“We have learned to see in bread an instrument of community between men – the flavor of bread shared has no equal. “ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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It’s time to bake & talk about bread again…& this couldn’t be a better bread baking opportunity for me. Zorra @ Kochtopf is hosting the 3rd World Bread Day today, on October 16th. This is for Zorra…The original World Bread Day – an event created by UIB International Union of Bakers and Bakers-Confectioners – wants to provide an opportunity to talk about bread and bakers, to find out about their history, their importance as well as their future.
Saw this great sounding Chili Loaf at My Food Blog & just had to make it SOON! Here’s my adaptation of Arundhati’s Chili Bread – A Roasted Garlic Chili Bread. The few changes I made were to substitute a cup of all-purpose for a cup for whole-wheat flour, reduce the chili, & add roasted garlic paste.It was everything she said it would be … simple to make, great smelling & addictive. A well behaved loaf that sliced beautifully. Great great loaf, & the yeast cooperated as well!The bread also made this absolutely delectable ‘Olive Oil Mushroom Bruschetta‘. The recipe for this great tasting, crisp bruschetta was passed to me from my friend in Kiev while we were chatting the other night. That’s what I love about foodies & blogging…the free flowing exchange of creative ideas. Never a dearth of what to cook! It’s easily now…what not to cook!!
Roasted Garlic Chili Bread
As copied (& adapted) fromMy Food Blog 3 cups All-Purpose Flour + extra for dusting 1 cup Whole-wheat Flour 1 tbsp Sugar 2 tbsp Olive Oil 2 tbsp – Roasted Garlic Paste 1/2 tsp Roasted Red Chili Flakes 1/2 cup shredded Cheese (I used grated cheddar) 1 tsp Active Dry Yeast 400 ml Water (I used a little less)
Method:
Combine all the ingredients, except the water, in a large bowl. Gradually add the water, bringing the mixture together to form a ball.
Turn the ball out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. The dough will begin to feel smooth and springy to touch. Put the ball into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a muslin cloth/cling wrap.
Let it rise to double its size (approximately 1 hour).
Turn the dough out again and press to slowly release air bubbles that may have formed. Gently knead for about 2 minutes.
Form the dough into any desired shape. I made 2 long french loaves (& they rose more than I thought they ever would!!).
Cover again with the muslin and leave it to rest until it rises again to about 1 1/2 times its size (approximately 45 mts – 1 hour).
Preheat oven to 225 deg C.
Make slits with a sharp knife on the surface of the dough to release steam. The slits should be of about 1″ depth.
Transfer the dough into the oven in the middle rack. On the bottom rack, put a tray filled with 1 cup water. Close and leave alone for 10 minutes. Now take out the water tray. Close again and leave for 30-35 minutes. The bread is done when it sounds hollow if you tap on the bottom of the loaf.
Bruschetta is a food whose origin dates to at least the 15th century from central Italy. It consists of grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Variations may include toppings of spicy red pepper, tomato, vegetables, beans, cured meat, and/or cheese; the most popular American recipe involves basil, fresh mozzarella, and tomato. Bruschetta is usually served as a snack or appetizer.
Olive Oil Mushroom Bruschetta Mushrooms – 200gms; finely chopped Juice of 1 lime Garlic – 3-4 cloves; finely minced (I used the microplaner) Oregano – 1 tbsp Sea salt & pepper to taste Olive Oil – 1/2 cup (or as required)
Method:
Place the mushrooms in a deep (not too wide) glass/steel bowl.
Whisk all the other ingredients together. Check seasoning.
Pour over the uncooked, chopped mushrooms, mix in well. The olive oil should ideally cover the mushrooms. (Mine just soaked them, but the next morning I found the mushrooms had shrunk & they were all well soaked.)
Leave to marinate in the fridge, preferably overnight.
Slice the loaf thin, top with mushrooms, drizzling the olive oil marinade generously over the loaf, & grill in pre-heated hot oven at 300 degrees C on rack for 10 minutes until brown on the edges & crisp.
Note: For fussy kids, you can add some cheese on top to cover the mushrooms.
I think this might taste quite nice with roasted bell peppers added to the marinade as well, or maybe sun dried tomatoes, red chili flakes etc. The seasoned olive oil lends wonderful flavour to the bruschetta. A keeper of a recipe!
“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight. “
M. F. K. Fisher
‘Danish Braid’ from Sherry Yard’s ‘The Secrets of Baking’
Hello from a Daring Baker who is now a Danish Braider!! The day is finally here when this ‘daring group of bakers’ present their monthly challenge. This month, we were dared to bake a Danish Braid…a challenge hosted by Kelly of Sass & Veracity, and Ben of What’s Cookin’?What a fun challenge it turned out to be, even though I was overtaken by agony & ecstasy when I read about it.
