Super Green Flatbreads

@boroughchef has a great recipe for Wild Garlic Flatbreads.  As ever, I've played around with ingredients based on what I have on hand.  The flat breads above were made with wholemeal self raising flour, as it needed using up. I've made them with plain flour and bread flour.  These were made with wild garlic, but I've also used chard, spinach, kale, and watercress.

Makes 4 

120g flour (self raising, plain, bread)
50g wild garlic, spinach, chard, watercress, or kale

80g plain yoghurt, labneh, cottage cheese, ricotta, feta, soured cream, kefir, or creme fraiche

1 tbsp olive oil

Pinch of salt

Liquidise your greens of choice with your dairy of choice plus the olive oil.

Mix the liquidised greens, flour, and salt into a dough.  Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 2-3 minutes until smooth and not sticky.  Add more flour a little at a time if it is very sticky/tacky.  

Divide the dough equally into 4, shape into balls and roll out into a circle as best you can.  My tip is to roll them out then leave for about 30 minutes for the dough to relax, then roll them out a little further, otherwise I find the dough too elastic and it shrinks back to an impractical taco size.

Took cook the wraps, heat a frying pan over a medium high heat.  Carefully drape in one rolled out flatbread and cook for 1 minute until the underside is just starting to brown.  Flip over with tongs or a fish slice and cook the other side for another minute.  Watch your flatbreads carefully.  Thicker flatbreads will take longer to cook, but thinner ones will dry out quicker and crack when they cool and you try to wrap them around any filling.  Wrap the cooked flatbreads in a clean tea towel to keep them warm and moist until you are ready to fill them.

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Staffordshire Oatcakes (Oat Pancakes)

Staffordshire Oatcakes are soft ground out pancakes traditionally eaten with the ingredients of a full English breakfast, but are great for an additive free wrap for lunch.

These are made with simple ingredients, including dried yeast, but have a better flavour if left to yeast further by leaving to stand overnight before cooking.

Makes 5 pancakes

125g oatmeal, or ground porridge oats

75g wholemeal bread flour

50g plain white flour

1 tsp dried yeast (that does not need to be activate first)

1/2 tsp salt

250ml water

250ml milk, or use water again

If making the oatcakes the same day as the batter, heat the water to 38C (you should be able to hold a finger in the water without it hurting).  If leaving the batter overnight don't worry about the temperature of the water.

Whisk all the ingredients together. Leave for about 15 minutes until the surface of the batter is bubbly.

When ready to cook, heat a pancake pan over a medium high heat.  Brush the pan with oil and pour in a large ladleful of batter.  Tilt the pan quickly to ensure the batter covers the pancake pan evenly.

Cook for 1.5-2 minutes until the top is dry with no wet batter.  Turn with a fish slice and cook the other side for the same amount of time as the first.

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Sourdough Starter

Starting your own sourdough starter is child's play.  If no-one has any active starter they can spare you, simply mix bread flour and water and leave it to ferment for around 5 days.

I use wholemeal bread flour for my starter, even if making a white sourdough loaf.  I find it ferments quicker and is not as sour as white bread flour.

50g x 4  wholemeal bread flour
50g x 4 lukewarm water

Day 1: Mix 50g bread lour and 50g lukewarm water in a clear lidded container. Mix well and and leave, with the lid loosely on, at room temperature for 24 hrs.

Day 2: Mix another 50g bread flour and 50g lukewarm into Day 1's mixture. Leave, with the lid loosely on, at room temperature for another 24 hrs.

Day 3: Mix another 50g bread flour and 50g lukewarm into into your growing starter, and leave for another for another 24 hrs.

Day 4: You should hopefully start to see your starter becoming more active, with bubbles visible through the clear sides of the container. Mix in a further 50g bread flour and 50g lukewarm water, and leave for another for another 24 hrs.

Day 5: Your starter should be very active/bubbly now.  If not, continue to feed it daily until it does. 

When your starter is ready, pour off 300g (or whatever your recipe requires) for the loaf you are about to bake.  Feed the remaining starter with 50g bread flour and 50g tap water and store in the fridge for 24 hours before you want to use it.

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Wholegrain Sourdough

Wholegrain sourdough does not have the big cosmetic 'holes' that have become associated with artisan white sourdough.  Instead it is a dense, filling, high fibre bread. 

I sell homemade white sourdough, but have begun making this wholegrain sourdough loaf for my partner and I.  As with sourdough, it is a lengthy process, but it is mostly hands off and requires no tricky shaping or turning out.  If you don't have any sourdough starter you could have your own homegrown starter in 5 days, and sourdough on your New Year's resolutions.

