Bread Experiment No.3: Einkorn Pot Bread

This is what the end product looks like! Amazing hearty bread, baked in a pot!

I mostly bake bread by shaping the dough into a loaf and then sliding it onto a hot baking tray in the oven. However, I've been wanting to try the pot technique for a while now and honestly, it's one of the easiest ways to bake bread. If you're somebody who doesn't want to do the whole shaping and proving part of homemade bread, and you just want to get the prep done as quickly as possible then this technique is for you. It is also a good technique to use for certain breads that don't rise as much as others, like soda breads or bread made with wholegrain or wholemeal flour. I used Einkorn Wholgrain flour, which makes a fantastic tasing rustic bread, perfect for soups and stews, and anything else frankly! Einkorn is a wheat variety that apparently outdates any other cultivated wheat variety used today. It's a grain with a lot of history and is speculated to have been developed over 20.000 years ago when humans started cultivating wheat. You could say then that this is the original wheat and when you eat this bread you're experiencing a taste that people experienced thousands of years ago.
For more information on Einkorn flour and the history of bread check out the Doves Farm website:

http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/about/types-of-grain/einkorn-grain/

The reason I used Einkorn flour was not only because of its strong rustic flavour which compliments the crude but simple pot technique. I mainly used this flour because it doesn't rise as well as other types of flour, and so letting it prove in a pot is a lot easier and straightforward because the pot holds the shape of the loaf. Also, when you bake bread in a pot the crust gets really thick and crispy and this works brilliantly with Einkorn flour.

So how did I make my bread? I first made a sponge using 150 g of Einkorn flour mixed with 350 ml lukewarm water and a teaspoon of dried yeast. The idea behind a sponge is that you use some of the flour for your bread, I usually use 150 g out of 500 g, and then use all of the required water for the recipe and some yeast.

You let this stand in a warm place and cover it with a kitchen cloth for about half an hour. This allows the yeast to get a good headstart and to develop a strong yeasty flavour which works well with wholegrain flour. When the sponge has been fermenting and bubbling as you can see in the picture, add the rest of the flour, another teaspoon of yeast and a heaped teaspoon of salt. The extra yeast will give the dough the needed kick to rise better in the oven. You then just need to kneed the dough for 5 minutes, flour it and shape it into a round ball to put it into an ovenproof pot. The bread was proving for another 30 minutes in the oven at a very low temperature of 50 °C and then I increased the temperature to 220 °C and let it bake for 20 minutes. After that I took the bread out of the pot, put it onto a cooling rack for 10 minutes and then it was time to get stuck in!

Bread Experiment No.2: 50/50 White & Wholegrain Spelt Bread

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I've recently been experimenting with different types of flour and I have really enjoyed using spelt flour for bread. Yesterday I made a 50/50 loaf of half organic white spelt flour and half organic wholegrain spelt flour. Again I've been really impressed with the lightness of spelt flour. The half and half mix I tried was really a perfect dough to work with, not too light, not too heavy, just very easy and enjoyable. Especially for beginners I think this bread dough would be perfect. Here is what the bread looked like when it was finished baking:

I went for a zigzag cut to allow the bread to open and rise nicely in the oven. I like putting big cuts on a bread loaf because I love the open bits that are really crunchy. Although having said that, this loaf was phenomenally crunchy everywhere and the inside was perfectly airy and soft with a good flavour from the wholemeal flour. I will probably try a 100 % wholegrain spelt flour bread next and hopefully make a video soon about spelt flour because it has really become one of my firm favourites. I am urging you to try spelt flour, even if you've never baked bread before, this is the flour to start baking bread with. Yes it is a bit more expensive and not always easy to find but if you're lucky enough to get your hands on some you have to bake bread with it. And then you'll understand what beautiful artisan bread looks, smells and tastes like. 

Courgette Flower & Ricotta Ravioli

It's summertime, and in the garden that means an abundance of courgettes. At Helen's Bay Community Garden we've planted different varieties of courgette this year, the normal green ones, the striped ones and two yellow varieties. Picking your courgettes when they're still quite young means you get the tastiest and juiciest courgettes, but you also get the flowers which you hardly ever get in any shop. And the flowers are just as good as the courgettes in my book. Their beautiful yellow colour and aromatic scent just symbolise summer for me. And my ravioli recipe really makes good use of these flowers, and the courgettes as well. It's quite a delicate dish with subtle flavours but well worth your time. And once you learn to make your own pasta you can customise this recipe and use spinach, swiss chard or anything else you fancy instead of the courgette flowers. 

