SUNFLOWER SEEDS AND CHEDDAR SCONES

Esta receta la subí al blog hace un tiempo, pero fue un poco chapucera, porque no tenía muchos de sus ingredientes... hoy sí he seguido los pasos de la receta original (de Dan Lepard) y, claro, han salido mucho mejor. Lo difícil ha sido hacerles la foto antes de que desaparecieran en el desayuno.

Ingredients:

• 200 g plain flour.
• 2 tsp baking powder.
• 1 tsp mustard.
• 25 g soft butter.
• Small bunch of parsley.
• 175 g cheddar, coarsley grated.
• 1 large egg, separated.
• 100 ml milk.
• 50 ml cream.
• 25 g sunflower seeds.

SCONES ROCK!!

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!

Dublin bread...and cheese

So a little bit more chatting and not baking before I start making some breads, hopefully very soon...

Almost 2 months living in Dublin already (well, more come back to live here after almost 7 years) and starting to settle down, so what better than check out bakeries and breads in Dublin. Little bit of research and decided to go to 3 of them, artesian bakeries.

Fist one was The Bretzel Bakery in Portobello, nice Dublin area along one of the canals. This bakery is open since 1870 although has changed owners.The Bakery is well known to generations of the Dublin Jewish community and still known as the Jewish Bakery with it's Kosher status re-established since William Despard and Cormac Keenan took over in 2000.

The Bretzel Bakery in Lennox Street, Dublin 8

They have a good selections of breads, whites, browns, rye, some specialities and confectionary and breakfast, with 4 sourdough: 100% rye, 30%rye, pizza base and small sourdough. This last one, the small sourdough is the one I bought and tried with one of the 3 cheese I got in Sheridans Cheesemonger off Grafton st. I have to thanks staff of this shop for their recommendations and being so professional and kind. You can see in this picture this bread with an irish cheese that I really like: Coolea Mature, from West Cork.

Sourdough from Bretzel Bakery with Coolea cheese

Next bakery was Il Valentino, an italian artisan bakery in Gran Canal, another very nice Dublin area. They only use the 4 ingredients and nothing else (flour, yeast, water and salt) and have as well a good range of breads, patries and cakes, including a sourdough bread. They also have a cafe where you can sit and try their range of products.

Il Valentino Bakery and Cafe

When I was there they didn't have the sourdough bread so I chose the stoneground flour load. Very crusty bread, nice crumbs. This time I used a spanish manchego mature cheese (yeah, couldn't avoid tomato and olive oil)

Stoneground from Il Valentino with Mature Manchego cheese

Last but not least, Paris Bakery, a french bakery in the busy Jervis area. This bakery is quite new (opened in november 2010) and founded by french baker Yannick G. Forel. They also have a nice coffee area where you can taste they breads and pastries.

Paris Bakery in Moore Str.

Loads of bread that you can check from the window and of course I went for a sourdough french baguette. but they have a few more sourdough breads, including a 1kg and another than seemed to be a 6kg sourdough! bread for a few days. So french bread, french cheese. This time a pure recommendation from Sheridans Cheesemonger, Ardi Gasna, a Basque-French from the Pyrenees area cheese meaning literally in basque "sheep cheese". I have to say that the combination of this bread and this cheese was my favourite

Sourdough baguette from Paris bakery with Ardi Gasna cheese

Tourism, the rugby match and the bread

Lidia came this weekend to visit me in Belfast. Very happy. We did loads of things and had a great time. Yesterday we went to the botanic gardens, including the glass house and the Ulster Museum.

But we did some gastronomic tourism and of course some bread was target. St. George Market runs on Fridays, Saturday and Sundays, and basically you can find different kind of foods, from curry to sausages to fresh fish and meat to paella. But many of these tends are baking ones. Scones, tarts, cakes, and all different kind of breads: some from ireland and the north, like Irish soda or potato bread and international ones like focaccia or baguettes. Our eyes went straight to a sourdough fig and cranberry loaf. You can see in this picture the shop and the owners, with all the different breads they sell. Special attention please to the blueberry scones at the bottom, they look amazing.

Back to the house, we rest for half and hour and went to one of the best times we spent together during this days: rugby match in Ravenhill. Ulster played with Benetton Treviso (we won, 32-13, go Ulster!) and had a amazing time there. First part was very good, second part a little more quiet and the third part (that's what you call after the match, when you basically drink beer) was maybe the funniest. We stayed in one of the stadium bars, chatting with different people, including some of the ulster rugby players.

Of course, after a few beers (just a few, I promise) we went back home starving, so we decided to attack the bread we bought in the morning, with some sardinian pecorino cheese that my friend Gianmaria gave to me a few days ago and roasted chestnut chutney. Check the pictures here. We ate them all.