Makes 1 large or 2 small loaves
Preparation time: 36 hours (hands on time about 30 minutes in total)
Cooking time: 1 hour

300g active sourdough starter

250g wholemeal flour 

250g wholegrain flour (I use Sainsbury's Wholegrain Seeded Flour, but intend experimenting with varying quantities of wholemeal rye flour, malted flour, spelt flour)

25g mixed seeds

10g salt

320g warm water

I have based the timings of this loaf around a working day, and baking the loaf first thing in the morning.

Two nights before (36 hours before) you want to bake the loaf, take the starter out of the fridge and leave on the counter to warm up.

The following morning (8am - 24 hours before), feed your starter with 50/50 wholemeal flour and water to make 300g starter plus about 20g to keep back as reserved starter. Leave the starter on the counter throughout the day.

Late afternoon (5-6pm - 4 hours before you go to bed), weigh out 300g of starter into a large mixing bowl.  Whisk in the water with a fork, and then stir in the rest of the ingredients.  Mix well with the fork then use your hand to ensure everything comes together.  You should have a sticky but stiff dough.  Wholemeal flour absorbs more water than white bread flour so you may need to add more water to make a workable dough that you can push your fingers into with some force but holds it shape when folded into a ball.

Cover with a clean tea towel and leave somewhere warm like near a radiator, in the airing cupboard or in a sunny window.

Every hour for the next 4 hours, with a wet hand, stretch and fold the dough in half onto itself, top down, bottom up, left to right, and right to left. Re-cover and leave for another hour.

After the final stretch and fold, tip out onto a lightly floured surface, stretch out to a rectangle and then roll up like a Swiss roll to a sausage shape to fit in a loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper.

Loosely cover with a large plastic bag, with enough room for the loaf to rise without touching the plastic, and leave to rise overnight in a cool place. I've begun making this in winter, so leaving the loaf to rise in the kitchen overnight with the heating off has been perfect. In summer I may have leave it in the fridge overnight if it rises too much, although wholegrain flours don't rise as much as white so this loaf may never overflow it's loaf tin.

The following morning preheat your oven to 230C.  Once up to temperature, place the loaf in it's tin on the middle shelf and bake for 15 minutes at 230C and 15 minutes at 200C. 

After 15 minutes at 200C, tip the loaf out of the loaf tin and remove the greaseproof paper.  

Turn the oven down to 180C and bake for a final 30 minutes.

Baking lore advises to wait a couple of hours for loaves to cool to body temperature before slicing. I'm not entirely sure why. From experience hot/warm loaves are harder to slice, with the bread often tearing. But the urge to taste a freshly baked loaf is hard to resist...

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Sourdough Discard Pizza

I saw couple of reels making sourdough discard pizzas and thought I'd give it a go.  As I don't discard any starter, so I fed my starter more so that I had enough.  This makes a moist, crumpet like pizza base. And for once, no-one left any crusts!

Makes 3 pizzas

150g active sourdough starter

1 cup bread flour

1 cup water

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Toppings

Premade tomato sauce

Sliced mozzarella

Other toppings of choice; chorizo, ham, anchovies, olives, capers, pineapple...

Leave your starter out overnight to wake it up.

In the morning, mix in the bread flour and water, cover and leave to ferment for as long as you can.

At dinner time, turn the oven on to 220C to preheat and heat an ovenproof frying pan or shallow casserole dish on the stove.  

When the pan is piping hot add the olive oil and a US cup measurement of sourdough starter.

When bubbles start to burst on the surface of the pizza base spread on the tomato sauce and toppings of your choice.

Place the pan and bake in the hot oven for 10 minutes until the topping is bubbling.

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High Fibre Wholemeal & Wholegrain Sourdough

I sell homemade organic white bread flour sourdough loaves (with a wholemeal starter), but thought I'd try to make a wholegrain sourdough for the family.

The more wholegrain flour you use, the higher in fibre this sourdough is, so experiment with 500g wholegrain flour, or adding different wholegrain/wholemeal flours eg wholemeal rye flour.  

Wholegrain sourdough will rise less than a white sourdough but is better for you!

Proving time: 3 hours 45 minutes (5 x 45 minutes)

Overnight proving: 12-24 hours

Cooking time: 40 minutes

I mix the dough late afternoon the day before the morning I want to bake.

300g lively wholemeal starter

375g water

2 tsp salt

250g wholemeal flour

250g wholegrain flour (I used Sainsbury's Wholegrain Seeded Flour, other wholegrain flours are available)

Mix the starter & water together in a large mixing bowl.  

