Cypriot halloumi bread
UK

Cypriot halloumi bread

KatherineLeave a comment

Before lockdown, every so often we’d visit a Greek deli near Kensington Gardens, the Athenian Grocery. One of the things I miss the most is the variety of cheeses and breads available, including halloumi bread.

The first time I ever made it I followed a recipe online which is no longer available (there are others out there, of course). However, since the main idea is an enriched white dough encasing halloumi, mint and lemon zest, I just threw a recipe together over the winter holidays. It is pretty straightforward. My only comment would be not to skip the mint (I used fresh) or the lemon zest. They both add to the bread as a whole and prevent it from being just plain salty.

Ingredients

500g strong bread flour

50g olive oil

1 sachet of yeast

10g salt

about 320g of liquid (could be water or any milk for a softer bread)

1 small block of halloumi

mint

zest of 1 lemon

Method

Combine flour, salt and yeast. Add oil and almost all of the liquid (I always leave a bit in the jug just in case the dough is too wet) and mix into a dough. Add the rest of the liquid if necessary. Turn out the dough unto the counter and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball, dust some flour in the bowl and leave to rest, covered in the bowl, for about an hour in a warm place.

Prover tip: If you turn on your oven for 1 minute to the max temp. and then turn it off it will be warm enough to work as a prover. Definitely handy during the winter months!

Close to end, prep the filling. Chop/crumble the halloumi into small pieces. Chop the mint (use about 10-20 leaves?) and the zest (to make it even tinier).

Once the dough has risen, pop back unto the counter and roll it out into a rectangle. Spinkle the filling ingredients on the dough,leaving about an inch filling-free along the bottom edge.

Roll tightly towards you. Slice the long cylinder in half, and each half in thirds (though you can make them smaller if you wish, just keep an eye out when they’re baking).

Place these rolls on a baking sheet, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rest about 30min.

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

If desired, right before baking you can glaze the rolls with an egg wash or a milk wash for colour (I usually skip it).

When ready, bake for around 20min (rolls bake faster than loaves, however always check the bottom to see if they’re done baking. Along with a golden brown bottom, you want to hear a hollow sound when tapped), or until the rolls are golden.

Leave to cool on a rack (if you can!).

Semitas 2.0
Honduras

Semitas 2.0

KatherineLeave a comment

What better thing to do during lockdown than to sort through posts that never saw the light of day? These semitas were originally baked over the winter holidays (but most still remain in my freezer).

After a long period of indecision, I finally hunkered down to try a second semitas recipe, this time from a Youtube video. The video is very detailed and informative and the best way to get the shaping right. The main differences between this recipe and the previous one I tried is the egg and butter content; this one uses less eggs but more butter in the bun dough and more sugar and more butter in the outer paste.

Here is a rough transcription of the recipe:

 

Dough Ingredients

400g strong white bread flour

70g sugar

130g egg/egg yolks (I use 2 eggs and 1 yolk)

90g butter

21g powdered milk (I skipped this, probably best to add 21 grams of flour if skipping)

1 sachet of dried yeast (about 7g)

110g tepid water

 

Cover paste

300g plain flour

140g sugar

210g unsalted butter

4g salt

30-60g water or egg whites from the used egg

 

Method

Dough

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk eggs before adding to the flour mixture, then add most of the water (I always leave a bit behind just in case the dough ends up too moist; you can always add the rest if necessary).

Mix together until a dough forms.

Then the messy part begins! The butter will be incorporated in 3-4 batches, it should be soft before trying to work it into the dough. On the counter, you’ll have to knead the butter into the dough and it will get messy, frustratingly so! Just keep going and soon the dough will come together. Add more butter and work it in. More mess! No worries, the dough will come together (make sure you’re actually stretching and trapping air in the dough, not just pushing it around). Add more butter and work it in. Even though you’re not supposed to add more flour here, I still did (remember I skipped 21g of dry ingredient) and it helped.

