Bread with dried wild fennel flowers, oregano, slow-roasted tomatoes and red pepper paste

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This is a colorful, intense-tasting, savoury variation of a standard white loaf. To be quite honest, when I made this bread I did not measure anything but quickly threw everything together. It's fine of course – and also even enjoyable – to be a purist when it comes to bread-baking, but there are days when I just do not have the time or inclination. Here, I just wanted to have fun adding good quality ingredients to a dough which I know always works, adjusting quantities here and there when needed.

Regarding the ingredients, the starting point for this recipe is a red pepper paste I am sent by my aunt in Calabria (Southern Italy). It's made with ripe, locally grown red peppers (I think they use a specific variety for this, but I'm not sure) which are first boiled, then cooked again with salt, strained and made into a thick, concentrated paste which you can keep in the fridge for months. The intended use for this paste is a delicious instant pasta sauce (olive oil, diced shallots; add the paste; cook gently for a couple of minutes; add a little boiling pasta cooking water and it's done) but I also use it instead of tomato sauce on pizza, or on bruschetta. I've also added slow-roasted tomatoes – you can make your own or just buy them ready made. The other ingredient I specifically wanted to add to the dough are dried wild fennel flowers from plants growing in my parents' garden. These (and regular fennel seeds) are very often used in my father's village in Calabria, most noticeably in the delicious cured meats they prepare each year.

Bread with wild fennel flowers, oregano, slow-roasted tomatoes and red pepper paste

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 270 ml water
• 8-9 g instant yeast
• 450 g white bread flour
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp red pepper paste (or tomato paste, but then use less)
• a few slow-roasted tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tbsp dried wild fennel flowers
• 3/4 tsp fennel seeds
• 3/4 tsp dried oregano

For the slow-roasted tomatoes:

• small vine or Roma tomatoes
• olive oil
• dried aromatic herbs (e.g. thyme, rosemary)
• salt, pepper

Preparation:

Prepare the slow-roasted tomatoes. Pre-heat the oven to 110°C. Cut the tomatoes in half. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle the halved tomatoes with a very little amount of olive oil. Sprinkle with the herb(s) of your choosing and small quantities of salt and pepper. Cook at 110°C for about three hours until nicely shrivelled but still a little moist. Note: you can keep these in the fridge (in a jar, covered with olive oil).

Prepare the bread dough.

Warm the water. Mix 1/3 of the water with the instant yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Wait 5 minutes until bubbly. In a large salad bowl, mix flour, 1 tsp sugar and 1.5 tsp salt. Add the yeast mixture and mix with hands. Gradually add the leftover warm water until the dough forms a ball and stops sticking. If the dough is too dry, add a little water. If too wet, add a little flour.

Knead the dough for about 8 minutes, then add the red pepper paste, the chopped slow-roasted tomatoes, the dried wild fennel flowers, fennel seeds and oregano. Knead again for about 2 minutes until well incorporated. Form a ball, place in a lightly oiled container, cover with a damp towel and leave to ferment in a warm place for 90 minutes.

Punch the dough and knead quickly for a couple of minutes.

Shape the dough as a loaf, then place in a lightly oiled baking tin. Cover with a damp towel and proof for an hour or until the dough crests 2-3 cm above the bakin tin lips.

Pre-heat the oven to 220°C.

Bake at 220°C for 20 minutes, then about 10-15 minutes at 200°C.

Leave to cool on a rack.

Bread with dried wild fennel flowers, oregano, slow-roasted tomatoes and red pepper paste

Submitted to YeastSpotting.

Espresso & walnuts fondant chocolate cakes

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It's no secret that chocolate and coffee make a great combination and that it's one I use on a regular basis whenever I feel like a quick, sweet treat. These fondant cakes are ready in no time and with very little effort. There also quite versatile in the sense that you can easily add additional flavours and ingredients. Here I went for walnuts, which add both crunch and taste.

Espresso & walnuts fondant chocolate cakes

Ingredients: (serves 6)

• 250 g dark chocolate
• 200 g powdered sugar
• 110 g butter
• 6 eggs
• 6-8 tbsp flour
• espresso coffee
• walnuts, toasted and chopped

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 210°C.

