Culinary Travels Of A Kitchen Goddess

“Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the court that surrounds the king. The countries are the soup, the meat, the vegetables, the salad but bread is king.”
Louis Bromfield, American novelist  (1896-1956)

Oh sunshine where have you gone?

The weather has been a little challenging of late, to say the least. First we had the snow – much more than we would ever normally see, only to be followed then the big freeze. Roads and pavements were transformed into veritable ice rinks. The snow and ice has gone (for now at least) and we have seen it replaced with rain, rain, and yet more rain.

This seemingly unending rotten weather has left me craving a little summer warmth and as I’ve next to no chance right now of just being able to hop on the next plane heading to sunnier climes I have taken the plunge and gone for summer food instead , albeit in the form of a warm salad and fresh crusty bread.

The salad needs no recipe, sure enough anyone could throw it together in next to no time. Simply put it is slivers of crisp bacon and hot sweetcorn (fresh from the freezer in this case, although, I’m sure fresh from the cob would be even better) tossed through some mixed salad leaves and dotted with ultra creamy soft cheese. The salad dressing? Extra virgin olive oil and a splash of sherry vinegar to give a slightly sharp edge to the otherwise very sweet salad. Oh yes, I used the said dressing to ‘deglaze’ the bacon pan so as to get all the lovely salty, fatty morsels that otherwise would have ended up being wiped out with kitchen roll and in the recycle bin.

The essential companion to this mood enhancing lunch? Bread, glorious bread. What could be better on a cold, wet, wintery day that pottering around the kitchen, kneading bread dough, the oven preheating, warming the kitchen up and making it all toasty, the promise of sweet bread odors to permeate the air. This time around I made oak smoked oat bread.

Yes, you read that right – oak smoked flour.

It’s a lovely dusky brown flour studded with nuggets goodness such as malt flakes, with such a delightful smoky aroma. The flour comes from Bacheldre Watermill and the flour obtains its smokiness from the malted wheat flakes getting cold smoked over locally sourced oak chippings for 18 hours in the smokehouse.

Matt Scott, co-owner and founder of Bacheldre Watermill, comments,

“The oak chippings infuse the specially malted wheat flakes with a delicious smokiness, the flavours work  really well. The slow cold smoking process infuses a sweet wood-smoked aroma and taste that is reminiscent of bread being baked in a wood fired oven.”

Matt has hit the nail on the head. A perfect crumb with a hint of smokiness which is not overly powerful, perfect plain with butter or good for a sandwich, toasted dripping with butter would be heaven itself.

Allowing the dough to rise three or maybe even four times is something you will not see in many bread baking methods but it does help yield a better texture, giving a bread slightly closer in crumb, and a definitely more flavoursome loaf in a wholesome yeasty kind of way.

The addition of oatmeal did make the loaf slightly more cakey in texture than an all wheat bread but that is no bad thing at all.

Another great idea is to spritz the oven with water when you put the dough in as it helps recreate a traditional bakers steam oven, I use a cheep plant mister I picked up from a local garden centre, nothing more fancy is required.

Matt suggest using this flour as a pizza base but I cannot see that working at all well myself, maybe I’m just blinded to using a proper Italian style base only, what do you think?

Oak Smoked Oat Bread:

• 550g oak smoked flour
• 50g fine oatmeal
• 300-350ml warm water
• 1 7g sachet of fast action yeast
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
• 2 handfuls of rolled oats for coating the bread.

1. First, mix the dough. Combine the flour, fine oatmeal, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the liquid and honey, and with one hand, mix to a rough dough.
2. Add the oil and mix it all together.
3. Adjust the consistency if you need to with a little more flour or water to make a soft, kneadable, sticky dough. Turn the dough out on to a work surface and clean your hands.
4. Knead the dough until it is as smooth and satiny as you can make it – this will take about 10 min (or you can do this is in a free-standing food mixer).
5. Shape the kneaded dough into a round. Then oil or flour the surface and put the dough into the wiped-out mixing bowl.
6. Cover the bowl with a cloth or clingfilm and leave to ferment and rise until doubled in size. This could be anywhere between 45 min and 1½ hours – or longer still, if the dough is cold.
7. Deflate the dough by tipping it on to the work surface and pressing all over with your fingertips. Then form it into a round. If you like, leave to rise again up to four times. This will improve the texture and flavour.
8. Now switch the oven to 250c or the equivalent and put a baking tray in position.
9. Shape the dough into the desired shape and brush with milk before gently covering it with oats. Leave, covered, to prove, checking often by giving gentle squeezes, until the loaf is almost doubled in size.
10. Transfer the loaf carefully to the hot tray (removed from the oven). Slash the top, if you wish, and before you bake the bread, spray it all over with water.
11. Turn the heat down after about 10 min to: 200c if the crust still looks very pale; 180c if it is noticeably browning; 170c if it seems to be browning quickly. Bake until the loaf is well browned and crusty, and feels hollow when you tap it: 40-50 min for large loaves. If in doubt, bake for a few minutes longer.
12. Leave to cool on a wire rack.