White Farmhouse Loaf - traditional method

I was pleased with the bread - light, airy and a great chewy texture.

I was baking again.  Yup, bread.  There's something about that white, soft, texture that is comforting.  Whenever I have an attack of the munchies - there's always good ol' bread to turn to.  I have 1001 things I could be doing with what time I manage to get between my baby son's feeds, but I choose to blog-hop.  It's whilst doing that when I stumble upon a beautifully risen, golden crusted loaf in The British Larder.  That's done it!  I have to go bake me one!  Well, you gotta eat!

It's quite a simple recipe and with the aid of trusty ol' Kenwood Mixer, nothing is too difficult!  The blog recipe makes 2 x 600g loaves and mixes and kneads by hand.  My version uses the mixer for making and kneading the dough - with a crying baby to attend to I find using the mixer a great help.  Hubbs isn't a bread fiend like me, so one loaf will suffice.

I've tweaked it a little, but this is what I used:

375 g strong bread flour (white)
7 g fresh yeast
7 g salt (bit too salty for my liking, I'd reduce to 5 g next time)
260 g warm water (it is cold in UK now, so I thought warm water would help things along)
15 g butter (I remember reading butter improves taste and helps the bread remain moist)

Rub the yeast into the flour with your fingertips until the yeast is incorporated into the flour.
Stir in the salt.
Add the warm water and with the dough hook attachment, turn mixer on to mix until a dough is formed.
Add the butter and continue to mix until a smooth and elastic dough is achieved.  There should be no sticky dough left at the bottom of the bowl.
I left the mixer on speed 2 for 10 minutes and checked the dough.  It was sticky and like chewing gum, not a great stretch.
I turned the mixer back on and kneaded for 10 more minutes.   This time the dough was more stretchy and resembled bubble gum.  I was able to pull it fairly thinly before it broke.
I turned the dough onto a board and covered with greased cling film for 1 hour to double in size.
I pressed and patted the dough into a rectangle and folded the sides in.  I guess this is to tighten the surface of the dough so it will rise upwards rather than outwards.  I kept tucking the sides of the sausage shaped dough in underneath the dough so I had a smooth long sausage shape to put into my greased loaf tin.
The dough was left for 2 hours under a clean dry tea-towel to prove.
I baked the loaf at 220C, gas 7 for 30 minutes.  I turned the dough out and the base sounded hollow when tapped so I left it to cool on a rack.

I did slash the loaf after rising along the length but I guess I was too scared to do it deeply enough!  Oh, and a farmhouse loaf is usually floured before baking - forgot that step too!

The bread is wonderfully moist and soft.  It has a lovely chew about the bread but is a tad too salty for my palate.  That said, when buttered, you don't taste the saltiness but I would still reduce the salt content next time.  All in all, I was impressed with the results especially as it wasn't complicated or needed any starter dough, sponge dough or pre-ferment dough.  The slices of bread are still moist and soft now after 8 hours!  I'm keen to find out what it's like in the morning!

1 Box Tofu Two Ways ~ Tofu With Mushrooms & Chicken

Inspired by Elin's post on her mushroom dish, I made sure I bought some fresh oyster mushrooms when I paid my weekly visit to my mum.  In my old hometown, there is a ethnic food store that sells oyster mushrooms as well as both green and white pak choi as well as Filipino branded goods and Polish groceries.  I was glad they had the mushrooms in as I was seriously craving a mushroomy dish seeing as its the season for all things 'shroomy right now! 

I still had half a box of fresh tofu in water to be used up and I really fancied some mushroom goodness.  I teamed up the fresh oyster mushroom with another exotic mushroom - fresh shiitake!  Fresh shiitake is expensive - 1 box cost me £1.69 and I saw a box of oyster mushroom reduced to £0.89 I was tempted by the discount but I already had those and I really wanted the deep savoury yumminess from shiitake.

