Bollos de azafrán

Esta receta está inspirada en una propuesta que hace Richard Bertinet en su libro Dough, pero tiene algunas variantes para hacer la receta más castellana. Al fin y al cabo, aunque a los anglosajones -él es francés pero hace carrera por las islas británicas- el azafrán pueda parecerles una cosa muy exótica, en España es una especia muy común. Castilla-La Mancha, sin ir más lejos, es la principal región productora, su azafrán es el más caro del mundo y, dicen, el mejor.

Pero más allá de azafrán patrio, lo que hice para darle un toque más de la tierra a estos bollos fue añadir una pequeña cantidad de harina de garbanzos, una legumbre de la que tampoco andamos faltos por aquí. El resultado tiene el aspecto que veis en la foto y un sabor en el que se nota más el garbanzo que el azafrán, que preferí poner con discreción no fuera a ser que aquello resultara preciosamente naranja a la par que incomible.
Otra variante importante es que utilicé masa madre en vez de levadura fresca, por supuesto.

Ingredientes para 6 bollos:
- 350 gr. harina de trigo
- 50 gr. harina de garbanzos
- 200 gr. masa madre de trigo
- 10 gr. sal
- azafrán en estambres

Una última diferencia con la propuesta de Bertinet, esta vez completamente involuntaria, tuvo que ver con el formado. Él plantea utilizar el rodillo de amasar para hacer unas hendiduras muy profundas pero que no rompan la masa y que se queden marcadas durante el horneado. El aspecto final debería ser el de granos (muy grandes) de café. Yo utilicé el mango de un cuchillo para hacer esas hendiduras y no me salió igual. Básicamente hicieron el papel de greñado y los bollos subieron y rompieron por ahí. Pero no me importa. Están ricos.

chipá

Today I baked a south american bread roll with cheese called chipá. this bread is made in Paraguay and the northeastern of Argentina (Guarani region) but also in you can find it in Buenos Aires, may other countries in the region like Brasil, Bolivia, Colombia, etc, bake some kind of cheese bread rools. I tried them in one of my trips to Argentina, when I went to Iguazu waterfalls, and you can find many street sellers, most of them guaranis; I really like them. Very simple but taste at the same time. this bread is usually sell it by street seller. They are always made with cassava flour (also called manioc flour or tapioca) or sometimes with corn flour. The other main ingredient used is cheese, normally a strong flavour cheese.

The recipe I uses is:

550g tapioca

2 eggs

400g mature gruyere

300ml milk

60g butter

2/3 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/3 tsp cream of tartar

3g salt

the dough I g0t was very difficult to work with, I believe because the tapioca and the amount of grated cheese. I tried to kneed it for 5 min and then rest for 30min. The dough was more like mozzarella cheese. But it was easy to make small rolls and bake them for 20 min.

With this recipe I made 38 rolls of 45g but rolls can be bigger or smaller. Really nice flavour bread rolls.

Apple and cinnamon muffins

It´s been a busy and rainy weekend in Granada. I tried to wash away my bread blues by baking two of my favourites: banana bread and heart shaped muffins.

This recipe for muffins is so good. I found it in "The Fantastic Rainy Day Book" by Angela Wilkes. Easy to make, really quick (just need to start about 30 minutes before breakfast) and delicious. I used Reineta, as Lidia did for her pudding, and I am sure it made the muffins even better.

The recipe goes like this:

• 240 ml milk.


• 285 g self raising flour.


• 85 g soft brown sugar.


• 2 eggs.


• 1 apple.


• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.


• A big pinch of salt.


• 55 g butter, melted and then cooled.

We had them for breakfast, warm from the oven and tasted delicious. They cheered me up for the rest of the day!

Otro pan de olivas

Como veréis, en este blog nos basta con ser tres para retroalimentamos incesantemente con las recetas que hacemos. Este fin de semana he estado hiperactiva en la cocina y, además del pudding de la entrada anterior he hecho también este pan de olivas, siguiendo la receta de Juan Carlos de hace unos días. No repito los ingredientes porque son los mismos. Todavía no lo he catado, pero promete.

Pudding de pan, manzana y mantequilla

Esto es una versión del clásico bread & butter pudding, aderezado con unas manzanas reinetas que tenía por casa y con las que no sabía muy bien qué hacer. No es una receta de pan, pero creo que pertenece al espíritu fundacional de este blog, así que vamos con ella.

- Tres rebanadas de pan de molde (más unos restos de pan de barra del día anterior).
- Tres manzanas reinetas.
- Dos huevos.
- 175 gr. de leche
- Dos cucharadas de azúcar mascabado
- Mantequilla.

- Dos bayas de pimienta de Jamaica (allspice para el mundo anglosajón).

