Writing this recipe feels more daring than writing the others I think this is because we are giving it a recognised name rather than a descriptive one, implying that these chapatis are the same as the traditional Indian ones. While the chapatis we make are excellent, they can never be quite as good as those you eat on the streets of small towns in India. Traditional chapati flour is ground finer than ours, and we haven’t yet perfected the Indian chapati makers’ technique of rolling and turning the chapatis in the same movement and of thinning them by throwing them from hand to hand with panache.
Continue reading “Chapatis”Category: Bread
Rosie’s Sourdough from start to end
Rosie has worked out a great and consistent recipe for using our flour to create delicious loaves of bread. Here is her method for looking after the sourdough starter, a very simple rye sourdough, and a go-to for the wheat sourdough.
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A Borodinsky of sorts
A gentleman came to our shop one day, and gifted us with a loaf of bread he’d made from our rye flour. Borodinsky, he called it. It was shared out at Elevenses the next day, and we were all enraptured. Sweet and slightly sticky, this bread is a delicious assault on the senses, and Rosie became determined to re-create it. A traditional Russian bread, the particular characteristics are coriander seed and malted rye flour. This is Rosie’s variant, using the ingredients easily available, and a spoonful extra molasses makes up for not having any malted rye flour.
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Pan Bread
This is the food we eat when we come in hungry and there is nothing left for lunch. It takes about 3 minutes from opening the door to eating.
Ingredients
- 200g. wholemeal wheat flour
- 1/8 tsp. salt (adjust to taste)
- 350ml. milk or water
Makes six if the diameter is about 20 cm.
Tamarisk sour-dough bread
Sour-dough breads have long been common outside Britain, particularly Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Germany. The process is akin to that of making yoghurt from milk in that the flour is partially “digested” by the sour-dough culture and this is claimed by some to make it easier for us to digest and better for you. Some people who have problems eating conventional yeast breads find this acceptable. We love the distinctive flavour although for some it is an acquired taste. You can use wheat or rye flour, but it does particularly bring out the best qualities of rye, especially if you add a little caraway seed.
Ingredients
- 500g wholemeal rye or wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp salt (adjust to your preference)
- up to 300 ml warm water (about 45°C )
- 1 tablespoon sour-dough culture
- 1 or 2 teaspoon caraway (or any other seed of your choice)
Basic machine loaf
The breadmaking machine might be condemned as the lazy way to bake but the current fashion for them is encouraging a lot of people to eat better, healthier and fresher bread. Load the machine in the evening and set the timer instead of your alarm clock. Waking up in the morning to the smell of freshly baked bread has got to be the height of decadence!
Ingredients
- 500 g wholemeal wheat flour
- 1 tsp dried yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 280 ml water
Long rise rye bread
The distinctive rich flavour of this bread is similar to the traditional sour-dough common in Germany. It requires a little more time than wheat bread but the result is worth it. The caraway is optional, but when I dared suggest this in conversation with an elderly man whose father’s rye bread had been his staple food as a child growing up in Czechoslovakia he put up his hands in horror as if I had blasphemed and cried “But you must use caraway: you can’t make rye bread without caraway!”.
Ingredients
- 500g wholemeal Rye flour
- 3 tsp dried yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 – 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 350 ml warm water (about 45°C)
Simple soda bread
Soda bread is a traditional Irish wheat loaf, but we like to use rye or barley for ours. These flours don’t rise easily with yeast as wheat does but using a soda bread recipe works well to make a firm and tasty loaf. Soda bread is very quick to make and needs to be eaten fresh.
Ingredients
- 500g wholemeal Rye flour (or Barley flour for a variation)
- 1/2 tsp salt (adjust to your preference)
- 1/2 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
- 1 level tsp baking powder
- 300 ml warm water or milk or old yoghurt (about 40°C )
Josephine’s regular – the Grant loaf
This is the easiest and quickest bread ever. It was publicised widely during the war by Doris Grant to encourage working women to eat well on rationing. The loaf is dark, moist and delicious.
Adam’s basic wholemeal wheat loaf