Bread « Cyder with Eloise

July 26, 2010

Chorizo Picnic Bread

Filed under: Recipies — Tags: Bread, Chorizo, Lunchbox, Picnic — tamara @ 7:50 pm

Sunny daze! Picnic with ginger beer and savoury picnic bread. This bread can be made the day before, just store in the fridge.

Ingredients
400g bread flour
10g dried yeast
1 tsp salt
5 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
200g chorizo, thinly sliced
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp tomato purée
75g pine nuts
200g jarlsberg or gruyere cheese, grated

Method
Sift the flour, yeast and salt into a bowl. Slowly add 4 tbsp of oil and 250ml warm water. Mix to form a soft dough and then turn out and knead for 10 minutes. Lightly grease the bowl with oil and then put the dough in the bowl and cover with cling-film and leave to rise in a draft free place for 1 hour until doubled in size.
In a dry frying pan lightly toast the pine nuts and then set them aside. Add the remaining oil to a frying pan and lightly cook the onion, chorizo and chilli flakes until the onion is soft and the chorizo has imparted some of it’s flavour to the oil in the pan, turn off the heat and stir in the pine nuts.
Once the dough has risen lightly knead and roll out to approximately 30cm square. Spread the tomato purée all over the dough and then layer over the chorizo mix and sprinkle evenly over the cheese.
Roll the dough up so that the filling is completely encased like a swiss roll. Squeeze the dough gently to lengthen it in to a sausage approximately 50cm long and compress the filling. Then slice the sausage into 8 equal lengths approx 6cm.
Grease a round cake tin preferably with a loose bottom.
Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 (200c). Arrange the dough in the tin so the cut ends are facing up. Cover with cling-film and leave to rise for 45 minutes. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the bread has turned golden brown. Remove the bread from the tin and cool on a wire rack. To serve just tear and share.

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May 23, 2010

Shami Kebabs & Flat Breads

Filed under: Recipies — Tags: Bread, Dips, Lamb, Lunchbox — tamara @ 12:27 pm

I have been testing different flat bread recipes to replace my reliance upon to store bought pitta bread, I knew I could do better but I had struggled until now to find a method that produced flat bread that would last a few days so that I could bake them on the weekend and still use them for week day lunches.

Flat Breads
Ingredients
200g white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 tsp dried yeast
160ml water, tepid
1 tbsp olive oil

Method
Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Dissolve the yeast by sprinkling it over the water and then add the olive oil to the water. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the water a little at a time while mixing by hand. Once all the water is incorporated knead the dough on a floured surface for about 5 minutes, add more flour or water as necessary to produce a soft, elastic dough. Leave the dough to rest for approximately 45 minutes.
Heat a cast iron skillet or heavy based frying pan.
Divide the dough into 8 balls and roll out each ball individually on a floured surface, into a rough circle approximately 15cm in diameter. Place the flat bread into the skillet and using a metal or wooden spatula press down evenly on the surface. Cook for 45 seconds each side. When you remove the flat bread from the pan immediately fold in half and place on a warm plate covered with a tea towel. Repeat with remaining flat breads.
If kept well covered these should last for two to three days. You can reheat them on a grill or BBQ or eat cold.

Shami Kebabs
Ingredients
500g minced lamb
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 inch ginger, grated
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1 egg

Method
Grind all the spices together in a pestle and mortar, then add to the lamb & egg. Mix well and then form the meat into a sausage shape around skewers.

If you use wooden skewers then make sure you soak them first. 500g of mince should make about 8 kebabs.
For best results prepare the kebabs up to 24hrs in advance and refrigerated once prepared, this let the flavours develop and the shape of the kebab will be easier to maintain.
These are best cooked on a BBQ but you can grill them if you prefer.

Serve the kebabs with the flat bread some salad and tzatziki.

Tzatziki
Ingredients
4 tbsp Greek yoghurt (Total, full fat)
1/2 cucumber
1 handful of mint, finely chopped
pinch ground cumin
pinch of salt

Method
Grate the cucumber and squeeze out excess juices. Then mix all the ingredients together well.
This will last for a week in the fridge, just give the yoghurt a quick stir to bring the ingredients back together.

