Cat's very special bread
A couple of months ago, Cat had a bit of a digestion problem, which awakened Irina’s tendency for bread experimentation.
We know you all love to read 1,500-word back stories before you get to the recipe so we’ll give you 1,500 words of back story before we get to the recipe of Cat’s very special bread.
So…
Cat: We’re kidding, here’s the recipe.
1 part white wheat flour
1 part wholegrain wheat flour
1 part buckwheat flour/rye flour
1 part spelt flour
1 tbsp linen flour
1 tsp dry yeast or 1 tsp of fresh yeast
1 cup (200 ml) water
2 tbsp olive oil
The only important bit here is that half of the final mix should be white+wholegrain flour, so the bread looks like a bread. The proportions of the rest are up to you.
Normally, for a loaf of about half a kilo (a little over a pound) we use:
120 g white flour
80 g wholegrain flour
50 g spelt flour
50 g buckwheat or rye flour or 25 g each
Dissolve the yeast in a quarter of a cup of warm water with half a teaspoon of sugar if you want it to start working faster.
Once that mixture starts sizzling, fill up the cup with water to about a centimeter (1/3 of an inch or something) from the top and pour it into the bowl of the mixer.
Add the flours, a teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of olive oil and leave it to the mixer to do the hard work.
Note: Sometimes a bit of water needs to be added, other times a bit of flour. The goal is a medium soft dough bordering on hard.
Let the dough rise under cover of cling film.
Once it doubles in size (or triples, if you’ve forgotten you’re raising bread and have gone for a walk), sprinkle some flour (enough for the dough to not stick to it) on the counter and place the ball of dough on it.
Using both hands, gently pull the dough into a rectangle. If you’ve ever made pizza dough the traditional way that involves waving the dough in the air, do that, it’s quicker.
No need to overdo it, the dough just needs to stretch a bit so it’s foldable for that gorgeous loaf look.
Place the stretched dough on the counter, roll it into a loaf and place in a lightly oiled bread or pound cake tin.
Let the bread rise again to twice its original volume.
Preheat oven to 200-220 C and when the light goes off, put the bread in.
Bake for 25 minutes or 30 if you like the crust thicker.
Take it out and cover it with a towel unless you like your bread crunchy.
Cat: The buckwheat flour is great to help move food from one end to the other and the linen flour helps. I also like a tablespoon or two of crushed linen seed in the bread sometimes.
Irina: And the olive oil is the secret to a soft spongy bread, courtesy of Italian cuisine.
Cris, aka White-Bread-Forever: It’s okay.