Whoa There !

Every now and then I surprise myself. Yesterday was such an occasion as I got off my lazy bum and made a bit of food for the freezer. Not for the freezer as such but for us, to eat at a later stage and to make dinnertime prep easier for when I am busy doing other things.

Like sitting on my bum.

Bert has recently bought a pizza oven via t'internet (I really should keep him away from the 3 w's). It works with wood pellets. Which is great because we have them hanging around the house, seeing we normally use them as cat litter. As you do.

Anyway, I decided to make a head start with the dough. Just in case there will be a day somewhere in the future, without wind or rain, when he lights the pizza oven.

I made two batches of dough and divided each into 6 balls.

I wrapped them individually and placed them in the freezer.

 Last week I also organised two of our three freezers, by the way.

I still had massive beetroots from my friend Sophie which I had stored in the fridge.

They had a good roasting in the oven while I was busy doing other things. I saw this recipe on line for beetroot ravioli and thought if I portion off the right quantity of roasted beets, they can be frozen too.

The oven was hot from roasting the beets and I made use of that by chucking in two loaves of bread.

With the kitchen a mess, I thought, "what the heck! I'll make shortcrust pastry too"

Six portions went into the, yes, freezer and I made one pastry case for a quiche for today and one beetroot, goats cheese and smoked salmon tart for last night's dinner.

Layer sliced goats cheese, roasted beetroot and red onions sauteed with balsamico.

In a hot oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Add fresh goats cheese blobs and return to oven for 5 more minutes. Leave to cool for 10. drape with smoked salmon and drizzle with reduced balsamico. Sprinkle with black pepper. I just wish I had rocket to set it off a bit better, flavour wise and for photographic purposes.

The pastry was yummy. There is a reason why this is usually served as a small portion for a starter. It's rich !

Patricia xxx...x

Blue Cheese and Nut Bread

Ingredients

• 1 kg plain flour
• 2 tbsp provençale herb mix
• 30 gr instant yeast
• 200 gr mixed nuts or a single kind of your choice - I used hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts
• 75 gr soft butter
• 2 tbsp liquid honey
• 20 gr salt
• 500 ml milk
• 200 ml water
• 175 gr blue cheese

Method 

Note : I only add the walnuts near the end as they can give off a very bitter aftertaste when they get mixed in at the start.

• In the bowl of your mixer, put the flour, yeast and mixed herbs
• Mix them well with a spoon
• Add the softened butter, honey and salt

• And the nuts (except the walnuts) and the milk

• Start the kneading process and add as much water as necessary to get a supple dough. I do this in stages, as sometimes the flour absorbs more liquid than other times.
• Knead for about 8 minutes on a low-ish setting

• Leave the dough to rise until doubled in size.

• When it has sufficiently risen, you will see the texture has lots of air bubbles, like in the picture below

• Divide the dough as you see fit onto a floured surface. I had one large tin and two small ones.
• Gently press the dough out so that you have a flat surface. 
• Sprinkle the walnuts over it and the crumbled cheese

• Lift up one of the edges of the dough and start rolling it up on itself, enclosing the cheese and walnuts as you go.

                                                   

• You should end up with a loaf shape like below. Tuck the ends in to prevent too much cheese escaping.

• Put them in the bread tins seam side down. Dampen the loafs with some water and make some cuts diagonally with a knife.

• Leave to proof for 30 minutes, while you preheat the oven to 210°C (fan assisted) 
• Bake the bread for about 45 minutes. The bread should sound hollow when you tap it from the bottom (you'll have to take it out of the tin before doing that, obviously)
• Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Never mind the holes. You can always stuff them with butter ;-) The cheese hasn't gone anywhere. It has just seeped into the rest of the bread.

Will you be having pumpkin soup this weekend ? This bread makes an excellent accompaniment. It also goes well with Celeriac Soup

Enjoy a Freaky Halloween Weekend.
Patricia xxx...x

Multi-Seed Bread

Bread making is something I've been doing for over 20 years. I've made many different types of bread and in numerous shapes and sizes. I don't get started unless I can bake a batch to be stored in the freezer.

My trusty little helper here is my Kenwood mixer.

One of our staple loaves is the multi seed bread and I thought it was about time to share a bread recipe here.

I am not a person that measures off all ingredients usually. I kind of did for once so I could write it down for anyone who might be interested. The bit that shocked me was the amount of instant yeast I normally use. Eek! I take 3 scoops, like I always do, and weighed it on the kitchen scales. 30 grams.
That seems like an awful lot, but I wasn't going to pull the wool over your eyes by telling you I use less than that amount. So here goes.

Ingredients

• 700 gr plain flour
• 300 gr coarse wholewheat flour
• 30 gr dried instant yeast
• sesame seeds, 2 heaped tbsp
• flax seeds, 2 heaped tbsp
• poppy seeds, 1 heaped tbsp
• sunflower seeds, 3 heaped tbsp
• 20 gr salt
• 20 gr sugar
• sunflower oil, 3 tbsp
• 600 ml tepid water (could be more, could be less - that depends on the moisture content of the flour)
• pumpkin seeds, 2 heaped tbsp

Preparation

• In the bowl of your mixer, spoon the flour and yeast together.

• Add the sesame, flax, poppy and sunflower seeds and mix them into the flour.

• Next add the sugar, salt, sunflower oil and a little water (this to prevent a dust cloud covering your kitchen worktop)
• Start the mixer and gradually, add more water. Do this on a low setting.

• I usually add water in stages as sometimes the flour absorbs more liquid than other times.

• The Kenwood does its work on a low speed for about 5 minutes.

• By this time the dough should be a homogeneous ball. When you pull off a piece, it should feel supple and elastic. 
• This is the stage where I add the pumpkin seeds. If you add them in at the beginning they tend to colour the bread slightly green which I find  unappetising, plus they break down too much.

• And back to the kneading for another 5 minutes.
• The dough shouldn't feel too dry, as mine did. You can always add another splash of water and knead a little longer.
• Shape the dough into a ball and let it rest in a bowl covered with a clean towel or clingfilm.

• Leave it to rise to double the size.

• Preheat the oven to 210 C fan.
• On a floured surface tip out the dough and divide it into 2.
• Press slightly out and roll the dough into a loaf shape.

• Put them in lined bread tins.

• And leave to rise for another half hour.

• Cut with a knife diagonal lines into the loaves and brush with water.
• Bake for about 45 minutes. You can check if it is ready when you take the bread out of the tin and tap it on the bottom. It sounds hollow if it is ready.

• Leave to cool on a wire rack.

And there you have it. My multi-seed bread.

Enjoy the weekend !

Patricia xxx...x

Bread, Homemade in Pictures

A little bird told me, that today it is Bread Day. National (as in Belgium) or international, I know not, but I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of bread that I made over the years. 

Rolls and Buns

Bunny Buns, brioche style

Baguette

And just our day to day loaves

The little bird is Bart Aertgeerts. He is about to open an artisane bakery in Koningshooikt (Belgium).

If he ever gets his website up and running, I'll gladly add a link.

Patricia xxx...x