We don't have any bread-Bread

I like good bread for my breakfast. Sure, some toast will do, but I really prefer nice, fluffy bread, or a good crusty loaf. Especially on the weekends, when I'm more eager to have a relaxed, full breakfast. So, we often buy bread in the morning from our favorite bakery, or we make sure to do so in advance.

However, we don't always feel like it. And I don't always remember to start a dough on the night before, either. On such occasions, it's good to know that you can actually make bread in just an hour, or even a little less than that. Real bread, not just scones, or something made with baking powder.

This bread makes soft, fluffy buns - perfect to serve with butter and a slice of cheese, and perhaps a little bit of homemade jam.

Quick Morning Bread
20 small buns

50 g fresh yeast
50 g butter
500 ml water
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
8-900 g flour (I used a mix of regular white flour and spelt flour)

Crumble the yeast into a bowl. Melt the butter, and add the water. Heat until the mixture is about 37°C - definitely not warmer than 40°C, or the yeast will die. Pour this onto the yeast and stir until it's dissolved. Add the salt, sugar and flour, and work into a soft dough. It should be un-sticky enough to roll immediately, so add as much flour as you need to accomplish that.

Now, divide into 20 equal parts, and roll into small buns. Place on a baking sheet and cover with a tea towel for about 20 minutes.
At this point, you can certainly brush them with something - butter, milk, water - and sprinkle with seeds, but I left them completely plain and that's good also. Bake at 250°C for seven minutes, and let cool slightly before slicing.

October baguette

This is the perfect bread to go with a bowl of soup. It needs a long rise, but other than that, it's minimal work. The recipe comes from Mette Ankarloo, who's written several books on baking.

October baguette
makes 2

25 g fresh yeast
100 milk
500 ml water
1 tsp honey
780 g bread flour
1 tbsp salt

Crumble the yeast into a bowl, and add the milk and water. Whisk until the yeast is dissolved, then add the honey and flour. Work really well - about 15 minutes on low speed in a Kitchen-Aid. Add the salt, and knead for two more minutes.

Wrap the bowl in plastic, and leave the dough to rest for at least two, but up to five hours. Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface, and taking care not to knock out all the air, shape two large baguettes. Place them on a baking sheet, and let them rise for about 30 minutes.

Bake for five minutes at highest possible temperature, and then at 200°C for about 20 minutes. You can mist your oven with water during the baking, to create steam - it helps build a chewy crust.

Naan

I made naan too, to go with the butter chicken. It wasn't great, so I'll try again some time, but I need a better recipe. Any favorites, or tips for me?

Apple Hazelnut Sourdough

Remember how I told you I won a sourdough bread baking contest? Well, it wasn't with this bread, but this was one of the breads I tried out during that time. I didn't submit it because I was pretty sure they'd never want to produce anything with nuts due to so many people having allergies, but the bread came out great, and I love it. I hope you'll try it! It DOES take a long time, but if you plan ahead, it's pretty effortless.

The dough is pretty sticky, which is why I opted to make loaves using a tin - but feel free to shape it into rolls, just be prepared to use a bit of flour.

You can leave out the yeast if you have a REALLY active sourdough, but I personally prefer to use a bit of yeast to make sure the bread rises well.

Apple Hazelnut Sourdough

Step 1:
150 g bubbly, active sourdough starter
500 ml water
200 g rye flour
200 - 250 g bread flour
350 g "rågsikt", a Swedish mixture with about 60% wheat, 40% rye
10 g fresh yeast

Lightly mix all the ingredients into a dough, and leave to rest for two hours.

Step 2:
The dough from step 1
15 g salt
150 g grated apple
150 g toasted hazelnuts

Mix into the dough, and knead really well - at least ten minutes using a stand mixer, and longer by hand. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl or box, cover wth a lid or plastic, and leave to rise overnight in the fridge, for 12-16 hours.

Step 3:
Take the dough out of the fridge, and shape it. You can make one large free-form loaf, rolls, or simply bake it in a lightly oiled tin.