Mix in the flour and salt until you all the dry flour has been incorporated.  It will be a rough looking dough. Don't worry.  Cover the bowl and leave for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes do the first of four 'stretch & folds'.  Wet your hands, scoop your fingers under either side of the dough and lift it upwards so the top and bottom of the dough stretch and fold down from your hands.  Give the bowl a quarter turn and do one more stretch and fold.  Cover and leave for another 45 minutes.

After four stretch & folds and a final 45 minute rest, tip the dough out onto a floured surface, stretch the dough out to the side and up onto the middle of the dough at the top, bottom, and sides of the dough.  Shape, and place in a well floured  banneton or bowl with a well floured cloth. Cover and place in the fridge for 12-24 hours until you are ready to bake.

When ready to bake, pre-heat the oven and a deep lidded casserole dish (I used a domed turkey roasting dish) to 230C.  When the oven reaches temperature, tip the dough out onto a piece of baking parchment, and score with a razor blade, bread knife, or scissors (optional).

Lower into the preheated dish, and bake for 20 minutes with the lid on, then 20 minutes with the lid off.

Leave to cool entirely on a baking rack to make slicing easier.

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Sourdough Pizza

Dad is the pizza baker in our house, and I am the sourdough baker.  He was away for the night, so I thought I'd try making sourdough pizza.  This should, in theory be started the evening before, but I started the morning I was making pizza for dinner and it worked out fine, if lacking a strong sourdough flavour

100g lively sourdough starter
375 g water

10 g salt 

500g bread flour 

Mix sourdough starter, water and salt in a bowl in a large mixing bowl with a strong plastic spatula.  Stir in flour until it forms a sticky dough.

Cover with a plastic bag, shower cap, or tea bowl and leave to rest for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, wet the fingers of one hand and 'stretch and fold' the dough, pushing your fingers down one side of the bowl, lifting and stretching this handful up and folding it down onto the centre like an envelope flap. Do this the oppposite side to where you first folded and then either side.

Stretch and fold more times at 30 minute intervals (set a timer as a reminder).  

Cover the stretched dough and leave to prove for 6-12 hours, or until doubled in size.

Tip out onto a floured surface and divide into 4 equal pieces (roughly
246g each). Shape into balls and place into individual covered containers in the fridge for at least 6 hours, and up to 3 days.  Pizza dough can be frozen at this stage, but the longer it is stored in the freezer the less bubbly the cooked base will be.

A hour before cooking, take the dough out of the fridge. Cut greaseproof paper to fit the baking trays or pizza stones you are using, flour lightly, and tip a ball of dough onto each one.  

Turn the oven on to preheat to 250C or as high as it goes, and put the baking trays/stones in.

Carefully stretch the dough out into a round with your hands, trying not to squash all bubbles.

Top as desired.  Ours usually have a homemade tomato sauce, mozzarella and then the children choose toppings such as pepperoni, jalapeños, anchovies, olives, sliced mushrooms, bacon lardons, cooked or cured ham, and my son's favourite - pineapple (pictured).  We have also made non-tomato pizzas with creme fraiche, garlic, mushrooms, and lardons. And a favourite of mine is rocket, goats cheese, pine nuts, and olive oil.

When the pizza is ready, and the oven is up to temperature, take the trays/stones out of the oven one at a time.  Place on a heatproof surface near the prepared pizza and slide the greaseproof paper onto the tray/stone. Place back in the oven and cook 10 minutes or until the edges of the pizza are brown and crispy.  If your oven does not go to 250C your pizzas will take longer to cook.

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Bavarian Bread Soup

For the first time in 10+ years I burnt 4 sourdough loaves meat for the local farm shop, forgetting to set a timer. Most has now been sliced and frozen, but the hard 'knobby' ends were diced into large croutons and left out to dry.

I had thought about making a Ribollita (Tuscan Bread, Bean & Kale Soup), but a quick google turned up a a new bread based soup to try - Brotsuppe, a Bavarian Bread Soup.

Unsurprisingly for a Germanic recipe, the original recipe is not vegetarian or vegan, using butter, beef stock, cream, and egg.  But it can easily be made vegetarian buy using vegetable stock, or vegan by using olive oil as I did, vegetable stock, vegan cream, and omitting the egg (or liquidising 100g tofu)

Serves a hearty 4-6 (makes 2 litres)

100g cubed brown bread or sourdough

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, peeled & thinly sliced

1 large garlic clove, peeled & crushed

1 heaped tbsp plain flour

1.5 recently boiled water

3 crumbled stock cubes, beef, chicken, or vegetable

100ml dairy or vegan cream

1 egg or 100g tofu (optional)

Fry the bread in the olive oil in a soup pan over a medium heat until golden brown.

