Spelt Bread

Having baked various types of bread before, trying spelt wheat bread was something that did make me a little concerned. Not least because it lacks the gluten content of standard wheat's, it can be a rather dense bread. But having mastered Rye bread and I can produce a loaf with a light crumb, I was reasonably confident that I had my technique right, but I was prepared for a failure. However, I was very pleased to discover that it worked first time.

I had tried using spelt before, many years ago but with mixed success. However my bread making skills have developed and now I can feel when I have the dough right. As spelt is not a cheap flour and I was using an organic one too, I could not afford to have made to many mistakes.

For those that don't know, spelt wheat is one of the oldest wheat's used for making bread. Used by the Egyptians four thousand years ago. However, it is the taste that really matters and it does make a great bread too.

Devils Food Cake Recipe

In my other blog, I made a posting regarding me baking my own birthday cake rather than having my better half use a packet mix. As I refuse to allow products into my kitchen that have emerged from a chemical plant and not a kitchen. Personally I do worry about what additives are put in our food. While they are all tested to see if they are safe, over the years a not insignificant number have been banned as they were latter discovered to cause health problems.

In the 1980s the book E for Additives became a surprising best seller. Surprising as it was just a list of the chemicals that were added to our foods in the form of colours, preservatives, flavourings etc. The industry reaction was to change the labels from the EU codes, the E numbers, to the chemical name. However some of these additives were removed from the approved list as a result of the book.

It is one of the bizarre aspects of some processed food that to produce them the nutritional bits are removed. Corn Flakes being the classic example. The kernel is removed first and and the corn is flattened and toasted. As the Kernel is where all the vitamins and minerals are naturally stored, these vitamins and minerals have to be artificially added. The manufacturers even boast of the added vitamin and mineral content of their product. Now while I personally like corn flakes and I do not think they are a bad food, it says something about the mindset of food manufacturers that they will mess about with our food only with the aim of making a normal food, maize (corn) in to a product.

While the rational projected by the manufacturers and processors is often about convenience, but the question needs to be asked, whose convenience? If it looks as though the convenience is just for the manufacturer then it probably is.

In Europe HVO, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil the cheapest of the cheap oil or fat that can be used in foods, has long been associated with cardiac illness, while still legal is via publicity being removed from products. The EU even changed the regulations so that it could not be hidden in products as vegetable oil. In Denmark and New York it is now banned. However, reason why manufacturers love this oil is not its low cost, but it adds months to the shelf life of a product. If baked with butter, a pastry would last only four to six weeks. HVO can make that 12 months or more. That can save a food manufacturer millions.

So while no food processors and manufacturers are not deliberately trying to poison their customers, the corporate mentality of the food industry means that dubious items are used. Therefore, by staying with this rule of not using anything that contains items that you can not find in the kitchen is a good rule to follow.

The irony that I should be talking about what I would call Devils Food, the over processed rubbish that the food industry loves to sell us having just discovered this American classic that is called Devils Food. The difference is the cake is just straight forward fattening and indulgent. While many of the over processed foods are fattening just from extra sugar and fats that are added to make them cheap, or have longer life and profitable. However, this is one of those wonderful treats that can be part of a family celebration. I personally love dark chocolate but a good milk chocolate can be used, if that is your personal taste.

I love discovering new dishes from different nations, and if anyone has something interesting to share, lets share it here.

Devils Food Cake Recipe

Ingredients

100g 3½oz Dark Chocolate
250g 9oz Self-raising Flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking Soda)
225g 8oz Butter
400g 14oz Dark Muscovado Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Extract
3 eggs
125ml 4 floz Buttermilk
225ml 8oz Boiling water

Frosting
300g 10½oz Caster sugar
2 egg whites
1 tbsp lemon Juice
3 tbsp Orange Juice

Method

Set the Oven to 190°C/375°f/Gas mark 5
Lightly grease two 20cm/8 inch round cake tins and line with greaseproof paper.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of water.
Sieve the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.
Separately beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy.
Beat in the vanilla extract and one at a time the three eggs.
Fold the melted chocolate into the butter sugar mixture until well blended.
Gradually fold in the flour, a little at a time works best.
Then stir in the buttermilk and the boiling water.
Divide the mixture between the tins and cook in the preheated oven for thirty minutes
Leave to cool in the tins for five minutes as this helps the cake release from the tin, then cool on a wire rack until fully cool.

