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SOURDOUGH RAVIOLI WITH RICOTTA AND FORAGED HERBS

16/5/2020

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During the Spring and early Summer, there are so many wild herbs to be foraged from the hedgerows or our own gardens. I've made this pasta time and time again, varying the mix of greens I've used each time. I often add sorrel from the garden for its citrusy bite, but I will literally use anything green and leafy, including foraged nettle tips, wild garlic or fat hen. Later in the year, you can raid your vegetable patch for the tenderest tips of spinach, kale or rocket, and throw in some favourite leafy herbs.

Click here to watch the video tutorial, or read below!
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(Makes 25-30 medium ravioli)
 
1 batch sourdough pasta dough
(see our sourdough pasta recipe here)
 
For the filling:
Fresh ricotta                   500g
Fresh greens/herbs      100g (approx.)
Pecorino, grated           20g
½ nutmeg, grated
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
 
For the sage butter:
About 24 sage leaves
Butter  (1/2 pack)         125g
 
 
Prepare your filling whilst your dough is resting:
 
Take 500g of ricotta and place in a heavy bottomed, wide pan over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. About ¼ of the overall weight will evaporate during this process, leaving it resembling a soft cottage cheese. Remove from heat, stir in the grated pecorino (or other hard Italian cheese) and season with a good pinch of sea salt, some freshly ground black pepper and about half a freshly grated nutmeg. Taste a little to check seasoning before adding your chopped greens and herbs. Any soft leaved greens/herbs may be used: spinach, wild garlic, sorrel, young nettle tips etc. Whatever you can forage safely from the hedgerows or your own gardens (or fridges!).
Roll out your sourdough pasta, either by hand or machine until it is nice and thin. If using a machine, roll a quarter piece at a time and keep passing through until you are on the thinnest or near thinnest setting. If rolling by hand, roll it as thin as you can reasonably can, trying to keep the thickness even and then divide into 4 long equal-sized strips.
 
Now place a small spoonful (the size of a small walnut) of your filling in a row along your 2 of your pasta sheets, allowing room for each raviolo to be cut out. Using your finger, or a small brush, dampen the area in a square around each mound of filling. This will make the ‘lid’ stick as you carefully place the other 2 sheets over the top of the 2 filled sheets.
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Now, carefully cup your hands around each ravioli mound, sealing each individual one, trying to avoid trapping any air inside. When you have finished, it is time to cut the ravioli out. You can use a square ravioli cutter, a pastry/pasta roller, or simply a knife. If using the latter, make sure you crimp and seal the edges of each one with a fork.
 
If you are not cooking your ravioli straight away, coat in a little semolina or rice flour (not ordinary flour) to prevent sticking together. Place on a tray and cover until needed (in the fridge, if necessary).
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Just before you are ready to eat, prepare the sage butter: Put half a pack of butter in a heavy bottomed pan and place over a medium heat. Let the butter melt, then throw in a dozen or so whole sage leaves. Allow them to crisp but not burn in the butter. Remove and place on a paper towel as they crisp, then turn up the heat a little and watch as your butter first bubbles, then finally foams and becomes glorious-smelling browned butter. Throw in the rest of chopped sage at the last and take off the heat and allow the chopped sage to steep in the hot butter as you bring your largest pot of water to the boil.
 
Now it’s time to cook the pasta. Add salt to the pan, bring to a rolling boil, then place the ravioli in the pan and cook for approx. 3 mins until tender and ‘al dente’. Depending upon the size of your pan, you may need to cook in 2 or 3 batches, but this shouldn’t matter as they are so quick to cook.
 
Drain the cooked pasta well, pour over the sage brown butter and garnish with some of the whole, crispy sage leaves. Serve with a simple dressed green salad of garden leaves and enjoy!
 
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sourdough pasta recipe

16/5/2020

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Pasta is a simple flour and liquid (either egg or water) mixture that is kneaded into a stiff dough – an ideal way to use up starter that is a few days old, rather than discarding before you next refresh. This recipe uses liquid starter. If you are keeping a stiff starter, simply adjust the quantities to accommodate (about 15g less flour and add 15g water). If you are making vegan pasta, replace the egg with 100-110g of water.
 
