This is the recipe for the easiest loaf of bread you will ever need to make! You’re welcome.
Before Covid19 pulled everyone back into the kitchen, many people were terrified of making bread. Generations ago, a loaf of bread might have been made daily as a staple task to feed a family. In 2020, we all rediscovered the pleasure of creating a simple loaf. At Vineyard Cottages, this recipe kept us baking throughout the Level four lockdown. While the government kept reiterating there was no shortage of bread and we shouldn’t be panic buying flour, I ordered way too much from the cash and carry and dished it out to family and friends in zip lock bags via our letter box.
This is the easiest loaf to get your bread confidence bubbling. It is a plain white loaf, not a complex sourdough or raw grainy anything. The white bread police will not like it – who cares!
The biggest tip I can give you is, get really good quality flour, it makes a difference. And be patient, don’t rush the process.
Preheat the oven to 180
Ingredients
1KG Strong White Flour
650ml luke warm water
21g instant yeast
1tablespoon sugar or honey
2 teaspoons of salt.
1 tablespoon of olive oil
I use a Kitchen Aid and dough hook for making bread. It speeds things up and on days when I’m racing around, it’s a cleaner process. But during lockdown I get stuck in with my hands and allow the monotonous motions of kneading as a way of winding my brain down.
Add all of the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and turn to combine. If you are using honey dilute in the water, or add the sugar to the dry mix. Using a dough hook mix all of the ingredients together. Either knead by hand or in the bowl until the dough is smooth, pliable and soft. Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and pop in a draft free warm spot. The airing cupboard is perfect!
Once the dough has doubled in height gently knock the air out of it and place in a floured loaf tin or on a baking sheet to prove for another 20-30 mins.
I always add a ramekin of hot water into the oven to create some steam. This helps the crust to crisp up and gives an even colouring.
Put the loaf in the middle of the oven. Bake times with vary between 30 & 40 mins.
A great baker once told me that his dough changes every day depending on the weather. Some days it cooked faster, some days slower and always took a little courage to know when to take out of the oven. From his wise words I learnt to leave the bread a few mins longer than I initially thought to take out of the oven. You know when it’s ready, when you tap the loaf and it sounds hollow.
Try and leave to rest and cool before cutting a slice and slathering in butter! It’s hard, but worth it!
This recipe for Sweet Chestnut Ice cream was sent to me by one of our fabulous Spanish wwoofers. Racquel claimed to be terrible in the kitchen, but turned out many delicious dinners for us to share. One of our favourites was a tuna empanada pie with a yeast dough. I could have eaten all of it from the tin!
On another occasion she made croquettes from our left over beef casserole, with the direction from her mum in Galicia. Oh how we missed her when she left amongst the chaos of Covid in 2020.
As we head into the depths of Autumn, I looked up the recipes she sent me from Spain when she returned to her family. It was autumn in Spain and they were harvesting chestnuts in her region. One of the joys of having people share our home is the sharing of family recipes. This has become one of my favourites.
This was the recipe she sent for Sweet Chestnut Ice Cream:
Ingredients:
500g chestnuts.
400ml milk cream.
2egg whites.
150g sugar.
2 tablespoons of icing sugar.
Instructions:
1.-Cook the chestnuts (without the first lay) in water for 15 min.
2.-Drain and put in a bowl.
3.-Add 150 ml of milk cream and mix until make puree.
4.-Put the sugar in a saucepan, add 50ml of water and cook until make syrup.
5.- Add the syrup to the puree and mix.
6.-Let cool.
7.-Assemble the remaining milk cream.
8.-Add the icing sugar to the milk cream assembled and mix.
9.-Also assemble the egg whites.
10.-Slowly mix the chestnut puree with the assembled cream and the whites.
11.-Put in the freezer 45min.
12.-“Beat” with the electric mixer and return to the freezer 30min more.
13.-“Beat” again.
14.-Keep in the freezer at least 4 hours.
