Friday 15 April 2011

My bumpy ride on learning how to bake the perfect bread.....

As I my plans to open a Cafe becoming more and more real I have started thinking about the menu. So I thought to myself: "what Cafe is without sandwiches and what sandwiches are without nice bread?". At that time I have decided to learn how to bake the bread. Yes, I can bake cakes, but to bake bread is the whole new game. The only bread baking I have done in the past is by bread making machine. Should this count? I actually don't like machine bread anymore as it always comes out square shaped and taste like any other bread. I like the rustic look and that's what I want to achieve with my sandwiches as well.  So firstly I checked out few courses and I did find them super expensive (this is probably why I have no formal training on cooking or baking). However I came across this blog where the blogger (Maria) offers courses at her own house and that's definitely cheaper! Anyhow I have bought loads of book for bread baking as I could not wait for my next lesson. As I really got bored with basic bread (probably because of the baking machine I have) I went for this Hungarian potato bread recipe (picture above). Sounds amazing, but sooo messy. You see, the dough was so sticky that I kept adding flour which did not help much. Also, I started in the evening and I did not realize that this would take me 4 hours! I thought I would leave it to rise (from yeast) overnight, but then the book warned that it may over-rise if I leave it for more than two hours so I got stuck with it for a night (I kept alarm clock so I could wake up to do another step for the bread cycle). I also got really sick as I have this really bad habit to taste everything I cook or bake so I did the same with the bread dough (I know, I know really bad, but I have done it with the cake dough and I was fine). And they say that it is unhealthy to eat warm bread, but this must have been worst! Eventually I got the result, which was not too bad, only that the crust was super thick and a little bit burned. Never mind I will get it improved! It is only my first time and nobody can judge me for the bumpy start! Therefore I am not giving away the recipe until I am super confident about it. For now I will give a recipe for the sandwich that I made with that bread. I must say I have enjoyed and was proudly eating during the lunch time. It was so good that I forgot to eat my soup that I usually eat with the sandwich!  

PARMA HAM, FIG & MOZZARELLA SANDWICH

Ingredients: small bunch rocket salad
                    3 ripe figs (cut in quarters)     
                    175g mozzarella cheese (thorn into pieces)
                    3 slices Parma ham (thorn into smaller pieces)
                    1tbsp honey
                    1tbsp lemon juice
                    fresh ground black pepper
                    butter for spreading
                    4-6 bread slices (or more, it all depends on how much of sandwich filler you put on one slice)

1. combine all the ingredients except the bread and butter
2. Butter the bread slices (very important as butter stops sandwich from becoming soggy)
3. Apply Sandwich filler! The end ;)

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