More Recipes

I finally got a bread right in the pizza oven. Here’s the recipe for Kitke bread, also known as Challah.

Kitke Bread

Loaf Ingredients

• 2 cups bread flour
• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 sachet instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 40 g butter
• 500 ml warm milk

Crust

• 2 egg yolk plus 10 ml milk
• poppy seeds
• sesame seeds

Process

• In the bowl of your heavy-duty mixer (like a Kenwood or KitchenAid), add all the loaf ingredients, turn up the speed and let the machine knead the dough for about 7 minutes; it is quite a runny dough, don’t worry – it will shape up fine!
• Cover bowl with dish cloth and place in a warm, draft-free area to rise; the dough should nearly double in size, which will take about 60 to 90 minutes.
• When dough is ready, lightly punch it down and knead it a bit. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces; sprinkle flour on your hands and the work-surface –- it makes it easier to handle the dough.
• Roll the pieces of dough into equal length sausages, pinch them together on one side and plait them together. Pinch together at the other end.
• Place on a greased baking sheet and brush the egg and milk mixture over the loaf then sprinkle with poppy and sesame seeds.
• Bake in pizza oven for an hour. The heat must be around 200 degrees Celsius – that’s about 10 pieces of wood coal plus another one or two pieces of burning wood to keep the temperature constant. Turn the loaf occasionally to get even coverage. If the loaf shows burning marks, remove some coals.

He Cooks?

My culinary skills are limited… but, since I seem to have impressed some folks lately, here’s some dead easy recipes I’ve got tagged.

 

Fruit crumble

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter
• half cup ground almonds
• pinch salt

Spices

Half teaspoon each of ground ginger; allspice; cinnamon and nutmeg.

Fruit

Whatever you like really. Try apples, pears, nectarines, cherries, rhubarb etc. I like adding granadilla (passion fruit) for extra tartness.

All together now

Mix the dry ingredients in a mixer, keep in fridge till required. Half an hour before cooking place crumble in freezer. Butter up a cooking dish, slice the un-peeled fruit roughly into the dish — sprinkle with spices. Grate the frozen crumble over the fruit. Bake at 200 degrees celcius for 35 minutes.

 

Mielie Pap

Polenta — sort of. Essentially ground corn meal. A staple food of Africa done in the microwave with extra corniness.

Ingredients

• 2 cups Braai Pap
• Tin Sweetcorn
• Butter
• Pinch Salt

Process

• Place braai pap in a liddable dish, add salt. Add boiling water slowly to mix while stirring with a fork. You just want to coat all the meal with water.
• Cook in microwave for 5 minutes on High.
• Remove, stir vigorously with fork, add tad more water — if required.
• Cook in microwave for 3 minutes on Medium.
• Remove, add sweetcorn and lotsa butter.
• Cook for 4 minutes on Medium.

That’s it. The trick is not to add too much moisture — otherwise you end up with porridge. Using a fork gives a crumbly consistency which I like.

 

Pizza Dough

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 envelope active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 cups white bread flour, divided
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Process

• In the bowl of your heavy-duty mixer (like a Kenwood or KitchenAid), stir together the water, yeast and sugar; let sit until the mixture is foamy, which takes about 5 minutes.
• Add 1  1/2 cups of the flour, the oil and salt into the yeast mixture and, using the knead attachment combine until mixture is smooth.
• Add remaining flour, turn up the speed and let the machine knead the dough for about 3 minutes; it should be very smooth and perhaps a bit tacky.
• Feel free to add an extra minute or two of kneading if you wish; it won't hurt the dough at all. Add small quantities of water if the dough seems too dry.
• Rub the insides of a large mixing bowl with a little olive oil; remove dough from machine, form into a ball, and place into oiled bowl, turning dough over to make sure all sides are coated.
• Cover bowl with dish cloth and place in a warm, draft-free area to rise; the dough should nearly double in size, which will take about 60 to 90 minutes.
• When dough is ready, lightly punch it down and knead it a bit, leave in bowl until ready to start making pizzas. Divide into five equal balls, sprinkle a dusting of flour onto work surface and roll out the pizza base with a rolling pin.