Irish Soda Bread, No-kneading wholemeal and oatmeal bread

This week's post and recipe are dedicated to my partner in crime The Entertainment Co-chief Executive, aka Little Bunny, aka Secret Santa.
When I first met you, I couldn't understand either your English accent nor your dry humour, which I've both learnt to love since. 
You have been the kind official banana provider for all the banana breads I've baked for the past 5 years. 
You've supported all my crazy entertainment ideas, and we've had such a good time putting them together.
You were one of the very first people to encourage me to make a blog out of my baking, and so many time did we have fun dreaming about me turning it into a cake shop and you becoming my official British products importer. God knows, maybe one day we'll do it? And even if we don't, the dreaming part has been a great pleasure in itself.

Thank you for everything. I wish you all the best in your new adventures!

Irish Soda Bread 

 (no kneading wholemeal and oatmeal bread)

I absolutely love the crumbly and cakey texture of soda bread. I only recently discovered that it is a bread which dough doesn't require kneading, which makes it really easy and quick to make. With a food processor, it really is a matter of minutes, but by hand, it won't take much longer!  
Ingredients

30g butter
450g wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
115g oatmeal (I didn't have oatmeal so I processed rolled oats in a food processor for 30sec, which worked perfectly)
11/2 tsp cream of tartar (or baking powder)
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
425ml milk and water (half and half. I used skimmed milk)

Make the Irish Soda Bread

1/ Preheat the oven a 180deg C

2/ In a large bowl, mic flour, salt, oatmeal, cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda

3/ Using your fingers or in a food processor, rub in the butter until the mixture resemble fine crumbs. add the milk and water, then mix to a soft dough

4/ Turn into a slightly floured surface and knead briefly to a loaf shape or slightly flattened round ball. Deeply score the bread with a sharp knife (I made a cross)

5/ Place the loaf on the prepared baking sheet, place at the bottom of the oven a dish with a few tbsp of water at the bottom (this will create some steam and ensure the bread has a lovely crust) and bake for 30-35min

6/ Eat warm or cold, with sweet or savoury accompaniment.

Fruits and nuts wholemeal bread

Just back from my holidays in Scotland, I can highly recommend that you go there if you haven't been yet!
Scottish people are simply adorable, the landscapes in the Highlands are amazing (the Highlands are a fantastic playground for hikers and walkers), weather is not that bad (I did even get sunburnt one day!), and food is great!
Yes, it is!

Here are my new favourite Scottish foods: 
- Haggis (as the saying goes: as long as you don't know what it is, you'll like it!)
- Smoked haddock and kippers, often eaten for breakfast in Scotland : a little hard core early in the morning when you're used to your marmalade toasts, but simply delicious.
- All kind of good fish and steaks actually, including the traditional Cullen Skink Soup (potato-fish), yum!
 - Potato Scones: somewhere between a pancake, a gnocchi, a scone. Spread with Nutella, it's to die for.


OK, I admit, it's not very much "fruits and vegs" oriented...and I did have a Veggie Episode at the supermarket, where I bought £30 worth of vegetables, but well, holidays are not for dieting, are they?

Anyway, don't take my word for it, go to Scotland!
I'll post some pictures very soon. In the meantime, here is a new recipe!

Fruit and nuts bread

Ingredients: 

250g strong white bread flour
250g wholemeal bred flour
14g dried instand yeast
350ml water
1 tsp salt
1 small glass of dried abricots, cut in peaces
1 small glass of croasely chopped walnuts and hazelnuts, roasted in the oven for 10 min 
 
Make the bread: 

1/ In a large bowl, sift the flour, yeast and salt together. Make a well in the middle and add the water. 

2/ Mix the ingredients until they come together into a ball. 

3/ Transfer the ball onto a work surface and knead the dough for 10min (no less!) until it's elastic.

4/ Transfer onto a baking tray lightly floured and put a large bowl upside down on top of it. Leave to rise in a warm place until double in size (it can take from 30min to 1 hour, depending on how warm the place is) 

5/ Tranfer to the work surface, roughly spread with your hand, sprinkle the nuts and fruits and form a ball again. Knead the dough for further 3 to 4 minutes until the fruits and nuts are well spread out in the dough. 
Make a nice ball and place back on the lightly floured baking tray. Leave to rise again under the big bowl turned upside down for 20/30 min. In the meantime, preheat the oven at 220degC. 