Leave to rise at room temperature for two hours.

Step 4:
Heat the oven to 250°C. Put your bread in, and lower the heat to 200°C. The time will vary depending on how large you made your bread, but check the inside with a thermometer. The bread should have a core temperature of 98°C. Let the bread cool completely before slicing.

Recipe in Swedish:
Surdeg med äpple och hasselnötter

Cold-Rise Breakfast Bread

I'll be quick, because I need to get into the kitchen to whip up another batch of these for tomorrow's breakfast. And so do you.

Because these are great! Brilliant! Really, really good bread for almost no effort at all. All you have to do is mix a dough - by hand, no need for kneading - let it sit in the fridge overnight, do some mimimal shaping, and toss in a hot oven.

People, anyone can do this.

I use Swedish rågsikt which is a specific flour mixture containing about 60% wheat flour and 40% rye. You can most definitely mix your own, or just use wheat flour if you'd prefer that.

Cold-Rise Breakfast Bread

From the brilliant bread blogger Pain de Martin

10 g fresh yeast
400 ml cold water
540 g rågsikt or just all-purpose wheat flour
10 g salt
25 g honey

Mix everything - just mix, don't knead. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic. Place in the fridge over night.

In the morning, take your dough and tip onto a well-floured surface. Pull it into a long rectangle, and fold length-wise so that you have a long and skinny rectangle.

Brush with water and top with some seeds if you have them - I used sunflower and linseed. Press gently, so that the seeds don't fall off. Sprinkle with flour.

Heat the oven to 275°C, and pre-heat a baking sheet as well. When the oven, and the sheet, are hot, remove the sheet. Cut your dough into about ten pieces, and place on the hot baking sheet. Lower the heat to 225°C, and bake for about 10-15 minutes.

Please note: I use a fan-assisted oven, and your oven times might vary. Trust your instinct.

Recipe in Swedish:
Kalljäst frukostbröd på rågsikt

Soft Breakfast Rolls

These are very soft and comforting rolls. Just the thing to eat in the morning, with cheese and orange marmalade. They're slightly sweet, but not over the top. I've added a hint of cinnamon to make them a bit more interesting, but you can definitely leave that out. If you do, decrease the syrup a little, and they'll be perfect to use as hamburger buns!

Soft Breakfast Rolls

500 ml milk
50 g fresh yeast
100 ml melted butter
50 ml golden syrup
1-2 tsp cinnamon
about 950 g bread flour
2 tsp salt

Crumble the yeast into a bowl. Heat the milk until tepid and mix with the yeast until it has dissolved. Add everything except for salt and flour, and stir.

Gradually add the flour, and knead well for about ten minutes. (I'm using my Kitchen-Aid.) Add salt, and knead for five more minutes. Cover with a towel and leave to rise for about 30 minutes.

Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface and divide into 20 pieces. Roll into buns, and leave to rise until doubled in size - about 1 hour.

Bake at 250°C for 8-10 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mjuka frukostfrallor

Cold-Rise Pizza

Pizza is not really my favorite thing in the world. Sure, it's ok every now and then, and I admit there has been a lot of nights when cooking sounds like such a chore, and then; pizza night. Usually take-out, because baking pizza yourself.. well, again, quite a chore.

We haven't had pizza lot since Titus started to eat, because he does not like pizza very much at all. I wanted to try home made, partly because I had a hankering for a pizza with loads of garlic, no tomato sauce, and parma ham, and partly because I wanted to see if he'd like it better. (I made him one with just garlic and red onion and he found it ok but wasn't very enthusiastic about the whole thing.)

I liked the dough a lot - it was really easy to just make before work, and then let it proof in the fridge for the whole day.

Cold-Rise Pizza
Serves 3-4

20 g fresh yeast
250 ml cold water
180-240 g all-purpose fkour
120 g durum flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp oil

Crumble the yeast into a bowl. Add the water and stir until it's dissolved. Add flour, salt, sugar and oil and work into a supple dough. (Start with the smaller amount of all-purpose flour and add more if you need it. My dough was too sticky and almost runny, so I added a bit.) Work the dough very well, so you get a good gluten development.

