bread

Bagels, step-by-step

March 23, 2011
Peter Reinhart's bagels

People often talk about bread making as a bug of some sort that people catch. Well, I’ve definitely caught it, and in an effort to move up a rung on the artisan bread making ladder, I made a batch of bagels. This isn’t a quick recipe. You need to time things carefully so that you’ve [...]

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How to bake bread

January 9, 2011
Baking bread at home

A lot of people are scared of baking their own bread. There’s a lot of misconceptions out there: It takes too long – not true.  A very decent soda bread can be made in under an hour, start to finish.  Granted, a proper loaf needs time for the yeast to work it’s magic, but even [...]

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Quintessential Americana – the burger

June 29, 2009
HamBurger

Every year I look forward to the Glastonbury Festival.This year we marvelled at the shortness of Lady Gaga’s dress (really, how did she not expose herself), wondered why people listen to Kasabian and decided to do something tenuously food related in honour of Bruce Springsteen*. Something quintessentially American. Something straightforward and honest, no nonsense, down [...]

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Naan bread

March 21, 2009
Indian Naan bread

No Indian meal, even one made at home, is really complete without a naan bread. Put 450g of strong white flour in a large bowl and add two teaspoons of salt, two teaspoons of caster sugar, a teaspoon of baking powder and a 7g sachet of instant yeast. Make a well in the centre and [...]

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Sourdough part V

September 14, 2008

After a month of preparation, the time has come to bake some bread. My starter has been bubbling away now for a month and tastes and smells of yeast. Following the Moro recipe, I took 250g of starter and mixed it with 450g of strong white organic flour and 700ml of water. This resulted in [...]

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Sourdough part IV

September 3, 2008
Sourdough starter

I normally have some sort of slightly weird cooking project on the go, but these experiments don’t often stretch over four weeks. The saga of the sourdough starter continues, having entered a new and exciting phase last week…the grapes are gone and I’m now carefully feeding the starter up to give it enough strength to [...]

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Sourdough part III

August 22, 2008

There is life! I spotted a few gentle bubbles in my slightly pink sourdough starter yesterday, after six days of worried observation and occasional stirring. According to the recipe, we’ve still got to wait for another week before moving into an arduous fortnight of twice daily feeding which may actually bankrupt me given the huge [...]

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Sourdough part II

August 16, 2008

Quick update on the sourdough starter…not good. Twenty-four hours in, the flour and water has separated a bit, leaving some rank looking water floating on the top. I’ve stirred it all up again. Needs more time and patience.

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