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May 21, 2010

Sour Dough Bread

Filed under: Recipies — Tags: Bread — tamara @ 10:56 am

Today I am making my second attempt at sour dough bread from my new starter. Not that the first one did not go well, I am still eating it a week later and it’s very tasty, but the uncooked loaf was very wet so I had to use a loaf tin in which to cook it. This time I have tweaked my recipe as I prefer the cobbler style loaf, which my first attempt would have been too wet for.

See the recipe for the starter here.

Stage 1: The Production Leaven

Ingredients
50g sourdough starter
150g wholemeal flour
300ml water

Method
Mix all the ingredients together into a wet dough.
Cover and leave in a warm place for 12-24 hours until roughly doubled in size.

Stage 2: The Loaf

Ingredients
440g production leaven
330g rye flour
100ml water
salt to taste

Method
Mix all the ingredients together into a sticky dough.
Form into a cobbler shape and place on a greased baking tray, using a sharp knife slice a cross though the top of the loaf.
Leave to prove for the final time until almost doubled in size, from 2-8 hours.
Once ready, bake at gas mark 9 (240c) or as hot an oven as possible. Bake for 50-60 minutes, reducing the temperature to gas mark 7 after 10 minutes.

UPDATE 21 May 2010
Just realised I published this by accident! I have now made 4 loves but still not happy with the final recipe. Keep in-touch for updates and soon I hope to have a great recipe to share.

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February 21, 2010

White Bread

Filed under: Recipies — Tags: Bread — tamara @ 10:45 am

Yesterday I made Hot Cross Buns and now I’m in the mood I want to bake something else!

I love to make bread, I find it very relaxing, maybe because on a day when I have time to make bread it means I’m not rushing around like mad. My favourite bread to make is Fougasse, a recipe I learnt from Dough by Richard Bertinet. This is delicious dipped in some good olive oil and balsamic vinegar, but unfortunately it is useless if you want to make a ham and cheese sandwich.

I have fond memories of my old flat mate in London and great friend Emmanuelle who used to pop to Marks & Spencer to do a shop before heading back to Paris to see her family to stock up on English food such as “Toast”, which is what she called our plain white bagged loaf. I can understand why, I do much prefer the Fougasse, Olive breads, Focaccia and Sour Dough but sometimes you do need a good plain white loaf of bread. I have struggled to find a good recipe to make a “Toast” loaf, but I think this is the closest I have come.

Another issue I have found with baking loafs of bread is the tins, most shops only sell small tins (2lb tin: 23cm x 13cm), but last summer at a car boot sale in Suffolk I picked up an Extra Large Loaf Tin (26cm x 15cm) with a double thick base.

When a recipe suggest you leave the yeast or dough to rise in a warm place be mindful that most modern kitchens are adequately warm enough. Do not try and squeeze the mixing bowl in to the airing cupboard it will be just too warm and the bread will either over rise or become too yeasty in taste. Just make sure the bowl/tin is covered and kept away from drafts.

I also learnt recently that it is possible to over knead dough. I have often blamed my baking failures on not enough effort being put into the kneading process, but if you over knead the dough it can over develop the gluten and become stiff.

*This recipe of for a large loaf tin, but you can separate the dough at the second rising stage and place in two smaller loafs tins if you wish.

Ingredients
400ml Milk
20g Dried yeast
15g Sugar
900g Bread flour
10g Salt
100g Butter, melted
2 Eggs, beaten

Method
Heat the milk in a pan to lukewarm and then dissolve the sugar and sprinkle over the yeast, stir until all the yeast has been dissolved. Set aside for 10 minutes until frothy.
Put 150g of the flour into a bowl and stir in the yeast mixture. Set aside for 20 minutes until frothy.
Sift the remaining flour and salt into a mixing bowl, add the butter, eggs and yeast mixture then bring together to form a soft dough.
Cover and leave to rise until doubled in size.
*Grease the loaf tin and then turn out the risen dough and shape to fit. Place the dough in the tin and set aside again covered, leave to rise until the dough should fill the tin.
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5 (190c/375f). Brush the top of the loaf with milk and bake for 50 minutes or until the crust is golden and the dough has come free from the side of the tin.
Remove from the oven and when tin is cool enough to handle empty out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

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