January Fare

 Now that the frost has lifted it has been harvest time for Jerusalem artechokes:

Carrots (protected by straw and netting)

and leeks.

Here are some breads to bring some winter cheer too.

Cinnamon Buns

French Bread and Kulich

(The kulich is an Easter bread so a bit out of season, but I had plenty of dried fruit to use up from Christmas when I rather overbought.)  

Fields of Dreams

 The 2020 wildflower meadow has morphed into the 2121 wildflower meadow by the timely amendment and reinstatement of the sign.  The perimeter rope has also been reinstated.  (Two of the four reinstated metal stakes went missing so we are down to a single strand of garden twine stretched between two stakes.  It suffices as a mere suggestion to the council grass cutters of the agreed status of this corner of the park)

The dandelions are currently having their moment. Once they go to seed the seed issue will arise.  Already I am planning a cull of docks.  These dominated the patch before we set it up and are well represented throughout the neighbouring area (as are buttercups).

Back within the bounds of the school garden the nursery class are taking on the "grow your own loaf" challenge.  Here is the designated 'wheat field'

The canes are there temporarily to demarcate a sowing zone for each child.  A net will be deployed once the ears develope.  Those crows will be thwarted this year .

My final field dream come true is captured below. The 'wee bird' on the side of the path is a skylark.

So often heard, but only seen flying, never on the ground.  This encounter was like a dream.

Vatrushka Take 2

With the gardening on hold during the recent cold weather I have turned to baking some comfort food.  

After my last jam filled vatrushka I plucked up the courage to go for the more traditional farmhouse  cheese filling.   

I thought they were better but not everyone shared my preference.  Another failsafe favourite is challah: 

Vatrushka

 These oven baked Russian doughnuts are rather fun.

Traditionally they have a cream cheeses filling, but when I read that blueberry jam is also a common choice I had to go for that.  They have caused a bit of a revolution in our house.

Brioche Sans Tête

With the weather being horrible and the news horrible too I have been resorting to my form of 'cupboard love'.  First I made a batch of marmalade.  With one and a half kilos of fruit and 3k sugar I needed my largest saucepan.  Stored inside it I found my brioche tin, so had a go at that.  It rose well enough but the tête wobbled off to the side and was only just hanging by a thread by the end of baking time. (see second picture) 

Loosing the head

Hanging on!

This has happened before with brioche rolls which I posted about  here,  but the problem seems to have scaled up on this occasion.  Next time I am loading up the tin I will make the top ball smaller than the ones it sits on and squeeze it on as hard as I can!  Needless to say the taste was in no way affected.

 

Christmas Bakes 4

 

Staying with Italy for another day, here is an example of treating a familiar material (dough) in a different way to produce something novel:  breadsticks or "grissini"

Having made a Ciabatta dough you slice off strips which are then stretched and rolled in a coating of salt flakes, sesame seeds or poppy seeds and rested on a lined tray for the second rise.

Baked for a good while (30 mins or so) until they have dried out to the core. 

As they have no moisture left they will keep for ages in a tin or jar. It is a little too easy to overdo the salt flakes but the sesame seed and poppy seed ones are infallible!  

Christmas Bakes 3

 

A firm favourite at Christmas, Italian pannetone  has usurped the place of barmbrack (which I recall arriving parcel post from Ireland each year.)  Rich sweet but still light it is truly seductive.  The good news is that you don't have to get it imported from Italy, you can make the real thing fresh at home! 

Over the years I have gathered more than one pannetone baking tin, but this year the large one (below)is not going to be used due to the restrictions on family gatherings. Instead I am making one larger and two smaller ones so that they can be "gifted" to other households.

 

Recipes are widely available online and you will want to adapt any one you choose to allow for tastes. Some use fresh peel or candied.  Some add chocolate or cherries or all sorts of things. The good news is you can choose your own fruit mix depending on what you like (and what you have in store). My go to recipe since 2012 has been Dan Lepard's - with adaptations. He tops off the loaf just before baking with a sweet nutty paste and some whole almonds. 

Ready for the final rise

Many traditional recipes include overnight proving in the fridge but as long as you leave plenty of time (4-6 hrs or so) for that final rise there is no problem.  (You should feel how cold our kitchen gets anyway!)

Oven ready

. 

 A further spring while baking makes for a light texture.

Fresh out of the oven

 With plenty of butter and sugar these keep for ages, well wrapped or in a tin, and never fail to impress!

Christmas Bakes 2

 

Today's bake is Taralli - an Italian snack made from flour, wine and olive oil.  Additional flavourings are either chilli flakes, dried rosemary, fennel seeds or cracked black pepper.  Each member of the family has their favourite, but without doubt the chilli ones boss the rest.  (They have to be cooked last so that the flavours don't mingle.) For us they have become associated with Christmas.

The process is to knead together 1Kg of '00' pasta flour with 400ml of wine and 200ml olive oil and 3 teaspoons of salt.  Rest the dough for at least an hour. Then divide into 4 before adding the chosen flavourings, rolling out into stands and shaping into rings.  Each ring is then dunked into a large pan of  simmering water and only fished out once it has risen to the surface.  (Slotted spoon required!) 

Quickly dried off on a teatowel they are then laid out on a lined baking tray and baked until dried out to the core.  About half an hour at gas mark 5 seems to do the trick.

The end result stores for weeks (or months) and is traditionally served with a glass of wine or a cocktail nibble.  They are also very popular on their own although they will make you thirsty! The above quantities make about 140 taralli.  

