This recipe needs a good sourdough starter. And you need time and patience and to trust your judgement on the proving and rising. But it’s worth the effort. There are a number of links in this blog to other parts of the baking community; sources for baking stuff, detailed descriptions of creating a sourdough starter and a link to a really good book on bread but it does not start with ‘make sourdough starter’.

Try different types of chocolate chips and dried fruit. Two combinations that worked well for me; 1) milk chocolate chips and raisins and 2) dark chocolate and dried cranberries. The Davinator loved this bread so much he said ‘don’t leave any in the house, I can’t stop eating it’. And it even tempted the ‘no carbs’ crowd into trying it. It’s rich and tasty but it’s not sweet. There’s no added sugar, just some chocolate morsels and dried fruit.

Always use top quality cocoa and chocolate chips in baking. Cheap chocolate is waxy and unpleasant. A good European brand like Callebaut makes a difference.

This recipe is a little hard on the nerves but worth the effort. As the basis for my experients, I used a recipe from Emmanuel Hadjiandreou’s book ‘How to Make Bread’ .

The recipe calls for 200 grams of sourdough starter because it’s a heavy dough. You need to take a view on the strength of your starter; if it’s on the watery or weak side then use more. Adjust the amount of water so that you have, in total, 420 grams of starter and water. Here’s a good article on making and feeding your sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour. A great thing about King Arthur is that they have live on line chat during US east coast business hours. They’ve helped me unsnarl a couple of knotty problems in the past.

I’ve gone for kneading in the mixer, but you can also do ‘stretch and fold’ or traditional hand kneading. Don’t be tempted to make a double batch in your Kitchen Aid, it may burnout the motor.

Recipe

Specialist kit

Three pieces of equipment help with ‘traditional’ sourdough; a proving basket, a baking stone and a baking peel. None is mandatory. If you don’t have a proving basket, line your largest loaf pan and do the second prove in it. If you don’t have a baking stone, use your sturdiest baking sheet. The peel is generally useful and once you’ve got one you won’t know how you did without it but a lightweight tray or a big spatula can do the trick. One more link to an online source of baking equipment. – Bakery Bits.

Ingredients

200 grams (7 ounces) small pieces of dried fruit such as raisins, currants or dried cranberries

80 grams (3 ounces) chocolate chips; milk, dark, semi-sweet or white but good quality

330 (12 ounces) grams plain white flour

8 grams (generous teaspoon) salt

20 grams ( 3/4 ounce) good quality cocoa powder

200 grams (7 ounces) strong sourdough starter

220 mls (7 3/4 ounces) tepid water

Method

1. Combine the dried fruit and chocolate chips in a small bowl and set aside .
2. Whisk together the flour, salt and cocoa powder in another bowl (dry ingredients)
3. Put the sourdough starter and the water in your mixing bowl. Break up the starter so that it’s well mixed in with the water. Put the dough hook on your mixer.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the water and starter – start the mixer and let it run for 8 to 10 minutes. You should have a good elastic dough.
5. Transfer to a well floured work surface. Knead in the chocolate chips and fruit mixture by hand.
6. Put the dough in a well greased mixing bowl, cover the bowl with a shower cap and leave until it has at least doubled. I left mine to rise overnight in a very cool room. It can take four to eight hours
7. Once it has doubled, back to the well floured surface. Flatten to a rectangle and place in your well floured proving basket. If you’re using a loaf pan, line it with parchment paper. Leave the dough for the second prove. If you can be patient, you’ll get better risen bread. It’s hard to over prove sourdough. Try for doubled, although you might not get there.
8. Pre-heat the oven to 220C. One of the downsides of using a baking stone is that it takes longer for the oven to heat up. Place an old roasting pan on the bottom of the oven and put 250 mls (one cup) of water to one side.
9. Put a piece of baking parchment on your peel or on a lightweight baking sheet. Tip out the dough onto the parchment and slide on to the baking stone. Pour the water into the roasting pan. Bake the loaf for 30 minutes.
10. Test with your thermometer (>90c) or tap to see if your loaf sounds hollow.

I know it’s difficult but try and let the bread cool for at least 30 minutes before you cut into it and eat. Bake on, folks. Please ask questions via email, social media or the comment function.

Rye bread is not difficult to make. Nor is sourdough. You need time and patience and the correct ingredients. You also need bread consumers that like both rye bread and sourdough. A sourdough rye loaf might go over like a lead balloon with anyone who’s been brought up on sliced white loaf. However, if you have fans of rye and sourdough or adventurous eaters, bake away, I say.

