Baking | RUSTIC GARLIC LOAVES for World Bread Day – Dough from Mark Bittman

“Talk of joy: there may be things better than beef stew and baked potatoes and home-made bread—there may be.”
David Grayson

RGL TitleWhen you have friends who charm you into posting for World Bread Day in the most enticing manner, then how can you possibly escape? Got onto twitter after ages this evening to find Nics tweet about Pumpkin Bread for ‘World Bread Day’. Yikes, was it the 16th already? Dang, missed the date completely even though I had so many breads sitting waiting to get posted.

Life has been a tizzy of late, and I am lagging behind! The transfer to WP has complicated time-lines even more, but  a shove in the right direction was all I needed from these exuberant ladies, so here I am.

Cherrapeno: @vindee Post, post, post!!!!!
lifesafeast: @vindee come on, girl, you have time! I wrote mine this morning 🙂

World Bread Day is hosted every year on the 16th of October by the wonderful and talented bread baking gal Zorra at Kochtopf. It’s the 5th edition of World Bread Day this year. The original World Bread Day was an event created by UIB International Union of Bakers and Bakers-Confectioners, who want to provide an opportunity to talk about bread and bakers, to find out about their history, their importance as well as their future.In Zorra’s words … Let’s bake and talk about bread on this day again! Anybody is cordially invited to participate. Lots of people stopping by this blog that weren’t around last year, I encourage both old and new friends to join in. And please spread the word! The theme is open, just bake a bread with or without yeast, use sourdough, experiment with different flours, add some seeds… It’s up to you!

There is so much I love about this post that I’ve done on fast track, typing, pictures and all. I love blue and white, I love baking bread, I love garlic and I love rustic loaves. I made these Roasted Bell Pepper, Mushroom and Ricotta Calzones adapted minimally from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food. They were an instant hit, and I’ve made them several times since, with different fillings ranging from spinach and ricotta, to chipotle chicken, and they’ve been loved each time. I had the dough ready to make them yet again, when it was suddenly announced that we had company for lunch.

A quick change of plans and the calzones were turned to garlic bread to go with the rest of the menu. I took a chance but I just knew it would work out fine, and it thankfully did! Once baked, the loaves were sliced and slathered with garlic butter – wonderful! Disappeared in no time, and looked rustic beautiful too. I loved the crust it got, and think this is a nice plan ahead dough to make ,especially since it offers the option of a long rise in the fridge overnight! Always a pleasure to wake up to well risen, no need for ‘dough rise anxiety’! Of course you can give it the regular 2-3 hours rise too, but an overnight sleepover in the fridge offers guaranteed security! Just make sure your yeast is alive!

Rustic Garlic Loaves from Mark Bittman’s Pizza Dough
Makes 2 rustic loaves
Minimally adapted from Mark Bittman’s Pizza
3 cups all-purpose plus more as needed
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1 to 1¼ cups water
2 heads of garlic, roasted
4 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
Method:
Squeeze out the roasted garlic into a bowl, and mash  with the tines of a fork.
Combine the yeast, flour, roasted garlic and 2 teaspoons salt in the container of a food processor. Turn the machine on and add 1 cup water and the 4 tablespoons of oil through the feed tube. {I did this in a large bowl, using the hand mixer with dough hooks}
Process for about 30 seconds, adding more water, a little at a time, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to the touch. If it is dry, add another tablespoon or two of water and process for another 10 seconds. {In the unlikely event that the mixture is too sticky, add flour, a tablespoon at a time.}
Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand a few seconds to form a smooth, round dough ball. Grease a bowl with the remaining olive oil, and place the dough, in it. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and let rise in warm; draft-free area until the dough doubles in size, 1 to 2 hours. You can, cut this rising time short if you are in a hurry, or you can let the dough rise more slowly, in the refrigerator, for up to 6 or 8 hours. {I made the dough at night and let it rise in the fridge overnight… and how it rose!!}
About an hour before you plan to bake the bread, take out the dough and divide it into two.  Dust your work place with flour and shape the loaves to fit your baking tray. Line a baking sheet with parchment, gently transfer the loaves onto it, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 250C.
Just before popping into the oven, give the loaves 4-5  slashes at an angle with a very sharp edged knife and pop into the oven. Place a small bowl of hot water at the bottom.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the loaves are nice and brown, and make a hollow sound when tapped on the underneath.
Note: I sliced them, gave them a generous brushing of garlic butter, and baked them at 180C for 15 minutes till golden and crisp.

