Diana Henry's "A Bird in the Hand" - Chicken with anchovies, lemon and rosemary

It is a long story , the one about waiting to get hold of Diana Henry's fabulous cookery book A Bird in the Hand

Three copies the publisher sent to me, three copies disappeared into the black hole that is Royal Mail. But eventually it and I were united, and I was finally a happy chick.

I gave the honours of first choice to Bob, and he homed in on Chicken with anchovies, lemon and rosemary.  It is not dissimilar to my favourite Spezzatina, made with anchovies and vinegar, but this one has onions (should have been shallots, but I didn't have any) and wine, and is topped with lemon and garlic - I added parsley to that mixture, to make a classic Italian gremolata, which I love. 

It came out beautifully. Apart from the little tweaks above (and where would I be if I didn't tweak) I followed the recipe, and it came out just as it should. 

We had roast Italian style potatoes and fresh, lightly blanched spring greens and it was gorgeous. And easy!! Hurray for easy! 

disclaimer: I was sent a review copy, but I did the cooking, the eating and the writing! 

Thane's April Foolery

I have started to go again to Thane Prince's Cook Book Club - hurray!!

I missed it so much, but after a rather nasty accident on the way back in November, I had decided not to drive at night until the summer (if at all...) and didn't fancy public transport to Islington during the winter. But Spring has started to spring, and the nights are longer, so I'm back!

If you don't know about Thane's fabulous Cook Book club, it is in the first week of each month and is held at The Draper's Arms in Islington. We bring food to share, books to read from and talk about, and mouths to natter with. A great time is always had by all. (You can find details each month on Facebook and Twitter:  @TPCookBookClub on Twitter, with both a public page and a members only group (for the people who regularly come to the club)  for information on Facebook.)

April was held on April 1st, so what better theme than foolery? To be interpreted as loosely as anyone could wish.  

We were a relatively small group this time (the numbers vary dramatically depending on what is happening in everyone's lives) but small is beautiful. The food and people certainly were :D .

There were more people , and more food, but by then I was in nattering mode.. which is why you go to a club isn't it!!  So hello Kate and Naomi! and thank you all for welcoming me back as your prodigal daughter :)

the best of A Greedy Piglet : A Hufflepuff of Brioche

I've been playing with sweet dough recently, making Colomba for Easter, and realised that I hadn't copied over my excellent sweet dough recipe to here. This basic dough is perfect for all sorts of things, for cinnamon buns, for little plaited breads with sultanas in, for rolling out to make Nutella star bread, stuffing with fruit, or just making brioche to have for breakfast a la française.

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I am very happily experimenting with yeast baking. I love the slowness, and the sheer life of yeast dough. It comes alive under your hands, it is wonderful stuff.

Mostly, I have been baking savoury bread. Wet doughs like focaccia, dryer doughs like my milk bread, sourdough rye. I've been using a scald, overnight proofing, generally fiddling about. Anything rather than just bung the ingredients into the mixer and mix it up.

Playing about with the way the dough is made is interesting beyond measure. Each different stage allows the yeast to break down different parts of the flour, resulting in lots of flavour, sometimes a more robust texture, and sometimes a pillowy soft one.

One of the initial fiddling abouts I am very fond of is using a sponge. I talked about this in my Milk Bread tips, and I still think it is an easy way to improve simple breads. It is easily incorporated into any recipe, it is all just a question of proportions. Sometimes, I use a flying sponge, i.e. a short sponge, where half the flour quantity in the recipe, an equal weight of liquid, and all the yeast, are mixed and left for a relatively short time, about an hour and a half until there is lots of bubbling in the mixture and it is rising vigorously.

But recently, I have been extending the time that I am fermenting this sponge to around 6 hours when the dough has risen, and is now falling, and looking as though it has acne. The development of the gluten in this mixture is good and strong, you can see lots of stringy bits in the dough when you mix it into the rest of the flour and add any other ingredients and the remains of any liquid from your original recipe. The white bread I make as an everyday bread is stunningly good using this method.

So now is the time to use this method in a sweet dough. I have made some sweet dough but not a lot. I found making gibassiers very satisfying, and this recipe uses a preferment, which sits overnight and only uses a tiny amount of yeast, the remainder of the yeast being added in the main mixing.

I wondered if my sponge, using all of the yeast, would work, or if the retarding effect of the butter sugar and eggs would negate the benefits? I don't have the science to explain what is going on, I can only try and see what works and what doesn't.

Well, I am pleased to say that it works fine. In fact, I think that it is a real improvement. The brioche type buns that I made are fluffy delicate clouds of delight, perfect with a cup of coffee in front of the computer

Very Light Enriched Dough Brioche Buns

This recipe is over 2 days, so start the sponge in the afternoon of the day before you want to bake, so that you can refrigerate the finished dough overnight to set the butter.

sponge:

125g Bread flour

125g whole milk, scalded and allow to cool to room temperature (do scald and cool the milk, it makes a lot of difference to the softness of the final dough)

1 tsp instant yeast

main dough:

250g Italian 00 flour

3 whole eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp salt

50g caster sugar

120g unsalted butter

Glaze:

one egg beaten lightly

sugar syrup

pearl sugar

First make the sponge by mixing the flour, milk and yeast together in a largish bowl. You don't need to knead it just bring it together into a ball. Cover lightly with plastic and set aside for 4-6 hours. It will ferment and grow, and then will start to drop, you will see the rounded top start to sink, and lots of little burst bubbles appear on the surface.