I used chicken thigh for my dish as its a juicier cut than using breast meat but sometimes I opt for the meaty chew of chicken breast in curries.  I sliced the meat and marinated with soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper and cornflour.  After browning the meat I added the shiitake mushrooms and a splash or two of water to ensure the meat cooked through.  A splash of sherry, shake of fish sauce, drizzle of soy and a blob of oyster sauce were the flavourings for this dish.  I added the tofu slices (no pre-frying this time) to heat up and the oyster mushrooms last minute.  If added too early they overcook and turn to a slimy slippery goo.  I thickened with cornflour paste and this dish was saucier than the previous tofu dish two nights ago.  Nice on a bed of plain rice to soak up the juices.  My fresh mushroom fix satiated!

1 Box of Tofu Two Ways ~ Tofu with Mixed Vegetables

I've mentioned before that hubbs likes to eat tofu.  I like it too.  Did I mention that hubbs has been promising my mum to make her some tofu since...hmm.....about 6 years now.  After finding out that his mother would make tofu when he was younger, mum said she'd love to try some.  "OK, it's easy my husband says."  Well, since that day, we got married, bought a house and have even started our family.  Tofu?  Well, it's still in its raw state!  I bought him the soy beans, I even got gypsum powder to coagulate the tofu.  He says he needs a food processor to grind the beans.  I keep telling him you can use a blender but it's falling on deaf ears.  My brother laughed and said the only chance mum will get to eat fresh home-made tofu is from her grandson!  Ermm....the boy is 2 months old.  Lets not too much pressure on him!

Anyway, I bought a box of fresh tofu from the market and some green pak choi - or Shanghai pak choi my mum calls it.  We ate this Sunday evening for our dinner, I had some marinated pork steaks in the freezer and the tofu vegetable dish I created accompanied it.

I fried the tofu slices in some oil in a hot wok.  I hadn't realised how incredibly smoky it gets!  I scooped out the tofu and drained them on paper towels.  Next went in the carrot slices and soaked, chopped shiitake mushrooms.  I added some bamboo shoot slices (from a jar) - I just love that crunchy texture!  In went some of the mushroom soaking liquid to cook the vegetables before adding the green pak choi and the Chinese leaves.  For seasoning, I added a splash of fish sauce (keeps the Vietnamese part of my hubby happy), a splash of soy sauce (that's a nod to my Chinese roots), a blob of oyster sauce and a sprinkling of white pepper.  After making sure the seasoning was as I liked it, I slipped the tofu slices back in to mingle with the flavours before thickening with cornflour paste.

The pork steaks are flavoured with char siu seasoning from a packet (Red Roast Pork, Lobo brand) and were grilled for around 6-8 minutes each side until beginning to char.  I drizzled with honey and turned off the heat.  I served with plain rice and the pork juices dribbled over.

Best bit?  Hubby loving his dinner!  I even made enough for a rice-box lunch for him too!  I am much too good to him!

More Buns...

I'm hiding the bun's ugliness round the other side of the bun!

I was so pleased with the BBQ Pork Buns (Baked Char Siu Buns) that I thought I'd expand a little and try out some more fillings.  Hubbs likes Red Bean Filling and when I first tried making buns from my Alex Goh book, he pointed at the Matcha Red Bean Buns but I had decided to make the Butter Coconut Buns - I said I'd make them next time and he's still waiting as that next time hasn't come round for him yet!  As EEWIF has such a great sweet bun dough recipe I thought I'd make a batch and fill with red bean.  I have a can of red bean paste and my mum gave me a can of whole red beans (from Tesco).  I thought I'd combine the two so I would get a paste with more texture - a bit like the Japanese filling but less dry.  It kinda worked - but some of the canned whole beans are a little too hard.  Perhaps they could do with being cooked a little longer?  Or maybe mashed a little?

