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.

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:

lidia bread

lidia was here in cork for a week with eva and paula. we had a great time, visiting the island, lovely places like cobh, kinsale, killarney, etc, but we had time to cook and bake and to create this blog. So our main aim was and is to share recipe in the distance as we three live in different cities and myself in a different country, so we can put here attempts and doubts and discoveries and questions mainly about bread but also you will find some baking. And while sharing between us we can share with everybody else and enrich this blog with people who want to participate too. so do not be shy.

we made my sourdough, starting with strong wholemeal flour, and after 2 days the sourdough was crazy: double every 12 hours, millions of bubbles and overflowing the glass jar. So we decided to made a white sourdough so we fed it with strong organic white flour. i think this change didn't like it, didn't die but its activity is very slow since then. i m going to feed it today with strong wholemeal flour and put it finally in the fridge. and let's pray it is ok.

so as we said before, while waiting for the sourdough we made a couple of breads, using fresh yeast. the first one, the one i called lidia bread, was a strong flavour wholemeal bread. here is the recipe:

500g organic spelt flour
150g organic wholemeal rye flour
150 strong wholemeal flour
30g fresh yeast
17g salt
400g water

the bread has two fermentation of around 3 hours and then oven for 50 min, first 15 min at maximum temperature (in my oven it's around 140 celsius degrees) and the at 190 degrees. we put some water in a tray underneath the bread, and we wasn't able to spray the bread with water basically because we forgot to buy the spray bottle :-) but it came finally crispy enough.



so the result was a lovely and rich brown bread, during the fermentation the dough grew quiet well but in the oven we didn't get many alveolus, maybe because of the yeast, maybe because it has a high proportion of wholemeal flour or even because of the oven, as it was too close to the top inside of it. Nevertheless the texture and the flavour was unique. lidia promised she is going to try to make it again using this time her sourdough so i am really looking forward for her to make it and share with us. i am sure she will improve it.



and as the bread has only one destiny to fulfill, we all had dinner with it that night, and our food was enhanced with this powerful homemade bread. here you can see a sample with tapenade, semi sun dry tomatoes and feta cheese. it s true as well as lidia said the this bread get even better if you toast it. i m getting hungry again ;-)