Protein Loaf - Gluten Free

Grab the papers... or a good book... or your laptop.  Pour some coffee... or some tea... is it too early for a mimosa?... Pull up a chair ... lie on the sofa... or go back to bed.  Whatever you do, cut yourself a thick slice of this and smother it with your favourite toppings for an excellent start to the day.  

Protein Loaf - Gluten Free

1 sachet dried yeast

375ml lukewarm water

100g besan flour

60g quinoa flour

60g potato flour

30g sorghum flour

100g ground almonds

40g flax seeds

30g sunflower seeds

30g poppy seeds

30g chia seeds

30g pumpkin seeds
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 23 cm x 13 cm loaf pan with baking paper. Set aside.

Put the water and yeast into a small mixing bowl and stir with a fork.  Set aside for 5 - 10 minutes to become foamy.

In a separate bowl combine the all the flours and seeds.  Add the eggs, oil and the yeast mixture and stir to combine.  The mixture will be a thick batter rather than a dough.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 - 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.  

Transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool to room temperature before slicing.  

I served it with ricotta and figs and a drizzled with honey.  Equally good toasted and topped with a fried egg and hot sauce... just sayin'.

Pain de Mie

I assume you're here because you love bread... And if that's the case, let's be friends... best friends.

*NOTE: You can get purpose-built Pain de Mie pans (or pullman loaf pans), but I just used a 3 litre capacity loaf pan (commercial grade) topped with a heavy sheet pan weighted down with a cast iron skillet - it has to be heavy though, that dough has some serious push when it gets in the oven.

Pain de Mie
slightly adapted from here

1 sachet dry yeast
250ml lukewarm water
250ml full cream milk
625g bread flour, plus extra for dusting
2 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon honey
100g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

Put the water into the bowl of an electric mixer and sprinkle the yeast over.  Leave or 5 minutes to become foamy.  Add the milk, flour, salt and honey and mix on low for 2 minutes.  Stop the machine and let the dough rest for 2 minutes, then mix on low for a further 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the butter between two sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it is thin and soft.  This will only take a few minutes.

Turn the mixer onto to low and drop small pieces of the softened butter into the dough, one at a time.  Once all the butter is incorporated, turn the dough out onto a floured board.  It will be silky-soft, but still able to be handled without sticking to everything.  Fold it in half, then turn it 180 degrees and fold again.  Fold it a third time, shape it into a ball and place it in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave for about 3 hours to triple in size.

Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a floured board.  Fold the dough in half, and repeat two more times.  Put it back into the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and leave for 2 hours to double in size.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board, shape it into a rough rectangle and roll it up into a log shape long enough to fit your pan.  The dough is really floppy, but be confident and just get it in there.  Flatten the top of the dough with floured hands, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise for about 1 hour, or until it is about 1cm below the top of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 220C.

Slide the lid on top of the pan, or weight it down as described in the * note above, and bake for 40 minutes.  Remove the bread from the pan and leave to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Dinkelbrot

Dinkelbrot sounds like the kind of bread that the fairies at the bottom of the garden might eat.  I can imagine them sitting in their little mushroom houses spreading thick slices of dinkelbrot with butter made from butterfly milk and jam made of cloud berries and drinking it with the best lattes.

NOTE:  I used two canning cans (450g). You could also use two small loaf pans.

Dinkelbrot
slightly adapted from here
Makes 2 loaves

500g lukewarm water
7g (1 sachet) dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey

800g spelt flour

2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon ground anise seed
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 cup nutritional yeast flakes
Unsalted butter for greasing the cans

Put 1/2 cup of the water, the yeast and honey into a small bowl and stir with a fork until combined. Set aside for 10 minutes to become foamy.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining water with the flour, salt, anise, caraway and yeast flakes until it comes together.  Add the yeast mixture and mix with your hands until the dough comes together.  Add a little more water if the dough is too stiff, or a little more flour if the dough is too sticky.

Butter the cans generously.  Divide the dough into two even portions.  Shape into balls and drop the dough into the cans.

Place the cans into a cold oven and turn the temperature to 200C.  Bake for 1 1/2 hours.  The crust should be dark.  Leave the loaves in the cans to cool completely before turning out and slicing.

