Home | Food

Tips for baking bread and feeding your mamma

14 July, 2009 08:23:00 Kim Maxwell

Kim Maxwell learned to bake bread with chef Vanessa Quellec and shares her experience...

Armed with a dough hook, an electric mixer, a plastic scraper and a lot of stoneground flour, I watched my smiling instructor in her crisp uniform.

I’d signed up for a morning of bicep flexing and learning about how to feed my mamma. It sounded a lot more fun than boot camp sessions.

“I’ll help you create a new life. She’s more of a child than a mother now, but it’ll be up to you to feed and keep her alive,” chef Vanessa Quellec explained about our first project, making a sourdough bread ‘mamma’ starter.

“Then you’ll learn how to knock bread dough around without abusing it. I want to hear only gentle slaps on a baby’s bottom when it’s firm. When we’re done, you’ll eat beautiful artisan ciabatta-style wheat bread for lunch.”

During five fun hours with two enthusiastic Stellenbosch ladies and a male cook from Somerset West, I learnt about great bread and watched a master at work. Talented American pastry chef Vanessa Quellec has worked with baking and pastry experts in New York to Knysna. In classes at The Roundhouse restaurant, she is a thorough teacher.

Mamma starter for sourdough bread

We started by making a mamma starter for sourdough bread. After placing the starter mixture of rye flour, water and honey in a container, we were given a detailed grocery list of bread and rye flours, water and beer with daily feeding instructions for the next month. Only then could the adolescent starter be used in a sourdough recipe.

Confession time: I feed my cat daily, but a month-long routine for bread seems unrealistic. I gave my mamma to a delighted friend who bakes regularly.

The ciabatta-style artisan bread was more my style. The trick is in the wrist motion and in not over-working the dough in the mixer. In a few hours, we made one bread by hand, and others in a Kitchen Aid cake mixer. The cake mixer bread worked better so it’s the recipe I’ve provided.

Vanessa’s bread tips

First up: gluten-intolerant people should consider that factory-produced bread contains artificial improvers and extra yeast to speed up fermentation. No wonder the body doesn’t process these well. Use unbleached stoneground flour (Eureka bread flour, for example) that is less processed and preservative-free to retain nutrients and ‘good’ bugs.

Mix bread dough for a short time at a slow cake mixer speed. Whenever you take up the dough from the sides of the mixing bowl, use a plastic scraper moistened in water. Once the basic mixture is combined, it’s a fallacy that yeast breads require a lot of kneading. Bread dough doesn’t like being abused and battered. Aim for a moist, shiny dough and use a gentle coaxing action to fold the corners inwards by hand like parts of an envelope. Then flip it over and leave to rise. Gentle folding encourages the development of gluten structure. Sufficiently elastic gluten looks shiny and stretches like bubblegum when pulled.

Dough has proved enough to be divided into individual breads once it flops out like the belly of a lazy, fat man. Divide breads by pressing in firm downward cutting movements with a plastic scraper (or a heavy, sharp knife).

Dough is ready to bake when it dents slightly when pressed. For a wrinkled ciabatta look, flour your surface and rest the dough finally. Flip the dough over in one swift movement, tucking the edges under, while transferring to a pizza paddle or any sturdy rectangular surface. The twisting and tucking motion retains ciabatta ‘wrinkles’. For a crispier crust, slide the bread from your paddle to a preheated ceramic slab or upturned baking tray, and place a bowl of water in the oven.

Vanessa’s bread requires a bit of effort but is really soul satisfying to make. We ate slices of crusty artisan breads warm, with butter or creamy blue cheese.

See the recipe below for Vanessa Quellec’s ciabatta-style artisan bread.

At The Roundhouse restaurant overlooking Camps Bay, pastry chef Vanessa Quellec offers small classes on one Tuesday per month. Hands-on instruction in breadmaking to layered cakes, tarts and macaroons. Cooking experience advisable. R400 to 500 per class, including lunch. Contact Vanessa at Tel (021) 438 4347 or visit www.theroundhouserestaurant.com

VANESSA QUELLAC’S CIABATTA-STYLE ARTISAN BREAD

Recipe yields three 500g loaves
1kg Eureka stoneground bread flour
750ml room temperature water
15g fresh yeast or 5g instant dry yeast
20g (heaped tablespoon) salt
A smear of olive oil for bowls

1. MIX the dough by dissolving the dry yeast in 750ml water in the mixing bowl. Tip the flour into the water while mixing on speed two of an electric cake mixer. Mix at this speed for four minutes.

2. Sprinkle the salt around the bowl to distribute it evenly (adding salt too early kills the yeast and tightens gluten strands). Scrape the sides down, using the plastic scraper dipped in water. Mix for two minutes on speed two and scrape again. Place in a large plastic bowl smeared with olive oil, cover with a tea cloth and leave for 45 minutes to double in volume.

3. FOLD the dough by placing on a floured surface in a rectangular shape. Fold one side over at a time like four corners of an envelope, folding towards the centre of the dough. Flip over once folded. Gently repeat the envelope folding a few times until the dough feels tighter and smoother, like a baby’s bottom. Replace the dough in the newly oiled plastic bowl and RISE for 45 minutes.

4. Fold and rise for 30 to 45 minutes for a second and third time, oiling the bowl each time. In total the dough will have rested for four 45-minute periods. It should rise more each time, becoming smoother with a glossy surface.

5. To DIVIDE AND SHAPE the dough, tip it on to a floured surface and sprinkle the top with flour. When it looks like a lazy fat man with his belly flopping out, it’s ready to divide into three, using firm downward movements with the plastic scraper. On pieces of kitchen paper, place the three loaves with their seams down. Cover with a cloth and rise for 30 to 45 minutes.

6. Before BAKING, tip the floured bread surface over on to a wooden paddle or sturdy surface and tuck the ends underneath for a wrinkly look. Slide them one by one on to the preheated ceramic slab or overturned baking trays.

7. Bake at 220°C for about 10 minutes, until the loaf starts colouring. Reduce the oven to 180°C and bake for 120 minutes, longer for a crispier crust. When tapped on the underside, the loaf should sound hollow. Cool before slicing.

Latest Food Articles...

WIN BIG with Mr Delivery!

Win one of 10 Mr Delivery vouchers worth R1000 each! As you might know, Mr...

:: more

Be 1 of 20 winners with Ocean Basket!

How to be vegetarian on a budget

Gifts for your mom with the sweet tooth

The best home-made salad dressing recipe ever

Author info: Cindy Moritz

Cindy Moritz is All4Women's contributing editor based in Cape Town. She spent ten years in magazine publishing, and was editor of fashion business title Pursuit for most of that time. She went on to edit popular parenting title Cape Town's Child, drawing on her own experience as mother of two young children. Deciding to practise what she preached, after a couple of years Cindy gave up the office job to pursue that fine balance of work and life which freelancing offers, and after having features published in a number of local magazines including Elle, Longevity, Femina and Strictly Business, she discovered www.all4women.co.za and online publishing. She's never looked back.

Rate this article