Por un lado, hay que saltear las manzanas en una sartén con un poco de mantequilla. Por otro, untar de mantequilla las rebanadas de pan que se van a usar. En un cuenco aparte, se baten los huevos, la leche, el azúcar y se añade la pimienta de Jamaica previamente molida en el mortero. Para montar el pudding no hay más que colocar primero la manzana y el pan en el molde en el que se vaya a hornear y luego verter la mezcla de huevo, leche y demás por encima. Unos 35-40 minutos de horno a 170º y el pudding está listo.
Lo elegante es tomarlo con el té, of course.

Waterford soda bread

As Juan wrote in his last post, we have been talking about soda bread these days. I had something in mind about this, because I'd heard and read it's a really, really easy made and very tasty bread. A perfect idea for a Wednesday evening, when you're tired, don't have much time, but yo're willing for some good home made bread to take for dinner. Well, this Waterford soda bread is what you need in such an ocasion.

It also belongs to the family of brown soda breads, as it's made with wholewheat flour (really sorry for this replay, Juan and I never talked about the recipes we were going to prepare, it was a coincidence the both of us prepared different wheaten breads instead a  more classical recipe). And it also belongs to Lepard's 'The handmade loaf'. There are two soda bread recipes in this book. I chose this, because the other one gives a sweet bread, and this wasn't what I was looking for this time. These are the ingredients:

300 gr. wholemeal flour (Irish in my case)
50 gr. oatmeal
20 gr. butter
4,5 gr. bicarbonate of soda
4,5 gr. salt
4,5 gr. caster sugar
200 gr. buttermilk (the recipe says at 20º C, I just took care it didn't come right out from the fridge)
200 gr. whole milk (same tip about the temperature)

Before talking about the procedure, I'll write a bit about buttermilk.For many Spanish people, this is a little bit strange concept. Firstly, because it's not easy to find. The one I bought in a very popular supermarket comes from Germany and doesn't look like the buttermilk you can find in huge amounts in so many Irish shops. Real buttermilk has a yellowish and transparent appereance. Mine looks more like a very liquid but very white yoghourt. What about the taste? Buttermilk really tastes like butter. The other thing tastes more acid. Any other reason to 'despice' buttermilk in sunny Spain? Well, we don't really need it, because we can do hundreds of great cakes and other desserts without using buttermilk.

But if you're reading this from Spain and want to make this bread (or some scones) don't worry, because you can get your own and authentic buttermilk by yourselve at home and don't even need to go to the supermarket to buy this German product. Instead, get the thickest cream you can find (this is not the moment nor the place for a skimmed version), put it in the food processor and make it work for some minutes. Cream will separate in two products: a solid fat -butter, in fact- and a yellowish liquid, the buttermilk. There it is.

OK, now it's time for technique. I told you this is a very convenient idea if you want quick results and no hard working. First, mix the flour, oatmeal and the butter (use your fingers). Then, add salt, sugar and the bicarbonate of soda, and mix evenly. In a different bowl, mix the liquids and put it together with flour. You have to mix -not to knead- everything evenly and quickly, because bicarbonate will start to react as soon as it gets in touch with the buttermilk.

No holes this time

Put it in the oven, preheated at 210º C, covered with foil for 25 minutes. Then, remove the foil and bake for another 25 minutes. Quick, nutritional and wonderful.

wheaten bread

And the third one, and I promise the last one for today, although I have another in the fridge, I won't bake it until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

Leaving in Ireland, now in Northern Ireland, soda bread is a big thing. Lidia and myself were talking a couple of days ago about the soda bread. She told me she wanted to bake one and I didn't do it for ages. So in this day of bread baking madness, I decided to bake a soda bread. In this case I made one call wheaten bread, very popular at least here in the north, basically a wholemeal soda bread, although some people say there is another thing.

Soda or wheaten breads are very easy to make, you don't need to knead them just mix the ingredients and not for a long time: the less the better, so one or two minutes will be more than enough, just to be sure than all the ingredients are mix properly. The basics ingredients apart of the flour are the butter, milk or buttermilk, bicarbonate of soda or baking soda. Salt or sugar and other ingredient depend of the bread baker.

This is the recipe I used today:

140g strong white flour

350g strong wholemeal flour

6g bicarbonate of soda

5g salt

10g caster sugar

500ml buttermilk

20g wheat bran

4 tbs sunflower oil

60g butter

Mix all ingredient in a bowl for about 1-2 min, place it in a long oven (it can be place as well directly into the baking tray, with a roundy shape) and bake for 50 minutes at 180 degrees. Easy job for a lovely bread.

Ideal with butter and your tea, with a soup or with smoked salmon.