Add the onions and garlic and fry as best you can amongst the cubed bread.  After a few minutes stir in the plain flour, followed by the water and stock cubes.  Bring to the boil, scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula or flat ended wooden spoon. Once boiling, cover, and turn down to a simmer for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes simmering, liquidise the soup with a stick blender.  Pour in the cream and egg, and liquidise again.  Heat gently, stirring continuously for about a minute for the egg to cook and thicken the soup slightly.

If you don't have a liquidiser, simply stir in the cream and beaten egg (if using) at the end of the cooking time.

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Tomato Bruschetta

I know this dish as Pa amb Tomàquet, a Catalan staple of tomato rubbed over toasted or untoasted bread and seasoned with olive oil and garlic. But more people have heard of Tomato Bruschetta.

It's a great way of using tomatoes that are starting to go soft, and stale/hard baguette, sourdough, ciabatta, focaccia etc

100g ripe tomatoes (a handful of cherry tomatoes, or 2 medium sized), roughly chopped
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 small garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped

Pinch of salt

Stale bread

Whizz up the tomatoes, olive oil, garlic,and salt in a mini food processor.

Slice the bread, place in a shallow dish, and pour over the tomato pulp.

Cover and leave overnight ideally, for the flavours to develop and for the tomatoes to soften the bread. Eat at room temperature for the best flavour 

Pa amb Tomàquet is eaten as breakfast and as a snack/tapas throughout the day in Catalunya.

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Homemade Tortilla or Taco Wraps

The long life  of some supermarket wraps scares me. The ingredients taken from a pack of discount supermarket White Tortilla Wraps reads Wheat Flour (Wheat, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Water, Palm Oil, Humectant: Glycerol; Sugar, Raising Agents: Diphosphates, Sodium Carbonates; Emulsifier: Mono- And Diglycerides Of Fatty Acids; Acidity Regulator: Citric Acid; Preservatives: Potassium Sorbate, Calcium Propionate; Salt, Wheat Starch, Flour Treatment Agent: L-cysteine. Whereas homemade wraps contain Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Water, Rapeseed Oil, Salt.

I've been meaning to try making wraps since the first lockdown in 2020.  Finally, 3 years later I have had a go.

I made 15 small taco wraps, which took me over half an hour cooking one after another in a single frying pan.  This has not put me off making more in the future, either making larger (and therefore less) wraps, or using two frying pans at a time if making smaller taco wraps again.

Makes 6-8 wraps or 12-16 tacos 

250g plain flour, plus a little more for dusting

2 tbsp vegetable oil

½ tsp fine salt

Mix flour, vegetable oil and salt in a mixing bowl then stir in 150ml warm water.  Once the mixture is well combined, knead on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes until the dough is soft and smooth. Cover with a clean tea towel and rest for at least 15 mins before rolling out.

After resting, weigh the dough and then divide into as many wraps you need.  Roll out each ball of dough as thinly as possible on a floured work surface. Larger tortillas should be about about 20 cm wide, 2mm thick, and tacos around 10cm wide.

Heat a large frying pan (or two if making tacos) over a medium-high heat. Cook the tortillas for 1 minute on each side until golden brown and toasted. Wrap them in foil and cover in a tea towel to keep warm, while you cook the rest, otherwise seal in a bag for up to two days in a cool place, or freeze for up to three months.

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French Bread Pancakes

Galopins are bread pancakes from Picardy in France.  They are a great way to use up old bread

I have taken from another French recipe, Migliacciu from Corsica which are baked goats cheese flatbreads, and added goats cheese to Galopins to make savoury pancakes for lunch.

Serves 4

250g stale bread, with crusts
250ml+ milk

4 eggs
250g soft goats cheese, mashed (or any strongly flavoured cheese, cubed)
Pinch of salt

Cut the bread into very thin slices and pour over the milk.  As the bread absorbs the milk, mash with a fork and add more milk until the mixture is a porridge consistency.

Beat in the eggs, and more milk if required, until you have a thick pancake batter. Stir in the cheese.

Heat a drizzle of oil in non-stick frying pan.  Pour in about 1/4 of the the mixture and cook over a medium low heat for a couple of minutes until golden brown.  Flipping is difficult, if not impossible, so slide the pancake on to a plate and then flip over on top of the pan so the uncooked side of the pancake is facing down. Cook for another couple of minutes until the underside is golden brown.

If you would prefer a sweet pancake, omit the cheese and sprinkle the cooked pancake with a little sugar to taste.

