World Bread Day

It's finally here - World Bread Day!

Zorra from Kochtopf is hosting a wonderful event to celebrate World Bread Day and as a reminder, the intention was to either bake or showcase your favourite bread.

In the last few weeks to get into the swing of things I went baking mad and produced the following breads:

Burghal Bread - a wonderfully moist wholemeal bread due to the inclusion of soaked burghal, the crust a visual delight in it's coating of sesame seeds.



Seeded Orange Soda Bread - traditional soda bread gets a twist. The rise is a product of a reaction between baking soda and buttermilk - orange rind and a combination of poppy, sesame and pumpkin seeds give it a tangy crunch.



Piadina - a tradition northern Italian unleavened bread that's cooked on the grill.



Finally, for World Bread Day itself I've gone back to the beginning to make one of the oldest types of breads. A traditional recipe from Liguria, it uses at it's most basic version, chickpea flour, salt and water. This version I've added a spike of flavour in the form of finely chopped fresh rosemary.



Farinata
[Makes 1]

100 grams chickpea flour
1 cup warm water
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons olive oil

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, add the water and rosemary and whisk until combined.
Set this aside for an hour.

Pour the extra virgin olive oil into a non-stick baking dish (20cm/8inch), spread it well before adding the rested mixture. The oil helps to enrich the bread.

Cook in a preheated 200°C/400°F oven until golden and crisp on the top.

Turn out onto a board - the underside will be firm but moist. Flip it over onto a wire rack to cool for a few minutes before returning it to a serving plate.

Slice and eat while still hot.

Tagged with World Bread Day

Piadina

It's another reminder that Monday 16th October is World Bread Day and Zorra from Kochtopf is hosting an event to celebrate. I thought I'd make something that comes from my mother's region of Reggio-Emilia in Italy.

Piadina are traditional, unleavened flatbread and in their most basic forms, made only with flour, lard, salt and enough water to form a soft dough. After a short resting period, the dough is rolled out to form rough circles and then cooked upon the testaroli, a special metal grill.

For this version, butter and milk replace the lard and the piadini are dry-fried in a cast-iron ridge pan to give those wonderful ridge marks.



Piadina
[Makes 2]

150 grams plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
freshly ground salt
30 grams butter
80ml milk

Place the flour, baking powder, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until it resembles breadcrumbs. Pour in the milk and pulse again until a dough forms.

Turn this soft dough onto a board and knead briefly until smooth and holds it's shape. Roll into a ball and place in a bowl. Cover and let it rest for half an hour.

Cut the dough into two and roll each portion into an rough oblong.

Heat up a grill or fry-pan and add the piadina. Cook for a few minutes before turning. Press down with a spatula to limit it's rising and continue cooking for another few minutes.

Remove and fold in half - this helps to stop it cracking when cold. While this is cooling, cook the second piadina.

Traditionally, piadina is eaten with prosciutto - folded in half, it's just like a sandwich.



For this piadina, I've used a variety of lettuce, thinly sliced prosciutto, salad onion and camembert. The residual heat in the piadina making it extremely enticing.

Tagged with Bread

Seeded Orange Soda Bread

I know I've mentioned this before - World Bread Day is coming up on October 16th and Zorra from Kochtopf is hosting an event to celebrate. Either bake or buy then blog about it by the 16th.

If you might be turned off with thoughts of yeast and all that kneading rigmarole - then this type of bread provides a solution. Why not make a soda bread?

Soda bread gets it's rise from the reaction between buttermilk and baking soda. When mixed together, the soda reacts with the lactic acid in the buttermilk to form carbon dioxide bubbles - these bubbles lift the bread. The one downside of this type of bread is it's short life - though it should be fine for a few days before becoming too dry. Ideally, it's best served warm or toasted.

This recipe comes from Marie Claire's Michele Cranston and her latest book Comfort: Real Simple Food. It provides a change from plain Soda bread and shows the versatility of the bread - the recipe easily open to substitutions in the type of nuts and flavourings used.



Seeded Orange Soda Bread
[Makes one 10x21cm / 4x8 inch loaf]

450 grams plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking soda
1 heaped teaspoon cream of tartar
2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons poppyseeds
500mls/2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F. Use some of the melted butter to butter (and flour) your bread pan. You will use the remaining butter later.

Sift the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar into a bowl, making sure they are well combined. Add the brown sugar, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and orange zest. Stir to ensure they are well mixed through.