Place the dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge until it's doubled in size. I made it before I left for work and took it out when I got home, and that was perfectly fine. Let the dough sit at room temperature for an hour or so before baking.

Divide into smaller pieces, shape pizzas and top them with whatever you'd like. Bake in a really hot oven until they're as well done as you want them to be - preferences (and ovens) vary so much I don't want to give any specific recommendations).

Recipe in Swedish:
Kalljäst pizzadeg

Limpa from Gotland

Gotlandslimpa, which translate's into "loaf from Gotland" is what many people perceive as a very Swedish bread. It's a classic "limpa" which is really just another word for "loaf" but usually used for slightly sweet, dense breads. This is a classic bread, and it uses bitter orange peel to give it a special hint of flavor. Do try to get that, or it will not be the same.

Also, the recipe uses rågsikt, which is a mixture of fine rye and wheat flour in roughly 40/60 proportion. I imagine it's hard to get outside of Sweden, so mix your own.

This is not a very fast bread to make, and it's a little fiddly. The flavor is well worth it - enjoy it with a salted butter and a strong cheese to set off the sweetness!

Limpa from Gotland
Makes 2

On day 1:
850 g rye/wheat flour (see above)
1/2 tbsp salt
1 liter boiling water
7 g whole bitter orange peel, dried
1/2 tbsp distilled white vinegar

Day 2:
35 g fresh yeast
75 ml molasses or dark syrup
1 tsp sugar
the orange peel from day 1, in fine dice
720 g bread flour

To bake:
100 ml bread flour
1/2 tbsp molasses or dark syrup, in 50 ml warm water

On day 1, morning:
Soak the bitter orange peel in 100 ml of boiling water. Leave to soak all day.

On day 1, evening

Bring 1 liter of water to the boil, and pour over the rye and wheat flour. Add the liquid from the bitter oranges, salt and distilled vinegar. Work the dough really well - either use a wooden spoon (that'd be the traditional way) or in a stand mixer (my way) for at least 10-15 minutes.

Cover the surface with flour, wrap in two kitchen towels and a blanket to keep the dough warm, and leave overnight.

Pour a little bit of warm water over the peel, to make sure they're soft for the next day.

On day 2, morning

Drain the peel, and cut into fine dice. Mix with the yeast, sugar, molasses and bread flour. Work all this into the dough from last night. When it's well mixed, leave to rise for 45 minutes.

Turn out the dough on a well-floured surface, and carefully shape two loaves. Use lots of flour, as the dough is very sticky. Move the loaves to lined baking sheets, cover with towels and leave to rise for 30 minutes.

Bake at 200°C for one hour. Before you place them in the oven, brush them with syrup mixed with water, and keep brushing a few times during the baking if you want a deeper, cracklier surface.

Cover the baked breads with towels and leave to cool completely at room temperature before slicing.

Recipe in Swedish:
Gotlandslimpa

Garlic Breadsticks

I had a hankering for breadsticks - soft, pillowy and fluffy, like the one you get at Olive Garden? I wasn't in the mood to cook from an actual recipe so I just freestyled. I used a simple white bread dough - some fresh yeast, some water, some flour, a pinch of sugar and salt, and no, I didn't even bother to measure it.

After the first rise, when it was doubled in size, I used a little more than half the dough for something else (cold-risen rolls!). I flattened the remaining dough into a thin rectangle and placed on a baking sheet. I melted some butter, added the same amount of olive oil (about a tablespoon of each) and added some minced garlic, and a little bit of runny honey. I brushed this on top of the dough, and sprinkled with sea salt. I left it to rise for about half an hour, then baked it in a hot oven (225°C) for about ten minutes.

Delicious! And sorry to give such an in-exact recipe, but think of it more as a sketch than a recipe. I'll write down measurements next time.