All posts tagged: Bread

Give Us Today Our Daily Bread: Easy Spelt Loaf

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  The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight… Bread Making is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells… there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.” M.F.K.Fisher, The Art Of Eating   And I couldn’t agree more.  I absolutely love bread making. For me the entire process is one of the most satisfying experiences in my kitchen. Right from kneading the dough (which I must admit I love doing with my hands) to knocking it down,letting it rest and baking it.Gentle bread aromas wafting through the house as I wait impatiently for my loaf to turn into that wonderful golden brown. A perfectly made loaf for me is a euphoric sense of accomplishment and gratification.Now it’s another story how antsy one gets …

Cherry Tomato & Oregano Foccacia

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  “Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” – James Beard This wonderful Cherry Tomato Focaccia was a  bake from the wonderful book that I received when I bought my Kitchenaid Artisan Standup Mixer in Dubai many years ago. I have been baking bread for several years now and now teach bread making, which is amongst one of the popular classes. The Kitchen Aid recipe book has an assortment of various recipes,ranging from  sauces, pasta dough recipes, breads of all kinds,pastries and pies and lots more. This Focaccia is an easy recipe to follow recipe and does not require much skill at all.I’ve used cherry tomatoes and some Oregano and flavoured it with Olive oil and sea salt.Nothing beats the taste and smell of warm and fresh bread out of the oven. So worth the effort! Some Tips While Baking This Focaccia: You may like to use a mixture of whole wheat and all purpose flour in equal proportions and make this …

Challah Bread with Vanilla & Chia seeds

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    Mother’s hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever… Happy Mother’s Day lovelies!     It’s but natural I write this quote as it felt like just yesterday that my son was  really little and only five. How time has flow by and that little one is now eighteen and quite an  independent adult. He is down from university for the summer and yes it’s baking mania in my kitchen! He’s away at a friends and I’ve been baking up a storm tonight. Started off with a batch of double fudge brownies and then was just aching to try this Challah recipe that keeps wanting to be made. I’ve adapted this one from my lovely Kitchenaid cookbook that I received, when I bought my food processor last year. Now the recipe calls for using the dough attachment for kneading ,all though I’ve just used the hand technique. The recipe called for vanilla pods which I’ve substituted with regular vanilla extract and have used chia seeds instead of poppy seeds. You may …

What a Bagel: Easy Breakfast Bagels

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  My family is quite the breakfast kind of people.Well most weekdays are a quick brekkie on the go with the usual porridge, fruits, parfait or perhaps just some toast.Weekends are however special. “I’d like a big breakfast please”,is what most often my dear son would request and this is when we pull out all the stops and cook up a storm.This would usually consist of eggs made into omelets or scrambled,sautéed vegetables or hash browns,bacon or sausages and of course homemade  bread that I may have made earlier on.My hubster loves to freeze the bread I make,”It lasts longer and there’s always some when you want it” is his take,all though I prefer to have bread when it’s fresh and hot out of the oven. I miss my son pottering around the kitchen egging me to bake up something for him.A few weeks before he left for university he said,”Mom how about baking some bagels”?Now I’d been putting off the bagel making process thinking they were way too complicated to attempt and why even …

Olive Foccacia-Hot off the oven

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Dear son’s request for dinner tonite was some cheese Ravioli(store-bought).I haven’t yet tried my hand at making fresh pasta from scratch.One day,some day is what I keep saying.Certainly on my “to try out”list though.I thought a nice garden salad with some black olives would go well with the pasta.Actually I saw a fair amount of the olives and wondered if it was that time of the year again to get down some bread baking. I love baking this Olive foccacia and its been awhile since I made it.One of the best breads you could possibly eat.This one’s a family favorite.You could always play around with the ingredients and use some variations: Sun dried tomatoes and herbs Garlic and Rosemary Green olives and garlic I personally love black olives…so Olive foccacia it is.If you do use garlic please be careful with the amount you use and it can make the bread pretty pungent.Olive paste is a good alternative,however fresh olives just gives it a wonderful fresh flavour. This post is actually dedicated to a very dear friend Rohini.Thanks Ro …