Wednesday 31 July 2024

Pizza


This recipe is adapted from one by Ken Forkish in his book Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast.

Utensils

  • oven
  • cling film
  • large bowl for mixing and letting the dough prove in
  • (optional but recommended) pizza stone
  • (optional but recommended) flat (no lip on the edge) oven tray for delivering the pizza to the hot oven
  • (optional) dough scraper
  • (optional) blender to make a smooth sauce / pesto

Ingredients

For the dough

  • 400g strong white bread flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (other yeasts will do but will acquire adjustments to quantity)
  • 8g salt
  • 280g lukewarm water

For the sauce

  • 400g tin of tomatoes
  • (optional) one tablespoon tomato puree
  • (optional) half an onion
  • (optional) one clove of garlic
  • (optional) herbs of your choice
  • (optional) HP Sauce! / soy source / something to give it some umami
  • salt and pepper to taste

For toppings

  • (optional) mozzarella / other cheese / vegan equivalent
  • (optional) a few thinly sliced vegetables of your choice (peppers, mushrooms, olives...)
  • (optional) nuts / herbs / olive oil for a quick pesto

Method

  • Mix all the ingredients together and knead too a loose sticky dough
  • Form the dough into a ball, place it in a lightly floured covered bowl and leave it to prove in a warm place (around 25 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes)
  • Letter-fold the dough and return it to its proving bowl
  • Leave to prove until doubled in size - around 5 hours!
That gives us some time, so make your sauce / prep your toppings
  • finely dice the onion
  • heat a pan on low and fry the onion till soft
  • add the finely diced / crushed garlic for a minute or two
  • add the remaining ingredients and simmer on low for at least 15 minutes
  • (optional) blend the sauce, it's easier to spread on the pizza 
  • (optional) blend together some nuts, herbs, olive oil and seasoning to make a pesto, e.g. walnuts and parsley
Back to the dough
  • Split the dough into balls around 340g in weight
  • Lightly cover the balls with olive oil and cling film and place in the fridge for a couple of hours to a coupe of days
  • Preheat oven and baking stone to 250 degrees Celsius - will take around an hour
  • Shape
  • Flour a peel / baking tray, place dough on it and quickly cover with sauce and toppings
  • Slide directly onto the hot stone and bake for around 6 minutes
  • Serve


Sunday 28 July 2024

Construction complete

So a long weekend of fairly heavy work got the main structure built, it was tiring but fun. 
Having a retired ceramicist on hand definitely helped 🙂
Treading the clay / sand mix was quite therapeutic.
Marking out the hearth, the ratio of dome height to door height is apparently important for good airflow.
Tamping down the sand-form took a while.
After a few days' drying the sand scraped out pretty easily and nothing collapsed.
A slight crack keeps appearing above the door, I keep patching it, we'll see how it goes.
Made a peel from a frond off the palm tree and a bit of ply.

Friday 28 June 2024

Mud Oven

It's been on the cards for a while but I've finally made a start on making a mud oven. Might take a while to complete but hopefully will be done over the summer. 

Expenditure so far is as follows: 
  • 18 Firebricks £65.60 (delivered)
  • 2x2.4m fenceposts £26
  • 5x2m treated timber £20
  • 75kg fireclay £70 (delivered) 
  • 1 York stone slab £0 (was lying around the garden) 









Friday 19 November 2021

Demi-baguettes



 Fitting full-sized baguettes in a domestic oven is tricky, hence these ones will be about half normal size, this recipe makes four.

Ingredients

  • 500g strong white bread flour (plus a little extra for dusting)
  • 10g salt
  • 4g instant dry yeast
  • 350g water

Utensils

  • Oven
  • Scales
  • Baking tray (heavier the better) or pizza stone (around 30cm by 30cm)
  • Spare baking tray / flat board for delivering loaves to the oven
  • Shallow oven-proof dish or tray (only has to hold half a cup of water)
  • Sharp knife (for slicing the loaves)
  • Two clean tea-towels or equivalent for the bread to prove in


Method

Mixing

  1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl
  2. Turn the mixture out onto a clean work surface and knead until it becomes a smooth dough
  3. Form the dough into a ball and return to the lightly floured mixing bowl
  4. Cover and leave in a warm place for an hour
  5. Letter-fold the dough and return to the mixing bowl
  6. Cover and leave in a warm place for another hour