Melt butter and chocolate over low heat.

Away from the heat, add in turn the sugar and the whole eggs, one at a time. Gradually add the espresso, mixing constantly and being careful not to make the mix too liquid. Add the flour. You should get a thick, but smoothly flowing batter. Add the chopped toasted walnut and mix gently.

Pour the batter in very lightly oiled individual molds and cook at 210°C for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from the oven then leave the fondant cakes cool down in their molds for about 10 minutes before taking them out, so that they don't break. Dust with icing sugar before serving warm.

Espresso & walnuts fondant chocolate cakes

Brown sugar & honey multigrain bread

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This recipe is adapted from Peter Reinhart's "Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire" from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I've foregone the use of brown rice because I didn't have any, added more grain and a little more honey. I've had to add quite a bit more flour than in the original recipe. The result however is very good: excellent for both sandwiches and toasts.

Brown sugar & honey multigrain bread

Ingredients: (for an approximately 1kg loaf)

Soaker:

• 3 tbsp polenta (coarse cornmeal)
• 4 tbsp mixed grain (I used wheat bran, sunflower, sesame, brown and yellow linseed)
• 3 tbsp rolled oats
• 1/3 cup water, at room temperature

Dough:

• 4 cups bread flour
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp instant yeast
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup water, at room temperature
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds

Preparation:

The night before baking, mix the soaker ingredients (use enough water to cover the grain), cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature overnight.

The next day, make the dough. Stir flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Add the soaker, the poppy seeds, the honey, the milk and the water. Mix to hydrate well. Knead for 10-12 minutes, adding flour if necessary.

Shape the dough as a ball and place in a lightly oiled container. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and leave to ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes or until the dough has doubled in volume.

Punch the dough slightly, then shape it. Leave it to proof for 90 minutes, either on an oven tray lined with a non-stick mat or parchment paper if you're baking it free-standing, or in a loaf pan. The loaf should double in size or crest about 1 inch above the lip of the pan.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

Bake for 20 minutes, rotate the tray or loaf pan 180° and continue baking for another 20 minutes for a free-standing loaf, a little longer for loaf-pan-bread.

Remove the loaf from the pan or the tray. Leave to cool on a rack for 2 hours before serving.

Pain à la cassonade, au miel et aux graines

Pizza with prosciutto and figs

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A somewhat different pizza recipe where the saltiness of the prosciutto is slightly counter-balanced by the sweetness of the figs...

Pizza with prosciutto and figs

Ingredients: (for one pizza)

• pizza dough
• tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 or 4 slices of prosciutto, cut in bite-size pieces
• a few mini vine tomatoes, quartered
• 2 fresh figs, cut in eights
• mozarella
• basil leaves
• sel, pepper to taste

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven to 220°C.

Prepare the pizza dough as described here, or use another recipe to your liking. Flatten the dough, then add a little olive oil, tomato sauce, the prosciutto, tomatoes, mozarrella. Scatter about two thirds of the figs, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake at 220°C for 15 to 20 minutes at the most.

Transfer to a serving plate and scatter the remaining figs and the basil leaves. Serve immediately.

Pizza with prosciutto and figs

Pizza with prosciutto and figs

Submitted to YeastSpotting.

Chocolate & Guinness cupcakes, Baileys frosting

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My craving for Baileys seems to be ongoing. I recently made Baileys cheesecake with espresso jelly and this morning I was in the mood for cupcakes. A Bayleys frosting seemed like something that would work, and when I remembered Nigella Lawson's chocolate Guinness cake, I decided to adapt the recipe.

Chocolate & Guinness cupcakes, Baileys frosting

Ingredients: (for 6-8 cupcakes, depending on size)

For the cupcakes:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup Guinness
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:

• 75 g powdered sugar
• 35 g butter, softened
• a few drops of coffee extract
• Baileys, to taste

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg, sour cream and vanilla extract, mix well then slowly pour in the Guinness.