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Calzone Pizza, Italian Pasties

I've begun making Calzone as one of my options for my son's packed lunch. I can batch bake them (baked with Baked Chocolate Oats this week), and then not have to flap around getting him something nutritious every morning. 

I've been filling them with chorizo and mozzarella, but you could use any of your favourite pizza toppings. I may even try using a samosa style filling.

Makes 2 large or 4 small calzone

225g white bread flour

130ml water

30ml olive oil

1 tsp quick yeast

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1 ball of mozzarella, cubed

100g diced chorizo or ham

My calzone recipe comes from our Bread Machine book, given to us with our first bread machine 19 years ago, so mixes and kneads the dough on a bread machine dough cycle. But it can be done by hand.

Mix and knead the dough on a dough setting. Ours mixes/kneads for 10 minutes, rests for 10 minutes, kneads for another 5 minutes before resting again for a final 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220C.

When the dough cycle has finished, tip the bread dough out on to a lightly floured surface. Knock it back and divide into 2 or 4 equal sized pieces.  Roll each piece of dough into a flat circle. This is easier than it sounds, as I find yeasted dough springs back.  My solution is to roll the all circles out then go back to the first one and roll/stretch them back out again before filling, and then on to the next.

Divide the filling between the dough circles, placing it on one half of of the circle, and leaving a 1.5cm border at the edge. 

Dampen the border with water. Fold the circle in half over the filling and twist or crimp the edges to seal.

Place on a lined baking sheet, brush with olive oil, and bake for 20 minutes until golden and well risen.

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Bread Machine Sourdough

I’ve been mixing my sourdough in a bread machine for years, but with rising energy prices I thought it would be more economical if I could bake one in the bread machine rather than our now ageing oven.

I googled, and found some timings on My Greek Dish. I used my recipe, taken from BBC Food, with a few tips taken from YouTube over the years.  I am constantly refining technique, flour types, and hydration so this is by no means set in stone.

The method makes paler and softer sourdough than oven baked, particularly if left in the bread pan overnight to cool (see end of recipe),which is preferred by my family.

300g active starter

500g flour 

10g salt

250g water + 1 tbsp water

I start my sourdough over 24 hours before, taking my pot of starter out the fridge around lunchtime the day before the evening I plan to bake.  We have an off peak electricity tariff (to charge electric cars) between 10pm and 3am, so my timings are based on baking at 10pm.

My starter always contains just over 100g of 50/50 bread flour and water. Currently it is 100% wholemeal bread flour. I have experimented with higher quantities of white bread flour in my starter but this can develop a very vomity smell! 

12:00 Day Before - starter out the fridge 

22:00 Day Before - top your now active starter up with 50g strong bread flour and 50g water. Cover and leave out in the counter overnight

08:00 Baking Day - weigh 100g of starter into a bread machine bread pan. Add 100g strong bread flour and 100g of water. Roughly combine the ingredients with a silicone spatula, taking care not to scratch the bread pan, then mix on the dough cycle. Turn the dough cycle off after 15 minutes (which is when mine stops the initial mixing) and leave until 2pm. 

14:00 Baking Day - your starter should be bubbly and ‘lively’. Add 500g flour and 250g water.  Mix for 15 minutes on the dough cycle. Switch off, and set a timer for 30 minutes. 

14:45 Baking Day - add 2 tsp salt and 1 tbsp water.  Mix with the dough cycle for 15 minutes. Turn the bread machine off and leave for 30 minutes.

15.30 Baking Day - Mix with the dough cycle for approximately 5 minutes. Our machine starts mixing slowly, then speeds up. So I turned it off once it speeded up.  Turn the bread machine off and leave for 30 minutes.

16.05 Baking Day - Mix with the dough cycle for approximately 5 minutes. Turn the bread machine off and leave for 30 minutes.

16.40 Baking Day - Mix with the dough cycle for approximately 5 minutes. Turn the bread machine off and leave for 30 minutes.

17.15 Baking Day - Mix with the dough cycle for approximately 5 minutes. Turn the bread machine off and leave for 30 minutes.

17.50 Baking Day - Mix with the dough cycle for approximately 5 minutes. Turn the bread machine off and leave for 4 hours for the final prove, until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

To bake, set the Bake option for 1 hour 15 minutes.  DO NOT OPEN THE LID whilst the sourdough is baking and let the heat escape. Bread machines do not get as hot as ovens, so you need every precious degree of heat.

