All is growing like crazy in the garden. Some of those herbs that are so prolific will never get used – ours are dominated by lots of different variations on oregano.
This selection went into the weekend loaf – oreganos, parsleys, rosemary, chives, winter savoury, sage, rucola.
The recipe which inspired this diversion:- http://blog.bakerybits.co.uk/?p=606
Here’s the basic ingredients. Just add salt and a sourdough starter. And optionally a sprinkling of seeds – the recipe recommends poppy seeds, but I used linseed. And of course water.
Last time I used some cheese as suggested, but not today.
The ‘low knead’ technique recommends a few 10 second bursts of activity and is new to me. It seems to work well enough.
As the recipe says after an hour or so the dough becomes easier to handle.
I used 3x the quantities, to make 3 large loaves.
The sourdough starter is handled slightly differently from my usual method and, for the second time in a row behaved perfectly in raising the dough.
This is the place to sprinkle cheese if you want a cheesy bread. Last time I used a bit of grated pecorino which gave a savoury taste but looked a bit messy.
Unlike the recipe which recommends some fancy pot to be used in the oven I did the usual – baking in the oven on (reused) baking paper on ceramic tiles. I use tiles to line the oven shelves to help transfer a lot of heat quickly to the loaves. A bit of water spray to encourage a nice crust.
Perfect result!