In another bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Sieve these ingredients into the batter and stir until evenly mixed.

Line a muffin tray with paper cups. Pour the batter in the cups and bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool to room temperature on a rack before frosting.

To make the frosting, beat the butter until smooth, add the coffee extract and the Baileys then gradually add the sugar and keep beating for a few minutes.

Chocolate & Guinness cupcakes, Baileys frosting

Plum clafoutis

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I have recently remade this very simple clafoutis recipe, using plums instead of the more traditional cherries.

Plum clafoutis

Ingredients: (for 6 persons)

• 600 g plums
• 3 tbsp Grand-Marnier
• 60 g sugar
• 1/6 l milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 tbsp powdered sugar
• 7 tbsp flour
• 1 pinch salt

Preparation:

If you wish, you may start by placing the plums in boiling water for 10 to 15 seconds, drying them and removing their skin. In this case, I didn't bother.

Remove the stone from each plum. Cut the plums in slices. Place in a salad bowl, add the Grand-Marnier and sugar. Mix well. Leave for about 45 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Butter a large oven-proof dish or 6 individual ones, as I did here.

In a large salad bowl, mix together 4 tbsp of powdered sugar, the flour and the salt. Make a well in the middle then add the eggs, the milk and the vanilla extract. Mix until obtaining a rather liquid, homogenous dough. Add the plums and the maceration liquid.

Transfer to the oven-proof dish(es) and bake until an inserted knife blade comes out dry. This should take about 50 minutes for a large dish, less for individual portions.

Take out of the oven and sprinkle with the remaining powdered sugar. Serve hot or warm.

Plum clafoutis

Thyme & sirop de Liège bread

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Many of us who grew up in Belgium and especially, as I did, in the Liège area, probably grew up with Sirop de Liège which is a thick, very sweet dark paste made with pears, apples, dates and sugar. It's usually enjoyed on bread (I love it on toast for breakfast) or with strong cheeses like fromage de Herve and is one of the star ingredients in the delicious boulets à la liégeoise (recipe in English or also in French from fellow bloggers Marie and Françoise).

Today I wanted to try and add the syrup to bread, instead of on bread. This, to see how its sweetness would affect the taste of the bread, and whether the final product would be suitable to use with savoury ingredients. To help this along I've also incorporated thyme, which pairs favourably with the syrup and is incidentally used in the classic Liège meatballs recipe mentioned earlier.

Thyme & sirop de Liège bread

Ingredients: (for about 6 individual loafs)

• 240 g white bread flour
• 60 g 6-cereal bread flour
• 180–200 ml lukewarm water
• 1 generous tbsp liège syrup
• 6 g instant yeast
• leaves from a few sprigs of thyme
• 4–5 g salt
• a pinch of sugar

Preparation:

Mix the yeast and sugar with a little warm water. Wait 5–10 minutes until bubbly.

In a large and deep dish, mix together the flours and the salt. Add the yeast mixture, some of the remaining water and the syrup. Mix with a metallic spoon until well hydrated, adding water as necessary. Knead for about 10 minutes. The dough will be sticky at first, partly because of the syrup. Add flour in small quantities if needed. After 10 minutes you'll end up with an elastic, but still a little sticky dough. Shape as a ball, place in a lightly oiled container, cover with a damp towel and leave to ferment for about 2 hours or until dough has doubled in size.

Punch the dough and knead again for a couple of minutes. Divide in 6 parts and shape as boules or bâtards. Place on a baking sheet previously covered with parchment paper or a non-stick mat. Cover with a damp towel and leave to proof for 30 minutes or so.

Pre-heat the oven to 210°C.

Remove the towel and bake for about 25 minutes. Leave to cool on a rack before serving.

Verdict: I got a little distracted and the proofing was a little too long, so the loaves have collapsed a bit. Taste-wise, the bread is mostly aromatic in nature. The sweet note from the syrup plays second fiddle, but is definitely present and recognizable.

Thyme & sirop de Liège bread

Submitted to YeastSpotting.