Homemade Focaccia Bread

Ingredients

Original recipe makes 1 loaf                     
 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
 1 teaspoon white sugar
 1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
 1 cup water
 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
 1 egg
 3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed

 Directions

 Combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Mix well. Heat water and vegetable oil until warm, and add to yeast mixture along with the egg. Blend with an electric mixer at low speed until moistened. Beat for 2 additional minutes. Stir in 1 3/4 cup flour while beating, until dough pulls away from side of bowl. Knead in 3/4 cup flour on floured surface. Cover dough with a bowl, and let sit for 5 minutes. Place dough on a greased baking sheet. Roll out to 12 inch circle. Cover with greased plastic wrap and a cloth towel. Place in a warm place for 30 minutes. Uncover dough, and poke holes in it with a spoon handle at 1 inch intervals. Drizzle olive oil on dough, and sprinkle with crushed rosemary. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 17 to 27 minutes, until just golden. Remove from baking sheet, and cool on rack.


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Soda Bread Recipe

 Classic Soda Bread
  I frequently turn to soda bread when the bread bin is bare. If there’s nothing for lunch or to serve with soup for supper, it's a quick and simple answer - and sustaining, too. This classic recipe lends itself to endless tweaking and variation. Slot it into your repertoire and you'll never regret it. Rate this recipe: Prep time 15 minutes Cook Time 40-45 minutes Servings Makes 1 medium loaf Ingredients * 500g plain flour * 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda * 1 tsp fine sea salt * Approx. 400ml buttermilk or live yoghurt * A little milk, if necessary bake, Flour, dough, soda bread, bread,
 Loaf Directions
 1. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk, stirring as you go. If necessary, add a tablespoon or two of milk to bring the mixture together; it should form a soft dough, just this side of sticky.
 2. Tip it out on to a lightly floured work surface and knead lightly for about a minute, just long enough to pull it together into a loose ball but no longer – you need to get it into the oven while the bicarb is still doing its stuff. You're not looking for the kind of smooth, elastic dough you’d get with a yeast-based bread.
 3. Put the round of dough on a lightly floured baking sheet and dust generously with flour. Mark a deep cross in it with a sharp, serrated knife, cutting about two-thirds of the way through the loaf. Put it in an oven preheated to 200°C/gas mark 6 and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath.
 4. Cool on a wire rack if you like a crunchy crust, or wrap in a clean tea towel if you prefer a soft crust. Soda bread is best eaten while still warm, spread with salty butter and/or a dollop of your favourite jam. But if you have some left over the next day, it makes great toast. Variation: For six-seed soda bread, mix together 2 tablespoons each of sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, poppy and linseeds, plus 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds; set aside. Follow the main recipe but use half white flour and half wholemeal flour. Add all but 1 tablespoon of the seeds to the dry ingredients before proceeding as above. After cutting a cross in the top of the loaf, brush it with a little buttermilk or ordinary milk and sprinkle with the remaining seeds. Bake at 200°C/gas mark 6 for 40–45 minutes.

Brown Bread   

Ingredients: 1 cup sifted flour
1 cup corn meal
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup molasses
2 cups buttermilk or soured milk
1 cup seedless raisins, if desired
Directions:
Sift flour once, measure, add soda and salt and sift again. Add corn meal and whole wheat flour and blend. Add molasses and buttermilk and stir until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add the raisins and pour into well-greased molds, filling them not more than 2/3 full (Use No. 2 cans for a well-proportioned slice.) Cover with 2 thicknesses of heavy waxed paper or metal foil and steam for 2 hours. Serve piping hot. For larger molds, allow 3 full hours for steaming.
Makes 4 to 5 small molds
Bread may be wrapped in moisture-vapor-proof wrapping, stored in the freezer, reheated in a double boiler, if desired. If no steamer is available, set molds in a shallow pan of hot water and bake in a 275-degree F. oven for thee required length of time.

French Country Bread

 French Country Bread

Ingredients:                                        

Yield:

1

loaf

Units: US | Metric
Starter

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 cup lukewarm mineral water
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Dough

1 1/2 cups lukewarm mineral water
4 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 cup stone-ground whole wheat flour
5 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, approximately

Other

cornmeal, for the baking sheet

Directions:

