Posts filed under ‘it’s all about the bread’
experimenting- sometimes it pays off and sometimes…
Sometimes my experimenting in the kitchen pays off, sometimes…not quite so much.
Take it from me, mashed wasabi potatoes with purple carrots doesn’t work. It should have, but it didn’t. It really, really didn’t work.
I should have taken a picture of the gluey mess that this dish was. Just for the comedic value of how badly it lay on our plates. I’m not sure what was the clincher, but it was like eating funny tasting soupy playdough. (With out the fun of having played with it before hand.)
The Monkeys refused to go near it, purple wasn’t for them. Mr Chocolate bravely tried to plod through it until I told it was ok, he really didn’t have to be so brave. I also gave up after the multiple sips of water in between, just trying to get the sucker down.
So no, I won’t be trying that one again, (and perhaps I shouldn’t have been experimenting on Mr Chocolate’s birthday.)
Lucky for me (and lucky for everyone else involved) these scrolls I have also been experimenting with lately didn’t have the same effect as the purple wasabi playdough.
Pesto Parmesan Scrolls
150g starter
1 tsp yeast
60mls tepid water
100g melted butter
125mls milk
1 1/4 salt
3 cups flour (450g)
parmesan
Add starter, yeast and water- together. Whisk and leave for an hour or so. Mix remaining ingredients together and then knead for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface or until well incorporated and dough is smooth. Leave to prove for a couple of hours. Roll out to a rectangle. Spoon pesto on, grate some parmesan. Roll up dough, slice into portions. Place on a lined tray, allow to prove for another hour or so. Bake at 190 for 20-25 minutes.
In my kitchen…
This week in my kitchen…
There is a whole lot of wonderful limes from my dad’s backyard tree. I’ve mentioned my love of the humble lime quite a few times, I never get tired of them. I’m thinking Coconut Lime Pie, Chicken Lime Pasta, Lime Cupcakes, Lime Marmalade… limes, limes, limes. (I’m trying not to think about caipiroska’s.)
Dark Almond chocolate for strength, patience and clarity. Works a treat… well for a little while anyway.
A new Italian cookbook. Won over at Not Quite Nigella, (which was a rather lovely surprise.)
Organic, spray free, local, seasonal fruit and vegetable box delivered to my kitchen door. Making life a little easier until I can get back to my farmers market lady.
Baking hotcross buns with a sleeping babe attached. It’s how all the bakers are doing it these days, (well ones with new babies anyway.)
Last year I did a few batches of hot cross buns. Trying to find the right recipe that worked for me. I still wanted to tweak it though, as didn’t feel it was quite ‘right’. This time I did part sourdough, part dried yeast… I’m getting there I think.
Hot Cross Buns
200g currants/raisins
50mls water
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 tsp dried yeast
150g sourdough starter
125mls tepid water
50g melted butter
1 beaten egg
1 tsp salt
3 cups flour (450g)
125mls milk
Soak the fruit in the 50mls water, leave for a couple of hours. Mix all ingredients together and then turn out on to a lightly floured bench to knead until you get a lovely smooth ball of dough. Pop the dough back into the bowl, plastic bag over the top and leave to prove for a couple of hours. Out onto lightly floured surface again and divide into 12 portions. Roll into balls. Pop them on a lined baking tray, cover and leave for another prove (about an hour.) Then bake at 200C for approximately 25 minutes.
******
What’s happening in your kitchen this week?
Have a look over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for other kitchen happenings.
sweeping the flour off
the 'flour' after it had been swept...
I’m just sweeping the flour off mama.
It’s a line like that, that stops a girl in her tracks. Stops her right dead in her tracks. Eyebrows fly up and mouth forms a perfectly formed silent O.
Ohh…really little one? Hoping that my first thought after hearing that one little line was wrong… really wrong.
He clarified it for me, by repeating the gesture. See, mama… this how I sweep off allll the flour.
The dirty old house broom gets raised once again, to sweep off the icing sugar delicately dusted over my newly baked Pan de Mallorca.
Nooo!!… Startled and quite surprised he’s the one that now stops dead in his tracks.
