Sourdough Focaccia

I have something shameful to admit. I abandoned my sourdough starter in the back of the fridge for months, forgotten and neglected. After languishing in the fridge for so long I wondered if it could have possibly survived or if could be revived. I am a firm believer that once your starter is properly established it becomes pretty hardy and almost indestructible. Pulling it from the fridge there was a thick dark layer of hooch and underneath was a very thick floury paste, it did not look healthy and it didn’t smell healthy either. I poured off the hooch and discarded all but a tablespoon of the starter that remained. From their I fed the starter as you would normally with a 50/50 mix of flour and water, leaving a day between feeds, and after three days of feeding the starter was back with a bang, it was tripling with each feed. I have made a bunch of focaccia since then and it feels safe to say that this proves even the most neglected starter can be brought back from the brink of death.

The reason I made focaccia instead of traditional country style loaf was a little laziness and a little wanting something different. Most sourdough I make is made with a no knead method, utilising stretch and folds instead of kneading but with focaccia its even easier as there isn’t really any shaping, it really is the easiest sourdough bread. 

A word advice on the pan you use for this bread, make sure it is either very good quality non stick or make sure you line it with parchment, there is nothing worse than your hard work becoming lodged in the pan.

Sourdough Focaccia
500g strong white bread flour
425ml water (25-27ºC)
150g sourdough starter (100% hydration and its peak)
10g salt
Olive oil, lots of it

Toppings
Flaked sea salt
2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary, roughly chopped

To make the focaccia dough pour the water, reserving 25ml for later, into a large bowl and scrape in the starter, mixing briefly to dissolve it into the water. Pour in the flour and use your hands to form a shaggy dough. At this stage you are not looking to knead the dough, simply ensuring all the flour is hydrated. To do this I start by stirring with my hand and when it starts to form a more uniform mass I squeeze the dough between my fingers, doing so until it feels like there is no dry spots. Cover the bowl and set aside for about 30 minutes. At this stage, and until the dough goes into the fridge, I like to keep the dough somewhere warm which helps with the fermentation of the dough.

Sprinkle the salt on top of the dough and pour over the last 25ml water. Dimple the dough, squeeze it through your fingers, fold it over on itself, generally working the dough until the water and salt have been combined. During this process the dough can look separated but just keep working it until it comes back into a uniform mass. Cover and rest again for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes we now do our first set of stretch and folds, which is our alternative to kneading and builds strength into the dough. Using a wet hand go under the dough pull a portion and then stretch it up and over the dough, repeating this four times around the bowl. Cover and rest for 30 minutes, repeating this process 3 more times. At this stage I then leave the dough for about 1-2 hours until the dough has risen around 40-50% and the dough is showing signs of fermentation. The dough should have a jiggle and have lots of bubbles on the surface of the dough. Grease a non-stick 9x13 pan (or a traditional 9x13 pan lined with parchment paper) with 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Carefully transfer the dough to the tin and top with a little oil to prevent it drying out. Cover the pan and refrigerate for 18-24 hours. 

To bake the focaccia the dough needs brining back to room temperature so remove the tin from the fridge and let it rest for 1-3 hours or until the dough has a jiggle to it. When almost ready preheat the oven to 240ºC (220ºC Fan)

Drizzle the focaccia generously with extra virgin olive oil and then using oiled fingers, dimple the dough all over. Sprinkle generously with flaked sea salt and chopped rosemary, if using. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 210ºC (190ºC Fan) and bake for a further 15 minutes or until the focaccia is golden brown. 

Remove from the oven and carefully transfer the bread from the tin to a wire rack to cool. 

Focaccia is best on the day made but is also great for a few days after baking. As with most breads focaccia also freezes brilliantly 

Salted Sesame Challah

I rarely get a chance to bake for the fun of it anymore, every recipe is for a job, a book, or some other project. I miss it. I miss the joy of waking up and deciding today is a chocolate chip cookie day. It’s not that I don’t love my job and its not as if there isn’t enough baked goods in my life, its just the spontaneity. These last weeks have been a blur of deadlines as I try and get all the projects I have on the go past the line, so that I have the time to spend with my puppy when he gets here at the end of the week (I can barely contain my excitement) but thankfully I got everything finished a little early and instead of taking it quietly for a few days, I woke up with the desire to bake something, specifically I wanted to make a loaf of Challah. 