Once the dough is smooth and elastic (probably after kneading it for a good 10min) shape into a ball, pop it back into the bowl and cover. Leave to rise for at least 1 hour or until it doubles in size.

Cover paste

With an electric mixer (or a really strong arm), cream the softened butter and sugar. After the sugar dissolves a bit gradually add the flour and salt. The mixture will start to look like bread crumbs. Add the water or the egg whites and combine using a spatula or wooden spoon.

When you achieve a paste-like consistency, pop out unto a piece of parchment paper and shape into a cylinder.

Wrap it up like a burrito and pop in the fridge.

Assembly

When the bun dough has finished rising, pop it out unto the counter and punch out the gas. Weigh it to work out how many semitas you want (I did 20, each dough ball weighed about 36g), then portion and weigh out your dough. Shape into balls and cover with a tea towel.

Get the paste cylinder out of the fridge and weigh it. Divide it by the number of semitas and that number divide by 2 (you will need 2 discs to cover each dough ball). Start slicing and weighing the paste until you have the necessary number of discs.

Roll each portion into a small ball (doesn’t have to be perfect). Be careful not to over-manipulate the paste because you’ll get better results if it’s still cold. Before assembling each semita you’ll have to flatten each ball into a small thin tortilla. My issue here was the more you manipulate the paste and it warms in your hands, the more it starts to split and break apart. I found that using a lot of flour on the surface helped, as well as placing the ball on the surface and flattening it once using my palm and then fingers.

To assemble each semita take one disc in one hand, place ball on it and cover with second disc. Seal the edges of the paste discs while creating the signature ‘roll’ of the semita. The video is super helpful here as it’s hard to describe what your fingers should do.

When you have finished shaping all the semitas (hallelujah!), pop them in some sugar to coat the top (I forgot this step) and place them on a baking sheet to rest for about 30min. The dough inside will rise, causing the cover to crack.

Towards the end of this resting time preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown.

Let cool before digging in! The cover was super crispy and the bun super soft, compared to the first recipe’s.

Despite the effort and mess I think this recipe is a keeper!

Honduras

Semitas de yema

KatherineLeave a comment

Every year as September rolls around I get hit by a jab of nostalgia; celebrating Independence day brings back lots of memories, food included. Of course, some things are relatively easy to make at home any time, like baleadas or burras. Some, like semitas, take a lot more effort (and maybe a teeny bit more skill than I currently have). I’ve been putting off making semitas for such a long time even though I’ve been wanting to make them for equally as long. So today, finally having a day off (and an insane amount of eggs) I set myself the task of making semitas. I found a reasonable recipe (without an insane amounts of ingredients) here.

Here’s the translation:

 

Paste/cover ingredients

300g strong flour

150g butter (she used margarine)

75g sugar

3 egg yolks

1tsp vanilla extract

1/2tsp salt

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, make a well in the center and add the yolks, butter, and vanilla extract. Mix and knead by hand for a couple of minutes until a dough forms. Set aside.

 

Dough ingredients

500g strong flour

120g egg yolks (about 8)

85g sugar

60g butter

2 tbsp dry yeast (I used a single sachet, one is good for 500g flour)

125ml milk (should be tepid)

 

Now, she did her mixing on the counter; I did mine in a bowl as I don’t have a lot of space and also don’t fancy making a bigger mess than necessary.

So.

Combine dry ingredients in bowl. Add yolks, milk and butter and knead until a smooth dough forms (no longer sticky).

(I did mine by hand and I wouldn’t describe it as ‘silky’. Not sure if it could be the butter or maybe in need of more liquid. Anyway. I was in too deep now, I had to finish them, however they turned out.)

 

Shaping the semita

Divide the dough into equal portions (mine were 75g, to yield 12 semitas). Then separate the paste into the same number of portions. With the paste, roll each portion into a ball. Take one and make a tortilla with it, cover the dough portion with the paste tortilla, smoothing down the edges. Roll on a plate with sugar to cover it all. Place on baking sheet. Repeat x 12.

