Still binging the Great British Bakeoff show. They made a cottage loaf and it was very intrigued by how terribly things could go wrong, the flavors you could add in and how to make the pieces smoosh together.
I set aside a saturday to give it a go!
Luckily i didn’t have to buy any new tools for this one!
Some of it was confusing, like how much water to add, and when it was done mixing.
I found that it seemed to not rise evenly between the 2 peices ( yes i did weight the whole thing and do math to divide it!)
Even with it looking less than amazing before the oven, we had hope. The outcome was fantastic, it lasted 3 days/meals and was fluffy and delightful.
Cottage Loaf
Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups flour plus additional for dusting
- 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3 1/2 TBSP butter softened, or lard, cut in pieces
- 2 cups warm water Not quite 2 cups, it translates to 1.9 cups
- oil
Instructions
- pPut flour, yeast, and salt in a mixing bowl
- Add butter or lard and 1 1/4 cups warm water, stir together
- Once stirred together add the remaining water, adding small amounts until the mix is pulling together in a ball
- Dust your counter with flour
- Tip the dough out and knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is soft and smooth
- Place in an oiled bowl, cover and let prove until the dough is doubled in size
- Once it’s doubled, punch it down, folding the dough to the center
- Divide the dough into 1/3 and 2/3 chunks
- Take the 2/3 piece and pat it to a rectangle, fold over in thirds long ways, then fold each end in, use your hands to pat and stretch the dough into a circle
- Repeat with the smaller piece of dough
- Place the smaller circle on top of the bigger circle, pat down gently, flour up two fingers and plunge them down through both circles to bind them together
- Cover completely and let rise about one hour or until the dough is soft and springy
- Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 425˚ and Put a large roasting pan of water on the bottom rack
- Once the bread is done rising, remove the plastic wrap, slash it in 8 places, dust lightly with flour
- Bake at 415˚ for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 375˚ and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the bread is done
- Test for doneness by knocking on the bottom of loaf, if it sounds hollow it’s done
- cool and slice into 12 wedges
Verdict:
Amazing bread, not too difficult and serves a crowd!
We will definitely try with lard next time as I think the butter made a difference.
Since we live at Mile High (denver) – i’ll probably proof for a much longer time
If you give this a try let me know what you think and if you added any mixins
