Pan de yuca! Ecuador!

I have had that incredible song by SASH! in my head all morning... ECUADOR!!! I'm pretty sure that song is from (cough) 17 years ago when I had by 13th birthday while in France on an activity holiday. I remember ringing my parents from a payphone (remember them?!) on the campsite reporting that I was having the time of my life and definitely was not homesick at all (the first part was true, the second a slight lie) with this playing in the background.

Right, back to floury things. I couldn't find pure tapoica / cassava flour. But I did find Dove's farm bread flour gluten free substitute type thingy, made with potato and tapioca flour. So I gave these little balls a try...

Ingredients:
1/2 cup grated cheese (I used cheddar. Pretty sure this is horrifically unauthentic.)
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups said flour
1/2 tsp salt.

Method: Stir together, then give a good blitz with a stick blender (or chuck all in a food processor if you like). Apparently at this stage it can be refrigerated for a couple of days.

I then sprayed a mini muffin tin with olive oil, then put a fat teaspoon of batter into each hole and baked at 220 degrees C for 15 minutes, and...

Little cheesy chewy balls of yum. I have no idea how the Ecuadorians eat these (although I found a lovely piece about these with frozen yogurt which I think could be ace) but being clueless and British I went for a salad. Then realised I had no balsamic vinegar. Naked salad is definitely not the most inspiring side, sorry Ecuador! But lovely cheesy balls :)

JB x

Around the world in a good few bakes... Iranian bread (Noon Barbari)

So, this week has brought me to... Iran!

Now, when I think of Iran I think of... umm... it used to be known as Persia, and they probably like rosewater?!

Pretty rubbish knowledge. Soz Iran. So I did a quick search and came up with a few fun facts. Basically, I am hugely ignorant, and Iranian food sounds amazing. Nuts, spices, rosewater (yay), orange blossom water, dried fruits and other such wonders abound. Also, there are a number of traditional breads which include this one. Any country which loves their spices and bread is good with me, so here goes... Apologies to anyone with and Iranian connections who may be offended by my attempt at this traditional bread!

Noon Barbari is, as far as I can gather, a traditional flatbread which has a couple of USPs. Firstly, it had these (four?) grooves in it, and second it is glazed with a funny mixture of baking powder, water and flour boiled together before being baked (Roomal), which gives it a fab crust and also a slightly browner appearance that you might expect.

Ingredients:

• First stage: 1 1/2 tsp dried yeast, 1 1/2 tsp honey, 1 1/3 cups lukewarm water, 1 1/4 cups bread flour. Whisk together until a bubbly batter is formed. then leave it 20 minutes til it's frothy and spongy looking...

• Next, add 1 tsp salt and 2 cups more flour, along with 1/2 tsp baking powder, and knead or dough-hook for 10 mins. It may be sloppy - keep going and it will come together! It did need a good 10 minutes to become workable. 

Rise for an hour...

Knock back gently, then I let it rise again for about half an hour while I made the Roomal...

• Roomal: 1/2 tsp flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 cup water - plop it in a jug, microwave for a minute until it boils for a bit, give it a whisk and then leave it to cool. It looks weird. Roomal done.
• Next... shapey shapey... I made four ovaly things, then dipping fingers into the glaze brush it all over and make four grooves along the shapes...

Lastly, sprinkle with nigella seeds...

And finally, BAKE! (a la Sue off GBBO) for 20 mins at 200 degrees C. This is what I ended up with...

Overall, it is a yummy bread. I have no real idea how close I may be to an actual traditional Noon Barbari, but it is light and fluffy with a chewy, crispy crust. Apparently it is eaten with crumbled feta style cheese and nuts. I indeed did eat one for dinner with crumbled, warmed feta, roasted peppers, roasted tomatoes and thyme. And it was ruddy delicious. Iran, excellent work :)

Next... Ghana. Better get researching!

JB x

Picnic loaf

This is an idea I've always been a little sceptical about. Get a perfectly good loaf of bread, remove the middle, and fill it with something else. But - San Francisco does it with some pretty ace results (clam chowder in a sourdough bowl is proper lush) so I thought I'd give it a go...