I split my dough into 16 pieces this time instead of 10 and filled half with the red bean paste.  I then wrapped and transported it to my mum's to finish off.  I figured that they'd still prove in their 35 minute journey to mum's.  As it turned out, they didn't travel that well as they stuck to one another and didn't look like the flower shapes I wanted them to be.  I still baked them and they were the most ugliest buns ever!  Not round as I'd cut the edges to replicate flower petals and besides, they were pretty close neighbours with one another and some were beginning to merge as one!  So I'm blushing with the memory of their misshapeness!  The inside of the bun looked okay though!

Wanted a photo with steam coming out of the filling.  I guess I'd have to grab a steaming hot bun and be standing in a walk-in freezer to get that shot!

With the other half of the bun dough I decided to make ham and cheese buns as in EEWIF blog as I thought they looked so good.  These I thought were very tasty (although I didn't do the cheese & mayo topping) and I really love that bread dough recipe!  It's really, really good!  I think it's as good as from a Chinese Bakery!

This was my breakfast a few days ago, see the airy bubbles in the ham 'n' cheese bun?  The other is a toppled over nutella & almond spiral - I ran out of ham 'n' cheese.

I still want to make Tuna Bun as these are my fave buns from Hong Kong Bakery!  So deliciously soft and savoury!  My older bro' likes Bolo Bao (Pineapple Buns) so I guess I'll make those too in a couple of weeks when he visits my mum.  There is a half-term holiday at the end of October and he usually spends a few days with mum so she can get to see her granddaughter Sophie.

Baked Char Siu Buns, 叉燒餐包

Hot, fresh out of the oven.

I had intended to bake these buns at the beginning of the week after being inspired from Everybody Eats Well in Flanders blog on sweet bread dough.  However, I delayed until yesterday evening/this morning.

The recipe I used is an Alex Goh recipe from Everybody Eats Well in Flanders.  It's unusual as 1/5 of the flour content in the dough is made with boiling water, then refrigerated for 12 hours.  This gelatinised dough allows the starch grains to swell and absorb more water resulting in a softer, moist bread.  SeaDragon talks about this in his Corner Cafe blog too.

Sweet bread dough made with first prove - ready for dividing, shaping & filling.

The recipe for the sweet bun dough is here and here is a slightly different version.  I used the former.

With char siu given to me from my mother, I set about in making a filling for my buns.  I didn't think to weigh the char siu first but I had 1 & 1/2 strips of meat.  I chopped a red onion and fried in oil until soft before adding the sliced char siu.  I continued to fry gently and when the edges of the meat began to brown I added about 75ml of water and 1 dessertspoon of Lee Kum Kee's Char Siu Sauce.  I thickened with cornflour paste and set aside to cool.  The prepared filling was 475g.

Trying to show how I 'walk' the dough with my fingers bringing it to the thumb to be pinched together.

My dough came to 950g so I divided this into 10 x 95g balls.  I flattened each ball with my fingers to a 3 inch circle (approx) and placed 45-50g filling before pinching the edges together to pleat and seal the dough.  The filled dough ball was placed seam side down on waxed paper.  As I didn't start making the sweet bun dough until quite late in the evening, I decided I would place the shaped and filled buns in the fridge overnight to prove.  

Night-night buns, time to tuck you into bed (fridge to prove).

The buns were all filled and placed in the fridge by 1am.  Sleep time for me now!

The first batch has been 'painted' with it's tan & bake (egg wash) & ready for baking!

I was unfortunate enough to have my baby son wake me several times in the night (2:30am, 4:00am, 6:00am) and after getting up for the third time, I decided it was time to bake the buns!  By this stage, they'd been left to prove for five hours and despite being put into a cold environment, the yeasted dough had done its magic and the buns had swollen up nicely.  I brushed with egg wash and baked at gas 5 for 25 minutes on the middle shelf.  The middle of my oven isn't as hot as the top and I cooked longer than suggested as I fear uncooked dough.

The buns puffed further during baking and I was rewarded with the sight of shiny, golden brown buns!

Shiny and golden ready to be eaten!

I'm not sure how they taste yet as I'm waiting for hubbs to see them first before they get demolished eaten!  For now, I think I may go back to bed!