15.-“Beat” before serving. (You can add a few small pieces of chestnut to the mixture before putting in the freezer for the first time)
I’m looking forward to this on a rich chocolate cake later on this evening!
If you’re a sweet chestnut fan, check out our chestnut pesto recipe.
Every year our one tree gives us about a kilo of chestnuts. I start off loving them and by the end of the kilo, I’m over it.
This year after the first pick I decided to try them in a pesto. We have lots of garlic, Olive Oil and herbs all produced here, so as far as cheap and easy eats go, this was one of the best. Pesto is a staple in our fridge. Whether it’s one of the delicious Sabato made pestos or one we have made at home, it is an quick add to a meal to jazz it up.
The most important thing is to make sure the chestnuts are roasted properly and that all your digits are in place after you score through the outer casing of the nut. If you don’t cross the top of them, you will end up with an exploding chestnut in the oven and a huge mess. They also turn into little nuclear bombs likely to inflict pain by bursting on you.
Carefully cross the top of the chestnut with a sharp knife and your wits about you. The cross needs to be long enough that you can easily pull the shell off the chestnut once roasted. If it’s not, it can more fiddly than necessary. Roast in a hot oven until you can smell them and the shells have began to curl away. Whatever you do, let them cool!
I used a handful of the best herbs I could find which included parsley, oregano, chives and thyme. I also added some silverbeet for depth and colour and of course lots of vitamins and minerals and to smuggle green vegetables into my husband. The end result a delicious creamy garlic chestnut pesto!
Pesto
150g roasted and peeled chestnuts
3 cloves of peeled garlic
One cup of washed and finely chopped herbs and greens
1/4 cup hard cheese. (I used Grana as we didn’t have any Parmesan – WHAT!)
Salt
Good Quality Olive Oil about half a cup
Start with a big pestle and mortar. Bash the garlic with some olive oil and salt into a smooth paste. Chop the chestnuts into smaller pieces and bash around in the garlic mix.
Grate or finely chop the cheese – I prefer the adventure of getting a larger chunk of cheese in a good pesto, so just roughly chopped and bashed in the pestle.
Chop the herbs and greens down to a manageable size and add to the mix.
Keep adding the olive oil bit by bit and season to taste at the end. Depending on how you like your pesto, add oil to suit.
You can of course make this in a processor, it would just be smoother.
Rough chop pasta.
I’ve been making us a pasta dish once a week and this is a really simple one when you have little time.
100g 00 flour
1 fresh as possible egg.
On a clean smooth surface make a mountain with the flour and turn it into a volcano by making a big whole in the middle to add the egg. Mix the egg into the flour. I start using a fork and bring the flour into the egg initially and then get stuck in with my hands. Kneed the pasta into a smooth pliable dough and leave to rest under a bowl for at least 30 mins.
Depending on the humidity and the temperature, you might need a little olive oil in the dough. I don’t use water though.
Once the pasta has rested flour your surface and rolling pin and roll out. You can use a machine – I have given up as it ends up taking much more time unless you are wanting to create an even spaghetti or tagliatelle.
Roll the dough turning regularly, lightly flouring as you go if needed. To get a thinner pasta (this takes practise) roll the dough around the rolling pin, making sure there is sufficient flour to stop it sticking and roll the layers together. It provides a very even sheet of pasta. This was about 2 mm thick by the time I finished
Fold in half and in half again and chop into strands. Gently open up with your fingers and pop into salted boiling water.
It will take minutes to cook.
Drain, catching the last few drops of the cooking water in the saucepan. Add back the pasta and chestnut pesto and turn to combine.
Two things :
1. If you haven’t discovered Pasta Grannies on Facebook, you need to. Just watching their intuitive handling of the dough has been a wonderful learning experience.
2. This is a really rough recipe and it worked for this garlic loving household. Experiment and make it work for you. It’s I’d had my way I would have added chilli to the chestnut pesto, but the husband said no!
If you are a fan of chestnuts, check out this delicious ice cream recipe