Leave to rest for an hour (huh? This is essentially the one rise for these breads…how will that affect the texture?). The dough will rise until it cracks the paste on top (mine was a tad too thick so the only cracks were around the bottom).

Bake at 180°c for 25min or until golden (the bottoms on mine got a tad dark because I was pushing for the ‘golden’ look). Place on a rack to cool (hah, yeah right).

I took a knife and sliced one right away… I needed to see whether it was a pass or a fail.

It was a pass, though the inside was really dense due to the dough not having a proper rise (maybe my layer of paste was too thick). Not to worry, I already have another recipe to try out once these semitas get eaten (with less egg, thankfully, as well as a more familiar baking process which should result in a fluffier semita).

Which shouldn’t take too long.

Buen provecho!

Honduras

Pavé

KatherineLeave a comment

It’s Christmas time again! This year I’ll be spending in the UK with my SO’s family, but I’ll be keeping up the tradition of preparing a dessert. I decided to do my mom’s recipe for pavé. It’s originally a Brazilian dessert, with two types of custard layered with biscuits, usually Maria biscuits but here in the UK rich tea biscuits are pretty much the same. It’s simple but so good!

 

Ingredients

Custard 1

1 tin* condensed milk (use the same tin to measure out milk)

1 tin milk

3 tbsp cornstarch/cornflour

2 egg yolks

 

Custard 2

2 tins milk

6 tbsp cornstarch/cornflour

4 tbsp sugar

4 egg yolks

vanilla extract to taste (I used 2 tsp)

rum to taste (I used 3 tsp)

 

Other ingredients

Maria biscuits, amount depending on dish size (I used rich tea biscuits, I used about 20 biscuits)

250ml whipping cream

 

Method

Custard 1

Combine all ingredients in a pot. For ease of mixing, combine the cornstarch with the milk, whisk briskly and sieve before adding to pot. Also, whisk the egg yolks before adding to the pot. Whisk well and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the liquid thickens to a pudding-like consistency. If lumpy, sieve before using.

Custard 2

Combine all ingredients in a pot, follow same recommendations as above. In addition, it is best to whisk the sugar together with the yolks so it can dissolve better. Whisk everything well and cook over medium heat until it thickens.

To assemble the pavé, first spread a layer of Custard 1 in a deep glass dish. Next place a layer of biscuits, followed by a layer of Custard 2, followed by another layer of biscuits. Repeat until you reach the top, leaving at least 1cm for the cream. Make sure the topmost custard layer is Custard 1.

Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours (overnight is best!). When ready, whip the cream with a tiny bit of vanilla extract and a tiny bit of icing sugar. Be careful not to overwhip as the cream topping will not look as good. A good tip is to whip it just until you can do a figure eight in the cream and it doesn’t dissolve. Once you reach this point stop whisking or mixing, as from this point on it can be very easy to overdo it.

Spread the cream on top of the pavé using a pallet knife. Again, careful with the spreading as this also works the cream. When done, decorate with a chocolate sauce, chocolate shavings or cocoa powder. I went with cocoa powder because after trying the custards I was bit scared the overall dessert would be too sweet.

However, the cream and the cocoa powder cut through the sweetness, so it tastes just right!

Mini version I made so I could test-taste it.

Bring on the festivities!

Honduras · UK

The cursed mousse

Katherine2 Comments

After last year’s profiterole disaster, this year I decided to make a cake for New Year’s pudding. Never mind that my family’s actual get-together was on the 30th and not the 31st. It’s the thought that counts, right?

I recently tried out a vegan chocolate cake recipe which I ended up loving for it’s fudginess and taking me back to my childhood (nothing like a good Hershey’s Chocolate cake). Should have been a walk in the park. It wasn’t. I got ambitious. Why not add a layer of orange mousse? Hell, throw some chocolate ganache on top while I’m at it.

There must be some kind of curse on me for making holiday desserts. I had to attempt the mousse a total of four times, two of which were successful, to make enough for a nice layer to go on top of the cake.

