Peas Please Me

Yvonne found an article in a health food giveaway magazine, suggesting breads made with  flax seeds and with peas. I was intrigued, especially when she suggested that it might be an idea to see what I could do with the concept.

As an aside, many years ago I was Third Mate on a refrigerated Cargo ship loading Frozen Peas in Sweden. They were in 30lb brown paper sacks on pallets, destined for Italy. Needless to say they featured heavily in our diet over the course of the voyage, surprisingly I still like them today, and even grow them.

After a bit of research, I found a recipe online for Green Pea bread,

http://kristygourmet.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/green-pea-bread-loaf.html

which uses Green Pea flour. I'd never seen that before, but on checking it out, the cost looked prohibitive for a commercial loaf. (£10 for just under a kilo)

I thought that maybe I could grind my own, using dried peas, but then considered using liquidised fresh peas, after all if you knew the water content you could work out the percentages, right?

So bright and early this morning, I set to work, however the peas proved stubborn and I had to get everything in the Kitchen dirty to achieve a puree. It took a bit of modifying to get a good dough, but after an hours proving it had risen beautifully, I'll give you the recipe details when I've tested the results, in case its not quite as good as it looks.

that's a 800g batch in a 4l bowl.

I knocked it back and put it in a loaf tin while the oven warmed up,

by the time the oven was up to temperature (220), it had risen again,

I gave it 25 minutes, with steam, then turned the heat down to 200 for 15 minutes more.

Looks innocent enough, wonder what its like inside?

As for eating some, well its very moist with a hint of Pea!

Ingredients,

300g Peas, liquidised,
440g  Strong White Flour,
230g Lukewarm Water,
10g Instant Yeast,
10g Salt.

Combine everything into a dough, knead for 4 minutes in a mixer or 10 by hand. Then proceed as usual for a standard loaf.

Yvonne thinks it would be nice with Boiled Eggs, any other suggestions welcomed.

Potato Bread

My sourdough experiment is progressing to the extent that I now have three starters, (Spelt, Rye and Wholemeal) and consequently that generates a lot of spare starter. Refreshing once a week means I have a good kilo of the stuff that would otherwise go to the food bin, which is clearly unacceptable.

I try to use it all up as I hate waste, but am getting to the point where I need a few volunteers to help me consume it. Meanwhile the recipes keep on coming, today its Potato Bread, but maybe not as you might think.
I'm not using Potato flour, or left over Mashed Potato, (That's an idea for later) but instead chunks of oven roasted tuber as a sprinkle in the dough.

So I chopped and roasted (in Olive Oil) about 125g of potato for 15 minutes and left it to cool. It doesn't need to fully cook, as it will bake in the bread, but just to get a colour and a soft edge.

meanwhile I refreshed my starter and left it to itself for 8 hours.

After that time it was raring to go,

I made the no-knead dough that I always do, adding the chunks of potato and mixing.

It bulk proved for 2 hours and I put it in the fridge overnight.

Next morning, I took it out at 5 and let it warm up a bit,

Then a couple of folds and it was ready to shape,

I left it to rise in the banneton for three hours, while heating the oven to maximum, with a Cast-Iron casserole and my steel sheet in.

I was going to cook one covered and one open, I wanted to see if they would come out radically different.

After they had stood for the three hours, in they went,

a bit of boiling water in the tray bottom left for steam and 30 minutes at 230 degrees.


After that time, I removed the steam tray, took the lid off the casserole and turned the temperature down to 200. As expected the loaf on the sheet was darker than the one in the pot,

but that should even out, both had risen roughly the same.

We're aiming for an internal temperature of around 93 degrees C (The gluten will be solidified at this temperature) and a thick crust. About 15 minutes is a guide but you need to keep an eye.

And here they are,

not much sign of potato, I'll have to be patient and let them cool a bit before I cut them.

Half an hour later,

Hmmm, not bad.

Curry Bun, Part 2

The results of the taste test are in, and it seems I got the mix right first time.
So here it is,

450g Wessex Mills Onion Bread Flour
50g Gram Flour
10g Instant Yeast
10g Salt
225g water
50g Mustard Oil
100g Mango Chutney (No lumps)
1 tsp of this powder, although any spice mix you like would probably be OK.



then just make up like any ordinary bread, bake at 200 degrees for around 20 minutes.

And here they are, delicious with a bit of cheese.

Testing New Ideas

I have a permanent excess of sourdough starter, and in an effort to do something useful with it, apart from adding it to my compost, I have been trying various recipes, this adds to my freezer stock of bread.

Ideally I need some more customers to buy the stuff.

Anyhow, we have Sourdough Focaccia,

Sourdough Rolls,

very nice with butter and home-made Marmalade,

and finally, the Sourdough Ciabatta,

I also have recipes for Sourdough Mashed Potato rolls, Sourdough Potato Bread (With roasties inside!) and Lentil and Turmeric Sourdough. So next time I refresh my starters, I can try those.

I have Marmite Bread, Condensed Milk Bread and Cheese and Chorizo rolls to make for customers in Gravesend, plus the usual orders for Oats and Millie.

Jo from West Country Deli also got in touch, they need more Savoury Morsels, so next week looks like a busy one.

As I said, taste testers are still wanted, no experience needed, apply below.

The Great Brixfest Mackerel Bap Challenge!!!

I've finished, 200 Rolls all done and delivered, now it's a case of sit back and relax, I may pop down to the stall tomorrow and see if they are selling. I'll go in disguise in case they aren't!

http://www.brixfest.org/

Sophie from Millie and Me said that they sampled one (or two) and they went perfectly with the Mackerel. I might have to buy one. At least that way, they will have sales.

Curry Bun!!!!!

From the people that brought you Marmite Bread and the Cheese and Chorizo Roll, the Amazing Curry Bun.

Containing Spices, Onion and Chutney it's a cross between a Bhaji and a Roll, an ideal accompaniment to a glass of Lager.

Or at least that's the plan. If it works, or even if it doesn't, I can try the Sweet Chilli Roll as well.

The recipe is a closely guarded secret, (only because if it doesn't work I can tweak it)
but includes Mustard Oil, A Marsala blend for stuffed Paratha, Mango Chutney and Gram Flour, in addition to the Onion flour blend I normally use.

To make use of the oven, I made an overnight sourdough from a recipe that I found online at

 http://www.myitaliansmorgasbord.com 

which looked pretty easy, I made the dough,

 

 

rested it in the fridge overnight,

 

and baked it at the same time as the buns.

Talking of which, after the dough had risen,

I formed it into irregular shaped buns, (trying to get the Bhaji look)

20 Minutes in the oven and they were done,

 

Meanwhile the sourdough was still baking, it needed about an hour according to the recipe,
and it took that long for the middle to get up to temperature. But it looked great on the outside, and the crust was solid.

The crumb was pretty amazing, not too ventilated, just how I like it.

So I would say that's another success.Tomorrow I start getting the supplies ready for the Brixfest Rolls, and start the Rye sourdough for Oats. But at least today I've done some bread for me.



A New Beginning

I'm reducing the frequency of posts here, as they all seem to be the same. I've decided to start a Facebook page for Well Bread!, but will keep posting here when I do something new or different.

I'll leave you with pictures of my latest order,

Check us out here, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Well-Bread/ and like or share. Even better, order some stuff.