No bread is an island

...entire of itself. (With apologies to John Donne!)
I live and breathe breadmaking. I’m an evangelist who would like everyone to make his or her own bread. I want to demystify breadmaking and show it as the easy everyday craft that it is. To this end I endeavour to make my recipes as simple and as foolproof as I possibly can.

I call my blog 'No bread is an island' because every bread is connected to another bread. So a spicy fruit bun with a cross on top is a hot cross bun. This fruit dough will also make a fruit loaf - or Chelsea buns or a Swedish tea ring...
I'm also a vegan, so I have lots of vegan recipes on here - and I'm adding more all the time.

Saturday, 12 November 2011

Yum yums

Ingredients:
1 mug or 200g strong white flour
1 dsp sugar
1 teaspoon fresh yeast
1/3 mug or 125ml lukewarm water
Good splash olive oil

Plus:
50g of any spread, including butter (traditional), cut in slices and placed in the freezer
Icing sugar

Method:
1. Place flour and sugar into a mixing bowl, followed by the yeast. Pour the water over the yeast to start it dissolving and add the olive oil.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife (starting with the yeast first, to dissolve it properly), cutting through the dough. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by stretching the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Do this until it is smooth – or until you get fed up!

4. Cover and leave to prove for an hour, then put it in the fridge until you're ready to proceed. Or go to step 5.

5. On a floured worktop, roll out the dough into a rectangle about 30cm by 15cm and place the butter in slices evenly over two thirds of the dough. Fold the unbuttered side over to the middle, covering up half of the buttered area, then fold that over the rest of the buttered dough. Roll it out gently, fold it as above, place in an oiled plastic bag and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Or, go to step 7.

6. Take the dough out of the fridge, roll and fold it as before, then place it back in the fridge for another 30 minutes.

7. Roll the dough out to a rough 25c by 25cm square. Cut it across the middle, then cut each strip into 4 or 5, so you finish up with 8 or 10 strips of dough.

8. Give each strip a half twist and place them on a prepared baking sheet. Leave to prove until doubled in size, then bake for 15-20 minutes (220C, gas 7) until golden brown.

9. When cooled, ice the yum yums – on each side if you like!

1 comment:

  1. Dangerous recipe for my waistline - I LOVE yum yums!!

    ReplyDelete