Fougasse (with variations)

Ingredients:

2 mugs or 400g strong flour of your choice - I prefer half and half wholemeal and white

1/2 teaspoon salt

250ml (or 2/3 mug ) of  lukewarm water (or increase the water to 280ml and use method B here)

1 rounded teaspoon fresh yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil

Method:

1. Place flour, salt and tomatoes in a mixing bowl, measure the water and stir in the fresh yeast.  Once it is dissolved, add it to the flour, followed by 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, 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. Leave to prove for about an hour on your worktop, covered with a dry tea towel. Or place in an oiled plastic bag until you are ready for step 5.

5. When you are ready to proceed, knock the dough back and roll it out to about 3cm (1 inch) thick on a lightly floured worktop. Place it on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.

6. Flour the top of the dough and make several separate cuts in the bread in any design you choose, using a sharp implement of your choice. I’ve used a dough cutter, a pizza cutter, a D-shaped spatula, and scissors for this, recently. Make sure the cuts don’t run into one another and, of course, don’t run over the edge of the dough. Stretch out the holes to define them more – the holes will try and close up if you’re not careful

7. Leave to prove, covered with a tea towel, until it has risen appreciably.

8. Bake at 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for between 25-30 minutes.

Variations:

Half a dozen chopped sun-dried tomatoes in the dough at step 1.

The same amount of bottled, grilled peppers folded in at the end of step 3.

A small handful of black olives similarly treated.

Here are several examples from a recent breadmaking session with some adults with learning disabilities:

Teaching the homeless

I've just started a course teaching breadmaking to a group of homeless guys in a hostel.

Last week each student made 3 soda breads: plain, spicy fruited and cheese - one with curry powder and cheese.

The cheese and curry one was voted the tastiest!

This week (24/1/11) we made yeast-risen breads: A freeform loaf - done with 3 short kneadings with a rest in between (method B) - Chelsea buns and apfel kuchen.

Because we don't have a lot of time in these sessions the Chelsea buns and the AK were made from one batch of dough. The dough was rolled out, brushed with oil and sprinkled with sugar, then rolled up like a Swiss roll. Half of this was cut into Chelseas and the other half rolled out and covered with slices of apple which were sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

Here's some of the breads we made

And here's some more - in the form of Spongebob Squarepants!

(7/2/11 - 3rd session out of 8) Another good session today – made four breads, two sweet and two savoury.

One batch with a dessertspoon of sugar made 3 jam doughnuts and 4 petit pain au chocolat. Roll out the dough to around pizza size, cut out 6 circles - 3 bases and 3 tops - add the jam and squidge them together. Roll out the trimmings, divide into 4, push a piece of chocolate into the dough and, once again, squidge the dough around it. Once baked, the pain au chocolat gets a sugar glaze and the doughnuts get a sugar glaze plus a sprinkling of sugar.

The second batch had salt instead of sugar – this made two ‘white’ pizzas. One French – Tarte Alsace -  and one Swiss – Emmenthal bread (link to come).

These  guys are a real pleasure to teach - quick to learn, eager to please (apart from one who said he was allergic to washing up! However he did help to clean the tables.) and appreciative of any help.

No pics, I'm afraid - I had no battery left in my mobile.

Next session (in a fortnight) we're making Italian breads. Any suggestions will be very welcome.

Schiacciata con l'uva – Two-harvest bread (Gluten- and yeast-free)

Made this a while ago - just found it whilst looking for gluten-free recipes in my files. (The ingredients for a wheat flour version are below.)

Ingredients:

200g cornmeal

100g sultanas

2 dsps sugar

2 tsps gluten-free baking powder

150ml (plus) water

Good splash of olive oil (optional)

Plus a handful of seedless grapes, halved.

Method:

1. Put the oven on at 200C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

2. Place dry ingredients in mixing bowl and stir a couple of times, using a spatula or table knife.

3. Working quickly (the baking powder starts to react when it meets the water), add sufficient water to bring it together as a dough - I found I'd used 162.5g (my scales are divided into 25g segments - the pointer was just halfway between two lines!)

4. Place on baking parchment and roll or push the dough out into a circle about 2cm thick. Cover with the grapes and place in the oven for about 20 minutes

5. It's ready when a skewer comes out clean.

The term ‘Two harvest bread', comes from the fact that the sultanas are from last year and the grapes from this. (If you soak the sultanas in wine it becomes ‘Three harvest bread'!)

The bread has an unusual texture - it seems a little grainy when you first pop it into your mouth, and there is a slight 'metaliccy' taste.

But I had some last night and found myself going back several times for another nibble, which is a good sign!