You can make pasta with fine semolina (from the Southern Italian hard or ‘durum’ wheat) or with fine pasta grade ‘00’ flour. I often make mine with a mix of the two.

Watch our video tutorial on Youtube here or read below.

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Basic sourdough pasta dough
(Makes about 450g)
 
Ingredients:
‘00’ flour                 100g
Semolina                150g
Liquid starter         100g

Medium eggs         2
Dash of olive oil
 
Method:
Mix the semolina and ‘00’ flour in a large bowl. Traditionally, a ‘well’ is made in the middle of the flour into which you can add your liquid starter and eggs. Using a regular knife, dough scraper or simply two fingers, start to mix the dough from the centre, incorporating more of the flour as you stir until you have a stiff dough and all the flour has been absorbed. Add a dash of olive oil and knead in before turning your dough out onto a clean surface. Knead for five or so minutes until you have a smooth and elastic dough. Wrap in cling film and rest for 30 minutes or so.
 
Once rested, dust your counter with semolina before rolling your dough. You can pass through your pasta machine or roll out using a rolling pin. If using a pasta machine, divide into 4 pieces, keeping those you are not yet using wrapped. Pass the first piece through the machine on its thickest setting. Fold the resulting long strip of dough into thirds over itself, turn through 90 degrees and pass through the machine again. You should have a smooth homogeneous strip that you can pass through the machine at successive thicknesses until the desired thickness is reached (usually the thinnest or one above the thinnest setting). Repeat for the 3 other pieces of dough.
 
You will end up with 4 long strips of dough that can be passed through the shaper on your machine to make fettucine, tagliatelle etc. Or you can hand cut as desired. Place the cut and shaped pasta in a bed of semolina or rice flour and give it a fine coating to prevent sticking – if you use regular flour, it will be absorbed and your pasta will stick to itself.  If rolling by hand, try and keep an even thickness throughout – you may find it easier to divide your dough into smaller pieces before rolling, until you are more practiced at this.
 
Depending upon the final pasta shape you have chosen, you can hang your pasta or leave on semolina-coated trays, covered with a cloth, ready for when you want to cook. When ready to cook, bring water to boil in your largest pan (which allow the pasta plenty of space to remain separate and the temperature of such a big pot won’t drop so significantly when you add the pasta), throw in some salt and cook for 3-4 minutes only. A simple sauce with oil or butter, will allow you to appreciate the delicious, fresh pasta to the full. Why not try infusing 1 ½ tablespoons of oil per serving with some sliced garlic and some chilli flakes and toss through the drained pasta. Finish with some coarse sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a scattering of fresh pecorino. Simple and delicious
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EZVID Wiki - 5 resources for learning to make bread

5/5/2020

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Thank you very much to video-wiki site 'EZVID' for including us in their post on '5 resources for learning to make bread' - you can find the post here!
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Grape and carrot loaf cake

25/4/2020

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You'll know by now how much I hate waste! I spend a lot of time developing recipes to use up those ingredients that got overlooked for just a little too long and are seemingly past their best.

This always happens to grapes in our household. The bunches are attacked when they are plump, luscious and firm. But after a while, they wither and people start to avoid them in the fruit bowl. Past their best, they are overlooked and, invariably, find their way into the compost or bin! It's time to see these wrinkly old grapes for what they are: young raisins! Too moist still to be substituted for raisins without further dehydration, but perfect for a wet batter mix such as carrot cake!

Et voila! Our grape and carrot loaf cake! A delicious variation of an old favourite: sweet, moist and beautifully textured with seeds and nuts, and complemented by a tangy sour cream frosting.

It's an easy all-in-one-bowl batter method. Just take your time preparing all your ingredients before you start, turn your oven on and away you go...


