Recipes

We just love baking... watching our creations rise is just great fun. Even better, we can eat our creations!

Here are our favourite recipes. We use organic ingredients whenever we can.

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The ultimate brown bread

What you need:
150g Rye Flour
350g Strong Malted Wholemeal Flour
Handful of wheat grain
2.5 tsp salt
2 tsp molasses
4 tsp quick yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
375 ml warm water (make it hotter in winter)

What to do:
Pre-heat your oven to 200 Celsius

Mix the flours, wheat grains salt and yeast together in a bowl. Salt is very important for flavour in brown bread. Dollop the molasses in (make those teaspoons generous!) and then start slowing pouring in the water and mixing. You may not need all the water so don't dump it into the bowl in one go! When you have a good dough which isn't too sticky mix in the tablespoon of oil. Then on a floured worktop knead the bread, sprinkling as much malted flour as you need to prevent sticking and get the dough just right (firm, non-sticky, only slightly moist).

Then put the dough in a tin which has been lightly oiled and has some flour covering the bottom (to prevent sticking). Leave the tin in a warm place for 25-45 minutes for rising to take place. Then bake for 45 minutes. Remove and, if you can resist the smells, let the loaf cool for 15-20 minutes to finish the cooking process.

Makes a single large ultimate loaf. Molasses is the secret ingredient - you could use sugar but molasses give a wonderful depth and richness to the bread. Bonus tip: If you are making a pasta sauce then a dollop of molasses can really take the flavour from good to great!

Insanely nutty Walnut Bread

We use the ultimate brown bread recipe from above, but we make some modifications.

• Add an extra 2 teaspoons of molasses
• Use walnut oil instead of olive oil
• Don't add the wheat grains
• Use at least 150g of walnuts in the mixture. I normally crush a third of this in a pestle and mortar to make a walnut flour so that the flavour is throughout the bread and not just in the nuts.

Note that the moisture from the walnuts may make kneading and baking take longer.

3 Seeds & Honey yummy Bread

Again this is based on the ultimate brown bread recipe with a few twists added. I often cheat on this one and use a flour with the seeds already in there... but it's easy to do it yourself.

• Add two tablespoons of honey
• In additional to the wheat grains add a handful of sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.
• Instead of rye flour you can use strong white flour for a slightly lighter bread.

Pizza Dough like mama used to make

Making pizza is very easy, it just takes practice. I love very thin pizzas so that makes the dough go a long way. With this recipe I can often make 10-12 very thin pizzas. Start by preheating your oven as hot as it can go. Whack in your pizza stone... (your what?!? If you want great pizza the only way to go is a ceramic pizza stone, this helps the bottom cook properly before the top burns - you can get them from around £10 in places like Argos).

The Dough

1 cup of warm water
2.5 cups of strong white flour (must be strong, must be white or all sorts of weird stuff happens)
3tsp of quick yeast
good sprinkle of salt

The Sauce

1 tall bottle of good quality tomato passata (it really isn't worth skimping on this)
3tsp molasses
3tsp oregano
salt & pepper
5-6 crushed cloves of garlic

What to do:
Mix the sauce together and simmer for at least 20 minutes on a low heat so that it reduces into a dark thick sauce.

In the meantime mix 1.5 cups of the flour, yeast and salt together before slowly adding the water. Don't add the water all at once as you may not need it all! When the dough is a coherent whole in the bowl sprinkle some of the remaining cup of flour onto a clean surface and start kneading. Keep going until the whole remaining cup of flour has been absorbed and you have a nice, non-stick ball of dough to play with. Place this ball in an oiled bowl and cover. Leave it near your oven so it's warm and the dough will rise fully.

The dough will take 20-40 minutes to rise so in the meantime prepare your pizza toppings.... cheese, onion, mushroom, peppers, olives, garlic, egg, rocket, courgette, you name it!

Once the dough has risen tear off a small ball. Probably smaller than you think you'll need. Dust your worktop with flour and press the ball into a circle, constantly rotating and flipping the dough so it doesn't stick and your work is even. Using your hands just keep pressing outwards to make a large very thin base. It takes practice but you should be aiming for paper-thin.

Take your pizza stone from the oven and carefully place the base onto the stone (don't put any flour or anything down, the base won't stick - don't worry!). Then using a large spoon (soup spoons work great) spread some sauce thinly onto the base (quick before it dries out) before throwing on cheese (a little goes a long way here) and your toppings.

Depending on your oven the pizza will be ready in 2-3 minutes... any more and your base will get too hard and crisp. Enjoy.

Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Explosion Muffins

These muffins pack everything you need to keep going way past lunch time!

What you need:
2 cups wholemeal pastry flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup of water
1 1/4 cups of oat bran
2 1/2 tsp of baking soda
4 tsp cinnamon (go crazy with this stuff if you want)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 pint of apple juice
2 large green cooking apples, roughly chopped (peeling optional)
1 cup sultanas
2/3 medium carrots, grated
1 tbsp molasses (or brown sugar)

What to do:
Preheat the oven to 160 Celsius and lightly oil your muffin tin. In a bowl mix the flours, bran, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Start adding the apple juice and water until you have a light batter... it should be mixed just enough to moisten all the ingredients. As always, don't chuck the whole cup of water in just because it's there. If the batter looks right then don't add any more water. Split the batter between the cups of your muffin tin and bake until golden. This is usually 25-30 minutes but can go quicker so keep an eye on the little fellas.

Remove the muffins from the tin while it's hot, otherwise you'll only get them out with a chisel!

This recipe makes enough for 12 monstrous explosion muffins.

Coming Soon: Japanese and Polish recipes!

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