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

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.

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) 

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

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

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

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