Bread Baking when you can't get in the garden because of the rain.

Firstly, a couple of things that I missed showing last time round. I found this Jubilee celebration on the A303 near Sparkford and managed to get a photo at 5am when the road was quiet. The arm moved up and down in a “Royal Wave”.

Also my two dogs, who normally monopolise the sofa, found that when Yvonne is sitting there they can still both fit on the other end!

I’m still getting the hang of the new camera, and have taken a lot of bad pictures; the flash is the thing that is causing most trouble, as it seems a little harsh in close-up, so the following description is a bit short of illustration.

Naan Bread.

When I went on the bread course, we made a version of this bread, including some stuffed with a spicy lamb ragu. As we have curry on Sunday from the local takeaway,

www.bombaymixbrixham.com

I thought I would make some to mop up the sauce.

Here is the recipe that I was given

·                5000g Bread Flour plus additional for dusting

·                1 teaspoon salt

·                125ml plain yogurt, at room temperature

·                125 ml hot water

·                10g yeast or 5g instant yeast

·                20g sugar

·                1 smallish egg

·                25g melted butter or ghee, plus additional for brushing

·                Sesame, poppy or nigella seeds. (optional)

As you can see it uses only white flour but I thought that I would amend it to include Gram flour and see what difference it made. So I substituted 100g of Gram flour in the 500g total and made it as usual.

At the same time, I was making a Cottage Pie, so I prepared extra mashed potato which I mixed with a Masala spice blend to form my filling. It doesn’t look too appetising but tastes fantastic.

I thought that I would try both Oven baked and Griddled Naan, you can see the difference in appearance, and I think that the Griddled taste better, as they are drier and less oiled.

Three above, Griddled



Four Baked Naan. with Loaf



I also made a Focaccia with Onion dough, adding some of my baby new potatoes as a topping. These had been part baked in oil and Balsamic vinegar before being pressed into the dough after knocking back.

Finally, having tried the No-Knead white bread a while ago, I had a go using a 60-40 mix of wholemeal and white. It didn’t rise as much but was just as good. I think that maybe I need J to use a bit more water as wholemeal flour tends to absorb more than white.

We desperately want to get out in the garden, as everything has grown, especially the weeds, but with the present weather all we can do is watch through a rain streaked window, as it reverts to Jungle. Or should I say Rain Forest.

Of course we could always head out for tea and cake

This one is Bailey's Cheesecake and helped take our minds off the weather, if only for a while.