Grape and carrot loaf
(makes 1 large loaf cake)
 
For the batter:
Self raising flour         200g
Vegetable oil               170ml
Grated carrots            200g
‘Old’ black grapes       80g
Pecans                         50g
Pumpkin seeds           30g
Sultanas                      50g
Granulated sugar       90g
Brown sugar               90g
Medium eggs              3
Vanilla extract            1 tsp 
Fine sea salt                ½ tsp
Cinnamon*                1 tsp
Cardamom*              1 tsp
Zest of 1 orange
Freshly grated nutmeg
*(if you don’t have individual spices, substitute with 2 tsp mixed spice overall)
 
For the sour cream frosting:
Unsalted butter, softened        150g
Icing sugar, sifted                     300g
Sour cream or crème fraiche  100g
 
 
Method
 
Preheat your oven to 160°C (140°C Fan)/320°F
 
Firstly sift together your SR flour, spices and salt.
Now, place your oil, sugars and eggs together in a mixing bowl and beat together. Stir in your vanilla extract and grated carrots. Depending on the size of your grapes and how wrinkled they have become, either half or quarter them and add to your bowl. Now throw in your nuts, seeds, orange zest and sultanas and combine. Mix the final batter by gradually stirring in your flour/spice mix. Don’t over beat your batter at this stage (you will develop gluten which will make your cake rubbery); the flour just needs to be evenly incorporated. Pour your batter into a greased and lined tin – I like to use a large loaf tin for this cake.
 
Place your cake into the preheated oven. The wet batter mix is going to need long, slow baking at a cooler than usual temperature - approximately 90 mins at 160°C. Check the cake after 80-85 minutes. The cake will appear ‘set’ if gently jiggled, will have shrunk away from the sides and a skewer will come out clean. However, it is far easier to use a digital probe thermometer, which takes the guess work out of baking and avoids the disappointment of a soggy middle or bottom. The cake will be ideally cooked in the range of 96°C - 98°C. At 100°C, the moisture in the cake will begin to evaporate, leaving your cake dry and overcooked.
 
When cooked, leave to cool for twenty minutes or so in the tin and then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
 
 
To prepare the frosting:
 
Make sure your butter is very soft before attempting to mix your icing. Use the butter softening mode on your microwave, if necessary. Then, to the softened butter add your sifted icing sugar and gently blend in. Once incorporated, you can beat your buttercream until light and airy, then beat in your sour cream or crème fraiche. The slight acidity of the cream cuts through the sweetness giving a wonderfully tart edge to your frosting.
 
When the cake is completely cool, frost and decorate your cake with pecans, orange zest or edible flowers.  
 
Store somewhere cool - remember the frosting contains fresh dairy.
 
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COUNTRY WHITE SOURDOUGH RECIPE

7/4/2020

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So you've made your starter, and you're rightly proud of this bubbling, fermenting pot of life that you've grown and nurtured. Here is our basic country sourdough recipe. This uses a kneading method. Some days, it just helps to bash out your frustrations on an inanimate lump of dough! Remember, this is sloooooowwww dough. All good things are worth the wait!

Country White Sourdough

(makes 1 medium loaf)
 
Plan ahead. Sourdough will always be at least 2 days in the making. Feed your starter about 8 hours (overnight is perfect) before you are ready to make your sourdough, so that it is lively and active before you begin.
 
300g strong white flour
80g wholemeal flour
120g active starter (liquid, 100% hydration)
250g water
8g fine sea salt
 
Measure your dry ingredients into a large bowl. Place your starter and water in a separate bowl and mix roughly together. Now pour these into the dry ingredients. Mix with your scraper until all the ingredients are combined and a rough dough has formed. Turn out onto your clean work surface and knead for 15-20 minutes until you have an elastic dough which doesn’t stick to your fingers or to the work surface. Alternatively, place in your mixer with the dough hook attachment and mix on medium for about 7 minutes until the dough comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl. Form the dough into a ball and place back into your lightly floured bowl. Cover with a large plastic bag or a baking cloth and leave to prove.
 
After 30 minutes, fold and stretch your dough: using your scraper, turn the dough carefully out onto a lightly floured surface – with the ‘top’ of the dough now underneath. Taking the 4 points of the compass in turn, pull the dough gently to one side then bring over to the middle point of your dough (as if you were making a paper windmill). When all 4 ‘corners’ have been brought into the middle, turn your dough back over and place back in the bowl, so that the top of the dough remains uppermost. Repeat folding action every half an hour. This is the ‘bulk proof’ stage and should take 3 or more hours. Stretch and fold your dough about 6 times during this stage. Each time you will be building the strength of your dough and improving the final loaf.
 