6/ Score the bread with a very sharp knife and sprinkle lightly with flour. Bake for approx 30 / 40min until the crust is golden.  

Yummy scrummy Chelsea Buns

From a British perspective, French people probably have a "very" latin character.
Politics, work, food, love, every topic is a potential reason to have heated debates, push each others' buttons, getting angry from time to time. The thrill of conflict, the passion of reconciliation make us feel alive. (Lunatics? us? Noooo)

On the other hand, British people are known for avoiding conflict, being diplomatic, phlegmatic, calm, rational and polite. 
When we punch, we scream, we strike (ok, maybe we are lunatics), they listen, they nod and they apologise whilst disagreeing.

Although I'm delighted to live in a country where it's unlikely my boss will start screaming at me when I make a huuuge mistake, and although I immensely enjoy my peaceful life with understanding and non-screaming people, I'm afraid some days that's not good enough.
Sometimes it itches me to get angry, and I wish I could find someone who would accept to fight back a little.

I wish I could get angry and have an argument with my landlord when he tells me that a 80 litre flood in my kitchen is not an emergency.
Or with the supplier who talks to me like I'm a 5 year old.
Or even with my boyfriend, who doesn't even get the concept (and the benefits?) of getting upset from time to time.

Well, maybe there is a support group for conflict-frustrated Frenchies somewhere... ;-)

Chelsea Buns

I was light handed on the topping on these buns, when they could easily have much more topping in the swirls and a stickier top. 
So, don't heistate to follow your instinct and your taste, or even improvise with the topping ingredients!


Ingredients for the dough: 
450g strong white flour , plus extra for dusting

2 x 7g sachets easy-blend yeast

50g caster sugar

150ml warm milk

1 egg , beaten

50g unsalted butter , melted, plus extra for greasing

oil , for greasing

Ingredients for the topping: 

25g melted butter, plus extra for greasing

85g coarsely crunched almonds, plus a few extra to decorate

25g light muscovado sugar

2 tbsp apricot jam mixed with a lump of honey

option: sultanas, ground cinnamon, ground ginger

Make the buns: 

1/ Put the flour, yeast, caster sugar and 1 tsp salt into a large mixing bowl and mix well. Make a well in the centre and pour in the warm milk, 50ml warm water, the beaten egg and the melted butter. 

2/ Mix everything together to form a dough - start with a wooden spoon and finish with your hands. If the dough is too dry, add a little more warm water; if it's too wet, add more flour.

3/ Knead in the bowl or on a floured surface until the dough becomes smooth and springy. 

4/ Transfer to a clean, lightly greased bowl and cover loosely with a clean, damp tea towel. Leave in a warm place to rise until roughly doubled in size - this will take about 1 hr depending on how warm the room is.

5/ Heat oven to 200deg C and grease a deep 23cm cake tin. Tip the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a few secs.

6/ Roll out the dough to a rough 20 x 30cm rectangle.

7/ In a small bowl, mix the butter with sugar, spices (if used) and spread evenly over the dough, then sprinkle with almonds and sultanas (if using).

8/ Roll up firmly like a Swiss roll from one of the long sides - dampening the open edge to help it stick if you need to.

9/ Cut into 8 even slices with a sharp knife, shape into 8 round pinwheels, then arrange in the tin, cut-side up. Cover with a clean, damp tea towel and prove in a warm place for about 20 mins until roughly doubled in size.

10/ Bake the buns for 10 mins, then lower oven to 180deg C. Cook for 10 mins more until golden brown. Melt the jam with 1 tbsp water, brush all over the buns, then sprinkle with a few more crushed almonds.

 

(That's the most upset I've seen him so far ;-) )

Xmas # 2 : Spiced bread

One year, we decided with my family to make each other's Christmas gifts rather than buying them. 
Everybody put a lot of effort into it:

• I wrote a book for my brother and sisters (yes, I had already a lot to say at that time),
• My brother made me an amazing wooden mobile inspired by my favourite painter,
• My sister printed pictures of our childhood....

We ended up making each other cry with our gifts packed with sentimental value.
Since then, we like teasing each other saying that if a gift doesn't make its recipient cry, that means that the gift wasn't great enough (Crazy family? Noooo). 

One thing is for sure, the attention put into a gift is definitely more valuable to me than its actual cost!