Mix together the sponge and the 3 eggs, and stir until they are well blended. Then add the flour from the main dough, the salt, and the sugar. Mix this thoroughly for a minute or two, it will be very wet, but it shouldn't be an actual batter. If it is a too wet add a little more flour.

If you are going to knead this by hand, and it isn't difficult, just tricky and sticky, do look at this Bertinet method video . (This video will also give you a good idea of the texture you are looking for in the dough)

However, I am lazy these days, and use my Kenwood stand mixer (best thing I ever bought! ) with the dough hook on a medium speed.

Knead the dough until it is smooth and supple and coming away from sides of the mixer, just holding a little at the bottom. Then start to add the butter about 20g at a time, kneading in each piece until it is incorporated before adding the next. Mix at a medium speed until it is all in and there is no slapping noise of the butter on the side of the mixer.

Scoop the dough out of the mixer into a bowl about twice the size of the dough, tuck it in around the edges to make a nice smooth top, cover with plastic and into the fridge overnight. It will last for a couple of days in the fridge if you don't have time to bake the following day, though it will continue to rise. If it overtakes the bowl, then just deflate it and cover it again.

When you want to bake, remove the dough from the fridge, and turn it out onto a floured board. Use a scraper to cut the dough into 12 pieces (or halve it, make 6 brioche and do something else with the rest). Form each piece into a neat round and drop it into a greased medium brioche mould (I have a silicone one with 6 moulds, but I think if I were buying from scratch I would sooner have individual metal ones. Allow to rise for 1-2 hours until doubled in size and very puffy.

Brush with egg glaze - I sprinkled with pearl sugar before baking, but the heat was a bit too hot for the sugar and it caramelised. Next time I will bake with the egg glaze to give a lovely brown top and then glaze with sugar syrup and pearl sugar afterwards to keep the little white sugary pieces intact.

Preheat the oven to Gas Mk 7, 425/220 and cook for 15-20 minutes. Turn out upside down onto a baking tray and give the undersides another 5 minutes (especially if you are using silicone which doesn't brown very well. Cool on a tray and try not to eat all at once.

I am not sure how long these will last, I only made them this afternoon.... I will let you know!

Just the simple things.... Total Fruyo Coconut Yoghurt, apple sauce, hazelnuts...

Sometimes the simple things are just perfect.

I have plans to make something elaborate, something witty, clever.... something.... hip.

I have Total Yoghurt's newest addition to their Fruyo range - full cream Total Greek Classic yoghurt with coconut shreds.  I need fruit to go with it.... I have mango. I have pineapple. I am planning a stunning, artistic plate with daisy like petals of golden fruit..... meh... too much work. Maybe another time.

Today I am feeling lazy. With simple tastes.

I have a Bramley apple. Chopped and into a small bowl. A splash of cider and into the microwave for 3 minutes until fluffy and hot. Whip up into a pale, sharply sweet puree.  Into a shallow stemmed glass. A matter of seconds.

Top carefully with half a pot of Fruyo. Eat the rest whilst admiring the glass (which is an Edwardian crystal champagne coupe by the way... ).  Yumyum.

It needs something ... it's looking a little pale.... roasted hazelnut nibs from the cupboard.

And as I am deeply artistic on the inside, a slice of apple, cut across the middle to show the delicate star of its inside.

Simple.

with thanks to Total Greek yoghurt for the sample of Fruyo Classic Coconut

Macaroni Cheese.... not Mac AND Cheese. We are English, doncha know!

Mac and Cheese... it's everywhere. Being added into burgers, on the side of ribs, a side order at many of the current swathe of down and dirty, street food inspired, diner joints.  But...

.....what happened to English macaroni cheese? No "and" in there you will notice. Is it the same thing? Surely not?

To me, US Mac and Cheese has always meant a LOT of cheese. Luridly yellow tinged with orange from its processed cheese content, and rich as Croesus.   English macaroni cheese is more subtle, a gentler, creamier, altogether less strident dish.  So are the terms interchangeable? And why (whichever version you may prefer) are they suddenly so popular?

Well, the popularity is well earned.  Cooked the English way, it is simply delicious.  To my taste, the US version is less digestible, too rich. Both are stolid fare,  good solid working class chaps, with rolled up sleeves, made to fill stomachs at minimal expense.  Interestingly, when trying to see where it started out, it would seem that the early English version was closer to the US version. The earliest cook book to include a recipe seems to be the English "Forme of Cury" from the 14th century: "Take and make a thynne foyle of dowh. and kerve it on peces, and cast hem on boillyng water & seeþ it wele. take chese and grate it and butter cast bynethen and above as losyns. and serue forth." ("Make a thin foil of dough and cut it in pieces. Put them in boiling in water and seethe them well. Grate cheese and add it with butter beneath and above as with losyns [a dish similar to lasagne], and serve."

No mention of bechamel sauce and creaminess. This sounds like a solid wedge of cheesey pasta that would sit on your stomach for days.  In England, by the late 1700s Elizabeth Raffald was already moving towards a more easily digested sauce based dish, with cooked pasta added and then browned in the oven or under the grill.