I think that’s fine little one, oh, yes…quite enough sweeping I think. Gently prising the broom handle from his Little Monkey paws.
I was only gone five minutes. That three year old is a quick one to tidy.
'flourless' pan de mallorca
I made these last weekend, and again this weekend. I wanted something easy, Monkey friendly and something I could whack in the freezer, ready to be pulled out for standby Monkey Boy school lunches and Little Monkey at home lunches when things were looking just a bit too crazy in the mornings for much else. They both loved them, which is lucky as the crazy mornings happened quite a bit last week.
Pan De Mallorca
(adapted from SBS Feast Magazine March edition)
(and very similar to the Pan de Leche that I’ve made before)
1 tsp dried yeast
100g melted butter
1/4 cup (55g) sugar
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup (125mls) milk
3 cups (450g) flour
3/4 tsp salt
100-150g sourdough starter *
extra brown sugar and cinnamon (or a cooked up diced apple tastes great too.)
In a bowl, add dried yeast, sugar, sourdough starter and 60mls tepid water. Stir to dissolve and set aside for 5 minutes until mixture begins to bubble. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface for a quick knead. Mixture should look smooth and elastic.
Pop back in the bowl and cover, leaving to prove for about an hour. Turn out on to lightly floured surface again, rolling dough out into a rectangle shape. Sprinkle several spoonfuls of brown sugar and a little cinnamon onto dough and roll up, (from the long side.) Cut dough into circles and place on a tray. Cover and prove again for about 30-60 mins, bake at 180C for 25 minutes.
Dust with ‘flour’, (icing sugar)
* If you don’t have a sourdough starter, using just the dried yeast is fine, take out half a cup of the flour from the mixture to adjust the recipe.
(This post submitted to yeastspotting)
cherry plum and almond wreath
cherry plum and almond
A baking challenge?
You bet.
How could I not. It looked delicious. The taste possibilities were endless, and it looked like just the thing to tickle The Monkeys taste buds.
Make it with local seasonal fruit, even better.
peach and blueberry
For how to make one of these wreaths, pop over to Discovering Sourdough.
I’ve written down the changes I’ve made, but it will make more sense if you check out the original recipe first.
Cherry Plum and Almond Wreath
200mls milk
3 tbls sour cream
50g butter
50g sugar
Warm ingredients gently and then cool a little and add
210mls water
Set aside.
450g starter (100%)
650g strong bakers flour
Mix together with liquid mixture and let autolyse for an hour.
2 tsp salt
Add the salt, mixing well with dough hooks.
200g strong bakers flour
Then out on to a well floured board and incorporate the extra 200g of flour. Slowly and over about 10 plus minutes.
Prove for 3 hours
Cherry Plum and Almond Mixture
6 blood plums cut up
large handful of fresh cherries, pips out
3/4 cup of sugar
Cooked up for a few minutes until soft, draining any excess juice off and stir through a large handful of blitzed almonds, (or almond meal if you already have it.)
Peach and Blueberry
fresh farmers market blueberries
This post submitted to yeastspotting.
skippy barm bread
I had good intentions of following the recipe. It just doesn’t often work out like that.
Two minutes in, actually lets be realistic. Thirty seconds in and I already had done something completely different to what Dan Lepard’s recipe said.
Don’t you read the recipe? Mr Chocolate helpfully said.
Um no… I guess I don’t.
Right. It was pointless in continuing with Dan’s method. Heating the beer up surely couldn’t be a crucial part in the breads success could it? I softly closed the book and resumed hackbaking 101. One day, one day, I might be able to follow a recipe.
One day?
Popping my thinking cap on, I wrote down my own recipe. I quite often write down what I’m going to do before I do it. I look at my ratios, see if it looks right, and then make any adjustments to the ratios as I go along.
With the beer, flour and starter mixed together, I left it over night. Coming back in the morning like an enthusiastic kid waiting to open a present. Would it look like it should? Would be a deflated watery mess? Would it have escaped the bowl and be slowly making its way down the kitchen cupboards, making a clear getting away towards the door?
I peeped inside and happily saw, it looked kind of like how I would expect it to look. Excellent. Now to the bread bit.