Challah is a bread of Jewish origin, commonly served on Friday nights in Jewish households to celebrate the sabbath. In keeping with Jewish traditions and religious beliefs the bread is made without dairy, so no milk or butter as found in the similar French bread, Brioche. The reasons for wanting to make a loaf were two fold. Firstly I had been seeing so many loaves over on tiktok (yes I am on tiktok now, follow me if you’re on the app) and it got me itching to make one. Secondly I had been wanting to play around with a braided crown loaf for a long time but never found the excuse. Whilst any loaf of bread can be braided in this manner a crown braided Challah is often served on Rosh Hashanah, the round shape representing either community, the passing of the seasons or a spiral of upwards progress. 

The recipe I loosely based my loaf on comes from Tel Aviv based baker Uri Scheft and his book Breaking Breads. My adaption takes into account the flours of the UK, making a dough for a single loaf and flavouring it with honey, sesame and salt. 

Salted Sesame Challah
250g plain flour
250g strong white bread flour
7g fast action dried yeast
10g fine sea salt
185ml lukewarm water
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
4 tbsp honey
3 tbsp vegetable oil
Flaked sea salt and sesame seeds, for sprinkling

For the dough place the two flours, the salt and the yeast into a large bowl and mix together. In a jug whisk together the remaining ingredients, whisking until the honey dissolves into the water. Make a well in the dry goods and pour in the wet goods. Mix together to form a shaggy dough and then tip out onto the work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. The finished dough should be smooth and supple and a little firm. Challah dough isn’t sticky like brioche, it should be easy to handle. 

Form the dough into a ball and place into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and set aside until doubled in size, about an hour. Once risen tip the dough out onto the work surface and knock back before dividing into four equal sized pieces. Working with one piece of dough at a time press into a flat rectangle and roll up like a small Swiss roll (watch the video to get a better visual of this process). Roll each piece of dough into a strand that is roughly 40-45cm long.

Braiding the four strands into a loaf of challah is not as difficult as it looks but to make it easier I encourage you to watch the video on this page, watch it a few times, get familiar with the process as it is very easy to get lost in the process once you start. When I braid the loaf I basically say to myself ‘under goes over’ repeatedly and that keeps me on the right track. If you want a slower, step by step, guide to this particular braid this video from Jamie Gellar is also very helpful.

Once the loaf is braided and you’ve tucked the ends under the loaf, carefully lift the challah onto a parchment lined baking tray. Lightly cover and set aside or until almost doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes. Whilst the bread is proving preheat the oven to 220C (220C Fan).

When ready to bake brush the bread with a lightly beaten egg white and sprinkle liberally with flaked sea salt and sesame seeds. Place the baking tray into the oven and bake the challah for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and set onto a wire rack and leave until fully cooled.

The challah will keep for 2-3 days.

Fried Chicken Sandwiches

I haven’t had much time to play around in the kitchen recently, especially when it doesn’t concern work. So after a stressful week and with a quiet weekend ahead of me I was in the mood for a cooking project. And I had a specific project in mind. I was craving fried chicken sandwiches. That seemed like a perfect way to spend a quiet day at home to me.

The chicken element is pretty classic, a spiced buttermilk brine and a spiced flour coating. I add in some cornflour as the starch helps to create a light crisp coating. The buns are the extra special element in this recipe, they’ll be the fluffiest buns you will ever make and that is down to the tangzhong method. This is a method by which a small amount of flour and milk are cooked together to make a thick paste. This gelatinises the starches and enables the dough to hold onto more water. This allows the buns to get better oven spring and will make for the absolute fluffiest buns you’ll ever make.

If you’re not already following me over on TikTok (yes I’m one of those people who is way too old to be on tiktok but I’m really enjoying it) I am posting videos of the buns and the chicken.

