Maurices fruit bread

Good ol Covid-19 and working from home has brought some unexpected and pleasant surprises.  In fact I'm probably one of the few who is actually quite happy with the situation of working from home and not going out too much.  I'm grateful for the dinners I get to spend at home with my frills and hubby, the ten-pace commute to my office and the fact that I can blog!

The other cool thing about it all is that I"m interacting with my colleagues in new and interesting ways.  I'm very lucky to work in an organisation that has a healthy and nurtured culture where caring for the employees is not just a catch-phrase - it is how it works.   As a leader in our business I'm fiercely protective of that... anyhoo we're pretty active on slack and we use Zoom like the rest of the world but we think nothing of people needing to 'duck out for a few hours to kid-wrangle' and at times we even get guest appearances by the kids too!   I love it.  We're all accepting we're human.

I started a cooking slack channel too and it's going gang-busters!  I love seeing what other people are cooking and with our diverse workforce there are some amazing curries, rice dishes and sweets... it's sometimes a bit distracting though if you're hungry...

This recipe is one such recipe - shared by my colleague Maurice - he shared a pic of his bread and I had to and I mean HAD TO have the recipe.. and he thankfully shared, and now I'm sharing it with you !

It takes some time but it's very little effort - no kneading and I popped it on in the morning and went about my day.   House smells amazing!

Ingredients:

3 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp dry yeast

1.5 cups warm water

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

cup chopped mixed dry fruit - I've used dates, raisins, cranberries and figs

Method:

Start with your flour and add salt and cinnamon.   In a separate bowl or jug add yeast to warm water.

Add sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Chop up your fruit.

Add fruit to the flour and mix well ensuring your fruit isn't stuck together.

Add your yeasty water.

Mix it together with a spoon or your hands.   Don't be too concerned if it's wet, it's meant to be.  Put in a warm place for 3 hours it will roughly double in size.   At the two hour mark, heat your oven to 230 degrees c and pop your dutch oven or heavy lidded oven proof pot into the oven with the lid on.

It will be a bit fluffy after the three hours.

Pour out onto floured surface and shape into a ball.  Do not knead.

Pop the dough onto some baking paper and place into the hot dutch oven, then return to the oven and drop the heat to 200degrees c and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on.

After that 30 minutes, take the lid off and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Lastly, take the bread out of the dutch oven, put onto flat tray and back into the oven for a last 15 minutes then place on bench to cool.

RECIPE: Traditional and Choc-chip hot cross buns!

Even though I buy Hot Cross buns during Easter time - I also like to make them.  Having fresh hot-cross buns straight out of the oven - there just isn't any substitute.  They aren't that hard to make and I generally make a few dozen at a time.... eat some, freeze some, sometimes give some away.

This won't be my last batch of Easter I can assure you!

I've made two variations, the traditional type - with currants and spices and the more modern version, with chocolate.  You may like to omit the fruit or add orange zest to the chocolate ones to make jaffa or even some pitted cherries and a splash of rum if you like.. as I always say - your only limit is your imagination!

Ingredients (per batch)

4 cups plain flour

1 tb dried yeast (15g)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup cocoa (chocolate only)

1 tb cinnamon

1 tb allspice (traditional only)

1/2 tsp cardamom (traditional only)

250ml milk

2 eggs

2 tb orange marmalade (traditional only)

1/2 cup currants (traditional only)

1 cup dark chocolate chips (chocolate only)

Method:

In a bowl mix your flour, yeast, sugar, cinnamon (and cocoa if you doing chocolate, allspice and cardamom if you are doing traditional). Stir until well combined.

In a jug or small bowl, measure out your milk and pop into the microwave for about 30 seconds.  Add eggs (and marmalade if doing traditional) and give it a whisk with a fork to combine.

If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, put on speed 2 (or low) and slowly mix in the wet ingredients.  If you don't have a stand mixer - make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and pour gradually and mix with a large spoon until it comes together.

One all the dry ingredients are combined with the wet, knead by hands for about 10 minutes and on low in the mixer for about 3 minutes.

Lastly add your currants or chocolate chips and knead in gently until evenly distributing.

Place in a greased bowl and cover with cling film.

Place in a warm place for an hour or two until it doubles in size.

I will warn you, at this point the traditional mix makes you want to eat it! But resist....

Measure it out into equal portions (I make mine roughly 110g each, traditional makes 2 and chocolate makes 14) and place on a greased tray

Cover with clingfilm and leave to rise for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees c.

Make your crosses by mixing 3/4 cup plain flour (per batch) into a bowl and add water until it becomes a runny-ish paste.  Transfer to a ziplock bag and seal.  Snip a corner and pipe your crosses onto your buns.

They are looking like almost-real hot cross buns now!

If you prefer actual chocolate crosses (I haven't bothered) don't put them on at this point.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.   Whilst they are baking you can make a glaze with 1/2 cup caster sugar and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan and boil until the sugar has dissolved.

Once the buns are out of the oven, brush with glaze.  Be generous.

Leave to dry before serving.

