I do love unexpected free time, especially when I fill it with productiveness. This happened a few days ago when I got the entire day off (a rare occurrence) and so decided to... yep, you’ve guessed it, bake! In my quest to deviate further from just doing Richard Bertinet recipes, I flicked through my copy of Dan Lepard’s The Handmade Loaf for some that appealed. Sweet saffron bread caught my eye.
Lots of the recipes in Dan Lepard’s book are made with leavens (i.e. sourdough starters) but my new one wasn’t quite ready for use. This recipe, however, starts with a sponge... a method that’s sort of somewhere between sourdough and just throwing in fresh yeast. So the first lot of flour (100g of plain, just to make a change), a first serving of milk (100ml at a yeast-friendly 20°C) and 5g fresh yeast got mixed together and left to get bubbly and yeasty in a warm place. Or at least, they did in theory, except my yeast seemed to decide to stay in little bits rather than dissolve away into the flour/milk mix. So, after an hour, there was virtually no bubbling. I added a touch more milk to loosen up the mix, gave it a good stir and attempted to beat some of the remaining lumps of yeast into submission, then left it for another hour. Success! Bubbles and yeastiness achieved, it was time for the next step.
Well, I’d actually started the next step a little earlier. The expensive step, in fact, because it involved saffron, the spice that happens to be worth more than its weight in gold. Luckily, this bread only needed 12 strands, which got immersed in ¾ teaspoon boiling water to infuse and release its golden colour. The recipe said 10 minutes but it doesn’t hurt to infuse the saffron for longer and... well, I was waiting for the sponge to do it’s thing for a tad longer than I’d expected. The next bit involved weighing out more ingredients. The dry (strong flour, salt and sugar) went into a bowl and I then rubbed in the softened, cubed butter (sugar and butter... just in case your bread wasn’t rich enough with the saffron). A second serving of milk, again at 20°C, then got mixed into the sponge, along with the saffron-infused water (in theory, you whisk it in. I just got my hands stuck in and started squeezing it all through to combine in thoroughly). 100g currants (ones that I walked all round my village looking for) also went in with the wet mix. 2 bowls of mix then went down to one as the wet got poured into the dry and the whole lot was mixed until I had a “soft, sticky dough”. Any dough remaining on my fingers was scraped off (although some unlucky bits did end up getting washed down the sink) and the dough was covered and left for 10 minutes.
This is where Dan Lepard’s recipes tend to differ from conventional ones. Instead of a 10 minute intensive kneading process, Dan takes you through several shorter phases of kneading and resting before the dough is finally left to double in size. This particular occasion required the dough to be kneaded for 10 seconds on an oiled surface, covered and left for 10 minutes, and for the process to be repeated twice. This of course meant that I missed out on my arm work out, but it is impressive how much structure and elasticity the bread develops without any help. The dough then went to double in size. Again, everything seemed to be working in slow motion so, instead of the suggested 1 hour, it actually took 2. Patience, Emma, patience.
The final bit of dough handling involved shaping the dough, but even this required a bit of time because, after shaping the dough into a baton, I then had to leave it to rest (covered, of course) for another 10 minutes before finally rolling it a little more to get it to 50cm long (and yes, I cracked out the ruler for that one). Each end then got rolled in to create a curly “S” shape. This time the dough went on a baking tray and got covered before being left to swell up and double in size again.
Just to throw a challenge into my baking, I had to negotiate a few problems with the oven. We’ve got a fairly new one... sort of an Aga imitation... but my brother had a bit of a tiff with it when cooking a roast at the weekend and now the door on one of the ovens pops open when it gets hot. Not that helpful if you actually want to use it. And I’d forgotten about this so started to preheat it, only to hear a little “ping” about 5 minutes later when the door popped open. Luckily, this Aga imitation has 2 ovens, but the other one is rather narrow. Crossing my fingers didn’t make the baking tray fit so I had to very carefully move the dough to a slightly narrower baking tray. I managed not to knock too much air out when doing this and, after apply egg wash to the loaf (aka fake tan for bread), it went in to bake for 30 minutes at 210°C (410°F or gas mark 6 ½) before the oven went down to 190°C (375°F or gas mark 5) for another 15 minutes.
I’d resisted the temptation to check on the bread before the 45 minutes was up but maybe I should’ve done because the glazed and enriched dough came out a little more tanned than I’d intended. It didn’t look too bad in the middle though; a nice fluffy texture with a slight golden tinge, jewelled with the currants. And taste wise, the delicate saffron flavour came through while the currants added accents of sweetness, with the bread itself being only mildly sweet.
I clearly have expensive tastes; this bread got eaten very fast.
Simplified recipe
Ingredients for the sponge
100g milk at a yeast-friendly 20°C
¾ teaspoon fresh yeast (about 5g), crumbled up
100g plain flour
Method
1. Beat the ingredients together in a mixing bowl (you may want to dissolve the yeast in the milk before you add the flour, because I had some troublesome lumps of yeast in my sponge)
2. Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place (apparently at about 25°C) for about an hour until bubbly and with a yeasty smell (mine took 2 hours; be patient and it will get there)
Ingredients for the dough
12 saffron threads
¾ tablespoon boiling water
250g strong white bread flour
25g caster sugar
½ scant teaspoon salt
30g unsalted butter, softened
150g milk at 20°C
Your sponge mixture
100g currants
Olive oil and cornmeal, for greasing and dusting
Egg wash for brushing (I used a beaten egg with about a tablespoon of milk)
Method
1. Put the saffron in a small jug or cup and cover in the boiling water. Leave for at least 10 minutes to infuse
2. Grab a large mixing bowl and put in your flour, sugar and salt
3. Cut the butter into cubes and add it to the dry ingredients, then rub in using your fingertips until there are no lumps of butter left
4. In a jug (or a bowl, if you’re that way inclined) mix together the saffron/water and the milk. Pour this into the bowl with the sponge and combine the two until smooth. Add the currants, then add the whole lot to the dry mix and bring together into a “soft, sticky dough”. Cover the dough and leave it to rest for 10 minutes
5. Oil your worktop and turn the dough out. Knead for 10-15 seconds (aim for about 15 kneading motions). Clean and lightly oil your mixing bowl then return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave for another 10 minutes
6. Turn the dough out onto the oiled work surface and repeat the 10 second kneading, then return to the bowl, cover and leave to double in size (in theory, 1 hour but, as with my sponge, mine took 2 hours)
7. Making sure you’ve cleaned it, it’s now time to lightly dust the worktop. Gently turn out the dough and form it into a ball. Squash the ball into a flat-ish oval. Imagine it’s rectangular than it actually is and fold the top 2 corners into the middle, then fold the newly-generated straight edge into the centre. Turn 180° and repeat the process, then fold completely in half and press the edge down to seal. Starting from the middle, roll the dough to stretch it out into a baton. Cover and leave to rest for 10 minutes (if you try to work it too much in one go the dough will resist and simply stretch back), then continue to roll out the baton until it’s roughly 50cm long. Pull each end round to generate a swirly “S” shape (if you’re confused, see the picture). Either dust a baking tray with cornmeal or grease it with oil, place the dough on the tray, cover and leave to prove until roughly doubled in size (about 1 hour)
8. Preheat your oven to 210°C (410°F or gas mark 6... and a half). Gently brush the dough with egg wash and then bake for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 190°C (375°F or gas mark 5) and bake for a further 15-20 minutes until browned (not necessarily quite as much as mine) and the loaf feels light and sounds hollow
9. Allow to cool completely before slicing
References
The Handmade Loaf, Dan Lepard, Mitchell Beazley, 2004
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