Behaving well, the end of the day and it’s baking time. A shape and a slash. Bake and ….
Happy mama. It looks decent. Mr Chocolate spies it and demands bread rights. I say not a chance, need to take some pictures, and then you can try it and give the crucial Mr Chocolate test.
It passes.
Phew.
* Note, Dan Lepard asks for bottle conditioned beer with live yeast. I didn’t use that, instead just a regular type of beer. Does this mean it’s now not a barm bread, but instead a regular beer bread? Not sure, perhaps perhaps… Any enlightment from the bread gurus?
Skippy Barm Bread
Hack baked Adapted from Dan Lepard’s The Handmade Loaf
Barm
330mls room temperature beer
1/2 cup (75g) flour
3 good spoonfuls of active sourdough starter (100%)
Whisk together and leave overnight.
Barm Bread
550g barm
4 cups (600g) flour
200mls water
Mix ingredients together and leave for half an hour or so. Add 2 1/2 tsp salt and mix again. Quick knead, and then prove for a while. Another quick fold and then shape. Prove again, slash and then bake at 240C with steam.
I’ve also done an olive bread using the same dough. Just weave your favourite kind of olives through the dough on shaping, prove and then bake. Make sure those olives are really tucked in, otherwise they pop out when baking.
This post submitted to yeast spotting.
fiesta bread cones
There was a birthday fiesta in the air and I had some bread rolls to make and take.
I had been given some cream horn moulds from a friend and along with lots of planned pastry goodies, I also wanted to make some bread rolls. I did a trial run and they seemed to work well. The Monkeys had inhaled them, so I thought they would be good enough to take to the birthday fiesta planned for the weekend.
First up, make some dough. I used the very versatile olive oil bread recipe. When it comes to the shaping stage, divide the dough into even pieces, (approx 1/16 with this amount of dough, with a little left over- I made 17 cone rolls).
Roll them into skinny lengths. Making sure all the bubbles are out. Roll them on an unfloured surface, you want a bit of stick to be able to roll properly.
Once they are rolled them dust them with a little flour, you want them to keep the rolled shape, when proving.
Lightly oil your cone moulds and then roll the dough along the mould. I found it was easier to keep on the bench rather than holding it up and winding it round.
Plain ones are easy or using a little oil and then a light dusting of poppy seeds.
Bake in oven at 240C with steam, for approximately 15 minutes. Oven time is going to vary, I would start watching them like a hawk from the ten minute mark.
Stuff them full of anything that takes your fancy.
We had these with beans, chicken, guacamole and sour cream, (or as The Monkeys and their Monkey Cousins did, stuff a sausage in there so as not to cut in on any essential play time.
Tips * When winding them up, don’t let the dough go over the lip of the cone mould, the bread will bake over and be difficult to get out. When taking the mould out, do it while the bread is still warm.
*****
This post submitted to the wonderful holiday version of yeastspotting.
miracle Pumpernickel
I was in the middle of making this pumpernickel bread and all I could think of over and over again was…. it would take a miracle. (Said in the voice of Miracle Max from The Princess Bride.) For it really was going to take a miracle for this little loaf to work.
I had scanned and then re-scanned recipes for it, and either the recipe wasn’t what I was after or I didn’t have access to some of the listed ingredients. I re-read some more, until all I felt was, like a dog chasing it’s tail. Funny for someone else watching but rather annoying for the poor dog.
What?… How?… Maybe?… Oh crikey.
Nothing else for it. Jumping in and back to hack basics 101. I had a general idea of how it was supposed to be cooked, and I had a pretty solid idea of how I wanted it to look and taste, so off to the kitchen it was.
First I got some rye grain, as I couldn’t get the kind of rye flour or rye meal I was after. Then popped it in my Kitchenaid blender and pulverised it to make a course flour… pickle me in ginger if that didn’t work. I didn’t even know my Kitchenaid could do that. Whoosh!
With flour now in hand, I started on the rest of the loaf. I really felt out of my depths with this one, just because I was solely going on instinct and guessing and not following someone else’s tried and true pumpernickel recipe. Hence, the many mutterings of …it would take a miracle.
