Love for bread

The smell of fresh baking bread brings happiness to all souls. I absolutely adore good bread. Fortunately I am one of the lucky people who does not have any issues with gluten. I do have to mention though that I only eat good bread. Meaning home baked, or freshly made at our local bakery. Any bread from a supermarket (especially the ones that last for over a week) are not welcome in my house 😉

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

I have created this website to share my vegan food recipes, and to share with others ideas about sustainable hedonism. This website was not intended as an information source for home made bread. Because I could easily fill a whole website only about various flours, yeasts, and styles of bread making. Maybe that will become one of my future projects. But for the moment I just wanted to dedicate 1 page to my Love for bread, with some short and easy recipes.

These will include;

• Sourdough
• Basic bread
• Khobz (traditional Moroccan white bread)
• Pita
• Chapati’s
• pizza dough

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Sourdough bread

Sourdough bread is made by the fermentation of dough using naturally occurring lactobacilli and yeast. It normally taste slightly sour, and it keeps longer than bread made with bakers yeast. Sourdough is an ancient bread, which goes back at least to 3700BC (but probably a lot longer).

To make a sourdough you will have to have a sourdough starter. Which is a fermented mixture of flour and water. The purpose of the starter is to produce a vigorous leaven and to develop the flavour of the bread. It contains wild yeast and lactobacilli. In order to keep the starter active (alive) you will need to feed your starter very regularly with flour and water. You can find information and starter recipes on the internet. For example; www.theperfectloaf.com is a good source for sourdough bread baking.

Okay, … Now, my sourdough recipe, which is my most basic one, the one that I use most often.

Recipe;

• 250 grams starter
• 425 grams T65 French flour, Organic (high gluten strong wheat flour)
• 75 grams T110 French flour, Organic (a light whole wheat flour)
• 15 grams salt
• 300 ml. water

Instructions;

Combine the ingredients and start kneading ‘roll and tuck’ style, for about 10-12 minutes. Cover the dough and let it rest for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes ‘stretch & fold’ the dough, by stretching into a large square – fold 1/3 up, and 1/3 down, which leaves you with a rectangle shape. Again fold 1/3 from the right, and 1/3 from the left, which leaves you with a small square. Gently form a ball by tucking in the corners, and let it rest for 45 minutes. Follow this step two more times. Stretch & fold, with every time a 45 minute resting period in between.

After all the stretch and folds you shape your loaf and let it rest for an hour. Now it is ready to go into the fridge over-night for approx. 13 hours. When ready to come out of the fridge, leave the dough in room temperature for 1 hour. Get your oven nice and hot to 250 C / 480 F. Score your loaf and bake your bread for 10 minutes on 250C / 480 F following by 30-35 minutes on 220C / 425 F (I like it ‘bien cuit’ meaning with a crunchy dark brown crust). Check your loaf by tapping on the underside, if you hear a hollow sound, it is time to let it cool down. Make sure you cool it for minimum 6 hours.

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Easy quick basic bread

For a quick and easy but still delicious home made bread, I use the following recipe.

• 250 grams organic white flour (T55)
• 250 grams organic light whole wheat (T80)
• 12 grams salt
• 1 package of bakers yeast (8 grams)
• 300 ml. water

Mix and knead the dough. And let it rest for approx. 1,5hours (until well risen). Beat the air out, shape your dough and put it in a bread basket. Let it rest for approx. 1hour. Have the oven nice and hot on 220C. When your loaf is ready to go in, score it and let it bake for 30-35 minutes. Give it sufficient time to cool down, before you tuck in.

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Khobz, Moroccan bread

For 1 medium size Khobs (20-25cm) I use;

• 200 grams white flour, preferably high in gluten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 8 grams of fresh yeast or 4gr dry bakers yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 126 ml. water

You can adjust this recipe by adding semoulina. Instead of 200 grams white flour, use 120 grams of white flour and 80 grams of semoulina. This doesn’t only change the flavour but also the texture.

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Pita bread

This recipe would make about 8-10 pita’s, depending on the size.

• 10 grams fresh yeast, or 4.5 grams dry bakers yeast
• 200 grams white flour
• 140 grams semolina, or durum flour
• 70 grams whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1.5 tablespoon olive oil
• 238 grams water (Lukewarm)

Make the dough by mixing ingredients and knead shortly. Divide the dough in plum size balls. Rest for 15 minutes. Roll each ball into a circle of about 3 till 4 mm thick. Let them rest covered for 1,5 hours until you see they have risen. bake them in a hot dry pan both sides, or on a plancha (hot grill) until they puff up and get slightly browned on the outside. These pita’s freeze very well so you can make a batch and keep in the freezer.

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Chapati’s

Chapati’s are super easy, quick and simple, but oh so delicious with an indian or asian dish.

I make chapati’s by mixing

• white flour
• baking powder
• pinch of salt
• drizzle of olive oil
• lukewarm water

For two large chapati’s use about 100 grams of flour, mixed with 1 teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Make a little hole in the middle and pour in approx. 40 ml of water and a drizzle of olive oil. If you notice the dough is too dry just add a bit more water, if too wet add a bit more flour. Until you can form a nice uniform dough ball. Let it rest for 10 minutes, and flatten it as flat as possible with a dough roller (but still able to lift it up). Bake the Chapati’s in a hot dry pan on both sides. Until you see that the dough puffs up and get browned.

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Pizza dough

There are so many different pizza dough recipes out there, and you really just have to try and see which one is your most preferred one, and works with the equipment you have.

As I do not have a pizza stone the slightly thicker (bread style) pizza dough works best for me. This recipe makes 1 big square pizza

• 300 grams Italian 00 flour (pizza flour)
• 195 grams plant based milk, you can use water
• 6 gram salt
• 4 gram fresh yeast, or 2 gram dry yeast

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These were just a few of my easy & quick bread recipes for daily use. But as I said before, bread deserves a whole website for itself. Even only sourdough bread would need a whole website to explain its workings and best techniques to use. Maybe one day this will become a new project. But for now we keep it easy, quick and simple 🙂 But of course if you do have any questions, or if you would like some suggestions, Feel free to contact me! ENJOY the beauty of water and flour. Cheers, Nicole