Photos

Yesterday a kind colleague lent me his spare digital SLR (it's alright for some!) so I could play with it and see if I was really interested in purchasing one myself. The upshot of this is that I was able to take some photos of the Focaccia I baked last night, and these are the subject of this post.

After having mixed the appropriate ingredients and allowed them to rise for an hour or so, I transferred them to their tins for proving:

Then, after a half an hour's rest in the fridge, I poked them all over with floured fingers to make a dimpled surface:

Drizzling olive oil on them prior to baking improves the quality of the crust and, as the oil soaks into the holes, adds to the flavour of the crumb too:

20 minutes in the oven at 200C produces a deliciously soft loaf with a loose crumb permeated by olive oil:

Salt

I didn't post or bake yesterday as I was entertaining guests, and this left me with a cake-less lunch box this morning. I did have a short lie-in as a consequence, but I would have preferred cake. So this evening I baked another sponge, but this time there was thankfully some oranges on hand to grate the rind from, so I made my sponge of preference; the chocolate orange. This is simple and just requires adding some orange rind and cocoa to the normal sponge recipe, as mentioned at the end of the previous post.

While I was starting my bread for tomorrow I thought about salt, which is a compound that has come in for a bit of scientific and media scrutiny recently. In the recipes that I have given I have usually reduced the amount of salt from the original recipes or popular proportions. Salt is required to prevent the bread from tasting very bland, as anyone who has accidentally left the salt out will know (though my wife quite likes this), but it is surprising how little one needs to achieve this. Bringing the salt content down over time is also effective in making the change less obvious to the palate, and I often use half the quantity of salt stated in even my adapted recipes. In these times of careful diets, and especially for those on low salt diets, this is worth considering and experimenting with.

I'm off to eat cake.

Another Natural Leaven

Over the last couple of days I have been following another method of making and using a natural leaven. This process comes from French bakers and is known there as a chef, but the principle is much the same as that described earlier. The main difference in this method is that the entire leaven is used to make the dough and then a small amount of the dough is saved before baking to start the next one. The advantage of this method is that, if you are not baking every day, the leaven will store well in the fridge without attention; you only refresh it when you make a new dough. I have seen examples of this method where it is instucted not to leave it more than three days, but I have successfully restarted it after up to three weeks (if you are going to do this make sure it is in a clean, sealed container and that the resulting bread is cooked at high temperature for a relatively long time).

As this is a natural leaven it is slow to get going and very varaiable from place to place, so you may have to adapt the recipe yourself to suit the culture, but the results I get here are a deliciously tangy bread (the taste develops over successive use) with a very firm crust. To encourage the formation of this crust I often increase the humidity of the oven by putting a heat-proof dish with a small amount of water in the bottom both before and during baking. This recipe also benefits from being one that can be left for its second rise, or proving, out of the fridge overnight, so it is ready to just pop in the oven in the morning and doesn't take up fridge space.

I hope you experience similar results to myself, this recipe (or rather its product) has been appreciated by all who have tried it, including the French friend I was helping to move house today, so give it a go.

Be busy baking.

PS In case anyone is keeping track of my baking schedule; I posted on Thursday, baked the above bread on Friday morning, pizza for five on Friday evening (2 Englishmen, 3 Italians), and the above bread again this morning as well as Ciabatta which, as I'm sure you all well know, follows pizza every time.

Still Baking: Morning Muffins

The lack of posts about my baking this time are actually because I haven't been doing any. I've been requalifying as a First Aider and it has meant me getting up very early in the morning, leaving the house before dawn and eating from my stock.

However today I was once again able to make the most of my time, natural leaven and a simple roll recipe (mentioned in the previous link), to make my lunch and, while the oven was on and because I had eaten all that chocolate cake already, I made some muffins to take to work with me.

If you have never made these before they really are the easiest, and probably quickest, cake to make. They suffer from over mixing, so it is better to mix less, and they only take about ten minutes to cook and they cool quickly (a must when morning baking). I have severely adapted this recipe, which is for chocolate chip muffins (is there any other kind?!), from others that I found and through experimentation. I usually just hack up half a bar of dark chocolate for the chips (can you believe how expensive pre-chipped chocolate is?) and I always buy fairtrade both for chocolate and cocoa (as well as bananas, coffee etc.), I suggest you do too, it will taste all the sweeter for it.