This blog post does not have instructions on making or maintaining a sourdough starter. There are specialist blogs on that topic. I will confess to keeping 3 different starters in the fridge; white, whole wheat and rye. Mine are mature and I feed them once a week. I try to use at least one starter every week which means we eat a variety of sourdough breads and prefer the taste. Here is a link to the King Arthur Flour sourdough instructions.

The Davinator also loves rye bread – thus the sourdough rye recipes that follow. Plenty of recipes do not specify or require rye starter for rye bread. I’ve experimented a bit and I think it gives a better depth of flavour, particularly for breads that use a combination of white and rye flours. The first of two recipes is below. Its very reliable but patience is a key ingredient. Sourdough rises at its own pace. Leave it overnight for the first prove. You won’t be tempted.

Raisin & rye sourdough recipe

Ingredients

(For starter sponge)

100 grams of rye sourdough starter

150 grams of rye flour

200 mls cold water

(Remaining ingredients)

200 grams rye flour

6 grams of salt

200 grams of raisins

150 mls hot water

Instructions

1. Combine sourdough starter, 150 grams of rye flour and 200 mls of cold water in a larger bowl than you think you need. Mix thoroughly, then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Cover with a shower cap. Leave to rise overnight. An overnight rise means you don’t need to find a warm draft free spot to accelerate the rise.
2. Wait.
3. Prep a large loaf pan (2 pounds or 900 grams). Either line with parchment or vegetable oil. I’m a fan of parchment but both work.
4. Boil your kettle. Put 150 mls of hot water in a measuring cup. Now make a cup of tea while your hot water cools slightly. When you can drink the tea (even with milk) it’s time to go to step 5.
5. Combine the remaining rye flour, salt and raisins and stir well. Dump the dry ingredients on top of the sponge. Pour the hot water over the top and stir quickly to combine the ingredients.
6. Spoon the dough into your loaf pan. Smooth the top with a scraper. Cover loosely with a shower cap.
7. Allow the dough to rise for two hours.
8. Pre-heat the oven to 240c degrees and put a shallow roasting pan on the bottom.
9. When oven comes up to heat, place the dough in the oven, lower the heat to 220c and pour 200 mls of water into the roasting pan.
10. Bake for 30 minutes. If you test with a thermometer, it should be over 90c. Or the loaf will feel hollow when tapped.

A few thoughts on this recipe: use the darkest rye flour you can find. It makes for great flavour. And like all ‘true rye’ recipes, there’s no kneading. The hot water step is important. It seems fiddly but if you don’t do it, your bread goes mad and overflows the pan during the second rise.

It’s worthwhile having a good book or two on bread. It helps with various forms of bread anxiety. One of my favourites in Emmanuel Hadjiandreou ‘How to Make Sourdough’.

What is your favourite?

Food is love.  Make food and gift it at Christmas – it’s a gift of love.  

This blog is about making stollen, a lovely brioche type dough with fruit, nuts and marzipan.  It comes from Saxony in Germany and has brothers, sisters and cousins in many European food traditions.  Nobody has time to waste at Christmas, so I’ve worked on my recipe so that it has fewer separate process steps.  This recipe has more yeast to help the rich heavy dough rise.  

Stollen likes to age but the Davinator has proven that it can be eaten on the same day.  Thanks to Felicity Cloake of the Guardian who did a LOT of stollen research that I used in developing the recipe below. 

This recipe makes four 500 gram (one pound) loaves) that are a perfect size for gifting. To make a single large loaf, divide in half.  

Marzipan is one of those foods that divides people.  Marzipan is completely optional in this recipe.  And I’ve included two ways to roll it into the dough.  

Recipe

Ingredients

200g dried fruit; I use a mix of sultanas, cranberries and cherries. 
80 ml cooking brandy or dark rum 
320 ml semi-skim or whole milk
25g dried active yeast
300g unsalted butter, 50g to glaze later
850g plain flour, plus a bit extra
100g caster sugar
 12g salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg or other spice of your choice – but not cinnamon
4 egg yolks
50g mixed peel
50g flaked almonds
300g marzipan
Icing sugar (confectioners sugar) to glaze