I had a chunk for breakfast, split and spread with apple puree. It was very acceptable.

I'm certain you could make this into a pizza dough by leaving out the sugar and fruit. I'd be tempted to brush the surface with oil before putting on a tomato topping.

200g wheat flour

100g sultanas

2 dsps sugar

125ml lukewarm water

1 teaspoon yeast

Good splash of olive oil (optional)

Plus a handful of seedless grapes, halved.

Place the dried ingredients in a mixing bowl, stir the yeast into the water and add to the flour. Add the olive oil at this point, if using.

Mix into a dough, knead until the dough is smooth, then roll out into a circle with the dough about 2cm thick and cover with the grapes. Place on a prepared baking sheet and leave to rise. Bake in the oven at 220C or gas 7 for 15 to 20 minutes.

Brilliant teaching session today – despite forgetting the yeast!

Held a Family Learning session at Weston Zoyland Primary School this morning - only the 3^rd session of a course that started back in November. First, the holiday season got in the way, then I had an operation, then last week the school had some advisors in!

Now, however, we should have 3 consecutive weeks to finish off the course.

I always try and cover as many breads as I can in a session, knowing that you can make more than one bread out of a batch of dough. Today we were making a savoury dough, which would make a small pizza and a couple of sizzlers, plus a sweet dough which would make petit pain au chocolat and iced buns.

I generally begin a course by listing my shortcomings as a tutor (I don’t always read my notes; I talk too fast; I let the bread burn whilst enthusiastically going on about bread, etc.) – and I added another one today by forgetting the yeast!

There’s no excuse for this, of course, flour and yeast are a given in any session of mine (apart from when we’re making soda bread, of course!), no matter what other ingredients are necessary!

The day was saved by one of the students coming to my rescue by asking a friend who lived near the school – who, fortunately, had a breadmaking machine – to bring some of her yeast to the school; and ten minutes later, we had yeast!

In the meantime I’d found two sachets of fast-acting yeast in a seat-pocket of my car.

With these I made up a yeast liquid by stirring together half a jug of lukewarm water, a squirt of tomato puree, the two sachets of yeast, plus about 100-150g of flour.

For the first batch of dough – the savoury dough – students (the youngsters – all from the reception class) measured a mug of flour, tipped that into the bowl and added a quarter of a teaspoon of salt and half a sachet of yeast.

The liquid – 1/3^rd of a mug – was made up half and half the yeast liquid I’d made with some lukewarm water.

Once the dough was mixed (adding more water as needed), the children kneaded it until smooth then divided it into 2 equal pieces by sawing in half with the side of their hands. One half was to be a small pizza, the other made into two sizzlers.

Once these were made and the dough was proving, the students made a sweet dough – substituting a dessertspoon of sugar for the salt.

This time I made up yeast liquid by adding sufficient lukewarm water to the now very actively fermenting yeast mixture I’d made earlier. Plus the students also used the other half of their yeast sachet.

This time the dough was divided in two, half made 4 petit pain au chocolat and the other half made three iced buns.

It took a little juggling to bake all these, using my two small ovens and a domestic oven.

I had one minor misadventure when I put a tray containing a pizza on the top shelf of the domestic oven – not realising there was already one there! There was a ‘clunk’ followed by a sizzling sound as the pizza topping met the back of the oven. When I had removed the oven shelves I was able to get a metal spatula under the pizza which was leaning against the back of the oven.

Surprisingly, the pizza, although a bit battered, was OK – indeed, as young Izaak proved later on in the session, it was very tasty indeed! (It would have been a different story, I’m sure, had the pizza been a full size one!)

Here’s a (not very good) pic:

Just a few of the pizzas and sizzlers - the numbers are to identify the breads

Why was it a brilliant session?

When we started a couple of the mothers said, "We're not going to make all that, are we?"

Well, we did - just about. Everyone went home with 4 varieties of bread plus the recipes.

The adults (there was one grandparent) are managing to stay back and let their children do most of the work - although they find this difficult (holding back is far harder for them than the actual breadmaking!).

Another thing we're making progress with is giving the child time to react. So often I'll ask the child to, say, pick up the dough and wipe it round the side of the bowl. The child will take a second or so to react to this request, by which time the mother will chime in with "Pick up the dough, Chloe (or whoever)".

I'm asking them to hold back and give the child time. Chloe will carry out the required action - when the information has trickled through.

We were also able to cover the main reasons why they should make their own bread:
1. It's teaching their child a skill for life - besides which it's fun! (Not to mention being educational.)
2. It's healthier than shop-bought bread - they control the quality of the food their feeding to their family.
3. It will save them money - the pizzas and sizzlers cost about 70 or so pence - the sweet breads as little as 30p.