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Last bread of the year: halloumi and olives bread

I am down in Cork spending a few days with my friends Philippe and Gianmaria, who have hosted me in their house for new year . So I promised them to bake some bread for tonight dinner, new years eye dinner. I wanted to be safe so I chose the olives and garlic bread I made recently. One of the best breads I've ever baked. But there is another part of me that always want to try new things and be very creative (too much sometimes) so I normally change even my own recipes.

When I went to buy this morning the bread flour, I decide to buy as well some rye flour to give more flavour to the bread. Not a big risk. Then I went to the olive shop and my eyes went straight to some black moroccan olives, so I bought them instead the greek style ones. Not to bad so far. Finally, I remember that this cyprus bread is made as well with one of the most popular and famous food from this island: halloumi cheese. Why not? I though. So, I was literally paying for the cheese in the shop when just in front of me there was a nice tin of hazelnut oil and of course I couldn't resist the temptation of buying it and using it instead of olive oil. So the result was this:

700 g white wheat flour

100 g rye flour

2 tbs quick dry yeast

12 g salt

400 ml water

50 ml hazelnut oil

150 g moroccan black olives

100 g halloumi cheese

10 g fresh mint

1,5 tbs mince garlic paste

The dough was very difficult to knead, as it was very sticky and moist, even though you can see the water it's only 56%. I think the olives could added some water and the hazelnut oil made it sticky. So I had to knead and leave it rest a few times before I considered it was ready. Then two times of a hour and 15 min fermentation. The dough worked well and doubled it size both times. Here you can see it in the tray before putting in the oven:

I am using as Lidia the water in a tray in the oven instead of the spray: for me it's easier than open and close the oven a few times. 10 min with the tray with water at 240º C, then I took the tray and let the steam out of the oven, and another 35 min at 190º C. The bread didn't grown up a lot in the oven, but I think it was because it did it before. During the time it was in the oven, there was a lovely and strong smell in the house, mix of garlic, olives and hazelnuts. After that time, I left the bread inside of the oven off with the door open for a few minutes.

Dark color bread, not big alveolus but soft crumbs, I find the combination of all the flavors very interesting. Strong from the garlic (even a little bit spicy), salty from the halloumi and olives and refreshing from the mint. Looking forward to put something on the top or dip it in a sauce or just olive oil

I used only half of the halloumi cheese, so while making the bread, because it was lunch time and I was hungry, and I love this cheese, I sliced the rest and grilled, placed them on top of scottish oatcakes, herbs, tomatoes and olives. Halloumi is the perfect cheese to be grilled (maybe together with the argentinian provoleta) because it has a high melting point, and it is even better if you do it in a barbecue. It has a distinctive texture, similar to mozzarella and has a salty flavour.

An this the the bottle of the hazelnut oil:

Lilmu Bread

Finally a day off in Belfast after a couple of weeks. Very cold, all the city is cover in snow and ice, but it looks lovely. So I woke up early, had my bran flakes breakfast and hit the town. All morning and part of the afternoon doing some shopping and walking, what it means lot of money spent. But I enjoyed the day and I bought nice things, including some bread ingredients. And finally, after such a long time and missing it, I made some bread, first one in Belfast. Iunpacked my scale, the bowls and spray bottles and some flours I brought from Cork. The restof the ingredients I bought them locally.

I wanted to make a classic one, like my favorite pain a l'ancienne but as I had a creative day and after the last post of Lidia and Almudena, I decided to risk and be brave: loved the idea of apple and oaks bread, but at the same Almudena's cheddar cheese and mustard scones were very tempting, so, why not mix them both? And you have the result. I had to modify the recipe to make a bread, and as I didn't have to make some sourdough, I used dried yeast. Another modification was the mustard: instead of powder I bought yellow mustard seeds in Marks & Spencer. Here is the recipe:

50 g porridge oats

100 g boiling water

200 g irish apples

100 g water at 20 C

10 g dried yeast

350 g strong white flour

5 g salt

3 tsp yellow mustard seeds

50 g mild white cheddar cheese

some extra oaks for decoration

The process is the same Lidia used for her oats and apple bread. but I baked it for 15 min at 220 and then 25 at 190. the color outside was very dark I guess because of the cheese. And because all the ingredients, I think it didn't grow much but I am quite happy with the result: not big alveolus but very soft breadcrumbs, main flavour coming from the cheese but some sweatiness from the apple and a crunchy and very particular from the mustard seeds.

I tried it tonight but I want to see how is tomorrow morning forbreakfast, although it might have to wait as I

planned a ulster fry for tomorrow. looking forward to all that grease lol.

now let me know what you think about the combination but more important try to do it, maybe next time a little bit less of cheddar so we can appreciate more the flavour of the rest of the ingredients but despite of that the I think it is a nice bread.