Basically, I baked a round loaf (cob) and wrapped it in clingfilm and froze it last week (or buy one). Then , cur off the top, and filled it with roasted veg (courgettes from the garden, smug face), mozarella and pesto. Then squidged it together, wrapped it up nice and tightly, sat a big fat carton of OJ on top and fridged it overnight.

The next morning, this is what we had for our picnic...

Losh. Will repeat - maybe with something a bit more flavoursome than mozzarella - goats cheese or feta would be lovely I think.

JB x

Brioche mark II

Well. I have found happiness. And, unsurprisingly, it contains a mildly alarming amount of butter.

Further to the last brioche post, I was a little disappointed with the results. Step forward Michel Roux Jr (not literally, that would have been far more exciting than me getting a book out of the cupboard. Which is what actually happened).

Anyway, this epic cloud of butter and egg enriched heaven was what emerged a mere 18 hours after the process began...

It was incredible...
Here is the recipe (slightly altered by my own incompetence but it worked beautifully all the same...). We froze half of it and it revived itself really nicely too. Again, I'd always use a machine as I don't have arms of steel (or even anything more solid than a rubber band).

• 15g fresh yeast
• 500g plain flour
• 6 eggs
• 1  tsp salt
• 50g (vanilla) sugar
• 250g unsalted french buttery loveliness (we used President), nice and soft and warm
• some egg wash to glaze

Method:
First, put the flour and yeast into a bowl and rub in the yeast, then add the eggs one at a time to your mixer with the dough hook on a reasonably slow speed. When it's all incorporated, it should become smooth and elasticy after about 5 mins. Then add the butter in a few additions, again with the mixer going, ensuring it's all thoroughly mixed in. Give it another 7 or so minutes at a slightly faster knead. You will create a silken ball of buttery wonder which you may want to stroke. When you can tear yourself away, put it into a clean bowl, cover with cling film and plonk it in the fridge overnight. Evening is ideal to do this bit - knock it back after 4 hours then go to bed, dreaming of Brioche clouds and asking for forgiveness from the Gods of cardiovascular disease.

In the morning your dough will be pretty solid but risen. Remove it from the fridge, give it a knead to wake it up gently, then place it into a loaf tin (well buttered). Cover with loose clingfilm (or put it in a pedal bin liner) and leave it to warm up and rise ay about 1/3 (about 2 hours or so). Preheat the oven to 180 and, giving it lots of headroom as it will puff up wonderfully) bake for 40 mins, adding a small foil hat after half an hour if it's looking a bit too brun (la Francais pour 'burnt'!). Leave it to cool if you can, then welcome to wheat and dairy heaven.

Vive la France!!

JB x

Brioche...

I did it. I made Brioche. The bread which is such a pain in the bum that even goddess Lorraine Pascale writes 'you can freeze the dough at this stage as you may be sick of it'. 

Well, I didn't have to. Inspired by a friend of Mr B who kindly sent him home from wok with a beautiful little brick bun the other week, I did it.

I used Lorraine Pascale's recipe, but in half quantities (below). However, it was good, but not as good as I had hoped, so I'll try another next time. Anyway, it was absolutely delicious warm and dipped in coffee for a Sunday morning breakfast.

Below is the recipe, the only thing I added was a handful of raisins soaked in amaretto for a couple of hours, then floured and added after the last bit of kneading. I used a mixer with a dough hook, I don't think I'd tackle it by hand!

Makes 8

Ingredients:

• 250g plain flour
• 10g fresh yeast
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 160g unsalted butter

Method:

• Put flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a mixer bowl with a dough hook.
• Add the eggs one by one, and knead really well until a smooth (very solid!) dough forms.

• Then, add the butter, bit by bit, and knead it for a good 10-15 minutes on a low speed, until it comes away from the bowl. This took ages and I had to keep scooping the dough off the sides of the bowl.

• The dough in the picture here isn't ready yet. I added the raisins after (see above picture).
• Then, put the dough in a greased muffin tim with little bobbles on top and leave it to rise, covered in oiled cling film, for a good 2-3 hours until doubled (the fat retards the yeast so it takes a while to rise).
• Then, bake at 180 degrees C for about 15-17 minutes. If after 12 they look a bit dark, put some baking parchment or foil on them.

Yum!

JB x

Bagels. The best bagels this side of NYC*

* I have no evidence for this. But they're bloody good. And easy!!! Do it!! For breakfast (ideally in bed delivered by an equally delicious partner of your choice) they take some beating.

