Saturday, March 05, 2011

Bread

I've been inspired to make my own bread using a no-knead method where you make a massive batch of dough and bake bread as you need it. Recipe and instructions here. The resulting bread is delicious and full flavoured with a good solid crust (crunchy and chewy) and soft white slightly sour interior. It really is easy, as long as you have room in the fridge. (I've just been using my biggest mixing bowl with plastic wrap over the top).

The girls made their own rolls for lunch today, stretching their piece of dough into a ball. Fred was disappointed that it was all over so quickly.
I actually used the dough to make a lentil roll like Kirsty described in the comments of a recent post, basically rolling/stretching/squashing out a loaf's worth of dough into a flat squarish shape (it was very rough, with thin holey bits and fat bits) and then spread a lentil mix leftover from making potato crusted lentil hotpot the other night and sprinkling with cheese before rolling it like the very ugly country cousin of a swiss roll. I didn't take a picture - it oozed and dripped lentils and cheese, but it had its own peculiar aesthetic charm. The kids devoured it. Fred had seconds after dessert.
We've been making our bread with organic white flour, and while that's the preference for Fred, Una and Martin, it's not great for me, as I am trying to stick to my low GI diet. I might have to experiment with some grains.

7 comments:

  1. mmm, that looks lovely Penni. I might have to try this too.

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  2. Yay! Good, innit? It won't be our daily bread, as we use our bread maker for that and it seems quite economical, plus we can get really nice grain mixes, but let me know if you adapt it to put in grains, as I always prefer a bit of texture and added health.

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  3. Glad to hear the girls liked the lentil roll thing. I actually always thought it was kind of stodgy (which was probably why it dropped off my repertoire) but it was popular despite all. It holds together better with scone dough (even stodgier) but also quicker when you're feeling at wits end.

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  4. delicious mmmm (I can vouch for that!)

    Penni do you use the stone & water method or just a baking tray? #lazycook

    Also I've made cheesymite type of scrolls before by spreading vegemite & cheese as you have done with the lentils on a scone-like mixture. Nice for lunch boxes!

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  5. I do the water thing but just bake it on a flat biscuit sheet. Una thinks vegemite is the work of the devil but Fred would like that I think.

    Kirsty we used to make a scone pizza scroll thing in Home Ec. Occasionally I make it for the girls lunches. Agree that it is stodgy but kids seem to like their stodge.

    Zoe won't be our daily bread either, I'm not that organised! We have a breadmaker but I find a lot of the bread maker mixes a bit spongy, like supermarket bread, even the grain mixes. I don't eat all that much bread anyway these days, so I just keep a loaf of burgen in the freezer and take a slice when I want it (often have poached egg on toast for lunch). The kids have a mix of grain bread sandwiches, white bread sandwiches and multigrain corn or rice cake sandwiches or rivita sandwiches in their lunchboxes (or leftovers). Am going to explore grains this week in the health food shop, will let you know how I go.

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  6. Have you ever thought about sourdough? Apparently SD produces a lower GI loaf than bakers yeast..

    Beautiful loaf - lovely when the kids get stuck into it too.

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  7. This is a great ideea, i didn`t eat a good bread for a long time. I will definetly try to make this recipe.

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