The dish moved the US around the 1800s when Thomas Jefferson returned from Europe, and has been a US staple ever since. Normally termed a "casserole", (which I understand in the US to mean a mixture of ingredients cooked or finished in a casserole, often vegetables or pasta) the pasta is often added uncooked with cheese and cream or milk, and cooks to a creamy mass in the oven.  I found an article in the New York Times from 2006, which talks of a "vexatious infatuation with white sauce," in the early 20th century,  but insists that a true mac and cheese should be "nothing more than tender elbows of pasta suspended in pure molten cheddar, with a chewy, golden-brown crust of cheese on top." 

Hmmmmmm. I guess it must be a question of personal taste. I shall certainly be quizzing my server as to what is in my side of Mac and Cheese.  If it is dressed in lightly cheesey bechamel, with a tang of mustard, I shall insist that the menu is amended immediately to Macaroni Cheese. I shall then order it.....

English Macaroni Cheese

I can't give accurate measurements for this, it really depends on how hungry you are, it is just slightly undercooked macaroni, mixed into a thin cheese sauce, and then oven baked with a cheese topping until brown and bubbly. But there are a few things to consider:

Pasta is absorbent. I like thin elbow macaroni as it is less absorbent than the larger version, but still, make your sauce MUCH thinner than you think it should be. It will be sucked up as if by blotting paper, and you want your macaroni to be smoothly bathed in a savoury sauce, not sitting in dry, individual pieces.

Cheese can be sickly.  I use extra strong cheddar in judicious quantities with extra parmesan for the top, I want to only just taste the cheese in the sauce, to add a level of savoury that won't completely overpower the flavour of the pasta. I still want to taste the wheat.  Use a spoonful of English mustard in the sauce to bring out the flavour of the cheese, and remember to check the seasoning before adding any further salt as cheese can sometimes be very salty in a sauce.

Tomatoes on top. This is essential in my view. Sliced tomatoes on top, under the extra cheese. The sweetness of the tomatoes cuts the cloy of the sauce and just finishes it perfectly.

Consider this a full meal, not just a side dish that needs meat. Though some cold gammon is a sublime addition.

This is what mine looks like...which would you go for? English macaroni cheese? or US Mac & Cheese?

The best of A Greedy Piglet: Old fashioned bread pudding. Deep joy.

I was shocked that I hadn't moved this recipe from June 2010 over here from the old blog site ... (or at least I can't see that I have, but I might be going blind..) it is by a long stretch one of the most popular recipes I have ever given on A Greedy Piglet.  Give it a go.. and let me know what you think!

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There are great foods in all our repertoires that have taste memories in them. That take you right back to childhood. Sometimes bad, mostly good (I think I have deliberately erased the really bad ones though...)

Bread pudding is one of the good ones for me. I am talking about proper bread pudding, not bread-and-butter pudding. Good as that is, B&B pudding is very much a dessert, a light egg custard held together with slices of buttered bread and fruit (dried, fresh, even jam). Bread pudding is something quite different, a cake to be eaten alongside a cup of tea, to fill the gap between lunch and dinner, to assuage the after-school hunger of growing kids.

It is as old as the hills, a good working class cake, made by people who couldn't afford to waste anything. These days, of course, we don't have to worry about where every last crust will go, and so we make versions that are considerably more luxurious than the ones made in the days during and between the wars. Mine is certainly more fruity and spicey than my mum's.

Less stodgy too. The wartime recipe I was brought up on had suet and flour in to make it solid and claggy. I loved it at the time, but these days, I want something lighter and less fatty on my palate.

I have been asked many a time for this recipe, but it has always been tricky to get the recipe down. It is, after all, a recipe made to use up leftovers, and for this very reason the quantities are variable, depending on what is actually left over. I know what I want the mix to look like, but how to convey this to someone who hasn't been there whilst I have been cooking is very difficult, and I take my hat off to recipe developers around the world.

So armed with a pencil and a now-rather-sticky notebook, I took the trouble to weigh and measure as I went, and this is what I came up with. Now these measures are not written in stone, this kind of recipe is good natured, it doesn't depend on strict ratios to work, you can up and down the various ingredients as you feel fit. The bread/egg/butter ratio is probably best kept roughly to this, but you can add more/less fruit, sugar, spice, to suit your own taste.

300g Stale bread, cut roughly into chunks (I've made this with stale fruit loaf as well as ordinary bread, works beautifully)
50g soft brown sugar
250g dried fruit
1 tbs black treacle
50g butter
1 egg, lightly beaten just enough to mix yolk & white together
1 heaped tsp ground mixed spice

Soak the bread in COLD water to cover until the crusts on the bread are nice and soft. Squeeze the water out of the bread until it is as dry as you can get it. Put the squeezed bread into a mixing bowl, throw the water away.

Roughly break the bread up (sort of squish it between your fingers, like making mud pies)

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and black treacle together (TIP warm the spoon first before you get the treacle out of the tin, then it just slides off the spoon into the pan). You just want it warm and runny, don't let it boil - it turns into toffee pretty quickly.

Add the fruit, egg, sugar and spice to the bread, together with the treacle/butter mix and mix it all up. It should be quite a sloppy mix, very similar to Christmas Pudding.