A recent trip to the USA reignited my love of bagels - proper, chewy, soft, malty bagels, not the imitation things supermarkets here sell, which truly aren't bagels in my eyes! So for those if you who want to taste a proper bagel... Here's the recipe!

• 450-500g strong white bread flour
• 1 level teaspoon dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon malt extract (from holland and Barrett. Or use honey)
• 1 teaspoon salt (1 1/2 if using coarse salt)
• About 250ml warm water

Plonk ingredients together and make a dough. It should be quite firm and not at all sticky and after kneading for about 5-10 mins will look like a thing of smooth, satiny, slightly tense beauty.

Now the first bit of magic... Oil a bowl, plop the dough in and cling film it, then stick it in the fridge overnight. Or for however long you like. Then the next day (or whenever you want bagely goodness), remove from the fridge and make bagely shapes; either roll a sausage then loop it together or make a ball and poke a hole. Whichever way, make the hole a lot bigger than you thought you needed to, and put the bagels on an oiled baking sheet (or Teflon sheet). Cover with cling again and leave for an hour or so at room temp to puff up a bit more. This long fermentation time helps to develop flavour.

Now magic part number two... Being a large pan of water to the boil and add another spoon of malt extract and a teaspoon or so if bicarbonate of soda. Plop each bagel in for a minute, flip over, then drain and plop back onto the baking tray. Sprinkle with poppy seeds (or pumpkin, linseed etc if you like) and bake for 15 mins as hot as your oven will go.

Bloody lovely! Apologies for brief posting, trying to blog on the sly on my phone ;)

Bread

I am hugely into baking bread at the moment. For many reasons - I enjoy it, I like to fool myself into thinking it is better for me than shop bought (which in a chemical sense is entirely true; yeast, flour, salt, water are all nice and natural unlike all sorts of weird preservatives etc in shop bought) and it fills the house with a lovely smell. So here are a few of my recipes / tips for happy bread making.

General tips:

1. Don't be afraid to try something new. The birds can always be well fed if your bread goes Pete Tong.
2. Make sure you knead your dough enough to begin with. When stretched between your finders, white dough should go so thin you can see through it like a little magical dough window. Wholemeal or rye dough won't stretch as far but should have a good stretch to it.
3. Leave it somewhere toasty to prove. If it's too chilly, this stage can still be done but will take ages - I like to leave mine in front of the fire in winter or near a radiator. Generally anywhere you would sit if you were a cat.
4. Grease or line your tins or trays. I'm lazy so I hate washing up. Also stuck bread dough can be like trying to chisel weetabix off your bowl when it's been left for days...
5. Freeze bread - in my experience a quick blast in the microwave revives most to my satisfaction. 

Basic bread:

• 500g strong flour - white or 50:50 wholemeal to white. All wholemeal makes kind of solid, mildly cake like bread. Unless that's what you want, in which case go for it.
• 10g fresh yeast - ask at the bakery counter in the supermarket. It's kind of lovely plastic-y play dough-y putty like stuff that smells amazing.
• 5g fine salt - I use sea salt flakes bashed up in a pestle and mortar but only cos that's what I have, not cos I'm posh or 'owt
• 300g warm liquid - water, milk, 50:50 etc. I don't mind. Weigh it instead of measuring jugs - weigh more accurate (sorry, terrible pun. This is why I'm not a comedian.)

Method:

1.  Rub yeast into flour roughly as if you were making crumble or pastry. 
2. Stir in salt. 
3. Add water. 
4. Mix with a spoon. 
5. Knead for 10 mins by hand or 5-6 mins in a mixer with a dough hook. 
6. Leave to double in size (an hour or so) in a big bowl covered with cling film or a shower cap from a hotel. Maybe not a used one.
7. Shape into rolls, loaves, baguettes, whatever you like. Cover with oiled cling film, leave again for 45 mins or so.
8. Bake at as hot as your oven will go for approx 20 mins for small loaves / rolls, 30 mins for big'uns. Tap on the bottom - if it sounds hollow it's done.
9. Leave to cool then dig in!

I felt I had to put lots of steps in to make myself sound clever. I'm not, and bread isn't difficult, I promise.