School Loses Staff

Some people never learn.  A year ago the 'grow your own loaf" project failed when the wheat crop was mysteriously flattened.  Could it have been sabotage or was it the birds?  So we tried again this year, with rattly bottles and string stretched between posts that needed to be raised higher and higher as the crop grew.  All was well until the crop started ripening.  The height in the top picture is about 6 inches below the peak a week or so earlier and the grains have been stripped:

I have the evidence that it wasn't crop failure:

 Without the intervention of human force (The school hasn't had pupils since March) those birds have just been waiting.  The jackdaws are top of my list of culprits.  They also love horticultural fleece which they shred and presumably use for nesting material.  Here's one I caught on camera with a beakfull:

They also view labels and leeks and any new planting really,  as a challenge to be tugged out of the ground and discarded.  Oddly the allotments don't suffer from the same birds - It's pigeons there.

At any rate the staff of life will have to wait for another year - and high security.

Rolling Stones permitting, here is the only song to match this campaign:

Champing At The Bit?

 The prospect of an impending mini ice age has warned me off  sowing anything new.  (I have already filled up my propagator and there won't be anywhere to house the burgeoning tomatoes, peppers, leeks as my greenhouse is unheated).  To cheer myself up, and to use up some of my rye starter, I have made Rye Crispbreads for the first time.  The hole in the middle is indicative of the original storage technique for these Scandinavian staples. I won't be threading them though.  They stack up nicely anyhow.

I did go to the plot yesterday and pick some greens - and a goodly amount of carrots too.  I also barrowed and dug manure into the pea and bean patch, walking across the new brassica patch to compact the ground in the process.   One school of thought is that you should never compact ground where you want to grow vegetables, but I make an exception for brassicas which can disappoint in loose soil.

Once the promised cold snap has passed I can contemplate getting started on this year's sowing in earnest.  In the meantime I'll champ on crispbreads.

Chelsea Top The Table Again

Much as I hate to admit it these spirals are winners. 

Before

After Baking

Crumby Shot - Penalty? - No it's a Corner

It's the sort of weather for staying indoors and baking something sweet and warming.

You Spin Me Round

Merry Christmas Panattoni New Year

I was at the plot today for the Christmas veg, but rather more warming is the panattoni I baked today. 

It is probably a whole year since I last baked one so I was well pleased to get a good rise!

Another recent Italian bake has been Taralli.  These are rusky textured snacks made from /flour, olive oil salt and white wine. Each batch is then flavoured with fennel seeds, chilli, black pepper or rosemary. Different family members have different favourites so I am encouraged by requests for more of each! You drop them into boiling water before baking to a crunchy consistency. Then they keep for ages in an airtight container.  I made these a few days in advance. (The rolling is rather labour intensive.)

Wishing all readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

No Knead Bread

After making this bread I had to decide how to market it.  It has the following claims.

• No additives  
• Simple ingredients (Flour, water, salt)
• 100% Rye
• Wholemeal
• Sourdough
• No kneading required

You can tell by the title which I decided to go for.  You really just mix the ingredients and pour into a tin and wait.  There is no point in kneading as rye has such a low gluten content.

By the way it takes 2 days to make. It Russian Rye from Andrew Whitley's Bread Matters book,  Provided you don't rush it you get a good aerated bread. The plastic bag, by the way, is there for a reason: to store the bread for a day or two while the crumb becomes less "gummy". It works.

I would like to add caraway seeds but the rest of the household are refusniks on that front. (They will also, to be totally honest, only eat this toasted).

This has been a most encouraging bake and I am might even go for a pumpernickel in the near future!

Pitta Patter Parsnip

Rustling up a batch of pitta bread I was pleased with the results. Can you spot the one that refused to puff up?

Back at the plot there is not much happening since the fall in temperature. It's all swede cabbage and parsnip.  Here's a snap of the first parsnips pulled:

On a Roll

It's been a while since posting and I have some catching up to do.  Despite my infrequent posts I am still active gardening, walking... and baking:

Bagels

Cinnamon Buns

These are two favourites that have become part of my repertoire. Both are good for the freezer, if only they weren't so popular.

I'm going to be catching up with posts on the other fronts too.

Baguette Baguette Baguette

Since returning from our holiday in Normandy I have been making a concerted effort to nail the baguette.  

The nearest town (Tinchebray) had a supermarket but still retained 4 boulangeries along its high street.  Despite our expectations the standard baguette was a bit of a let down.  To make matters worse the "pain complet" was also light and airy and not a proper wholemeal loaf, more a generic British supermarket loaf.  Then we realised that if you kept your eyes and ears open for "method traditionnel"or "pain au levain" there were good quality breads available.

To help me perfect my baguette on my return I added a couple of items to my batterie de cuisine.  I already had the metal baguette tray on the right but (after seeing one in use on holiday) I now have acquired a linen "couche".  It's just a thick cloth that you ruck up to make bed for the loaves when rising.

I've also tooled up with implements for slashing the loaf.  Lames or grignettes:  I'm onto my third and still not really happy about the results. It's really quite a knack to slash the bread without deflating it.   The aerosol is for spraying the loaf with water to help crust formation.

The results?  Well the two in the metal trays were suitably long and thin and crusty on top.  The ones rested in the couche were gloriously irregular but light and crustier underneath (They were slid onto a hot heavy duty metal roasting tray).

Here's an interesting loaf we came accross in France.  It's a brioche dough made into a full sized loaf. I love the decoration.

Now that's a professional loaf.