Ginger and Orange Stollen

My heart's been stollen...  I'm having a stollen moment...  I feel like I've stollen second base...  I've stollen a bit of stollen...  Okay, it's Friday and I've had a Stoli.



Ginger and Orange Stollen
slightly adapted from here
Makes 2 loaves

1 cup sultanas
1 cup dried sour cherries
1 cup crystallised ginger, chopped
1 cup slivered almonds
2/3 cup Cointreau
350g unsalted butter, divided
1/3 cup full cream milk
4 cups "00" flour (or plain flour)
1 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest (from about 2 large oranges)
2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
2 teaspoons ground ginger, divided
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup icing sugar

Put the sultanas, cherries, crystallised ginger, almonds and Cointreau into a bowl, stir to mix and leave at room temperature overnight to plump up the fruit.

The next day, heat 225g of the butter and the milk over a low heat until the butter melts.  Remove from the heat and leave to cool until it reaches about 37C or blood temperature.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, 1/4 cup of the caster sugar, orange zest, yeast, 1 teaspoon of the ground ginger,cardamom, nutmeg and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the flour mixture with the warm milk mixture and beat on low speed until it becomes a shaggy dough.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for about 10 minutes until it becomes a smooth, soft dough. Stop the mixer, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to rest for 2 hours.

Punch the dough down and add the fruit mixture.  Put the bowl back on the mixer and beat on low for a few minutes until the fruit is evenly distributed through the dough.   It will be pretty sticky.

Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.  Divide the dough into two even portions and shape them into long ovals.  Place them on the prepared baking sheet and cover them loosely with plastic wrap.  Leave them in a warm place to rest for about an hour.  The dough will not rise very much as the amount of fruit and alcohol will inhibit the yeast.  These are dense, heavy "stick-to-your-ribs" loaves - nothing light and airy about them.

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Bake the loaves for 50 - 55 minutes.  Melt the remaining 125g butter and as soon as the stollen comes out of the oven, brush the tops and sides generously with it  (using up all of the butter).

Combine the remaining 3/4 cup caster sugar and remaining 1 teaspoon ground ginger and sprinkle it over the warm, butter smeared loaves.  This will give you a thick layer on the top and sides of each loaf.  Cool them completely.

Once cooled, sprinkle with the icing sugar and wrap them lightly in a layer of plastic wrap and then a layer of foil.  Leave them to mature for at least 3 days before slicing.  The butter and sugar on the outside forms a delicious crust and all the flavours of the fruit and booze become mellow as it ages.

Naan

If you're looking for the fluffiest, most tender-crumbed naan to mop up your curry sauce with, look no further.  There's naan better than these.  Sorry!

Naan

slightly adapted from here

Makes 12

450g baker's flour, plus extra for dusting and adjusting for stickiness

1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt 

150ml lukewarm water

150ml lukewarm whole milk

3 teaspoons dried yeast

1/12 teaspoons caster sugar

150ml plain biodynamic yoghurt

60g unsalted butter melted

Put the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.  Set aside.

In a separate mixing bowl, place the water, milk, yeast and sugar and whisk to combine.  Set aside for 10 minutes until foamy.  Add the yoghurt and butter and whisk to incorporate.  

Pour the yeast mixture into the dry mixture and mix with your hands until it comes together.  It will be a fairly wet dough.  It will come together as you handle it, but add a little more flour if it is too sticky.  Scrape the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes.  I used a bench scraper to spread the dough out and scrape it back together because mine was too sticky to knead at this point.  (Remember, the wetter the better.) Scrape the dough back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Leave the dough to double in size in a warm spot for 30 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and cut it into 12 even portions.  If the dough is still too wet to handle, add a little more flour until it is manageable.  Stretch and press each portion out with your hands until it is a  a rough teardrop shape and about 5mm thick.

Heat a dry frying pan (I used a cast iron skillet) over high heat and get it screaming hot.  Fry each portion, one at a time,  for 2 minutes on each side, or until puffed and pleasingly blistered and scorched in places.  As you take them off the heat, pop them into a clean tea towel to keep them warm and let them steam a bit.  If you wish to cook them beforehand, you can wrap them in a layer of baking paper and then a layer of foil and pop them in a warm oven.

Post-Workout Fruit and Nut Loaf - Gluten Free

When I'm still eating thick slices of this six hours after I left the gym, it still counts as post-workout, right?