After 3-4 hours (depending upon ambient temperature) you are ready to shape your dough. Don’t expect it to have doubled in size like a yeasted dough. It will not need de-gassing. Using the round side of your scraper, carefully tip out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, so that the ‘top’ of the dough is now lying underneath on your floured countertop.  Shape your loaf by stretching the edge of the dough and bringing onto the middle, like when stretching and folding your dough during the first prove. Go around the entire circle of dough, then flip and place it seem side down on your counter, ensuring there is no flour underneath the seam.
 
Now you can ‘tighten’ your ball by dragging it towards you and allowing the friction of the counter to resist the movement. This should cause the ‘skin’ of your ball of dough to tighten a little. Adjust and do the same in a few different directions around your ball. Do not over-tighten. A few little stretches are all it takes. You don’t want to tear the skin that is containing your dough under tension.  When you have a tight ball, place seam side up into a pre-floured proving basket – wholemeal flour works best here, as the bran prevents sticking (do not use rye flour). However, a well-shaped loaf will not stick in your banneton. It is essential that you pay attention to the tightening of the dough at this stage. If your loaf collapses when you tip it out, ready to bake, it could well be you have not tightened sufficiently before placing in the basket. If you have no proving basket, flour a good quality linen cloth well, placed inside a round 1litre bowl (eg Pyrex bowl). This prevents your dough relaxing into a puddle whilst it proves for a second time.
 
Cover with a loose-fitting plastic bag or baking cloth for about 3-5 hours (depending upon ambient temperature) until the dough appears ready. At this stage, the dough will bounce slowly back when pressed gently with a floured finger. If it bounces rapidly back, it needs a little longer. If the indentation remains, you have over-proved your dough. Alternatively, you can place the dough in the fridge when it appears to be nearly ready, say after 3-4 hours, and leave overnight.
 
When the loaves are ready to bake, turn them out onto a lightly dusted peel. Be gentle with your loaves at this stage. Slash the loaves at an oblique angle of about 30 degrees, to allow extra expansion in the oven. Place in a very hot oven, pre-heated to 240°C. As you place the loaves in the oven, spray the walls, ceiling and floor of your oven with water, avoiding the loaves themselves.  Now turn down your oven down to 220 °C and bake for 35-45 minutes for the larger, until golden or dark brown, according to preference.  Alternatively, bake inside a pre-heated Dutch oven or cast iron casserole dish – the lid will keep in all the steam that is released by the dough during the first 15 mins, after which you can remove the lid and continue to bake and crust over. To check reliably whether your bread is baked, place a probe thermometer into the centre. A loaf will be reliably baked when the thermometer reads 95°C or more.
 
 
Notes on refreshing your starters:
 
Wheat starter: Wheat starters can be kept in a liquid state (usually 100% hydration) or a stiff state (usually 50% hydration). This recipe uses a liquid starter. To refresh your liquid starter, take 100g of starter (discarding or using the rest) and add 100g water and 100g of flour, ie equal parts flour and water. If using a new recipe, always check whether a stiff or liquid starter is required and adjust your overall water/flour quantities in the recipe, if necessary. Leave the refreshed starter at a warm room temperature for 8-12 hours before using. If it is not required straight away, simply place in the fridge after a few hours. Your starter will keep refrigerated for a couple of weeks (and can even be dehydrated or frozen!), but it is best to refresh it every 7 days even if not being used.

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Pane Pugliese (Semolina bread)

1/4/2020

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Pane Pugliese
(makes 1 large loaf)
 
Although many of my recipes are inspired by the Tuscany region, this recipe is a Southern Italian treasure from the Puglia region. Pane Pugliese is made with either all or the greater part hard durum wheat – fine semolina or ‘semola rimacinata di grano duro’. The finest example of this is Pane di Altamura, now granted PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status. The loaf is a beautiful pale gold in colour and has the characteristic crumb and crunchy crust of a semolina bread. It is utterly delicious and well worth a try.

If you wish, you can use all semolina for this recipe. Simply replace the bread flour in the biga and dough with more semolina.
 
