Staffordshire(ish) Oat Cakes

Plain old oats, you say? Nay, I reply! The I make them, these make the most surprisingly light, lacy crepes with just a little sponginess in the middle and a lovely chewy/crispy edge. You can also increase the amount of batter you use per cake to make a thicker galette, which is more usual. While traditionally eaten with eggs and sausage, or peanut butter and jam - which I recommend - they are also a delight with Indian or Ethiopian food, used like an injera bread to scoop up the saucy delicacies and eat with your hands.

1 cup (115g) oat flour (in Scotland = fine oatmeal) 
½ cup (75g) whole wheat flour 
½ cup (75g) white flour 
1¼ tsp (6g) dry active yeast 
1 tsp (8g) salt 
Warm Water half and half water and milk at no more than 110°F and no less than 105°F. How much you ask? It depends on texture. Prepare 3½ cups, but see Step 3 to see how much should go in.
vegetable oil or lard for frying

1. Thoroughly mix together the three flours, yeast and salt in a bowl.
2. Heat the water.
3. Make a well in the center of the mixture and slowly stream in the water/milk mixture, stirring well with a wooden spoon, until the batter is well combined and is the consistency of thick double cream. (NOTE: You may not need to use all of the water; a batter that is too wet won't cook evenly, leaving you with soggy centers.)
4. Cover the batter with a damp, clean tea towel and set aside for 1 hour to 4 hours, to allow the gluten in the batter to develop.
5. To cook, heat one teaspoon of oil or lard in a frying pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add a ladleful (⅓ cup) of the batter mixture and swirl the pan to coat the bottom of it in a thin layer.
6. Fry the oatcake for 1 to 3 minutes (for me it's 2 minutes at setting 7), or until golden brown. The edges will start to curl up when it just starts to colour.
7. Flip the oatcake and fry again, or until golden-brown on the second side.
8. Set the oatcake aside on a warm plate and keep covered, add a little oil to the pan and repeat until you've used up the batter.

Multigrain Bread

I think I may have found my ideal multigrain bread recipe. The combination of the reconstituted whole grain meal and flax seeds makes it moist and flavorful - I wonder if I could make a delicious, high fiber bread pudding with it? That is, if it lasts long enough to be old enough to use!

1 1⁄4 cups multi-grain hot cereal mix

2½ cups boiling water

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting work surface

1½ cups whole wheat flour

4 Tbsps maple syrup (or honey)

1⁄4 cup (2oz/58gr) butter, melted and cooled slightly

2½ tsps instant yeast

1 Tbsps salt

½ cup raw sunflower seeds

1⁄4 cup flax seeds

½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats or quick oats

1. Combine cereal mix in bowl of standing mixer and boiling water in your main mixing bowl; let stand, stirring occasionally, until the mixture cools to about 100°F and resembles thick porridge, under 1 hour.
2. Whisk the flours together in a medium bowl.
3. Once the cereal has cooled, add the maple syrup, the melted butter, and the yeast and stir to combine until it forms a ragged ball covered in dry flour. Pour everything out onto a clean surface and knead - the dough will still be quite sticky, but keep kneading until all the flour has been taken up and dough is just clammy and firm. Return the ball to the mixing bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rest 20 minutes.
4. Combine the seeds and pour onto your work surface, as if you were spreading flour. Turn the dough onto the seeds, sprinkle it with the salt, and knead for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the seeds and salt are all taken up by the dough and well distributed throughout, the dough becomes a taut ball, and it springs back when you pinch it.
5. Grease a large bowl and place dough inside; cover ant let rise until doubled, from 45 to 60 minutes.
6. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat to 375°F. Grease two 9 by 5-inch loaf pans. Transfer the dough to a very lightly floured work surface and pat into a 12 by 9-inch rectangle; cut the dough in half, roll each piece to make a 9" long log and roll in the oats OR to make buns, divide the dough into either 9 or 16 equally-sized pieces and wedge together in a 9x9 inch pan. Cover again with well dampened cloth and let it rise until it doubles in size, about 30-40 minutes. Bake until the internal temperature registers 200°F on an instant-read thermometer, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the loaves from the pans and allow to cool on wire racks before slicing, about 3 hours.