Note about bicarbonate of soda-baking soda-baking powder

I read in many recipes that soda or wheaten bread has to be make with bicarbonate of soda and not baking powder. Bicarbonate of soda is the same that baking soda. this one is a raising agent that release carbon dioxide helping the dough to rise. But it needs some acidic component to induce the reaction, like buttermilk, lemon, vinegar, cream of tartar, etc. In the other hand, baking powder is normally a mix of baking soda and that acidic component, so there is no need to add in the recipe. So thats why soda or wheaten bread don't need baking powder because of the buttermilk in this case.

epis

Second bread I baked today was some epis based in the recipe of Reinhart Pain de Campagne and I said based because I didn't use any paté fermenté but sourdough. I always wanted to try to bake an epi and now that I did it I realize how easy it is. Adding someyeast to the dough helps to reduce the the time of fermentation. So I did two fermentations, one of 2 hours and the second for 1 hour and the dough was ready for baking.

About the recipe: well, well, i follow at some point the recipe in Reinhart's book the bread baker's apprentice but as I said I used sourdough instead of paté fermenté. In the recipe he said after mixing all the ingredients, knead and add the flour you thinks it's necessary and that what I did. The problem is that finally I don't know how much I put and for so I m going to put here the ingredients but the quantities will be approximated. Sorry for this small confusion. especially because the bread was very good:

300-350g white strong flour

20g rye flour

20g wholemeal flour

120g white flour sourdough

6 g salt

3g quick yeast

175g water

After the second fermentation I cut the dough in 4 pieces, flatted them in rectangles and fold them in loaves, then made some baguettes and cut them with the scissors to make epis. it's easier than you think. Around 20 min in the oven at max. temperature the first 8 min (in my

case 240 degrees) and then at 180 degrees.

In the pics you might think they are together but there are for separate ones. I recommended

this bread if you have guess at home, they are very easy to do and your friends will be delighted with the flavour and the presentation!

olive paste bread

Today when I woke up, Belfast was a sunny city, with a lovely blue sky. So I went for long walk, it is my day off, thought Ormeau park and the river and went to Lisburn road area where you can find lots of nice shops. I wanted to bake some breads, as since I moved to the new house I didn't any. So I bought some black olives to use them in a bread. By the way, in this delicatessen shop they sell a really nice sourdough baguettes. I always buy one when I go there.

The bread I baked it is basically the same recipe that Bertinet's olive bread. The only two different things are I used quick yeast in instead of fresh yeast and when he marinates the olive

paste, he uses provence herbs and I used fenugreek, as I didn't have the others and last sunday I bought in St. George's Market some fenugreek.

Here is the recipe:

400g strong white flour

100g rye flour

5g quick yeast

10g salt (i used pink salt from himalaya)

350g water

100g black olive paste with fenugreek

2 tbs olive oil

I kneaded the dough for about 12 min, then first fermentation for about 1 hour. After that, I divided the dough in 3 pieces, flatted them in rectangular shapes and spread in each one about 2 tbs of the olive paste. Then fold then into loaves. Another hour of resting and then cut down each one in the middle. Oven for 20 min at 240.

waiting for the oven

The result was a very nice bread for the eyes and for the mouth. They opened very good right in the middle and the olive paste gave a good contrast with the golden bread. Very soft crumb, mediterranean flavours although the fenugreek was too little. I might have to put more next time. First times is always good too little rather than too much.

mmm, a lonely mandarin

After half an hour sharp, Aoifa, Jason and me couldn't wait more time and ate 2 of the loaves with olive oil, sun blush tomatoes, and 3 types of cheese that I bought in the morning: a soft spanish manchego, a strong cheese from Wicklow called Coolea and a Porter Cheddar cheese (made with Guinness). We could eat the third one, but decided to leave for tomorrow.

Crónica de un fracaso

Queridos amigos,

Esta entrada la voy a hacer en castellano, poque qué necesidad tengo de publicar mi fracaso en el mundo entero. Lo haré solo en el mundo hispano hablante.

Resulta que llevo ya dos panes a l'ancienne fallidos. Sigo la receta al dedillo (eso creo) pero el pan no sube y no queda tan esponjoso como aquel que hizo Lidia en verano en mi casa, como los que mis compañeros Juan y Lidia publican periódicamente en el blog, o como los que yo misma he podido hacer en otras ocasiones.

Tengo varias vías de investigación abiertas:

• ¿La harina de Archivel que estoy usando no es apta?


• ¿El hecho de introducir la bandeja con agua, que le da ese precioso color a la corteza, está influyendo de algún modo?


• ¿Soy yo la que no está en lo que está?

Estoy atravesando un momento muy delicado en relación con la panificación... y todos vuestros éxitos me llenan de admiración.

By the way, I baked scones again, with apple this time. They were very good and I could not even take a picture of them. Those scones helped me cheer up a bit.