BREAD by Dean Brettschnieder

 
There is nothing quite like the taste and aroma of warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven bread baked in your own kitchen. Bread is the latest book from New Zealand celebrity chef Dean Brettschnieder.  When I met Dean at the launch of his first book (Pie: 80+ Pies and Pastry Delights), he said he thought it would be awesome to release a series of books each focussing on a certain food.  The arrival of Bread sees Dean on the path to achieving this dream. In this irresistible collection of bread recipes, you'll find breads to match any occasion – from savoury to sweet, healthy to festive. Whether you fancy a bagel or a baguette, sourdough or sticky buns, these delectable and easy-to-follow recipes are sure to become firm favourites.

The book has over 60 recipes (you can check out the one for NYC Sticky Pecan Buns on the Penguin Books website) which have been gorgeously photographed by Aaron McLean.  Dean also shares his expert knowledge of how to make exceptional breads with detailed step-by-step instructions on artisan techniques, plus information on essential ingredients and equipment.

 
I think the book would make a great gift, especially for those guys out there who like baking, because let’s face it, baking bread seems a bit manlier than making pretty little cupcakes.  You will be amazed at the quality, lightness, volume, flavour, crust and crumb of your bread after following Dean's recipes, tips and know how.  The book is out in stores now (RRP $45), so keep an eye out for it and grab yourself a copy.

Sarah’s Soda Bread

Simon and I share our house with our flatmate Sarah, who is from Ireland.  She had a pang of homesickness the other week and was craving the comforts of home, so she wanted some Soda Bread.  I’d never heard of Soda Bread before, but offered to make it for her and went about doing some research.  I ended up shirking the responsibility of making it off onto Simon (I’ve been really lazy when it comes to baking lately) as he loves to make bread; so he gave this a go on the weekend, excitedly assisted by Sarah.

Soda bread is really quick and easy to make.  We made ours using a ‘cake’ method, where you mix all the ingredients up and bake it in the oven.  You can also make Soda Bread by making your dough, then cutting it into ‘farls’ (a word meaning ‘four parts’) and frying each segment until it is cooked through, then piecing all the farls together to get your round bread look.  There isn’t any yeast in this bread, so you don’t need to wait around for it to prove either.

To me, Soda Bread is kind of like a massive scone.  I ate my pieces simply buttered and with jam.  However, in Ireland I think it is more a savoury thing – Sarah cooked up some eggs and ate them on the bread with HP sauce and I’ve also read about it being something you can serve with stew to soak up the gravy.  It was pretty yum; we’ll be making some again and I think we will give some other Irish baking a go soon.

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ cups buttermilk

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.
In a large bowl, stir the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add 1 cup of the buttermilk.  Combine dry ingredients and buttermilk with a fork, gradually adding more of the remaining buttermilk until a soft dough is formed.
Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface for 1 minute.  Form into a slightly flattened circle. Place the dough on the prepared tray.  Mark a large 2cm deep ‘X’ with a sharp knife and bake the soda bread for 35-45 minutes. The bread is ready when it is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Once the bread is cooked, remove from the oven.  To serve, but into segments, then cut the segments in half horizontally before topping with whatever you fancy.

Cheese and Bacon Pull Apart Loaf

When I was younger I lived within walking distance of a ‘Baker’s Delight’, my favourite thing to buy was their cheese and bacon pull apart loaf. Last weekend I decided to try and whip one up myself, I used the same method as my Cinnamon Pull Apart Loaf but tried a more savoury dough recipe.  I love the cheese and bacon combo but you could change it up with other savoury fillings or add something like chives if you have them on hand.

Ingredients:
Dough:
1½ teaspoons dry active yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons warm water
¼ cup warm milk
1 large egg, whisked
½ teaspoon salt
50g butter, soft cut into cubes
1½ -1¾ cups all-purpose flour

Filling:
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
250 grams crispy bacon, crumpled into small pieces
25 grams garlic butter, melted

Method:
In the bowl of your mixer stir together the water, yeast and sugar. Leave it for a few minutes until the yeast dissolves and starts to bubble. Then stir in the milk, egg and salt.
Then add the flour and softened butter and combine using your dough hook, this could be done by hand with a wooden spoon as this is quite a soft dough. Let the dough hook knead the dough or knead it vigorously with your hand for a few minutes in the bowl. If the dough is too sticky, knead in a bit more flour by the tablespoon. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside somewhere warm to rise for about 90 minutes, it will double in size.
Grease your loaf tin with butter and set aside. Lightly flour a clean work surface and roll out your dough, it should be roughly 20cmx40cm. Use a pastry brush to spread melted garlic butter across all of the dough. Sprinkle with the cheese and bacon.
Slice the dough vertically, into six equal-sized strips. Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again. You’ll have six stacks of six squares. Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan like a flip-book – you can check out pictures here.
At this stage you can cover your loaf with glad wrap and place it the fridge overnight, you can then remove it the next morning and set it aside for 30-45 minutes for a second rise while you pre-heat your oven to 180°C, or if you want to bake it the same day you can give it it’s second rise straight away and then place it in your preheated oven to bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden and it is cooked through.
After cooking set it aside for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edges and removing it to serve warm.