Chocolate & Date Sandwich Cake

Being on Maternity Leave means I have time to catch up with friends for lunch.  You would think I should have all the time in the world - somehow time flies even quicker with demands of a baby to pander to.  Anyhow, I love to bake, have done since I was little.  So, with the offer of lunch at a work colleague's house, what better excuse to put the pinny on and whip up a cake?

Woah!  Oozy cream and chocolate spread escaping!

This cake is from: 200 cakes and bakes ~ Hamlyn all colour cookbook

Chocolate & Date Sandwich Cake

This is what the hubbs left but subsequently ate for lunch!

150 g (5 oz) ready-chopped dried dates
150 ml (1/4 pint) boiling water plus 6 tablespoons
50 g (2 oz) cocoa powder
150 ml (1/4 pint) sunflower oil
3 eggs
175 g (6 oz) caster sugar
175 g (6 oz) self-raising flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

150 ml (1/4 pint) double cream
150 g (5 oz) fromage frais
3 tablespoons chocolate spread
5 bought chocolate truffles, halved


 Simmer dates in a saucepan with the 150 ml (1/4 pint) boiling water, covered, for 5 minutes until softened.  Gradually mix the cocoa powder with the remaining 6 tablespoons boiling water until smooth.  Leave the dates and dissolved cocoa powder to cool.

Add the oil, eggs and sugar to the dissolved cocoa powder then whisk together until smooth.  Add the flour and baking powder then whisk again.  Stir in the cooled dates and any cooking liquid and mix well.

Divide the mixture evenly between 2 x 20 cm (8 inch) sandwich tins, greased and base-lined with oiled greaseproof paper and spread the surfaces level.  Bake in a preheated oven, 180 C (350 F), Gas Mark 4, for 20 minutes until well risen and the cakes spring back when gently pressed with a fingertip.

Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes the loosen the edges, turn out on to a wire rack and peel off the lining paper.  Leave to cool completely.

Whip the cream until softly peaking then fold in the fromage frais.  Put one cake on to a serving plate, spoon over chocolate spread then half the cream.  Top with the second cake and spread with the remaining cream.  Decorate with the halved chocolate truffles.



I used 7 inch shallow sandwich tins so managed to bake three cakes.  Two of which were used to make the cake and the other just cut in half and sandwiched with chocolate spread and cream to make a half moon shaped cake.  This was for my hubbs.  He likes cake and especially chocolate ones!  I had some home-made choc & mint truffles in the freezer that I got for my birthday so these were defrosted and used for the cake.

Sorry about the disposable plate - it was for transportation to friend's house!

Orange Chocolate Chip Bread 香橙巧克力麵包

I've not yet baked this, but those who've read the previous posts on bread will understand 70% of this bread dough is started 17 hours ahead and left to prove in fridge.  (Edit: bread baked 03 Oct ~ photos and comments added below.)

Orange Chocolate Chip Bread 香橙巧克力麵包

Pre-ferment Dough
bread flour          70%          462g
water                  40%          264g
fresh yeast           2%            13g
sea salt                1%            7g
skim milk powder 2%           13g

Dissolve the yeast in water.  Add bread flour, sea salt, skim milk powder and knead until soft.  Cover the dough in cling wrap.  Refrigerate to let it prove for 17 hours.

Dough
bread flour              30%          198g
skim milk powder     3%            20g
sea salt                     1%              7g
sugar                       10%           66g
water                       2%            13g  (I didn't bother with the water as it's only a small amount)
egg                           6%           40g
orange marmalade   24%        158g  (Mine was an Orange & Tangerine Marmalade)
fresh yeast               1%             7g
unsalted butter         8%           53g

Filling 
100g chocolate chips  (I used dark chocolate chips)
2 pc grated orange zest or glace orange peel  (I had a tub of whole candied clementines I'd bought from France a few years back.  I chopped one clementine for the bread (50g).  Next time I would double this as it disappeared in the loaf.)

