Skip to main content

Bread Baking Take 2

Another hot morning gave me the energy to make my own bread. This time I used spelt flour, admittedly healthier than plain flour, though the bread is rather on a heavy side and doesn't rise a lot. It came out lovely - really crispy crust, and very interesting taste. I'm still astounded by how easy it is to make your own bread - and all the stuff about bread makers is rubbish. You need flour, yeast and water, plus an ordinary oven to bake it in, that's really it!

The ingredients I used for this bread:

0.5 kilo spelt flour
1 teaspoon of dried yeast
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar
a few table spoons of lukewarm milk
water

Everything starts with the yeast - pour it into milk (important - milk cannot be either hot or cold, or the yeast won't work). Stir the yeast until it dilutes, add sugar and leave in a warm place to activate. The mixture is ready to use when it gets frothy. Pour it into a large bowl with flour and knead, adding water as needed. The dough needs to be soft and flexible. Once you've got the right consistency, shape the loaf and bake in a hot oven (about 190-200C) for about 40 minutes.
The plait shape of bread, you can see in the pictures - courtesy of my husband :)



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gingerbread Layer Cake

This Christmas I decided to "pimp up" my gingerbread a bit, after a last minute inspiration. I saw a photo of this cake, literally a day before making the cake and decided it's an absolute must this Christmas. I really like how the cake combines gingerbread and gateau type cake features, it's both presentable and delicious. The cake (4 layers): 150 g honey (liquid) 200 g butter or margarine 500 g plain flour 3 yolks 4 tbsp milk 1 tbs purified soda 100 g sugar 1 tbsp ground ginger 1 tbsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground nutmeg 1 tsp ground cardamon 1tsp ground cloves a pinch of ground black pepper Combine the ingredients in a large bowl - as it's really hard to do, you may be best off using dough whisks on a food mixer. Cover the bowl with cling film and put into the fridge for 24 hours. After that time, divide the dough into 4 parts, place on a baking paper-lined baking tray and bake in 180C for about 15 minutes. Leave to cool.   The cream:

Autumnal Food - Chanterelles

While pasta continues to dominate the food served on our dinner table, the multitude of ways it may be prepared is a real bliss. Today we opted for a simple mix of spinach pasta with chanterelles. I've always thought mushroom dishes were quite complex and time-consuming, but it was a very nice surprise to find out how wrong that assumption was. The dish I served tonight could have been ready in less than half an hour, have it been not for me making green pasta from scratch. I made green (spinach) pasta - the recipe has been posted in the post Pasta Frenzy Continues , but it may well be served with packet pasta to cut down on preparation time. As I mentioned, the sauce is both easy and quick to make, plus there's virtually nothing that could go wrong with it. You need: 300 g chanterlles a pot of cream fresh basil leaves fresh oregano leaves fresh parsley salt and pepper 1 tbsp cooking oil grated Parmesan Rinse and chop chant

Christmas Cakes - Mince Pies Look-alikes

I got in the mood for making these cakes in the morning, and then it all started. Actually, the day started off with an argument, as I actually said I was gonna make 'mince pies' so it gave Sam all the wrong idea... as mince pies they are not! They look deceptively similar, but the filling (both in the original recipe, and my altered version is nothing like mince pies). They are both pretty and tasty, though they may be a bit tricky to make. The main reason to try out these little goodies, was actually my latest kitchen equipment purchase - star cutters. I ordered them online, hoping the delivery would make it before Friday (as I planned baking my last batch of gingerbread cakes). With my luck the courier arrived at my door just when I put the last tray of cakes into the oven. Well, what I could I do? Had to find a recipe for other cakes, and came across these little goodies. Looked nice, and the association with minced pies was immediate, plus the recipe looked simple enou