But it did work, and I was really happy with it. Dense, flavourful and definitely one I will be making regularly. It had both sweet and sour flavours, very little crust, and quite sustaining for a small slice. It’s not a quick loaf and does take a bit of preparation but I would much rather be eating a pumpernickel coming out of my kitchen as opposed to an imported one coming from Europe, (as that is a LOT of food miles for a small amount of bread.)
Pumpernickel
250g rye flour
200g starter (100%)
50g linseed meal
50g sunflower seeds
25g unprocessed wheat bran
1 tsp dark malt flour
handful pumpkin kernels
200mls boiling water
120mls natural yogurt
1 tsp salt
In a bowl add linseed, sunflower seeds, dark malt flour, wheat bran, pumpkin kernels and boiling water. Whisk together and leave to soak for several hours. Then add starter, rye flour and yogurt. Mix slowly a couple of times, with 10 minute rest intervals in between. Then add the salt and mix well again. In an oiled and lined with baking paper tin spoon mixture in. Making sure there is no gaps. Cover and prove until risen by about a quarter. This took for me about 7 hours, will depend on the room temperature though.
Cover with aluminium foil and bake at 220C for 15 minutes, then lowering the temperature to 190C bake for approximately 35 minutes.
Cool in tin for 15 minutes, keeping the aluminium on. Then remove from tin, and cool on rack. When it’s cold, wrap it in baking paper for 24-48 hours before eating.
*******
and just because I can….
this post submitted to the wonderful yeastspotting
decluttering and a ploughman’s lunch
I’ve been decluttering.
Really decluttering this time.
I am constantly talking of decluttering and even get rid of a small bag or two of ‘stuff’ fairly regularly. However this time around, it’s the big guns. Everything must go. Well not quite, but everything must be re-evaluated and re-assessed to see whether it really is needed or wanted.
Living in a small living space, requires constant reassessing of said ‘stuff’. I try to be very careful of what comes in the door, but still the ‘stuff’ mounts up. And mostly it’s just stored away, under the ‘maybe we will need it one day’ label. With another baby on the way, space is kind of important. Not that babies take up much room, but I know I’m going to enjoy an empty draw or a cleared shelf space a whole lot more once the decluttering as ended.
One thing I have been going through is all my resource folders. I had actually forgotten I had them, as there was a pile of other ‘stuff’ in front of the cupboard door for so long, so much so, that I couldn’t open the door. Front pile gets smaller and shifted. What’s behind there oh…more ‘stuff’. Goody.
Resource folders like,
House ideas- still haven’t bought that house.
Gardening how to’s- I’m still just making do with pot plants, that large secret garden is still a while off.
Massage Therapy notes- too many years ago, am I really going to look at it again?
Old work stuff- come on, it’s been awhile…quite a while.
A years worth of French notes- Parlez vous anglais?
And a whole lot more.
One good thing to come out of all of this, is just moving it somewhere else. Not another folder or another shelf, but online. Having stopped myself from using Pinterest since I heard about it, (as I did not need another digital distraction) I’ve decided that quite frankly it’s a bloody good idea, and now all my scrappy pieces of paper instead of cluttering up my flat, can now clutter up cyberspace. Ahhh, quite liberating really.
So while I don’t need to add any more screen time to my life, I’m loving having a place to store all those ideas that don’t take up my living space and doesn’t gather dust… and I’m quite happy with that trade off.
So what’s all that got to do with a ploughman’s lunch? Not a lot really, but a girls got to eat, and I had had a ploughman’s lunch roll on my mind for quite some time.
Time to get that thought on to my plate.
Ploughmans Lunch Roll
seeded bread roll
lettuce
your favourite strong cheese
apple slices
chutney
Ploughmans Lunch Bread Ingredients
300g starter (100%)
50g (1 cup) unprocessed bran
50g (1/2 cup) linseed meal
3 tbls LSA
2 tbls chia seeds
100g spelt flour
300g strong bakers flour
300mls water
1 1/2 tsp salt
Make it up in your favourite bready fashion.
(I gave an overnight prove, shaped, and proved again. Sprayed rolls with water and then baked at 240C with lots of oven steam.)
