My own chillis :)
Finally, I got a chance to make my cheese and chilli bread, using my own home-grown chillis - serranos and an ancho. This bread was amazing - a no knead recipe, just bring the ingredients together and leave to rise - beautiful caramel crust and delicious moist crumb inside.
It did look a bit brick like and was quite heavy. I tried a different method today - baked in a loaf pan, with a tray of water creating steam in the bottom of the oven. I've had a few problems with Whissendine flours, but the bread today was perfect in taste and sturdy enough for sandwiches. A good packed lunch bread.
Recipe
350g strong white bread flour
150g wholemeal bread flour
100g mature cheddar
15ml olive oil
300ml warm water
4 small fresh chillis, de-seeded and finely chopped
7g quick acting dried yeast
7g salt (too much with the cheese)!
5g demerara sugar
Mix all the dry ingredients together, make a well in the middle and add the oil and water. Bring the mixture together in a soft dough. Lift into a loaf pan, cover and leave for an hour. Pre-heat the oven to 225 degrees centigrade, placing a roasting tin on the bottom shelf.
When the bread is ready, brush the top with milk (I forgot to do this), place in the oven and add a jug of water to the roasting tray in the bottom. Bake for 30 minutes, reduce the heat to 200 degrees centigrade, turn the loaf and cook for a further 15 minutes until the crust is a nice colour all over and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.
Leave to cool on a rack and make some tasty soup. I adapted a recipe by Rachel Roddy - Red Cabbage, Sausages and Beans using cavolo nero instead of red cabbage and a fresh tomato instead of tinned.
A really nice finishing touch is frying some fresh rosemary and sage leaves in a slick of olive oil until crisp to garnish the soup. Delicious and perfect with the soup and bread!
The Breadmaker
I came across this video in an article in the Guardian.
Hard to imagine not having bread.
Source The Breadmaker: on the frontline of Venezuela's bread wars.