Shaping

  1. Place a baking stone or heavy baking tray in your oven and preheat to 250 degrees Celsius, or as close as you can get
  2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface
  3. Divide it into four portions of around 200-220g and loosely shape them into balls
  4. Pat each ball out into a flat oval
  5. Fold the long edge of the oval into the centre and press down firmly
  6. Repeat that for for the other long edge
  7. Fold in half again, crimping the edge well to seal
  8. Gently roll the dough out to form a baguette shape
  9. Transfer the dough to a floured tea towel to prove
  10. Repeat with all portions and cover with another tea towel
  11. Leave to prove for half an hour

Baking

  1. Place half a cup of boiling water into a shallow container in the bottom of the oven
  2. Slice each loaf down the middle with three or four cuts, overlapping by one quarter to a third of their length
  3. Transfer the loaves to the oven
  4. Turn the oven down to 220 degrees Celsius
  5. Bake for five minutes then remove the water
  6. Bake for another 7-10 minutes
  7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool


Wednesday 12 May 2021

Savarin


Ingredients

    For the batter:

    • Strong white flour 225g
    • Salt 1 teaspoon
    • Dried instant yeast 7g
    • Milk 150g
    • Caster sugar 2 teaspoons
    • Eggs 3
    • Butter unsalted 85g

        For the syrup:

    • Caster sugar 170g
    • Water 210g
    • Rum or other spirit (optional) 5 tablespoons

        For topping (all optional):

    • Glacé cherries, half a dozen
    • Desiccated coconut, small handful
    • Fresh fruit
    • Cream

    Utensils

    • Large mixing bowl
    • Sieve
    • Wooden spoon for beating
    • 21cm diameter cake tin (needs to be quite deep, mine's 7cm deep)
    • Baking parchment for lining the tin
    • Oven

    Method

    Lightly adapted from Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery
    1. Warm the milk to body heat, either in the microwave or on the stove
    2. Sieve the flour into your large bowl
    3. Add the yeast, salt and sugar to the bowl
    4. Rub in the butter, doesn't have to be super fine just enough to break it up into 1cm sized chunks
    5. Stir in the warm milk
    6. Add the eggs
    7. Mix together with a wooden spoon, it doesn't matter if it's still a bit lumpy at this stage
    8. Cover and leave in a warm place (around 25 degrees Celsius) for around an hour until doubled in volume
    9. Beat the mixture with a wooden spoon for around five minutes, it should thicken slightly
    10. Line your tin with baking parchment
    11. Pour the mixture into the tin, it should be less than half full to allow room for expansion
    12. Put your oven on to preheat at 180 degrees Celsius
    13. Cover the tin lightly and place it in the same warm place as before
    14. When the mixture is 1cm away from the top of the tin it is ready to bake (45min - 1hour)
    15. Place on a baking tray in the hot oven for 25 minutes
    16. Whilst the cake is baking boil the sugar and water together for 10-15 minutes until it thickens slightly
    17. Remove the syrup from the heat and add the alcohol (optional)
    18. When the cake is baked it should have a pale golden colour all over, you can test the centre is cooked by inserting a skewer in the middle and seeing if it comes out clean
    19. Leave it to cool for 2-3 minutes
    20. Turn the cake upside-down onto a large dish or plate
    21. Pour most of the syrup over the top of the cake and leave for 10-20 minutes to absorb, retain a little syrup and serve alongside as a sauce
    22. Add your desired toppings and serve

    Sunday 28 March 2021

    Double-fermented pumpernickel




    This recipe is inspired by one from Tartine Book No. 3 just adapted to suit my sourdough method and with less fermented rye than the original.

    Ingredients

    (Yields two large loaves)
       Ingredient   Weight (g)  Baker's percentage
    Levain build
     50% hydration white flour starter 150
       Strong white flour  300
       Cold tap water  300
    Fermented rye-chops
     Rye chops 100
       Cold tap water  200
       Sourdough starter  Dessert spoon
    Final dough  Strong white flour   400  
       Wholemeal spelt flour  300  
       Tap water 30°C  365  
       Salt  15  
       Black-strap molasses  50  
       Levain  750  
     Overall formula  Strong white bread flour  800  73%
       Wholemeal spelt flour  300  27%
       Water  715  65%
       Salt  16  1.5%
       Fermented rye chops  200  18%
       Black-strap molasses  50  5%

