Wholemeal Bread Rolls

I wanted bread, but not to have to spend the next few days just eating the loaf in order to finish it.  What better then, than bread rolls.  They can be individually wrapped and frozen, and simply heated in the oven to thaw each time you want them.  Perfect!!  And, given the choice between buying bread or rolls, home-made wins every time.

This particular recipe I got from the book “Bread” by Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno.  It is a lovely recipe book, giving many different bread recipes, clear instructions and options to vary the recipe.  The recipe I used in this particular case was for Pain Ordinaire, but I opted for making the bread rolls rather than the loaf, substituting some of the white flour for wholemeal flour, and substituting some of the water for yogurt and using a sachet of instant dried yeast instead of fresh or dried yeast.

Bread making is surprisingly simple……depending on the type of loaf you bake, but it is usually just a few ingredients, mixed together, kneaded, left to rise, knocked back, left to rise again and then baked.  And the result is delicious.

Ingredients:

1 sachet instant dried yeast

175ml lukewarm water

175ml plain yogurt

325g strong white bread flour

175g strong wholemeal bread flour

1 ½ teaspoons salt

Method:

Mix together the two flours, salt and yeast in a large bowl.

Mix together the water and yogurt in a jug.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid, using a wooden spoon until the mixture is combined.  The dough should be firm but moist.  Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth and elastic – about 10 minutes.

Put the dough in a clean bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for 1 to 1 ½ hours until doubled in size.

Knock the dough back and leave to rest for 10 minutes. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, place on a lightly floured baking tray.  Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until doubled in size – approximately 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C for fan ovens).

Lightly dust the rolls with flour and bake for 25 minutes, until hollow sounding when tapped underneath.  Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Now, pass the salted butter!!

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I wish you a peaceful weekend 😊

Boozy Chocolate Bars

I am still trying to fit more “normal” into my  life and whilst I don’t often have the energy to bake I was determined to find something simple and easy to achieve.  I trawled through my collection of recipe magazines and books, and in a Good Housekeeping Chocolate Collection magazine from spring 2012 (yes, I never throw anything away) I found this recipe.

It is, in effect, a chocolate fridge cake type recipe, you know the type, with endless variations.  No baking involved, and you can be very creative with flavours.  I did a post on one a while back and thought it was time to try something slightly different.

I also broke my rule on only using Lindt chocolate in recipes, after my previous disaster when the chocolate siezed when I melted it, and I had to throw the whole lot away. This recipe calls for 350g dark chocolate and I need to start economising, so Cadburys it was!  There is also brandy soaked dried fruit (fruit = one of your 5-a-day!!) and ginger. Yum.

Ingredients:

150g dried apricots, chopped

150g prunes, chopped

3 large balls of stem ginger, drained and chopped, plus 1 1/2 tablespoons of ginger syrup

75g golden syrup

125 ml brandy

350g dark chocolate

150g butter

175g digestive biscuits, crushed or broken into small chunks (I used Hobnobs instead)

Method:

Put the apricots, prunes, stem ginger, ginger syrup, golden syrup and brandy into a pan.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.  Remove from the heat and leave to soak for 30 minutes.

Line an 18cm x 18cm tin with cling film, with enough overlap on each side to fold over and wrap the fridge cake entirely.

Melt the chocolate with the butter in a heatproof bowl, over a pot of just boiled water, once melted, stir so that butter and chocolate are well mixed.  Add the broken/crushed biscuits and soaked fruit mixture, mixing together well.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, and level off before wrapping in the clingfilm and chilling for at least 6 hours, or overnight.  Patience is a virtue.

Cut into chunks and serve.  My tasting panel gave this recipe a big thumbs up!

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I wish you a peaceful weekend 🙂