Which is where Nigel Slater comes into it. His cookbooks are really simple. You can make the vast majority of his food from stuff you have at home already, which is great when you come home in the evening, starving, and lacking either the inspiration or will to go shopping. His recipes are sparse of detail (some of this, a bit of that) and he often proposes alternative ingredients to what is in the recipes (if you don’t have this, use that or this). His book ‘Eating for England’ is some sort of Willy Wonka fantasy shopping list (don’t read it if you’re on a diet).
‘Appetite’ is the book I turn to most often.
It opens with chapters of advice on what to eat, how to shop, the different
types of meat, what’s in season, how to cook. It also has a very simple bread
recipe.
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You need, aside from a couple of hours:
1kg of white bread flour (I used the ‘pain’
flour)
1 cube of fresh yeast (his recipe uses 2x7g
sachets)
a teaspoon of honey
20g salt
700ml water
In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt. As
I use fresh yeast, I dissolve this in 500ml of warm water with a spoonful of
honey, and add this to the flour. Add most of the rest of the water and mix. In
all, your dough should come together with no bits at the bottom of the bowl –
if there are bits, add a little (ie: a teaspoon) more water – nor should it be
too liquid – you should be able to handle it. If it’s like this, add a little
more flour.
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| Kneaded dough |
Flour your counter top and turn out the
dough. With the heel of your dominant hand, push into the dough. Lift your hand
out and with your other hand turn the dough about 45°. Keep this up for 10
minutes – you’ll notice the dough will get softer. This means the yeast is
working. If you find yourself getting tired, you’re kneading too hard. It’s
supposed to be gentle.
Pour a little olive oil into your bowl and
using your hand, smear it up the sides. When the dough is soft and elastic, put
it back into the bowl and cover it with a damp teatowel. Don’t be tempted to
clean up your countertop. Put the dough somewhere warm – I use a radiator or a
sunny window sill. After an hour or so, the dough should be twice its original
size.
Once it’s grown and is in danger of taking
over your kitchen, it’s time to fight back. Tip it onto the floured countertop
and knead it again for a couple of minutes. It should regain some of its
original size. Flour a baking tray and put the ball of dough on it and leave
for another hour. If you’re so inclined, you can clean up your countertop as
you won’t need to knead anymore. After the hour, put the oven on to 250°and
knock the dough ball back into shape (you can keep it on the baking sheet for
this).
Cook the dough at 250° for 10 minutes (just
don’t slam the oven door or the bread won’t recover from the fright of the loud
noise). Turn the oven down to 220°. Watch the epic battle taking place in your
oven as the yeast fights to expand once more while the heat cooks it, sealing a
crust that the yeast cannot break free from.
After 30 minutes, check the bread. Knock
the bottom of the loaf. If it sounds hollow, you’re good; if there’s a
heaviness in reply to your knock, leave the bread in the oven for another 10
minutes or so.
Cool on a wire rack. I know it’s tempting
to dive in and take a slice of it now, but your bread needs to literally let
off steam and dry out, so wait until it’s fully cooled before you attack it
with a bread knife.
Or you could just nip to the local bakery.
But where’s the fun in that?
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Bread, about to be devoured
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