I find this monthly challenge very interesting, not only for the funny title, but even for the theme they choose! And it’s indeed a challenge fo me: never made a pie before and I’m not so much of a bready person. I like to eat bread, but make it sometimes seem to long and complicated… But since I discovered how a wonderful kneader is my Kenwood chef, well, why buying it when I can make it??? And, by the way, in Milan you can only find the worst bread in the world, so…
This bread is a complete invention: I had some provolone piccante and some pine nuts in the fridge (the pine nuts were in the fridge because I’ve toasted them some weeks ago…) and I wanted to use them together. And as the thyme is blossoming on the balcony, I added some fresh springs… Et voilà!

10 g of fresh yeast
2 pinches of sugar
300 ml of warm water
100 g of strong flour
100 g of semolina flour
400 g of hard wheat flour
150 g of provolone piccante (but emmenthal or mature cheddar will be fine too), grated
60 g of toasted pine nuts
Few springs of fresh thyme, minced

In the kneader bowl crumble the fresh yeast, add sugar and dissolve everything with the warm water. Once the yeast is begging to bubble, add strong flour, semolina flour, 300 g of hard wheat flour, cheese and thyme. I haven’t added salt because the cheese is very savory.
Knead until you have a nice and silky ball, adding more flour if needed. Transfer the ball in a glass bowl, cover it with film and let it double in a warm environment (45 minutes – 1 hour will do).
Preheat the oven at 200° C.
Once the bread is doubled, punch it and work it a bit, then resize it in a ball and lay it on a floured baking tray, covering it with the glass bowl upside down. Let it rise for 30 – 45 minutes.
Once is well risen, dust the surface, make criss cross cuts, and cook it in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until knocking on the bottom you can hear an empty sound.
Let it cool completely before to slice it. Yeah, I know it’s hard to resist to freshly baked bread…

Enjoy!

A ship loaded with… And my answer to this childish game was always: POTATOES!!!
But not in this case!
Here how I filled my bagels: ricotta mixed with stracchino (just because I hate average cream cheese and I prefer to make my own personal idea of it!) and grilled vegetables marinated in balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice…

Enjoy, have a good Easter and Easter Monday (those bagels are of course perfect for Easter Monday picnic!!!)!

I’m Italian and I’ve almost ever lived in Italy (if you take off some month in France and some others in England…). And that should be enough to explain you which kind of relationship I can have with bagels: none! I’ve seen them in movies, on tv, but I’ve never ate a REAL one in my life. Once I ate a very expensive one from this chain, but I don’t know if they were the real thing… So, now that I gave you the background of what I can know about bagels (rather nothing…), I can explain you why I came up making them!
Monday night we went to the movies early, so I decided I had to fill my afternoon making something handy we could eat in the theatre. Searching searching, I thought, well, bagels! I’ve never make them and they always seemed so nice! I took the only possible book I could trust in the matters of baking and I began.

15 g fresh yeast
250 ml warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
350 g flour + more if needed
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon oil (I’ve used extra virgin olive oil)
1 tablespoon of black treacle

In the kneader bowl (or any bowl if you are so crazy to knead this by hand: your choice, not mine!) crumble yeast, add sugar, then water, mix and let rest for 20 minute, until it foams.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the black treacle, and begin to knead on medium low speed. After 5 minutes (with the kneader, at least 10-15 by hand) touch the dough and if it’s too wet or vaguely sticky, add flour: drier the better. Knead for 5 minutes more.
Oil a glass bowl, form a ball with the dough, then coat it with little oil and let it rest in the bowl, covered with plastic, for 1 hour. the dough will be ready when pressing your thumb the imprint will remain.
Punch the dough (thinking of the face of someone you hate: it always works!) then divide it in two, roll each piece in a big sausage, divide each in four. Take each of your piece, make a little ball, then begin to roll it in a long sausage. Form a circle, close it well and leave to rest on a floured surface, covered with a tea towel, for 20-30 minutes.
In the meanwhile, preheat the oven at maximum and bring to the boil a large pan full of water ( you won’t need it too deep, just 5 centimetres). When the water is boiling, dissolve the black treacle. When the bagels are puffed, and the water is boiling, add each bagel to the water, two at the time, and cook for 30 seconds each side. Lay them, well distanced, on a oiled baking sheet and cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until shiny and golden.

Tomorrow, before leaving for my Easter vacation (Strasbourg, Rhone Valley and Camargue), I will tell with what I’ve filled them!

Give me something light and not too sweet for breakfast. Give me something yeasty too. Give me a simple, quick, plain recipe, that can be made by everyone. Give me something I can made over the weekend and that will last at least few days. Give me something with LOADS of raisins in it.
Can you vaguely imagine how difficult is to find a recipe that satisfy all those components???
Very…
At the end I found something by Martha Stewart: I’ve changed a bit, but it’s basically it… Lighting a candle under her shrine, just next to Nigella’s…
And as I’m a bit neglecting this blog lately (sorry, too much going on…), especially from a photograph point of view, this time I’ve tried to recreate the picture published on Martha’s website. You know, most of the time the right inspiration makes your best shot, said the humble Piperita…

250 ml warm water
10 g fresh yeast
150 g all-purpose flour
200 g of strong flour
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter
150 g raisins
70 g cane sugar + 1 teaspoon
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 egg beaten

Crumble the yeast in the kneader bowl (normal large bowl, if kneading by hand), add a pinch of sugar, then dissolve everything with the warm water. let it rest for 10-15 minute, until it foams.
Add flours, sugar, and half the butter. Knead for 10 minutes on medium speed. Add raisins and knead for another 5 minutes. Form a ball and place it in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic and let it rest until it doubles, for 1-2 hours.
Roll out the dough in a 30×25 centimetres square. Mix cane sugar with cinnamon, nutmeg and the remaining melted butter. Brush the rolled dough with some of the beaten egg, sprinkle with the sugar-cinnamon- butter mixture and rub everything together with the back of a spoon. Roll up the dough tightly, beginning from the short side. Close the ends and lay the sausage in a buttered plum-cake pan, 22×12 centimetres. Let it rise for 30 minutes in a warm enviroment.
Preheat the oven at 220° C.
When the dough is well risen, brush it with the remaining beaten egg and a teaspoon of cane sugar. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature at 180° C and bake for another 15 minutes.
Let it coll before to slice it.
Warning: gives addiction…

That’s my second attempt to make bread… It’s still hot, I’ll let you know… Right now, just say thank you to Linda Collister, and Petula, whom lent me the book…

I know, banana bread, especially this extremely reach version, is not strictly bread, but has the name bread in the name, so, is bread in some way, or at least for some cultures.
The originl recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s How to be a domestic goddess, and for once I followed it to the last pinch of salt. And the result was awesome, really…

100 g of raisins
6 tablespoons of rum
100 g of flour
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
100 g of butter, melted
100 g of sugar
2 eggs
4 large, very ripe, bananas
70 g of roughly chopped walnuts
120 g of chopped dark chocolate

Heat the rum with the raisins in a small saucepan, bring to the boil, turn off the heat, cover and let it rest for 1 hour.
In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and soda.
In a large bowl, beat with an electric whisker butter and sugar. Add one by one the eggs, whipping. Add bananas, walnuts and chopped chocolate, mixing with a wooden spoon. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
Cover a plumcake tin with greaseproof paper, add the mixture and bake, in a preheated oven, at 170° C, for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Let it cool before serving it.

world bread day ’06