Delicious and Quick Rye Crackers

Today I thought I would have another go at crackers, this time using rye flour. I love rye as it has such an individual flavour and so you don’t need to add much seasoning for rye to taste great!

The problem is rye bread (see my previous blog) does take some time to make and so these crackers are a great sped up substitute if your in need of that delicious rye taste fast. They’re very easy to do and this recipe can make up to 40 crackers depending on what shape you choose to use.

The recipe is as follows:

250g rye flour

½ tsp salt

1 and a 1/2 tsps. Honey

150ml water

To start, simply combine the ingredients together and knead the mixture into a smooth dough. This will take about 5 minutes. Don’t be tempted to add in more water, all the flour does eventually combine together!

Place the dough in the fridge for an hour and pre heat an oven at 180°C. Once the dough has been refrigerated roll out to the thinnest you can get it without it tearing. This is hard but it does get there eventually. Now cut out into whatever shapes you want; I used triangles and a rounded cutter. Place the shapes on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until they have slightly changed colour. Leave them to cool and harden on a wire rack and then enjoy!

A summertime ficelle

A ficelle is a French mini baguette effectively. The word literally means ‘string’ in French. They’re delicious just out of the oven and like proper baguettes go off very quickly!

I have just come home for the summer and all I can think about is my up coming holiday to France so I thought I’d make some ficelles to get me in the mood for my holiday! They go great with soups and salads but are also lovely covered in butter. Don’t worry they’re much easier to make than baguettes because they are smaller and so are easier to handle. This recipe makes about 8 ficelles.

The recipe is as follows:

200g strong white flour

50g wholemeal flour

5g salt

5g yeast

230ml water

1 tsp olive oil

Some semolina and dried thyme for dusting.

Start by placing the flours, salt and yeast in a bowl. Add the oil and the water. Mix the ingredients together to form a dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Then place in an oiled bowl to rise for 1 hour. Be warned, the wholemeal flour will make the dough hard to knead at first but keep going!

Carefully handle the dough so that no air comes out and divide into 8 pieces. Roll each piece out to become long strings that are 1 cm wide and about 25cm long.

the dough divided into 8 pieces

Leave the pieces to prove on baking trays for about 30 minutes. Sprinkle over some semolina and thyme for seasoning and then place in a preheated oven at 230°c for 15 minutes. If you’re not a fan of thyme, oregano or rosemary would also go great with this bread. The bread should be golden on top once out of the oven. Leave to cool on a rack. Enjoy!

A less sinful cinnamon bun

What could be better than a cheeky warm cinnamon bun on a May bank holiday? I found this recipe in a local magazine and I couldn’t help but try it out. These buns make great breakfast material but are also great for a teatime snack. They’re less sinful because I have substituted whole milk/cream for semi skinned milk and butter for margarine.

What is so great about this recipe is that you are likely to have all the ingredients already and you could substitute the cinnamon for another flavour such as ginger or vanilla.

The recipe is as follows:

For the dough:

65g caster sugar

50g margarine

350g plain flour

7g yeast (1 sachet)

1 small egg

150ml milk (semi-skinned)

pinch of salt

For the filling:

45g brown sugar

75g margarine

1 tbsp. ground cinnamon (could be substituted)

1 tsp. crushed cardamom seeds (optional)

For the glaze:

1 tbsp. treacle

1 tbsp. water

This may seem like a lot of ingredients but don’t worry it’s an easy method!

Start by creaming together the sugar and butter in a large bowl and then set aside. Measure out the flour and mix in the yeast in another bowl. Beat 1 egg and add to the butter/ sugar mixture. Then beat in the milk.

Once this has mixed in, gradually add the flour/yeast mixture and a pinch of salt. This will form smooth dough. Knead this dough for about 15 minutes until it feels springy to touch. Leave to rise for about 1 hour under a tea towel.

mixing in the flour

Once the dough has risen, roll out the dough into a rectangle to a thickness of 2 cm. Now beat together the sugar and butter for the filling. Spread it over the dough and then sprinkle the spices over the dough too.

Fold the dough in half and then half again to form a rectangle again. Roll this out to 1.5 inches thickness. Then cut the dough into 8 strips of about 1-2cm wide. Now it’s time to form them into the rolls. To do this wrap the strips around two fingers and then place the end of the strip into the middle so that it looks like a knot. Place the rolls onto a lined baking tray and leave to prove for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Now glaze with a little beaten egg mixed with milk and bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 10-15 minutes. When they come out they should be golden on top. When they are still warm you could glaze them with the treacle and water mixture and leave to cool. Enjoy!

Easter Hot Cross Buns

There’s no doubt about it, Easter time means one thing for me, hot cross buns. I don’t know why but there’s nothing that beats a toasted hot cross bun with lashings of melting butter on top. I find they’re a great way to start a day and they have sultanas in so they’re kind of healthy right?..

I have used this recipe for the past couple of years and it has never failed me, however this year I did not add any chopped mixed peel as we didn’t have any but I think the orange zest makes up for the lack of peel. I also made them wholemeal this year for a change. This recipe makes about 12 medium-large buns.

The recipe is as follows:

400g wholemeal flour

100g white flour

5g salt

70g caster sugar

2 sachets of instant yeast (14g)

40g margarine

2 eggs

120ml semi-skimmed milk

120ml water

200g sultanas

Zest of 2 oranges

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. mixed spice

(80g chopped mixed peel)-optional

Start by placing the flours into a bowl with salt and sugar added on one side and the yeast added to the other side. Then add in the butter, eggs, milk and water. Mix it all together with your hands and knead it for 10 minutes. By the end the dough should feel elastic and not tough.