Make a well in the centre of the bowl and slowly pour in the buttermilk - stirring to draw in the dry ingredients, add more buttermilk when the mix starts to feel stiff. Once all the milk is adding you should have a pourable dough.

Scoop this dough into the prepared loaf pan, roughly flatten off the top. Pour over the remaining melted butter before placing it in the oven for 30 minutes.



Reduce the temperature to 150°C/300°F and cook for another 30 minutes or until cooked through (use a skewer to test and when it comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the loaf, the bread is cooked).

Place on a wire rack to cool. The melted butter gives it a wonderfully crunchy crust, very biscuity in texture.



Cut into thick slices and serve it warm with some honey or jam. Toast the next day for breakfast and serve with lashings of real butter.

Tagged with bread

Burghul Bread

Zorra from Kochtopf is hosting a wonderful event that immediately got my attention. To help celebrate World Bread Day on the 16th of October she's asking us to either bake or buy bread and write a post about it. She even designed this great logo too!

Bread really is a universal constant in the world of food but for something so simple it's made in so many different ways. If you're a bread lover then mark this date in your calendar.

I'm hoping that between now and the 16th I'll have a few different breads made and I'm starting with a more usual bread.

This recipe comes from Let it Simmer by Sean Moran. The unusual ingredient in this bread is burghul. What's burghul you may be asking. It's this stuff on the spoon.



Cracked wheat is another name, though not entirely accurate - it can also be called bulgur, bulgar, bulger, bulghur or burghal. You'd probably be more accustomed to seeing it as part of Tabouli (or Tabbouleh).

Burghul is made from whole wheat kernels that are partially hulled. They are then soaked, steamed, dried and finally crushed. This crushed product is burghul. True cracked wheat has no soaking or steaming process - it's simply crushed wheat berries. It will take longer to cook than burghul, so if you use it, you need to factor in a longer cooking time.

Returning to the bread, this is probably one of the more "healthier" breads - it contains Spelt Flour (some information about Spelt can be found here), Wholemeal Flour, Oats and Burghul to create something that not only is good for you, but looks pretty good too.



Burghul Bread
(This makes 2 loafs - just halve the quantities to make one)

100 grams Burghul (or cracked wheat)
250ml water
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons soft brown sugar
2 teaspoons dried yeast
50ml tepid water
½ cup sesame seeds
Dough:
750 grams Spelt flour (or unbleached baker's flour)
190 grams wholemeal plain flour
½ cup rolled oats (or unprocessed bran)
1½ tablespoons salt
50ml olive oil
400ml tepid water

Prepare the Burghul:
Bring the 250ml of water to boil in a saucepan and stir in the burghul and ½ teaspoon salt. Stir occasionally and allow it to simmer until the water is absorbed and the burghul has softened. This will take about 10-15 minutes. When cooked place it in a bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature.

Activate the yeast:
In a small bowl add the yeast, brown sugar and 50ml tepid water - whisk to combine and place in a warm spot for about 10 minutes or until it's foaming.

Make the dough:
Sift the flours into a large bowl then stir in the oats, followed by the softened burghul. Make a well in the centre of the mixture and add the activated yeast, olive oil, salt and water. Since all flours are different you may need to add more (or less) water than listed. Begin by adding 300mls and continue adding until the dough reaches the correct consistency.

For this dough I needed to add another 50mls.

If you don't want to do this by hand then use a stand mixer - I must say that this quantity proved to be a little too much for the Kitchenaid, so keep that in mind. If you make half the amount that should be fine.

Knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic - about 10-15 minutes. Form into a ball and place it in an oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap.



Leave in a warm spot to prove until doubled in size - about 1½ hours.



When risen, tip it out onto a board, cut in half and knead each half for about 5 minutes. Form into a long log shape.

Place the sesame seeds in a large dish and roll the dough into this - ensuring it's totally coated in seeds. Press the seeds against the dough to make sure they are stuck. Place this on baking paper and allow to rise again until doubled in size - about 1 hour.





Preheat your oven to 250°C/480°F
Finely mist warm water over the loaves before placing them in the oven and turn down the temperature to 200°C/390°F. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. If you feel they are browning too quickly, turn the oven down to 180°C/350°F.

Cool on wire racks.



This slices so very easily, the crust is crispy and thick, the core is wonderfully dense yet soft due to the effects of the burghul.



It's delicious eaten warm, thickly spread with honey.

Tagged with Bread