To those of you who’ve been gardening for years, thank you for putting up with our excited ramblings. I know this isn’t really a big deal, but because it’s all so new for Pete and I, being able to go out and harvest all these vegetables from our garden was an incredible thrill!
As we didn’t make it to the markets last week, our vegetable crisper was decidedly empty, which made being able to wander outside to pick all these edible greens even more of a buzz. And we certainly haven’t emptied the first bed – just selectively chosen the plants that were ready, and the ones that needed pulling out to allow room for others to grow.
There was (and still is) a mountain of spinach and curly parsley growing…
We cut the sprouting broccoli (apparently you need to keep trimming it, or it flowers and dies), thinned the overcrowded carrots, and pulled a couple of baby beets to try. Pete also pulled out a perennial leek, replanting all of her babies for another day…
Finally, six small heads of lettuce came out, leaving room for the others to continue growing…
Our perfect Sunday lunch…Caesar salad, with homegrown mixed lettuce (cos, oak, butter), homemade sourdough croutons and a dressing made with Harriet’s freshly laid egg…
…and lunch today was a stir-fry of mung bean vermicelli, spinach, broccoli, teeny weeny carrots, leek and egg, seasoned with peanuts, fish sauce and lime juice. Happy days!
It’s deliciously buttery, yet only has 40g of butter in the mix, making it a reasonable lower-fat substitute for brioche. The overall preparation time is quite short – whereas regular brioche can take a full day or more to prepare, a batch of this dough started at 9am would easily be ready for lunch. Best of all, it works brilliantly in a variety of different forms, making it great for shaping!
This morning I made a double batch of the dough, using 50:50 bakers flour to plain (AP) flour. This was divided into one 500g and two 600g pieces.
The 500g dough was shaped into a linked chain loaf, following the step by step instructions at The Shiksa Blog. It’s an easy loaf to make, and involves shaping five fat rolls into linked rings, and then joining the last ring to the first to form a closed circle.
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One of the 600g pieces of dough was divided into six long thin rolls, then shaped into a Winston knot – a tricky woven design from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread book. It was moderately successful in form, but I think I’ll need to try with a larger quantity of dough next time. The crumb, though, was perfect.
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The remaining 600g piece of dough was divided into eight balls, which were packed snugly against each other in a parchment lined loaf tin. The end result was this gorgeous faux brioche, with its wonderfully tender texture. Here are a couple of crumb shots to tempt you!
Edit: Today’s loaf: a simple six braid design baked in a loaf tin…
Every month, the Mellow Bakers nominate three recipes from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread for a group bake-off. September included the recipe for Soft Butter Rolls, which appealed to me in its simplicity, but not in its form.
I decided to try making the dough into a braided loaf, and was absolutely thrilled with the results! The bread is quite reminiscent of brioche (albeit a little denser), which is surprising given the relatively small amount of egg and butter in the dough. It worked beautifully into logs for plaiting, and held its shape well on baking.
I’ve made the recipe three times now, each with a slightly different mix of flour. The lighter loaf above was made with pizza flour, but the darker four-strand braid below was made with half bakers flour and half plain (AP) flour. I think both options give the bread a more tender crumb than straight bakers flour.
It’s quite hard to explain how to braid, and difficult to take photos as I didn’t have a free hand, but I found this wonderful YouTube clip for the six braid which you might find useful. If you have Hamelman’s book, I used the six braid (method two) on page 304 for the loaf above, and the four braid on page 300 for the two smaller ones below.
Braided Loaves
(adapted from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Soft Butter Rolls)
500g (4 cups) pizza flour or 50% bakers flour and 50% plain (AP) flour
230g (1 cup) water
1 egg
40g (3 tablespoons) butter
30g (2 tablespoons) sugar
25g (3 tablespoons) powdered milk
11g (2 teaspoons) fine sea salt
4g (1 teaspoon) instant dried yeast
melted butter, for brushing
Note: I used the metric amounts (converted from the imperial provided in the book); the cup and spoon measures are as listed in the original recipe.
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour(s), sugar, milk powder, salt and yeast. Cut the butter into small pieces, and rub it into the dry ingredients until crumbly.
2. Add the water and egg, and mix with your clean hand, squelching the dough together to make sure it’s well combined. Scrape off your hand, cover the bowl with a tea towel and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes.