Instructions

1.  Put the dried fruit to soak in the brandy.  Any dried fruit works but the individual pieces should be no larger than a sultana (raisin to Americans). Put a piece of plastic wrap over the top. 
2. Warm the milk to room temperature.  If you’re a mom, no hotter than a baby’s bottle.  You want the milk warm so that it doesn’t shock the yeast, but not so hot that it kills the yeast.  Add the yeast and one tablespoon of flour to the milk and stir well.  Cover with a shower cap or plastic wrap. 
3. Melt the butter.  Cover with a shower cap. 
4. Leave all three  bowls of ingredients for about 30 minutes.  Go wrap some presents or hang some ornaments on your Christmas tree. 
5. Combine flour, caster sugar, salt and spices in a large bowl.  I use nutmeg and I know that works.  You can experiment with other spices but avoid cinnamon.  Cinnamon is a yeast assassin.    Hence, the cinnamon roll was born (because the cinnamon is ON the dough not IN the dough).  
6. Add the milk and yeast mixture.  It should be foamy and smell yeasty now.   Stir it in.  Now add the butter and the egg yolks.   You will have a shaggy dough but it will come together. 
7. Prep a large bowl, oil lightly.  I use coconut based oil spray.  
8. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Set a timer and knead for 10 minutes.  If you don’t use a timer, you will be tempted to cheat.  This activity is also known as the ‘stollen workout’. 
9. Put the kneaded dough into the oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a shower cap.  Leave to rise in a warm draft free place for 45 minutes.  The yeast to dough ratio is high so it should rise relatively quickly,  It won’t double in size but should be puffy. 
10. Drain the dried fruit.  Drink the leftover alcohol (if desired) but don’t put it in the dough.  Strong spirit is another yeast assassin.  
11. Put your dough out on a lightly floured surface.  Pat it into a big rectangle.  Spread your flaked almonds and peel on the dough.  Now spread the marinated fruit on top.  Roll it up and knead in the fruit, nuts and peel.   This is kneading to incorporate ingredients not to develop gluten so stop when they feel reasonably mixed in. I use candied ginger as well (Davinator favourite).  
12. Put the dough back in the bowl and let it rise for another 30 to 45 minutes.  
13. Get your marzipan ready.  You need four chunks of 75 grams.  Knead the marzipan (like its play dough or clay) until soft and pliable.  You can either have a roll of marzipan in the centre of your dough (traditional) or you can have a thin layer that is a sort of a spiral in the centre (less traditional but seems more attractive to people who have reservations about marzipan).  First method is to roll each chunk into a log about 8 to 10 inches long, say an inch in diameter.  Second method is to roll your  marzipan into a rectangle about 8 by 8 inches. 
14. Your dough should be puffy again.  Separate into four equal parts for your four loaves – each one will weigh 500 to 600 grams.  Back to the lightly floured surface.  Roll out each portion of dough  into a rectangle.  If using traditional marzipan, place the log at the end nearest to you and roll the dough up into a long fat cylinder.  Sort of giant cigar shape.  If using the flat marzipan, place on the rectangle and roll up the dough. 
15. Place the loaves on baking sheets covered with parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap. Let the loaves rise for 30 minutes to an hour and preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan). 
16. Bake for 35 minutes,  the loaves with be golden brown on top.  I try and use the bottom of the oven because it seems the stollen likes a gentle hear. 
17. Take the loaves out.  Brush with melted butter and dust with icing sugar.  Repeat this step at least 3 times but if you forget how many, do it a couple more times.  No one ever said no to butter and sugar at Christmas.  I have a fine mesh ‘sugar shaker’ and this is it’s highest and best use.  
18. Wrap your stollen in parchment paper, then foil and leave to rest for a day or so.  Keeps beautiful in the refrigerator for at least week.   I’ve put mine in a cool dark cupboard (essentially had to hide it from the Davinator) and it was lovely a month later. I forgot about it.  But it seldom hangs around for that long. 

Enjoy with butter or cheese or just as it comes.   Also lovely with my Christmas chutney. 

Merry Christmas, all. 

A party trick is something that looks impressive but is actually easy once you’ve seen the magic.  This (genuine) no knead focaccia is the party trick of baking.  Have the equipment and ingredients, follow the instructions and voila.  The only thing you do need is time; this bread requires an overnight rise.  But it’s worth the planning.

Focaccia ready for eating

I found this recipe, thought ‘that will never work’ . Knock me down with a feather – it did work.  And it’s worked every time since.  This is an absolute favourite of the family and it disappears faster than I can make it.  I learned to  make (at least) two loaves. I decorate mine with sliced black olives, rosemary and sea salt – but you can omit any of these and substitute at will.  Sun dried tomatoes,  caramelised onions, use your imagination.  The olives tend to put younger children off which is a good outcome for greedy grownups.

