Moroccan Bread

Struggling for bread ideas. Been flicking through some recipe books that have been sat on the “recipe book bookcase” for a while without being used. I stumbled across this recipe in Moro: The Cookbook. I think it only had about 4 bread recipes in it.

Nothing particularly fancy about the making of this bread. It started with 300g strong white bread flour, 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds and a large pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. I made a well in all of this and poured in 10g fresh yeast that had been dissolved in a tablespoon of warm water, along with 225ml milk that I’d dissolved ¾ tablespoon of honey in. A bottle of olive oil was also sat on the side as it had been included in the ingredients list but at no stage was I actually instructed to use it. Aaanyway, I brought the mix together into a dough, turned it out onto a clean worktop and beat the crap out of it for 5 minutes until smooth and relatively springy. The bowl got a quick clean and dry before I put the dough back in, covered it with a tea towel and left it snuggled up to my warm wheat bag until doubled in size, which took a little longer than an hour due to the cold weather finally having arrived in my area.

Dough-growing over, it got gently turned out onto a floured work surface and cut into 4 pieces, and hopped over to the oven to preheat it to 180°C (450°F or gas mark 8). Hopping back to the dough, I shaped each piece into a ball. And next, I didn’t do quite what I think I was meant to. The book was a little... artistic with its pictures. By which I mean, they were pretty, but they weren’t that helpful. There was no picture of the bread I was making, although a little internet searching did turn up the same recipe with an accompanying picture. So, I rolled out the dough into circles... slight brain lapse meant that I rolled them out to 1.5 inches rather than 1.5 centimetres... and then followed the instruction to do a circle of crimp marks in the middle of each dough circle, which the picture showed looking a little like a sun. The book said this would restrict the rise of the dough... but I’m not sure whether I was meant to also push the dough down to achieve this effect. My not-quite-right dough went onto a lightly greased baking tray, and I then glazed them with a mix of 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon milk. Tip: it’s normally better to glaze before you stuff on the tray it’ll bake on because, if you get the glaze spilling onto the tray, it can stick down the dough and prevent it rising.

You might be able to tell from the pictures that I didn’t exactly have this problem. 15 minutes in the oven and I had some fairly mountainous buns rather than flatbreads, but with an impressive golden-brown sheen to them. I let them cool before hacking one open (dinner had been delayed and my brother and I shared one as a snack to tide us over). The bread was pale and soft, with a fairly random bit of bubble structure, and it had a mildly sweet flavour that was complemented nicely by the fennel.

Execution: not stunning. But still some tasty bread.

Simplified recipe

Ingredients

300g strong white bread flour

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

Pinch salt

10g fresh yeast dissolved in 1 tablespoon warm water

¾ teaspoon honey

Around 225ml milk, but you may need a little more

1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon milk mixed, for glazing

Method

1.       Put the flour, fennel seeds and salt in a bowl and mix together

2.       Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the yeast/water, honey and milk. Bring the ingredients together into a dough, tip out onto a work surface and knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Return to the bowl, cover and leave in a warm place to double in size

3.       Preheat your oven at 180°C (450°F or gas mark 8)

4.       Turn the dough out onto a floured worktop and divide into four. Form each piece into a ball and then roll it out to about 1.5 cm thick (not 1.5 inches, like I did. Lack of brain engagement there). Imagine a smaller circle in the centre of each dough circle and, using your finger and thumb, pinch and push down the dough around 9-12 times to make a sun-like pattern (this is meant to restrict the rise of your dough to make the finished bread more flat)

5.       Brush the dough circles with the egg and milk glaze and then place on a lightly-greased baking tray

6.       Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and they give off a hollow sound when tapped

References

Moro: The Cookbook, Sam and Sam Clark, Ebury Press, 2001