I've been keen on the idea of bread baking for a while now, particularly after seeing the great results coming out of the kitchens of my friends =)
I have dabbled before, but on Friday a friend pointed me towards the fabulous Chickpea studios, and when I saw the gorgeous homebaked bread there, I knew I had to have a go this weekend.
I dug up a recipe Quilting Mick linked to a while ago for no-knead bread.
I don't really know much about if/why its better than regular plain flour, but I picked up some bakers flour at the supermarket anyway.
This recipe uses 1kg of flour, and makes two loaves.
After mixing the flour, yeast (I have a tin which I keep in the freezer) and salt together you tip in nearly a litre of water - it makes a really wet sticky dough.
Once it's all mixed together cover with glad wrap and leave to rise.
The recipe puts it in the fridge overnight, but I just left it on the bench for a couple of hours (about 6 I think)
It bubbled up really nicely, at least doubled in size,
and looked rather monstrous as I tipped it out onto a floured bench.
eeek a dough monster is taking over the kitchen
Shape the dough into a bread-like shape, and shove it into a cold oven set to 220C (I like that not only do you not have to wait for the dough to rise - apart from overnight - but you don't have to preheat the oven either)
It ready if it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom - about 45min
Taaddaa!!
And the true test - how does it hold up to a bit of Vegemite?
what? how would you test your bread for tastiness, if not with Vegemite?
This was delish warm, and possibly even better after it had cooled - I usually find my breads are great warm, but ordinary cold so this was a great improvement.
Being that there are only the two of us, two loaves of fresh bread at a time is a bit much, so I just baked half and popped the rest back in the fridge - I'll bring it to room temperature (as per the recipe) and bake some rolls to have with our soup tomorrow night.
Not sure how it will work out, but will let you know =)
I've nearly beaten the squirrels - I'll update on that tomorrow.
Now I'm off to put on my Dutch hat and cheer on the guys in the football =)
xo
I have dabbled before, but on Friday a friend pointed me towards the fabulous Chickpea studios, and when I saw the gorgeous homebaked bread there, I knew I had to have a go this weekend.
I dug up a recipe Quilting Mick linked to a while ago for no-knead bread.
I don't really know much about if/why its better than regular plain flour, but I picked up some bakers flour at the supermarket anyway.
This recipe uses 1kg of flour, and makes two loaves.
After mixing the flour, yeast (I have a tin which I keep in the freezer) and salt together you tip in nearly a litre of water - it makes a really wet sticky dough.
Once it's all mixed together cover with glad wrap and leave to rise.
The recipe puts it in the fridge overnight, but I just left it on the bench for a couple of hours (about 6 I think)
It bubbled up really nicely, at least doubled in size,
and looked rather monstrous as I tipped it out onto a floured bench.
Shape the dough into a bread-like shape, and shove it into a cold oven set to 220C (I like that not only do you not have to wait for the dough to rise - apart from overnight - but you don't have to preheat the oven either)
It ready if it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom - about 45min
Taaddaa!!
And the true test - how does it hold up to a bit of Vegemite?
This was delish warm, and possibly even better after it had cooled - I usually find my breads are great warm, but ordinary cold so this was a great improvement.
Being that there are only the two of us, two loaves of fresh bread at a time is a bit much, so I just baked half and popped the rest back in the fridge - I'll bring it to room temperature (as per the recipe) and bake some rolls to have with our soup tomorrow night.
Not sure how it will work out, but will let you know =)
I've nearly beaten the squirrels - I'll update on that tomorrow.
Now I'm off to put on my Dutch hat and cheer on the guys in the football =)
xo
wow. Most impressive. I like! You could make it the night before and cook it before breakfast on a weekend morning, couldn't you?
ReplyDeleteAnd it's got something to do with the proteins in the flour, re the bakers flour. I read about what it is all about it but can only recall that lucid statement 'it's about the proteins.'
You can get great big bags of bakers flour at the Belconnen markets for next to nothing.
Yum! Love fresh baked warm bread - great that it tastes good cold too!
ReplyDeleteI made this bread last night and baked it before lunch today, while we were in the garden digging holes for plants.
ReplyDeleteNothing better after some hard yakka than warm bread with mum's grapefruit marmalade, and the another slice with vegemite (for dessert).
And tonight we had roast chook sandwiches. The bread actually made the chicken taste really good!
So glad the recipe worked well for you. I discovered last night my yeast sachets weren't a full tablespoon - I suffered for three attempts with flat bread! I used extra yeast and the thing almost exploded in the fridge!