Summer Tomato Galette

Sponsored by Doves Farm Organic Flour

I would love to title this with all the different ingredients that make this dish great, but it would make the title far too long. The tomatoes are hiding a delicious layer of zataar and cream cheese and are topped with a sprinkling of salty feta and parsley, all cosily packed inside a buttery pastry made with cornmeal and coated in a generous amount of sesame seeds. There’s definitely a lot going on in terms of flavour but in reality, it’s an incredibly simple dish to make, perfect for those summer days where long bakes and hours in the kitchen isn’t something we always want.

The beauty of a galette, a free form tart, is that the more rustic it looks the better it looks. You can make them savoury as I have done here or make use of all the wonderful summer fruits and make an incredible dessert. The pastry is a mix of Doves Farm Organic Plain White Flour and cornmeal, which gives the dish a delightful texture and it comes together in minutes. This dough is my go-to for galettes and in the summer a galette is exactly the style of baking I prefer, quick and easy and a little bit homey. As you probably know, I have worked with Doves Farm before, they’re a UK organic flour producer and you can almost always find a few different bags of their flours in my cupboards. Plain flour is the obvious choice here, we’re letting the filling do the talking, but if you wanted a little extra boost this would be amazing with a little buckwheat flour subbed in too, Doves Farm also have a brilliant version of this flour too widely available in supermarkets. The filling is more of an assembly job than any real work. The base is spread with a generous layer of cream cheese and then topped with a mix of zataar and olive oil before being covered by a scattering of tomatoes and if you want to take it a step further a final addition of feta is always a good idea. This is the sort of dish I would make with friends coming over for lunch over the summer, making the pastry in the morning and then assembling as they arrive serving this fresh from the oven along with a glass or two or rosé.

Doves Farm organic flours are available at Sainburys, Tesco, Ocado and from www.dovesfarm.co.uk

Summer Tomato Galette
Serves 8-10

Cornmeal Galette Dough
185g Doves Farm Organic Plain White Flour
75g coarse cornmeal
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
2-3 tbsp water
4-5 tbsp sesame seeds

Filling
185g cream cheese
1 tbsp zataar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large tomatoes, sliced into 5mm thick rounds
400g cherry tomatoes, halved
25g feta cheese
1 tbsp chopped parsley 

In a large bowl mix together the plain flour, cornmeal, salt and sugar. Add the butter and toss together to coat in flour. Rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the water a couple tbsp at a time, mixing together with a butter knife. Add enough water so that when you squeeze some of the mixture together it holds as a ball of dough. Tip the mixture out onto the work surface and use your hands to briefly bring together into a uniform dough. Press the pastry into a disc and wrap in clingfilm before refrigerating for at least an hour before using. At this stage the pastry can be refrigerated for up to a week.

About 30 minutes before you assemble the galette prep the tomatoes. Place the sliced tomatoes onto a couple layers of kitchen roll and place a couple more layers on top. Do the same with the halved cherry tomatoes, cut side onto the kitchen roll. Set these aside for 30 minutes so that a little excess moisture is removed from the tomatoes, which will prevent the galette becoming soggy. 

Preheat the oven to 190C (170C Fan).

When ready to assemble the galette remove the dough from the fridge and, between two pieces of parchment paper, roll out into a circle roughly 12-13 inches wide. Pell off the top sheet of parchment and sprinkle over the sesame seeds, coating liberally. Use your rolling pin to gently roll the pin over the seeds, slightly pressing them into the pastry so they stick. Place the parchment back onto the pastry and carefully invert the pastry so the sesame seeds are now on the bottom, placing the dough onto a large baking sheet. This stage is likely to result in a few errant sesame seeds scattering onto your kitchen floor and for that I apologise, but trust me when I say it’s worth it. Peel off the top piece of parchment and spread the cream cheese over the centre of the pastry, leaving a border of roughly 2-3 inches. Mix the zataar with the olive oil and spread this mixture over the cream cheese. Layer the tomatoes on top of the cream cheese, first laying the sliced tomatoes then scattering over the cherry tomatoes. Sprinkle the feta, if using, over the tomatoes and finish with a little salt and pepper. Take the excess pastry and fold up, and over, the tomatoes. 