1
One to two days before you plan on serving the bread, make the starter; in a medium-size bow. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let it proof until foamy. Stir in the flour and mix until smooth. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature.
2
On bread-baking day; make the dough: Transfer the starter (don’t worry if it has separated) to the large bowl. Add the lukewarm water and the fine sea salt and stir well to combine. Begin adding the flour one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Make sure each cup is absorbed before you add the next. If the dough is tacky after all of the flour has been added, add an additional one or 2 tablespoons of flour.
3
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is smooth and elastic. This will take 20 minutes by hand; if you have a mixer with dough hook, 8 to 10 minutes will do the trick. If you use a dough hook, do give the dough a few last turns by hand. You want a consistency that is smooth elastic and somewhat soft.
4
Flour the inside of a large bowl and place the dough in it. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Punch down the dough, and knead it quickly – 15 or 20 turns – then return it to the bowl and let it rise until doubled in bulk a second time. The second rising is usually a little quicker, 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours. Punch down again, reflour the rising bowl, add the dough, and let rise a third time.
5
As the bread is one its third rise, preheat the oven to 450 degrees and have at hand a plastic mister, such as you use for plants, filled with spring water. Place a baking sheet as close in size as possible to that of an oven rack on the middle rack. The sheet mimics an oven floor. Sprinkle a second, smaller baking sheet well with cornmeal.
6
When the dough has risen the third time, invert it carefully out of the bowl onto the cornmeal-sprinkled sheet, and using a razor, slash the top with two or three Xs, 1/16 or 1/8 inch deep. Lower the oven heat to 400, spritz the interior of the oven 3 or 4 times with the mister and immediately slide the bread in, on its baking sheet, across the baking sheet already in the oven. Bake the bread 40 to 60 minutes, opening the oven and spritzing the inside once more, halfway through the baking. The bread is done when it is golden brown and sounds hollow when thumped on its bottom. Cool the bread on a wire rack.

Tortilla Wraps Recipe

Tortilla Wraps

 

Ingredients                                  

• 500 g plain flour, sieved
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinches salt
• 100 g lard
• 120 ml warm water

Method

1. Place the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl, rub in the lard.

2. Add the water in a steady stream, and combine, until the mixture becomes a stiff but pliable dough.

3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes until smooth and elastic.

4. Divide the dough into 12 equal sized pieces and roll each piece out to form a 30cm circle. Cover with cling film to prevent them drying out.

5. Warm a heavy frying pan or griddle and cook each tortilla for 1 minute on each side, until the surface bubbles and has turned a light golden colour.

6. Wrap the tortillas in a clean tea towel to keep them warm and pliable until you have cooked them all and are ready to use them. Fill as desired.

How to make wholemeal bread using fresh baker’s yeast.

Ingredients
8 oz strong brown flour
8 oz strong white flour
4  oz stoneground wholewheat flour
14 fl oz warm water
1 oz baker’s yeast
1 tbsp sugar or honey or molasses
1 tsp salt

Method
Place the yeast in the warm water with the sugar. When it has dissolved either knead it into the flour (with the salt added to it) by hand or – and this is that cheat I was telling you about - stick it in the bread machine to knead or do it with the dough hook on a food processor. When the dough is thoroughly smooth and does not stick to your hands place it in a bowl and put it somewhere warm covered with cling film for a tea towel. OR (and this is the second cheat) put it in the fridge to rise overnight or while you’re out at work. The cold temperature in the fridge won’t stop the yeast doing it’s thing, it will merely slow it down. The next stage – whether you’re doing it after one hour of normal rising or 8 or so hours of fridge rising – it to knock the dough back, shape it into a loaf or rolls and allow it to rise again for another 20 mins, again somewhere nice and warm. Bake at gas mark 4 for 40 mins for a loaf and 25 mins for rolls. I always like to turn them halfway through cooking so they get a nice undercrust. It may seem like a hassle but good artisan bread costs a bomb and it really is not that hard to make your own.

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East African Chapati Recipe – Flat bread

Chapati is a flat, soft and thin bread. It is enjoyed all over East Africa but the recipe is originated from India and bought to East Africa by the Indian traders centuries ago. It can be served with stews for lunches or dinner or with butter for breakfast. It can be made with whole wheat flour, All-purpose flour or mixture of both.

Make 5 chapatis
Prep time: 30 minutes         Cooking time: 90 second each Chapati
Ingredients
500g   All-purpose flour or whole wheat flour
200 ml of warm water or as needed
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ tsp of salt or to taste
Direction
Step1:  In a large bowl add the half of the water  and the salt. Stir until the salt dissolve
Step2: Add the flour in the salted water and use your hand to mix well. Then add the vegetable oil and mix well.
Step3:  Gradually pour the remaining water on flour mixture while mixing until the dough form a ball and is soft. You dough should not be sticking to your hand at all. If the dough is sticking add a little more flour or if it is too dry add a bit of water.

Step4: Transfer the dough on your kitchen counter and knead it for 10 minutes. You movement should be fast and energetic. When you finish kneading your dough, it should be smooth, soft and elastic if it is not knead again.
Kneading the dough is very important if you don’t want the chapati to become hard.

Step5: Pour a generous amount of vegetable oil on your hand and divide the dough into 5 small balls. Then cover with a napkin and let them rest for 15to 20 minutes.

Step6: Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough balls into a round shape until quite thin. if the dough is sticking to the rolling pin sprinkle  with a little bit of  flour.

Step7: Heat a non stick pan on medium high heat and add the chapati. Wait for 45 second or till you see bubbles over the top, then flip  and cook the other side. You can brush the chapattis with vegetable oil on top. The cooking time should not exceed 2 minutes. Remove and cook the remaining until done.

You can serve your Chapati immediately with a nice stew or you can store it for later. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!