As they were all leaving I gave them all some homework - which is to invite someone into their kitchen and teach them what they've just learned!

BASIC CHEESE AND TOMATO PIZZA

Ingredients:
200g (1 mug) strong white flour

1/4 tsp salt (optional)

125ml (1/3^rd mug) lukewarm water

1 teaspoon fresh yeast, crumbled

Splash of olive oil

Topping:

Tomato topping – passata, 1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes or similar

100g Cheddar cheese grated

Method:

1. Place flour and salt (if using) into a mixing bowl. Measure the water in the same mug and add 1 teaspoon of yeast. Stir to dissolve then add to the flour.

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 your fingers. Stir round in big circles, pulling the flour off the sides of the bowls into the middle. 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 flattening the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Once the dough is smooth either leave it, covered with a dry tea towel, for an hour or so, or go straight to step 4.

4. Without knocking it back (that is; kneading a couple of times), form the dough into a round bap shape. Have plenty of flour to hand and scatter flour over the dough and worktop. With a rolling pin, roll it into a circle around  25-30cm (10-12”) across. Keep turning the dough around and refreshing the flour. The dough should slide on the flour.

5. Pour the tomato topping over the pizza and spread it out with the back of a spoon, leaving it 1 cm from the edge. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the tomato, and leave to rise - on your worktop is fine.

6. When the dough at the edge of the pizza has become puffy, place in a hot oven, 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for 15-20 minutes. When they're done the pizza will lift up all along one side when you check underneath, using a palette knife or similar. The bottom should be browning from the edges.

Notes:

To get a crisp bottom to the pizzas, there are several things you can do:

• Make sure you keep the wet topping away from the edges – and don’t overload the pizza;

• Have a heavy metal tray at the bottom of the oven to use as a pizza stone. If you do this, have your pizzas on baking parchment on an up-turned tray – then you can just slide the pizzas into the oven.

• Finish them off in a large, dry, frying pan

Variations to the base:
Obviously, you can individualise the toppings on any pizza to suit you and your family. However, you can also add other ingredients to the dough - my current favourite is to use a teaspoon of bouillon powder instead of the salt, add a teaspoon of mixed herbs, several chopped oil-soaked sun-dried tomatoes and a good glug of the oil from the jar. The oil makes a real difference to the crust which, to my mind, begins to resemble a shortcrust pastry.

Canapes (vegan), made with a bread dough

Ingredients:
200g strong white flour 
1 teaspoon bouillon powder
1 teaspoon mixed herbs
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh yeast
125ml lukewarm water
2 tbs olive oil 

Plus:
Pesto, roasted peppers, sun-dried tomatoes (chopped small), slices of tomato, mushroom, etc.
Black pepper
Olive oil to drizzle

Method:
1. Measure the water and stir in the fresh yeast. Place the flour, bouillon powder, herbs and garlic in a mixing bowl, stir to distribute the ingredients, pour in the yeast liquid, then 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, cutting through the dough as it forms. 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 flattening the dough out, folding it over and flattening it again. If the dough is too sticky, instead of putting extra flour on your worktop, place some in the bowl, put the dough back in and turn it round to coat it all over. That way you keep the flour under control and you won’t be tempted to add too much. Knead until the dough becomes smooth – and then stop before you get fed up!

4. Leave the dough to rest whilst you prepare a baking sheet and gather your ingredients. When you are ready to proceed, take the dough out of the mixing bowl and form it gently into a cob shape. Have plenty of flour to hand and liberally scatter flour over the dough and worktop. With a rolling pin, roll it into a circle about 25-30cm across. 

5. Use a pastry cutter to create circles of dough, or a pizza cutter to create 5-6cm squares and place them on a prepared baking tray. 

6. Spread half a teaspoon of pesto over each circle or square followed by a teaspoon of sun-dried tomato bits, then a slice of tomato or other topping. Sprinkle with black pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil.

7. Bake at 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for between 8-10 minutes. They should be browning underneath.

You can vary these at will. I like to put chilli powder in with the flour.

Planning for the 4th session - fruited and sweetened breads

Each of you will have the opportunity to make 9 different breads with two different doughs:

First the fruit dough for all the different fruit breads; and then the plain, sweetened dough for all the filled sweet breads. Leave the second on the table with a bowl inverted over the top.

(We’ll make the 2^nd dough a little bit sticky because we’ll have a chance to knead it a couple of times to give you some practice with the ‘Several short kneadings’ method.)

