Posted in artisan bread, olive oil dough, slow food, tagged artisan bread, artisan bread in 5 minutes a day, boule loaf, olive oil dough on May 19, 2008| 3 Comments »
Just sharing my latest effort – a boule made with olive oil dough, cornflour wash and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
I’m starting to get the hang of the all-important “slash” technique. Note those wonderful gluten strands, result of a slow rise: you won’t get this from a bread machine.
Posted in artisan bread, ingredients, shopping, slow food, tagged artisan bread, food, great food products, ingredients, oak-smoked flour, organic, shopping, smoked foods, Waitrose, wholemeal bread on May 16, 2008| 5 Comments »
Yes, you read that right – oak smoked flour from Bacheldre Watermill – and with that great packaging, how could I resist?
Actually it’s oak smoked stoneground strong malted blend flour and as I don’t share the English predilection for malty bits in my bread I thought my first loaf rather ho-hum. The smokiness was enjoyable though, and quite a bit cheaper than setting up a wood-fired oven.
Possible solution: I sifted out those malty bits and fed them to the birds then made a fresh batch of dough, but the resultant loaf was still too worthy, in a knitted oatmeal kind of way, albeit with a crust to stop traffic (literally).
My solution: blend it with regular flour at a 1:5 ratio. Result: a whiff of wood smoke and wheatiness with an excellent rise. Better than saving up for a wood-fired oven any day.
£2.85 for 1.5kg from Waitrose
Posted in artisan bread, olive oil dough, recipes, slow food, tagged artisan bread, artisan bread in 5 minutes a day, flat bread, focaccia, fougasse, olive oil, olive oil dough, pizza base, pizza dough on May 13, 2008| 3 Comments »
Mr T reminded me that it’s all very well going on about my fabulous dough discovery but there’s not much point unless I eventually share the secret, so – in good time for summer – here’s a wonderful recipe for:
(my respectful adaptation of a recipe in
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François)
When you wish to bake your bread (this dough is designed for flatbreads [eg focaccia, fougasse, pizza etc.] so don’t expect a high-rise sandwich loaf):
Then what you do with it really depends on what you’re after – dimple with your fingers, strew with chopped rosemary and salt then “drizzle” (yikes – did I really say that?) with a couple of teaspoons of olive oil for classic focaccia; make it into a circle and apply pizza toppings, or for something really exciting, check out the method for a Spanish flavoured fougasse in my chorizo & olive bread post.
Finally, bake your bread for about 20 minutes; because of the oil content you will get a crispy rather than crusty-crunchy crust, and light golden browning. If you wait until it resembles a loaf it will be overdone, and for pizza keep the dough thin; it will need 10-15 minutes or less cooking time. Serve warm or cool; today or tomorrow if it lasts that long.
I was so impressed with this American pair’s basic recipe for artisan bread featured in The Mercury News that I ordered their book via Amazon.co.uk and I’m so glad I did – it’s packed with extra information and lots of recipes for a number of different doughs and their permutations. In the short time since I acquired it I have been inspired repeatedly – this book is a keeper.
Posted in artisan bread, olive oil dough, packed lunch, picnic, recipes, tagged artisan bread, artisan bread in 5 minutes a day, chorizo, focaccia, fougasse, gastronews, Lidl, olive oil, olive oil bread, olive oil dough, packed lunch, picnic food, work lunch on May 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »
So with the hot weather holding, the olive oil dough persisting and some slightly sinewy chorizo from Lidl haunting the ‘fridge, what better to make than chorizo and olive bread for a tasty lunch?
Just grab a handful of dough from the big batch container (first having floured one’s hands), tidy it by folding under into a ball, press onto an oiled tin and gently stretch to flatten. Take your slices of chorizo (wide and thin, not the chunky cooking sort) and overlap them in a line down the centre of your dough rectangle. Sprinkle a few stoned olives down each side and then bring up the sides of dough to meet across and form a swaddling blanket for the filling.
Not very pretty, is it? If your dough is as floppy as mine it will stretch and thin to reveal the odd olive but no matter. The idea is a riff on the Provençal fougasse – the variations are limitless once you take that on board – so instead of herbes de Provence, strew the top with a little orange zest, crumbled chilli and roughly crushed fennel seed to go with the Spanish flavours of the chorizo (this delicious trio also aid digestibility as it’s a fairly oily affair). Bake in a hot oven for 20-30 minutes, cool slightly and serve in slices with a sharp salad if you have one (last night’s chicory in orange juice in this case!) or wrap and take to work or a picnic.
Oh dear, it’s all gone now. We liked it so much I made another but that’s gone too. Watch this space for the next batch of olive oil dough!
Posted in artisan bread, olive oil dough, packed lunch, picnic, recipes, tagged artisan bread, artisan bread in 5 minutes a day, gastronews, grilled vegetables, olive oil dough, picnic food, recipe, roulade, taleggio, Waitrose on May 9, 2008| 3 Comments »
Remember my original loaf? Well, to match the summer weather of late I made a batch of olive oil dough and created this marvelous taleggio and grilled vegetable roulade for Mr T’s team meeting. Good thing we nibbled some beforehand as there were no leftovers.
It’s a ball of dough rolled around some cubed taleggio and thawed grilled vegetable mix from Waitrose, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with Maldon salt flakes. Oh, and then it’s baked at high temperature for a half hour or so. A big success – simple, quick, healthy and delicious sliced for picnics … and team meetings.
Posted in ingredients, Summer, tagged al fresco, artisan bread, bank holiday, bruschetta, chickpea salad, rose wine, sardines, socca, Vieux Nice on May 5, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Ah, bliss! A beautiful bank holiday weekend. Down in the South East we have it good; while the rest of the land experience rain we enjoy the sunshine. And now it’s sunny and warm we can haul the patio furniture from under its tarpaulin, chill a bottle of Corsican rosé – a pale, mass-produced vin de pays de l’Ile de Beauté evocative of summer lunches in Old Nice
and nibble on a simple chickpea salad
and some sardine bruschetta (using the artisan bread, natch – see previous post).
Posted in artisan bread, tagged artisan bread, artisan bread in 5 minutes a day, baking, Poilane on April 29, 2008| 3 Comments »
Poilâne‘s got competition! Welcome to a new era of seriously wonderful home-baked artisan bread made in minimal time, with minimal effort and minimal mess.Seeing is believing, the eating is even better but I’m not sure I want to share the secret just yet. In the meantime I’ll enjoy showing off my (minimal) efforts until either word reaches the shores of Blighty or I can’t hold it in any more. And yes, I made this myself and what’s more, in a naff Neff oven. Really.
Here’s a video of the authors providing the exact method and quantities in 4 minutes flat.
Brilliantly simple & simply brilliant – so I bought the book.
http://www.startribune.com/video/11967361.html
Gastroplod 