What's for lunch today?

Wahhhhhh, I've neglected this poor blog! To make up for it, let me share what I had for lunch yesterday.

Ingredients used:

•  Green Olives
• Spinach
• Red Pepper
• Applewood Smoked Cheese
• Pasta Spirals
• Some of your favourite pasta sauce!

Simple meal but tastes delicious! The cheese makes all the difference.

Satsuma-imo. 

One Dough, Two Breads: Pumpkin and Cheese & Almond and Lavender Marmalade

Another bank holiday, another bread. Well, in this case, two breads. We go through about two loaves of bread each week and sometimes it gets a bit boring eating the same flavour bread day after day so I thought I'd try something a little different this week and bake two different flavours.

Rest assured, two different breads does not mean double the amount of work as my nifty tip here is to start from the same base dough and after the first fermentation split the dough in half and add nuts, dried fruit etc of your choice.

I've chosen to make a Pumpkin Seed and Cheese Bread and an Almond and Lavender Marmalade Bread. The lavender marmalade was a nice find at a farmer's market in a nearby town but early next year, when the Seville oranges are in season, I will try making my own. As for the cheese, I used Machego cheese which is a hard cheese made from Ewe's milk and has a nice tangy flavour.

Pumpkin and Cheese Bread

Almond and Lavender Marmalade

Ingredients (makes two loaves)
700g white bread flour
300g rye flour
14g dried yeast
10g salt
10g sugar
30g butter
600ml warm water

Other Ingredients
100g grated Machego cheese
a handful of pumpkin seeds

2tsp lavender marmalade
a handful of flaked almonds

Method

1. Rub the butter into the white bread and rye flour. Add the rest of the dried ingredients making sure that the salt and yeast are at the opposite sides of the bowl - this is to prevent the salt from killing off the yeast.
2. Add the water and mix until a dough is formed.
3. Tip onto a flat surface and knead until smooth and elastic.
4. Leave to rise until double in size.
5. After the first fermentation, divide the dough in half. I like to weigh the dough so I can get similar sized breads but I'm a bit pedantic. Doing it by eye works just as well.
6. For the cheese bread, knead the cheese into the dough. Form the dough into a ball and wet the surface. Take your pumpkin seeds and press them into the surface of the dough. They to pressed in firmly otherwise they will fall off when you come to slice the bread. Leave to rise until doubled in size.
7. For the marmalade bread, flatten the dough out into a rectangular shape about 1cm thick. Spread the marmalade over the dough leaving about 1cm around the edge of the dough so that you can seal it later. Sprinkle the flaked almonds all over the marmalade. Next fold the dough in half, and then in half again making sure to seal the edges as you don't want marmalade seeping out and burning during baking. You should end up with a square dough. I baked this in a square tin to help preserve the shape. Leave the dough to rise until doubled in size.
8. Preheat your oven to the highest setting and bake for about 10 min, lower the temperature to about 200C/180C fan for a further 30mins or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the underside.

The method of setting the temperature high at the start of baking is to give the dough an extra rise and to develop a nice crust. Keep an eye on the pumpkin bread especially if you have a hotpot in your oven as the pumpkin seeds can burn easily.

Please have a go and let me know what weird and wonderful combinations you come up with!

-Aubergine

Mexican Buns

As it's the Jubilee bank holiday weekend, I have a few days off to experiment with some new bread recipes.

I attempted the Mexican Buns for the first time. I guess they are similar to the Hong Kong 'Pineapple Bun' or the Japanese 'Melon-pan', a soft bun with a crispy, cookie topping. Out of the three I still prefer the Pineapple Bun, especially when they have the Cocktail Bun (Gai Mei Bau) filling...mmm. Not very traditional but very delicious. I'll try and make some myself in the near future but for now you will have to make do with Mexican Buns.

This recipe makes 12 muffin-sized buns. If like me you choose to line the muffin tins please please please use non-stick muffin cases. I made the rookie mistake of using the standard cases and as a result I lost part of my bread to the stupid case when I came to eat them. Don't make the same mistake!!

In this recipe I've used some cocoa powder as it's a nice contrast to the white topping but you can skip this and add 10g more bread flour instead.

Ingredients
For the bread:
250g bread flour
10g cocoa powder
4g dried yeast
130ml warm water
2g salt
30g sugar
1/2 egg
20g butter

For the topping:
50g butter
70g sugar
120g plain flour
1 egg
pinch of salt

Method:

1. For the bread: mix all the dried ingredients and rub in the butter.
2. Pour in the egg and the water a mix until a dough is formed.
3. Knead the dough on the work surface until it is elastic and smooth.
4. Leave to rise covered until double in size.
5. In the meantime, to make the Mexican topping: cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Add the flour, egg and salt to the sugar and butter mixture and combine.
7. Transfer the topping mixture into a piping bag afor use later.
8. Once the dough has doubled in size, divide the dough into 12 balls. Cover and leave to rise again until doubled in size.
9. Pipe a swirl of Mexican topping onto each bun starting from the inside out.
10. Optional: now you can add some decoration onto the Mexican topping. Here, I've used some flake almonds.
11. Bake in a pre-heated oven 180C/160C fan for 20 mins.

Unfortunately, you can't eat these straight out of the oven as the topping needs to cool and harden. The crispy topping is what makes the Mexican Bun after all. Enjoy!

-Aubergine