If you prefer to have chocolate crosses, glaze buns first, allow to dry and then melt 100g dark chocolate in the microwave on 50% power for 1 minute intervals until melted.  Place in ziplock bag as per plain cross mix and apply.

So what's your favourite?  Traditional or chocolate?  Or both?  Why?

Lunchbox legend or easy dinner: Best ever wholemeal wraps

Our family is big into wraps at the moment, but I really don't enjoy paying upwards of $4.00 for just 8 of them.   They are a good alternative to bread and our kids fill them up with cold meats, salad for lunch and we have kofta  or our homemade doner kebabs in them for dinner.

I've tried a few recipes and many turn out too thick or to get the quoted quantity you have to make them super small and they don't wrap much.  So I experimented and came up with these ones.  They are thin, but not so thin they crack or have holes in them the minute you put something slightly wet on them.  They are the winner.  We're obsessed with them now, and I'm making them again today to go with pulled pork I've got going in the slow cooker.

And the bestest thing is they don't take long at all - about 1.5 hours from beginning to end (probably less really), and most of that you're not doing anything at all - a good time to get your fillings prepared - or make them the night before school... and I worked out - at the most this cost $2.00 for the whole lot more like $1.50 depending on where you shop.


Ingredients:
1 tsp dried yeast
1.5 cups warm water
1 pinch salt
1 pinch pepper (optional)
1 tb olive oil
2/3 cup wholemeal flour
2 cups plain flour
dried herbs as desired (optional)

Method:
Dissolve the yeast into the warm water and let sit for about 5 minutes.   then add the salt, pepper, olive oil and whole meal flour and mix well with a spoon until well combined.

Then add plain flour and herbs and if you have a mixer with a dough hook, knead on low speed for about 3 minutes. If you don't, knead by hand for about 5-10 minutes.

 It should be elastic-ky dough - if not add water of plain flour until you reach the right consistency.

Place in a greased bowl (olive oil or spray) and cover with cling film.  Leave for 45 minutes or until it's doubled in size.

Doesn't take long!

Cut into 8 even pieces

Start by kneading the dough a few times, by folding over each piece a few times until you feel the dough 'toughen' a little.  Roll it out as thin as you can without breaking it.  Mine were about 20 x 20cm.

Heat up the largest frypan or surface you have. This could be a grill or your BBQ.  For me, this is my paella pan.  Place on medium heat.  Dabble a small amount of olive oil and place your dough.

After about a minute, it will start to bubble up.  Leave it there for about 2-3 minute in total and then flip over.

Turn over and leave for a further minute.

Then flip onto a tray (I used a pizza tray to give you some idea of the size of my wraps) some paper towel, I use used one piece and put it underneath for few minutes then on top for a few minutes whilst I was making the next one.

Before you know it, you have wraps to go!  If you don't want to eat them right away - pop them in a large ziplock bag and in the fridge or even in your pantry, but eat within a few days of making them.

We put BBQ chicken, hoummos, and salad, yum!  Great for a hot night.

A hit!

Sunday Baking Project Cinnamon swirl raisin bread - perfect for toast!

I actually can't believe it's taken me so long to make this - given that I love to make bread and I'm never ashamed of saying cinnamon is my favourite spice.   This one is quite easy and can be made in bulk if you like to freeze it.  I made two and sliced them before freezing, now we have a slice every other day - it's a good break from cereals and regular toast... and a bit of a treat!    Only issue is 6 days later, there's no more left - a bit too popular in this house.  I think I'll be making it again before this weekend's out.

Ingredients

Per loaf

3 1/4 cups plain flour

2 1/4 tsp dried yeast

1/3 cup caster sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 egg

80g softened butter

1/2 cup raisins

Egg wash:  1 egg mixed with 2 tsp milk

Cinnamon swirl:  1/3 cup sugar, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method:

In a bowl mix flour, sugar yeast and salt.  Stir to combine.

With your hands of with an electric mixer with dough hook or food processor with a plastic blade, add the flour mixture and then add milk, egg and butter until it makes a smooth dough, should take about 2-3 minutes with electric mixers - 5-8 minutes if doing by hand.

Then knead through your raisins.

Put in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap in a warm place for it to rise to double it's size, should take about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

Do you like my solar-powered waving queen?  She was looking after my dough..

And did a great job of supervising the rise..

Then roll our your dough into an oblong with the shorter side being roughly the size of your loaf pan.  Cover with egg wash.

Sprinkle your swirl mixture evenly, then fold in the sides into the mddle.

Then roll up the dough from the short side up.

Place into your loaf tins seam-side down (that's where the edge of the dough you rolled up is) and leave to rise for another hour.  Preheat your oven to 190 degrees c.

When that's done, push into the corners of your loaf tin a little and brush again with the egg wash.

Bake for about 40 minutes.  Leave to cool in your tin for about 20 minutes before slicing.

If you can't wait (completely understandable, it smells divine!) put it in the toaster straight away..

and lather with butter.  Yum.

Thank you to spicedblog.com for the inspiration!  Yummy!