Turn into a greased and base lined tin - usually people would cook this in a flat traybake tin, but I have recently started cooking it in a 1lb loaf tin, I find that I get more squishy middle bit, which is the bit I like. If you like the crunchy outside, then a traybake will be better for you.

Run a fork over the top surface to roughen it up, and sprinkle with a little extra sugar - demerara is good if you have any, or just ordinary granulated.

Bake at medium temperature (roughly Gas Mark 4, 350/180 degrees but (in particular if you have a fan oven) do check the temperature and timing, the raisins can turn into little charred bullets if your oven cooks hot), for about an hour. It won't rise much, and when you test it it will probably still be a little damp, that's ok. Sprinkle with a little more sugar if it isn't crunchy enough on the top for your liking. Let it cool in the tin before taking it out - it is quite delicate, and it will break apart if you take it out whilst it is still hot.

Oh, by the way... I fibbed about it only being a cake. The pudding name is quite right. It is also delicious hot with cream or ice cream as a REAL pudding.

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Update January 2015

Among the various comments that I received were some great ideas, people were soaking the bread in cold tea, adding apricots, apples, strawberry jam (yes! honestly!) glace cherries... seems your imagination has no bounds! Read the original comments from the Greedy Piglet Post from 2010 and then come back and add your own thoughts here :)

Fischers - at last!!!

I have been meaning to go to Fischer's on Marylebone High Street for lunch for ages.  Several of the Thane Prince Cook Book Club join Thane (who is on her way to having a personal, permanently reserved table) there frequently, and report on the fabulous ambience and food. 

I don't eat out often really, but I have a soft spot for the Delaunay Counter, where Bob and I sometimes stop for a chicken schnitzel sandwich and a Black Forest gateau if we are up town for the theatre or the museums, and as Fischer's is run by the same group, I had to go sometime or other.

My lovely friend Frances, who I used to work with when I worked in publishing, moved to Somerset a few years back, so we don't get to meet up that often.  But, she had plans to be in town for a day before Xmas and we decided to go shopping and see the lights, and to have a posh lunch.

Fischer's it was to be.   Love the old fashioned continental railway station vibe of this restaurant, with the clock in the middle.

We settled in with aperitifs and delicious caraway rye bread and whipped butter, and waited for our special of venison stew and spatzle with red cabbage to arrive.

Rib-sticking, warming stuff, lots of it and delicious.  We didn't leave much...

 We really didn't have a lot of room for pudding, but we were very tempted by the sound of the nut icecreams - almond, hazelnut and pistachio with a hot butterscotch sauce.

The almond was the prize in this though, it was on the top so we ate that first, but honestly, I wish we had left it until last it was so delicious.  Next time I think I will ask for 3 scoops of almond and leave off the others.

Not a cheap lunch, about £80 for the two of us, with coffee but no wine. But definitely one for the address book for a special occasion.

Spoooooky Spanish Persimon #spanishpersimon

Tis the end of October...

The witches and the bats and the vampires are about......

If you are orange  BE VERY AFRAID...

you WILL be put in a cauldron and BOILED!!!

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One cold, wet and stormy night

(alright, one unseasonably warm afternoon...)

a box arrived...... it was filled with the sound of groaning... and fluttering... and seeping from the edges came orange light...

The lid creaked open and a round shiny parcel rolled out onto the floor...

The groaning was getting LOUDER.. the fluttering beat against the sides of the parcel. There were THINGS inside, that needed to be released....

Would they be boiled?

Would they escape?

Would they be cut up and made into breakfast????

(Answers to above quiz...(a.  No.  (b. No. (c. Oh yes!!! )

(with deep apologies for the appallingly bad prose and grateful thanks to Spanish Persimon for the gorgeous golden globes and to Red Communications for arranging the delivery :)

the best of A Greedy Piglet: More White Bread tips

More of my stream of consciousness tips... you will find that they do vary a bit from post to post... they are all valid at different times :) take what you like and leave the rest...

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Do you remember I started making white bread? that my husband approved of, and would actually eat in preference to the thick sliced white bread he used to insist I bought? (2014 edit:  he has gone back to preferring sliced bread... :(  )

I've been playing further and have a couple more ideas for you that have been very successful.

Make a flying sponge

A flying sponge is a fast method of making a pre-ferment or poolish. It takes part of the flour and liquid and pre-ferments that with the yeast. Some methods call for just a little bit of the yeast and a long (often overnight) rise, others take a faster route and mix with all the yeast from the recipe. This adds a lot of flavour to the bread without a lengthy rise, and suits my schedule much better.

Basically, you take 50% of the total flour called for in the recipe, and add an equal amount of liquid and all the yeast from the recipe. So for this milk bread, I use 250g bread flour plus 250g milk at blood heat and 1 tsp on instant yeast. NO SALT. Mix to a shaggy dough, no need to knead, and leave for 2 hours until puffy and risen.

Then add the rest of the flour (250g OO flour for this loaf), the rest of the liquid (another 150g warm milk) the salt (1.25 tsp) mix, knead and continue as your recipe. I find that the rising times are much reduced, without sacrificing any flavour.

