HAPPY NEW YEAR!

For this, the FIRST Sunday Brunch of the year I’d like to talk about three things that you might like to try this year to put a fresh spin on the bread you are making at home.

Some of these you may have already tried and some not but if you’re enjoying your possibly new found hobby take these as an example of those little things that can be tweaked to make something new and EXCEPTIONAL.

Hope you like them,

 Jack :-)

No Knead Fruit Focaccia

FRUIT on FOCACCIA!? Yes please.

WE ALL KNOW that fruit and cheese work well together don’t we? Well baking that classic combo on top of a fresh focaccia brings that sweet and savouriness together beautifully. Finished with crunchy sea salt and honey this is a MUST to be eaten warm from the oven.

Notes

This recipe makes 4 Focaccias

Difficulty: Easy peasy, though possibly a little sticky

My Kitchen Temperature: 20°C/68°F

Start to finish: 5.5-6 hours

Ingredients

For the dough:

400g Room temperature water

7g Dry Yeast or 12g Fresh Yeast

500g Strong white bread flour

12g Salt

Olive oil

For the topping:

50g Fruit (see description)

50g Cheese (see description)

Runny Honey

Sea Salt Flakes

Rosemary or Thyme

Olive oil

Method

Make your dough

Measure the water into a large mixing bowl, add the yeast and mix to soften. Add the flour and salt and mix everything together into a rough dough. Rest for 30 minutes covered with a cloth.

First Fold

Drizzle some olive oil on your kitchen side and a little on top of the dough. Turn your dough out onto the oil sticky side up, then fold it in on itself 10-12 times working all the way round the dough making a plump ball. Turn it back over, smooth side up and place it back into the bowl. Cover and rest for a further 45 minutes.

Second Fold

Drizzle the table and dough with a little olive oil again, turn out the dough upside down onto the oil and repeat the folds only this time folding 6-8 times. Return to the bowl, smooth side up and rest again covered for 45 minutes.

Dividing and Pre-Shaping

Line two large and flat baking trays with parchment paper.

Turn out your dough onto an oiled surface once again. Use the flat side of your scraper to divide it onto four pieces. Using exactly the same technique as before, fold each piece into a loose ball taking care not to loose the air inside.

Drizzle some oil on your parchment lined trays and place two dough balls onto each spaced well apart. Rest again for 30 minutes.

Dimpling and topping

For each of your four focaccias you’ll need 50g of cheese and 50g of fruit. Here are two of my favourite combos from Sunday Brunch:

Apricot (stoned and wedged) & Feta

Blackberry (whole) and Blue Cheese

Mix your chosen fruit with 1 tbsp of olive oil and some picked thyme or rosemary leaves, break up the cheese into chunks and keep to one side.

Push your fingertips into each piece of dough to create those characteristic dimples and to spread them slightly into ovals. Stud with your fruit and cheese pouring any remaining oil over the top.

Rest your focaccias uncovered for 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Bake

Preheat your oven to 230°C fan/gas mark 9 with two shelves and a deep tray on the bottom. Fill a kettle half with water.

Season each focaccia with sea salt flakes and boil the kettle.

Load your focaccias into the oven, pour the water into the tray below, close the oven door and bake for 18-20 minutes. Keep your eyes peeled, baking on such a high heat may mean you’ll need to swap your focaccias over half way.

Remove your focaccias to a wire rack, drizzle with honey and eat while still warm and crispy.

TIP: It’s a wet one!

This dough has a HIGH water content to make the final bread super light and puffy. To make sure you DON’T stick to it too much during folding, oil the table and your hands well.

Japanese Milk Bread

TANGZHONG is the secret to softness here an it makes SO MUCH SENSE when you think about it…

A Tangzhong is a small mixture of flour and water that has been COOKED before adding to the dough creating a gelatinous mixture that LOCKS in the moisture. This makes the dough light, silky, puffy, bringing a super soft and fine crumb to this milky white bread whilst extending shelf life too. Such a simple tweak with such a MASSIVE impact.

Notes

This recipe makes 2 loaves of milk bread in 2lb loaf tins.

Difficulty: EASY and FUN to shape

My Kitchen Temperature: 20°C/68°F

Start to finish: 5.5-6 hours

Ingredients

For the Tangzhong

75g Water

75g Milk

30g Strong white bread flour

For the Final Dough

Your Tangzhong from above

250g Milk warmed to 25-30C

1 Medium Egg (50g of egg without shell)

15g Dry Yeast or 30g Fresh Yeast

570g Strong White Bread Flour

12g Salt

70g Caster Sugar

60g Soft Unsalted Butter

1 Extra Egg for Egg Wash

Method

For the Tangzhong

Place all ingredients in a small frying pan and wisk together. Place the pan on a medium heat and cook, stirring with a spatula, for 1-2 minutes until thick. Tip out onto a plate and leave to cool for 10 minutes or so at room temperature.