In a bowl set over gently simmering water, as you would melt chocolate, put all the frosting ingredients.
Whisk, this works best with an electric whisk, until thickened and forming soft peaks.
Remove from the heat and whisk until cool.
The heat will cook the egg whites while continuing to whisk will keep the frosting smooth.
Spread about a third on one of the cooled cakes and make a sandwich then coat them both with the remaining frosting.

Bread Making

The staff of life, better known as bread is one of the essentials of life. Over the years there have been many occasions when I have made my own bread. So when the snow meant that there was no bread in my village co-op, I was able to return home and make my own. I was already prepared as when the commodity prices rocketed just before the banking collapse, I restarted making my own bread.

Not least because at that time the price of a loaf of decent wholemeal went up to £1.80 in the village stores and even in the supermarkets the price went up by nearly a third to over £1.50. So when I spotted that I could buy a bag of strong wholemeal flour for 58 pence as the bag was slightly damaged, I could see that from that I could make two loves for much less than a single bought loaf. While there is a cost in time and Energy, even with both these costs it still made it financially viable.

The only additional major cost at the time was another decent bread tin. While I already had a good one from a cheaper end of the types available, the better quality ones have a wider base and you end up with a better shaped loaf. Also if you just want to make bloomers or cottage loaf style bread then you don't even need a loaf tin, you just need a baking sheet. Again the best quality you can afford. Often one of three or four pounds cost will out last by many years one of one or two pounds cost. I know this from the experience of having wasted money on cheap ones in the past, and I would rather say now that good quality equipment that you will use regularly is far better than cheap rubbish that you loath to use.

Equally, I have had my disasters with making bread, and I am happy to enable you to benefit from my mistakes. The worst one was when I put two table spoons full of salt in to a recipe instead of the two tea spoons full. The only real other aspect that you need to be aware of is not having had the bread rise sufficiently I have made this mistake myself, and found the solution unexpectedly. Following mixing a batch of dough, there was a gas leak near by. Thus the gas had to be shut off, so I could not place the dough in the warm place near the boiler to prove (allow the yeast to rise the bread dough). So I placed it in the fridge and waited until the gas reconnected. This happened the following day. Much to my amazement even in the fridge the dough had risen. And via experimentation it takes 24 hours, so even if you have not got an ideal location to prove the dough, if you allow sufficient time, you should never have a loaf that has not risen sufficiently

Just like any other type of cooking, bread making is actually very easy. When I first said to friends that I was going to try making bread for the first time, I was told that it was very difficult and that I should not even try. Having already bought the bread tin and the ingredients, I was left wondering if I had wasted my money, but the only way to really discover if this was to difficult was to give it a try. Using the recipe given below, I made the attempt and I discovered it was one of the easiest tasks I had undertaken. While it does take time for the dough to rise, the preparation and time for needing the dough was less than ten minutes. Even clearing up and washing up took no longer than it would from washing up after any other cooking. So those myths were dispelled quickly. But the real revelation was just how good freshly baked bread tasted.

Bread Basic Recipe

Notes:

For making bread you need what is described as “Strong” plain flour. This describes a flour that has a high protein level and this is better for making bread. It is perfectly possible to make a reasonably good bread using the plain flour that is used for cakes and pastries, but you get a superior taste and better nutriment value from bread by using a bread flour. For this recipe you can use a wholemeal, that is a flour where all the bran is included, a wheat-meal where the bran is removed and is 81 to 95% of the wholemeal, or a strong white flour. Also you can use a stone-ground flour. As the use of stones while milling the flour generates heat, this toasts the flour and adds to the flavour. However, the choice of flour is really dependant upon your personal tastes.

Salt is essential for making any ground grain taste better. Without salt grains would be unpalatable. However, by making your own bread you will be able to control the level of salt in your diet far more. Often salt and sugars are added to commercial breads to improve the taste of poorer quality flours.

Fat is essential to make the bread moist. Again making your own you will have greater control over the amount of fat in your diet. Not just the amount but the type. Even the good quality breads from supermarkets are often made using cheap fats and the cheapest fats are also the saturated fats. These are the ones that are less than healthy. Also to help make commercial bread last longer they will have more fats than you would use when making your own.

