Boiled Dough Bread

      

On my quest to learn bread making I came across several videos on YouTube and FB on making different types of bread. This boiled bread recipe started on a Turkish site and when you keep clicking and going down the rabbit hole that is social media, you will eventually find something you can adapt and this is it for me. I LOVE this bread so much, so does the family so winners all around.

Ingredients 

400ml lukewarm milk

10g dry yeast

20g sugar

10g salt

30ml vegetable oil

600g bread flour 

1. Mix milk, yeast, sugar and salt.

2. Then add flour. Stir until it gets tough then use hands and mix. 

3. Add oil and mix and knead until incorporated through. Knead for a few minutes, then rest for an hour until dough is double in size.

4. Knock the air out and roll into a log.

5. Cut log in half. Then cut each half into 3rds.

6. With a rolling pin roll the dough into a rectangle of sorts, approx 5 and 6  inches a side (ish) ... or whatever size you want really, I was going for subs.

Square or rectangle is up to you

7. Then roll the dough into a log. Pinch and seal the seams and the side so that it the dough doesn't unravel.

8. In a pan with boiling water, put the dough in for 2 minutes. 

Boil for 2 minutes

9. Score the top of the boiled dough with slits for growth. In a 200 degree preheated oven bake for 25 minutes or so until it's brown and fat and fluffy.

10. Shove in face :)

Perfectly toasty

Hot Cross Buns

My boys have just memorised the words to the old Hot Cross Buns nursery rhymes. They love the song and it's quite hilarious to hear them sing it. It's almost Easter Time (according to the shops anwyay) as Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns are now on display. Actually it's been on sale since February so really the shops are not a good indication of how close Easter is because if we go by their displays Halloween is in September and Xmas is in October.

Anyway, the boys had their first taste of the infamous buns last week and they loved it. This morning on their way to daycare they asked if I could get them some for when they got home. So I dropped them off and went to the bakery that made the best ones in my town only to be dreadfully disappointed that they were shut. So I got home, looked up a recipe on taste.com and to my amazement actually had all the ingredients in the pantry and decided to bake some.

This is my 1st attempt. It's not the best hot cross buns in the world but it's quite gorgeous especially served warm with butter melting through it.

Hot Cross Buns

Buns
4 cups plain flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 x 7g dried yeast sachets
2 teaspoons mixed spice
pinch of salt
1 1/2cup sultanas
50g butter
300ml milk
2 eggs beaten

Flour paste
1/2 cup flour
4-5 tablespoons water

Sugar glaze
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons caster sugar

1. Combine flour, sugar, yeast, mixed spice, salt and sultanas in a large bowl. Make a well and set aside.

2. In a small saucepan melt butter and heat milk just to lukewarm. Add warm milk and beaten egg to dry ingredients. Mix it until combined and turn out dough onto lightly floured surface.
***I used a mixer with a dough hook but a flat knife is good enough for the mixing***

3. Knead dough until smooth, 10 mins max. Don't overwork it or you'll have buns of steel. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and set aside to rise and double, about an hour or an hour and half.


4. Punch dough down to original size and knead until smooth. Cut into 12 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball and place on a baking paper lined tray a couple of cm apart. Set aside for half hour so dough can plump up again. Heat oven to 190 degrees.

5. To make flour paste simply add flour and water and stir to a nice thick consistency. Not too thick that it can't get piped, thick but flowy is what you want. Add a little more flour or water if needed to reach the consistency you need. Put flour paste in a piping bag or a plastic bag that you can snip the edge off. I used a plastic bag with a small nozzle shoved in the end.

6. Pipe paste on buns. Of course make the cross pattern but I also did a few initials for the twins as they love anything that they can identify as being specific to them. Pop in oven for 20-25 minutes.

7. Meanwhile dissolve sugar and water and let boil for a few minutes. Let it boil until the mixture looks a little thick but take it off the fire before the colour starts to change to toffee shades.

