Peshwari naan bread

I use two different methods to make this – one of my most popular breads. I originally made it as a quick bread, using self-raising flour and done in a frying pan (baked in an oven it is not as moist). Now I often do it using a yeast risen dough, baked in the oven and also in a frying pan – both are equally good. Any dried fruit will do, but apricots are my favourite - the dark, unsulphured ones, of course.

Yoghurt is fairly traditional in this recipe, but as I'm a vegan I don't use it. If you wanted to use some yoghurt as part of the liquid you may need to add a little more liquid - depending on how thick the yoghurt is.

Similarly, almonds are often used in this recipe - but I'm not a fan.

Once again, this is a recipe that anyone can play around with - just use the ingredients that suit you.

Quick bread recipe

Ingredients:
200g self-raising flour (or you can use plain flour with 2 tsps of baking powder mixed in – self raising flour’s just easier)
1 or 2 tsps curry powder
1 dsp sugar
50g grated creamed coconut
100g dried apricots, quartered
Medium onion, finely chopped
125ml water
Splash of olive oil (optional)l

Method:
The secret of any quick bread is to have everything ready beforehand and work quickly. So oil a large frying pan and put it on a low heat. Mix dried ingredients and measure liquids. When everything is ready, add the water and oil and stir it quickly into a dough. Be ready to add more water or flour if needed. Take it out, shape it into a flattened ball and, after flouring your worktop, roll out into a circle the size of your frying pan. Place it in the frying pan and increase the heat to medium.
They should take about 4-5 minutes each side to bake.

Yeast bread recipe

Ingredients:
200g strong white flour
1 or 2 tsps curry powder
1 dsp sugar
50g creamed coconut (grated)
100g dried apricots, quartered
Medium onion, finely chopped
1 dsp fresh yeast
125ml lukewarm water
Splash of olive oil (optional)

Method:
Place dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Pour the lukewarm water over the yeast and stir to dissolve. Add the olive oil. Mix into a dough, adding more water if needed. Knead for about a minute or so to distribute the ingredients properly.
Using the frying pan, follow the instructions as above.
Oven baked, roll out to a size that will fit your baking sheet, place on the lined baking sheet and leave until the dough becomes puffy.

Bake at 200c/425F or gas 7 for approximately 12 minutes. Check for some colour underneath to see if it is cooked properly.

Cornbread with roasted peppers

Cornbread is one of the breads I don't make often enough!

I made this recently with some friends in a local care home - so I had to go easy with the chilli, otherwise I'd have included more.

I used a jar of roasted peppers from Aldi.

Ingredients:
125g strong white flour
75g polenta or maizemeal
1/2 veggie Oxo cube
1/4 tsp curry powder
1 dsp fresh yeast
125ml lukewarm water
Splash of the oil from the roasted peppers

Plus, 50g or so chopped red and yellow roasted peppers (folded into the dough)

Method:
Measure the water and stir in the yeast until it has dissolved. Place the flour, crumbled stock cube and chilli powder into a mixing bowl. Stir the dry ingredients to mix them and prevent any streaky bits in the bread, then pour in the yeast liquid and add the oil.

MIx into a soft dough and knead only until it is smooth.

To add the peppers, press the dough out flat and spread the peppers over. Roll up the dough and gently knead it a few times to mix the peppers through.

Shape it into a round and place on an oiled baking sheet or one lined with baking parchment and make some deep cuts in dough - to expose the peppers - in a pattern of your choosing.

(I made one with four cuts in a 'star' shape, but my students were not so hidebound - their 'rough cuts' made their bread look much more attractive than mine.)

Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until it has appreciably grown in size - about half as big again.

Bake at 220C for about 15-20 minutes. It's done when it is brown across the bottom of the loaf.

Place on a cooling rack.

Variations:
The inclusion of some green chillis would make this bread even more colourful - as well as making it tastier.
Play about with the ratio of flour and maizemeal as you will. Even all maizemeal will work, although you'll only get a minimal rise.

Bara brith

Ingredients:                                      

400g strong white flour                                                                  

50g soft brown sugar

75g raisins or sultanas

75g currants

50g mixed peel

1 teaspoon each, mixed spice, nutmeg and cinnamon

250ml lukewarm liquid (but hold back a little if you've steeped the fruit overnight)

1 dessertspoon fresh yeast (or 1 teaspoon of dried)

1 or more tablespoons olive oil     

(Soak the dried fruit overnight in either tea – traditional – or water)

Method:

1. Place the flour, sugar, spice and dried fruit into a mixing bowl, and mix to distribute the ingredients. 

2. Measure the liquid and stir in the yeast until it dissolves (dried yeast will take a little longer to dissolve than fresh). Add the yeast liquid, holding a little back, to the dry ingredients, and then the olive oil.

