Bread Virgins

Jane Perrone over at Horticultural shared the news that she can't remember ever having baked bread!

So to encourage all bread virgins to have a go (even if there's a baker in the house already) here's a recipe I first read as Doris Grant's Loaf in Garden Organic's Organic Way magazine.

It's a sure-fire one to get you started, there's no kneading and you'll get a dense and satisfying loaf every time.

You'll need two pounds of wholemeal flour. I use flour ground by Lurgashall Mill at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum near Chichester. Add a pinch of salt to the flour. Measure two teaspoons of dried yeast into a glass and add an inch or two of luke warm water, a pinch of sugar, stir and let it froth up - about five minutes. Add to the bowl, mix with flour and then gradually mix in about a pint of warm water. You may use a tad more or less but keep mixing until the dough leaves the side of the bowl - its a fairly wet dough. Form it into a ball and with a sharp knife cut in half if using two, one pound, loaf tins. Press the dough down to shape and fill them and let stand, covered with a towel, until the bread rises just above the top of the tin but not over it, if you don't want a loaf with 'muffin tops' like in the picture!

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C/400F for 40 - 45 minutes. Remove to cool on a rack. Goes well with most things and is delicious lightly toasted and topped with thick cut ham and a generous spread of Dijon mustard.

Comments

[Patrick]

I love my bread maker! Just pour the ingredients in, and let the machine do all the work. It works really well, and you can use it with any bread flour.

I have also been experimenting with growing my own wheat. I think once I get the hang of it, it won't be so hard, and there are some very interesting old varieties. At the moment I am growing Pfälzer Dinkel spelt. Spelt is an old type of flour, and in this case was the kind originally used to make German pretzels. So far it's doing well, now I just need to figure out how to grind it into flour...

[Carol]

This looks easy. I've made but it was a long, long time ago. I think I'll give this a try.

[Caroline]

Patrick says "At the moment I am growing Pfälzer Dinkel spelt". I would love to do that! Can Patrick - or anyone - tell me how I can get hold of the seed, and how one grows spelt? I'm a bit of a beginner gardener, so the obvious needs to be spelled out to me a bit.

As for how to turn it into flour, Patrick, I strongly recommend a gadget called a thermomix. It does everything except clean the kitchen sink, but they may well have that included in the next model! ;-) I have one and love it. I mainly use it for making sauces, risottos, soups, and grinding flour.

[Caroline]

Incidentally, if you do get a thermomix, let me know and I'll send you a thermomix recipe for making prezels (I'll translate it from my German cookbook)

[Patrick]

Hi Caroline,

Thanks for the suggestion for turning it into flour, I will look into getting one of those!

As far as growing spelt or any other wheat goes, it's not a lot different from growing grass. The trick is to plant it in the fall long enough before winter that it has a chance to start growing, so maybe a month or two before the first frost. It grows slowly through the winter, faster in the spring and by early summer you can harvest the seeds.

You should avoid growing wheat like plants in areas that have a problem with grassy weeds, because the grass can easily choke it off. Also in the beginning it is easier to grow it in rows with 1" (2.5cm) spacing, but later when you grow more of it you can just broadcast the seeds onto an open area in your garden.

I'll send you an email, and if you give me your address I'll send you some seeds after my harvest next summer.