fanatic gene. I can't help it, I just love bread, am obsessed with bread, would eat it for and with every meal. This goes some way to explaining my enthusiasm for the making of our own bread resolution - it's basically a sneaky way to make sure we eat even more bread, and that the flat always smells of it!

We've been committed to this new home-made bread cause for two weeks now and it's going rather well, so I couldn't help but post a bread retrospective to go with the previous cooking one, as I believe bread deserves a place of its own.

I am going to do my best to include these in the order that I tried them. The first two breads I have included are pre-resolution, the rest are from the last two weeks. Also, there are some lacking. I unfortunately forgot to take a photo of the plain white load I made, and I made breadsticks for Valentine's day (yes, yes a post will be forthcoming) and alas didn't get a picture of them on their own. However, I hope the following will keep you sated for now.

Walnut and honey soda bread. This was the first bread I tried, taken from a Dan Lepard recipe in the Guardian. It's so simple it's ridiculous, basically you just throw all the ingredients together and whack it in the oven. No resting or proving required. It's a great breakfast bread for this reason as you can have it baking while you have that first cup of coffee and it's ready just in time for the peckishness to set it. It's also really adaptable. I have been adjusting the amount of honey to make it less sweet and substituting various dried fruits (apricots, cranberries etc) in place of half the walnuts. It works every time and I truly believe you can't mess this bread up. It's great with cheese too. Sconto!


Rosemary and rock salt focaccia. Possibly one of my favourite breads, which was why I was both eager to try it and fearful of not managing to produce a tasty result. I needn't have been too worried as this too seems to be a hard recipe to get wrong. I took it from the BBC website as it was the simplest one I could find, simple to follow, no tricky starters or milk additions, just a nice basic dough. The result was very pleasing. Perhaps not as cakey as the focaccia from Carluccio's that I love, but that's an indulgence and it's nice to have something lighter on hand. I have been mostly serving this with soups (ah, yet another post I should do) or with "Friday night" type dinners of cheese, olives, houmous and such like. Since the doctor has recently told me to put more salt in my diet what better way is there to do it than via bread!

I am extremely fortunate that N shares my love of bread. He is perhaps not so obsessive about it (I think that's a very unique gene) but he is certainly very enthusiastic and was incredibly pleased when I suggested we start only eating bread made ourselves. As a result he bought Richard Bertinet's book "Dough: simple contemporary bread" for me. This was the true beginning of the bread making attempts. The book has four basic dough recipes (white, olive oil, wholemeal and rye) from which numerous breads, of varying difficulties, can be made. I have so far made each dough at least once and have been enjoying the different things he does with each dough. I haven't managed to take photos so far of the white, rye or olive breads I have made, for some reason it did occur to me to photograph the wholemeal attempts (why only wholemeal I don't know as the others have been equally delicious and certainly as photogenic. Oh well, at least that will mean more bread posts to come!).


Small round wholemeal (left) and wholemeal with orange and pecan (right). I made a batch of the wholemeal and then split it, making one small plain loaf and then adding pecans and orange to the other half (Bertinet has a recipe for pecan, cranberry and orange, but I didn't have any cranberries). Both were really nice and a great start.



My next attempt at wholemeal again leaned towards making two smaller loaves. This time a conventional loaf-shaped wholemeal topped with oats (left) and a wholemeal with apricot bloomer (right). The latter being another great one either toasted for breakfast or with a nice strong cheddar for lunch.

Since these results I have started making one large loaf as it suits sandwiches better (and for some reason means we eat slightly less of it and so I don't have to slave over a hot oven every day!) I have made a plain white (which was the most successful in terms of rising, and a plain rye (doesn't rise as well, but tastes great and is more filling). I also tried his olive dough for another rosemary and salt focaccia loaf and sesame breadsticks - both good, although I think the original focaccia loaf was marginally better.


Finally, but my no means least, was this week's walnut and sundried tomato wholemeal bread. Using the pecan and cranberry recipe as the outline I just substituted the walnuts for the pecans and the tomatoes for the cranberries. It worked out well, producing a lovely moist bread perfect for sandwiches. Less good for breakfast, but perhaps that's a good thing as it forced more healthy righteous museli eating!

As I type this I have a large plain wholemeal proving by the preheating oven for this first half of this week. Mmmm...more bread...