Monday night is 'Addicted to Foccacia' night

My mummy is very good to me, and believe me I do appreciate it.

My latest demand was for a couple of editions of a baking magazine being advertised on the TV with some freebie silicone moulds. 

When they arrived I managed to restrain myself from making endless cupcakes but found this foccacia recipe inside. And now I am addicted. This has to be the easiest bread to make but so light and fluffy and utterly scrummy. 

Foccacia Bread

• 450g strong white flour 
• 2tsp fast acting yeast - or as I use dried yeast, one heaped teaspoon of dried yeast reconstituted with 250ml of warm water and half a teaspoon of sugar 
• 2 teaspoons sea salt 
• 1 tablespoon of dried herb of your choice - so far I have made Rosemary, Thyme and Tarragon breads 
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil - or if you are watching your waistline, just use one tablespoon of olive oil and a little more warm water 

Sift the flour into a large bowl, then into a well in the centre add your yeast. If you are using fast acting yeast from a sachet you will need to add 250ml of warm water

Add the oil, herbs and 1 teaspoon of the salt, then start mixing together with your fingers or a wooden spoon, you might need to add a drop more warm water to create a smooth pliable dough. 

Place on a floured surface and knead well for about 10 minutes. I find this bit very addictive and have to time myself so that I don't spend too long kneading it. 

With a pastry brush or your fingers smear a bit of oil into the bowl and over a piece of cling film, pop the dough back into the bowl and cover with the cling film then leave to rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. 

Once fully risen, pop it out of the bowl and knock back a couple of times to punch the air out, then either separate into however many breads you want or as in the photo above one big loaf (for tearing into chunky bits and dipping into spicy salsa chicken). 

Make sure the breads are about 1cm thick, either roll or push flat with the palm of your hand, then place onto an oiled baking sheet or some parchment paper, recover with the cling film and leave to rise again for about 20 mins. 

Preheat the oven to 220°c, gas 7. - Or in my case, stoke the Rayburn with a bit of coal and cover the oven door with a damp towel - it really brings the oven temperature up quickly - quirky but it works. 

If you have some fresh herbs, poke those into the dough before baking and sprinklyewith the rest of the sea salt -  if you are not watching your weight, drizzle the breads with a bit of olive oil, but I have not been doing this as I don't think they need it. 

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until just golden on top, leave to cool and then stuff yourself silly. 

Just adapt the herbs you use for your recipe.  For curry I have done rosemary flavour  individual loaves,  for with Sunday lunch we had thyme flavour, and for tonight's spicy chicken salsa we had the bread in the photo above, a tarragon loaf.

Brrrr = brrrrread

Ferguson and Pond decide that the window sill is better than stepping foot into the snow.

And when the weather is white and wintery what could be better than baking bread.

Iranian Barbari

These flat breads are so simple to make, taste great and and bake really fast.

225g unbleached white flour

1 teaspoon salt

15g fresh dried active yeast

140ml lukewarm water

1 teaspoon sugar

olive oil for brushing

Activate the yeast by combining the sugar with the water, adding the yeast and leaving for about 15 minutes until there are a couple of centimetres of froth visible.

Sift the flour and the salt into a bowl, add the yeast and mix together to form a soft dough, then on a floured surface knead for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Leave to rise for an hour in an oiled bowl, covered by a damp tea towel or oiled cling film, in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size.

Knock back the dough and turn out onto a floured surface.  Divide it up into 6 equal sized portions, then shape into ovals, about 10 centimetres long and about a centimetre thick.  Space well apart on some floured baking trays, slash two or three slits across the top of the bread and leave to rise for another 20 minutes, covered by some oiled cling film.

Brush with olive oil just before baking for 15 minutes at 200°C, or until a pale golden colour.

These flat breads taste best warm, and can be used for dipping into runny curry sauces, stews and casseroles - or like us for lunch, with butter and homemade cherry jam.

Pond and Mr Pink ignore the snowy weather and lie around in front of the Rayburn.

While I am on a baking spree and have copious amounts of flour flung across the kitchen I am attempting some breakfast rolls - ready for a lazy Sunday morning tomorrow before we head out for lunch with friends.

Ensaimadas

225g unbleached white flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

50g caster sugar

15g dried active yeast

75ml lukewarm milk

1 beaten egg

30ml sunflower oil

50g melted butter

Activate the yeast with the milk and sugar, leave for about 15 minutes until frothy.

Sift the flour and the salt into a bowl, make a well and add the yeast, the beaten egg and the sunflower oil, and mix to form a smooth dough.

Knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, then place in an oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise for about an hour in a warm place or until doubled in size.

Knock back and turn out onto a floured surface, then divide into roughly 16 equal sized balls.  Rub each ball between the palms of your floured hands to create a 30 cm thin rope of dough.

