Lorraine Pascale's Damper Bread

You have to love the smell of home baked bread filling the kitchen. Morning, noon and night I will never tire of the smell, it's so comforting, along with that first crusty slice , still warm from the oven, spread with butter.

Unfortunately time doesn't always allow me to make a proper loaf, a good bloomer can take up to 5 hours with all that kneading (by the Kitchen Aid), proving and baking. At the weekend I caught some of Lorraine Pascale's Fast, Fresh & Easy on TV where she made Australian Damper bread. Luckily I Sky+ the show as a couple of days later I needed a quick bread recipe to accompany some soup and I'd not allowed enough time to make 'proper' bread.

The original recipe has olives and rosemary in the middle but I chose to add cheese and onion - no weights or measurements, just a few slices piled into the centre of the bread.

Damper Bread

450g SR Flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil

225ml warm water

Optional Additions

Rosemary

Garlic

Onion

Cheese 

Olives

• Mix all of the bread ingredients together, squashing it into a ball with your hands (I added some dried Rosemary & a clove of crushed garlic at this stage)
• Flatten out & add your fillings on the top
• Fold the edges of the dough over to encase the fillings & squeeze together into a ball
• Turn over & press a wooden spoon across it four times (see below)
• Place in a preheated 200 C oven for 30 minutes
• Use for dipping into Olive oil & Balsamic...or mopping up soups and stews