Agony because anything to do with pastry & oodles of butter doesn’t augur well at 40 degrees C + temperatures…I had visions of rivers of butter & runny pastry dough! Ecstasy because I love a good Danish & would have never attempted such a wonderful pastry had it not been posted in a DB challenge!
Up close & personal…check out my braid!
Thanks to the Danes who have popularised this pastry. It is a wonderful, wonderful pastry… flaky, light, addictive & high on flavour. When I read that cardamom is traditional in Scandinavian breads, I was quite surprised. Don’t often here of cardamom being used in the West; I tend to associate the flavour more with the Middle-East & the Indian sub-continent.
Thoughts flew though my head…the first one obviously being fellow DB Jasmine @ Confessions of a Cardamom Addict! Then thought of how the men in my house would love it because DH is almost a cardamom addict & the son is not far behind. The daughter is an ‘anything Mama makes’ addict….very safe ground for all culinary adventures. The only thought that bothered me was egg in the pastry dough…did put me off initially…but daring I have to be, so firmly banished any sucheggy thoughts from my mind!
A delightful experience it was… only wish it were winter. Chilling didn’t matter because of the ‘virtual oven’ outdoors & I procrastinated for LONG! Postponing the bake day by day. Destiny stepped in…the monsoons arrived 2 weeks ahead of time for the first time ever recorded( in a 108 years!!). Waited a day to make sure the weather would hold, & despite high humidity levels got started. Handling the dough was a pain, but the overall feeling was pure JOY!!! Thank you Kelly & Ben (my dear blogging friend who I share my ‘yeastly‘ strengths with)…this has been my most enjoyable & yummy DB challenge to date. Think you can fathom my sheer JOY by the number of pictures I clicked!!
Just before it disappeared…
The braid was wonderful…more so because I checked out theJulia Child link (it’s fabulous) & a you-tube video before I started; got an immense boost of confidence (which led to slight over browning!!). It was devoured before the day was done…& EVERYONE LOVED IT!! I gave it a ‘peach preserves & marzipan‘ filling (both from scratch as required)…delicious!
Peach preserves that I madethe Julia Child way… peel, pit & chop peaches. Put them in a microwaveable bowl with 1/2 cup sugar & any spices you like (I added cardamom & cinnamon to tie up the flavours). Microwave for 18 minutes, uncovered, mash around a bit, squeeze a lime in & cool. Chill until ready to use!! You can find my marzipan recipe here.
Danish pastry is a sweet pastry which has become a speciality of Denmark and is popular throughout the industrialized world, although the form it takes can differ significantly from country to country. The ingredients include flour, yeast, milk, eggs, and generous amounts of butter. A yeast dough is rolled out thinly, coated with butter, and then folded into numerous layers. If necessary, the dough is chilled to ease handling. The rolling, buttering, folding, and chilling is repeated several times to create a dough which is buttery and flaky.Savoury Danish…Mushrooms, Garlic ‘n’ Cheese
We were allowed any deviations in filling & appearance after making the 1 mandatory braid…so the mind began thinking. I made a savoury roll with a mushroom,garlic,cheese filling…
Here’s what I did for the filling…Sauteed some chopped garlic in olive oil for a minute, tossed in finely sliced button mushrooms & stir fried them till all the liquid dried up, added lots of finely chopped coriander leaves, seasoned it with salt & pepper, added the squeeze of a lime…
Cooled the filling, rolled out a 1/4 of the same (very slightly sweet but it was fine) dough to a rectangle. Spread the filling uniformly, grated cheddar on top & rolled it like a Swiss roll. Sealed the 2 open ends, gave it a brushing of egg-white , made some knife cuts on top & gave it a generous sprinkling of sea salt. Baked it for 10 minutes on 200degrees C, & a further 10-12 minutes at 165 degrees C. Was delicious!
Made for a delicious meal with blanched green beans tossed in grill seasoning, a tsp of butter & a dollop of cream cheese; a cold potato-onion salad in hung yogurt with herbs & lime juice; & stuffed grilled chicken breasts. Stuffed the chicken with a bit of the same mushroom filling to tie up all the flavours together!