******
This post submitted to yeastspotting
Fruit and Nut Rye
There is something about truly wholesome food that feeds the soul. A simple seasonal dish, fruit and vegetables picked at their best. Honest food that nourishes, heals and restores.
It could be something as simple as revitalising an appetite or tantalising those taste buds. Inspiring to cook better. I was watching a cooking programme the other day and got so excited about the simple ingredients the chef was using. The presentation was beautiful, the colours, the textures and also the fact that it took just a few minutes to prepare.
Food is exciting. It can be wonderfully vibrant. It brings people together. The textures, the smells, the colours all mixed together can do so much. As I quite often write, it doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t have to take half a day to prepare.
Packets don’t have the same effect. Jars are unlikely to as well. Fruit and vegetables with their genetic diversity dumbed down for convenience and then stored for great lengths of time do not have the same qualities and effects of their seasonal local heirloom variety counterparts.
I love sweet things, and don’t have any issue with sweet recipes in moderation. However I do think that in our society sugar is being used as a substitute for taste. Salt is right along side it. A product lacking in flavour, health, anything nourishing what so ever will be added to. What with? Sugar and or salt. It deadens the taste buds, you want more, your satisfaction levels get confused and more gets consumed. Using ingredients that are easily identifiable, and letting their real flavours shine through brings dishes to the table that make a person smile.
Listen closely to a small child with their favourite simple piece of fruit, and more often than not, slow enjoyable eating sounds will be heard. A sun kissed strawberry brings nothing but happy slurps and red stained fingers and mouth. Taste buds heightened and ignited. A lesser strawberry would still be consumed, but leaving no satisfaction, taste buds lying dormant and on finishing it, you’ve already forgotten about it and moved on.
Bread is no different. For this bread I wanted something that nourished every part of me. A couple of slices for breakfast that would leave my taste buds awakened and my body energized.
Fruit and Nut Rye
300g starter
200g strong bakers flour
100g rye flour
50g linseed
100g sultanas
50g chopped pecans
25g unprocessed wheat bran
1 tsp dark malt flour
275mls (approx) water
1 1/2 tsp salt
handful of raw almonds
Mix all ingredients together except the salt. Resting period for about 40 minutes. Add the salt and mix again. Two long proves with a quick knead in between. Shape or pop in an oiled loaf tin, making sure you throw in a handful of whole raw almonds at the bottom of the tin and bake at 240C with plenty of steam. I baked this one for about 40 minutes. Then gently flipped the loaf out of the tin and into the oven again for another 5 or so minutes, bottom side up, to toast the almonds a little more. Cool on a rack, then wrap and leave over night before cutting into.
This post submitted to the wonderful yeastspotting
Purple Carrot Bread
Now if I had a back yard garden I would have rows and rows of heirloom carrots growing. Not because I have an over whelming taste for carrots all the time, (although I do quite like them.) But because there are so many different colours you can grow. Orange, yellow, white, pink and for todays bread, the lovely purple.
I don’t often see them for sale, however my local farmers market has been stocking them the last few weeks so I’ve been stocking up. The Monkeys needed a little convincing they were indeed still carrots. A raised eyebrow and a sceptical look that only a 3 and 5 year old can give on being told, ‘of course they were carrots, taste them’.
So why should you eat an heirloom variety carrot?
* They taste fantastic. If you are comparing it to an insipid supermarket pale old orange carrot- well, there is no comparison.
* Encouraging genetic diversity.
* The purple carrots are full of antioxidants, and… they make things a pretty purple colour, (like this bread.)
Purple Carrot Bread
150g sourdough starter
150g purple carrots- steamed/ mashed
25g wheat bran
125mls water + purple carrot water from cooking
225g strong bakers flour
1 tsp salt
I did an over night prove in the fridge for this one. Baked at 240C with steam.
The result is a soft, chewy crumb similar to adding oats in a dough. The purple cooking water from the carrots adds to the intensity of the colour. The next lot of bread I made was just with the carrots, and no cooking water- resulting in a slightly less intense colour.
Next stop, Purple Carrot Cake…
This post submitted to yeastspotting.
