Wholemeal Buns

I really don't like the taste of wholemeal bread. As mentioned earlier, everytime I make them, I try to flavour them with nuts or fruits. These buns were baked a couple of weeks back. When I saw the pack of wholemeal flour being abandoned for so long, I thought I'd better make something with it. The olive oil bread came to my mind. Using the same recipe as the olive oil bread, I just replaced the maize flour with whole meal flour, and to make it slightly different from the log shaped bread I normally make, I shaped them into buns, coated with different things, i.e. sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, maize flour. Note : To coat the bread with seeds, dip the proofed dough quickly in a shallow bowl of water or brush it with water, then roll it on a plate of seeds. To coat with flour, just roll dough over flour before resting The result, a very soft wholemeal bread (the oil made it soft), and the softness retained even after a couple of days kept in an air tight container. I gave some to my neighbour, and was glad she liked them.

Mushroom Jalousie

Both hubs and I are great fan of mushrooms, especially button and portobello. I saw this recipe from Baking by James Peterson and thought it was rather easy to make, and it uses puff pastry which I normally have a roll (ready made ones) in the freezer because my daughters love puff pastry.

So I made it one Saturday for lunch. The girls who don't like mushroom wanted theirs filled with other things, so I put parmessan filling for my eldest (she loves everything with parmessan), and cocktail sausage for the youngest.

♥Mushroom Filling (Duxelles)♥
Adapted from Baking by James Peterson
Makes 2 cups

You'll need

2 pounds (907g) mushrooms (I used a mixture of brown and white button mushroom but the recipe prefers cremini)
1 tbs (14g) butter
1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme, 2 tsp chopped fresh tarragon or 1 tsp chopped fresh marjoram (I used 1 tsp rosemerry because that's what I have in my pantry)
1/4 cup of double cream (the recipe calls for 1/2 cup but it's optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1) Chop the mushrooms into small pieces.

2) Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pan over high heat and add the mushrooms and herbs. Stir so the mixture heats evenly. Soon the mushroom will be submerged in their own liquid. Continue to cook over high heat until all the liquid evaporates and the mixture is dry.

3) If you are using cream, add the cream. Continue cooking until there is no liquid in the pan.

4) Season to taste with salt and pepper.

5) Chill it to be used later.

♥Mushroom Jalousie♥
Adapted from Baking by James Peterson
Makes one 7 by 10 inch Jalousie

You'll need
2 sheets of puff pastry measuring 7 by 10 inch
2 cups mushroom filling
Eggwash (~whole egg mixed with 1/2 tsp salt)

Method

1) Preheat oven to 220C

2) Put one of sheet of the puff pastry on parchment paper. Spread the filling over it, leaving about 1 inch border all around. Refrigerate.

3) Fold the 2nd sheet of puff pastry (make sure it's firm but able to be folded, if it's not freeze until it is) half lengthwise to create a 5 by 7 inch strip of folded dough. With a long sharp knife, cut slits about 3/4 inch apart, cutting through the top and bottom layers of the dough but not cutting all the way to the fold. Leave about 3/4 inch of the fold and of the open side uncut to create the eventual center strip of dough and the border. Chill the dough so it's firm when you transfer it.

4) Brush eggwash over the edges of the bottom dough with the filling. Place the folded dough over the filling and wait a minute of two if it's too stiff to work with.

5) Unfold it so there's a strip of dough running up the center with the slats on both sides. Gentry press the edges to seal the top to the bottom and cut away a tiny strip along all 4 edges, so the top and the bottom edges are flush or even.

6) Brush the top with egg wash. Freeze for 15mins

7) Bake for about 30minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Turn down the oven to 150C and bake for 20minutes more.

8 ) Cut into rectangles to serve

Hubs and I have a piece each accompanied with a rocket salad. It was a satisfying lunch.

Olive Oil Bread with Maize Flour

Many loaves of bread making later, I realised that if you add fat such as olive oil or butter in your dough, you tend to get a softer bread. To make it more palatable to to the children, as they like bread soft, I try to make most of my bread with some fat now, and I normally use extra virgin olive oil for health reasons.

I normally use Richard Bertinet Olive Dough recipe, and I'll mix different flour together but the total amount of flour always adds up to 520g.

This round, it's maize flour that I used to mix with strong bread flour.

♥Recipe for Olive Dough♥
Adopted from Richard Bertinet Dough
Make 4 medium size loaves

You'll need

400g strong bread flour
20g salmolina flour
100g maize flour
1 sachet of instant yeast
10g salt
50g extra virgin olive oil
320g water

Method
1) Mix the flour, yeast, salt together, and then add in the water and olive oil

2) Knead the dough using dough hook at low speed until well combined then increase to medium low speed and knead for another 5mins.

3) Lightly dust the inside of a clean bowl with flour and place the dough in it. Cover with tea towel and rest for 1hour (dough should be double in size)

4) Tun the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and form into a ball. Return to bowl, and cover and rest for a further 30mins

5) Flour the work surface again, and turn the dough out onto it. Divide into 4 equal piece (weighing would be more acurate). Fold one side into the middle and again use the heel of your hand, or thumb, to press it down and seal. Bring the other side over to the middle and again press down to seal. Finally, fold in half lenghthways and seal the edges so you end up with a long log shape with rounded ends.

6) Place the loaves on a baking tray and flour the tops with maize flour. (If you want, you can make diagonal cuts across the top of each loaf). Cover the loves with tea towel and leave to proove for 1hr.

7) Preheat oven to 250C while waiting for the bread to prove. Once ready, turn down the temparature to 230C and place the loaves in the oven.

8 ) Bake for 15 to 18minutes, until they are golden brown colour. Remove from the oven and cool on wire rack.