    Method

    This recipe follows my standard sourdough method with a couple of additions - refer to that for more detailed instructions - brief method below:
    1. Add all the ingredients for the levain build to a large bowl and stir until mixed together thoroughly
    2. Add the ingredients for the fermented rye chops to another smaller bowl and mix thoroughly
    3. Cover both bowls and leave overnight at room temperature until the surface of the levain mixture is covered in small bubbles.  The rye chops should have absorbed most of the water and smell sweet.
    4. Add all of the remaining ingredients except the fermented rye to the large bowl and bring together
    5. Knead the dough until it has moderate strength
    6. Strain any excess water from the rye chops with a sieve
    7. Lay the dough out on the work-surface and cover with the rye mixture
    8. Fold the rye into the main dough, and work it until the dough comes back together. In the interim it will be messy and sticky, persevere.
    9. Form the dough into a ball, cover and leave at 25 degrees Celsius to prove till doubled in size (around 2.5 hours), folding after 50 minutes and 100 minutes.
    10. Shape the dough into two large loaves and place into floured bannetons or a couche
    11. Leave to prove again for around two hours at 25 degrees Celsius, meanwhile set the oven  (filled with two baking stones if you have them) to preheat to 250 degrees Celsius
    12. When the loaves are a bit less than doubled in size, slash them and load them into a steamed oven, lowering the temperature to 220 degres Celsius as you do so
    13. Bake for 10 minutes with steam
    14. Bake in a dry oven for another 15-20 minutes till the loaves are nicely browned (they will take on a lot of colour due to the molasses) and they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom
    15. Remove the loaves and leave to cool on a wire rack



    Wednesday 17 February 2021

    Chelsea Buns



    Ingredients

    For the dough:

    • 250g milk (or mylk substitute of your choice)
    • 7g instant yeast
    • 500g strong white bread flour (plain will do)
    • 60g butter (salted or unsalted or margarine)
    • 40g caster sugar (can substitute other sugars)
    • 10g salt
    • 2 large eggs (or around 60g of vegetable oil)
    • Zest of one lemon
    • 1 teaspoon of mixed spice

    For the filling:

    • 30g butter, slightly softened (or margarine)
    • 35g soft brown sugar
    • 200g dried fruit (currants, sultanas, mixed peel, etc.)

    For the glaze:

    • 2 tablespoons caster sugar
    • 1 tablespoon milk (or mylk)
    • 2 tablespoons demerara sugar

    Optional Extras:

    • Sugar for icing
    • Your favourite tipple for soaking the fruit

    Utensils

    • Oven
    • Large mixing bowl
    • Rolling pin (optional)
    • Baking tray (around 27cm by 27cm or equivalent)
    • Dental floss, for cutting the rolls (optional)


    Method

    This recipe is based upon Felicity Cloake's how to make the perfect chelsea buns, combined with Richard Bertinet's pain Viennois dough, with a few tweaks such as more fruit for the filling. 

    1. Heat the milk to just below boiling, then set aside to cool
    2. Add all of the other dough ingredients into a large mixing bowl
    3. Rub in the butter
    4. Once the milk has cooled to body-heat add it to the dough
    5. Mix in the milk until you have a sticky dough
    6. Turn out the dough onto an un-floured work surface
    7. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic
    8. Cover and put in a warm place (25 degrees Celsius)
    9. Leave for around an hour until doubled in size
    10. Roll out the dough into a 25x35cm rectangle, with the longest edge facing you
    11. Spread the butter across the surface
    12. Scatter the sugar and fruit across the buttered dough
    13. Tightly roll the dough away from you and seal the seam underneath
    14. Grease your baking tin, or line with baking parchment
    15. Slice your dough into even sized buns using either a sharp knife or your dental floss
    16. If using a 27x27cm tray you should aim for nine buns
    17. Place the buns in the tray cut side up
    18. The buns should be around 1cm apart to allow for expansion
    19. Put your oven on to preheat to 180 degrees Celsius
    20. Cover your buns and put in a warm place (25 degrees Celsius) to prove for up to an hour
    21. When ready to bake the buns should have expanded such that they are touching
    22. Bake for 20-25 minutes
    23. If the buns are over-browning or the exposed fruit is catching you may need to loosely cover them with tin foil
    24. Just before the buns are baked, warm the milk and caster sugar in a pan to make a thin glaze
    25. As soon as the buns are out of the oven, brush with the glaze
    26. Scatter the buns with the demerara sugar
    27. Allow to cool slightly before serving