PAN CON TOMATE FRESCO Y AJO

Pues me dejó tan contenta el eliopsomi del otro día, que he utilizado la misma receta como base para hacer este pan con tomate.
Ingredientes, los mismos, pero el aliño simplemente a base de tomate fresco (escurrido y cortado en pequeños daditos) y un diente de ajo finamente picado.
Una masa muy pegajosa, algo rebelde... pero con la que finalmente me he podido hacer y que no ha resultado mal.

maple syrup and blueberry buttermilk scones

If you read my last post yesterday, I made not only the loaf but home made dill and gomasio butter. And as you probably know, when making butter cream you get buttermilk too.

So I decided to use the buttermilk to make always tasty scones. this time, with maple syrup and fresh bluberries. Here is the recipe:

- 500g of self rising white flour
- 50g caster sugar
- 160g slightly salty butter
- 100ml buttermilk
- 125ml maple syrup
- 100g blueberries

Mixed first the flour and the sugar and add the butter mixed well with the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Apart, mixed well the buttermilk with the maple syrup and added to the flour mix together with the blueberries. then cut them with a pastry cutter, some beaten egg in the top and oven at 200C for 15 min.

just after the oven...

nutty smell and flavour from the maple syrup

Quite interesting scones because of the maple syrup. the dough was compact and brown and all the house smelt toasted syrup but the result wasn't to strong, just enough. Buttermilk gave that particular flavour and what to say about the blueberries? well, probably my favourite ingredient in scones and muffins. Try them, you will see how easy it is and you can't avoid eat 2 or 3 in a row (well, that was me, but who wouldn't be having warm scones right there in front?

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!

Pan de aceitunas y hierbas

Nuestro último pan es una creación a cuatro manos basada en dos recetas diferentes, o sea, un pan muy completo con el que nos hemos divertido mucho en una de estas ocasiones especiales en las que podemos coincidir algunas de las personas que hacemos este blog conjuntamente. Atendiendo a los ingredientes que teníamos a mano y al espíritu mediterráneo con el que compensamos las tendencias anglosajonas que nos llegan desde Dublín, hemos preparado un pan de aceitunas y hierbas locales. 

Nuestra idea inicial era preparar un eliopsomi (pan chipriota que nos enseñó a hacer un su día, Juan Carlos), pero en una versión con masa madre y utilizando el hermoso romero que tenemos aquí en el huerto. Para la adaptación de la levadura comercial a la masa madre, hemos utilizado una receta de pan con tomillo, sacada del libro de Dan Lepard. A dicha receta le hemos cambiado el tomillo por romero y le hemos añadido aceitunas negras, ajo, aceite de oliva y menta. Hubo que ajustar la cantidad de masa madre de la receta, para compensar ese poquito de levadura fresca que indicaba el maestro Dan en la suya.

El resultado... suave, aromático, sustancioso .... ¡Estamos supercontentas! Estábamos pensando en filmar un vídeo promocional, pero lo vamos a posponer.

En fin, ahí van los ingredientes que hemos utilizado:

• 450 g de harina de trigo.
• 193 g de agua.
• 210 g de masa madre.
• 32 g de aceite de oliva de cultivo propio.
• 9 g de sal.
• 100 de olivas negras.
• Una ramita de romero y unas hojas de menta, del jardín.
• 2 dientes de ajo finamente picados.

Datos de interés:

• El primer reposo fue de 3 horas.
• El segundo reposo fue de 5 horas.
• Horno a 240 grados durante 20 minutos con bandeja de agua, más otros 35 minutos a 190 grados y con la bandeja retirada.

νόστιμο ψωμί !

sourdough: day 1

new batches of sourdough: wholemeal, white and spelt...grow, grow, grow...can't wait to use them!

left to right: wholemeal, white and spelt

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

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...