Making bread from fresh yeast was the norm half a century ago. This was when every village and town had its own baker and you could buy fresh yeast from them. But with the loss of the local baker where the bread is prepared and baked on the premisses, it is almost impossible to buy fresh yeast. The only source that I have locally is twenty miles away. So I personally have no problem with using a dried yeast. In fact the first time I tried to use fresh yeast it was not as fresh as I had been led to believe, a friend had obtained it for me, and it was a week old when I finally got it, thus it was already moribund. Where with dried yeast I have never had any problem. Further it is best to use just the quantity stated in any recipe, if you use more than stated the bread will have an overwhelming yeast flavour.

While sugar is added to so many foods to improve the taste of lower quality ingredients, here the use of sugar is to provide food for the yeast. Even dried yeast is living and to multiply and work as the rising agent in bread you need to feed the yeast. While the recipe says use fine caster sugar, you can use granulated sugar, but it may take longer for the bread to rise properly.

When I first started making bread the use of the term “tepid” was a real mystery for me. What temperature was meant by that term. I knew that if the water was to hot it would kill the yeast. Equally if the water was to cold it would take longer for the yeast to become active, so that you need the water to be warm enough to provide the ideal conditions for the yeast. An easy way to get the water to the right temperature is to cold water from the tap you pour in water just off the boil from the kettle and the water will be the right temperature for the yeast to become active.

Thus the myths of bread making are dispelled.

One last tip, always use either metric or imperial measurements as if you try and mix the two, you will find the results a disappointment as the balance can be lost.

Ingredients

700g 1.5lb Strong plain Flour
10ml 2 teaspoons salt
Knob of fat (I prefer to use butter but this can be lard)
7.5ml one & half level teaspoons of dried yeast (15g ½oz of fresh yeast can be used but is not easily available)
5ml one teaspoon of caster sugar
400ml (¾pint of tepid water) about 43 degrees C or 110F

Method

Depending upon if you are making Rolls or two small loves or one large loaf, grease a two pound tin or two one pound tin or two baking sheets.

Sift the flour and the salt into a large bowl and rub in the fat.

If using fresh yeast blend with the water.
If using dried yeast add the sugar to the water then sprinkle the yeast over the water and leave to start frothy.

Mix the dry ingredients with the yeast water with a wooden spoon and work to form a firm dough. You can add extra flour to the mixture if needed to get this firm dough and this is where the dough leaves the sides of the bowl easily. If you add to much extra flour the dough will be to stiff and the bread will be heavy and dense.

Turn the dough on to a lightly floured surface and kneed the dough thoroughly so that you stretch and develop the dough. The kneading process can be best described as pulling it towards you with your fingers while heeling it away with the palm of your hand. Continue this until the bread dough feels elastic and is no longer sticky. The better you kneed the dough the more evenly the yeast will be distributed through the dough but it is possible to over work, over kneed, the dough too.

Shape the dough into a ball and return to the mixing bowl. The dough needs to be covered and lightly oiled (greased) greaseproof paper I find works best. In old recipe books they would say cover with a damp cloth, but this can leave fluff on the bread and no matter how clean a tea towel is I feel it is not that hygienic In modern books they will say use a plastic bag, but as most people will have previously used the bag for other uses, again I have hygiene issues with this. By using greaseproof paper, you can stop the dough getting a dry crust on it as well as keeping the dough clean while still allowing it to rise. It needs to double in size, and this will normally take ¾ to 1 hour in ideal conditions, but allow two hours if rising the dough at room temperature Also as stated in the bread posting allow 24 hours if proving the dough in the fridge, but you also need to let the dough rest for a hour at room temperature.

Turn the risen dough onto a floured surface and knock it back with your knuckles. Forget other forms of stress relief making bread can be a great way of getting rid of stress. Kneed the dough and make it firm for shaping. If making two small loves divide the bread into two or if making rolls you can get up to 18 rolls. Or just make one single loaf. The bread needs to rise again inside the tin or if rolls on the baking sheets. If making rolls space them about 2.5cm (1 inch) apart so that as they rise and expand.

When the dough has had its second rising in a tin it will be level or over the top of the tin. Cut a score down along the length of the loaf as while cooking it will expand further and this cut will allow the bread to expand.

In the base of the oven place a bowl of boiling water, bake the bread in a hot oven 230 C that's 450 F or gas mark 8 for 30 to 40 minutes for loves or 15 to 20 minutes for rolls, until well risen and golden brown. When cooked the rolls will be double in size. The loaves will shrink away from the sides of the tin and will sound hollow on the base when tapped.

Cool on a wire rack