Old fashioned cottage loaf

This week's Friday loaf is a beauty. Just look at it!

I've used Linda Collister again and this recipe is contained in her fabulous Bread from ciabatta to rye book. I am coming to the conclusion, albeit rather sadly, that the best way to make bread is really by hand, as everytime I've tried I haven't been disappointed.

For this recipe I had to combine 700g of strong white flour with one 7g sachet of yeast, 450ml of tepid water, 1 tsp of honey. It had to be kneaded for 10 mins which was pretty hard going, but I could tell when it was ready by how elastic it became. It had to rise for 1 1/2 hours, then be punched back and shaped into two separate rounds, using one third for the smaller round. It had to rise again on two separate baking sheets for 45 mins.

The larger soft bouncy roll is then placed onto a large baking sheet and the smaller roll tenderly placed on top. With two fingers and a thumb you press down on the top of the loaf to pinch both together, baste all with an egg, and score both top and bottom roll as seen above. It baked at 230 degrees centigrade for 15 mins and then 20 mins at 200 degrees centigrade.

The instructions in Bread are much clearer than mine and I do urge anyone interested in bread to pick up a copy of this excellent book.

Friday's Vetebrod Easter Loaf

Vetebrod sweet loaf

Another success! Rather than make some hot cross buns I wanted to make a loaf that felt a bit special to have on Good Friday. A book that I've used loads over the years is Bread from ciabatta to rye, by Linda Collister. It is an overview of baking from around the world and contains some delicious, really easy to follow recipes. 

So, for Easter I've made a sweet loaf from Sweden called Vetebrod which is flavoured with cinnamon and cardomom. This is typically served with coffee, but  I think that it will be just as good for breakfast with a selection of cheeses and salami. Although this recipe is a bit fiddly with a filling to make, I must say that it didn't give me the usual angst over proving and rising, even though I did adjust the times to make it with my food mixer.

The initial dough is made by combining 300g strong white flour with 1/2 tsp of salt, 50g light muscova sugar, 10 green deseeded and ground cardomom pods, a 7g sachet of active dried yeast, with 50g of unsalted butter that have been melted in 150ml of hot milk. I mixed a third of the wet/dry ingredients at a time in my Everhot Artisan food mixer on speed 1/2 for 5 mins, to make sure that all were combined. Then it was left to rise for an hour in a warm place to double in size.

The filling was very easy, simply combining 50g unsalted butter with 50g light muscova sugar and 1tsp of cinnamon and mixing in the food mixer on speed 3/4 for around 2 mins until light and creamy.

The risen dough is then rolled to 30cm square and the filling pasted on. This is then rolled length ways and pinched tight at either end. With scissors you cut quite deeply at 1cm spaces, and then alterately pull the dough from left to right. This is then left on a baking sheet under a plastic bag to double in size, taking around an hour. I was so impressed with the size of this when I peeped after an hour. It was then popped in the oven for 200 degrees centigrade for 20 mins.

I do urge anyone interested in giving bread a go, to get this Bread book from Linda Collister, there are some really good bargains on Amazon, and they may save a bit of the heartache that I've gone through with my regular Friday loaf.