Saturday Bread

Since the middle of April I've been following three blogger/bakers who started an admirable project they call A Year in Bread.
But I haven't been baking any of my own! Finally, this morning I felt the need to knead.

Looking back at what they've been up to, I see they've been busy with pizza dough, no-knead bread variations and fluffy, white sandwich bread. All great recipes but not what I was craving this morning. The weather is unseasonably cold and I felt like something with more texture and flavor and bite.

So, back to one of my favorite's, adapted from this recipe.
We always have extra bits cheese lying around and this is a great way to use it up. Today the bread dough was infused with fresh thyme and the rest of the Tomme Noir de Pyrénées from last Tuesday.



Herb, Honey and Cheese Bread

• 3 cups/500 grams flour
• packet of yeast
  
• 1 cup/250 mls warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• big pinch of sea salt
  
• 3 ounces/100g finely grated cheese
• 1 tablespoon flavorful honey
• 2 tablespoons of your favorite herb, chopped

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water
2. Mix the flour, yeast & water mixture, olive oil, sugar and sea salt together in a bowl until combined
3. Dump out onto a floured surface and knead about 10 minutes, sprinkling with flour as needed to make a nice, springy dough
   
4. Cover with a towel and put in a warm place and let rise for 1 hour. I usually leave the dough to rise on the board I've been kneading it on
   
5. Punch down and knead in the cheese, honey and chopped herbs
6. Shape dough into a loaf, slash the top several times with a knife, place dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and let rise again, covered, 30 minutes
7. Heat oven 400 degrees F/200 degrees C
8. Bake about 35 minutes

A few notes: Sometimes I drizzle olive oil over the dough just before it goes in the oven
Freshly ground black pepper is wonderful to add to the dough for a bit of a bite
Experiment with cheese and herb combinations Pin It

Bread

This morning I was scrolling down my list of links, as I do most mornings, and had a look at Farmgirl Fare to read about the lambs being born on Susan's farm only to find that she and two other foodie bloggers have started a project called A Year in Bread.



Bread was the subject of my first post on this blog and I'm always looking for new recipes and ideas when it comes to bread. I try to bake my own at least once a week and I love making pizza, calzone and focaccia.

Sourdough continues to give me problems. The starter always looks and smells great but then the bread comes out too sour tasting or the bread is too heavy and impossible to chew. I'll go through the whole process, then end up with bread we either don't like or can't eat! It's rather frustrating.
A few days ago I made my standard, quick and easy, olive oil bread that always comes out delicious. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, that evening I decided to attempt yet another sourdough starter. I mixed the flour and water, let the bacteria do what it needs to do for a couple of days then used half of the deliciously yeasty smelling stuff to make some dough which I let rise last night. It was nice and puffy this morning so I shaped it into a ball and it is currently rising again for a couple of hours before it goes in the oven.
I'll report on the outcome later...

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