{Garlic Butter: I mix butter with olive oil in a 4: 1 ratio, and add minced garlic, red chili flakes, dried oregano and salt to it. Skip the salt if you use salted butter}

♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

Previous World Bread Day Posts:
French Fougasse with Roasted Red Bell Pepper, Walnut & Gouda, WBD 2009
Roasted Chili Garlic Bread, WBD 2008

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RED BELL PEPPER, WALNUT & GOUDA FRENCH FOUGASSE…a little banter!

“Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven.”
Yiddish Proverb

In our foodie web world, I find a couple of things that seem to unite people the most these days – desserts, bread and blogging. It’s virtual unification without borders. A connection made at different levels, be it blogs, twitter, social networking sites, virtual cookbook launches … one thing is common, and that is GOOD FOOD!! My post today touches a couple of these. One of them is bread, something that is inherent to cuisine across the world, often a basic part of the menu. The idiom, break bread, or eat together, adds to the charm of bread. World Bread Day 2009 is here again; the fourth edition of this great event hosted by Zorra @ Kochtopf.

The theme this year is open, just bake a bread with or without yeast, use sourdough, experiment with different flours, add some seeds… It’s up to you! I was there last year too, and this year am sending Zorra my all time favourite bread, one that is most loved in our house, the French Fougasse. Rustic and ever so adaptable, a bread that you can even go sweet with if you like. I often make one loaf at a time, and store the rest of the dough in the fridge up to 3 days.

The other issue I wanted to highlight was a social initiative by some food bloggers. It’s exciting news for us over at BloggerAid as our cherished book reaches the final stages of printing. I submitted a recipe a while ago, and it’s going to be part of this delicious cookbook. BloggerAid…Changing the Face of Famine is an international network of food bloggers united behind the cause of ending global hunger. Members use their blogs as a platform for raising awareness about hunger in communities at home and abroad.

Have you thought of writing your own cookbook? The Cookbook People can make that happen. In their words ” We’re committed to helping families keep their cherished recipes, so we designed our own family cookbook software. Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software prints your home-made family cookbooks. One copy…or as many copies as you want. Whenever YOU want. Because you make it yourself on your own computer! “

The Cookbook People have not only donated a software package as a prize to BloggerAid, they went the extra mile. They set out a challenge to all members of BloggerAid – Changing the Face of Famine. They are willing to donate $20 to our charity for every member who creates a blog post about their site. Take a trip over to their site – have a look around. They will ship worldwide and are wonderful people to work with.
French Fougasse with Roasted Red Bell Pepper, Walnut & Gouda
adapted from The Practical Encyclopedia of Baking
Ingredients:
450gms all purpose flour
280ml warm water
20gms fresh yeast
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sea salt
1 bell pepper, roasted and chopped
100gms Gouda
1 cup walnuts, chopped
Olive oil for brushingMethod:
Take 4 tbsps of water from the 280ml, & dissolve the fresh yeast into it. Stir the salt & 2 tbsp olive oil into the remaining water.
Make a well with the flour, & pour the dissolved yeast & water mixture into it. Knead to a dough, kneading further on a floured surface for 8-10 minutes, till it gets smooth & elastic.
Place in an oiled bowl, cover the bowl with cling wrap & leave in a warm place for about an hour until doubled.
Punch down & divide into 4 balls of dough (or 2 if you have a big oven)
Roll out to about an 8″ circle, grate 1/4 of the cheese over the base, and top with a 1/4 of the bell pepper & walnuts.
Season lightly with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Fold over the dough 2-3 times on itself to incorporate the stuffing. Shape each back into a ball.
Flatten each & fold the bottom third up, & top third down to make an oblong.
Roll into ovals with a flat base, cut slits diagonally, three on each side. Pull slightly to open the cuts.
Place on oiled baking sheets. Cover with cling wrap & leave to double for 35-40minutes.
Preheat the oven to 220C, brush the loaves with olive oil, & bake for approximately 25-30 minutes till golden brown. Cool on racks. Serve warm or at room temperature.
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

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