Turkish Pide by Kenrick Rhys Photography

Hi, I’m Kenrick.  I am a photography and food lover from Auckland, New Zealand, where I run Kenrick Rhys Photography, specialising in Wedding and Portrait Photography.

This is my second post on Baking Makes Things Better.  If you didn’t catch my last post, 5 Minute Microwave Fudge Brownie, you can check it out here.  Today’s recipe is one for Pide; a broad, round and flat bread made of wheat flour originally from Turkey.

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon dried yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
500g flour
1 ½ cups warm water
1 teaspoon salt
Olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 teaspoon nigella seeds / black sesame seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 egg yolk

Method:
Mix the yeast, sugar, a little of the flour and a little of the warm water in a small bowl.
In a large bowl or on a clean bench, mix the bulk of the flour and salt together and make a well in centre.  Add the yeast mixture to centre of the well and mix with a wooden spoon or using your hands.  Add in small amounts of the water, continuing to mix until a dough has formed (the consistency you are after is like a slightly sticky play dough).
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured clean bench and knead for 15 minutes or until smooth and elastic.
Grease a large bowl with a little olive oil and place the dough in the bowl.  Cover with a damp tea
towel.  Leave in a warm, draft free place for 1.5 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut it in half.  Flatten the dough slightly with your hands.  Place the dough onto some non-stick baking paper.  Cover with a damp tea towel and place in a warm draft free place for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 230°C.  Place a baking tray in the centre of the oven.
With floured hands, stretch each piece of dough into a long skinny rectangle approximately 20 x 40
cm.  Leave on the non-stick baking paper.  Cover with damp tea towel and leave aside for 10 mins.
Combine seeds and cumin seeds in a small bowl.  Make indentations with floured fingers on the top of the dough, brush on egg yolk, sprinkle seeds and cumin on top.
Remove the hot baking tray from oven.  Still on the baking paper, slide loafs onto the baking tray.
Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden.

Kenrick’s Tips:

• When making dough, mix the yeast with a little flour, water and sugar before anything else.  This gives the yeast a head start and helps your bread rise faster.
• The best place to rise your bread can be your car of all places.  It’s usually the warmest place around, just make sure it’s not too hot, about 30 - 37 degrees is perfect.
• When making bread in a hurry, you can mix and knead your dough and then place it covered in the refrigerator for a day or so (or the freezer for longer), then leave it on the bench for a few hours to thaw/warm up, then shape and rise again in a warm place as usual.  This is great if you make too much dough or don’t have the time to do the whole process in one go.
• To check if the bread is cooked all the way through, turn it over and gently tap on the bottom of the loaf, it should sound hollow if cooked inside.

Check out the Kenrick Rhys Photography website and like them on facebook.

Lunchbox Bakes – Spinach + Feta Plait

We ripped apart and ate this bread with a little bit of butter – it was delish!  It’s easy to make as there is no yeast required or kneading involved.

100g chopped frozen spinach, thawed
2 cups self raising flour
3 teaspoons chopped thyme
1 cup grated parmesan
150g feta, crumbed
3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Using your hands, squeeze out the excess liquid from the spinach.  Sift the flour into a bowl.  Stir in the spinach, thyme, parmesan and 120g of the feta.  Stir in enough milk (you may not need to use it all) to make a soft, sticky dough.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Divide it into three pieces.  Shape each piece into a 30cm long log.  Plait the logs together on the prepared tray, pinching the ends to seal.
Bake for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle the top with the remaining feta and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

Doesn’t that look yum?  If you want to make something and take part in Lunchbox Bakes, take a read of the info on our Lunchbox Bakes page.  We would love to hear from you!

Lunchbox Bakes – Beer Bread

Beer bread is my new favourite thing.  I made some on the long weekend, I made a couple of loaves actually.  It is super quick and easy to make and it tastes amazing.  Living with two guys there is always beer in our fridge, which I’ve decided they now need to share with me (I don’t really drink beer) so I can make more bread.  I made one loaf using Export Gold beer and another using Monteiths Golden Larger – the Montheiths beer rose a little higher, but was much the same consistency.  The bread is topped with cheese and sunflower seeds which add a beautiful crunch and texture.  I think this bread would make the perfect accompaniment to summer barbeques.

Serves 6 – 8

3 cups self raising flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
450ml lager, chilled
½ cup sunflower seeds
1 cup grated tasty cheese

Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Grease and line a 7cm deep, 10cm x 26cm loaf tin.
Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.  Pour in the beer and stir until just combined.  Pour into the prepared tin.  Sprinkle the cheese and sunflower seeds over the top.
Bake for 35 – 45 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.  Remove from the oven and cool before slicing.

It was a nice day outside when I baked this bread, so I used some of it to make ham and egg sandwiches and went on a picnic with Simon.  We ate more of it later with homemade pumpkin soup for dinner.
What did you get up to over Queen’s Birthday Weekend?  I hope you had a great break!