 
Ingredients
 
Overnight biga:
Strong bread flour        100g
Tepid water                   100g
Fresh yeast                        2g
 
For the dough:
Strong bread flour        100g
Fine durum semolina   400g
Tepid water                   300g
Biga, from above          200g
Fresh Yeast                      10g (or 5g instant dried yeast)*
Sea salt                            10g
*if you intend to prove overnight in the fridge, reduce the amount of yeast to about half.
 
 
Method
 
The night before, mix together the ingredients for the biga and leave, covered, overnight at ambient room temperature.
 
Make the dough by combining the above ingredients and knead for 10-15 minutes until you have a smooth elastic dough. Leave, covered, in an oiled bowl for 30 mins, after which you can stretch and fold your dough. Cover once more and leave for a further 30 minutes.
 
When your dough has significantly increased in size, after this first prove of about 1 hour, tip it out onto a lightly floured surface and shape tightly into a ball. Place into a floured banneton, cover and leave to prove again for 1 – 1½ hours, depending on ambient temperature. Alternatively, place in the fridge and allow to prove slowly overnight*.
 
Pre-heat the oven to 240°C.
 
When your loaf is ready, slash the top with a sharp knife or baker’s lame and either slide from a peel onto a hot baking stone, or bake inside a preheated cast iron pot. Turn oven down to 220°C and bake for 45-50 minutes. If baking in a cast iron pot, remove the lid after 15 minutes to allow the loaf to develop a golden crust. The loaf will be baked when the crumb reaches 95°C.
 
Leave to cool on a cooling rack.

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RHUBARB & BLOOD ORANGE FRANGIPANE TART

30/3/2020

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Rhubarb is seasonal and abundant. Here we've coupled it with the last of the Spanish blood oranges, but any orange will do!

Ingredients:

For the sweetcrust
75g icing sugar
125g butter
1 medium egg
250g plain flour

For the filling
4-5 sticks of rhubarb
250g sugar
250g water
1 orange (or blood orange)


For the frangipane
150g caster sugar
150g butter
3 medium eggs
150g ground almonds
30g plain flour


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Method:
This recipe involves making 3 elements - the sweetcrust, the filling and the frangipane - separately, and assembling together at the end.

For the sweetcrust:
  • Beat 75g sifted icing sugar together with half a pack (125g) of softened butter.
  • Beat in 1 medium egg - about 50-55g worth. If you only have large eggs, remove a little of the white.
  • Now fold in 250g of plain flour, using your hands when it becomes easier and handling as lightly as possible.
  • Form into a dough, wrap and rest in fridge for 30 min before rolling and lining a well-greased flan tin. Reserve scraps for patching.
  • Prick the base all over and chill again before baking blind at 180C. Bake it blind, so you have a cooled, baked case to fill.

For the filling:
  • Cut 4-5 sticks of rhubarb into 5cm chunks and cook in a syrup of 250g sugar in 250g water for about 5 mins.
  • Allow to cool in syrup, then remove and reserve syrup.
  • Now slice an orange into thinnish slices (about the thickness of a pound coin) and cook in the reserved rhubarb syrup until tender. Reserve a few of the orange pieces and some of the rhubarb pieces to decorate the top of your tart!
  • Place the rest of the cooked rhubarb in with the leftover oranges in syrup and cook down until you have a jammy compote. Leave to cool. This will be used to cover the base of your tart.

For the frangipane:
  • Now make your frangipane. I make mine with ground almonds, but feel free to sub with other nut flour, such as hazelnut. 
  • Beat 150g softened butter (preferably unsalted) together with 150g caster sugar.
  • Mix in 3 medium eggs (about 150g, if you only have large eggs to hand).
  • Stir in 150g ground almonds and about 30g plain flour. Essentially, this is a classic sponge mixture with almond flour instead of regular flour.