Mmm, chocolate.

Cake

From my posts it may look as if I haven't been doing any baking recently, but don't let that fool you. On Thursday I baked the focaccia mentioned in my previous post, Friday is pizza day like last week, closely followed by Saturday's ciabatta. These all kept me busy, but as I had already posted on them there wasn't much point duplicating them.

While I had the oven on baking ciabatta on Saturday morning I thought I should get some cake in. The ginger cake mentioned previously had all but disappeared into the black hole known as my stomach and so I set my hands to a chocolate sponge to see me through at least the start of the working week.

I have recently adapted my sponge recipe since I found a way to make it even more moist and delicious than it used to be. The trick is in weighing the eggs and making them up to the same weight as the other ingredients with milk (or more egg if you can split it). This makes for a good sponge and adding 25g / 1oz cocoa (not drinking chocolate! Look at the ingredients if you're not sure, cocoa only has one: cocoa) in place of the equivalent of the flour makes it chocolatey and, if I'd had some oranges, the grated rind of one added with the marge and sugar makes my favourite yet: chocolate orange, mmmmmmmm.

Treat your taste-buds.

Focaccia

Even though I haven't baked this today I have started it already, so I feel justified in posting this, my signature recipe. Originally an Italian bread made while the ovens were heating up (it is cooked cooler than most Italian breads), it has acheived worldwide renown. I have made a few adaptations over time, not least of which is the overnight technique. This really is one of the easiest (and tastiest) overnight breads I have adapted, especially if your oven has a timer function; I time mine to be hot when I get up and then just take the breads out of the fridge, chuck some olive oil on top and pop them in the oven while I get ready. It can take a while to cool down, but if you really do leave it to the last minute in the mornings it can be wrapped in paper warm, taken to work and even eaten on its own it is so flavoured.

The recipe is detailed enough that it shouldn't cause many people problems (still some updating to do, but I don't think anyone will be downloading it before I get a chance). I will say that it requires quite a bit of kneading to acheive a smooth dough, because it is quite a dry mix, but as this is all done the night before in most cases I don't find it too tiring.

It is possible, and maybe more traditional, just to roll out the dough and put it onto baking trays as a sort of rough circle, but I have found it makes a better bread and is less prone to crust problems if it is enclosed in a tin. Sandwich tins (as in the recipe) are the tins usually used for making sponge cakes and the ones with a removable base are best as they save you having to tip an oil covered loaf upside down. The sides encourage it to rise by containing the dough, making for a softer and looser crumb.

I'll get to troubleshooting sometime soon, when I shall go into more detail about 'crust problems', so if you have any questions leave them in the comments and I shall hopefully be able to answer them.

Till next time.

Grow Your Own

Today I just baked my standard bread mentioned previously (see 'A Simple Bread'), but I have recently started using a natural leaven in the place of yeast. This acts in the same way as yeast, but relies on naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria to provide the gases that raise bread dough. They are all harmless, and the baking of the bread kills them all anyway, so there is no need to worry about them. They also impart a distinct flavour to the bread.

They act more slowly and are in a less concentrated state, so when using it in the overnight simple bread recipe there is no need to put them in the fridge, and 100g / 4oz of leaven should be used with 225g / 9oz of water to provide the right consistency.

I've just set another batch up this evening (so I don't know if there will be a post tomorrow), and now it is late, so I shall leave it at that and encourage you to experiment for yourself.

Be busy baking.

Bread Making Machines

Another day of no baking (more freezer stocks consumed), so I thought I would post a short discussion on the merits of bread making machines. I had one of these devices bought for me by my mother-in-law, with the best of intentions, and I know a number of people who own them. I personally feel the bread baked in a bread maker is a poor, but easy, substitute for homemade bread.

The defects in the loaves, such as the whole in the middle and limited crust, made me unwilling to actually put in the time required to become proficient at baking using a bread maker (a skill in itself). I prefer to use the breadmaker as a handy domestic kneading machine, as I alluded to in my ciabatta post, and for this purpose it is certainly useful. Most breads can be adapted to have some, if not all, of the kneading done in a machine, with the shaping and baking done in a conventional manner.

