Saturday 13 November 2010

turning over a new loaf...

Pardon the pun, I couldn't help myself.
I've been on the bread improving bandwagon of late & I must say this latest recipe is a real winner. It's a bit crusty, a bit chewy, but soft at the same time. You should give it a go, you might like it just as much as I do. It's a cheats sourdough, but since I don't have time for the real thing... this is mighty fine.
Here's the deets...
:: Mix together 2 teaspoons of salt, 3 teaspoons of instant yeast & 1 and a half cups of warm water. I use my kitchenaid with the dough hook, but a bowl & wooden spoon works just as well. You'll just get bigger muscles than me.
:: Now add the flour. I use 1/4 cup of rye, 1/2 cup wholemeal & 2 1/4 cups of white. You want the dough to be quite wet, but make sure it's not too wet or handling it later will be a nightmare! I tend to mix this amount of flour in & then slowly add a touch more white at a time until the dough starts to form into a ball & pulls away easily from the sides.
:: Cover with a clean tea towel & let rise for 2 hours.
:: Heat oven to 250 degrees celsius.
:: Lay out towel & pour a little polenta onto centre. Spread polenta out to roughly 20cm circle.
:: Flour your hands & shape dough into a round by pulling & tucking under, rotating as you go.
:: Place neat side down onto polenta & wrap lightly with towel. Pop into a bowl to help with rise.
:: Allow to rise for half an hour, meanwhile heat a lidded cast iron pot in the oven.
:: Turn dough out into pot (polenta side up) & make an x with a knife, it only needs to be about 5 cm.
::
If it falls in lopsided, give the pot a shimmy back & forth to centre it.
:: Cook covered in oven for 30 minutes, then uncovered for another 10 to 15 minutes.
We made curried egg sandwiches with eggs from our girls. Yummo! I like extra curry powder, it reminds me of my nana. This teatowel reminds me of my nana, it's Irish, just like she was. I'm sentimental like that & plus it was only 20c! That too reminds me of nana, she was just as thrifty.
I hope your weekend is fun & filled with love & laughter. Maybe some crusty warm bread too.

3 comments:

Sue said...

The bread looks and sounds delicious. Perfect on a cold and wet weekend too!

Little Paper Trees said...

you are the bread queen and I am seriously going to try this - just printed it out! x

Megan said...

sounds tasty! i still haven't tried out your other bread recipe either and i do now have a cast iron pot. no excuses!! what size pot do you use for yours? does it fit all snug like or is there space around the sides?