Now you're ready to assemble! 
  • Cover the base of your cooled baked tart shell with the rhubarb and orange compote, then top with the frangipane.
  • Take your reserved few pieces of cooked rhubarb and cut into thin strips, ready to decorate the top of the frangipane with the cooked orange slices.
  • Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.
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PORRIDGE BREAD

29/3/2020

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​Porridge bread  (Makes 1 large loaf, 2 small or about 8 rolls)

For the porridge*:
80g              porridge oats
220g            boiling water
*alternatively, use 300g leftover porridge
 
For the dough:
300g            above porridge
330g            strong bread flour
180g            tepid water
10g              fresh yeast (or 5g instant dried yeast)
8g                fine sea salt
 
 
Method:

First, pour over the boiling water over your oats, mix and set to one side to cool. Alternatively, use any leftover porridge you may have.
 
When cool, place with the tepid water in a bowl or mixer. Add the flour, salt and yeast, ensuring the yeast is kept separate from the salt, at least initially. Mix with your scraper until all ingredients are combined and a rough dough has formed. Turn out onto your work surface and knead for 15 minutes or so, until you have an elastic dough which doesn’t stick to the work surface or your fingers. Alternatively, knead in your mixer, using the dough hook attachment for approximately half the time. Form the dough into a ball and place back into your lightly floured bowl. Cover with a large plastic bag or a baking cloth and leave to rest for about an hour.
 
Now it’s time to fold and stretch your dough: using your scraper, turn the dough carefully out onto a lightly floured surface – with the ‘top’ of the dough now underneath. Taking the 4 points of the compass in turn, pull the dough gently outwards then bring over to the middle point of your dough (as if you were making a paper windmill). When all 4 ‘corners’ have been brought into the middle, turn your dough back over and place back in the bowl, so that the ‘top’ of the dough remains uppermost. Rest, covered, for a further 15-20 minutes so the dough can relax again.
 
Now, you are ready to shape your dough ready to place into a tin, a proving basket or into rolls. Carefully tip out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Turn the dough back over so that the ‘top’ of the dough is now uppermost. Divide into portions for rolls or loaves, then shape into a smooth ball, or oval if baking in a tin
 
If shaping your dough in an oval to fit a tin, remember to grease your tin before placing the shaped dough inside, with the seam concealed neatly underneath.
 
Cover your loaf/loaves/rolls whilst they prove for a second time for about an hour until they appear nicely ‘bloated’ and are approximately double in size.
 
Preheat your oven to 240°C.
 
When the dough is ready (slowly springing back when you prod gently with a floury finger), place into your hot oven. Spray around the floor and walls of the oven to create steam then quickly close the oven. Turn down the oven to 220°C and bake until golden brown on top and bottom. Rolls will take 12-15 minutes, a small loaf will take about 25-35 minutes and a large loaf, 40-45 minutes. If you have a probe thermometer, the bread is cooked when the centre of the loaf reaches 95°C.

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Tuscan Schiacciata (flatbread)

29/3/2020

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 Schiaciatta – literally ‘squashed’ or ‘flattened’ – is a Tuscan version the popular Italian flatbread focaccia. Their shape and size can vary, much like pizzas, but they are generally thin, resembling giant crackers in some cases. To stretch so thin the dough must be very well rested, so this dough should be made well ahead of time and can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days. I like mine to have a varied thickness rather than uniform, so I prefer to hand stretch, leaving some parts very thin and crispy and others with a bit more of a chew. Like focaccia, you can top with a variety of different toppings, but going with the classic olive oil, scattered herbs and flaky sea salt is never a disappointment. This recipe is also perfect for when figs are in season, but substitute for whatever you have to hand. Black grapes make a delicious alternative.
 
Schiacciata (makes 1 large tray, approx. 40cm x 30cm)
 
Ingredients
For the dough:
360g 00 flour (or half plain, half bread flour)
50g wholemeal flour
6g fresh yeast (or substitute 3g dried instant yeast)
260g tepid water
40g oil
7g salt

 
Suggested toppings:
A few tablespoons of olive oil
A scattering of flaky sea salt
A few sprigs of rosemary
 
 
Method
 
Mix and knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes until strong and elastic. Leave covered for 30 minutes in an oiled bowl. After it has rested, stretch and fold the dough and return to the bowl. Repeat after another 30 minutes then place, covered, in the fridge for up to 5 days. If you want to use the same day, simply make in the morning to use in the evening.
 