Read the recipe through, there is a lot of elapsed time here; an overnight rise, a second rise in the pan for two hours.  Labour low, time high.

As always, instructions written for the non-expert.

Equipment

• A 25 cm or 10 inch diameter cake pan (same shape as you would cook a sponge cake in).  Pan diameter is important – a 25 cm diameter pan has a surface area of 490 scm.  A 22 cm diameter pan has a surface area of 380 scm, its 22% smaller.
• Parchment paper
• A shower cap or cling film
• Large bowl
• Dough scraper (always helpful)

Ingredients

• 500 grams white flour; all purpose or bread flour.  Any old white flour NOT self raising
• 15 grams rock salt or 10 grams fine ground salt
• 4 grams instant dry yeast ( NOT fresh, not fast rising) – Amazon it if you must (don’t worry about the flour, worry about the yeast)
  (dry ingredients)
• 325 mls water, room temperature
• 1/4 olive oil (divided)
• 10-20 pitted black olives, sliced
• Fresh rosemary, don’t chop it but pick the leaves off the stalk, about 2 tablespoons
• Coarse salt

Instructions

Remember, It’s the night BEFORE you want to serve the bread.

Put the dry ingredients in a fairly large bowl and stir well to combine (flour, salt, yeast).  Salt and yeast are not great friends so I put the flour in first then salt on one side of the bowl and the yeast on the other.  Once they’re combined with the flour, its fine.

Pour the water into the dry ingredients, stir to mix well.  You should have a wet looking dough, like this. Cover with your shower cap or cling film and leave for at least 10 but up to 24 hours.  Does not need to be in the refrigerator.

Dough ready for proving.Next day…..

Line the bottom of your cake pan with parchment paper.  And coat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Prep a cake pan 10 inches or 25 cm in diameter.

Your dough will have expanded and more than doubled in size but it will be soft and a bit sticky.  Lightly flour your work surface and sprinkle some flour across the top of the dough.  Using your dough scraper or a spatula, scrape out the dough onto the work surface and form it into a dome (flat on the bottom, round on top).  Turn the dough and tuck the edges under.  You want the top to be smooth and rounded – this keeps the dough hydrated.   Put the dough in the pan, start with the domed top, coat it with the olive oil and then turn it over.  Give it a bit of a squish to flatten it into sort of a disk.  Now cover the cake pan with your shower cap or cling film and leave for about two hours.

focaccia, dough, second rise

Preheat your oven to 225C (210C fan).

Prep your olives, rosemary and have the olive oil and coarse salt ready.   The dough will have expanded to fill most of pan.  Press it down to fill the pan and then lift the bottom edge of the dough, moving around the pan, pressing out the air bubbles and making sure the oil has coated the bottom.

Sprinkle your olives and rosemary across the top and press FIRMLY into the dough.  If there are kids around, get them to help with this – they love it.  If the olives and rosemary are not in the dough, they will be scorched bits of vegetable matter.  This is not what we’re looking for.   Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with the coarse salt.

focaccia, dough olives, rosemary,

Put the pan in the middle of the hot oven for at least 15 minutes and as long as 20 or 24 minutes until golden brown.

Let it cool in the pan for 20 to 30 minutes.  It should come out easily. You can serve immediately, serve it after it is fully cooled or warm it up in the oven later before serving.

I hope your family and friends love this bread as much as mine.

Keep on baking!

White bread – it shouldn’t look like a perfect loaf from the supermarket. Lumpy and full of character is great.

This is a recipe for a simple white loaf that anyone can make.  Good for nervous or newbie bakers. Also a guide to ‘must have’ and  ‘really useful’ equipment.

What equipment do you really need to ‘bake’?  There are things you must have,  things that are really helpful and things that are luxuries (not really that useful).   I’m fond of gadgets and gizmos (the Amazon delivery guy is a practically part of the family) but when you get down to it – baking a simple white loaf does not require fancy equipment.

You want to make a simple white loaf of bread, here’s what you need.

Recipe

Ingredients:  plain (NOT self raising) white flour, instant yeast, salt and water. Don’t sweat the flour, any old plain white flour will do.  Spend your mental energy on yeast.  You want ‘instant’ yeast, not quick yeast or yeast cakes.   Here’s a good reference if you’re bemused by the various names and descriptions of yeast.

500 grams of flour

4 grams instant dry yeast

1 tsp salt

350 mls (plus some extra) room temperature water

A bit of sunflower oil for your ‘low knead’ process.