3.  Remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Holding the bowl with one hand begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with your fingers. Check how the dough feels as you mix – it should stay soft and squidgy – and add more flour or liquid as needed. 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.

4. Knead (gently, the fruit will be very soft) by flattening the dough out, folding it over and flattening it again. Knead only until the dough becomes smooth – and then stop before you get fed up!

5. Cover with a dry tea towel and leave to prove for an hour or so.

6. When you are ready to proceed knock back the dough and place in a greased 2lb loaf tin (or one lined with baking parchment). Cover and leave until it has risen appreciably.

7. Bake at 200C, 400F or gas mark 6 for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180C, 350F or gas mark 4, for a further 15-20 minutes, checking after 10. Look for the sides of the loaf shrinking away from the tin.

8. The loaf is done when it is brown underneath. You may need to turn the loaf upside down and place it back in the oven for a few minutes.

Notes:

Bara brith means ‘speckled bread’. There are many variations to be found in cookery books and on the web – this is mine (bearing in mind I’m a vegan!:))

This bread (any yeast-risen bread) can also be made using the ‘several short kneadings over a 30-45 minutes period’ detailed here.

Teaching breadmaking - and other things

Since I took up teaching at the age of 55 - and never thought I could be a teacher before that - I'm of the opinion that there are many others who could teach, given the opportunity.

So this part of my blog is aimed at those cooks, not necessarily bread makers, who think they have something of value they'd like to pass on to others.

I was trained as a teacher of adults, but I've sort of drifted into teaching families (parents and children) - and a large part of my teaching is with Adults with Learning Disabilities and Difficulties.

My teaching style is relaxed, non-judgmental, welcoming. [Carl Rodgers]

Always at the back of my mind when I'm teaching is my early training as a teacher of adults, when we examined the many 'barriers to learning' that hold a lot of adults back from returning to education.

So I try and make the learning situation as friendly and as relaxed as possible.

(I'll add to this as I get time.)

Worksheet for a Family Centre session

Welcome to the wonderful world of breadmaking

Morning everyone! With the help of your child, you are going to make a ‘sizzler’ (a bit like a wrap), and playdough – out of which we’ll make a house and other things.

Session aims: To show you just how easy and satisfying it is to make bread; how much fun you can have making bread with your child; how little home-made bread costs; and how healthy and full of flavour home-made bread is!

Please note:

• This is a fun session for you both, so you can relax and enjoy yourselves

• Let your child do as much as possible – only step in if your child is too young to do the task we’ve set for her. Or you could do the activity together, like mixing the dough hand over hand

• Give your child time to react to any request or instruction – it takes a little while for it to sink in

Labels: Everyone needs a large name label: if I’m busy with someone else, come and help yourself. Please write in large letters so I can read it from a distance!

One batch of dough:

300g strong white flour

1 rounded dessertspoon of fresh yeast

200ml lukewarm water

Method: Crumble the yeast into a jug and add water up to 200ml. Stir and add to the flour. Mix into a soft, squishy dough. Knead the dough (flatten and fold) just until it is smooth. Divide the dough into three pieces and put two to one side. Cut the other into 2 pieces.

Plus:

For the sizzlers : Sliced tomatoes or mushrooms and grated cheese

Demo from Paul

Shape and put to prove. (Put your child’s initials, made out of dough, on top of one of the sizzlers – then we can re-unite you with your own bread!)

Now the playdough (if you run out, just let me know):

• Here’s a few ideas for different shapes. Put them on a sheet of baking paper as they’re shaped:
• ‘House’ bread: roll out the dough, cut out a triangle and a square and form a house shape. Cut out holes for windows and put a boiled sweet in the hole. Make doors and a chimney from the trimmings..
• Teddy bears, made with different size balls of dough – one large for the tummy and five small ones – rolled out a bit for the arms and legs. Your child will decide where eyes, mouth, buttons, etc, will go.
• Little person – roll out a piece of dough like a sausage, slit one end for the legs, make two diagonal slits halfway up for the arms and two little cuts for the head. Tuck in the head to make it neater. Make little balls of dough for eyes, etc.
• Snake bread: Roll out a piece of dough to about 15cm long and coil it on the baking tray. Use little balls of dough for the eyes. Make a little tongue and slit the end.
• Hedgehog rolls. Make an oval roll and point one end for the nose. Use little balls of dough for the eyes. From behind, snip spikes with a pair of scissors held at about a 30-degree angle.
• Caterpillars – small balls of dough placed next to one another with a larger one for the head
• And of course you can invent your own shapes!