Add DRY milk powder

I tried with fresh full cream milk, scalding this and allowing it to cool to blood heat, but to be honest, I kept forgetting to buy full cream milk (I don't use it normally) so went back to using skim milk. Either fresh skim milk, scalded and cooled, or more easily, the boiling water and milk powder I used in the original recipe. Then I discovered that I could make it even easier by mixing the fine powdered economy milk powder into the flour, and just using water. Which is easily got from the kettle and the tap. Simples!

Use yoghurt instead of milk if you have run out of milk or milk powder

I had not been shopping, I only had a little bit of milk powder, and very little liquid milk, but I did have some Greek yoghurt in the fridge. I used the milk powder for the sponge, and used 100g yoghurt with 100ml water to the main bulk mix. The dough is slightly stickier, and easier to knead in a machine than by hand, and the crust softens when it cools.But that isn't always a bad thing, and the flavour is lovely.

Knead by machine if you have one.

I admit I have resisted buying a stand mixer for a long time, due to the expense to be honest. But I succumbed and bought myself a Kenwood Titanium as my Christmas and Birthday present this year, and I am so very pleased with the results. I have been kneading on a low setting (1) for 10 minutes and the dough is excellent. I would always use Dan's quick knead method if I didn't have the machine around, but to be honest, I am getting such good lift and tension in the dough, I can only recommend you to use if you have one.

Allow it to rise properly

I have started allowing my bulk proof to really swell up, to nearly 3 times the original volume. It definitely helps having somewhere warm to put it, draughts are no friend to bread dough. I treat the dough quite gently when I turn it out of the bowl, but after deflating it gently, it needs to be

Shaped tightly

Make sure that you maintain a distinction between the sides of your dough. One side will form a good skin with tight shaping, and you need to keep this on the same side, folding and shaping the dough to tighten this skin to make the bread rise properly. Have a look in Jeffrey Hamelman for really good shaping instructions.

Don't use a silicone sheet to put your bread on

When I baked the bloomer, I thought putting the bread on a silicone sheet would help it not stick, but I didn't realise that it would stop it from browning and cooking properly underneath. The heat of the metal seems necessary, and the finish on the bottom of the tin loaf was much better. I took the loaf off the silicon, turned it upside down and finished it off that way to give it a crust underneath. Sadly, this made the top flat!

I hope these tips help, do let me know, and let me know any tips you have too please. I'm still learning, I need all the help I can get!

The best of A Greedy Piglet: Even Lighter White Bread!

This is certainly one to try again soon, easy to forget that mashed potato is used to improve white bread in many cultures, this one uses potato flour but I might try with mashed potato flakes and see what that does.

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Trying new flours and slightly different methods to see how they will affect the softness of the milky white bread, this is the softest yet, and possibly as soft as I want to get. The crust is very thin light and soft, so would make excellent rolls.

Basic recipe is the same as the Milky Loaf here.. but I used 250g Strong flour, 200g 00 flour, and 50g potato flour (farine or fecule). Liquid was 350ml of finger hot water with 4 HEAPED tbs of milk powder and 60g butter.

Mixing was slightly different in that I folded rather than kneaded. So autolysed for 50 mins (cos I forgot it again..) then 2 lots of folding at 20 min intervals. Tightly shaped into ovals, and put side by side on a baking tray for 40 mins. Baked for 20 mins at Mk 7, reducing to 20 mins at Mk4.

The extra milk powder and butter together with the small amount of potato flour make a tight soft crumb ideal for sandwiches. It has a high level of natural sugars, so toasts quickly. A bread that is easy to eat for small children I would think.

The best of A Greedy Piglet: my top tips with a Milky White and a Milky Brown

 First of the tip sheets I wrote a couple of years ago,  still valid. Lovely loaves I made back then! Nicer than the ones I am making now I think.... I need to read my own tips again!

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I am loving making bread again. I had forgotten how satisfying it is to have a freshly baked loaf sitting on top of its tin cooling down.

I have also been searching for several years for a loaf that Bob would enjoy, and I have found it. Hurray!!

It makes brilliant Poppy Seed rolls as well:

The White Milk Loaf, almost as per Dan Lepard's Milk Bread recipe in The Handmade Loaf. I use skimmed milk powder, as I don't always have fresh milk enough in the fridge, more butter than he does, and the liquid is hotter. But I do use his brilliant method. And I have tried this out as well with a mix of flours to get a light soft brown loaf.

I really recommend getting Dan's book, there are some amazing recipes.
And whilst you are waiting for your copy to arrive from Amazon, here are my top tips for making brilliant bread.

Tip one, make sure the flour and yeast is thoroughly soaked in the liquid before you start to knead. You will do this by roughly mixing it together into a shaggy mass. The easiest thing by far for this is a Danish dough whisk, which you can get at Bakery Bits . Get the smaller one for household quantities, it is easier to use.

Tip two, if you don't already use it discover Quick yeast -- Dove Farm is my favourite, easily available in the supermarket and in a little tetrapack box not a sachet, so easier to use how much you need. I keep my opened pack in an airtight plastic box. You add it to the flour, not the liquid and it is foolproof. (Well, I add rapidly, I have never had a failure with it, in years of breadmaking.) If you have time, use less yeast and more rising time, if you are short of time, add more yeast but expect the bread to stale a bit quicker.