A friend who I taught to make sourdough following the BBC's recipe commented that all the mix and rest steps sounded like 'a lot of faff'.  This method works for me as I am in the house most of the day as a cook from home for a living but if you can't be bothered/aren't on hand all day, try the My Greek Dish method which only proves for 3-4 hours after the initial mixing (with all the ingredients) until the dough has doubled in size. I do note their recipe has sugar/honey, which may make it rise slightly quicker. 

Finally, when the cooking time is up, leave the bread in the machine to cool before turning out. I ended up leaving mine in the bread pan overnight as a) it was midnight and I wanted to go to bed, and b) I had used an old bread pan (from one of my four bread machines!), and it had stuck.  The following morning I gently eased the pliable bread away from the edges of the pan and eventually shook it out.  Now I know this method works I will use a newer non-stick pan. Or possibly take the dough out before the final proving, clean the bread pan, remove the paddle, lightly grease the pan, and then return the dough to prove.

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Jamie Oliver's Speedy Homemade Flatbread Tuna Melt Toastie

Watching Jamie Oliver's One Pan Wonders series I've been inspired to make the Speedy Folded Flatbreads with a tuna and cheddar filling.

They are quite small, and it took a little trial and error not to put too much filling in.  After making four think I've got it right.

4 tbsp bread flour (I ended up using 2 tbsp wholemeal, 2 tbsp white)

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt
1 tbsp yoghurt, or milk

4 tbsp water

1/4 tin of tuna, drained

20g grated mature cheddar

1 tbsp chopped onion (optional)

oil for frying

Mix up the flatbread ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Put a small pan over a medium heat to heat up whilst you get your filling ingredients prepared.  

When ready, put a drizzle of oil in the hot pan, swirl or brush around, then add the flatbread mixture.  Swirl around with a spatula or back of a spoon, patching any holes caused by bubbles, and thinning out any raw mixture. 

When the top looks less wet, shake the pan to loosen the flatbread.  You may need to loosen it with a spatula first.  Sprinkle the cheddar on one half of the flatbread, followed by onion (if using) and tuna. Using a spatula, fold the half of flatbread with no filling over onto the filling, cover with a curved lid that doesn't touch the flatbread, and turn the heat down low.  Cook for a further 2 minutes then serve, warning your diner it may be hot!

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Quick Easy Homemade Pitta Bread

Wow, homemade pitta pockets are so easy (and relatively quick) to make.

I've been reading a lot about Ultra Processed Food over the summer. More than half the calories the average person in the UK eats come from ultra-processed foods. 

Ultra-processed foods contain ingredients that you wouldn’t add when cooking homemade food such as chemicals, colourings, sweeteners and preservatives. Recent studies suggest an association between diets high (85%+) in ultra-processed foods and obesity, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease. 

The most commonly eaten ultra-processed foods in the UK are: industrialised bread (11 per cent), pre-packaged meals (7.7 per cent), breakfast cereals (4.4 per cent), sausages and other reconstituted meat products (3.8 per cent).

So, top the list, time to get making homemade bread.

Makes 6-10 pittas

350g strong bread flour, I used 100g wholemeal + 250g white

210ml water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp quick yeast

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Mix all your ingredients in a bowl (food processor with a dough hook, or bread machine). Knead the dough for 10 minutes, then cover and leave to prove for 30 minutes.  I used the dough cycle on my bread machine which runs for 45 minutes including kneading.

Tip the proved dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knock back. Divide into 6 or 10 equal pieces, depending on whether you want normal or small pittas, and shape into a ball.

Cover the balls a large bag, ensuring the plastic does not touch the dough by using strategically places tall glasses or similar. Leave to rest for 10 minutes.

After resting, turn on the oven to 230C and place 2/3 baking sheets in to heat up. Whilst the oven is heating up, flatten  then roll out each dough ball to an oval pitta shape about 5mm thick. Place the rolled out pitta on a piece of baking paper the size of your heating up baking sheets.

When the oven is up to temperature, carefully slide the baking paper with the pittas on onto the the hot baking sheets. Bake for 5-6 minutes until puffed up and golden brown. Remove to a wire rack until cool enough to handle.

We made gyros out of my first ever batch. My next batch is destined to to be used for koftas, and possibly pitta crisps.

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Swedish Cardamon Buns

Just like Cinnamon Buns, but with ground cardamon. Surprisingly easy, even the plaiting.

I've taken the Richard Bertinet's Cinnamon Bun recipe I first used a couple of months ago, and halved the quantity so it made 12.