8. When buns are out of oven and still warm glaze with the mixture. It will give that extra sticky yumminess and beautiful glossy finish.

9. Shove in face whilst still warm with melting butter all through the crumbly bun.

Smorgastata - The Birthday Cake for he who does not like sweet things.

Smorgastata

It takes all sorts of people in this world, I get that .. I may not understand all of them but variety is the spice of life after all. One particular breed of people I do not fully understand are those of the "I do not like sweet things" ilk. Yes, hard to imagine but they are out there. Stranger yet, I am married to one of them!!

My dear husband turns 4* today (best I do not reveal his age without permission) and although he does eat the odd sweet thing he really is a savoury man. I wanted to make him a nice birthday cake of some sort and was hurting my brain as to what to make when it hit me. He loves smoked fish, I love cake .... let's make a smokey fishy creamy cake!! That was when I remembered the Smorgastata.

A Smorgastata is a Swedish Sandwich Cake. If I make this sandwich cake it would become our meal and because it will look like a cake I'll pop a candle (or several dozen) and it'll also be the "cake" du jour. 2 birds 1 stone and all .. I'm all about multifunction!

My inspiration came from a recipe I saw on panini happy and like all recipes I want to try there will be adjustments and adaptations be it for the fact some items can't be found where I am or I like more of something or less of something else or for no real reason other than I just felt like it. Here is my offering of a Smorgastata.

Happy Birthday my darling Husband!!

1 rectangle Vienna loaf (go round if you prefer)
smoked salmon
cooked prawns
cucumber
pickled onions
gherkin
red capsicum
radishes
jarlsberg cheese
smoked trout or herring mousse (I didn't have any so I used smoked salmon and dill dip)
mayo
mustard
iceberg lettuce
cream cheese
sour cream
* basically anything you want
** do not season with salt as it will be salty enough
*** I did not write how much of each ingredient is required as being what is effectively a sandwich it really does depend on how much you want

1. Cut loaf of bread into 3 even layers, remove the crust.
2. Then all you need to do is basically layer the ingredients and make the biggest fishiest creamiest sandwich ever.
3. Make "icing"  for the cake by mixing cream cheese and sour cream to a consistency that is easy to ice a cake with.
4. Ice "cake" and garnish.
5. Attach candle, sing song to husband .... another year, another adventure.

Breaking Bread ... and shoving in face!

The act of breaking bread especially with friends satisfies me beyond description. When the bread that is broken is freshly baked and still pipping steam hot enough to make butter melt like creamy lava even better! That whiff of wheaty wholesomeness followed by the creamy ooziness of the butter in that first mouthful is worth the time and effort in the kneading and waiting for bread to rise. If a hug could be explained in a smell, to me, it would be like warm bread and melting butter.
Today I made 2 loaves of hugs, here is my recipe. It was inspired by one of the hundreds of amazing bread recipes at the King Arthur Flour website.

Walnut and Pistachio Spiced Wheat Bread
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 cup lukewarm water

4 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups Unbleached Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons mixed spice
2 cups mixed diced walnuts and pistachio


1. In the slightly warm water I add the yeast and leave it aside for a few minutes for it to start doing that thing that yeast does ( says she very technically)
2. Then I simple add all ingredients to my mixer (in my case my to die for Kitchen Aid Artisan) and use the dough hook to mix everything together. If the dough looks dry and not coming together simple add a little water, a tablespoon or so at a time as you can add water but once it's in there it's in there!
3. Turn out dough on to floured surface and knead dough together and form whatever shape you want. I make it oblongey to go in my loaf tin.
4. Set aside covered by a tea towel in a warm spot for an hour, the dough needs to rise and crown.
5. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
6. Once dough has risen you may make little slits on the top for design if you so wish or simple place it in oven as is for 40-45 minutes.
7. When ready turn out from tin and allow to cool slightly before cutting in to it ..... for me, this bit is difficult as all I want to do is cut a chunk, smother good butter on it and shove in face.

Simple steps to baking a hug that can be shared (or not)