Two or three hours before you wish to use the dough (less, if a very hot day) remove from the fridge.

​Preheat your oven to 240°C.
 
Prepare a shallow tray, preferably the largest baking tray you have that fits your oven, by smothering in olive oil. Now place your dough, with the top side uppermost, onto your tray. Use the weight of the dough to gently stretch the dough to fit your tray. Encourage the dough to stretch from underneath, rather than ‘pushing’ the top of the dough, which risks tearing it. Concentrate on thinning particularly thick areas, but don’t get too hung up on uniformity. The wafer-thin parts will be delightfully crispy, the thicker parts more like pizza. If struggling to fit the area, cover and leave to rest in the tray for a few minutes. When you return, the dough will have relaxed and be more than ready to stretch further.
 
When stretched, cover the dough and leave for a further 15-20 mins, unless it is a particularly warm day and it looks as if it is ready to go.
 
Just before baking, scatter the rosemary, drizzle generously with olive oil and top with flaky sea salt. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 220°C. Bake for 20-25 mins until crisp and golden.
 
When baked, remove from oven onto a rack. Enjoy while warm.

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Potato Bread

29/3/2020

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Potato Bread  (Makes 1 large loaf, 2 small or about 8 rolls)

For the potato:

300g           potatoes (peeled weight)
280g           water
 
For the dough:
300g            above cooked potato, riced or mashed
350g            strong bread flour
180g            above potato water
6g                fresh yeast (or 3g instant dried yeast)
8g                fine sea salt
 

Method

First cut your peeled potatoes into rough chunks, about 2cm cubes. Place in a pan with about 280ml of water and bring to the boil. Boil for about 15 minutes until just tender but not falling apart. Drain and reserve the potato water. This starchy liquid will be used to make your dough beautifully soft. When cool, either mash your potatoes or place through a potato ricer.
 
Now place your potato and starchy water in a bowl or mixer. Add the flour, salt and yeast, ensuring the yeast is kept separate from the salt, at least initially. Mix with your scraper until all ingredients are combined and a rough dough has formed. Turn out onto your work surface and knead for 15 minutes or so, until you have an elastic dough which doesn’t stick to the work surface or your fingers. Alternatively, knead in your mixer, using the dough hook attachment for approximately half the time. Form the dough into a ball and place back into your lightly floured bowl. Cover with a large plastic bag or a baking cloth and leave to rest for 30-40 mins.
 
Now it’s time to fold and stretch your dough: using your scraper, turn the dough carefully out onto a lightly floured surface – with the ‘top’ of the dough now underneath. Taking the 4 points of the compass in turn, pull the dough gently outwards then bring over to the middle point of your dough (as if you were making a paper windmill). When all 4 ‘corners’ have been brought into the middle, turn your dough back over and place back in the bowl, so that the ‘top’ of the dough remains uppermost. Rest, covered, for a further 20-30 minutes so the dough can relax again.
 
Now, you are ready to shape your dough ready to place into a tin, a proving basket or into rolls. Carefully tip out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Turn the dough back over so that the ‘top’ of the dough is now uppermost. Divide into portions for rolls or loaves, then shape into a smooth ball, or oval if baking in a tin. Be gentle with this dough and don’t be too worried about tightening your chosen shapes, as this soft, tender dough is easy to tear. Feel your way and be guided by your dough.
 
If shaping your dough in an oval to fit a tin, remember to grease your tin before placing the shaped dough inside, with the seam concealed neatly underneath.
 
 
Cover your loaf/loaves/rolls whilst they prove for a second time for 45-60 minutes until they appear nicely ‘bloated’ and are approximately double in size.
 
Preheat your oven to 240°C.
 
When the dough is ready (slowly springing back when you prod gently with a floury finger), place into your hot oven. Spray around the floor and walls of the oven to create steam then quickly close the oven. Turn down the oven to 220°C and bake until golden brown on top and bottom. Rolls will take 12-15 minutes, a small loaf will take about 25-35 minutes and a large loaf, 40-45 minutes. If you have a probe thermometer, the bread is cooked when the centre of the loaf reaches 95°C.
 
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    Our workshops are run by award-winning sourdough baker Helen Underwood.

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