A fresh loaf for a fresh, new season

This is a great loaf to get you in the spring mood when you’re fed up of winter and the cold! I made it for my dad’s birthday because he loves light flavours such as lemon and oranges.

It’s a simple recipe but with added honey, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. You need a fair amount of lemon zest in order for the flavour to come through. It’s a lovely and light loaf that would be great toasted with butter.

The recipe as as follows;

400g strong white flour
7g yeast (sachet)
3g salt
10g sugar
1 teaspoon of honey
20g butter
240ml milk
zest of 1 lemon
juice of half a lemon.

Place the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, honey, and butter and lemon zest into a bowl. Gradually add the milk and lemon juice and knead the dough for 10 minutes. The dough will become smooth and elastic.

Leave to rise for 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size. Knock the dough back and then divide the dough into three long strands. This is to make a plaited loaf. Put the three ends together and then plait the strands. To do this, take one of the outside strands and place into the middle. Then do the same to the other outside strand. Keep doing this alternating the sides. At the end stick the three strands together to form one strand.

plaited and ready for the oven!

Leave the bread to prove for 30 minutes and then put in the oven at 220° for 20 minutes. The bread should be golden on top. Sadly my plait came apart slightly at the end so make sure you really secure the ends! Enjoy!

cooked and ready to eat

Happy Pancake Day!

Since it’s been Shrove Tuesday I thought some pancake inspired bread is in order! This bread contains lots of maple syrup and has a brioche like feel to it. It’s very soft because you need to knead it for at least 10 minutes. I thought maple syrup is key to pancakes and it’s a great substitute in cooking for normal sugar. However you need a fair amount of it in order for the flavour to come through.

This bread is soft and reminds me of the thick American pancakes which I love to have on Pancake Day!

The recipes is as follows:
400g strong white flour
5g salt
7g yeast (1 sachet)
270ml milk
25ml maple syrup
20g butter

This makes 2 smaller loaves. I made mine into plaited letters as I made the bread for two of my friends who have birthdays this week.

Place the flour, salt, yeast, maple syrup and butter into a bowl. Add the milk and begin to knead. I kneaded my bread for nearly 15 minutes until it was silky smooth and elastic. Leave to rise for 1 hour until it has doubled in size.

Once it has risen, knock the bread back by kneading it again. Now you could just place the loaf in a tin for a tin loaf, however I divided mine into strands and plaited them together. When plaiting bread, make sure the ends are really stuck together otherwise they may come apart once cooked. You could use a little egg wash in between the ends to secure them but it’s not necessary.

half way through plaiting

maple syrup bread, plaited and ready to go in the oven!

Now leave to prove for 30 minutes and then place in a oven at 220° for 20 minutes. The bread will be golden on top and sound hollow on the bottom. Enjoy!

My ‘J’ bread for my friend james

The Humble and Diverse Pitta

This week I found some fantastically cheap yeast (only 60p!). It inspired me to make some bread but being quite short on time at the moment, I wanted something quick. My thoughts turned to the humble pitta bread.

I’ve forgotten how delicious this bread is and it is so nice to have for snacks as well as lunches. The recipe is fairly quick for bread as well and you don’t need to be too precious with the dough. It makes 6-8 decent sized pitta breads.

The recipe is as follows:
250g strong white flour
7g (sachet) of yeast
3g salt
2tsp olive oil
160ml water

Start by adding the flour, salt, yeast and olive oil together, Gradually add the water to form a soft dough. All you need to do is knead the dough for about 10 minutes until the dough feels silky smooth and spongy.

Leave the dough to double in size in an oiled container. I left mine for about an hour. Then knock the dough back and divide into 6-8 pieces. Use a rolling pin to flatten each piece out into a disc- about the size of an A3 piece of paper.

Then all you need to do is place them in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 200°C until they are golden brown and puffed up. It is that easy!

This recipe is great as it makes a huge patch, which you can then freeze. Pitta bread is such great bread as it is so diverse. I straightaway had a cheese pitta for lunch! They also go great with chilli and stew dishes if you don’t feel like rice or pasta! Happy eating!