Bake in the preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so before serving. I like to drizzle the tomatoes with a little extra virgin olive oil just before serving. 

How To Make A Sourdough Starter

How to make a Sourdough Starter

I wonder how many times I have failed at baking sourdough bread? I have been obsessed with the idea of making amazing sourdough at home, imagining the smell as the bread bakes, the crisp crackly crusts I would get, the sheer amount of bread with salted butter I would eat, the joy of learning a new skill. But, try as I might, I could never get much further than creating the starter, it was infuriating, maddening even. Sure I made some bread, but it was just bad. Dense, closely textured, boring flavour and, well, just bad. It’s possible that it was down to the fact that I never really dedicated myself to it. Having made bread for years with no real difficulties I had arrogantly assumed I could swan in and instantly make perfect sourdough. Not so. Sourdough needs practice, you almost need to unlearn a lot of what know about bread, you need to develop a feel for it, learn what the dough is telling you, and that takes practice. At the start of this year I decided enough was enough, I need to conquer my baking nemesis, I needed to make sourdough and be happy with the loaves coming out of my oven. I started baking sourdough whenever I had the time, pulling loaves from the oven day after day, quickly filling up my freezer, giving loaves to friends, clients I had meetings with.. Thankfully the practice worked and slowly my loaves got better and better, I started getting crusts that shattered like the best bread, a crumb structure that was more and more open and flavours that were just so much better than any bread made with commercial yeast I’d ever made. I became a true sourdough nerd and I love it, almost nothing is more satisfying to me now then taking off the lid from my cast iron pan as the loaves bake and getting my first glimpse at the bread I’ve taken for a couple days to make. 

So now I want to pass on everything I have learned and I want to encourage you to try it. As much as it can seem daunting and there are many things you can do wrong. it is absolutely achievable for the regular home baker, and actually it might be a little easier than you think. First things first, the starter. When I was talking to you all on instagram the one topic that came up again and again was you either couldn’t get the starter to become active, or you killed it. Thankfully I think I can help as these were things I’ve struggled with and things I’ve learnt to overcome, but before we get to that lets make a starter. It should also be noted that there are many ways to create a starter, this is just the way I learnt and my preferred method.

Things You’ll Need

• A jar with a lid

• A 50/50 blend of organic wholemeal bread flour and white bread flour

• Digital thermometer

• Digital scale

• Small spatula

• A name for your starter, every starter needs a name (my theory is if you treat it like a pet there’s no way you’ll accidentally kill it)

Feeding Schedule

Day One - 9am

Take your clean jar and add 50g of your flour blend and to that add 50ml water that is at 26C/78F. Use your spatula to mix together until no pockets of flour remain and everything is hydrated. Place the lid on loosely, you want the starter to be able to breath so don’t fully secure it. Place the starter in a dark spot and leave for 24 hours.

Day Two - 9am

Repeat the process, adding 50g of the flour blend and 50ml water at 26C/78F, mixing together. Set aside once again for 24 hours. 

Day 3 - 9am

Pour off all but 25g (about 1 tbsp) of the starter and feed as before with 50g flour and 50g water at 26C/78F

Day 4 - 9am and 9pm

From now on we are going to feed twice a day, once in the morning and once at night (it’s normally the first thing I do when I wake up and the last thing I do before bed). The feedings are the same as day 3, discarding all but 25g of the starter and feeding with 50g flour and 50ml water. 

Day 5 - Day 7

Now we just repeat the same process as in day 4, feeding twice a day.

By the end of this process you should have a starter that doubles in size every time it’s fed but lets break down what you’ll likely see as you go through this week. After the first feed normally nothing happens, occasionally you might see a lone bubble or two hanging out on the surface, but there’ll basically be no activity. After the second or third feeding you may see a lot of bubbles, it wont be increasing in size, but it will seem super active. At this stage it’s also possible the starter may smell a little unpleasant, maybe reminiscent of sweaty shoes, or bad body odour. In this early stage as you cultivate the natural yeast and bacterias the starter goes through a few different stages of bacteria growth some of which may be unpleasant, some may also make the starter seem super active and bubble up a lot but don’t think its ready to bake with, it won’t be. Once the start is a little more mature it will settle into something more pleasant. My advice here is don’t worry, persevere, a few more feedings will normally bring everything back to a more pleasing odour. It’s also worth noting that even though there might be a layer of bubbles, if the starter isn’t increasing in size its not ready for baking so keep going for now. After day 4 you should start seeing some more obvious activity, you should be able to see it increasing in volume after every feed. At this stage I like to track how active the starter is by marking where the volume starts, allowing me to see if it doubles with each feed, you can do this with a rubber band or simply marking a piece of tape and sticking it to the jar. Once you’ve done this for a week you should have an active starter. It may take a few more days but it will get there. 

Tips to help your starter stay active and healthy

Water 

• using lukewarm water helps as fermentation needs a slightly warm environment to really get going. I use 26C/78F as in my house this means my starter will rise within about 10 hours (and then start to fall within the next two hours). If your kitchen is cool you could up the temperature a little and if it’s warm you can cool it a little, just keep it consistent. 

• I had heard, for years, that sourdough starters needed to be made with filtered or bottled water, the chlorine used in tap water affects the bacteria. Im not going to say this isn’t the case everywhere but in London where i’m based the tap water works perfectly, I’ve had no issues. If you live in an area with high chlorine levels leave water in an open jug overnight and this will rid it of the chlorine.

Use Organic Flour

• The reason this is important is organic flour is teeming with the bacteria and yeasts we are trying to cultivate. I have made starters with non organic flours, the sort you find in every supermarket and they work fine but I have found it can take a little longer. 

Use a Blend Of Flour

• I like to use a blend of wholemeal bread flour and white bread flour. The reason for this is two fold. I generally only have one starter on the go at a time and so I need something multi-purpose that can be used in all my sourdough recipes. This blend makes it useful in lots of applications. But why not all white flour? Until recently all my previous starters have been white flour but I took some advice from the Tartine Bread book and use a blend as the wholemeal flour helps create a stronger more active starter, you could also use rye flour to supercharge the starter but I use wholemeal for my first reason, I find it a more useful mix for multiple styles of breads.

FAQ’s

Since I am getting a lot of questions over on instagram as we make our sourdough starter together I thought it would be valuable to add a little FAQ section since a lot of the questions are the same and the answer could be helpful

Q. I’ve just started making a starter why does it smell of vomit
A. In the early stages of making a starter this is perfectly normal, in the first couple days unwanted bacteria might grow in the starter and this can lead to very off seeming aromas. Dont worry just keep feeding as normal and the bacteria cultures will settle into something more pleasant.

Q. I am getting a layer of water on top, in the middle or on the bottom of the jar. What is it, should I pour it off?
A. this is known as ‘hooch’ its basically water with a small layer of water. My general rule is if its clear I stir it back in, if its darker I pour it off. Hooch is a sign your starter is hungry so feed it.

Q. I religiously feed it every 12 hours right?
A. I find 12 hours is my rough window but thats because its roughly how long my starter takes to rise and then start to fall. Until you know the rhythms of your starter the level of the starter falling is the best indicator you have that its hungry and needs a feed. In my kitchen using 26C water I know I can do two daily feeds roughly 12 hours apart to keep the starter healthy, if your kitchen is hotter the starter will run out of food quicker so you might want to use colder water to slow down the fermentation to keep it two feeds a day. If your kitchen is on the cold side you might want to use water a little more like 28/29C to speed the fermentation up. This is also why its important to check the temperature of where you store the starter. I like somewhere around 20-25C.

Q. This seems like a lot of effort and my start already doubled, can’t I bake with it already?
A. No one said sourdough was quick, it needs patience and attention. To get a healthy starter that will last you for years and years, forever if you look after it properly, you need to dedicate a week to it at least. Creating a healthy consistent starter normally takes 7-10 days. After that we can happily bake with it and even store it in the fridge so we don’t have to feed it every day.

Q. Can I use plain flour, self raising flour, spelt flour etc?
A. Generally I prefer to use white bread and wholemeal bread flours but as we make this together in a time that flour is a little scarce you can basically use whatever flour you have except self raising flour, you cannot use anything with a raising agent in, it needs to be just flour.

Q. What should a healthy starter smell like?
A. all starters will be a little different but I say they should smell a little ripe, and just a tad sour. If it smells like nail polish remover or vinegar this is another sign the starter is hungry.

Q. My starter isn’t really rising should I throw it out and start again?
A. This early stage when the starter seems pretty dormant is probably when most home bakers give up and throw in the towel but just be patient with regular feeding the starter will get there, remember its a living thing and we need to look after it and in return the starter will eventually become nice and active and lead to amazing bread. Just keep feeding and it will get there.

Q. Can I switch the flour I am using.
A. The quick answer is yes but the long answer is yes but try not to. Once a starter is healthy changing the flours isn’t a problem but I find if you change the flour early on, especially in the first week you can slow down the starter so try and be consistent as much as you can.

Q. What can I do with the discard
A. Bake with it. You can basically use it in any recipe that calls for bread and liquid. Since the starter is 50% flour and 50% water just weigh the discard (you can store it in a jar in the fridge adding to it daily until your ready to bake with it) and divide that number in half. Use that number for how much liquid and flour you’ll need to take out from your recipe to replace it with starter. One thing to note is I don’t like baking with the starter until it's healthy, sometimes early starts can have unpleasant aromas and I don’t want those in my baking.

What Now

Okay, you have an active starter what now? I know the reality is that you’re not likely to bake with it more than once a week and feeding it every day, twice a day, isn’t the most practical, that’s just too much flour to wasted. Whilst you can bake other things with the discarded starter I still like to reduce the amount of feeding needed and the amount of flour that will become waste. I’ll talk more about baking with discard at a later point but for now I’d just like to point out I don’t like to bake with the discard at this early stage. Whilst you’re still growing the starter the flavour can be a little off and I don’t want those flavours in my baking, so until the starter is a little more established you will need to be happy with a little discard. You can either throw this away or compost it. 

Because of this my preferred method to reduce wastage is to keep the starter in the fridge. The chilly environment of the fridge doesn’t kill the starter it just slows it down, way down. We haven’t been able to cryogenically freeze people successfully yet but with starters we’re basically there. By popping the starter in the fridge it doesn’t need daily feeding, in fact it can hang out there for a couple weeks with needing a feed. There are just a couple things to keep in mind. When you put the starter in the fridge you need to do so an hour or two after feeding it, so that is at the start of the rise and fall curve, not the end of it. Secondly, when you bring it out of the fridge you’ll need to give it a couple feeds to revive it ready for baking. Practically this means that, if for example, you’re going to make the loaf on Saturday I would take the starter from the fridge the first thing Friday and give it a feed that morning and then again that night. Come the morning on Saturday the starter will nice and active. The third thing to note about keeping the starter in the fridge is its smell. Sometimes when you leave the starter in the fridge for a long time it will develop a thin layer of liquid on top, this is called hooch, its basically alcohol. This can give the starter an astringent, nail polish like smell. If this is the case, simply pour off this layer and, yes you guessed it, give the starter a few feeds, the smell will return to normal and you’ll have a nice healthy starter again. Trust me, my last sourdough starter was left abandoned in the fridge for a few months and had a lot of alcohol and smelled like it belonged in nail salon. After feeding it for a few days it was back to health. 

I really hope you give the starter a go, its so satisfying when you pull that first loaf of bread from the oven and that s satisfaction only grows when you devour the bread. Next week I will be posting a video from a bakery where I went to get help with making the bread and to get answers to a whole bunch of questions you guys sent me about sourdough, so my go-to recipe for sourdough bread, my house loaf, will be posted the week after that. Until then, happy baking.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches

I know I am a week late posting this recipe and I apologise for that, maybe the idea that I was going to edit the video for these cookies on my flight to Hong Kong was a tad ambitious. Either way I hope the wait was worth it, I certainly think so, plus at least the weather has changed to a more appropriate summer vibe. The ice cream last week was delicious, whether served on its own, as a sundae or just eaten straight from the freezer with a spoon, but then what monster would eat it like that! But, I think we could take it one step further and use it make peanut butter ice cream sandwiches. What better cookie for this than a peanut butter shortbread, dipped in chocolate? I know shortbread isn’t the go-to cookie for this sort of recipe but here me out as I think it’s the kind off perfect vehicle for ice cream. The texture of the shortbread means this is an easy cookie to eat, even frozen they have very little resistance and chew whereas a chocolate chip style cookie can become very firm and chewy in the freezer making it a little harder to eat. Also because this ice cream has such a delicious flavour already I wouldn’t want to overpower it with something more elaborate and the shortbread cookie just helps to intensify the peanut butter flavour. I don’t really know why I am trying too justify this recipe, knowing full well the picture was probably the only thing needed to convince you guys to make it immediately.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches
Makes 12

Peanut Butter Shortbread Style Cookies
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g light brown sugar
300g smooth peanut butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1 x batch peanut and caramel ice cream

Homemade Magic Shell
100g dark chocolate
1 tbsp coconut oil

To make the cookies, place the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and, with the paddle attachment, beat together on medium speed for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the peanut butter, egg and vanilla and beat for a couple minutes more until fully incorporated. Finally, add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix together just until the flour disappears into the butter mixture. Don’t over mix the dough at this point as it will make the finished cookies tough and chewy.

Scoop the finished dough into a bowl and refrigerate for an hour before using. To form the cookies line a couple baking trays with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan). Roll the dough into roughly tablespoon sized balls and use a glass dipped in flour to press them into discs just a tad over 7cm wide. The edges will be a little rough so use a 7cm round cookie cutter to trim the edges so you have nice smooth round discs of cookie dough. The cookies don’t really spread but make sure they’re have a little space just in case.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes or until the edges are starting to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking trays for a couple minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To assemble the ice cream sandwiches place a scoop of the peanut ice cream onto one of the cookies and gently press together with another cookie. Because these cookie are in the shortbread style its best to press from the centre of the cookie rather from the edges, which would likely end up in more broken cookies. The recipe makes a few more cookies than needed so don’t worry too much if you break one or two. The ice. cream recipes makes an ice cream with a perfect texture, nice and scoopable straight from the freezer. If you make this with a shop bought ice cream you may want to let it soften slightly before assembling the cookies. Place the sandwiches back in the freezer to firm up the ice cream whilst you make the homemade magic shell.

To make the magic shell, melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Once melted stir through the coconut oil, making sure it is evenly distributed. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. You want the chocolate shell runny but cool. Too hot and the ice cream will melt when dipped into the shell.

When ready, dip one sandwich cookie at a time halfway into the chocolate mixture. Allow the excess chocolate to dip back into the bowl then transfer to a piece of parchment. If you want sprinkle with a few chopped peanuts before the chocolate sets, and it should set fast, within a minute or so. Transfer the cookies to the freezer until you’re ready to serve. As this uses homemade ice cream these will be best within a week or two.

