I have been reading Jack Monroe's blog "Cooking on a Bootstrap" for many years, I also follow her on Instagram, she is "bootstrapcook" over there. I find her cooking simply amazing, she knows how to put flavours together in the most interesting way. She now cooks mostly vegan dishes, but holy moly, they all look wonderful.
I bought her latest book "Cooking on a Bootstrap" as a Christmas present for myself and, as expected it is a really great read with many recipes I have bookmarked to try. I adore the way she writes just as if she is in your kitchen with you talking you through the recipe herself. I have also pre-ordered her next book "Tin Can Cook" and simply can't wait for that one.
Recently on her Instagram feed, a recipe came up for cooking bread in the slow cooker, I was super curious on exactly how it would turn out, maybe on the verge of sceptical, but hey, it really does work. This is the link for her step by step instruction on how to make a perfectly gorgeous light loaf of bread in the slow cooker.
Now, as always I have tinkered with the original recipe and made two variations of this wonderfully simple and super soft bread. Firstly I made a light rye version subbing the flour at a ratio of 180 gram white bread flour and 80 grams of rye flour, I also added 1 teaspoon each of salt and brown sugar, I then let my Thermomix do the job of kneading the very sticky dough as that is how I always make my bread. But I do believe Jack when she says that it is totally do-able, using just your hands.
The second variation I made is todays recipe, a superbly light and spicy Fruit and Spice Loaf which is beautiful smothered in butter, warm from the pan or lightly toasted with jam. Again, I used my Thermomix to do the kneading, Jack does say to use a lot of flour to do the kneading and I believe her, it is a very soft and sticky dough and I feel that this variety is even more so, as it has sugar and fruit in it.
The other thing that I did differently is this, I have a very large 5.5 litre slow cooker so I needed to cook my loaf in a smaller tin that would accomodate the small amount of dough and also give it a nice shape for slicing. At first I used a round cake tin which of course made a round loaf, now the actual bread was brilliant but I didn't love the shape, so I went in search of an oval pyrex dish that would give me a small oval shaped loaf with high side to yield a nice slice of bread. So I hit the op-shops and at the third one I found exactly what I had been dreaming about, this small, high sided, oval pyrex dish that was just waiting for me.
Ingredients for My Slow Cooker Fruit and Spice Loaf, clockwise from top left-260 grams of white bread flour, 30 grams of brown sugar, 260 ml of milk, 20 grams of butter, melted, 50 grams of sultanas, 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon and 2 teaspoons of instant dried yeast
Before you begin making the dough, plug in your slow cooker and put it onto "high" to preheat it.
In the TM bowl add all the dry ingredients followed by the milk and butter, knead for 6 minutes
In the last 30 seconds of kneading arrange the sultanas around the TM measuring cup, then remove the cup and let the action of the machine gently tumble in the sultanas
A few will fall in every time the Thermomix changes direction while in the kneading mode, which is so ideal as the sultanas are quite evenly distributed by the end of kneading
The dough at the end of 6 minutes
Pour and scrape into a suitable lined dish or tin, spraying the baking paper with cooking spray, Jack suggested this so I followed her directions. I simply scrunched the baking paper, straighten it back out and then sprayed with rice bran cooking spray. The scrunching helps to make the baking paper be more flexible and shape to the dish
Pop the dish in the slow cooker, put the lid on and bake for 90 minutes (this photo is at the 90 minute mark)
The take the dish out, and, using the paper remove the loaf, turn the loaf over
And put the loaf, minus the dish, back into the slow cooker for another 40 minutes
The bread is done when it sounds hollow when the bottom is tapped. The bread is not crispy and crunchy like normal oven baked bread, rather soft and squidgy when hot from the slow cooker, as it cools it does firm up and slices beautifully. The texture inside is also soft with lots of lovely even holes from the "long-slow-proving-baking-at-the-same-time-kind-of-method"
Over to you, have you tried this method of cooking bread in the slow cooker, I had never heard of it before Jack enlightened me, maybe it's an old idea? Let me know.
Have a lovely day,
🍞Fi
Three Years Ago-Mums Pickling Vinegar
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق