Cakes & Bakes: Bara gwyn

We bought this fab farmhouse loaf tin in an antique shop this week; I love it so much, I wanted to make use of it ASAP!

I looked in my new favourite Welsh cook book for a simple, rustic loaf recipe and quickly found one for bara gwyn which translates as, ‘white loaf’. The directions – as I have found previously with this particular book – can be on the sketchy side. It states that you should bake the loaf in a ‘moderately hot’ oven for ‘1 and a half hours’.

I found that my oven cooked my loaf in about 50 minutes. A ‘moderate’ oven to me is around 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4. I suggest you keep an eye on your loaf and pull it out when it’s a lovely golden brown on the top and the bottom sounds hollow when you give it a tap with your knuckles.

I’ve bought fresh yeast in Morrisons – it’s available in little trays of 4 cubed portions – too much for one baking session, but it can be successfully frozen and defrosted as and when needed. I’ve also seen it for sale on Amazon and eBay. If you can’t get hold of any, I’ve included the amount of dried yeast you should use instead.

I was in two minds if I should score the top of the loaf before putting it into the oven. I decided not to, this time. I really like the natural blow out that occurred.

The notes that accompany the recipe explain:

On bread baking day, some housewives would keep a little dough and bake a small batch on the bakestone or griddle. This batch loaf would be eaten fresh for tea on that day. It was known as bara planc (Cwm Gwuan), bara mân (Bryn, Port Talbot), picen ar y lychwan (Tonyfrefail), adopting the Welsh name used for the bakestone in specific areas. Bara prwmlid was the name given to it in Pen-prysg, near Pen-coed.

Similarly, small batches would be baked on the floor of the oven. Their sizes varied and the Welsh name by which these loaves were known again differed e.g. bara bricen (Pen-gwyn), cwgen (Brynberian), torth gwaelod popty (Rhydymain), torth ar fflat y ffwrn (Ystalyfera), torth ar llawr y ffwrn (Kenfig Hill), sôts (Dowlais) and hogen (Bwlch-llan)

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Bara gwyn

Welsh Fare: A Selection of Traditional Recipes

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Cook Time 1 30

Course Bread

Cuisine Welsh

Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients

530 g/ 1lb 3oz plain flour
1 tsp fine salt
1½ tsp sugar
285 ml warm water
9½ g/1⅓oz fresh yeast or 3g instant yeast / 4g active dry yeast

Instructions

Put the salt and flour into a warm mixing bowl
Cream the yeast and sugar and pour into a well in the centre of the flour
Cover the yeast mixture with a little of the flour and leave in a warm place until it becomes frothy
Proceed to mix the dough, adding the warm water gradually
Knead well for about 10 minutes until the hands and sides of the bowl are free of dough
Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled its original size
Turn it out on to a floured board and mould into a loaf according to the size of the tin
Put the loaf into the warm, greased tin and leave to rise again for another half hour
Bake in a moderately hot oven for approximately 1 and a half hours, according to size

Keyword bread, loaf

Cakes & Bakes: Seeded sourdough boule

For this week’s Cakes & Bakes recipe we have a delicious, crusty, seeded sourdough boule (a fancy French word for a round, slightly domed loaf).

My starter and, as a result, dough are getting quite lively in this warmer weather!

The seeds add texture and and depth of flavour, with distinctive little hits as you crunch through individual seeds. You could even lightly toast them before adding them to the dough – something which I’ll try next time.

It’s a very versatile loaf, suitable for accompanying all manner of meals and perfect for sandwiches. It makes for great toast too! We enjoyed ours liberally spread with a lovely soft goat’s cheese on day 1 – and then it was transformed into the aforementioned toast and served with poached eggs on day 2. Both fabulous!

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest

Seeded sourdough boule

2019-07-04 15:46:25

Yields 1

Prep Time

23 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

24 hr

Prep Time

23 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

24 hr

Ingredients

350g/12⅓oz water at 27ºC/80ºF
108g/3¾oz fresh sourdough starter (100% hydration) that has been refreshed the night before and again in the morning
400g/14oz strong white bread flour
140g/5 strong wholemeal bread flour
150g/5oz lightly toasted mixed seeds (sesame, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin, flax, linseeds, pine nuts etc.)
6g/¼oz fine salt
a little rice flour for dusting your banneton

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If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the warm water and starter to combine
Knead in the flour, cover with a reusable food cover / cling film and let the dough rest in a cool environment for 1½ hours
Add the seeds and salt and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball
Lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat hourly 3 more times
Shape your dough lightly and place it into a dusted banneton
Cover again and refrigerate (overnight) for 8-12 hours
Remove from the fridge and allow to warm and prove until the dough has risen by about 50%. This normally takes about 2 hours in a kitchen that is about 18-20ºC
Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas mark 7 for ½-1 hour (also preheat your La Cloche or baking stone if using)
Gently remove the loaf from the banneton, slash the top of with a lame (grignette) and put it into the oven
Bake for 40 minutes, turn the heat down to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5 and bake for another 10-15 minutes depending on how brown you like the crust
Allow the loaf to cool completely (at least an hour) on a wire rack before slicing

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Seeded sourdough loaf

Since I revived my sourdough starter a fortnight ago, we’ve been enjoying pancakes (for brunch on Justin’s birthday), waffles and last week’s raisin bread. This week, I made a seeded sourdough loaf.

To begin with, I used my go-to overnight sourdough recipe and simply added a selection of seeds. It’s a very good recipe for using up bits & pieces of packets of seeds you have in the cupboard. However, if you don’t use seeds that often, rather than buy a bag each of say sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and linseeds, Morrisons (and all large supermarkets, probably) do little packets of ready mixed seeds.

Also, I changed the order of cooling and proving. Vanessa Kimbell recommends proving for a couple of hours and then putting it into the fridge. To begin with, I do the final folding at night and put the loaf in its banneton straight into the fridge. Then, in the morning, I bring it out to prove while the oven preheats – that way round works better for me!

It made a delicious, crusty 1kg loaf. Sliced, it’s perfect with bowls of soup – or on its own with just a bit of butter. The good thing about home-made sourdough bread is that it can last over a week without going mouldy. After a number of days, as the loaf begins to go hard, it makes brilliant toast or bruschetta; the twice-cooked seeds impart an even nuttier taste.

If you want to try it out, click here to save the recipe to Pinterest for later

Seeded sourdough loaf

2019-04-18 13:05:06

Yields 1

Total Time

24 hr

Total Time

24 hr

Ingredients

350g water at 27ºC
108g fresh sourdough starter (100% hydration) that has been refreshed the night before and again in the morning
540g strong white bread flour
50g mixed seeds (anything like sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, flax, pine nuts or linseeds)
6g fine salt
a little rice flour for dusting your banneton

Add ingredients to shopping list

If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the warm water and starter to combine
Knead in the flour, cover with a reusable food cover / cling film and let the dough rest in a cool environment for 1½ hours
Add the seeds and salt and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball
Lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat hourly 3 more times
Shape your dough lightly and place it into a dusted banneton
Cover again and refrigerate (overnight) for 8-12 hours
Remove from the fridge and allow to warm and prove until the dough has risen by about 50%. This normally takes about 2 hours in a kitchen that is about 18-20ºC
Preheat the oven to 220ºC for ½-1 hour (also preheat your La Cloche or baking stone if using)
Gently remove the loaf from the banneton, slash the top of with a lame (grignette) and put it into the oven
Bake for 40 minutes, turn the heat down to 190ºC and bake for another 10-15 minutes depending on how brown you like the crust
Allow the loaf to cool completely (at least an hour) on a wire rack before slicing

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Raisin sourdough loaf

I’ve resurrected my starter after spending 3 weeks away from home – abroad in Trinidad. Justin requested a sourdough raisin loaf, but with no added spices, so that it would be more versatile with regards to teaming it with other food and dishes.

I like to pre-soak the dried fruit that I use in baked goods as it stops them drying out and burning in the oven. Depending on what you’re making, you can soak them in strong tea, alcohol or plain old water.

On self same trip to Trinidad, the friend that I stayed with introduced me to some wonderfully useful kitchen devices – if you can call them that. They’re like shower caps for covering food… just brilliant! She bought them in a dollar store when she was visiting her sister in the USA. They come in 3 different sizes and the largest is the perfect circumference for fitting over the bowl of my vintage Kenwood mixer and 1-kilo-sized round banneton. They’re reusable and knock the socks of cling film and the plastic bags that I’ve been using. For those of you that are interested, I’ve since found them for sale in Lakeland.

I adapted a recipe by Vanessa Kimbell, baker, teacher, originator of my favourite 24-hour sourdough loaf recipe and the author of The Sourdough School: The Ground-breaking Guide to Making Gut-friendly Bread.

Click here to save my raisin sourdough loaf recipe to Pinterest

Raisin sourdough loaf

2019-04-03 09:33:19

Yields 1

Cook Time

1 hr 10 min

Cook Time

1 hr 10 min

Ingredients

100g/3½oz raisins, soaked in strong tea for at least an hour
215g/7½oz water
180g/6⅓oz sourdough starter (100% hydration)
90g/3oz wholemeal flour
305g/10¾oz strong white flour
10g/⅓oz fine salt
13g/½oz cold water

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If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Late afternoon

MIX

In a large bowl whisk your water and starter and mix well. Add all the flour and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball
Cover with a clean damp cloth and let the dough rest on the side in the kitchen for between 30 minutes and 2 hours – this is what bakers call the 'autolyse'

FOLD

Add the salt mixed with the water and dimple your fingers into the dough to allow the salty water and salt to distribute evenly throughout the dough. Leave for 10 minutes
Next, lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat 3 times at 30-minute intervals with a final 15-minute rest at the end

SHAPE

Shape the dough lightly into a ball then place into a round banneton dusted with flour (If you don’t have a banneton, use a clean tea towel dusted with flour inside a colander). Dust the top with flour, then cover with a damp tea-towel

PROVE

Transfer the dough in its covered banneton to the fridge and leave to prove there overnight for 8-12 hours

Following morning

Take the banneton out of the fridge to allow your dough to warm up and finish proving (it should get to 50% bigger than when it went into the fridge)

BAKE

Preheat the oven to 220°C/450ºF/Gas mark 8 for at least 30 minutes before you're ready to bake. Place your cloche, Dutch oven or baking stone in the oven and a large pan of boiling water underneath. The hydration helps form a beautiful crust
Once the oven is up to full heat, carefully remove the cloche/Dutch oven/baking stone from the oven, taking care not to burn yourself. Dust with a fine layer of semolina or rice flour, which stops the bread sticking, then put your dough onto the baking stone and slash the top with your blade. This decides where the bread will tear as it rises. Bake for an hour
Turn the heat down to 180°C/350ºF/Gas mark 4 (and remove the lid if you're using a cloche or Dutch oven) and bake for another 10-15 minutes. You need to choose just how dark you like your crust but I suggest that you bake until it's a dark brown - it tastes much better

Adapted from Vanessa Kimbell's basic sourdough recipe

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/