Lessons learned?

  1. Always chill the cream and shake it in its container to make sure it has a homogeneous texture (I never had an issue with this in the UK, but then again single and double cream are readily available everywhere, unlike Honduras).
  2. When whipping the cream, add sugar later rather than sooner.
  3. Powdered gelatin needs to be sprinkled gradually while stirring the liquid to avoid massive clumps.

The cake

The Pretty Bee’s recipe is originally gluten-free, but I used plain flour because I love gluten. Note: my cake was not fully vegan either since there is no such thing as vegan chocolate in Honduras. We love our dairy.

Ordinarily, one should probably use a springform cake tin for this kind of dessert, or acetate sheets to create a mold around the cake at the very least. I had neither. Thankfully, necessity is the mother of invention. I used some leftover manila paper my mom bought to cook the ham joint in. I taped wax paper to one side, nice and tight, and made a mold of sorts around my cake. It looked ridiculous but it worked.

Reminds me of those post surgery collars for dogs.

The mousse

My first attempt was a Tastemade recipe, which ended up looking like scrambled eggs (not going to link it as it was a massive fail). To avoid wasting ingredients I searched and settled for a simpler recipe with less ingredients. I found this handy video by HidaMari Cooking on Youtube (videos are always better when making something for the first time).

It was very easy, yet I still managed to make a couple of rookie mistakes (see lessons learned above). However, once I had a decent amount of mousse, I poured it on the cake and left it to set in the fridge.

Evidence of two separate mousse attempts.

In the future I’d probably add orange zest or orange extract to make the orange flavour more intense. I’ll also probably experiment with a vegetarian alternative to gelatin.

The ganache

Ganache is easy. Heat cream, pour on chocolate, chocolate melts, done. However, after the mousse fiasco I decided to study up on ganache before doing it, just in case. Kitchen Conundrums provides a very detailed explanation for making ganache for different purposes. Since I wanted to pour it over the cake, I initially used a 2:1 cream to chocolate ratio, but it was super runny and I couldn’t see it thickening much more in the fridge so I added more chocolate while it was still warm enough to melt. Once it reached a consistency I liked, I mixed in about a tablespoon of butter to make it shiny. I let it chill in the fridge until I was happy it wouldn’t just slide off the cake.

I poured from the middle and tilted the cake around, trying to cover the top and get it to drip a bit down the sides.

Pool of chocolate not visible.

Sadly, a massive pool of chocolate formed on one side. Trying to do damage control, I poured chocolate all over and then scraped the sides for a sort of naked cake look. I then carefully added back some drips.

Grunge look totally intentional.

Next time, runnier ganache might be better. It would probably cover the cake faster so no need to pour as much. Darker chocolate would also be loads better, too, in terms of taste and looks.

Takeway

It would be nice to attempt a fully vegan version of this but I’ll wait until I go back to the UK for that. Also, reign in the ambition just a tad.

UK

Kanelboller

Katherine1 Comment

During my recent trip to Oslo I had to try Norwegian cinnamon rolls. Ole & Steen is one of my favourite places in London, mainly due to their cinnamon slice. Ole & Steen is actually a Danish bakery, but Scandinavian countries share plenty of similarities and their baked goods are a perfect example.

The kanelboller in Oslo were amazing, to say the least. No need for lashings of frosting a la Cinnabon; simplicity is best, especially when such simplicity is showcased with lovely shaping. Other than the absence of frosting, the main difference to common cinnamon rolls, is the hint of cardamom in the dough. Whoever first added it to the dough was a genius.

As soon as I found the time I tried to make my own. I especially wanted to try shaping them into wraparound twists, which looked so intricate and delicate in the bakeries.

I decided to follow one of my trusted recipes from the patisserie course, just adding some ground cardamom to the dry ingredients before mixing.