Post-Workout Fruit and Nut Loaf - Gluten Free
slightly adapted from here

For the Loaf:
Olive oil, for greasing
250g ground almonds
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and cut into small dice
100g dried apricots
100g prunes, pitted
50g pecans
4 eggs
2 tablespoons honey (or to taste, this is not meant to be a really sweet loaf)
50ml - 75ml water

To Serve: (optional)
Your favourite nut butter
Honey

Make the Loaf:
Preheat the oven to 170C.  Grease and line a 23 cm x 13 cm loaf pan with baking paper.  Grease the paper well too.  Set aside.

Put the ground almonds, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Whisk to combine and break up any lumps.  Add the chopped apple, dried fruit and pecans.  Stir to coat the fruit and nuts in the dry ingredients, this will stop the fruit from sinking to the bottom of your loaf.  Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and honey together and stir them into the dry ingredients.  Add enough water to make a soft, creamy batter (between 50ml - 75ml depending on conditions and the hydration of your ground almonds and fruit).

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40 - 45 minutes.  Leave to cool to room temperature into the pan on a wire rack before slicing.

To Serve:
You can totally eat this as is, but I like to cut thick slices, toast them to golden perfection and slather with cinnamon spiced almond butter and drizzle with obscene amounts of  gloriously sticky honey.  (Also extremely good with a thick coating of chocolate and hazelnut spread, or smothered in Danish butter, or apricot jam. options!) 

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

I'm convinced that bananas were put on this earth to tempt us into buying too many of them at once. At first it's all Happy Days with weekend pikelets, mid-week post-workout smoothies and trips to school as part of a packed lunch. But towards the end of the week, after a few overripe days mocking us from the fruit bowl, we are forced to a make banana bread and then eat it with lashings of unsalted Danish butter while sipping frothy coffee.  It's part of a master plan. Not a bad plan, really.

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

170g (1 1/2 cups) spelt flour (or plain flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
75g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
200g (1 cup) brown sugar
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups banana puree (about 3 bananas)

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).  Grease and line a 23 cm x 13 cm loaf pan with baking paper.  Set aside.

Sift the flour, baking soda and cinnamon into a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes until smooth and creamy.  Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the peanut butter.  Beat until incorporated and add the egg and vanilla, beating until thoroughly mixed.  Add the banana puree and beat to combine.  Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the flour mixture.  Mix at low speed until just combined.  Do not over beat.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top and bake for 50 - 55 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Leave in the pan for 20 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool. Slice thickly when warm or at room temperature and serve with butter or just as is... it's all good.

Cookie Cutter Sourdough Rolls

Lovely rolls for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner.  I thought they looked fun and elegant until one of my family members mentioned that they looked a bit like bosoms and now that's all I can see.



NOTE: Start this recipe a day ahead.




Cookie Cutter Sourdough Rolls
slightly adapted from here
Makes 8

150g active sourdough starter
250g cold filtered water
500g baker's flour
10g fine sea salt
Fine semolina, for dusting

The Evening Before:
In a large bowl, mix the starter with the water with your hands.  Add the flour and salt and mix until the mixture comes together into a shaggy mess.  Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave for 30 minutes.

Knead the dough briefly in the bowl until it comes together into a smooth ball, then cover it again with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature overnight.

The Next Day:
Line a baking tray with baking paper and sprinkle the baking paper generously with semolina.

Lightly dust your work surface with the semolina and dump the dough onto it.  Fold the dough a few times, then divide it into 8 even portions.  Roll each portion into a ball and place them on the prepared baking tray.

Sprinkle the top of each ball with more semolina.  Dust a medium cookie cutter and a small cookie cutter with semolina and place them on top of a ball and push down with the palm of your hand, all the way through to the tray, cutting through the dough completely.  Continue to cut each ball, dusting the cutters well between each.  Cover the rolls with a clean cloth and set aside in a warm spot to become puffy (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours), depending on the heat of your kitchen.

Preheat the oven to 240C (fan-forced).

When the rolls are plump and puffed, mist the tops with a little water and put the tray in the oven, immediately reducing the temperature to 220C (fan-forced).  Bake for 20 minutes, turn the tray around and reduce the oven temperature to 175C (fan-forced) and continue to bake for a further 15 - 20 minutes, until golden and crusty.