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Showing posts from July, 2014

The great Portuguese bake off

I've tried and tried to make bread, it always comes out wrong. It can been too wet, too dense or rock hard and impossible to eat.   I bought Paul Hollywood's Bread book, I watched the Mary Berry masterclass and bitten my lip in jealousy as friends serve up their perfectly baked bread. My friend Jackie from Casa Azul makes a great Focaccia which she always tells me is easy to do.  So I asked for a masterclass from her when she visited me recently.   Jackie favours the ready made bread flour recipe with easy bake yeast.  I want to go 'old school' with strong white bread flour and bakers yeast.  Using the Paul Hollywood Focaccia  recipe we started the challenge.  Now I may favour the old school method, but kneading for 20 mins is not for me.  Not when I have a fancy new machine with fully functioning dough hook. Yeh, it's silver too! In the bowl both the mixtures needed longer than we though.   The old school ...