Savoury pullapart bread

I have been having a bit of a bread baking frenzy. It started after the fete de Geneve, when a friend gave me a big bag of rehydrated dried mushrooms. I couldn't use them all so I froze it in bags. I also made a batch of bread dough for a dinner, which completely failed to rise. I am a persistent sort of girl though, so I put the bread dough in the fridge, and the next morning, when I looked in the fridge there was risen dough! Hmmm... what to do with it? I took it to work and at morning tea time, used some of the mushroom mix to make a loaf of cheese and mushroom pull apart bread. My colleagues devoured it and that just got me started...

Next thing I know, I am making cinnamon scrolls, fruit bread, and today, bacon onion and cheese pull apart bread.

Pull apart bread is great fun both to make and eat. Kneading bread is always satisfying, as is seeing the wonderful dough double, and then the pleasure of forming the lovely savoury bites. The scent of baking bread fills my apartment and I am only surprised that my neighbours haven't been knocking on the door demanding a bite!

This recipe is pretty flexible and you can put whatever filling inspires you into the centre, sweet or savoury.

Pull apart bread

1 package instant yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
500g flour
1 cup warm milk
1 large egg
8 tablespoons melted butter or oil

Filling
1 onion finely chopped
150g bacon, finely chopped
200g cheese grated

Method 1
Combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl put all the liquid ingredients, egg, milk & oil. Add a cup of the dry ingredients and stir well. Gradually add the other dry ingredients until you get a soft dough. Knead on a lightly floured work surface for about 6 minutes until the dough is smooth and springy to the touch.

Method 2
Place dry ingredients in bowl of electric mixer (not food processor). Use the mixing blade and add the wet ingredients. Once combined, change to dough hooks and knead for 4-6 minutes, until the dough is smooth and springy to the touch.

Oil a large bowl. Put the dough into the bowl and then turn it over so that the surface is oiled. Cover with plastic wrap. Place somewhere warmish (funnily enough, beside my laptop seems to work well for me, so that the warm air from the fan circulates around it) for about an hour and a half until the dough doubles in size.

Fry the onion gently it starts going transparent, then add the bacon. Fry just for a minute. Allow to cool while you grate the cheese.

Once the dough has risen, deflate and then grab pinches of dough (about the size of a walnut. Form into a ball, then flatten it out into a disk. Put a little of the onion and bacon and grated cheese onto the centre of the disk and then pinch it closed to make a little ball. Layer into a lightly oiled loaf tin.

Allow to rise about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Once the bread has risen, bake for about 30 minutes until the bread is a dark golden brown and when turned out of the tin the bottom of the loaf sound hollow when tapped.

Eat, ideally while still warm!

Breakfast bread

I invited a friend over for breakfast the other day and I really wanted to have fresh bread to offer among other things, but had no desire to get up super-early to knead. I am SO not a morning person.

What I needed was a bread recipe that I could make up the night before, and allow to rise overnight.

This Paillasse recipe was the perfect thing, and, in fact I didn't actually have to knead at all. A little bit of a pity in some ways, as kneading bread is rather fun. The overnight rise gives it a lovely flavour as it gives the yeast time to develop. I would make it again any time... hmm.. maybe I will whip up a half batch right now for tomorrow!

You simply will not believe how easy this is. Go on... give it a bash.

Pain Paillasse

500 gms flour (try to get flour with a decent amount of gluten in it rather than super-white pastry flour)
300 ml cold water
7g instant yeast (1 sachet)
1 tsp Salt

Put ingredients in a mixer with dough hooks and mix for 5 minutes.

Oil a dish (around 20cm square) and put the dough in the dish. Cover closely with plastic film.

Refrigerate for at least 10 hours. (basically overnight)

When you get up in the morning, put the oven on to 250 °c. Sprinkle your bench with some flour, and maybe some sesame seeds if you fancy them. Take the dough out of the fridge and divide into two or three pieces. Form into logs and twist each twice.

Pop onto a baking tray and slide it straight into the oven. Bake for about 10 minutes at full temperature, then drop the oven temperature to 200, and turn the loaves so that they will brown evenly. Cook for another 10 minutes or so.

Voila - you are done! Incredibly easy eh?

Simple food, simply pleasure.. lunch

I may not have had enough money for a crepey-thing, but I did have enough money at the markets to buy myself the ingredients for a simple lunch. Bread, some crisp baby tomatoes, a rather elegant pear and a teeny sliver of cheese. Mind you, by the time I got to the cheese part, I was penniless enough that when the cheeseman asked me how big a 'tranche' I wanted, I had to say "une euro deux centimes" as my reply. I had 'wasted' a few euro buying some mushrooms... more about those in another post.

The bread was just a small loaf; to illustrate its small size, I photographed it with one of the baby tomatoes. The perfect size for a single gal really. Actually the perfect size for about 4 meals for me at my current wheat eating levels.

The loaf was impressively heavy and the crust extremely solid; it took a good amount of sawing to get a slice off it. But topped with a sliced baby tomato and slice of cheese, it made for a solid, perfectly simple, perfectly pleasurable lunch.

French toast and salad

Feeling horribly unwell so I stayed home from work. After sleeping lots, I dragged my sorry butt out of bed to face the kitchen and a complete lack of culinary inspiration. I wanted something to eat that would be healthy, to get me well, but really really quick and easy to make. Thus french toast and salad were born. Salad consisting of the only two fresh vegies I had in the fridge, cherry tomatoes and snow peas.

French toast? Cmon, do I really need to give you a recipe? Just in case there is a loyal fan out there who doesn't know how to make it, here 'tis. For most people french toast is purely sweet, but I actually like mine herby. You gotta love a dish which can be both main course and dessert!

3 slices of bread
1 egg
1 tablespoon cream
1 tablespoon water
(I used the mix of cream and water because I didn't have any milk in the fridge; you could use 2 tablespoons of milk instead)
salt
pepper
1 tsp dried oregano

Put the cream and water in a small dish. Add the oregano and give it a few minutes to allow the herbs to soften. Add the egg, salt and pepper, and mix with a fork until well combined.

Take the sliced bread and run it through the egg mix, allowing it to coat the bread. Don't leave the bread in there for long, or it will go soggy. Pop straight into a lightly oiled and hot frypan. Cook one side until golden brown. Turn over and cook the other side. Serve piping hot.

For a sweet version, remove the herb, salt and pepper. Once cooked sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or icing sugar, or even drizzle with maple syrup.

Mediterranean stuffed loaf

This is a perfect picnic dish: portable, attractive and delicious!

Ingredients:

1 loaf of bread (choose one that is qiute deep)
Marinated grilled aubergine
Marinated grilled courgette
Artichoke hearts
Sundried tomatoes
Mozzarella cheese (feta is also good)
mushrooms
Olives

Slice the top of the loaf of bread and set aside. Dig out the centre of the loaf. Starting with the cheese, cover the bottom of the inside of the loaf. Layer each of the ingredients into the loaf, with layers of mozzarella between every few layers of other ingredients. (drain the liquid off the ingredients before using!)

Lay the top of the loaf back on. Wrap firmly in plastic wrap. Lay a wooden board on top and then place a few full tins of food on top as a weight to press down the loaf. Allow to sit for a few hours

The different layers will all press together and the flavours will merge into a delicious whole. You can take the loaf as is to your picnic, slice and enjoy the impressed looks on your friends faces!