I guess one cannot call a blog a blog if it consists of only one post. Luckily, a bread won't last forever and one has to do another one.
In the meantime though, we also have been travelling, and we enjoyed some really nice bread and some great cinnamon swirls in Norway, on which I really should elaborate a little bit more. The only bread I didn't find too convincing (but I would need to test more to say if that is typical or just bad luck in 2 occasions) was the bread they use for sandwiches, which is thick cut and soft. Apart from that, I do have to say the Norwegians know a thing or two about bread!
But back to our own 'project of the week':
We took 300 grams of spelt, approx. 100 grams of strong white flour. 2 table spoons of honey, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of olive oil. 1 dried & smoked chipotle chilli and one fresh green cayenne chilli. One teaspoon of spanish paprika powder. Mix all well...


If you think the yeast is missing, wait! Here it comes, but this time we used 'proper' yeast, so we had to mix it with hot water and some sugar (follow the directions on the tin) to 'activate' the yeast.

Once that's done, after 15 minutes, add this to the dough mix and knead it into a nice looking dough.
let it rest for 1 hour in a warm place, covered by a wet tea towel, then take it out and work it well before putting it back to rest for another 30 minutes. Make some cuts to the surface (I choose a wavy pattern this time, but that of course is artist's licence) and then it goes into the pre-heated oven (210 degree) for 20 minutes. Actually, though it was already nice and crispy on top, the bottom was still a hint soft, so we gave it another 5 minutes. And this is the result...


The bread turned out to be as expected pretty spicy, and it's particularly nice with either butter or Nutella... I guess that combination is slightly reminiscent of the Mexican 'Mole'...

Into The Deep End

The idea was brewing already for quite a while, but as these things are, it takes a bit for getting started. We were doing our own bread week after week, and I was dropping one or the other picture on facebook, but that was it. Somehow, however, it occurred to us that our bread was not just turning out nice but also popular amongst those who tried it. In other words: why not blog about it?
This was easier said than done, as this meant that we had to agree on a name of the blog, a font, a style. Pictures or no pictures, decisions and more decisions. And nothing was posted and a few breads went by un-documented.
So, in order to get started with something (and leave any question and introduction for later) let's start by diving into the deep end: we decided to do a rice bread. Or rather, a bread containing a certain amount of rice flour. This is a tricky one; I am aware that we should have started with something more 'standard', as certain 'standard rules' repeat themselves, thus it would be easier to explain them once and them keep referring to them. Well, need to keep that idea in mind for the next time.
After doing a bit of research online we had a rough idea as to how it might work out. So here's the 'recipe'. I'm a bit mean though, I'll tell you the recipe and then I'll tell you 'don't try this at home, unless you have a fairly good understanding of bread making'. The reason is that normally we will tell you the exact amounts of ingredients. Today, we can't...

Take 90 grams of rice flour and mix them with boiling water until you get a kind of 'paste' of satisfactory consistence (that is sufficiently vague, isn't it?)
While this cools down, mix approximately 200 grams of white flour with one satchel of yeast, 2 spoons of sugar, a good pinch of salt and a teaspoon of oil. Then you can mix the rice paste into it.

The next step is equally vague (I promise, things will get better!): Flour your hands and try to work this mess into an even dough! That is easier said than done, as the rice will make this dough very, very sticky. I would say that in this case I must have worked in probably another 50 - 100 grams of white flour until a consistency was achieved that was promising.



From here onwards it was pretty 'standard': Cover the dough with a wet cloth, let it rest in a warm place for about 1 hour. Take out, knead again, but on a baking tray and leave covered in the same warm place for another 40 minutes. After that, it goes into the pre-heated oven at 210 degree for 20 minutes... well, set the alarm for 20 minutes, look, knock on the bottom and when it sounds soft (i.e. dull) then in it goes again. Ours took in total 30 minutes, and this is the result:


Once you take it out of the oven, let it cool down on some sort of grill so it doesn't get soggy. Also, it's a good idea to wait a little bit before trying...

Given the experimental nature of this bread we are delighted with the result. It has a crispy outside and a soft and rather dense inside, which I hope should not dry out too quickly. The taste is very delicate as well, the rice is noticeable but not overpowering.

Now, the first post has been done. There's a bit of catching up to do, as we intend to write something about the breads we have done in the last 3 weeks as well. Please, watch this place: in the future we hope we will have enough self discipline to post all our breads and other projects that involve doing a dough, such as the odd cake or cookie. Or a pizza...