With the fruit dough we will make:

Either an apfel kuchen or a Swedish tea ring, plus Chelsea buns, spicy fruit buns and hot cross buns.

Divide it into 2 pieces and put one aside.

For AK: Roll the dough out to about 25cm (10”) long and half as wide. Place on BP and cover with slices of apple. Sprinkle the apple with 1 dessertspoon sugar mixed with 1 tsp of cinnamon. Leave to prove on top of, or near, an oven.

For STR: Roll into a rectangle a bit bigger than A4 size, spread with oil (about a dessertspoonful), sprinkle with sugar and strew flaked almonds over the top. Roll up towards you like a Swiss roll with the seam underneath. Form the dough into a circle and tuck one end inside the other (Demo). Now make a cut about halfway through the dough, at 2cm intervals round the ring. Place on tray and leave to prove on top of, or near, an oven.

Give the second dough 20 quick kneading actions and replace under the bowl.

Take the other half of the fruit dough and roll it out as per the STR – treat it just the same (leave out the almonds) right up to leaving the seam underneath.

Now divide the dough into two, and cut one of the halves into 4 equal pieces. Place on BP with the cut sides uppermost (esp. the end one!).

Now squidge the rest of the dough back together and knead it a couple of times to distribute the oil and sugar evenly.

Divide it into four rolls with the side of your hand and form bun shapes with them (Demo). Place on the baking sheet and press a cross into the top of 2 of them. Put to prove with your initial on there somewhere.

Now the sweetened dough. This will make a large jam tart, marzipan and apple tartlets, doughnuts, pain au chocolat and iced buns.

First the jam tart: Divide the dough into two pieces and roll one out to around pizza size. Cut out a square measuring about 15cm (6”), plus 6 fairly thin strips of dough. Place the square on some BP and put the strips around and across the square. Fill each square with some jam.

Marzipan and apple tartlets: Cut out 4 circles from the rest of the rolled out dough and add the trimmings to the set aside piece. Press out four small circles of marzipan and place them over the circles. Cut a quarter of an apple and cut the quarter into slices. Place two slices on top of the marzipan and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

Roll out the rest of the sweetened dough as you did the first, and cut out 6 circles of dough. Place three on some BP and put 1/2 a teaspoon of your filling in the middle. Place the other circles over the top and pinch the doughnuts all round (Demo).

Divide the rest of the dough into golf ball size rolls. Half of these will be iced buns and half petit pain au chocolat.

Iced buns: Either leave them as round buns, or gently roll them out into finger rolls. Place on baking sheet.

Pain au chocolat: Squidge a piece of chocolate into a piece of dough and squeeze the dough together to seal. Put to prove with your initial on top of one of the buns.

Notes:

I find it a good idea to soak the fruit overnight to make them plumper and juicier. If you do that, I find a jam jar is a convenient container to use.

Evening course - 3rd week

All of my students, 7 of them including a new student, are on email, so I thought I'd take advantage of that to give them advance warning of my planning for tonight:

Tonight we're making 5 breads, ciabatta, focaccia, grissini, pizza and Peshwari naan.

After introductions, and a welcome to Claire, we'll get straight into making the ciabatta.

This is a bread mixed entirely in a bowl and not kneaded at all. Since I want to be precise about the amounts we use, the ingredients need to be weighed:

200g strong flour (either all white or a mixture of white and wholemeal)

1/4 tsp salt

150ml lukewarm water (that’s 125ml + 25%, roughly)

1 tsp yeast

3 tbs olive oil (45g)

All this is mixed together and beaten for a couple of minutes, then left to rise in the bowl.

The 2^nd dough (this will make a focaccia, some grissini and a pizza):

500g strong flour (either all white or a mixture of white and wholemeal)

1 /2 tsp salt

50g sun-dried tomatoes (minus 4 which will go on the top of the focaccia), chopped

325ml lukewarm water

1 dsp yeast

2 tbs olive oil

This will make a moderately sticky dough, which, once mixed, we’ll knead for 15-20 seconds then put to one side.

Peshwari naan – the 3^rd dough.

200g self-raising flour (or use plain flour with 2 tsps of baking powder mixed in)

1 or 2 tsps curry powder

1 dsp sugar

50g grated creamed coconut

100g dried apricots, quartered (or sultanas if you wish)

Medium onion, finely chopped

125ml of water (cold is fine)

Have an oven tray and baking parchment ready, assemble the dry ingredients, and then add the water. Working fairly quickly, mix into a dough, shape it into a cob and roll it into a circle about 30cm across.

