goat cheese, honey and spring onion loaf

First bread in dublin...at last. And I wanted it to use one of the books I bought recently and in this way strike back and balance the mediterranean influence coming from Spain! :-)

So I have followed a recipe from the book Bread Revolution by Duncan Glendinning & Patrick Ryan. Small note here: Patrick has his bakery and bread school, The Firehouse, in Heir Island, in Skibereen, West Cork, that I have to say it is one of the most beautiful areas in Ireland. So a few friends and I are going to one of the bread course on the 7th of October. Can't wait to spend the weekend there, stay in the island with my friends and meet Patrick. I will let you know all the details here.

Back to the recipe, originally was blue cheese, honey and walnut load, but I didn't have some of the ingredients and ended it up in goat cheese, honey and spring onion loaf.  I had another small problem: as I am in the middle of moving from Belfast to Dublin, and in Dublin to one to another house, most (lets say almost all) my baking equipment is in self store, including my scales. So I did the recipe a bit by eye so the quantities are not exactly like the book. I put here anyway the ones you can find in the book:

- 500g strong white bread flour
- 10g sea salt
- 10g dried yeast
- 260ml water (I used almost 450ml I guess)
- 2tsp honey
- 80g goat cheese
- 2 stems spring onion


Mixed all the ingredients without the cheese and spring onion for 10 minutes, then added those 2 ingredients well. Left the dough to prove for 2 hours and an half (it needed less time, but I went for some shopping and couldn't make it before), then knocked it down and made one ball (in the book you will find they make 2) and left it to prove for another hour. After that, oven at 230 °C for 10 minutes and another 25 minutes at 190 °C.

The result was honestly a very good bread, with pieces of the strong cheese and the flavour of the onions all over the place, but not overpowering, and a soft crumb.

And well, when I was waiting for the bread in the oven, I couldn't help not to make some more butter, this time a dill and gomasio butter. I rleally liked the combination, dill is probably my favourite herb and gomasio gives that nutty sesame flavour to the butter. they go both well together. So here you can see how I taste the bread with the butter. No good if you are on diet!

back to blog! back to bake!

Long time no see, after a few lazy-bread months including moving to another city/country I m honestly willing to back to bake some bread...just need some warm up. And nothing better to do it than with books...and bread books
I expend an amazing long weekend in London, Olympics included, and of course I did some bread tourism.

First, I was in the beautiful Borough Market around the corner of London Bridge, and luckily for me it was opened everyday during the Olympic games, so I visited it a couple of times. Borough market has been in the same location since 1755 and before that there was a market in the Borough since the XI century. So a bit of a tradition here. You can find loads of different food, great food from meats to vegetables, juices and wines, cooked and ready to eat and of course pastries, sweets and all kind of baked food. so breads. I think I counted at least 3 different stands with breads, sourdough, rye, Italians bread, loafs, soda breads, etc. Some of the big names of London sells their breads here, like Saint John.

And that's the second place where I visited, Saint John Bread and Wine. I was literally 5 minutes from where I was staying, in Whitechapel (yeah, that place where Jack the Ripper used to be active) so decided to go to this one and not to Saint John Restaurant. As you probably know, Saint John is not famous only for their food but also for their breads. Very close to Tower Bridge they have the bakery but unfortunately it was close when I went to see it. Not a big thing, as I could try their bread in that restaurant. Because everything I ordered in Saint John came with bread, toasted, white and brown. My friend Victor and I shared 3 dishes: beetroot and egg salad, cheese plate and smoked mackerel and pickle red cabbage. Breads were the perfect combination. Some of the customers bought some bread and jams after paying the bill, and that's the philosophy of this place: dinning rood, wine and bakery shop.

Finally, apparently I am not able to go anywhere and buy some books. I don't know if it's more a tradition, a obsession or an urge, but anyway I bought a few books in London, 2 of them bread related books.

First one, The bread Revolution, by Duncan Glendinning and Patrick Ryan, founder of The Thoughtful Bread Co in Bristol (and Bath) the first one and from The Firehouse Bakery-Bread School in Skibereen (West Cork).

And the second one, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Tom Herbert and Henry Herbert. Tom is a master baker who runs the famous Hobbs House Bakery that has been the family business for five generations. His brother Henry is the acclaimed chef who runs the Hobbs House Butchery right next door.

So as I said, lets warm up with this two good books and...let's bake!

coming soon...