Dip each rope into the melted butter and in a greased baking tray arrange in a coil.

Cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise for another 45 minutes in a warm place until they double in size.

Brush the rolls with water and dust with icing sugar, then bake for 10 minutes until light golden brown.

Mine are in the oven now and I am hoping they turn out like these:

Once baked, leave to cool then dust with icing sugar again.  Serve either warm or cold.

I remember these with fond memories on holiday in Spain.  When Thea was much younger and a much fussier eater we used to buy these on holiday and she would eat them pretty much all day long.  They rapidly became one of her favourite foods and we used to have to smuggle packets and packets home in our suitcases.  Nowadays I think you can find them in Lidl or Aldi, every now and again they even turn up here in our French supermarkets on special Spanish flavour promotions.  But nothing beats the smell of home baking, and even if I don't manage to make them look like the real thing, nor taste exactly like the real thing, at least I have made them and filled the house with the smell of baking.

Domestic goddessy or what?

All this belies the fact that I was up a 5.45am this morning watching the snow fall and dawn break.  I had two fires lit and the coffee on by 6.30am.  I think I will be ready for a nap in about an hour's time.

Busy first day of my holiday - courgette bread recipe

I am sort of on holiday this week.  In actual fact I have only to work for 4 hours, split between Tuesday and Thursday as my other clients are on their holidays or have family coming to visit who will take on their care in the interim.

I celebrated the first day of my holiday by nipping up the road to the local farmers' market and car boot.  In the end I bought the bits and bobs as in the photo and 2 kilos of apricots.

Our new chicks were introduced to the existing flock this morning and no casulaties so far (touch wood), just a bit of pecking order to be sorted out, and the pans I bought above are to be a new set of feeders and drinkers for the housing reshuffle now imminent amongst the rabbits and the quail with the hutches freed by the chicks now.

It was once again a very hot day, so in a burst of insanity I decided to make bread and do some baking - well I do have 2 kilos of apricots now to do something with, as well as a garden full of courgettes.  

So with thanks to the original poster on selfsufficientish.com (here) - I adapted this recipe and baked it in my bread machine on the wholewheat setting.

Courgette bread recipe  

7 tbspns milk
1/2 cup water 
1 1/2 cups grated courgette 
4 cups unbleached bread flour
1 cup wholemeal bread flour
5 tbspns mixed seeds (I used sunflour and sesamen)
1 tspn salt
2 tspn sugar
2 tbsn olive oil
1 1/2 tspn dried yeast

Well at least that is another lot of courgettes used up - while the force was strong in me I continued grating and filled a couple of empty ice cream tubs with grated courgettes for the freezer to use another time.  The courgettes don't seem to add any flavour to the bread, but they do leave what could be a heavy loaf light and moist. 

Very delicious was the verdict all round.

Obviously I did serve it with a side order of courgettes too!

The 10 Day Larder Challenge

With Bren away for a few days, I thought I would try the 10 day larder challenge.

This is where you challenge yourself to live solely from the current contents of your larder and fridge on a timescale to suit yourself.  Hence 10 days for me, or should I say us because of course Thea will be taking part too, whether she likes it or not.

With a confusing morning gone by, and a fraught afternoon chasing rabbits now coming to a halt, I have time to update my blog properly and add some photos.  (I am also still trying to learn the French keyboard lay out, but it is taking forever to remember the m and the w).

Chasing rabbits was my fault entirely, not shutting the hutch door to this morning I came home to find two in the garden and the rest gallivanting around with the chickens.  So far I have managed to get the four babies in and one of the adults, the other is hiding behind the other hutches and so I have to wait for Thea tonight so we can get her in a pincer movement. If I can't catch her I may have to shoot her otherwise she will eat the veg garden overnight.

OK - Day 1 of the larder challenge, on the menu today :  Sunflower seed bread

I set this off in the machine this morning when I left for work and it was delicious and hot at lunchtime ready and waiting for me when I got home.

350ml tepid water

500g white flour

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

4 teaspoons sugar

3 tablespoons dried milk powder

15g dried active yeast

1 generous handful of sunflower seeds

Combine the sugar with some of the tepid water, add the yeast and leave to activate for about 15 minutes

pour the water and the oil along with the yeast mix into the bread machine pan (always liquid ingredients first for best results)

add the milk powder and the flour

Normally if you have a machine that does it you would put the seeds into the 'add later' compartment or throw  them in at the last rise or at the last bake, but because I was leaving my machine to get on with it, I threw mine in at the start with all the other ingredients.

A bit comfort food-ish, served with hot melted butter and some homemade course pâté.

Now I am sat inside waiting for a phone call, so making the best of my time, finally processing and uploading some of my scrapyard treasures photos onto flickr.   

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theabsinthefairy/?saved=1