And the Danish adventure continued…
…In the evening, the last 1/4 of the dough went into smaller sweet Danish pastries. Shapes etc taken from an old baking book, ‘Baking Course’ by Isabel Moore which I had bought more than 20 years ago. Had always looked at the shapes longingly, & never thought I would get as far as making them. I DID!! This challenge gave us 3 days of delecable happiness!You can find the recipe at Bens‘hereor Kellys‘ here…it’s a great experience & shall most certainly be made again in winter, cardamom & all. Please do stop by HERE & see the rest of the Danish Braiders, ooops again, Daring Bakers (DB’s whichever way you look at ’em) enjoying braiding this beautiful pastry!
” I asked the barmaid for a quickie. The man next to me said, ‘It’s pronounced ‘quiche’ “…
…(on occasional perils of speaking a foreign language) Luigi Amaduzzi, Italian Ambassador in Britain.
A MUSHROOM QUICHE…
At home, the lines are firmly drawn as far as the quiche story goes…or more suitably, the ‘quiche’ war. On one side, stand the son & me, who are not great egg fans at all; me far worse than him! The rest on the other side. It’s the quintessential question…to quiche or not to quiche? One wonder’s why I make it anyway. Well, firstly the die-hard baker in me overtakes the egg-disliker; & then, I actually like the idea of a savoury pie (which the son might enjoy in time). It’s only in the winter months when one can truly enjoy the rather filling slice of savoury pie…eggs + cream + butter! In summer, one would gladly settle for something much lighter!
I’ve made a quiche after almost 4 years. Leafing through a baking book the other day, I chanced upon a picture of a quiche, which was enough to set me off. I had a slice as well…it was quite nice actually. The son had a slice too, though he didn’t look like he was enjoying himself too much. The rest of the quiche disappeared into a sumptuous lunch for the eggy side of the family. Even the daughter, who was running a 102 viral fever, devoured it happily! PHEW…another meal completed & another day gone!
Quiche is a rich unsweetened custard pie, often containing ingredients such as vegetables, cheese, or seafood. Although quiche is now a classic dish of French cuisine, quiche actually originated in Germany, in the medieval kingdom of Lothringen, under German rule, and which the French later renamed Lorraine. The word ‘quiche’ is from the German ‘Kuchen’, meaning cake. Quiche can be served as an entrée, for lunch, breakfast or an evening snack.
Ingredients:
Crust:
Flour – 1 cup
Butter – 1/2 cup / chilled & cut into pieces
Chilled water as required
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
Sift the flour into a bowl.
Cut the butter in with either your finger tips or a pastry cutter till it becomes a breadcrumb like mixture.
Add chilled water & gently pull together to a firm dough. DO NOT OVERWORK or KNEAD dough, or you will get a tough crust.
Wrap in clingfilm & chill for about 30 mins.
Roll out to a diameter 2 inches larger than size of pie dish. Carefully place in dish, trim edges as required, leaving a 1/2″ overhang. REMEMBER that the crust always shrinks while baking, so don’t be tempted to stretch it to fit the dish. ( I’m always tempted!)
Cover with foil, then top with pie weights or beans, & bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove weights & foil & bake for a further 10-15 minutes till light golden brown.
Cream – 200ml (I use light cream 25% fat) (original recipe has 300ml)
Salt, pepper etc
Eggs – 3
Tomato – 1-2 / sliced for topping
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
Heat 1-2 tbsps of olive oil in a frying pan. Stir in the mushrooms, garlic & lime juice.
Season with salt & pepper. Cook until the mushrooms give out their liquid.
Increase heat & cook until dry. Stir in herbs; adjust seasoning.
Whisk the eggs, cream & half the grated cheese.
Stir in the mushrooms.
Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the bottom of the pie shell & pour the mushroom filling over the top.
Bake for 15 minutes till it starts setting. take out of oven gently & place overlapping slices of tomatoes on top.(I put them on half & left the other half plain)
Return to oven & bake further for 20 minutes, till puffed up & brown.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Read about an interesting foodblogging event at Coffee & Vanlla , Margot’s blog, the other day…a ‘Wholesome Lunchbox’ event – looking for some lunchbox ideas for kids. Margot has worked out a nice balanced lunchbox & I’m trying to fill it up as best as I can. The tummy-filler comes from this post, which is a slice of quiche.
The rest are from below…recipes/posts that I have done previously. The five-a-day options & dairy products are covered by the raisins & nuts, steamed brocolli & the fruit kabobs which have fruit & cheese too. There’s plenty of taste & ease of eating. The sweet something is a slice of Chocolate, Chocolate-chip & Walnut cake (my own recipe, a delicious moist cake, which has some wholewheat flour & yogurt in it too). Would finish it off with a drink of water or lime juice. My daughter would be over the moon if I could get all these into a box for her on the same day.
