I’m eating stews, curries, soups, broths and braises and much if not all of these are accompanied by some of what I have come to think of as “the family loaf”. I love sour dough, but I am a busy guy and not everyone in the house delights in the crust of a formidable sour dough loaf – and so I have drifted again, away from the shoes of sourdough into that seldom whispered about territory of the yeasted dough, hush now, yeast is fine.
There are various needs to balance within the daily bread, My kids aren’t keen on tough chewy bread, my beloved wife is not at all impressed with white bread and I like a versatile loaf that can cope with various uses from a late night toastie to croutons through to a reasonable flat bread or naan too. Quite the thing!
It keeps reasonably well 3 or 4 days without too much issue in the bread bin and it freezes excellently so I don’t have to worry if I’m busy, we can just defrost a loaf and we are safely back in the game.
The ESSE cooker top oven is excellent for baking this in the “Bloomer” style and I prefer to make a larger loaf than two small ones – it just bakes a little better that way. The ability to trap steam into the baking oven using the top controls allows me to get a really good crust, starting off with the steam trapped in the oven and then allowing it out to finish the loaf makes all the difference to the end product. As the ESSE is always the centre of warmth in the kitchen, its also a great place to prove the dough If like us, you have a cold house or, you are simply in a bit of a hurry.
For the dough
- 600g Shipton mill number 4 organic strong bread flour
- 200g stone ground organic wholemeal flour
- 200g light organic malthouse flour
- 680g warm water
- 15g dried fast acting yeast
- 20g fine salt
Method
- Just weigh everything in to the mixing bowl on your Kenwood / kitchen aid / planetary mixer or indeed a large mixing bowl if you are going to be kneading by hand. If using a machine, simply attach the dough hook attachment and begin on a slow speed to bring the dough together.
- Once the dough has come together you can either turn the machine up a little or kneed by hand using a folding and pushing motion until you find it begin to resist – it will go quite tough as the dough stats to develop and now is a good time to allow the dough (and your arms) a short rest. After a couple of minutes of inaction, your dough will soften and be ready for some more work – it is now that I like to give the dough it’s most lengthy workout. Re-knead the dough for around 5 minutes this time, slowly – let it have a little time to itself.
- Once you have a smooth, elastic and pliable dough you can shape it into a domed blob and lightly cover the bowl with a tea towel or a plate, pan lid or some such whilst it has its initial prove. You want the dough to double in size before you make you next move. This could take a few hours or somewhere nice and warm and with a nice warm dough this could take as little as 45 minutes.
- Once the dough has doubled in size you will need to tip it out onto a floured surface and shape your loaf.
- I like to make one big loaf but I sometimes take off about a third of the dough and keep it in the fridge for use as flat breads, pizza or Naan depending on what’s going on elsewhere in the kitchen and with the menu plan for the coming days, if there is indeed, a plan.
- On a well-floured surface, shape the loaf out to about half the thickness that you would like it to end up – were looking for an elongated rugby ball type shape, gently place this into your ESSE non-stick baking tray, lightly cover the loaf again with a lid or a tea towel, and allow the loaf its final prove. Meanwhile ensure that you have set your ESSE oven to 190 degrees and closed the steam vent.
- Within about half an hour – depending on temperature, you should find that you loaf has now doubled in size, now, select your sharpest serrated bread knife and cut deep slashes almost half to two thirds of the way though the loaf across the width of the loaf at angles, roughly a couple of cm apart.
- Bake in the top oven on 190 degrees for 15 minutes then open the steam vent and bake for a further 15 minutes.
- Remove your loaf from the oven, place it on a cooling rack and relax – try and avoid snacking on the loaf until it’s had at least half an hour cooling as the cooking process is continuing to finish inside the crust there.
Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.
Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.
