After kneading the dough went into baskets to rise

Bread… that most elusive of materials… I have to confess that I’m sort of a breadbaking virgin. True; I have baked bread before as you can see here but up till now it has been mostly with premade flourmixtures or has been a complete failure as you can see here…I have made quite a few very succesful focaccia breads but I figured it was time I got my head around actual and proper bread baking.

I love bread. I’ve always been a ‘breadgirl’. Growing up in the Netherlands, bread is a rather large part of our foodculture. We are people that eat a lot of bread in general and some maybe more then others. I actually worked in a bakery in my previous life (which was roughly 25 years ago) but I didn’t really learn much there and if I did I have all forgotten it by now. But when I lived on my own I could go days without ever eating a warm meal, just existing on delicious bread was enough for me. Ofcourse now that I have Tom to take into account that rarely happens anymore. He loves bread as well, but he gets grumpy if he doesn’t eat a warm meal at least once a day. So we still eat a lot of bread but maybe slightly less then when it was just me.

But breadmaking; now that is something entirely different. I’ve always been slightly in awe of people that make gorgeous bread and I have always considered it to be very difficult. The whole process of yeast and rising and kneading got me scared. And if the times that you tried baking bread, it sort of failed you start to wonder what magical processes are required to create gorgeous fluffy bread. So I signed up for a baking course. A baking course purely around bread. This was not a course designed to learn you a recipe but it is based around understanding the nature of dough, flour, yeast and all other ingredients you might use. So if you bake your own bread you understand why something didn’t work and you understand why it didn’t rise etc.

Adding water to the flour is the beginning of the process

The course is organized and given by Robert Verweij from Teest and Culinair Centrum Beverwijk and Edwin Klaasen from Desemenzo (for those that don’t speak Dutch. Desem means sourdough) and is giving in an actual bakery in Vianen, Steehouder.

Cutting the dough for the ciabatta and weighing it

It’s two days in total; one last week and one coming Monday and it is a lot of information to process but I do feel I’m learning a lot too and that’s ultimately what it’s all about. At the moment my sourdough starter is developing in the kitchen so I can’t wait to bake something with it on Monday.

Me waiting to wash my hands after kneading the dough. Photo taken by Tineke Hendrikse!!!

So what did we do on day 1? Apart from a lot of theory on how to bake bread we talked about basic recipes and how you can calculate how much to use of which ingredient. All in all I am still amazed at how good a bit of flour, salt, water and yeast can be. I will share with you how we are making our sourdough starter below. There are many ways to make a starter but the goal of this exercise was to all use the same recipe and ingredients and then see what will happen. Since we all live in different areas of the country we will all have different results. Different temperatures in the kitchen, different water etc. etc. There are so many variables that influence the final result that it is dazzling sometimes.

I am taking care of my little sourdough ‘baby’ and I am sure you will hear all about the results of the second class next week!

Roasted ricotta with honey tomatoes

Still not feeling all that well, although slightly better then yesterday. The thing now is that my eyes are completely puffed up from tearing so much yesterday, so it’s really not a pretty sight! Not a day to go outside… Anyone has an instant cure for puffy eyes (really, really puffy that is!) I would love to know! So I still had some ricotta in the fridge plus lovely honey tomatoes that I had bought previously and figured would make a great lunch together with the focaccia bread that was also leftover from friday’s Italian meal (still had to be baked).  So when I went downstairs to start preparing lunch I was greeted by a loudly screaming cat.

Gizmo demanding her medicine

We have three cats, all of which are very old. The youngest one, who was the one screaming, is called Gizmo and will be 17 years in may. The middle one is 19 and the eldest of the threesome is 21 years old. So it’s a bunch of ancient cats together.

Gizmo has a thyroid gland problem, so she needs to have one pill each day. In the beginning that was a total disaster. As any catowner knows, cats are rather smart and she knew quite soon that if she got something nice like chicken or tunasalad, there would be a bitter tasting thing inside. So she either ate around it, spit it out or did anything to prevent it going down where it was supposed to go. I am not sure at what point it changed, but we are now at the third set of 100-pill boxes, so she must have had around 250 pills by now (minus the ones she managed to spit out) and we have found the perfect mode. She actually reminds me that she hasn’t had her medicine yet, by very loudly screaming while sitting on the table near the fridge. She comes running when I shake the little pillbox even! The trick is that I hide the pill inside tunasalad (which she loves) and then balance the bit containing the pill on my finger. I first let her have some of the tuna from my left hand and then hold her the balancing but on the right finger. One lick of her tongue means the tuna almost “collapses” into her mouth and she has no other option but to swallow. Because it goes so fast, she has no time to eat around the pill as it goes down before she notices it. Plus I always make sure that there is something left on my finger and – little greedy monster that she is – she cannot resist that so swallows that too… Fingers crossed that it stays that way cause with cats you never know!

Ricotta roasted with tomatoes

Anyway, after having given her the medicine I popped the ricotta in the oven along with some lovely honey tomatoes that are very sweet especially after having roasted in the oven for about 20 minutes. I seasoned the tomatoes and the ricotta just with pepper and salt and added some fresh basil on top after removing it from the oven. I am slightly disappointed on the look of the ricotta as it still looks the same as when I took it out of the container. I would have hoped it started looking a little more appealing after coming from the oven but it didn’t. For next time I will probably season the ricotta inside as well, mix it up a little more and then roast, rather then doing it as I did now. Maybe adding some other herbs during the roasting process would also increase the flavor. Rosemary or oregano maybe?

On crusty bread! Delicious

It did taste very well and was certainly very filling. It’s hardly worth calling a recipe, but in case you want to try it:

Put ricotta out of it’s container in a baking tray with some tomatoes. Add any type you like, I used honey tomatoes as I love their sweet taste, especially once they are roasted. Did you know that tomatoes are actually one of the few vegetables that are actually higher in nutrients if you process them? I read it somewhere once… can’t remember why or where though.. haha… Anyway, just wanted to share that bit of information. Sprinkle both the tomatoes and the ricotta with some olive oil, add salt and pepper and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes. Spread it over a nice crusty bread such as I have done here with the focaccia or eat any other way you like.

Now… it was a bit too much for one person, so I had some leftovers and while cleaning up the kitchen it was still on the table… Gizmo decided she had earned a little of the ricotta as well!! I do have to confess that ever since she got that thyroid problem she is very spoilt by us. We try and maintain her weight which is hard with this particular illness, so she gets all sorts of treats to keep her at the same weight. And it is working too! Last time we were at the vet she was pleasantly surprised to find that she has not lost any weight since last time (she’s only about 3 kilo) which is quite good in this condition. So the spoiling helps… and that is why I let het eat a little so I could take a photo and then removed the plates and threw out the remainders…

Gizmo enjoying leftovers

If you don’t have cats or don’t like cats, you will probably find this all probably very disgusting, but if you do have cats I am sure you can relate!