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Loaf

I saw a friend of mine pin this recipe on Pinterest the other week and had to add to my board of things to bake, the recipe I followed came from ‘Joy the Baker’ whose loaf was a little tidier looking than mine but I think the more rustic look works too. It made the perfect late brunch treat in our house this morning and the best part was that most of the hard work had been done the night before as the recipe allows you to make the dough and chill it in the fridge the overnight. The bread was so soft and fluffy and the cinnamony sugary goodness is comforting after a lazy Sunday morning sleep in.

To make this heavenly little treat yourself you will need:

Ingredients:
Dough
2 ¾ cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
½ teaspoon salt
60 grams butter
⅓ cup milk
¼ cup water
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
50 grams butter, melted until browned

Method:
In a large mixing bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.  Set aside.
Whisk together eggs and set aside.
In a small saucepan, melt together milk and butter until butter has just melted.  Remove from the heat and add water and vanilla extract.  Let mixture stand for a couple of minutes.
Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon.  Add the eggs and stir the mixture until the eggs are incorporated into the batter.  The eggs will feel soupy and it’ll seem like the dough and the eggs are never going to come together.  Keep stirring. 
Add the remaining ¾ cup of flour and stir with the spatula for about 2 minutes.  The mixture will be sticky.  That’s just right.
Place the dough is a large,  greased bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel.  Place in a warm space and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour. ***The dough can be risen until doubled in size, then refrigerated overnight for use in the morning.  If you’re using this method, just let the dough rest on the counter for 30 minutes before following the roll-out directions below.

While the dough rises, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg for the filling. Set aside.  Melt the 50 grams of butter until browned.  Set aside.  Grease a 9x5x3-inch  loaf pan.  Set that aside too.
Deflate the risen dough and knead about 2 tablespoons of flour into the dough.  Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. 

On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out.  The dough should be 30cm tall and about 50cm long.  If you can’t get the dough to 50cm long… that’s okay.  Just roll it as large as the dough will go. 
Use a pastry brush to spread melted butter across all of the dough.  Sprinkle with all of the sugar and cinnamon mixture.  It might seem like a lot of sugar but just do it!
Slice the dough vertically, into six equal-sized strips.  Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again.  You’ll have six stacks of six squares. 
Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan like a flip-book.  Place a kitchen towel over the loaf pan and allow in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes or until almost doubled in size.

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 180°C.
Place loaf in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is very golden brown. The top may be lightly browned, but the center may still be raw.  A nice, dark, golden brown will ensure that the center is cooked as well.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and invert onto a clean board.

Place a cake stand or cake plate on top of the  upside down loaf, and carefully invert so it’s right side up.  Serve warm with coffee or tea and if you feel like it you can make up some runny vanilla icing (icing sugar, water and a splash of vanilla essence) to drizzle over it.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did this morning. I think that I will make it again for Easter  - that might give you the perfect excuse to make this as well.

Blueberry and Courgette Loaf

We made this loaf in the weekend and man it was yum!  I’ve been busy making some cushion covers for a buyer through my felt. shop and haven’t done any baking lately, but really wanted to try out this recipe because I couldn’t imagine what courgettes and blueberries would taste like together, it sounds disgusting.  However, the loaf was delicious – sweet and moist and eaten up pretty quickly!  And, I suppose it kinda counts towards your 5+ a day of fruit and veg - did you know the courgette is actually a fruit?  Personally I couldn’t really taste the courgette but you see flecks of green through the loaf which looked quite pretty with the purple blue colour of the blueberries.

3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 175°C.  Lightly grease 2 loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar.  Fold in the zucchini.  Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Gently fold in the blueberries.  Transfer to the prepared loaf pans.
Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the centre of a loaf comes out clean.  Cool for 20 minutes in the pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Banana Bread

So, I decided I wanted to try making bread.  I haven’t attempted it yet (I’m scared of using yeast and leaving the dough to do whatever it is that you leave it to do) however, Simon (the boyfriend) liked this idea so off we went and purchased a loaf tin.  I had bananas to use up, so I found this old recipe that I salvaged from a magazine years ago and we gave it a go.  Easy peasy too.

Makes 2 loaves.      Ready in 1 hour 10 minutes.

1 ½ cups flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
395g can sweetened condensed milk
50g butter, melted
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat the oven to 160˚C.  Line the bases of two 21cm x 11cm loaf tins.  Combine the flours, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Beat together the eggs, condensed milk, butter, golden syrup, vanilla essence and banana in a separate bowl.  Add to the flour mixture and mix gently until well combined.
Spoon into the loaf tins and bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centre come out clean.  Cool in the tin before turning out.

Now, apparently these loaves are great iced in tangy lemon icing.  We were too impatient to wait and make some!  Mix together 2 tablespoons butter (melted), the juice of a small lemon and 1-2 cups sifted icing sugar together until smooth.  Add more juice and sugar as needed.  Ice the loaves and leave for 30 minutes to set.

Simon has fallen in love with our new loaf tin and has made a fantastic looking lemon loaf without me :(  I will try and get him to make one again in the weekend because a) I love lemony things and want to try it, and b) so I can share it with you!

Oh, and thank you Simon for taking the photos for this post and of the cupcakes at The Cake Stall in the previous post :)