Tip three, don't be scared of salt. Sea salt is the optimum you will read, but I find the crystals hard to dissolve, and I don't want shards of salt in my bread. So I just use ordinary table salt (the cheapest kind, which has no additives). Make sure you use enough. Bread with no salt is disgusting. ( Don't ask the Italians about this though, as they love their saltless bread, but then they eat it with salty salami and proscuitto)

Tip four, forget about heavy kneading. Kneading is designed to strengthen the gluten and it does, but time is what really helps the gluten. So you are only kneading for 10 seconds (or to a fastish count of 20, which is what I do.) Then you will rest for about 20 minutes, and 10 second knead again. Do this another time, and then let the bread rest and prove for about half an hour. Then shape it and let it rise again for about an hour (if it is warm) or an hour and a half (if the weather is a bit chillier).

Tip five, shape properly. For a tin loaf, you want a good tight skin on the outside of the bread, and the inside to be full of evenly distributed small bubbles. For a looser bread like focaccia or ciabatta you are aiming at lots of large light bubbles. You will find lots of good information on shaping bread on the internet, I love The Fresh Loaf forum, and Dan's own forum for really good links to resources and amazingly knowledgeable people happy to share their knowledge with us.

Tip six, wash all your stuff in cold water. Honestly, you will thank me for this tip more than any other. Hot water cooks the flour. And use your dough scraper in the cold water to clean your bowl. The curve of your dough scraper ( you do have a dough scraper, yes? I cut mine out of icecream cartons btw..) fits the curve of the bowl to quickly remove all the doughy bits. You can then tip the water away with all the sticky bits in it and either wash the bowl in hot water as usual or stick it in the dishwasher.

I'd be delighted to hear your tips to add to mine, please comment and let me know what you think makes the best bread?

Milky Bread

#ratingval# from #reviews# reviews

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Recipe Type: Bread

Author: based on a Dan Lepard recipe

Excellent crusty Farmhouse type white loaf

Ingredients

• FOR WHITE BREAD:
• 350g Strong Bread Flour
• 150g tipo 00 Italian Flour , or any soft plain wheat flour.
• 100 ml boiling water
• 200 ml room temperature water
• FOR BROWN BREAD:
• 200g Strong White Bread Flour
• 150g Strong Wholemeal Flour
• 100g tipo 00 Italian Flour, or any soft plain wheat flour
• 50g Potato flour (not essential but makes a lovely soft loaf, if you don't have it add another 50g Wholemeal flour)
• 120 ml boiling water
• 230 ml room temperature water
• FOR EITHER BREADS:
• 1tsp fine salt
• 1.25 tsp instant yeast
• 4 tablespoons milk powder (I use skimmed milk powder, but any will do)
• 50g unsalted butter, chopped

Instructions

1. Put the flours, salt and yeast in a large bowl. In a jug mix the two waters, and check the temperature. You want it warm blood temperature, or roughly 35 degrees Centigrade.
2. Add the milk powder and the butter to the water and whisk in. Add the liquid to the flours and mix until a shaggy dough is formed.
3. Rest for 10-20 mins.
4. Knead lightly 10 secs/20 times. Return to a clean, lightly oiled bowl , turn over so the top is oily, and cover with a plastic bag. Repeat short kneads 3 times.
5. Rest for 30 mins.
6. Shape firmly as required and put into a greased 2lb loaftin, or make rolls (I made 12 from this mix)and put onto a baking tray about an inch apart so that they will kiss when baked.
7. Rise covered in oiled plastic (the one from the rises will be oily enough) for an hour to an hour and a half depending on the temperature in the room, until the bread is nearly as high as you want it to be but not soft and floppy.
8. Glaze with milk or egg, scatter with flour or poppy seeds, and bake in a hot oven Gas Mark 7 for 15 mins, then reduce the heat to Gas Mark 4 and continue to bake for 25 mins for bread or 10 mins for rolls.
9. Check that the bread comes away from the tin easily, and is good and brown and crusty on the underside, and cool thoroughly on a rack before cutting and eating.

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The Best of A Greedy Piglet: Giardinera - the Very Best Pickles!

It is that time of year again, and I need to make more pickles for the autumn and maybe for Christmas... although these are so good that I will make a lot more than last year. 

One thing I did find last year was that for two of us the 1 litre Kilner jars I used were too big, and the pickles got soft in the fridge before they were eaten up.  This year I will be making in much smaller jars. I still haven't found any commercially made pickles here in the UK as good as these. If you give them a go, do please let me know. I love feedback on my favourite recipes.

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I have a husband who is half Italian, and whenever we went to Italy, we would always pick up jars of pickled vegetables, slightly sweet, in an oily vinegar. He loves them, but similar types bought over here have always been too sharp and vinegary for his taste. For years I have promised to try making them, and never got around to it.. but this year, for Christmas I made some. Oh they are good!

I used a mix of vegetables that included cauliflower, turnip, celery, red and yellow peppers, courgette and carrot. Here they are cut up nicely in their little bowls waiting to go in order into their vinegar bath:

I find it easier to keep them all separate so that I can add them to the vinegar bath in the right order - the carrot, turnip and celery first, cook for a couple of minutes, then the cauliflower, one minute more and lastly, I added the red and yellow peppers and the courgettes off the heat. I like the vegetables rather on the crunchy side, if you prefer them a little softer then cook a little longer. The vinegar bath should be kept on a simmer rather than a full rolling boil as you don't want to reduce it too much.

