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Want to learn how to bake bread? Video tutorial.

January 31, 2012 By 13 Comments

 

IMG 5601 Want to learn how to bake bread? Video tutorial.

Do you know how to bake bread? Have you wanted to learn?

Baking bread is one of those things that sounds so intimidating at first.  When I mention I’ve been baking bread at the weekend, I inevitably get reactions like “Wow, you know how to do that?” or “You must have a lot of free time.”

Au contraire.

I’m a bit obsessed with baking, and especially with baking bread.  I truly believe that cooking more is the key to good health.  Have you ever looked at the side of a packaged bread wrapper?  There are a whole bunch of ingredients, including lots of unpronounceable chemicals (never a good sign).  You know what’s in my bread?  Flour, water, yeast, salt, and sometimes olive oil.  That’s it.

Then there’s another element to bread baking, the intangible stuff.  It’s comforting. It’s satisfying. It’s such a sense of accomplishment. It smells amazing.  You can even use breadbaking as meditation.

I wish I could come to your house and teach you how to bake bread.  But until I can spend my days as a globe-trotting good food teacher, I’m experimenting with the next best thing: video.

So here it is, my very first video which shows you step-by-step, how to bake bread.  

Would love to hear your feedback and ideas for future videos.   Happy bread baking!

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Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Buns

April 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A long, hot, sunny Easter weekend in London.  The perfect time to be in front of a hot oven!  But I was, in pursuit of another English classic – the hot cross bun.

My problem with the traditional hot cross bun is that they are filled with currants, raisins and other dried fruits … and I really don’t like raisins.  So I decided to use my tried and tested switch – to replace any raisins with chocolate chips!  Fortunately I have a large bag of chocolate chips on hand at all times for just such emergency ingredient substitutions.

I used a recipe from Delia and also a recipe from River Cottage Bread as inspiration, but this recipe takes off in a different direction – lightly cinnamon spiced rolls filled with citrus peel and chocolate chips, glazed with a little bit of marmalade.   These are hearty yeast rolls which are delicious split, toasted and buttered (in a toaster oven, please!  No one wants melted chocolate chips in a toaster…).

2011 04 26 Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Buns

Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Buns

 

2/3 c. (150 ml.) warm water

1 Tb. dried yeast

1/4 c. (50g.) white sugar

4 c. (450g.) plain flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4c. (40 ml.) warm milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

2oz (50g.) butter, melted

1/2c. (75g) chocolate chips (mini chips would be nice if you have them)

1/4c. (50g) mixed citrus peel

Crosses- 1/4c. flour, 3 Tb. water

Glaze – 1 Tb. orange marmalade + 1 Tb. warm water

 

Mixing: In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, flour, yeast.  Now pour in the liquid ingredients – water, milk, melted butter and egg.  Stir until it comes together into a dough.

Kneading: Turn dough out onto floured countertop or board.  Knead for 5 minutes until dough becomes smooth.  This dough will be a lot softer than your normal bread dough, so don’t add too much flour, let it remain soft.

Press dough into a rectangle shape.  Now sprinkle on the chocolate chips and citrus peel.  Fold the dough in half, press down and stretch to incorporate the chips.  Now fold it over again.  Repeat this process several times until the chocolate chips and peel seem to be evenly distributed through the dough.  Form the dough into a ball.

Rise: Grease the inside of the empty bowl with a little butter or oil.  Place the ball of dough in the bowl, then flip it over (so the top of the ball is now greased).  Cover bowl with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm location for 1 hour (up to 1 1/2 hours).

Shape: Now we need to shape the dough into buns.  Divide the dough into two equal halves.  Now divide each half, you should have 4 balls of dough.  Now divide them once more – you have 8 balls of dough to form into buns.  Form each piece of dough into a round bun and place on a baking sheet.

Loosely cover the rolls with the tea towel, and leave them to rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat: Preheat your oven to 425F / 220c.

Crosses: In a small bowl, stir together 1/4c. flour and 3 Tb. water to make a paste.  Put this mixture into a zipper-type sandwich bag.  Squeeze it all down into one corner of the bag.  With scissors, clip a small corner off of the bag – making a temporary icing bag!  Use this to pipe crosses onto your buns.

Bake: Bake the buns for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Glaze: In a small bowl, mix marmalade and warm water.  Brush over buns as soon as they come out of the oven.  This glaze gives a shiny, slightly sticky finish to the buns and enhances the orange taste.

Serve warm from the oven or toasted with butter.

Makes 8 buns

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How to bake a classic white loaf of bread

February 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
DSC00588 300x225 How to bake a classic white loaf of bread

Amanda's Homemade White Bread

What’s the quickest way to make a visitor to your house think you’re a domestic goddess?  Fill your house with the smell of baking bread.  And no, a ‘freshly baked bread’ scented candle doesn’t cut it.

[UPDATE: If you want to learn to bake bread, check out my how to bake bread video for full instructions!  These days I tend to make artisan herb loaf or homemade sourdough, no baking tins needed!]

Mmmm, the smell of baking bread.  Enough said.   To really get this smell, you have to really bake bread. Yes, actual, homemade bread.  No, don’t run away yet. It’s easy!  And you’ll be so impressed when it comes out of the oven (as will the neighbors who will ineviatbly stop in to investigate the delicious smells wafting from your kitchen…)

But can’t I just buy a loaf at the store?

Have you noticed how long bread lasts without going off? How is that possible? Preservatives!

Check out the ingredients on the package. It’s a long list.  With unpronounceable words.  In your fabulous domestic-goddess homemade bread there are just a few ingredients: flour, salt, water, yeast … maybe some fat or some sugar.  Ok, so the loaf doesn’t last as long as the one from the store … but considering how good it tastes, it won’t stick around that long anyway.

Here is a small, easy to handle loaf that I make almost every weekend.

Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s recipe.

Domestic Goddess White Bread

adapted from Nigella Lawson How to Eat

Makes 1 small loaf

300g bread flour

10g yeast

10g salt

5g sugar (or 2 sugar cubes)

170ml tepid

10g fat (I like olive oil)

Put the flour in the tepid water and let sit.  Put the salt, sugar, flour and fat in a mixing bowl.  Stir in the water/yeast mix - this will make a mess at first but then will come together into a sticky dough ball.

Turn this out onto a floured surface. I use a floured pastry cloth (you can also use a thick smooth tea towel that you save just for this purpose).  You can also just flour your countertop.  Knead the bread for 5-10 minutes.  (Knead bread by forming it into a dough ball on the counter, then, with the heel of your hand, smoosh it away from you.  Then pull it back into a dough ball, and smoosh it slightly at a different angle.  Basically just work the dough around a lot during these 5-1o minutes, we’re trying to develop the gluten into a nice, elastic ball).  You may have to add a little bit more flour if the dough is sticking to your hands.

Place in a bowl, cover with a tea towel, and set it in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until the ball has doubled in size.

Now the fun part – punch it down. Literally punch your fist into the inflated dough, and watch it deflate! Poof! Take it out of the bowl, shape it into a loaf, and put it either in your loaf pan, or just as a round loaf on a cookeie sheet.  Cover and let rise again for 1 hour in a warm place.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Bake for 35 min.  You know if it’s done when the top is golden and the loaf sounds ‘hollow’ when you knock it with your fist.

Try to resist cutting until it’s slightly cooled (it will cut easier this way).  Serve with salted butter, jam or honey.  Yum.

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