The recipe for a sweet bread dough is as follows:

250g full fat milk (I used soy)

1 sachet of instant yeast (about 7g)

500g strong bread flour

60g unsalted butter

40g caster sugar

10g salt

2 eggs

(I added about 1 tsp of ground cardamom)

The milk should be tepid, so warm it a little bit if taking it straight from the fridge. Combine dry ingredients and mix well. Rub in the butter (it should be a bit soft).

Whisk the eggs before adding. Add the milk last and gradually, since you may not need all of it. Combine until a dough begins to form.

Turn it out unto the counter and begin to knead. About 5 minutes of kneading should do it. The dough shouldn’t be sticky, but smooth and elastic. Form into a ball, place into a bowl, cover and let rest until doubled in size (at least one hour).

After the first rise, turn it out unto the counter and roll with a pin until you get a rectangle shape.

This time I actually looked for a recipe for the filling; I adapted Nigella Lawson’s one. Her recipe for the rolls makes more dough, so I reduced the butter and sugar to 100g each. I added the cinnamon to taste, really…As long as it tastes good, who am I to complain about too much cinnamon?

Once the filling was spread evenly I folded the dough like an envelope and the rolled it a bit more.

I then started slicing from the short edge. I probably should have done it from the long edge as this would have let me twist the strip twice around my hand as I was meant to.

But I didn’t. I could only twist the strips once around my hand before twisting it over the first twist. Here is a short video demonstrating one of the ways to shape the rolls.

The rolls turned out alright, shapewise. Definitely will need to try and get longer strips to begin with.

I let them go a bit too long in the oven, so a few them were a tad dark. However, they taste like Norway.

UK

Koulouri

KatherineLeave a comment

This is my first venture into a whole new culture of baking traditions. What’s unusual about this post is that, until today, I had never tried this bread, originally from Cyprus and Greece. However, it has been so highly spoken of on many occasions that, of course, I had to give it a try. I come from a family of bread-lovers, after all.

First off, I found a recipe on Youtube with a finished product that resembled what I wanted to make (loaves, not rings, which are also a thing). Even though the recipe is written in the video description, one of the measurement terms was confusing. It was only through careful scrutiny of the video that I realised that ‘glasses’ meant ‘cups’. Duh me.

However that recipe yields 3 loaves, which is way too much for myself. So I halved the recipe and also converted it to the metric system for future convenience.

An hour on the bus…for this?

A note on two of the spices, mastic and mahlepi: they can be found in Turkish as well Greek shops.

The oldest Greek deli in London

I myself had to trek all the way up to west London in this horrible heat wave to find 2 tiny sachets of the stuffs. On the bright side, they also had the actual koulouri loaves and loads of cheese varieties, so naturally I bought some to make it worth my trip.

For research purposes only…

Ok, here’s the recipe (again, half the quantities of the video’s):

2 cups (282g) strong bread flour

1 1/4 cup (188g) plain flour

7g dried yeast (one sachet)

88ml olive oil

2.5 grains mahlepi (just make it 3)

2.5 grains mastic (just make it 3)

1/2 tsp sugar (to grind the spices with, total weight of spices and sugar was about 3g)

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup (225ml) lukewarm milk (I used whole)

For the glaze:

1 egg yolk beaten with 2 tbsp of milk

sesame seeds

Method

The actual bread-making process is pretty much the same as all bread. Combine the dry ingredients (make sure not to forget the baking powder, like I did, which I added when I had already started adding the milk). Add the oil and rub into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs (similar to making shortcrust pastry).

Add half of the milk and knead. Add the rest of the milk and knead until it becomes elastic.

I might have overkneaded my dough because it didn’t resemble the nice smooth dough in the video, but it rose ok. After an hour it had nearly doubled in size, so I turned it out unto the counter and shaped it a little like Stavros did in the video. I placed it on the prepared baking tray (baking paper + sesame seeds). Using my sharpest knife I cut slits into it and covered it with a tea towel to prove for about 20 minutes.

Before proving…

I then used a pastry brush to glaze the loaf with the egg yolk and milk which had been beaten together. Last were the sesame seeds on top.

