Cake forty - one alias Bread Two - Bread Bunny & Sheep

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Bread making needs time and patience. Waiting time is often long and it’s of highly importance for the good result of our bread. I particularly like to make bread as it’s a type of dough which leaves free space to your fancy, you can use any kind of mould or if you’re more like an artist type you can model it any shape you want. This is one of the many recipes for white bread which is good with the big variety of ham and salami we have for lunch at Easter in Tuscany. 

This year I added some sheep to the traditional rabbits. 

500g flour

15g yeast

300ml lukewarm water

60ml lukewarm milk

a pinch of salt 

Put yeast and 150ml lukewarm water in a small bowl and mix until dissolved, then add remaining lukewarm water Sieve flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Make a small dough using your hands Rest 20 minutes or until mixture resembles a creamy foam. Put small dough back into large bowl and pour in the lukewarm milk. Bring the dough together. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until it looks smoothy and silky. Sit the dough in a clean, lightly oiled large bowl. Cover with cling film and a tea towel and put it somewhere warm for it to rise for an hour and fifteen minutes. It should double in size. Now knock back the dough, knead the dough again for a couple of minutes. Roll dough to 18cm x 35cm rectangle, roll up from short side like a Swiss roll, place on greased moulds. Cover with oiled cling film and stand in warm place for further 30 minutes. Remove cling film, cut a diagonal slash across top, dust with flour. Stand 15 minutes, then bake at 230° for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 200° and bake for further 20-25 minutes. Turn bread onto wire rack to cool.

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/06/cake-forty-one-alias-bread-two.html

Cake twenty-seven alias Bread one - Multigrain Dove

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This is my favourite bread and the shape I like most: It’s a must on my Easter table, dove is in fact a symbol for this day: we do have a ‘Dove’ cake in Italy just as we have ‘Panettone’ for Christmas.

Whether you use a bread machine or not you need a few hours before your bread is ready. I don’t have a bread machine although I’ve been thinking to buy one for some years. In fact it’s quite practical and saves a lot of your time: you don’t need to knead your dough more than once which is in some cases hard work. When you make bread the old style, I mean without a bread machine, you need a whole morning considering rise and knead times - I’m speaking of yeast bread of course! Anyway I think you should try and I'm sure you'll love it! 

50 g buckwheat 

80 g pearled barley

50 g sunflower seeds

10g dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

180 ml warm milk

60 ml warm water

235g white plain flour

180g wholemeal plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons olive oil 

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon milk, extra

2 teaspoons sesame seeds, extra

Place buckwheat, pearled barley and sunflower seeds in small heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water, cover and stand 30 min. Then rinse and drain well.

In the meantime combine yeast, sugar, milk and water in small bowl, whisk until yeast is dissolved. Cover and stand in warm place about 20 min or until mixture looks frothy. 

Put flour and salt into a large bowl, add grain mixture, oil and yeast mixture. Mix to a soft dough. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead well until dough is smooth and elastic (about 10 min).

Place dough in large greased bowl, cover and stand in warm place about one hour or until dough has doubled in size. 

Turn dough onto a floured surface, knead until smooth. Divide it into 3 pieces, shape each piece into a 30cm sausage. 

Plait sausages and place dough into a greased loaf pan.

Cover, stand in warm place about 30 min or until risen.

Brush dough with combined egg yolk and extra milk. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake at 200° for about 45 min

also visit: 
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/07/cake-twenty-seven-alias-bread-one.html