Fried Chicken
Serves 4

200g plain flour
50g cornflour
4 chicken breasts
750ml buttermilk
60ml hot sauce
2 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cayenne powder
2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp mustard powder
1/2 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp fine sea salt

Milk Bread Burger Buns
makes 8 large buns

385g strong white bread flour
240ml whole milk
1 tsp fine sea salt
7g fast action dried yeast
3 tbsp caster sugar
60g unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs

The day before you want to make these sandwiches we are going to prep the chicken. Into a bowl add the flour and cornflour (this starch helps make a super crisp batter) and mix together. In a small bowl add all of the seasonings and mix together. Add half of this seasoning mix to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Cover this and set aside for the moment.  In a large bowl pour in the buttermilk and hot sauce and mix in the remaining spice mixture.

Place the chicken breasts between two pieces of clingfilm and use a rolling pin to bash so that each piece is evenly thick, about 2cm thick. Place the chicken into the buttermilk, cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight. You can do this for less time of you want but I prefer to let this go at least 8 hours. This buttermilk mixture is a lot so you can add more chicken to it if you want to serve a few more people, just make sure the chicken is fully coated. If using more than 4 breasts a good way to do this is to add everything to a large ziplock bag so everything can be coated more easily than in a bowl. 

For the bread place 4 tbsp of the flour and about 80ml of the milk into a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes a thick gluey paste. Immediately scrape this into a small bowl and set aside for the moment. If you don’t immediately make the bread dough you’ll want to cover this so the paste doesn’t form a skin.

Place all of the bread dough ingredients, including the paste, into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook, and knead on low/medium speed for about 10-15 minutes or until the dough is clearing the sides of the bowl and is smooth and elastic. The dough should also pass the window pane test at this stage. Place the dough into a bowl and cover, setting aside until doubled in size, about an hour.

Knock back the dough and divide into 8 equal sized pieces, forming each into a neat ball of dough. Place the buns onto two parchment lined baking trays and lightly cover, setting aside until almost doubled in size, about an hour. To test the buns are ready to bake you can poke one of the buns with a floured finger. If the dough springs back slowly and not all the way it is ready. If the dough springs back quickly and completely the dough needs longer, if the dough doesn’t spring back at all it is likely over-proofed. 

20 minutes or so before the buns are ready to bake preheat to oven to 210ºC (190ºC fan).

Brush the risen buns with a beaten egg and then bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until a deep golden brown. Remove and set aside to cool. As the buns cool you’ll notice they wrinkle a little and become little soft squidgy pillows. This is an effect of the tangzhong method and is an indication you’ve made incredibly fluffy buns. 

For the fried chicken we need to fill a saucepan 1/2-2/3 full of vegetable oil and heat over medium heat until it reaches 170ºC. If you have a deep fryer you can of course use this instead. Whilst coming to temperature we can finish the prep for the chicken. 

Tip the flour into a wide shallow container (a rimmed baking sheet or roasting dish works well). Spoon a little of the buttermilk mixture into the flour and stir to combine. These add little extra crunchy bits of batter to your fried chicken. Using tongs lift the chicken breasts from the buttermilk, letting any excess drain back into the bowl, and lay in the flour mixture, turning so that both sides are well covered. 

Carefully lower the chicken into the hot oil and cook for about 7-8 minutes or until golden brown. If the chicken is browned much before this you may want to check the internal temperature to make sure the chicken is fully cooked through (this would be 75ºC). Remove the chicken from the oil and set on paper towels to absorb any excess oil.

To serve slice a bun in half and serve with with spicy mayo, pickles, shredded lettuce and whatever other toppings you prefer. 

No-Knead Za'atar Focaccia

Post Sponsored by AEG

If you haven’t guessed it already, I am currently a little obsessed with all things no-knead. Now look, I love sourdough but life has been a bit manic recently and my attention span is spent. No knead recipes gives you the ability to make excellent bread with almost no work. This focaccia is maybe the easiest of all no knead breads, I can’t see how you eliminate any more of the work because really there isn’t any. No knead breads work because they are risen very slowly and as they do so the gluten develops without the need for kneading. It’s an incredible technique that is widely credited to Jim Lahey a baker from NYC that help promote the technique and published the first widely popular recipe for it in the New York Times in 2006. Whilst this was the start of the techniques popularity for a new generation of bread bakers, the idea of no-knead breads actually go back much further than the early 2000’s. There is evidence that similar methods were used as far back as the 1800’s, but there is no doubt Lahey’s method brought the bread to popularity for a new generation. 