Leave to rise for 1 hour. Then knock the dough back and add the spices, zest and fruit. Knead again for about 10 minutes and then leave to rise for another hour. Make sure all the fruit is dispersed in the dough.

Once risen, knock the dough back again and divide into 12 buns- or one large bun if you prefer! Once divided and rolled into balls, place the buns fairly close together on a prepared baking tray. Leave to rise for about 45-60 minutes. By the end of the time the buns should feel spring to touch.

To make the crosses on top mix together 3 tablespoons of flour to a tablespoon of water. This should form soft dough that you can then roll out. Cut this dough into long, thin lines and place on the buns like crosses. Place the buns into the oven at 220°C for 20 minutes. The buns should be brown/golden on top.

To glaze them you could either heat a little apricot jam and brush it over the buns whilst still warm, or make a glaze by dissolving 2 tablespoons on sugar in a little bit of water. Once the sugar has dissolved, brush over the buns and leave to cool. Enjoy!

Crackers about Crackers!

I am back at home for Easter and I had forgotten whilst I was away how mad my family are about crackers. They love them; we munch on them for snacks all day long. They’re such good snack type food because they’re light and you can eat about five of them and not feel sick (unlike normal biscuits!).

I decided to make some myself so I made up this recipe for cheesy crackers that are really quick to make and I had all the ingredients already in the house! These crackers are delicious as they are not too greasy and they have a nice tangy flavour from the paprika.

The recipe is as follows:

100g flour

50g porridge oats

80g butter

1 tsp. paprika

Pepper and salt

1 handful of Parmesan

The oats add a nice texture to the biscuit whilst the flour helps to hold it altogether.

Start by placing the flour, oats and paprika into a bowl and mix together. Add a bit of salt and pepper and then the Parmesan. Finally place the butter in the bowl and mix the ingredients together with your hands to form a dough. The dough will feel quite soft so place it in the fridge for 20 minutes before rolling it out.

Once the dough has hardened up a bit roll it out to about 1cm thickness. Now cut out the biscuits in any shape you want- I just went for boring round ones. Place on a lined baking tray. Sprinkle a little bit of Parmesan over the top of the biscuits and a bit of pepper. If you wanted to, you could also add a bit of egg wash over the biscuits to make them crisp up even more in the oven. Put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C. They should look golden on top when they are out of the oven. Enjoy!

Cheesy crackers straight from the oven

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!

Rye bread- a very different type of bread

Rye bread is a delicious and dense bread and it has a lovely nutty and deep flavour. It is similar to a normal loaf of bread but instead it is made with rye flour. This means that rye bread is full of fibre. However this also makes it a little trickier to handle because rye flour contains less gluten than other flours and it is also wheat free. This also means that the bread has a lovely dark brown colour.

I decided to make this bread over Christmas because the flavour of the bread goes great with smoked fish and we always end up having lots of smoked salmon around Christmas!

My recipe is as follows;

500g rye flour
5g salt
2 sachets of yeast (14g)
20g black treacle
350ml water

First place the flour, yeast, salt and treacle in a bowl. The treacle helps to intensify the colour of the bread. Gradually add the water and knead the dough. The dough will feel quite tough and it will not feel as smooth and stretchy compared with normal dough. Knead the dough for a good 10 minutes by which time the dough should feel quite soft and smooth. Place in a bowl to rise for 4 hours.

After this time the dough should have doubled in size. Place the dough on a floured surface and knock it back. Shape the dough into your preferred shape (I just did a simple oval). Now place the dough in a heavily floured proving basket. A proving basket is basically a wicker basket with muslin or cloth in it. I didn’t have one so I recreated one with a basket and a thin tea towel. Leave to prove for 2-3 hours.

the dough in my own version of a proving basket

Preheat the oven at 200°. Once proved, place the bread in the oven for 30 minutes. Once cooked the bread should sound hollow when knocked and be slightly dark on top. Enjoy!

Rye bread, fresh out of the oven!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

On the last Wednesday of our term at university, my flatmates and I decided to have our own Christmas dinner. It was great and I felt so Christmassy that I decided to cook all day! I decided to make a Christmas loaf. This consists of rich dough with lots of dried fruit in. Dried fruit is normally very expensive but around this time places like Aldi, Lidl and Poundland are doing massive savings on bags of random dried fruit. Therefore I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try out a new recipe!

This recipe is also a great way of using up the last eggs and milk before the end of term and since it was a fruit loaf I hoped it would last the last few days of term too! (It didn’t, it was eaten too quickly!).

The recipe is as follows:

250g strong white flour
3g salt
1 sachet of yeast
20g butter
25g sugar
80ml milk
80ml water
1 egg – beaten
170g mixed fruit
1tsp cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice

Start by placing the flour and spices in a bowl and mix them together. Add the yeast, sugar, salt and butter. Mix the water in with the milk and then gradually add this mixture into the floury mixture. Now add the beaten egg. Bring the mixture together to form dough. Lastly add the dried fruit. Knead the dough for a good 10 minutes. It is hard work so be ready for your arms to ache! Once the dough feels smooth and stretchy place in a bowl and leave to rise for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, the dough should have doubled in size. Knock back the dough and knead it for a couple of minutes. This dough is quite wet so it is hard to shape. I decided to place it in a tin to prove rather than leave the dough on a tray. This is because I didn’t feel it would hold its shape very well without some support.

Leave the dough to prove for about 30 minutes and then place in a hot oven for 15-20 minutes at 200°. Keep an eye on it after 10 minutes as the fruit on top can burn easily. Once it is ready the top should look golden. You can then leave it to cool and add an icing or just eat it warm with a load of butter. Enjoy!