Peanut and Caramel Ice Cream

Maybe it’s the fact I’m going on holiday next week, or maybe because I’ve been trying on shorts all week, but I am feeling decidedly summery this week, well until I look outside that is. Regardless of whether the rain has dampened your mood this week, I think we can all agree on the fact that ice cream doesn’t really have a season. With that in mind let make some ice cream.

The idea for this recipe came from a recent trip to Rome (a common recent theme here at The Boy Who Bakes) as an attempt to recreate my boyfriends favourite peanut gelato, which was devoured whilst at Fatormorgana, the gelato he genuinely looks wistful about when he talks about it. The gelato definitely wasn’t called peanut butter so whilst I thought about taking the easy route and just adding some to my go-to ice cream base, after talking with my ice cream maker friend Richard, I was dissuaded as ice cream or gelato made with peanut butter is notoriously difficult as it has a tendency to go grainy. So, I stuck with my initial thought of using infusion to get the flavour into the recipe. The resulting ice cream was really close to the original in flavour, a nice hit of peanut in a wonderfully creamy texture. But this is me, I couldn’t simply do a peanut flavour, I had to take it one step further. I had to add caramel. I had to. really I did. I originally thought adding a swirl of caramel sauce but at the last minute remembered David Lebovitz’s idea of adding little nuggets of hard caramel once the ice cream has been churned. When in the freezer the chunks slightly soften and some will liquify leaving these little bites of bitter caramel that really ups the flavour and creates something delightful. 

Peanut and Caramel Ice Cream

Ice Cream Base
700ml whole milk
350ml double cream
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
125g salted peanuts
6 large egg yolks
125g caster sugar

Salted Caramel Pieces
100g caster sugar
large pinch flaked sea salt

To make the ice cream start with the infusion. Place the peanuts into a small, dry, frying pan and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until light browned and fragrant. Tip into a bowl and set aside to cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile place the milk, cream and vanilla into a medium sized saucepan. Tip the peanuts into a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to crush into smaller pieces then add to the milk mixture. Place the pan on medium heat and bring to a boil. As soon as it reaches temperature, remove from the heat and cover, setting aside to infuse for at least two hours, more if you have the time. 

Place the pan back on the heat and bring to a simmer. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl and discard the peanuts. Add the yolks and sugar to a large bowl and whisk until lightened, 2-3 minutes. Pour in the infused milk mixture, whisking as you do to prevent the yolks from cooking. Pour the custard mixture back into the pan and cook on low/medium heat, stirring constantly, until the custard reaches between 75-80C or it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Remove and pour into a clean bowl. At this stage we need to cool the custard down, the most effective way is to set the bowl over an ice bath and stir until it cools. I often simply cover the custard with clingfilm and pop it in the fridge and refrigerate until ready to churn.

Once thoroughly chilled, around 4-5C, use an ice cream machine to churn, following the manufacturers. instructions. Meanwhile add the sugar for the caramel to a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until melted and caramelised, to a rich dark brown, almost like an old copper coin. Remember this is being mixed into a sweet ice cream so I take this caramel quite far so it really stands up to the ice cream. Add the salt and swirl to combine. Immediately pour the caramel onto a silicon baking sheet or parchment lined baking tray and spread into a thin layer.  Set aside until the ice cream has almost finished churning. 

Once the ice cream is almost at the desired texture, looking like soft serve ice cream, use the back of a spoon to break up the big piece of caramel into lots of little pieces. Once the ice cream has finished churning, add in the caramel pieces and allow the ice cream machine to run for another minute or two or until mixed in. Scrape the ice cream into a container, I use a loaf pan, cover with a lid or clingfilm and freeze for at least four hours before serving. 

Homemade ice cream is best within a couple weeks, really the first week is the best window to enjoy it, and thankfully this ice cream is scoop able straight from the freezer. 

Make sure you check back next week as I have a recipe to take this ice cream to another level entirely.