I have adapted recipes that fit in with my lifestyle, and hopefully proved that it is possible to adapt breadmaking to fit around you by changing the temperature it is risen at, the size of the loaves and both the type and quantity of raising agent used. An example of this is the overnight ciabatta recipe, which shows how Saturday's ciabatta post can be simply altered to fit my daily schedule.

I hope this encourages you to get in there and bake, it's making me want to.

Sticky Ginger Cake

Still cooling on a rack in my kitchen is one of my favourite cakes; the sticky ginger cake. This recipe uses the 'melted together' sponge method which, if you've never made it before, makes a deliciously moist and sticky-topped sponge. The main points I would highlight for this recipe are: don't be shy with the ginger, if you like a bit of bite to your ginger cakes then don't be afraid to add a little more than stated; and leave it in a tin for a day to allow the sticky top to develop.

The link for the recipe is here, so download it now and add it to your regular baking schedule; you will not be disappointed.

Keep baking.

Ciabatta

Today, following yesterday's pizza making and with a ball of over-risen dough, I made two loaves of ciabatta. These two follow each other because, as with a few other Italian breads, ciabatta requires a starter to get the well developed dough that gives it its characteristic texture. The things to note about this dough is that it is very wet and difficult to work with; if you have a breadmaker (there will be a post in the near future outlining my opinion of these machines), then use that to knead the dough as it is much easier. Otherwise, just be prepared for a really wet dough and do all the kneading in the bowl. The other main point to note is that one has to be very careful not to knock the air out of the dough when transferring it to the baking tray, make sure the bowl it is in is well oiled and ease it out with a spatula.

Enough from me, I'm going to the pub, the recipe is here and, as I have made a few alterations to it as I have improved the method over time, it will suffice until I can upload a new copy to the same location. If you have dough left over from a pizza then you obviously start at the point after the starter has been prepared and left to rise (the time isn't especially important for that aspect).

Buona sera.

Pizza

So tonight I did as promised and made some delicious pizzas for myself and my wife. Now I shall do my best to explain in writing how I have achieved, over time, something approximating a thin crust pizza in the traditional northern Italian style (I'm never quite satisfied!).

The first thing is to mention the required equipment, as it is not possible to make perfect pizzas with imperfect conditions. The oven is of utmost importance; as most of us don't have wood burning pizza ovens in our kitchens (or even gardens) we need to use the next best thing, and that is a stone and electric 'fan-assisted grill' or a gas oven. If your electric oven does not have a fan-assisted grill then you can use a conventional oven, but the results will be considerably poorer. The stone can be any pressed paving slab made or cut to fit the oven shelf. The reason this is important is that pizzas need to be cooked at high heat from below and above simultaneously; a fresh pizza base will not sit on a normal oven shelf. The next important item is a platten to transfer the pizza from the work surface to the oven (as I found out the hard way). The simplest and cheapest option I have found is a thin piece of wood with a loose cover of baking paper.

So on to the dough. The pizza dough is so simple there is no need for a detailed recipe. One basically uses twice as much flour as water and aims for 200g of dough per pizza. For example, for the two pizzas I made this evening I used 400g of flour and 200g of water (measure your water on a weighing scale, it's so much more accurate than any measuring jug). Some of you may have noticed that that makes 600g, but I always make an extra portion of pizza dough as a starter for ciabatta (can anyone guess what my blog will be about tomorrow?!). To the flour should be added about 1/4 tsp of salt per pizza and to the water 2g of yeast per pizza; mix the two combinations separately and then add the water/yeast mix to a well in the flour and work into a dough. This is going to be quite a stiff dough and the best pizza is made by making it slightly softer e.g. using an extra 15g of water per pizza. Knead it well on a clean work surface until it is smooth, divide into 200g balls and then leave to rise for 3-4 hrs, or until doubled in size, in individual oiled and cling film-covered bowls.

The oven needs to be turned on early and as hot as it will go; I usually leave mine on for about an hour before cooking to warm up the stone sufficiently. The dough should also be left for a second rise, so shortly after turning on the oven (15-20mins) fill a baking dish with flour, carefully remove the dough ball from its bowl and place it in the flour; flattening and turning with the palm of the hand until it is too big for the dish. Then transfer it to a well-floured work surface and with both hands working palms down and against each other, stretch it out into an even circle, turning as you go. This takes a bit of getting used to, and I had the benefit of a visit to a pizzeria in Italy to see it done, but it is a lot easier than throwing it! Hopefully I shall be able to make some videos in the future so I can explain with a picture what would take a thousand words here.