Spiced bread

Spiced bread (or pain d'épice in French) is baked a lot in France, particularly around Christmas time. It's usually a very dark and dense sweet cake, served as a starter with foie gras, or as a dessert, snack or even breakfast. 
I like it on its own or spread with homemade orange marmelade or Nutella!

This spiced bread can be beautifully wrapped in plastic paper, or sliced and stored in a jar to be offered as a Christmas gift, maybe alongside homemade jam?


Ingredients

250g honey

100g single cream

30g demerara sugar

250g flour

11g baking powder

mixed peels : a small handful

Spices: pepper and cinnamon (I put 2 tbsp but could have put twice as much if I wanted to make a more spiced and darker bread)

 

Make the spiced bread: 

Preheat the oven at 160deg C

 

1/ In a bowl, mix the honey, the cream and sugar, and melt all together in the microwave for 2mins

2/ In another bowl, mix the flour, the spices, the baking powder and mixed peels

3/ Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until well combined

4/ Pour the cake mix into a buttered cake tin or a silicone cake mould and cook for approx 30-35 min

Option : I added pieces of amaretto biscuits in the bread mix just before cooking it, to add another texture to the bread. Completely optional and random (you can have fun and add pretty much whatever you like, may it be candied fruits, nuts, etc)

What on the drinks menu Alex?
- On its own, our spiced bread will go well with champagne or sparkling wine
- Matched with chicken in a spiced bread sauce, you might want to try an off-dry Gewurztraminer from Alsace or a Vouvray (French Loire valley)
- If you're going to enjoy this spiced bread with foie gras, you can go for a sweeter wine like a Gewurztraminer or Pinot Grigio, Jurançon or Sauternes (from South West France)

Thanks Alex!

Honey, would you like homemade bread for breakfast?

I can eat hydrogenated fat and E-numbers in the shape Nutella, burgers or cheap peanut butter every day without blinking, but when I recently learned about all the horrible additives and chemicals most supermarket breads are full of (which are the most widely available bread you can find in the UK), I felt betrayed.

I grew up being told that bread is a healthy food, and that “if you are hungry, eat an apple or a piece of bread”. And suddenly, that was not the case anymore. Yuck!

After making this life-changing discovery, I concluded that learning how to make bread was not only a fun theme of baking class I could take, but that it would also prove super useful in this country.

So this is how I ended in Maria’s amazing baking lab on a 5 hour bread making class. 

Maria and her baking apprentices of the day

 Even if we are probably the same age, Maria is the kind of person I dream of becoming when I grow up. She is beautiful, she is cool and she bakes all day, sharing her passion for good food and good bread, and she does that for a living.

I didn’t know I could learn so much in such a short space of time. We tried several bread recipes, we made rolls, flat breads, small buns and loafs…I came back home with a week worth of professional quality bread that I had made all by myself.

Maria taught us of course how to knead bread dough like a pro - and with specific techniques, depending of the kind of dough you are working with - but the recipe I’m sharing with you today is the one I nicknamed The Amazing Bread for Lazy People. (I nickname everything that I really like, from my friends to my clothes).

A 3 minute work giving you such amazing results, I think it does well deserve its nickname.

Prescription: prepare your dough before going out on Saturday night. Wake up on Sunday morning and with 10min preparation you will have warm fresh bread for breakfast!

The Overnight Rye Bread,

aka The Amazing Bread for Lazy people

Ingredients:

150g dark rye bread flour

200g strong white flour

4g dried yeast

4g honey

5g salt

290g water

50g natural yoghurt

Make the bread:

1/ In a big bowl, mix the flour, yeast, salt. Add the water and yoghurt and mix with a spoon until well combined. (It will rise a lot, so you want a bowl that is a least twice as big as its content)

2/ Cover the bowl with a plastic lid and put in the fridge overnight

3/ Next day, preheat the oven at 200°C. When the oven is hot, place a baking tray containing approx. half a glass of water at the bottom of the oven

4/ Take the dough out of the fridge. Don’t deflate the dough. On a baking tray, scoop balls of dough (worth a heaped tablespoon) wide apart with a wet spoon. Try to touch the dough a little as possible not to deflate it and break the bubbles formed during the night.

Maria shows us how to make our buns without deflating the dough

 5/ Bake for about 20min and enjoy your buns hot!

"This is how we do it", easy peasy!

If you want to have a wonderful time, learn how to make bread and lots of amazing other things : http://www.bakewithmaria.com/