Bread for stone-cold sour dough killers
Hi, hello, alright? Are you ok? No really, how are you? I love you!
It’s often said that a great writer, writes as they speak, so the only way I know how to start this newsletter is by means of an awkward, intense and over-friendly greeting, which in a pre-covid world, would have been coupled with a 5ft 1 bear hug (woah, remember hugging people you literally just met?! #throwback).
If you’re here for the first time or a friend I’ve bribed to subscribe to my newsletter (IOU), WELCOME, WELCOME, I am so happy you are here! This is my slice of the internet to share my friendship with food.
To me, food is more than eating, its history, culture, memories, art for the senses and in more recent years it’s been my absolute favourite way to show how much I love someone (my husband is never hungry lol). If you haven’t gathered already, its something I feel deeply passionate about and something I feel the need to share. In an ideal world, this would mean having my own restaurant/wine bar/deli/coffee and bookshop. A bustling hub where anyone and everyone could squeeze round my table and enjoy for free, however, we don’t live in that world just yet. So, here is my free newsletter from my table to yours, no literally I am currently writing this from my dining table :) I am so excited by all I have to learn and at the prospect of others learning along with me. If that’s you, please subscribe!
Let’s eat!
B R E A D
I am nothing if not a bread person. Some of my earliest memories revolve around bread, waking up to the smell of my dad and uncle making doorstop slices of toast smothered in homemade marmalade before a day of work together. Or having a sleep over at Nanna’s house and enjoying her signature of toast and butter, nothing more, nothing less. Even as an adult I am still fully convinced no one can master toast like her, something I’m sure my cousins can attest to. I even remember my first experience of making bread with my aunty Rebecca, the smell of it always reminds me of her. Unfortunately though, my skill of eating bread has not always translated to my ability to make it. I’ve been heartbroken over the deaths of several sourdough starters. Once, Rebecca even gifted me a 100-year-old sour dough starter, I had such faith that this would mark a new beginning, the start of a new me. Remarkably, it had survived the ups and downs of the last century but sadly not even a week in my company. You must be wondering why then, I chose to start with bread, with such a tragic past in mind. Well, my friends, the tables have recently turned. I have found the most nofaff bread recipe there ever was, so much so even a stone-cold sour dough starter killer like myself can master it! What I particularly love is that most of the work is done whilst I sleep and tastes so good, I don’t bother buying at the shops anymore. Without further ado here she is, I hope this recipe transforms your life just as much as it has mine!
Ingredients:
3 x Cups of strong white bread flour. I wish I loved brown bread as much as white bread, but frankly I’m not that wholesome and I can’t be in resistance to it any longer. However, in the name of inclusivity, you can absolutely use brown bread flour or an artisan seed mix (get you fancy pants!!) just add a little more sugar.
1 x 7g yeast sachet
1 x tsp of salt
1x tbsp of white sugar
1.5 cups of warm water
1.) Preheat oven to 200°C I’m not going to lie, I usually do this right before I brush my teeth and collapse into bed, so when I make this, there is little to no precision involved. I quite literally whack the ingredients into a bowl and mix, how sophisticated!
2.) When the ingredients have combined into a sticky dough like consistency, cover with cling film. That being said, a friend recently came to stay and when she saw the panic in my eyes when I had ran out of cling film, she recommended a damp tea towel to cover the bowl. Apparently.... this is a secret family trick of hers. So I kindly ask, under no circumstances can you share it with anyone or else I will find you...(you know the rest)*. When I tried the tea towel trick, the bread came out VERY good. Was it the moist tea towel? Was it a ginormous fluke? Was it the fact I was more careful than normal as I wanted to show off my bread making skills to my guest? Who can say?!
3.) Leave to rise overnight, sweet dreams sunshine.
4.) Hopefully by this point your dough has bubbled up and tripled in size. Using a spatula, scrape all the dough into a ball. Don’t worry if you feel like it loses air when you do this, this dough is as resilient as humans who’ve survived a global pandemic… it’ll bounce back!
5.) Pop some greaseproof paper on the bottom of an ovenproof dish with a lid (my lovely friend Sandra taught me this trick. The lid let’s the bread bake without being exposed to super high heat, this prevents a really tough crust, thank you Sandra, love you!)
6.) Pop the bread in the dish and bake for 30 mins with the lid on. Then take the lid off and bake for a further 15-20mins. And Voila! Enjoy hot with lashings of butter!
*only joking
C x
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