Last week was a week of trying to make a range of breads and failing at at a few. I made challah bread (success), sourdough (moderate success) and milk buns (fail). It was an interesting try playing with various dough’s and building my understanding of when what goes wrong.
Below is the recipe for challah bread which is deceivingly easy and can easily be used to deserts once it starts to harden.
I have baked one sourdough loaf following Pro Home Cooks timetabled recipe and by no means am competent to share a recipe for that. All I can say is that it requires lots of patience but provides a fruitful result and the leftover starter makes great stretchy pancakes.
I have also noted the recipe for mala oil (I’ll explain the name below), a great condiment and shared my plight with baking dense cakes. .
Challah Bread
Ingredients
3 tbsp golden caster sugar 2 tsp easy bake yeast 500g plain flour 1½ tsp fine salt 3 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing 2 eggs
Glaze: 1 egg, lightly beaten 2-3 tsp sesame seeds
Method
1. First get the yeast working but mixing in 200ml of warm water and leave for 5 minutes. The yeast should start to foam if it does not you’ve been conned (As I was trying to make milk buns, failing twice because my yeast did not work & then staring at rock hard buns in the oven).
2. Mix the flour, sugar, salt together.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and crack in the two eggs, add the oil and yeast mixture.
4. Now knead, atleast for ten minutes. Cover the dough and leave it for around 1 hour/ till whenever it doubles in size.
5. Once its risen divide the dough into six and roll into long cylinders.
6. My three were slightly uneven so I decided to plait the three big ones into one plait and then place a smaller plait of the other three on top.
7. Otherwise most commonly Challah is six plait but either way works.
8. Leave to rise again for around 45 minutes, brush with beaten egg and bake at 180’C for 35 minutes.
Enjoy with some home made butter!
Sourdough
It worked and that’s all that matters. Pro Home Cooks has a great timetable you can follow and it takes about 1.5/2 days in total to come to life.
Sichuan Numbing Oil/Mala
Sichuan Peppercorns. Mala is the word for the combination of hot and numbing sensations produced by Sichuan peppercorns and a distinct flavour in Chinese cooking. These peppercorns aren’t spicy, but what they do is provide an oddly satisfying numbing sensation which makes all the other flavours taste very exciting.
I ordered a packet online and the rest are mostly household spices.
This oil is of course great with noodles but also as a dipping sauce, or adding to stir fry’s for lots of flavour.
Ingredients
1.5 tsp Sichuan Peppercorns
2 tsp Red Chilli Flakes
Salt to taste
3 Green Chillies
2 Spring Onions
3 Garlic Cloves
Thumb of Ginger
2 tsp Sesame Seeds
Half tbsp Tomato Paste
150 ml Vegetable Oil
Method
1. Fry everything in around 2 tsp of oil except the sesame seeds and tomato paste.
2. After 5 minutes add the seeds and paste and fry for another two minutes.
3. Now add the rest of oil and cook on low heat for 15- 20 minutes.
4. DO NOT LEAVE THE STOVE OR IT WILL BURN AND YOU WILL CRY AT ALL YOUR LOST HARD WORK. (I speak from experience).
And that’s it, store and enjoy.
Below is a tahini, vinegar, soy sauce base I made to add to it and mix with some flat wheat noodles to devour.
Chocolate Passionfruit Torte
Right now in my fridge sits a massive dense chocolate torte which tastes delicious but it is very heavy and it will be eaten.
(Side note: I despise wasting food, any amount of it. I never leave food on my plate, or throw away something in my fridge even if it’s the tiniest amount. Its just a done thing in our house and I wouldn’t have it any other way).
We are immensely lucky to have every gram of food we have access too, and to throw any of it away, for whatever reason, is not acceptable.
Anyway here is the Torte or Kladdkakka. It’s a Meera Sodha published by the Guardian.
And that’s it, I guess the next time I write I won’t be be sipping on coffee as Ramadan is about to begin!
Shanzé