Place it on the baking sheet and put it straight into the oven – for about 10-15 minutes at 220C.

Knead the 2^nd dough – put to one side.

Scrape the risen ciabatta dough onto some baking parchment and gently pat into your required shape. Put to prove on top of one of the ovens.

Take about 200g of the remaining dough and roll it out into a circle about 20cm across. Put it on some baking parchment and put it to one side.

Take off another 50g of dough, divide it into three pieces and roll them out into long breadsticks (grissini). Place them next to the pizza dough.

Form the rest of the dough into a cob shape and roll it out to about 2cm thick. Place on a baking tray and dimple the bread with your fingers. Leave to prove on top of the ovens.

Add the topping – tomato and cheese – to the pizza.

Cheers, Paul 

[Reflections on the session: I departed from the planning in leaving the ciabatta until last - and I'm not sure they had sufficient time to rise before they had to go into the oven. Apart from that, all the bread was pretty impressive - and, once again, I forgot to take pictures! However, some of the students did, and I've included them in the portfolio of the course.]

Evening breadmaking course, Autumn 2010

It's my intention to create a portfolio of pictures of bread made by my students as a result of this course.

Here's the first - some fancy dinner rolls made by Collette at home:

And here's a couple from Nic:

These were made by Kath on Wednesday evening. We also made some grissini, but I expect they didn't last long!

Here's 3-year-old Zoe, Kath's daughter, making a fruit soda bread

Yesterday Claire (the new member of the course - this was her first ever attempt at making bread) sent me these four pics from her phone:

Sun-dried tomato focaccia with Parmesan

Peshwari naan (my non-authentic version). The letter C is there so that Claire can identify her own bread. You can just see her breadsticks that she made from the same dough as the focaccia.

Cheese and tomato pizza - base made from the foccacia dough.

Ciabatta

Here's a mix of pics (see what I did there?;)) from Collette. The pizzas were made at home.

Collette's Apfel kuchen

"They were seriously yummy! 

I shocked myself!! " Collette

Pizza by Charity (Collette's daughter)

Ciabatta

(More to come.)

Letter of introduction to the evening breadmaking course

Dear Student,

Breadmaking at Court Fields Community School, 7-9pm on 29^th September

I’m delighted to hear that the course is going ahead, albeit with low numbers. If you have a friend who’d like to come with you, it’s not too late (they would be very welcome!).

This letter sets out what I intend will happen in the first session and includes a list of ingredients and utensils which you will need to bring. If you are new to breadmaking, let me reassure you that it is much easier than you have been led to believe.

The session will begin in a relaxed fashion – the first thing you need to do is to find somewhere to park all the stuff that I ask you to bring, get yourself a drink and a stool to sit on. There is some necessary administration to complete, but it’s best if we go through this together. If you need any help with the forms I will be there to give you a hand, so there’s no need to worry. Bring a pen if you can remember, although I will have a couple to spare.

Before we start I’d like to spend some time finding out if you’ve had any experience in breadmaking, and what you expect to get out of the course, so that I can hopefully meet all your requirements.

The breads we will be making on the first evening are: Plain or fruit soda bread, and fancy dinner rolls or a loaf (traditional English loaf or a focaccia).

Each week you will make 2 varieties of bread – most of them chosen by you and the other students. Also there are various techniques I want to cover, such as ‘No-knead, overnight bread’, using the cloche method, etc. You will be given the recipes for all the breads we make, plus general breadmaking hints and tips. My aim is for you to become a competent home baker (if you’re not already!), able to bake any bread you fancy.

Bring a large cardboard box or basket to carry all your equipment and ingredients, and the finished products to take home with you!  Coffee or tea is available at 20p per mug – the kettle is always on. (Or bring your own, of course.)

I want to reassure all those students new to breadmaking that my first aim for this course is for everyone to enjoy their learning – I always delight in these sessions, and it’s my job to see that everyone else does. Breadmaking is an easy, everyday craft – as you’ll come to realise (if you haven’t already)!

If you have a particular variety of bread you'd like to make instead of one of the breads on offer, I'd be very happy for you to do that. Get in touch if this idea appeals to you and we will see how we could fit it in to the programme. Or if you have any questions, doubts, suggestions at all, please don’t hesitate to ring or email me. It’s always nice to make contact with my students before the course begins.

Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to the word ‘Companion’. The ‘com’ part means together – as in community – and the ‘pan’ part of the word means bread. So the word ‘Companion’ can be taken to mean, ‘Someone who makes bread with friends’. Which is what we shall be doing on these Wednesday evenings!

I look forward to meeting you and welcoming you on the course.

Paul (Course tutor)