Garlic & Basil Bread Bites

Al Fresco dining and summer salads seem to be well and truly upon us now and who doesn't love to have a bit of bread with their salad. I absolutely love bread, although bread doesn't love me, or rather it does love me and loves me so well that it just sits on my hips and stays there until I banish it from my diet for a few weeks. I find it hard to do that in the summer though as there is nothing better than a platter of lovely fresh tasty bread, cheese and salad - my mouth is watering just thinking of it.

At the weekend we spent a lot of time eating in the garden and for one of our family afternoon snacks I made an easy dough in the breadmaker and baked up some garlic and herb bites, which were great for dipping in Balsamic vinegar and eating with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella. Breadmakers are great as you don't need any baking skills to make a very versatile dough, and you can then enjoy freshly baked bread whenever you like.

I use the same dough recipe for lots of breads as it works for me and can be used in both savoury and sweet recipes - for sweet ones such as Cinnamon buns I add sugar too.

Quantities of the garlic and basil will depend on your own taste and how garlicky and herby you like your bread - I used around 1 tbsp of basil paste and 1tsp of garlic paste.

Garlic & Basil Bread Bites

225ml milk

500g white bread flour

1/2 tsp salt

50g butter, softened

7g yeast

100ml (approx) Olive oil 

garlic paste or crushed fresh garlic cloves

basil paste or fresh basil made into a paste with a little olive oil 

• Add the dough ingredients into the breadmaker in the order that your machine specifies and set to dough.
• Once the dough is ready remove onto a lightly floured surface and roll out into a long sausage
• Divide the sausage into 4 and roll each out a bit longer
• Cut each piece into around 12 pieces - you don't need to be too precise here and at this point I lost count of the pieces that I was cutting - as long as they are all similar in size and bitesize then don't worry too much

• Mix the olive oil, basil and garlic together in a bowl
• Roll each piece of dough in the oil until covered

Let any excess oil drip off the dough and place into a baking tin

 

• Cover the tin with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for around an hour until the dough has doubled in size
• Bake in a preheated 200 C oven for approximated 20 minutes
• Whilst warm brush with a little more olive oil and toss into a bowl for serving (the bread will fall apart into pieces)

Serve with freshly sliced tomatoes and mozzarella and some Balsamic for dipping - or as an accompaniment to a main meal

I have been sent a Panasonic breadmaker to try out for a few weeks for The Ideas Kitchen, come and see this and other recipes here

Cinnamon and Raisin Bread

After watching a few episodes of Paul Hollywood's 'Bread' series I vowed I would get to grips with making bread by hand. I was then asked if I would like to put a Panasonic breadmaker through its paces so the handmade bread quickly went out of the window...I mean, why have a dog & bark yourself.

Feeling a little under the weather and in need of comfort food I wanted to get a loaf made straight away. Thankfully I had already stocked up on bread flour and yeast in preparation and decided upon a fruited bread, adapting a milk bread recipe from my Complete Book of Bread & Bread Machines, which has some great recipes in.

After a quick glance through the instruction booklet for the Panasonic machine it seemed straightforward enough, I just had to remember to add the dry ingredients to the pan first, unlike the machine I'd used previously. This one also has a yeast dispenser, to add the yeast only when it's needed, as well as a nut dispenser which adds nuts and dried fruit to the dough later in the process, to avoid being chewed up by the machine.

I was surprised that the loaf was going to take 4 hours to bake, rather than the 3 hours in my previous machine. I suppose breadmakers are a little like slow cookers, they are a great convenience but you do need a little forward planning & organisation.

I was a little confused when I started up the machine as it didn't appear to do anything, but after checking the booklet again it would seem that for the majority of the cycles there is a rest period of around 30 minutes before the kneading begins, I believe this is to regulate the ingredients.

Anyway, after the 4 hours (perfect timing just as we walked in from the school run) I was presented with this little beauty...

I say 'little' but it was actually huge - a whopping 8 inches in height! There are options to make smaller loaves, the quantities just have to be adjusted accordingly.

Cinnamon and Raisin Bread

675g Strong White bread flour
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp granulated sugar (I used Truvia baking blend instead)
2 tbsp melted butter
280ml milk
130ml water
3 tsp ground cinnamon
7g dried yeast
100g juicy raisins

• Add the dry ingredients apart from the yeast and raisins to the loaf pan
• Add the wet ingredients to the loaf pan
• Insert the pan into the breadmaker
• Add the yeast to the yeast dispenser & the raisins to the nut dispenser
• Close the lid and start the machine - I used the raisin bread setting (03), with a medium crust and size XL
• Once baked remove immediately from the pan

 

The raisins in the bread stayed completely whole & were well distributed. I think I will add additional cinnamon next time as it could've done with a little more flavour. Still very enjoyable sliced and buttered, or toasted, or as a banana or jam sandwich, or even toasted with caramelised bananas over and served with ice cream...

I have been sent the breadmaker to trial for a period of time