Post padding my eye... How about some waistline padding?

My latest favorite is simple french bread, but the same recipe can be used to make Torta's, pizza crusts, and so on -
The amount of dough for one french loaf is enough for two pizza crusts, or two or three Torta's.

Put simply, use 1 part water to 3 parts flour, add any spices you like, add yeast.
(Try adding, Mmm... Dill spice, cumin, garlic, fennel, chili powder, oregano, shredded cheeses, whatever pleases your taste) (NOT ALL AT ONCE! ) Even Mustard or Horse Radish may be useful, for particular meats later - baked right into the bread! I like Jalapeno bread, personally. For each loaf, figure three cups of flour on the average. Six for two, nine for three, and so on... I make four at once, since one big mess is better than a lot of little messes.

Mix all the dry materials first - it makes it more even.

Use a wooden spoon and a VERY large bowl (flour grows wings, and flies all over the kitchen if it is not watched). The dough is well mixed when it no longer sticks to your hands as you knuckle it into the bottom of the bowl. Sprinkle the top with extra flour and work it in if it is still sticky.

The rule of thumb on mixing bowl size is - reach for one that is three times the size you think you need. Then get down the next bigger one...

Dry flour on your hands will help keep the dough from sticking to you in the beginning - just scoop it from the sides of the bowl.

A large serving plate or pot lid can cover the bowl as it rises. Let it rise until it is double in size, punch it down and shape it into loaves or rolls, and then do this:

For classic french bread, they say to use a mixture of one egg white and an equal amount of water to brush onto the outsides so it will glaze and form a nice crust. I found something better! Use mayonaise instead...

The reason is that it is made of egg whites, and oil (and vinegar). The oil prevents the crust from drying out - so that you end with a very thin crust and a super moist bread inside it! It is also unnessary to mix the eggs and dispose of the yolk some way, so it saves a mess.

This glaze should be put on before the "second rising" of the dough, don't worry - it won't dry out. That's the third reason for using mayo.

Once the loaves have been formed (on a baking sheet!)and glazed, and have risen to double again their size, the oven can busy itself by pre-heating to 375 degrees f (or whatever that is in C...). Setting the baking sheet on top of the oven will warm the loaves and help them rise.

Give it ten or fifteen minutes to ensure it is well heated, or wait ten minutes or so before lighting the oven - so that the loaves can rise some more if they have to. In Australia this may not be a problem...

They should go in for precisely twenty minutes, if all is as I have set forth here. In that amount of time, the crust should form as a golden colour (You see? Even some Americans know how to spell 'colour' properly...), brown in some parts, and this will be one of the softest, thin crusted breads you have had in a good long while.

It may well be that using veg oil all by itself (or even lard) will do, but the egg in the mayo helps form the crust up, so it isn't too soft. Or at least, that's my opinion.

Savor!


~Wolfie

PS: Nuts, raisins, banana slices, brown sugar and cinnamon, all these can be used as well to make breakfast breads.

PPS: You can use BEER instead of water...

 

Ok - here is a traditional Australian bush feed.
It can only be cooked one way, and that is with coals.

Damper
A traditional form of Australian bread.

Ingredients:
2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
Method:
Mix the flour, salt and sugar together in a bowl. Cut in the butter until fine crumbs form. Add milk to make a soft dough. Knead lightly on floured board until smooth. Shape into round loaf, brush with milk.
Dig a hole in the sand, put 2 shovels of hot coals in hole. Place a light sprinkling of sand on the coals. Cover loaf with aluminium foil. Place loaf on sand covered coals, cover with another shovel of coals. Leave for 30 mins or so.
In the absence of a traditional "bush oven" - 30/40 mins at 190C(375F) in a conventional oven.

Baked Barramundi

Ingredients:
1 2 kg (5lb) Barramundi
2 tbspns Butter (melted)
1 Onion (finely chopped)
1 tbspn Olive oil
1 cup Breadcrumbs
1 tbspn Lemon juice
1/4 cup Seeded raisins
1 Lemon (sliced)
1 tbspn Honey
Pepper and salt to taste

Method:
Melt the oil in a frypan over some coals and saute the onion until it is soft
Make the stuffing by mixing the onion, breadcrumbs, raisins and honey in a bowl with the melted butter
Make deep transverse cuts in the fleshy outer part of the fish on both sides
Brush it inside and out with the olive oil and lemon juice mixed together, then dust with pepper and salt.
Push the stuffing into the stomach cavity and lay the lemon slices along the upper side of the fish.
Wrap the fish in alluminium foil. Dig another hole in the sand, get 2 shovels of hot coals, place them on bottom of the hole. Place fish on coals. Place a further 2 shovels of hot coals on.
Again, in absence of a true bush oven, bake in an oven pre-heated to 200C for 40 minutes, the last 10 without the top sheet of foil

 

Hmmm those recipes look delicious!... lol i can´t see an image or a fish anymore, all that comes to mind is: hmmm... Sushi!