Bake wholesome #realbread at home with tried and tested recipes from The Bread She Bakes
Baking bread with sourdough is the purest form of baking. Commercial yeast isn’t needed as naturally occurring yeasts are taking care of the rise. Keeping the sourdough in harmonious balance, baking with it again and again and transforming the most basic ingredients into wonderfully complex loaves is the essence of #realbread baking. Based on slow fermentation, the excellent flavour and texture of sourdough loaves are sure to reward your patience.
If you are the beginning of your sourdough journey, start by creating a sourdough culture from scratch. All you’ll need is flour and water. I’ve typed up step-by-step instructions for both a rye sourdough starter and spelt sourdough starter.
If you’ve already got your sourdough starter at the ready, here are my sourdough recipes:
If you like to read up all about the sourdough process in detail, Andrew Whitley’s book Do Sourdough: Slow Bread for Busy Lives has all the answers.
It’s hard to find a good recipe for traditional German Pumpernickel so I thought I would try and fill this gap! Here is step-by-step guide to baking the real thing as well as some interesting Pumpernickel facts. Give this Pumpernickel bread recipe a go – you won’t be disappointed! What is Real German Pumpernickel? 100% rye … Read more
I’ve been sprouting beans and grains for a while now, mainly using the sprouts in salads. However, I’ve recently started adding rye sprouts into bread dough. By adding a little bit of wholemeal and rye flour as well as the sprouted rye kernels, an otherwise plain white loaf of sourdough bread turns into something pretty special. … Read more
Adding seeds to homemade breads is a great way of enhancing the taste, texture and nutritional value of an otherwise plainer loaf. Here is a recipe for a multi-seed bread using different seeds (sunflower and pumpkin seeds as well as seeded flour) and a handful of chopped walnuts. Dry-roasting the seeds and nuts first makes … Read more
Focaccia is a flattish rustic Italian bread with an open, irregular crumb structure. I love focaccia when it’s moist and chewy without being too oily, when it’s kept simple, with an emphasis on fresh herbs and olive oil flavours. Focaccia dough is fairly wet and sticky, but the addition of olive oil means it’s still pliable, … Read more
Packed with great tasting flax seeds, this flaxseed bread recipe is one of my current favourites. I love baking with rye and use both wholemeal rye flour as well as whole wheat and white wheat flour in the recipe. The result – a robust loaf of wholesome brown bread filled with crunchy seeds. Delicious with butter … Read more
Just a quick post to share the recipe for light rye bread (also referred to as Jewish-style rye bread) I baked at the weekend. This light but fragrant rye bread was perfect for the delicious salt beef sandwiches we served at my friend Mariel’s baby shower. Light rye bread is made with white high-gluten wheat … Read more
The traditional German Christmas bread called Stollen is a rich, sweet fruit bread made with butter, milk, spices and rum-soaked dried fruit and nuts. Here I present my very own version of Xmas Stollen – my sourdough Stollen recipe for all you adventurous bakers out there. To provide some background: I’ve always wanted to be a … Read more
Bagels are exciting; not only because of their unique taste but also because the baking process involves boiling the bagels before baking them. It’s this process that creates the wonderfully chewy interior crumb while leaving the outside browned, crisp and shiny. There are two different shaping methods – ‘Rope and loop’: Makes a rounder bagel … Read more
I love experimenting with new flours and was very excited to receive a collection of specialty flours as a recent birthday present (thank you Yasmin!). One of the flours in the bundle was chickpea flour and, as a big fan of chickpea dishes, this was the first flour to enter my bread lab. In this … Read more
I started using Kamut khorasan flour in bread baking two months ago and have not stopped using it since. It tastes excellent in sourdough breads and I’ve baked some of the best loaves of bread I’ve ever tasted with this beautiful flour. Here is my Kamut bread recipe, also incorporating flax seeds. I recommend it! “Kamut” is a … Read more