Food

Sourdough Bread

Sourdough seems to work like magic. Flour, water and salt are the three ingredients, and it’s possible to bake a loaf that is far superior to near enough anything that can be bought from your local supermarket. There is a secret fourth ingredient, and the way that life is with near enough instant gratification in most things, this one can be a struggle. Because patience is also vital.

The sour dough loaf begins with a starter.

Mix 100g of strong white bread flour with 100g of water, mix throughly and place in a container with a loose fitting lid. The container will need to be quite big, as you’re going to be adding to it over the next dew days.

Leave the container out of the way on a kitchen surface.

Next day, ‘feed’ it by mixing in another 100g of strong white bread flour and 100g of water.

Repeat the process for 5 more days, and then your starter is ready to use!

If you don’t plan to make the bread right away, either throw away half before continuing on, or put the starter in the fridge. It will still need to be ‘fed’, but only once a week rather than daily. Take it out of the fridge and feed it the day before you plan to bake.

And so to the actual loaf

Ingredients

  • 200 g of starter
  • 400g strong white bread flour
  • 100g strong wholemeal bread flour
  • 280ml warm water
  • 10g salt

Directions

  1. Using a scraper, mix  all the ingredients in a bowl to forma loose, wet dough.
  2. Turn out on to a floured work surface, and knead for about 15 mins.
  3. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with oiled cling film, and leave for about 4 hours.
  4. Empty the dough onto the work surface, knocking out the rise, and form into a ball
  5. Place the dough into a very well floured proving basket, cover it again with oiled cling film, and then leave for another 4 hours.
  6. Turn out the loaf gently onto a baking stone that has been in an oven, preheated to 220 degree C. Place back into the oven and bake for half an hour. If you put a container with boiling water into the bottom of your oven at the beginning of baking, the crust will be even more chewy and awesome.

 

Pretzel Dogs

I caught an episode of a show called ‘Undercover Boss USA’ recently. The basic premise is that each episode depicts a person who has a high management position at a major business, deciding to become undercover as an entry-level employee to discover the faults in the company.

The Philly Pretzel Factory was the company that featured in the episode I watched. The boss in question visited three separate franchised outlets and saw first hand the problems and issues the franchisees and employees faced.

As someone who was involved with the world of finance for many years before ending up in the God business, I found the programme fascinating. As much as I was taken by the whole way that this franchised business worked, I was also rather impressed with the pretzels – they looked amazing!

This recipe is one that is my own version of a fairly traditional pretzel. The dough is butter rich, which gives it a wonderful buttery(unsurprisingly) taste. The only difference here is that the dough is wrapped around a hot dog sausage before cooking. The traditional twisty pretzel shape is also a perfectly legitimate choice, but Pretzel Dogs come highly recommended!

Ingredients:

  • 275ml warm water
  • 15g granulated sugar
  • 5g active dry yeast (or 10g fresh yeast)
  • 500g Strong White Bread Flour
  • 10g salt
  • 40g unsalted butter, melted
  • 8 Hot Dog Sausages
  • 1 egg, beaten

Directions:

  1. Place the water in a jug and dissolve the sugar, then sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or so or until the mixture begins to foam.
  2. Put the flour, salt and butter into a mixing bowl and pour in the water sugar and yeast mixture. Combine into a dough, and then knead on a clean surface for about 15 mins until smooth and pliable (10 minutes if mixing in a food processor) Place the dough in a clean, oiled bowl, cover and place in a warm area for about 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
  3. Preheat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/Gas mark 7 and place a baking sheet into the oven, and bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil
  4. Turn the dough out onto a clean oiled work surface and divide into 8 pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a long rope that’s roughly 2 feet in length. Wind each piece of dough around a hot dog, ensuring that each end is pinched together so that it’s sealed. Place onto the parchment side of a piece of well oiled parchment lined foil until all 8 are prepared.
  5. Place the pretzel dogs into the boiling water two or three at a time (don’t overcrowd the pan) and boil for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water and place them back on to the parchment paper. Brush the tops with the beaten egg. Place the parchment paper onto the baking sheet and return to the oven to bake until dark golden brown in colour. This should take between 12 and 14 minutes. Once cooked, transfer the pretzel dogs to a cooling rack for a few minutes before serving.

recipe adapted from the Brown Eyed Baker

Basic Tomato Sauce – Marinara 

There are an awful lot of recipes that use this tomato sauce. It’s a favourite on pasta, makes for an excellent pizza topping, and works as the base for Turlu Turlu just to name a few. It really is very simple, but benefits hugely from being allowed to cook for as long as possible.

Ingredients:

  • Olive oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1/2 tin of boling water
  • Tsp of dried oregano
  • pinch of sugar
  • Tsp of balsamic vinegar
  • salt & pepper
  • Method

Directions

Heat the oil in a small saucepan on a low heat. Cook the onion through for 5 mins, then add the garlic for a further 2 mins. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for at least 40 minutes – the longer the better! Keep an eye on it, as you may well need to add water as you go along. Allow the sauce to cool and then liquidise using a handheld blender