Sunday 2 November 2014

White? Not quite!

This weekend have I mostly been... baking. Some digestive biscuits worked well, and so did this bread:
FLAVOUR: my bloomer
I've used Paul Hollywood's recipe to bake a bloomer before, and it's fine and dandy, but now I've modified it to suit my taste and to make it work in the combination microwave ovens I often use. Paul uses only white flour, but I prefer the extra flavour that comes from substituting wholemeal and rye for some of that. If you've seen Paul make bread on TV you'll know he uses cold water and longer proving times. And if you're using a conventional oven you should use his baking times: 20 minutes at 220°C followed by 10 minutes at 200°C.

Ingredients:

  • 250g strong white bread flour
  • 150g strong wholemeal flour
  • 100g rye flour
  • 10g salt
  • 7g instant yeast (the sachets usually hold 7g, but check)
  • 40ml olive oil
  • 320ml cold water

Put the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl (with the salt on one side and the yeast on the other, so that the two don't meet straight away). Add the oil and 240ml (three-quarters) of the water, then get your hands in and mix until you have a wet, sticky ball of dough.

Put a little oil on your clean worktop, spread it out a little, pick up your dough and knead it for 5-10 minutes until it's smooth and elastic. Put it back in the bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave it at room temperature until it has trebled in size. The cold water means this will happen in hours and not minutes, but the resulting bread will be tastier.

Slashes


Punch the dough down, fold and flatten it until all the air is expelled, then roll or flatten it to make a rectangle. Fold each end to the middle, roll (like a Swiss roll) and lightly tuck the ends under before placing the dough on a lightly greased or parchment-lined tray, loosely covered in clingfilm. Leave for an hour or two to double in size.

Preheat the oven to 220ºC with a baking tray or dish of water in the bottom (to help develop the crust), and while you're waiting remove the clingfilm, lightly spray the dough with water and put three or four slashes in the top with a sharp knife or razor blade. Dust with flour.

Place the dough in the hot oven, leave for 20 minutes and then lower the temperature to 200ºC. Bake for another 15 minutes, remove and cool on a rack.

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