Breadsticks

School run and at pick up time Sophie is always hungry as she comes out and always asks, "Do you have anything for me mummy" not wanting to be armed all the time with sweets and biscuits i decided to try a homemade breadstick.  A snack not just handy for school kicking out time but anytime and can be made to any flavour you fancy.

I made some sweet and some savoury and used a basic breadstick base then flavoured afterwards


Recipe 

125g strong white flour
125g plain white flour
3g dried yeast
5g salt
160ml warm water
drizzle of oil

knead all of the above apart from the oil till you get a sticky dough then add a drizzle of oil and work this in until the dough is smooth.

place in a bowl drizzle with a little more oil and cover leave to rise until doubled.

turn out onto a well floured surface add some flour on top so you dont get your rolling pin stuck and roll to a 5mm thickness.  Cut into stripes about 1cm.

To Flavour

for the savoury i brushed the breadsticks in olive oil and then made 4 different flavours

garlic, rosemary and sea salt
smoked paprika
Parmesan cheese
poppy seed and sesame seed

for the sweet i made 1 flavour and pushed small chunks of white chocolate and raisins into the bread dough

now leave your breadsticks to prove for 30 mins

To Cook

Pop in a preheat oven at 200c for 20 mins till golden brown.

Sour dough starter

i have always been a frustrated baker and have always wanted to turn out a decent loaf but even though i have followed a number of recipes to the letter the yeast never seems to provide the end results of the picture in the cook book, so i have tried fresh yeast and a number of different dried yeast and still failures to get a big fluffy loaf.  For a while i had been thinking of making sour dough but baby came along and ate a lot of my time, but i managed to get a bit of time the other day and had a go at making my own wild yeast, i was a bit excited about doing this wondering if it would work and knowing that what i was making could last forever and be passed down to the girls if they were interested in that sort of thing.

Sourdough is basically a fermented batter, the bacteria that makes the wild yeast is everywhere in the air, in the flour in fruit etc and is the same bacteria that makes yogurt.

So here is my little diary of some simple flour a water making a massive change to our daily life, i now make all the family bread at home and am very happy to provide a daily staple at home and i have not bought a loaf since i started this and now have the house smelling of fresh baked bread

 




Day one 

1 cup of wholemeal flour and 1 cup of warm water whisked for 10 mins in my k mix to incorporate loads of air and give the mix a chance to grab any of the yeast bacteria that could be in the air or flour.

i then put this in a large plastic pot, i used plastic as this gave the gasses stretch space rather than explode with glass, however i did use a rather large tub i also put this in a warm place in the kitchen to help fermentation it now lives there permanently and has become my kitchen pet.

After 10 hours i found a few bubble but not many

Then next day 

things looked pretty similar and i wondered if it worked luckily the pot i used was clear and i saw hundreds of lines of mini bubbles trying to break their way to the top so i gave it a good stir and hey presto ITS ALIVE!!! sorry about the camera shadow it is hard taking pictures inside a tub.

Every day for 5 days only i fed the tub with 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of warm water and gave it a really big stir you can see it is well fermented and definitely alive.  i could not resist any longer and made my first loaf with out shop bought yeast and only used the wild yeast fermenting in this pot and WOW it worked and tasted great to

Love your sourdough
it really is simple to do and has been the missing ingredient to my bread baking i missed and i just love taking the lid off and sniffing the pot and the smell changes which can smell anything from fermenting apples to brandy and looking at the batter also changes you can see when it needs a stir. Just by looking and smelling you know instinctively what to do give it a good stir or add a bit more flour depending on how much liquid has formed. once a week i give it a mega stir with my stick blender oxygen.

For each recipe that i need my wild yeast i use 1 ladle full of starter mix every time i take some starter from the pot i feed the pot with 1 ladle of flour and 1 ladle of warm water and give it a good mix up.

vv

Sour dough loaf

 I am really enjoying making bread at the moment and i wanted to try and make an authentic sour dough. This does take a bit of time but is simple.  Before even starting to make the bread the night before you need to make a batter sponge

Ingredients for batter sponge
250g strong wholemeal flour
300ml of water
1 1/2 ladels of starter (recipe for the starter is at the bottom of this post)

mix well, cover and leave over night

The next morning you need to mix into the sponge the following and need for 10 mins dont skimp on the needing.

300g strong wholemeal flour
25g salt

leave to rise for 1 hour making sure it is covered, it wont have changed to much but knock it back and form it into a ball again you will need to do this 4 times each time it will get a little bigger the slower the rise the more flavour develops in the bread

on the final rise get the oven on its hottest setting with a small roasting pan at the bottom, when the bread is ready to go in and the oven temperature reached put you bread in and add a little boiling water in the pan at the bottom of the oven to create steam and a nice crust to the bread. Cook at the high temperature for 10 mins only then turn the oven down to 200c for 30 - 40 mins longer the bread should sound hollow when tapped ion the bottom leave to cool on a baking rack so you dont get a soggy bottom.

LÉKUÉ SILICONE BREAD MAKER

We have received a rather strange object to review in the post the girls had a indepth conversation about what it could possible be, Sophie suggested a hat which Ella thought was very silly as she thought it was a potty. However both the girls were very wrong as this is the most amazing brand new kitchen item any mummy or daddy who loves to make home made bread could not live with out.  This will revolutionise the bake as it is a one stop for each process.  This amazing piece of silicon is the LÉKUÉ SILICONE BREAD MAKER   and retails at £19.99 and is from Lakeland

Not only can you weigh out your ingredients in the bowl and mix it together you can prove the dough and bake in it too ... WOW

Ella gets to have a go at kneading dough

But is not impressed when big sis takes over and tells her she is doing it all wrong 

Ella says this is so easy even she can do it, and she shapes up the dough and locks it in the silicone mould with the niffy clip and carrier.

Sophie checks on the prove 

we could choose to do a round loaf or a long one but with the clip closed this creates steam while the bread bakes making for a tasty crust. The bread pops out of the silicone mould so easily and the mould itself washes up well it can even be put in the microwave, freezer and dishwasher and this is my new favourite kitchen item i wont be buying any more bread as this made a busy mummies life very easy especially when you have two keen girls helping out in the kitchen.