Thanks for watching!

Bread Experiment No.1: White Spelt Flour Loaf

I've been trying out different types of more unusual flour lately, so basically not your typical wheat flour. There are many different varieties of wheat and many different grains that can be used for making bread, and one such is spelt. Spelt is a very old cousin of modern wheat and was first cultivated 9000 years ago. It's a very hardy grain and that is probably why it was so popular in the past, but with the arrival of more productive wheat varieties spelt started losing its popularity. Until now that is. More and more people are talking about the quality and the flavour of spelt flavour and it's even appeared on tv programms. That's how I heard of it and I thought I would just try it out as I love experimenting with new ingredients.

And I must say I am so impressed with spelt flour. As you can see in the picture, I tried organic white spelt flour from Doves Farm who are a UK based company specialising in unusual and organic types of flour. Doves Farm have a large variety of heritage grain flour available and if you live in the UK and are into breadmaking it is really worth having a look at their website: http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/
Of course there also other companies and farms that produce and sell special types of flour in the UK, but I have really quite enjoyed trying out different products from Doves Farm. If you're from another part of the world I am sure there also companies and health food stores who specialise in heritage grain flour. Just keep looking, it's worth the effort!

Now that you know where you can source your spelt flour, let's actually talk about this amazing flour. I just did a basic bread loaf yesterday and it was so satisfying to work the dough. It's an incredibly light and elastic dough. It also doesn't need as much water as some types of flour do, as you can tell by my sticky hands.

It's a very easy dough to work with and really doesn't need that long to rise, about half an hour will do for the first rising. Already at this raw state the smell and taste of the dough is quite unique. You could probably make all kinds of bread using this white spelt flour and use it instead of normal strong white bread flour. I'm sure it would be particularly good to use for French baguettes, Ciabatta and nice thin crust pizzas. 

After a second rising I put the bread into a preheated 250 °C oven and again I was impressed how well the bread expands during baking. Just for those who are wondering, yes 250 °C is a high temperature and I only leave it this high for 10 minutes or else the bread might burn and then I turn it down to about 200-220 °C for 20 minutes depending on the bread. And here's the result of my experiment: 

A beautifully risen and baked loaf of bread with an incredible smell that fills the entire house. After 20 minutes of resting we cut into the loaf and it is the softest and fluffiest texture I've ever had in any bread while the crust was so nice and crunchy. Really a perfect balance of soft inside and crunchy outside. And the taste is just so good. I'm normally not a fan of white bread and generally tend to add a bit of wholemeal or other stronger tasting flour into the mix, but spelt flour has enough aroma while being incredibly light that really makes it stand out from regular white bread flour. We tried the bread with just a bit of butter and good quality olive oil and it is really divine. And for breakfast we tried it with different types of jam and spreads like peanut butter, and it works particularly well with cream cheese. It is a perfect breakfast bread really. 

This bread has definitely been a hit and I will be using spelt flour a lot more from now on. I am also looking forward to trying out wholemeal spelt flour in the next few days and I will let you know how that works out. So if you're into breadmaking, or even a complete novice, spelt is the way to go, no doubt about it. 

Easy Ramen Recipe (Video)

A-C shows how to make tasty Japanese Ramen from scratch. Ramen is a noodle soup that originated in China but is immensely popular in Japan. We simply love how quick it is to make and how satisfying it tastes. It is perfect for winter, or whenever you just want to warm up a bit and the taste of the fresh ginger, the garlic and the chilli really gives you a boost! This is really a great asian recipe that is perfectly suited for everyday cooking, all you need is some basic asian ingredients and sauces that you can find in most supermarkets or in asian grocery stores.

Enjoy!

What it's all about

Welcome everybody to our blog!

As you can see for yourself, the blog is called 'TheCoolKitchen and More' because we love food and cooking but we also have many other interests concerning food production, sustainability, nature and crafting. All in all, this blog is really about a lifestyle, 'the good life' you could say, and we want to share our passions and our joys with as many people as possible and hopefully give you the inspiration and the know-how to start growing your own food, to make your own bread, to learn traditional crafts...and the list goes on and on.

So we hope you enjoy this blog and thanks for visiting!