Source recipe: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=7535

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I'd been looking for a good recipe for whole wheat bread, and I think I found it. Whole wheat bread recipes tended to taste too strongly of whole wheat and be more dense than I like, and thanks to http://www.cooksillustrated.com/, I think I've figured out why and, also found out what bread dough should feel like. More in the Instructions for the recipe on that! I've made a few changes to their recipe and am really pleased with the result.
NOTE: It is pretty sweet. I reduced the 3 Tbsps. of syrup to only 2.

2 1⁄4 cups bread flour, plus extra for work surface

1 1⁄3 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsps salt

2 Tbsps (1oz/28gr) butter

1 cup milk

1⁄3 cup water

2 Tbsps maple syrup (or honey, or agave syrup)

2 1⁄4 tsps dry active yeast 

1. Adjust oven rack to low position and heat oven to 200°F. Once oven temperature reaches 200°F, maintain heat 10 minutes, then turn off oven heat.
2. Mix flours and salt in a large bowl and create a well in the middle. In a pot, melt butter, add milk, water, and maple syrup and heat to 110°F. Remove from heat immediately and allow to cool - the pot will continue to heat the liquid, and you want it to be no greater than 110F or it will kill the yeast. Pour the 110°F liquid into the well, then add yeast to the liquid. With a wooden spoon, start mixing the flour and the liquid/yeast together. When it thickens, use hands to combine everything. Now this is important: the dough will be quite sticky to start - just rub your hands together to get the dough off and keep kneading in the bowl. Once in coalesces into a ball, pour out any remaining flour from the bowl onto your work surface, and keep kneading the dough to incorporate it all. And this is my real discovery about making bread - do not add more flour than this or the bread will be tough. Just knead the bread until it stops feeling sticky, and starts to feel smooth, slightly warm and damp, like someone whose palms are sweaty. If the ball feels dry and floury, then you've used too much flour. Another test is to lightly pinch the dough, and if it bounces back, it's done. Kneading should take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Place dough in a very lightly oiled bowl, rubbing dough around bowl to lightly coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap OR a (very) damp cloth; place in the warm oven until the dough doubles in size, 40 to 50 minutes.
4. Form the dough into a loaf by gently pressing the dough into a rectangle, one inch thick and no wider than the length of the loaf pan. Next, roll the dough firmly into a cylinder, pressing with your fingers to make sure the dough sticks to itself. Turn the dough seam side up and pinch it closed. Place the dough in a greased 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan and press gently so dough touches all four sides of pan.
5. Cover with plastic wrap OR (very) damp cloth; set aside in a warm spot until the dough almost doubles in size, 40 minutes. Heat the oven to 350°F, placing an empty loaf pan on the bottom rack. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.
6. Remove the plastic wrap/cloth from the loaf pan. Place the pan in the oven, also pouring heated water into the empty loaf pan; close the oven door. Bake until instant-read thermometer inserted at an angle from the short end just above the pan rim into the center of the loaf reads 195°F, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan, transfer to a wire rack, and cool to room temperature. Slice and serve.

Whole Wheat Flat Bread

We keep buying whole wheat flour when we intend on buying plain unbleached white. This means I'm always looking for things to make with whole wheat flour just to use it up! At some point this week, I saw that we had containers of hummous and tapenade and such from an evening a while back, on the verge of going bad. I'd also just come back from work and I didn't feel like going on to get pocket bread to eat the stuff. Light-bulb flash: I decided to make some mini pocket bread. They're quick to make and, served hot out of the oven, they are delightful.

2 cup whole wheat flour – well sifted

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp olive oil

Scant 1 cup hot water

1. Dump all the ingredients in a bowl and mix, then knead the dough until smooth, adding flour until it no longer sticks to your fingers. Let it rest for 30 minutes, covered and away from drafts.
2. Roll out the dough to a 1⁄4 inch or less and then cut out circles with a glass or cookie cutter or pat the circles into shape.
3. Bake at 350°F until they puff up and start to brown, around 25 to 30 minutes.