Importantly, don't cool the vegetables in the hot vinegar, as they will continue to cook. Take them out with a slotted spoon and fill into sterilised Kilner jars, adding a bay leaf and a sprig of rosemary to each jar. When the vinegar is cooled right down to no more than lukewarm, then give it a stir and fill the jars covering the vegetables completely then seal. If you don't have enough seasoned vinegar, top up each jar with plain wine or spirit vinegar. I keep them just on the shelf until they are opened, when I prefer to keep the jar in the fridge.

To fill 3 medium Kilner jars

250g each of carrots, turnips, red/yellow peppers, courgettes, celery, cauliflower cut into bite sized slices/pieces
500 ml white wine or cider vinegar
500 ml spirit vinegar (white or distilled vinegar in the US I believe)
100 ml olive oil
80g sugar
40g salt (I just use the cheapest salt as it is dissolved, try for one with no additives)
One bay leaf and one sprig of rosemary per jar
Three medium or four smaller Kilner jars, sterilised.

• Combine the vinegars, oil, salt and sugar in a large saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer.
• Add the vegetables starting with the carrots, celery and turnips. Cook 2 minutes. Add cauliflower and cook one minute more.
• Remove from heat and add peppers and courgettes off the heat. Allow to sit off the heat for two minutes. Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and fill into kilner jars, making sure there is a good mix of different vegetables in each jar.
• Allow the vinegar to cool to room temperature and then fill into the jars, completely covering the vegetables (if there is not quite enough vinegar to cover top up with more plain vinegar, either wine or spirit, whichever is to hand). Seal and keep for up to three months. Keep in the fridge once opened.

Eat with cold meats and cheese... or just nick bits straight out of the jar!

Back to basics... A nice white English style bread, Simple.

I have been making sourdough bread all the time recently, but I suddenly have a yearning for a simple milky white bread again.

It doesn't keep as well as sourdough, so needs to be made more often, but that isn't really a bad thing. The hydration (proportion of liquid to the flour) is less with these very English breads, and that makes for a tighter crumb. A crumb that is suited more to English sandwiches and toast than open, airy sourdough, which is much better for scooping and dipping olive-oily mixes.

The basic bread is pretty much the same, the only difference between these two is in the liquids.

First off, I made some poppy seed rolls. Perfect for cheese and tomato rolls, and for bacon with tomato ketchup for breakfast.

These lasted around two days in the bread bin, but they aren't long keepers, so I wouldn't want to keep them any longer, although they freeze well.

So next up, proper English loaves made in small loaf tins (these are mini loaves, I used a quarter of the dough for each of these, and the other half in a 1lb tin for a little bit bigger slice),

And here is a close up of the crumb of the loaves

There is room in our baking lexicon for all kinds of bread. Don't let us forget this kind of bread by only making "artisan" style bread.  Raise the flag (the old style Union Flag, even if Scotland leave the Union) for English bread!

Buttermilk / Whey Bread

Sponge:

150g bread flour
150g water
1 tsp instant yeast

Mix this together roughly and leave to get bubbly and well risen for 2-4 hours depending on your schedule

Main dough:

350g Bread flour (I use an equal mix of Canadian extra strong and bread flour or 00 pasta flour)
160g liquid : 
for rolls I used water with 1 tbs buttermilk powder (or use half fresh buttermilk, half water)
for loaves I used whey from straining home made full cream milk yoghurt, or you could use half fresh yoghurt and half water
All of the yeast sponge above
Additional quarter tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
half tsp malt powder (optional)
1 tablesp milk powder (optional, but makes for a lovely flavour)
rolls:  1 tablespoon oil (I used cold pressed rapeseed oil, but any oil is fine)

Mix the sponge and liquids first of all and then add the flour, salt, yeast, malt and milk powder (if using) and mix roughly to a soft dough, either by machine or by hand.  Let it rest for half an hour and then knead in your favourite way (lots of tips on kneading in my earlier post on the old Greedy Piglet site on white bread and more tips here , both of which I will move here shortly).  Allow to rise for approximately 2 hours until at least doubled in size.  Deflate gently by patting flat on the worktop, and then divide either into 12 rolls or shape to fit one 2lb loaf tin, 2 x 1 lb loaf tins or 4 mini loaf tins, or a mixture of these shapes.   Start the oven heating now to Gas Mark 7 425/220 degrees.

Shaping rolls:
Cut the dough into chunks (I work to about 12 for this amount of dough, cutting in half then half again then half again) and roll into rough rounds. Leave for about 10 mins and then shape by patting flat, turning the corners to the middle a couple of times, turn so the seams are underneath and then rolling with a cupped hand on the (unfloured) worktop.  Pop onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush with egg wash (1 egg in a bowl with a pinch of salt and a splash of water). Cover very lightly with cling film and allow to proof for half an hour then egg wash again and sprinkle with poppy seeds - sesame seeds are also nice, maybe with a couple of nigella seeds too for a Turkish flavour.  Bake for around 15 mins until golden brown.