After proving!

Bake at 180C for about 30min or until golden brown. It should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Oh, hello there

On analyzing my loaf, I could probably have let the dough rise a bit longer the first time. The texture is a bit strange, not that of bread (light and fluffy) but of cake (denser and moist). According to the brief research I did online, the texture of koulouri is cake-like but in the pictures and videos I’ve seen it looks more bread-like so….who knows what’s right?

I did come across another video for making koulouri loaves with a process very similar to the one I followed, except the milk is added first and the oil last, resembling more typical bread-making. Since I already have the spices I need, I could definitely start a koulouri bread lab. Now, what will I do with all this bread?

Good thing I love me some gluten.
UK

Cinnamon roll mountain

Katherine2 Comments
My second batch

A couple of months ago I made Norwegian cinnamon rolls with a friend for the first time (I made them again quite recently).

The original recipe

We followed her recipe, which called for the following (half the recipe, dry ingr. in grams in bold):

700ml milk      (350ml)

200g butter      (100g)

50g yeast (fresh)      (1 sachet of dry yeast, about 7g)

2dl sugar      (85g)

2tsp ground cardamom       (1tsp)

1tsp salt      (1/2 tsp)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder     (1/2tsp +1/4tsp)

16dl plain flour      (470g)

The first thing that stood out to me was the measurements…this was going to be a dough of massive proportions! We used the same Pyrex measuring jug for the milk, sugar and flour, so there was no worrying about conversions then. The second time I made these rolls I converted some of the measurements for future convenience.

We mixed the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then mixed them all together. Once we had a sticky dough, we started kneading. We took turns since it was quite a workout, but since the dough was still very sticky we added more flour (we used almost one whole 1.5kg bag of flour!) though I think we just needed to knead more (however the second time I made them, I still needed to add extra flour no matter how much I kneaded it so in the future I’d use 500g to start with. Also, maybe not add all the milk at once). Eventually it became less sticky and we left it to rise for an hour.

I was right; it was a dough of monstrous size. We split it in half and we each rolled out our half. Once rolled out (not too thin) we spread softened butter all over, then sprinkled sugar and cinnamon on top. For the filling we had no measurement; we basically added however much we wanted. From the two batches I’ve made so far, I’ve gathered that the more butter and sugar you spread on top, the more oozy the rolls. Too much cinnamon and they become a bit dry and grainy, almost.

After we spread the filling, we rolled them up and sliced them into portions. We each got about 24 small rolls (about 50 total!). We placed them on trays and let them rest before baking.

Babies resting

That day, we baked a mountain of cinnamon rolls, enough to put on our own stall. So unless you want cinnamon rolls for days (or months, but there’s nothing wrong with that), try the half recipe first.

The mountain of dreams
Fiction Corner

This is hard

KatherineLeave a comment

School is hard. My teacher is nice. My friend Kameron is nice too, most of the time. She is a very big girl and she goes to school with me. Sometimes she doesn’t let me do what I want and won’t back down. Not even if I cry and scream and push her. But most of the time we have fun. She plays with me. My other friends don’t play with me as much, I don’t know why. I have lots of fun. 

Big people talking is boring. I get lost in the words. I talk to myself because I know what I’m saying. Kameron nudges me all the time when I should be listening, sometimes I do. She tries to make it easier for me to understand what I should be doing. School is a strange place, so many rules. Why do I have to hold my hand up to say something? Why do I have to sit quietly? Why do I have to do what the teacher says all the time? Why do I have to read? Reading is hard. I like playing, why can’t I play?

Sometimes I run away when things are hard. Kameron runs after me, sometimes it’s very funny.

There are always big people talking about me. Kameron talks about me to Mummy. Mummy talks about me to other big people. A lot of big people come to school and play with me. Or watch me. One asked me questions I didn’t know how to answer. I hate questions. Questions are hard.

 

I get so tired sometimes. Why is it so hard for people to understand me?