For the final dough

In a large mixing bowl mix together the milk, egg and yeast. Add the flour, sugar, salt and tangzhong and mix with a dough scraper until combined. Dimple in the butter with your finger tips and turn the dough out onto the table. Knead for 10 minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball using a little flour, place it back into the bowl and rest at room temperature for 60-90 minutes to PUFF UP.

Dividing and pre-shaping

Turn your dough out onto a lightly dusted surface. Divide into six equal sized peices, if you want to get them EXACTLY the same size weigh them to around 189g each. Knock the air out of each piece and roll them into tight balls with your palms. Line them up on the table, dust with flour and cover with a cloth.

Allow 20 minutes for your dough balls to rest and relax ready for shaping.

Shaping

Grease two 2lb loaf tins with a little butter.

Using a rolling pin and a little dust if you need to, roll each ball out into a disk around 15cm wide. Fold in the sides and roll flat again turning the disk into a rectangle then, starting from the top, roll up each rectangle like a swiss roll into a plump sausage.

Pinch the seam to stick and place 3 sausages, seam side down, into the bottom of each greased loaf tin. Cover and rest for 90 minutes-2 hours for your loaves to puff up.

Baking

Preheat the oven to 200C fan/gas mark 7 with a shelf in the middle and a deep roasting tray on the bottom shelf. Fill a kettle half with water.

Brush the top of each loaf with beaten egg and boil the kettle.

Load your loaves into the oven, carefully tip the hot water into the tray beneath and bake for 20-25 minutes untill golden.

Remove the bread from the tins and cool on a wire rack.

TIP: Warming Milk

Because of the milk, butter and sugar incuded in this recipe, it can mean that the dough is SLOW to rise. This is one of the RARE occasions that I warm the milk slightly before starting the recipe to give the yeast a booster, and we can get away with it here IF we cover the bowl with another uptruned bowl or some cling fim as it rests (something airtight) to make sure the warm surface doesn’t drying out and form a thick skin.

No Knead Pizza Flat Breads

The TRICKIEST part of making pizza is loading your fully loaded base into the oven on the hot stone.

These pizza flat breads are a nice way to practice WITHOUT all that sauce seeping through. Whether you bake them in a wood fired oven or kitchen oven they are great to freeze and take out as you wish. You can top them like me here with some fresh veggies of your choice, fold in half with a filling inside, or cut to serve with soup or dips. They are super light, low maintenence and so versatile.

Notes

This recipe makes 8 pizza flatties

You’ll need a stone in the oven for baking on or pizza oven outside.

Difficulty: Easy, potentially sticky

My Kitchen Temperature: 20°C/68°F

Start to finish: 3.5-4 hours

IIngredients

360g Room temperature water

12g Fresh yeast or 7g dry yeast

500g Strong white bread flour

8g Salt

Method

Make your dough

Measure the water into a large mixing bowl, add the yeast and mix to soften. Add the flour and salt and mix everything together into a rough dough with a dough scraper. Rest for 30 minutes covered with a cloth.

First Fold

Lightly dust your kitchen side and turn your dough out onto it. Fold the dough in on itself 10-12 times working all the way round the dough making a plump ball. Turn it back over, smooth side up and place it back into the bowl. Cover and rest for a further 40 minutes.

Second Fold

Dust the table again, turn the dough out and fold in exactly the same way only this time 6-8 times. Return to the bowl, smooth side up and rest again covered for 40 minutes.

Dividing and Balling

Turn out your dough onto a dusted surface once again. Use the flat side of your dough scraper to divide it onto eight pieces. Fold and roll each piece into a tight ball and line them up on the table if you have room, or across a couple of baking trays.

Cover with a cloth and rest to puff up for 45-60 minutes.

During this time preheat your baking stone in the oven on MAX heat (mine reached 240C) or fire up your pizza oven

Shaping and Baking

Dust your table really well. Take a ball of dough and dip it both sides in the dust and dimple down lightly with fingertips. Aim to make it a disk around 15-20cm wide. Dimple your fingertips down till you can feel the table but don’t flatten the dough enough to loose all the air.

In batches you are comfortable with, slide your flatties from a wooden peel onto the hot stone for 5-8 minutes or in your pizza oven for 1-2 minutes.

Serve hot, or cool on a wire rack for storing.

Topping

These flat breads make a great base for salads, roasted vegetables, anything you fancy really. Here I have topped mine with a salad of cut tomatoes, raw courgette ribbons and rocket leaves dressed with a little olive oil and lemon juice and seasoned with salt. Then a little torn buratta, fresh chilli, black pepper and sea salt to finish things off.

Freezing

Stack in a freezer bag and freeze for when you need them. A couple of minutes each side under a hot grill from the freezer will be enough to bring them back to life!

TIP: If you find your dough balls spring back and resist your efforts when you are trying to shape them, press them a little, let them rest a little longer (5-10 minutes) and when you return they’ll be a little more forgiving.