Equipment (must have):  an oven,  a spoon, two mixing bowls, a loaf pan and a kitchen scale.   And time.   This recipe needs a small loaf pan,  often marked ‘500 grams’ or in old money ‘1 lb’ and it’s about 15 cm by 9 cms.  If all you’ve got is a big one, double the recipe.  Or Amazon……

Instructions:

Prep your loaf pan; either line with parchment or grease with butter or lard.  Don’t use oil, use a ‘hard fat’ (gets hard when refrigerated).

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.   Put in about 340 mls of water.  If it looks shaggy and dry, add a bit more water.  We’re going to do ‘low knead’, so a little bit wet is okay.   Gather the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with cling film or the other mixing bowl (or a shower cap see below) wait ten minutes.  Now comes the ‘low knead’.

Put a bit of oil on your worktop protector, put a little on your hands, and scoop the dough out of the bowl.  Squish it flat then fold the dough in by half towards you, press it down with the heel of your hand, lift and rotate a quarter turn.  Repeat 7 or 8 times quickly.  Put a bit of oil in your clean bowl and put the dough in the bowl. Turn it over.  Cover wait ten minutes and repeat.  Do this two more times.  (That makes four times in total).

If you struggle to keep track of how many times you’ve stretched and folded the dough; first time poke one hole with your finger, second time two holes, etc.   You’ve stretched and folded 4 times –  Now you’re ready to shape the loaf.

Press the dough into a flat rectangle about 10 cm by 15 cms.  Fold in one side 5 cms, then the other side, flip it upside down and tuck the ends into the shape of a rugby ball.  Put it in your prepared loaf pan.  Cover with cling film or a shower cap and wait for at least an hour.  Don’t rush this final stage.  Let it double in size in the pan.   Towards the end of this stage, preheat your oven.   When it’s ready, take the cover off the loaf and dust with a little bit more flour or slash the top if you’re feeling fancy.

Normal oven 220C/fan oven 200C/Gas mark 7

Put the loaf in the oven.  Wait 10 minutes.  Turn the heat down to 190C/170C- fan/gas mark 5.   After 30 minutes, the loaf should be ready.  Either test with your thermometer  (at least 90C) or tap to see if it sounds hollow when tapped.  If not done, go for another 5 minutes and then check again.

Tip it out of the tin when ready and you’re off. Wait a few minutes so you don’t burn your mouth and then get out the butter and enjoy fresh white bread with butter.  Nothing finer than that.

More on ‘low knead’

If you want to knead bread and reduce your gym time by 15 minutes go right ahead.  But it’s not necessary.  A quiet revolution has been going on out there for what I call low knead bread. It’s called ‘no knead but  ‘no-knead’ bread is like a ‘no iron’ 100% cotton shirt – marketing over reality.  Low knead takes more elapsed time but produces the same outcome for most bread.  Knead away if you want to save time but understand it’s really just exercise.

Equipment

Clockwise from top left; baking mat, dough scraper, fast read thermometer, cheap shower cap.

Equipment (really helpful): If you’re going invest in a bit more equipment here’s my list; a dough scraper, a cheap plastic shower cap, a baking mat or work surface protector, a thermometer. And loaf pan liners are fairly cheap and save a lot of time.   If you stay in hotels there’s almost always a cheap shower cap in the bathroom – no one actually uses it to shower, they take them home for their favourite baker.  Or you can buy 50 on line.   The baking mat is like one of these:  baking mat.  The dough scraper is much better for mixing and blending dough than a spoon or spatula.  And the thermometer takes the guess work out of ‘is it done’.  If it’s more than 90C, it’s done.

Equipment (not much use): a proving drawer, a special proving basket, special covers for the special proving basket, a bread machine.

I had a bread machine and I sold it on eBay.   I’ve got lots and lots of storage, I had room for it but it annoyed me.   Why – it sat there on the counter and looked sullen most of the time because I wasn’t using it.  I love the feel of the dough in my hands and watching the dough become bread.

A proving drawer just forces the prove and makes your bread rise faster.  This is good on the Great British Bake Off when you’re cooking against the clock but not in real life.  Proving baskets and covers are for free form bread – mostly sourdough.  Doesn’t do anything a bowl doesn’t do and is harder to clean – even with the liner and or cover.

Good luck and happy baking.

Home made bagels, baking that gives you a workout.

I used this recipe from www.justonebiteplease.com and it was amazing.  They freeze really well; remove, microwave for 15-30 seconds and its instant breakfast.

I’m still figuring out having my own website, so be patient with me!

Thanks

Bagels “Old School” – Hand Shaped, Boiled, and Hearth Baked