Saturday Kitchen Treacle Bread Recipes

TREACLE BROWN BREAD

Steps:

• Butter two 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf pans. Dust with all-purpose flour, tapping out excess.
• In a small saucepan, combine molasses, 1 cup water, and cider. Heat over medium, just until mixture reaches warm room temperature. Sprinkle yeast over top and let stand until yeast is bubbly, about 5 minutes.
• Combine flours and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat to combine. Add the yeast mixture and beat on medium until well combined, 2 to 3 minutes. Cover with plastic and place in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Divide dough between prepared pans. Drape with plastic wrap and let stand until doubled in size, about 1 hour more. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees with a baking sheet on lower rack.
• Transfer loaves to oven, being careful not to deflate. Bake 30 minutes. Remove bread from pans and place on preheated baking sheet. Continue baking until hollow-sounding when tapped on bottom and an instant-read thermometer reads 190 to 200 degrees, about 30 minutes more. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Loaves will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

SMOKED MACKEREL PâTé WITH TREACLE BREAD AND BEETROOT PICKLE

Steps:

• To make the treacle bread, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6 and grease a loaf tin with butter.
• Mix all of the bread ingredients together in a large bowl until a soft, sticky dough is formed. Place in the loaf tin and sprinkle the remaining oats on top (if using). Bake for around 35-40 minutes, or until golden-brown and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Place on a wire rack to cool.
• To make the pâté, place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together well. Do not blend - this makes a rough textured pâté. Season with salt and pepper.
• To make the pickle, place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.
• Serve the pâté, slices of the bread and the beetroot pickle on four plates. Garnish with the parsley and drizzle with the oil to finish.

BLACK TREACLE & OAT SODA BREAD WITH PICKLED CUCUMBERS, SMOKED SALMON & HOMEMADE BUTTER

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and put a baking sheet on the middle shelf. Mix the dry ingredients for the bread with 1 tsp salt. In a jug, mix together the buttermilk and treacle, and add enough water to make up the liquid to 300ml. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together to make a soft dough. If it's very sticky, flour your hands and shape into a round (it doesn't need to be neat). Remove the hot tray from the oven, dust with flour and put the bread on it, squashing it down a little. Use a knife to cut deep indentations in the dough, crossing in the middle to create six triangular pieces. Put in the oven and bake for 20 mins.
• Meanwhile, combine all of the ingredients for the pickle with ½ tsp salt and set aside.
• To make the butter, tip the cream into a bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk for 5 mins until it collapses and splits into butterfat and buttermilk. Keep going until the butterfat starts to clump together, then drain into a sieve over a bowl. Squeeze as much liquid from the butterfat as possible, wrap it in baking parchment and chill until you're ready to serve. Save the buttermilk for another recipe (or if you have more time, make the butter first, then use the buttermilk to make the bread). To serve, unwrap the butter and sprinkle it with sea salt. Serve with the bread, pickled cucumbers, salmon and lemon.

THE SATURDAY WHITE BREAD

Steps:

• Autolyse: Combine the 1,000 grams of flour with the 720 grams of 90°F to 95°F (32°C to 35°C) water in a 12-quart round tub or similar container. Mix by hand just until incorporated. Cover and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Mix: Sprinkle the 21 grams of salt and the 4 grams (1 level teaspoon) of yeast evenly over the top of the dough. Mix by hand, wetting your working hand before mixing so the dough doesn't stick to you. (It's fine to rewet your hand three or four times while you mix.)
• Reach underneath the dough and grab about one-quarter of it. Gently stretch this section of dough and fold it over the top to the other side of the dough. Repeat three more times with the remaining dough, until the salt and yeast are fully enclosed.
• Use the pincer method to fully integrate the ingredients. Make five or six pincer cuts across the entire mass of dough. Then fold the dough over itself a few times. Repeat, alternately cutting and folding until all of the ingredients are fully integrated and the dough has some tension in it. Let the dough rest for a few minutes, then fold for another 30 seconds or until the dough tightens up. The whole process should take about 5 minutes. The target dough temperature at the end of the mix is 77°F to 78°F (25°C to 26°C). If the final mix temperature is cooler, don't worry, it will just take longer to fully rise (in this case tripling in size). If you have a warm spot where the dough can rise, that will help make up for the cooler dough temperature. If your dough is warmer, the dough will triple in size sooner. (The next time you make the recipe, you can adjust the final mix temperature by using warmer or cooler water.) Cover the tub and let the dough rise.
• Fold: This dough needs two folds. It's easiest to apply the folds during the first 1½ hours after mixing the dough. Apply the first fold about 10 minutes after mixing and the second fold during the next hour (when you see the dough spread out in the tub, it's ready for the second fold). If need be, it's okay to fold later; just be sure to leave it alone for the last hour of rising.
• To fold the dough, dip your active hand in the container of warm water to wet it so the dough doesn't stick to you. With your moistened hand, reach underneath the dough and pull about one-quarter of it out and up to stretch it until you feel resistance, then fold it over the top to the other side of the dough. Repeat four or five times, working around the dough until the dough has tightened into a ball. Grab the entire ball and invert it so the seam side, where all of the folds have come together, faces down. This helps the folds hold their position. The top should be smooth.
• When the dough relaxes a bit and flattens repeat the process for the second fold. When the dough is triple its original volume, about 5 hours after mixing, it's ready to be divided.
• Divide: Moderately flour a work surface about 2 feet wide. Flour your hands and sprinkle a bit of flour around the edges of the tub. Tip the tub slightly and gently work your floured free hand beneath the dough to loosen it from the bottom of the tub. Gently ease the dough out onto the work surface without pulling or tearing it.
• With floured hands, pick up the dough and ease it back down onto the work surface in a somewhat even shape. Dust the area in the middle, where you'll cut the dough, with a bit of flour. Cut the dough into 2 equal-size pieces with a dough knife or plastic dough scraper.
• Shape: Dust 2 proofing baskets with flour. Shape each piece of dough into a medium-tight ball. Place each seam side down in its proofing basket.
• Proof: Lightly flour the tops of the loaves. Set them side by side and cover with a kitchen towel, or place each basket in a non-perforated plastic bag.
• Plan on baking the loaves about 1¼ hours after they are shaped, assuming a room temperature of about 70°F (21°C). If your kitchen is warmer, they will be optimally proofed in about 1 hour. Use the finger-dent test to determine when they are perfectly proofed and ready to bake, being sure to check the loaves after 1 hour: Poke the rising loaf with a floured finger, making an indentation about ½ inch deep. If it springs back immediately, the loaf needs more proofing time. If the indentation springs back slowly and incompletely, the loaf is fully proofed and ready to bake. With this bread, 15 minutes can make the difference between being perfectly proofed and collapsing a bit.
• Preheat: At least 45 minutes prior to baking, put a rack in the middle of the oven and put 2 Dutch ovens on the rack with their lids on. Preheat the oven to 475°F (245°C). If you only have 1 Dutch oven, put the second loaf into the refrigerator about 20 minutes before baking the first loaf and bake the loaves sequentially, giving the Dutch oven a 5-minute reheat after removing the first loaf. Alternatively, you can keep the second loaf in the refrigerator overnight, in its proofing basket inside a non-perforated plastic bag, and bake it early the next morning; if you do this, put the second loaf in the refrigerator immediately after shaping.
• Bake: For the next step, please be careful not to let your hands, fingers, or forearms touch the extremely hot Dutch oven.
• Invert the proofed loaf onto a lightly floured countertop, keeping in mind that the top of the loaf will be the side that was facing down while it was rising-the seam side. Use oven mitts to remove the preheated Dutch oven from the oven. Remove the lid. Carefully place the loaf in the hot Dutch oven seam side up. Use mitts to replace the lid, then put the Dutch oven in the oven. Maintain the temperature at 475°F (245°C).
• Bake for 30 minutes, then carefully remove the lid and bake for about 20 more minutes, until at least medium dark brown all around the loaf. Check after 15 minutes of baking uncovered in case your oven runs hot.
• Remove the Dutch oven and carefully tilt it to turn the loaf out. Let cool on a rack or set the loaf on its side so air can circulate around it. Let the loaf rest for at least 20 minutes before slicing.

TREACLE BREAD

Steps:

• Heat the molasses and milk together.
• Mix all dry ingredients together: add liquid until a soft dough is achieved.
• With floured hands, shape into a round cake about 1 1/2 inches thick.
• Cut into farls (quarters), put on a floured baking sheet and bake at 400oF for 40 minutes.

TRADITIONAL IRISH TREACLE BREAD

Steps:

• 1. Pre-heat oven to 200c/400f.ligth dust a flat baking sheet with flour. Leave the tin of treacle in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes, this will help soften treacle and make it easier to spoon out of tin. Heat the treacle and butter milk in a low heat just slightly warm .
• 2. Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add sufficient liquid to mix ,to a soft dough then onto a floured surface and lighting knead. Shape into a round circle, place onto the flat baking sheet and make a cross on top of dough with a knife.
• 3. Place into pre-heated oven and bake for about 40 minutes. Treacle bread is a traditional Irish favourite. When baked the bread will have a hallow sound if trapped on the base. cool on wire tray for 5 minutes.
• 4. Then get a clean ,dry tea towel and wrap the treacle bread up in it, this will help to give a softer crust on your bread..
• 5. NOTE= when completely cooled serve with a spread of butter and a cup of tea....:)

RUSTIC OAT & TREACLE SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and grease a baking sheet. Put the flours, oats, bicarb and 1 tsp salt in a large bowl and stir to combine. Tip the yogurt into a jug, add enough water to make it up to 400ml and mix well. Stir the treacle and honey into the yogurt mixture until they dissolve. Pour onto the dry ingredients and stir with a round-bladed knife until you have a soft, sticky dough.
• Tip onto a lightly floured surface and lightly form the dough into a round. Lift onto the baking sheet, cut a deep cross in the dough and sprinkle with oats. Bake for 30 mins or until the crust is golden and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath. Soda bread should be eaten the same day, or toasted the next.