Guinness & Walnut Bread

Ingredients

• 350g white self raising flour, plus extra to dust
• 150g wholemeal flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 2tsp salt
• 1tbsp caster sugar
• 2 handfuls raisins and/or sultanas
• 1 handful walnuts, roughly chopped
• 500ml beer or lager
• butter to grease

Method:
Preheat an oven to 180C

1. Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl and add the salt and sugar. 
2. Stir in the raisins/sultanas and the walnuts until well combined.
3. Open the beer and pour into the bowl, mixing as you pour until all the beer has mixed into the flour.
4. Grease the sides and base of a 2lb (900g) loaf tin. 
5. Dust in flour and shake out any excess.
6. Pour the batter into the loaf tin (the batter will be alarmingly loose, this is correct!) and transfer to the preheated oven.
7. Bake for 1 and a half hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
8. Once cooked remove from the tin and transfer to a wire rack for cooling. 

Foccachia

Foccachia

This is one of my favourite bread recipes. I prefer using a bread machine to make the dough, saves me time and turns out just as nice. If you don't have a bread machine, you can, of course make the bread dough manually, you might have to check the proofing times separately.

Preparation: 10 minutes, plus kneading and rising

Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 tsp dried-yeast
• 475g strong white bread flour, plus extra to dust
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to grease

To Finish:

• fresh rosemary sprigs
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• sea salt flakes

Method

1. Put all the dough ingredients into the bread maker bucket with 300ml water, following the order and method specified in the manual.
2. Fit the bucket into the bread maker and set to the dough programme. Press start. Grease a 28ch metal flan ring and place on a greased baking sheet.
3. Once the dough is ready, turn it out on to a floured surface and punch it down to deflate. Roll out to a 25.5cm round and place inside the flan ring, pushing the dough to the edges (Don't worry if it shrinks back, the doughwill expand to fill the ring as it proves). Cover loosely with oiled clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
4. Using fingertips dipped in flour, make deep dimples all over the dough. Scatter with small rosemary sprigs, drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle generously with sea salt flakes. Re-cover with oiled clingfilm and leave for further 10min, as the dough might have shrunk back when dimpled.Preheat oven to 200degrees C (fan oven 180 degrees C), gas mark 6.
5. Drizzle the dough with water. (This is not essential but helps the crust to stay soft during baking.) Bake for 20-25 minutes until just firm and pale golden. 
6. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Notes: The flan ring helps the bread to rise and bake in a perfect round, but don't worry if you haven't got one, just lay the dough, pizza-style, on the baking sheet.

Other toppings include finely chopped garlic, thinly sliced onions, roughly chopped olives and ground black pepper.

My favourite recipe of the month :

 

Baumkuchen (Treecake)

Ingredients

• 9 Medium Eggs
• 375g soft Butter
• 375g Sugar
• 1tsp Vanillin Sugar
• 3-4 Tbsp Rum
•  225g Flour
• 150g Cornstarch or Potatoflour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 200g Orange Marmalade
• 300g dark Chocolate (70-80%)

Method 

1. seperate egg white from yolk of 6 Eggs
2. whisk egg whites in a bowl until stiff. 
3. in a seperate bowl, add butter and whisk for about 1 minute until smooth.
4. add the sugar and whisk until smooth
5. add 3 full eggs one by one, whisking for anbout 1 minute
6. then add the 6 yolks, 3-4 tbsp rum and vanillin sugar.
7. mix all together, but no longer than 1 1/2 min, 
8. mix the flour, starch & baking powder. 
9.