3. Spray a clean bench with oil, the turn the dough out and knead it briefly until it develops a silky elasticity. Spray the scraped out mixing bowl with oil, then return the dough to the bowl, cover with cling film and allow to prove for about an hour and a half. The dough won’t rise much, but it will soften in that time.
4. Turn the dough out and divide it into six equal pieces for the six-braid loaf, or eight pieces for two four-braid loaves. Roll each piece into a long log, and then braid accordingly. Lay the loaves onto a tray lined with parchment paper. Spray a piece of clingfilm with oil, then fit it snugly over the top of each loaf to keep out draughts. Allow to rise for a further 30 minutes to one hour. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F) with fan.
5. Remove the clingfilm, brush the loaf with melted butter and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through the baking time. When the loaf is cooked through, remove from the oven and brush again with melted butter while it’s still hot. Allow to cool on a wire rack before photographing and scoffing!
The dough recipe is sufficient for one large six-braid loaf or two smaller four-braid ones. The latter are pictured below, and were made with a mix of plain (AP) and bakers flour. As these were smaller, they baked a little browner, but the bread was still tender and delicious. We’ve just eaten the last of the loaf sliced up and cooked as French toast!
Edit: Serendipitously, Brydie has just posted about plaited loaves as well. Maybe it’s the weekend for braiding bread! If anyone else makes a loaf, let me know, and I’ll add the link here…
…are a set of beautiful old etched glasses from the 1950s. Our beloved neighbour, Mrs M, passed away in July, just a week shy of her 93rd birthday. Her daughter Sarina gave me these glasses to remember her by…
In my kitchen…
…are three jars of Pete’s lilly pilly jelly, made from the fruit of the large tree in our backyard. The lilly pilly is a tall growing Australian native, which produces tart red berries in abundance. We harvested the fruit a few months ago and stored it in the freezer until we could find the time to turn it into jelly…
…is a small bunch of kohlrabi, a gift from Jimmy at Flemington Markets. The bulbs were delicious both raw and stir-fried in oyster sauce, and the chooks loved the leaves…
In my kitchen…
…are boxes of new season Roma tomatoes, which we’ve been turning into fresh and roasted tomato passata. The great bonus of this process is tomato water, which I’m drinking chilled as I type..
In my kitchen…
…sits a box of dark Belgian chocolate cane toads, a gift for Big Boy’s English lecturer, to thank him for getting our son through the semester!
In my kitchen…
…is the first head of lettuce from our new garden. Up until now, we’ve been picking off leaves for salad, but this is the first complete plant we’ve “harvested”. It’s very exciting!
In my kitchen…
…are two bags of rice. The first is a gift from our generous friend, Moo – bomba paella rice from Valencia, Spain, known as the “king of paella rices” for its ability to absorb three times its volume in liquid.
The second is a box of carnaroli risotto rice from Italy – slightly longer grained than the more traditional arborio rice, and supposedly better at keeping its shape during cooking…
Tell me, what’s happening in your kitchen this month?
Getting to know you…
Getting to know all about you…
Getting to like you..
Getting to hope you like me…
Rodgers and Hammerstein
“The King and I”, 1951
Pete commented recently about the wonderful friends and fellow bloggers that we’ve met since starting Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. He remarked about the cosy sense of community that we feel when reading your comments and interacting with all of you.
We’d like to get to know you all a bit better – whether you’re a regular commenter (and by the way, we adore you, thank you for always taking the time to write!) – or one of the hundreds of people who stop by to visit every day.
I know you’re all interesting people, and I’d like to invite you to tell us one fun fact about yourself. It needn’t be anything too personal (although it could be) and it can certainly be more than one thing, if you’re so inclined to share.
Are you an artist like my friends Gill and Maz, or incredibly erudite like the beautiful Joanna? Do you crochet like Christine, or create amazing bread shapes like Heidi? Do you have big feet, or frizzy red hair? Do you collect stamps, or thimbles, or paperclips? Do you have a big family, are you allergic to fish, can you tap dance?
Let me kick off by telling you one thing about myself that I don’t think I’ve mentioned before. I’m hooked on trivia! I blame Pete V, who bought me my first trivia book a few years ago, but since then I’ve built a collection of half a dozen or so. I try to read just a page or two a day, slowly, so that it all sinks in. It’s fascinating stuff, and I’m sure it’s a good anti-dementia practice!
So now I’m turning the microphone over to you…and I can’t wait to hear from you!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 