• Cut the pre-ferment dough into small pieces.
• Knead all ingredients together (except the butter, chocolate chips and the orange zest).  Add pre-ferment dough piece by piece.  Knead after each addition until soft and smooth.  Add butter, chocolate chips and the orange zest. Knead until stretchable consistency
• Put the dough into a big bowl.  Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for about 25-30 minutes.  (I left mine in a mound on a board and covered with oiled cling film.)

Looking just swell.

• Divide the dough into thirty-six small equal portions.  Flatten to drive out the air. Roll them into balls.  Set aside to rest for about 20 minutes.  (The weight of my dough came to approx 1550g.  I rolled 15x50g balls to fit in one loaf tin and hand squared 8x100g pieces of dough to fit in the other tin.)

 

• Flatten and roll them round again.  Place nine dough balls into a square tin.  Cover with cling wrap.  (The author used 4 small square tins that she called  mousse tins.  I used the two 1lb loaf tins I have.)

• Let it prove again for about 40-45 minutes or until the dough has risen to 80% of the depth of the loaf tin.  (I added egg wash on the top of my breads before baking for a shiny finish.)  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170-180 deg C for about 30-35 minutes.

Puffed and proven, ready for the oven.  The rolls on right look like fat sausages!

Notes
Baking chocolate can stand high heat.  It doesn't melt in the baking process.

This is the recipe from Kin's book, Natural Breads Made Easy.  (天然麵包香 ~ 獨角仙@藍色大門.)  I am in the process of making this and will finish the post with my results tomorrow including any findings and photos.  :0)

Natural Breads Made Easy.  (天然麵包香 ~ 獨角仙@藍色大門.)

Bread Bake Off Update:

I made a couple of boo-boos (a silly error - or in my case, THREE boo-boos,) when making this bread.  Firstly, when I had incorporated the pre-ferment dough to the dough mix, I thought the dough was too wet and sticky so I added a tablespoon of flour.  Then another and another.  I still had a sticky chewing gum type mass in the bowl - not elasticy and stretchy at all.  Then I realised I'd forgotten to add the butter, choc chips and candied orange!  The addition of butter usually makes the dough less sticky and easier to work with.  The fear of adding too much flour is that the ratio of flour to water is altered and can result in a tough, drier bread.

My second boo-boo was not greasing the loaf tins properly.  One has a non-stick finish so no probs there.  The other tin was probably not greased carefully enough and the sides of the bread stuck to the pan!

Now, I'm not entirely sure what I did wrong but the bottom of the loaves are indented.  It looks like the dough did not touch the bottom of the tin.  I don't know whether that was me not putting the dough in very well into the tins or whether I took the bread out to early to see if it was ready.  I baked as instructed for 30 minutes and tipped the longer loaf out to tap the bottom.  I was surprised to see the bottom of the dough did not touch the bottom of the pan and so was soft and spongy.  A hollow sound when tapped indicates the bread is cooked.  The breads were already looking rather browned on top so I lowered the shelf and turned down the heat a little.  I baked for a further 15 minutes.  This time I checked the shorter loaf tin.  This bread was stuck to the sides.  (Did I forget to grease this?)  Again it had a puckered base.  Into bake again for a further 15 minutes.  They looked finally ready although the bases still hadn't recovered fully.  Have not seen this before and not sure what had caused it.  Still sliced and tasted lovely.  Love the dark choc chips in the loaf but I'm not sure where the candied clementine went?  I would add another candied clementine next time and go easy on adding more flour.  The bread has a good chew to it may be a result of the flour I was adding.   Maybe you'll do a better job than I did!

My blog friend Everybody Eats Well In Flanders made this in tandem this weekend as I posted the ingredients and recipe before I completed the loaves so she could bake it too.  Her hand-held mixer died on her in the process but she still made an excellent loaf.  Her version she called Orange Marmalade Loaf as she omitted the chocolate chips.

Bread is slightly over fired but it gave it a nice crunchy crusty top.

Not sure what I did wrong but the base of the bread is puckered.

Despite my errors, the bread does have minute bubbles running through it.