Makes 12 buns

For The Dough;
100g Full Fat Milk
1 Medium Eggs
300g Strong White Bread Flour
6g dried quick yeast
25g Caster Sugars

100g Salted Butter (at room temperature)

For The Filling;

75g Salted Butter (at room temperature)

125g Soft Brown Sugar

1 tsp ground cardamon or crushed seeds from 35 cardamon pods

For The Egg Glaze;

1 Egg

Start by making the dough. Put the milk and eggs into the bowl of a food mixer (I used a bread machine on dough cycle instead), add the flour, then the yeast to one side of the bowl, and the salt and sugar and butter to the other side of the bowl

Mix on a slow speed for 4 minutes then increase the speed to medium and mix for a further 10-12 minutes until the dough comes away cleanly from the side of the bowl. Or just leave the dough cycle on your bread machine to run. Mine is 45 minutes long, including proving time.

If using a food mixer, form the dough into a ball and pop into a clean floured bowl. Cover and leave for around 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

For the filling, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and stir in the cardamon. Spread the filling over the top of the dough (if softening the butter in the microwave, take care not to let it melt too much - mine was a little sloppy to work with and oozed out of my rolls when twisting).

Roll out the pastry to a rectangle roughly 35 x 45cm, with the longer edge facing you. Spread the cardamom butter over the surface, right to the edges. Fold the top third down to the middle and the bottom third up, like an envelope, so you have three layers of dough. Score, then cut into 12 equal strips, measuring about 3.5 x 11cm each. 

If you're able to plait, make 3 cuts down strips leaving 1 cm uncut at the top. Take each plait and roll it up along its length starting from the cut end then place, uncut end down, in a greased 12 cup muffin tray. I used silicone muffin cases to save greasing. If you can't plait, cut each strip into 2 and twist instead of plait. Cover and allow to prove for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Brush the knots with the egg glaze and sprinkle with a little brown sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

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Richard Bertinet's Cinnamon Buns

I'm sure I saw a social media post of someone making cinnamon buns, but when I looked for it in my saved posts I couldn't find it. Instead, I ended up following Richard Bertinet's Cinnamon Buns recipe from the Gozney website.

Watching the video, it all looked very easy. And it was, apart from rolling the dough out large enough.  My strips of dough were too thin to plait. So I just twisted them instead.

Do note, the recipe makes 24 buns. I only realised this after I had started mixing the dough. I shaped all 24  but only baked 12, freezing the other 12 for another time. If you don't have the freezer space/appetite/mouths for 24, maybe half the ingredients?

The text from the web page is below, with my notes in brackets.

Makes 24 buns

For The Dough;
200g Full Fat Milk
2 Medium Eggs
600g Strong White Bread Flour
25g Fresh Yeast or 12g dried quick yeast
50g Caster Sugar
10g Salt (I used salted butter and omitted the salt)
200g Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

For The Filling;

150g Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

250g Soft Brown Sugar

2 Tsp Cinnamon

For The Egg Glaze;

1 Egg

2 Tbsp Full Fat Milk

For The Sugar Glaze;

100g Caster Sugar

100g Water

Start by making the dough. Put the milk and eggs into the bowl of a food mixer (I used a bread machine on dough cycle, leaving it in for the whole 45 minute cycle) then add the flour. Break in the yeast to one side of the bowl, then add the salt and sugar and butter to the other side

Mix on a slow speed for 4 minutes then increase the speed to medium and mix for a further 10-12 minutes until the dough comes away cleanly from the side of the bowl.

Form the dough into a ball and pop into a clean floured bowl. Cover and leave for around 45 minutes or until double in size.

Lightly flour a work surface and roll the dough into a rectangle roughly the size of an A3 sheet of paper.

For the filling, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and stir in the cinnamon. Spread the filling over the top of the dough (if softening the butter in the microwave, take care not to let it melt too much - mine was a little sloppy to work with and oozed out of my rolls when twisting).

With the long side facing you, fold in half lengthways to enclose the filling and slice it widthways into 24 strips each roughly 3.5cm across. Next, use a sharp knife to cut twice down the length of each strip to make three strands. Plait the three strands together and repeat to make 24 individual plaits.

Take each plait and roll it up along its length to create a knot. Grease a 12 cup muffin tray and pop the knots into the tray. Cover and allow to prove for 1 hour.

Aim to have your Gozney oven (or fan oven at 200C) at around 200°C with little to no flame. Brush the knots with the egg glaze and pop into the outdoor oven to bake for between 15-20 minutes until golden.

Meanwhile, make the sugar glaze. Put the sugar and water in a pan and bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer until you have a light syrup (I was too impatient to bother with either the egg, or the sugar glaze).

Brush the baked knots with the syrup while still hot and leave to cool before devouring.

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These were served up with a candle in each instead of a birthday cake.