Grandchildren and breadmaking

Collected the youngsters, Alfie, 4, Olivia, 6 and Phoebe, 8, on Sunday, to stay with us for a few days over the half term.

Yesterday morning we decided to make some bread – pizzas for dinner were on the agenda, plus assorted other stuff.

In the event, Alfie made a sweet dough and the girls each made a plain dough.

1 mug bread flour - 1 dessertspoon sugar (for the sweet dough – nothing for the savoury dough) - 1/3 mug water - 1 tsp fresh yeast

Alfie made half a dozen pains au chocolat (a la Elizabeth David – not the unpleasant [to my taste] croissant variety). Phoebe made four doughnuts and a small pasty with the rest of the sweet dough. 2 containing (her idea) a glace cherry and chocolate spread, 1 with a glace cherry and apple sauce, and one containing all three ingredients.

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the cherry and chocolate one!

After much playing with the dough (the original playdough!), Olivia produced a ‘snake pizza’ which looked more like a rabbit, Phoebe made a cheese and tomato pizza, and I made one with Pateole spread and vegan pesto.

(Can see I’m going to have to work harder at this if I’m going to blog about every bit of breadmaking I do…)

Beginners, start here…

Breadmaking is seen as a scary thing for some people, but all my teaching is geared towards removing that fear and showing it to be the simple cooking tool that it is.

The fact is, that if you mix flour, lukewarm water and yeast together – you  *cannot* stop your bread from rising!

All my recipes follow the same path – and they all follow three simple breadmaking rules.

The three simple rules which you should bear in mind when making bread are:

1. Use strong, breadmaking flour – look for the words ‘strong’ or ‘bread’ on the packet. Plain flour will work in an emergency, and a mixture of strong and plain will work fine.

2. Use lukewarm (hand hot) water, and don’t put your dough anywhere too hot. Forget airing cupboards and radiators, the bread will rise on your worktop.

3. Give your bread time to rise after its final shaping and before it goes into the oven. White bread will double in size – a pizza base should look puffy compared to when you rolled it out.

And that’s it!

There’s also a couple of things to bear in mind, but aren’t rules as such:

1. Make sure your dough is soft and squishy – never be afraid to add more water whilst you’re mixing the dough.

2. If you have the slightest doubt whether your bread is done or not, put it back in the oven for a few more minutes. Look for colour on the bottom of your bread.

Yeast: Whatever yeast you’re using – fresh, active dried (comes in a tin) or easyblend (comes in sachets), treat them all the same.

Mix the yeast in the lukewarm water until dissolved, then add it straight into the flour.

As a general rule, use half as much dried yeast as fresh – so if the recipe says a dessertspoon of fresh yeast, use a teaspoon of dried.

But don’t worry too much about the amount of yeast you use: the more yeast you use, the faster your bread will rise; the less you use, the longer it will take.

A bread dough made with 400g (2 mugs) of flour will make a medium-sized loaf, about 8 bread rolls, two or three pizzas or 8 sizzlers (wraps, really) – or any other savoury bread you can think of!

I want to use this blog to demonstrate just how easy and accessible home breadmaking can be (is)!

Breadmaking is far easier than pastrymaking, and the dough is much more forgiving. What's more, virtually anything that can be made with pastry can be made with a bread dough – which can be completely fat free!

Apart from all this, there are several other reasons for making your own bread:

It's a lot cheaper - a 1.5kg bag of own-brand white flour, which will make three large loaves, currently costs around 70-80p. A 25cm (10") cheese and tomato pizza can be made for around 70p. And you can make a small batch of Chelsea buns for the price of one in a baker's shop.

It's healthier. You control the quality of the food you feed your family. Check out the number of ingredients on a wrapped sliced loaf.

It's more convenient than buying your bread - one of my students, who lives about 300 yards from a large supermarket told me she thought it was quicker to knock up a batch of rolls rather than nip to the supermarket.

At home you can make many different varieties of breads that you cannot even buy – or are very expensive to buy in the shops.

If you'd rather have organic bread it's much cheaper to make your own. If you want bread without salt, you have to make it yourself. The only way to make breads like pane casereccio (filled with Italian sausage and Gruyere), tarte Alsace* (a thin dough covered with creme fraiche, then thinly sliced onions then lardons of bacon – or slices of mushroom and tomato) is to make them yourself.

*Recipe to come

It's very enjoyable, dammit! It's fun to make your own bread - it's very satisfying to see a batch of terrific-smelling, great-looking bread come out of the oven. You get a sense of achievement you cannot get with any other branch of cooking (IMO!) (But beware – it can become very addictive.)

And if you're around kids, it's lovely to share the experience with them. Kids and breadmaking just go so well together.