Shaping bread. 
Divide the dough into the sizes your tins dictate. Flatten gently and then shape by folding corners to middle then turning top third down and then bottom third up to make an oblong. Flatten gently again and fold top down to bottom, sealing the bottom edge firmly with the base of your hand. Drop into the greased loaf tin and cover with cling film or a clean shower cap and allow to proof for around an hour or until the bread is just peeking over the top of the tin. Slash down the middle if you like, or not if you don't like, dust with flour, and bake for around 45 mins.

Cool both shapes on a rack out of the tins until thoroughly cool.

Or until just about warm enough for the butter not to melt too much. Yummy.

Stuffed.......or Stuffed Up? part two...

During the day of the Great British Bake Off Bread Week yesterday, young Danny @foodurchin called for his Twitter and Beamly friends to join him in baking something to scoff during the programme.  I didn't have a huge amount of time, it was a work day after all, but I decided it was a good time to revisit a stuffed bread. Sorry.. what did I say there? .. I DIDN'T HAVE A HUGE AMOUNT OF TIME. We are back to rushing a bread that shouldn't be rushed again. Sigh

I don't learn do I?

Sweet this time I thought. I hadn't watched yet don't forget, so hadn't seen Jordan's debacle with his sweet stuffed bread. Probably just as well. It should have put me off.

I have Nutella (well, Sainsbury's own brand version, which is fine by me) and some hazelnuts.   I don't bother to double check the recipe on line. My dough is fine. I know how to make this. I do. 

No I don't. I stuffed it up.

This is my stuffed-up chocolate bread.

This should look like this... (the link explains how the shaping is done as well. Though the dough is a simpler one than mine)

oops.

I rushed it. You can see it. That 2nd picture is a thing of beauty whilst mine is totally ugly.

The dough was too soft. It was sticky and slithery and I made a right pigs ear of it.  I didn't roll it properly, I didn't twist it properly, and I overbaked it too. But let me tell you for nothing, it tastes lovely. And that is what is important isn't it? No, sorry, you won't find style over substance in my kitchen.

Here you are, it is based on my demi-brioche dough cobbled together from various different recipes. This is MY version - yours may vary... for instance,  you may actually bake it nicely :)

Semi brioche dough is semi as it is only half as rich and half as sweet as true brioche dough, so it is much easier to use for something like this. It would work just as well with a savoury filling such as the pesto and cheese one here:

preferment:
150g bread flour
150g water
1 tsp instant yeast

Mix this together to make a rough dough, and put to one side for 4-5 hours. You can even make it in the evening and leave it at room temperature overnight, in which case, you probably only need half a teaspoon of yeast.

Main dough.

200g strong bread flour
150g OO flour or plain flour if you don't have OO
4 level tablespoons milk powder + 1 tablespoon of buttermilk powder (you can omit this if you don't have it)
2 whole eggs broken into a measuring jug, level made up to 200ml with warm water and mixed together
1 tablespoon Total Classic Greek yoghurt
1.5 tsp salt
75 g unsalted butter at room temperature
2 tablespoons runny honey

Filling
4-6  tablespoons Nutella at soft room temperature
2-3 tablespoons chopped hazelnuts
I egg mixed with a little water and salt

In a stand mixer* (*I really do recommend a stand mixer for this, you can use a Slap and Fold method of mixing and kneading but it is very messy) put all the ingredients minus the butter and honey, along with the preferment you made earlier. Knead at a low speed for around 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and you can pull it out easily without it tearing.

Start the mixer again and add the honey and the butter in chunks. Allow the butter and honey to fully incorporate and knead for a further 5 minutes.  Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, fold the dough onto itself to form a plump ball and cover with cling film or a clean shower cap.

Either allow the dough to rise at room temperature for around 2 to 3 hours (until very light and fluffy) or move it to the fridge to prove slowly overnight.  If you prove at room temperature, chill the dough for at least 20 minutes before trying to roll it out (I didn't have time for this, hence the almighty mess...)

After chilling, cut the dough into four equal sections, and form each into a round. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Roll and stretch each section into a round about 20 cm across.  Spread one with Nutella and sprinkle with the hazelnuts Put another round on top.  Repeat until all four rounds are used up, but don't spread any Nutella onto the top round. 

Move to a parchment covered baking tray. Chill if possible for another 10 minutes before cutting and twisting (I can't ever do this as I don't have room in the fridge). (Follow the cutting and twisting instructions in the nice photo above, or here are even better pictures . You will see that I didn't double check the twisting instructions. Or the rolling out instructions either as I only made two rounds. Oh. You will do better I am sure.)

(edit:  I'm being told that the instructions are toooooo complicated! Well, I've found it on You Tube for you..



I hope this will help a bit....)

Brush with egg wash, and leave to prove again for around 45 minutes to an hour at room temperature. Put the oven on at Gas mark 6 or electric equivalent for the last 30 minutes. 

Bake the loaf for around 20 minutes (keep an eye on it, brioche burns easily) and then move to a rack to cool.

Even with one layer it still twists beautifully, and perhaps has thicker brioche layers this way, which suits me as I like the brioche as much as the Nutella. 

The crumb on this is lovely and light.

It reheats well for breakfast by the way. I broke it into pieces, and gave these 10 minutes at Gas mk 3 just to warm the filling.

p.s. If you have some dough left over, you can make simple round buns with it, and toast them for breakfast with butter fried tomatoes. Simple pleasures...