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Cake Tin Sourdough

I have been making and selling small sourdough for a number of years, but have found myself needing to make family sized loaves over various lockdowns and school closures. 

Sourdough's second rise is typically in a 'banetton', or proving basket, and gently turned out onto a hot baking tray before baking.  I have makeshift baskets for my 400g loaves, but had nothing for my full size 900g loaves - until I watched a friend bake her's in a cake tin.

The same friend anxiously tipped her sourdough from a banetton into the cake tin, fearing it would deflate. So I simply decided to let my sourdough rise in the cake tin and then cook it in it, removing the risk of deflating.

My sourdough is still not as 'holey' as the beautifully photographed artisan loaves but it has risen, is tasty, easy, and cheaper.

Oh, and I knead mine on the dough cycle in a bread machine and leave it to rise for the first time in the bread machine pan, so it is a wonderfully hands off process. A dough hook in a food processor would work as well if you don't have a bread machine.

Makes 1x 900g loaf

300g lively sourdough starter
500g white bread flour

250g water

10g salt

If you fridge your starter like me (as I only use it once or twice a week), take it out of the fridge 2 days before you intend to bake the loaf. I take mine out in the morning of Day 1.

On the evening of Day 1 I feed my starter to ensure I will have 300g of starter the following morning.

8-9am on Day 2 I weigh 300g of starter into the bread pan followed by all the other ingredients.  Knead using the dough cycle and then leave in the pan in the bread machine for 12+ hours until just before you go to bed. 

Bedtime Day 2 tip your dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Knead lightly and shape into a smooth ball.  Place in a lined 20cm cake tin. Cover with a puffed up plastic bag to stop the dough from drying out, but allowing the dough to rise and not stick to the bag and leave on the side overnight. NB. I did experiment with leaving the dough in the fridge overnight but it did not rise enough. This recipe was developed during a cold spell, and our kitchen is around 16C overnight. I may have to revisit proving overnight somewhere cooler in the height of summer.

8-9am Day 3 preheat the oven to 230C. Dust with a little flour and slash the dough if you like. Boil the kettle and pour a mug of boiling water into a high sided baking tray at the bottom of the oven, after placing the sourdough in it's cake tin on a middle shelf. 

Bake to 10 minutes at 230C, 10 minutes at 200C and, if the crust is golden brown, 20 minutes at 180C. I take the bread out of the tin for the last 10 minutes, just placing it on the oven shelf.  When ready, the loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

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Farinata, Chickpea Flour Pancake

I first had farinata a year ago in Liguria.  Finally, after surviving on lockdown online supermarket substitutes for 9 weeks, the gram flour finally turned up.

Serves 4 (or 10/12 as a nibble)

150g chickpea (gram) flour
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus 4 tbsp for frying and extra for drizzling
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
300ml water
4 fresh rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
Sea salt for sprinkling

Whisk flour, oil, baking powder, salt, rosemary and water together with a ballon whisk until a smooth runny batter.  Rest for 10 minutes - overnight!  Skim froth off the top before cooking.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan.  When shimmering carefully pour in the batter and fry until the edges have set. Turn the heat down, and continue to fry until the edges turn golden brown.

Finish under a hot grill for a further 10 minutes until golden brown.  Drizzle with olive oil an sea salt and slide onto a chopping board to slice up.  Serve hot or cold.

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Easy Hot Cross Buns

I started off making Hot Cross Buns with Paul Hollywood's recipe.  But over the years I have simplified it, and now no longer glaze them as it just makes them too sticky in my experience. It also requires a bread machine with a dough cycle, or kneading the dough for 10 minutes in a food processor.

Makes 12 buns

500g strong white bread flour
75g caster sugar
7g quick yeast
125g dried mixed fruit
Zest of 1 orange (optional)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1 tbsp sunflower oil
300ml water

For the cross
1 tbsp plain flour

Add all the ingredients to the bread machine pan in the order specified by your bread machine, then knead on the dough cycle.  Turn off the machine and leave the dough to rise to the top of the warmed pan for 1 hour.  Set a timer so you don't forget it!

After an hour, tip the dough out onto a floured surface and divide into 12 even pieces.  Shape into balls and place on a piece of greaseproof paper on a baking tray.  Leave to rise for another hour.

Heat the oven to 220C.  Mix the flour and water until you have a double cream consistency.  Spoon into a piping bag or a small plastic bag with the corner cut off to drizzle a line along each row of buns and back across the rows the otherway to make a cross.

Cook for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown.  I found these browned very quickly and only needed 20 minutes.  But every oven is different so just watch them carefully the first time you make them and take notes.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

I tend to eat them like toasted teacakes.

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