Mushroom and Garlic Bread

[Nik2WIN]

I made this bread yesterday.  It took me a couple of goes to get it right but the 2nd attempt was utterly divine.  I generally use a sponge for my bread but you can use your favoured bread dough mix.

The sponge

3g fresh yeast (I guess around 1.5g of dried)
150g water
75 g strong white flour
75 g Stoneground wholemeal flour
303g total

Mix together to form a soft sponge and place in a bowl with plenty of room for expansion and cover with a lead or plastic bag.  Leave at room temp to ferment for 16-48 hours

Mushroom mix

100g of boiling water
10g dried porcini mushrooms
50g brown-cap mushrooms or something else you prefer - firmer mushrooms are favoured over the watery ones such as oyster

Leave to soak for at least 1/2 hour - I left mine overnight and then drained them, keeping the water for my bread ..

chop very briefly in the TMX.  You want pieces not a puree.

The final dough
225g sponge
150g strong white flour
75g stoneground wholemeal flour
4g sea salt
15g olive oil
105g water - I used the mushroom soaking water to infuse that extra mushroom aroma

Mix all ingredients together and knead until the dough is silky and stretchy - around 2-3 minutes in the TMX.  I always do the window pane test on my dough so I'm not exact on times.  I also think that kneading times vary a little depending on the weather, how long the sponge has been fermenting etc.  Cover and allow to rise for an hour or so - until dough has approximately doubled in size.

Knock back the dough and press and stretch it until it is about 1-1.5cm thick.  Spread the mushroom mix over it and then fold the dough over repeatedly in order to distribute the mix fairly evenly .  I found the dough really difficult to work with at this point so just did the best I could then divided into 2.  Place the rolls/loaves onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment (they DO stick to baking trays), cover and leave in a warm place to prove.

Bake at 190c for 20-25 minutes

When they were straight out of the oven I drizzled evo on them - it should be garlic infused oil but I'd had a bit of a disaster with the garlic puree on my first attempt so didn't bother ...

I'll try and get a photo up but ones already been eaten and the other is in the freezer ...

Nik

[Katya]

Looks amazing Nik.   Couple of questions tho' :

with plenty of room for expansion and cover with a lead or plastic bag.

lead bag ?   

Also, what is the window pane test?   Not come across that before

[Nik2WIN]

Sorry I had a really whiny toddler nagging me when I wrote this

Cover with a LID or a bag .... 

I'm pretty sure its not radioactive so we can leave the lead bag alone 

The window pane test is commonly done with dough to check if its fully kneaded.  I never fully understood it until I saw it demonstrated on google.  It doesn't work quite the same way when you're using a dough with wholemeal and I found once I'd done it once I could then tell by sight and feel when a dough was fully kneaded.  I've only been successful with my bread making for a couple of months so I often still check using the window pane (I nearly put widow pane there - its clearly time for bed!)

This was the video I used http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyb86ECObTM

My 6yr old is moaning because he doesn't have a sister (we have 3 boys) and there is no doofas (idiot) in the family so I need to have another baby (not happening!)  I'm not sure I like the implication that a sister would automatically become the family doofas but clearly that status can be given to me today! 

Nik

[Katya]

Sounds like a rough day Nik - but don't worry, you made me chuckle so you've achieved something positive ,.....  I realised it was a typo but I couldn't for the life of me work out what it should have been.    And I quite like the idea of a lead bag - some of my cooking should probably end up in one 

[cookie1]

Nik you can go back and modify your lead (lid). Just click on modify and you should be able to do it. Sorry I can't but I don't moderate this post.

[Very Happy Jan]

I didn't know about the window pane test. Thanks Nik.
 and thanks for the chuckle reading your post. I have 2 boys and the eldest one has always wanted a sister (was never happening here either) - now I'm wondering he just wanted a doofas in the family as well 

[CreamPuff63]

her bread look so soft and pliable. I was thinking that she was going to pick up a bit of dough and throw it at the window to see if it stuck or something  didn't think I was going to do that as we have had a few flies around lately...

[Frozzie]

Sorry I had a really whiny toddler nagging me when I wrote this

Cover with a LID or a bag .... 

I'm pretty sure its not radioactive so we can leave the lead bag alone 

My 6yr old is moaning because he doesn't have a sister (we have 3 boys) and there is no doofas (idiot) in the family so I need to have another baby (not happening!)  I'm not sure I like the implication that a sister would automatically become the family doofas but clearly that status can be given to me today! 

Nik

nik im sure you were quite stressed when writing this or pulling hairs out one by one but it made me laugh in sympathy...I have so been there, actually Im there quite often..thanks for making me smile 

[Nik2WIN]

nik im sure you were quite stressed when writing this or pulling hairs out one by one but it made me laugh in sympathy...I have so been there, actually Im there quite often..thanks for making me smile 

Its what I do best   

If I didn't see the funny side of my life, I'd go mad - besides seeing the funny side is so much less boring

Nik