Once this is done leave them on the floured surface, making sure there is plenty of flour underneath them (you really can't use too much), and prepare the toppings. What you use for toppings is entirely up to you, but for the tomato I have found that sieving tinned chopped tomatoes to remove the excess juice, adding a teaspoon of sugar, plenty of oregano and then giving them a blitz with a blender to mash the biggest chunks works really well.

All that is left now is to transfer the pizza dough to the platten by sliding the wood underneath while pulling the baking paper up the surface (start with the baking paper underneath the wood with only a flap folded over the end that is about to touch the pizza; a more advanced system with the same principle can be found here). Then add your favourite toppings, tomato first of course) and transfer to the stone in the reverse motion used to scoop up the dough (this takes some practice). The pizza will cook in about three minutes in a very hot electric oven, and it is an easy thing to be tempted to over cook them. Getting them out is much easier and can be done with a fish slice and an asbestos thumb.

I hope this has made some sense, as soon as I am able I shall make some videos to illustrate the process; in the meantime if you have any questions leave them in the comments section.

Happy Baking.

No Baking Today

I had a bit of a lie-in this morning as my wife didn't have to be up so early for work, and I therefore didn't do any baking. This doesn't mean I had to go without bread though, and the reason behind this is the subject of today's post.

As I said yesterday, I had made my staple bread recipe in the form of baps and, as there were some left over, I froze the rest. I have found that if one cuts the rolls as if to fill them and then puts them back together and freezes them on the same morning as baking them, then they keep perfectly well. To make them into sandwiches all one has to do is take them out of the freezer, split them along the cut and make the sandwiches with the bread frozen. As long as they are well wrapped and there is some delay between making and eating, they will be perfectly edible and still superior to shop-bought varieties.

For those of you who are rather cynical about this practice: give it a try. Some blind experiments on my ever available wife have proven it really is difficult to tell the difference.

Tomorrow I shall be baking pizza and, though not for the faint-hearted or those without the correct equipment, I shall post a detailed description (i.e. long) on how I have achieved a pizza that makes my Italian in-laws despair of pizzerias in their own country.

A Simple Bread

Today I made my standard bread by the overnight recipe. This probably means nothing to you, so I think I shall have to do some explaining first; the only problem is where to start.

The most basic breads are a simple combination of flour, salt, liquid (usually water) and a raising agent (usually yeast). Yeasted, or leavened, breads are made in stages. First all the ingredients are mixed together and the mixture is worked by stretching and folding. This strengthens the dough by getting the proteins in the flour to form strings; an easily visible effect when kneading fresh dough. The dough is then left to rise for a period of time, 'knocked back' by a second kneading process and left to rise again after being formed into the desired shape. After this baking fixes the dough and kills the yeast, and the bread is ready to be eaten.

This simple bread mix requires very little kneading and can be used to make almost any shape of loaf or roll required. I like to make mine as a granary dough, but it works equally well with other types of flour (no doubt we will get to that in later posts).

The overnight technique I have developed works by leaving the dough in the refrigerator overnight to slow the initial rising period and then forming the bread into rolls for a quick baking and cooling time. This means I can get up, form the bread into rolls, leave it to rise while I am having a shower, bake it in ten minutes and it is cool and ready for making sandwiches by the time I've finished my breakfast.

In order to save space in this blog (definately needed with posts like this one!) recipes will be available as downloadable .pdfs. This has the added advantage of not getting flour on your computer! So to start us off the basic recipe for rolls (baps to give them their original Scottish name) is here and then there is the slightly adapted overnight method.

I think that will do for this enormous post, I shall be back soon to talk about how this versatile recipe can be adapted to provide delicious bread for almost any occasion, and there will of course be some more advanced breads, cakes and puddings in the future. I hope you will keep popping back and I wish you much happy baking.

Coming Soon

My first post and there's not even going to be a recipe in it (innit). But rest assured, coming soon will be a host of downloadable recipes as I upload the things I'm baking at the time and the recipes you should try-before-you-die. In the meantime I'm going to try and get the hang of this new site and see if I can remember any HTML. Keep baking, B.