For this particular recipe I wanted to make something with za’atar, one of my favourite seasoning blends. Confusingly za’atar is both a specific herb and a herb blend, the latter being what you’re likely to have heard of before. The herb za’atar is grown across the middle east and both the herb itself and the blend are incredibly important to Levantine cooking. Traditionally the blend would be made from za’atar and mixed with sesame seeds, sumac and salt, although this blend will vary a lot depending on where it is made. These days most shop-bought blends outside of the Middle East are made with thyme, oregano and sometimes marjoram. 

One of my favourite dishes made with za’atar is probably its most famous use, man’oushe, a thin flatbread spread with a mixture of oil and za’atar. Because I wanted to make another no knead recipe and it to be a loaf rather than individual flatbreads I settled on a focaccia, a bread made with lots of olive oil already I thought it would be the perfect pairing up, and I am thrilled with the finished recipe, its delicious. You get the wonderful flavour from the olive oil and za’atar and the chewy spongy texture of the focaccia, a match made in heaven. 

As you may also know no-knead breads are very often made inside a cast iron dutch oven, the heat of the pot helps with oven spring and crust development and a lot of this is down to steam. The pot traps the steam released from the bread which helps the bread open up fully and helps to create a light crisp crust. With focaccia a pot isn’t an option of course so instead I introduced steam using my oven. After moving in my new house and finding a disaster of an oven I needed a replacement and I settled on the AEG Steam Bake (BPS556020M), and I chose that model because of bread. The oven has all the classic functionality you’d beed but it also includes a stem bake function where water is added to a reservoir at the bottom of the oven and it creates a steamy environment which is brilliant for bread. I tested this recipe multiple times and on the occasions I used the steam function the bread rose higher and had a more crisp crust, a win-win. The oven also comes with a food sensor which you can use to check the internal temperature of your roast, or even your baked custards or breads. More importantly, because I hate cleaning my oven, it is Pyrolytic meaning it self cleans!

No Knead Za’atar Focaccia

Focaccia
500g strong white bread flour
7g fast action dried yeast
2 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp caster sugar
450ml cold water
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Topping
2 tbsp za’atar
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for the tin
roasted sesame seeds (optional)

To make the dough add the flour, yeast, salt and sugar to a large bowl. Pour in the water and use your hands or a wooden spoon to mix together until everything is hydrated, just making sure there are no packets of flour. Add 2 tbsp of the olive oil and mix briefly to combine, drizzle over the last of the olive oil. Thats it. Thats the entirety of the work. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and refrigerate for 12-24 hours. 

When you want to bake the loaf remove the dough from the fridge and generously oil a 9x13 tin. I’m not a big fan of non-stick bakeware but if you have one it can be helpful for this recipe as they dough can sometimes stick to the base of the tin. To prevent this you can also line the base with parchment paper. 

Deflate the dough by folding the edges of the dough away from the bowl and into the middle of the dough. Tip the ball of dough out into the prepared tin and gently press and stretch it out the corners, not worrying that it perfectly fills the tin, it will spread out as it rises. Cover the tin and set the focaccia aside until it has doubled and is visibly bubbly on the surface with a generous wobble, this will take about 2-3 hours at room temperature. 

Using the AEG Steam Bake oven add 200ml water to the reservoir in the bottom of the oven, set the oven to True Fan Cooking and press the Plus Steam Button. Set the temperature to 200ºC. Using a different oven preheat the oven to 220ºC (200ºC Fan).

For the topping mix together the za’atar and oil to make a thin paste. Drizzle this all over the risen dough and gently spread with your hands to cover the entire loaf. At this point your fingers should be nice and oiled up, but if not rub a little oil over your fingers to lubricate. Use your fingers to dimple the loaf all over. Finish by sprinkling the dough generously with flaked sea salt. The za’atar blend will already include sesame seeds but I like to sprinkle a little extra but this is optional.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and carefully remove from the tin, setting onto a wire rack to cool completely.