Rosemary focaccia bread

It's been a very very long time since I've last posted a recipe. Not that I haven't prepared or eaten any food, I just couldn't make myself to take time and write down on the blog. But here we are, a new recipe and hopefully more recipes will be posted in the months to come.

This is the recipe for the italian focaccia. It's not the proper recipe, if you want to try the proper one, just replace the splet flour with wheat flour. Let's proceed.

Ingredients:
250 gr - white wheat flour
100 gr - wholegrain spelt flour
200 ml - water
14 gr - brewer's yeast
1 potato (about 150 gr)
2 teaspoons salt
100 ml extra virgin olive oil
fresh rosemary
coarse salt

First boil the potato with the skin. Let it cook for about 20 minutes (check with the fork if it's ready). Then peel it and mash it in a large bowl. Add flour and mix well.
In the meantime let the yeast melt in the water (heat it a little bit before adding yeast).
Add salt and oil to the flour and slowly add the water with yeast. Mix well with your hands and form a ball with the dough. Cover it with a wet cloth and let it rise for 45 minutes.
Stretch the dough on a baking tray, covered with greaseproof paper. With a fork make some little wholes on the surface, put some olive oil on the top and sprinkle with coarse salt and rosemary. If you don't have fresh rosemary the dried one will work fine as well.
Let it grow 15 minutes and afterwards bake at 180° C for about 30 minutes.

French toast

I can't believe I didn't know what french toast is, until I went to India. Our kitchen ladies used to prepare a different kind of egg every morning for breakfast and when they did french toast my room-mate was particulary happy! I found out later that I like it as well and that the recipe is quite easy! 

 

This recipe serves 2 people

Ingredients:
4 slices of bread
2 eggs
120 ml milk
pinch of salt
butter
honey or naple syrup






Mix the eggs in a jar, add the milk and salt. Put the bread slice in the mixture and let it retain it. Heat a non stick pan with a little bit of butter and place all the bread slices on it. When it's cooked on one side, flip it over and then serve still hot with some honey or naple syrup. 

Pretzel

A few weeks ago I went to Munich for the second time. I fell in love with pretzels already the first time I was there, but now I've decided to try to make them. I found one recipe on the blog panperfocaccia-grianne.blogspot.com. Cristina was very kind and gave me permission to use her recipe. Thanx a lot! :)
It's not that difficult, it tastes good, but of course it isn't the same as the german one.

Ingredients (8 pretzel)

500 gr flour type 00
1 pinch of salt
4 envelopes of dry yeast
40 gr of sugar
75 gr of lard
125 ml of lukewarm water
125 ml of lukewarm milk

1 egg
coarse salt
sesame seeds
poppy seeds

Mix flour, salt, yeast, sugar and lard. Slowly add milk and water and mix the dough. Leave it for 30 minutes covered with a cloth. Mix the dough with your hands and leave it for 10 minutes. Put the dough in 8 pieces.  From every piece of dough do a long "sausage" and make the pretzel shape on the baking tin. Mix the egg in a bowl with some water then put it with the brush on the pretzel. On the top of the pretzel put some coarse salt and some sesame seeds or poppy seeds (if you want). Bake in a preheated oven on 200°C for about 20 minutes.

Chapati

This is the indian bread I used to eat every day when I lived in India. It should be round shape, but I'm not good at it. It may be the rollin pin's fault (they use a smaller one in India) or just me not knowing what round shape is. :) It is very easy to do.

Ingredients:

whole wheat flour
salt
oil
water

Mix the ingredients in a smooth dough (it shouldn't be too hard and too sticky). Leave the dough for about an hour then work very thin round shape flat breads. Cook them in a non stick pan. Flip them over 3 times, then the chapati is ready. Easy, right?

Lepinja with sesame seeds

Ingredients:
white flour (450 gr - type 400)
whole weat flour (300 gr - type 1100)
baking powder (1 sachet)
dry yeast (1 sachet)
salt (2 teaspoons)
sugar (1 teaspoon)
natural yoghurt (150 gr)
warm milk (150 ml)
warm water (150 ml)
oil (4-5 spoons)
eggs (2)

butter (1-2 spoons)
sesame seeds
salt (in big grains)

Mix the flour, the baking powder, yeast. Add salt, sugar, yoghurt, milk, water, oil and the eggs. Mix everything well and cover it with a cloth and leave it in a warm place. Wait until it rises. Then take the dough, cut it in three pieces and do an oval bread 2 cm high. Put them on an oven pan and spread some melter butter on the top and then add the salt and the sesame seeds. Cover them with a cloth and leave them to rise. Put them in an oven for about 25 minutes (200 degrees warm).

Lepinja with olives

Lepinja is a typical bread from the Balkans. I wanted to bake it for a long time and finally I did it. I found the recipe in the book Vse o peki.

Ingredients:
 flour - type 500 (250 gr)
 fresh yeast (1/2)
 honey (1 small spoon)
 lukewarm water (125 ml)
 salt (1 small spoon)
 olives (50 gr)
 oil (6 spoons)


Put the flour in a bowl and do a whole in the middle. Put the yeast there, but crush it first. Then add some water to the honey and add it to the yeast (but be careful, the water shouldn't be too hot!). Mix with the fork and leave it for 10 minutes.
Add salt, olives, oil and the rest of the water. Then mix all the ingredients until it becomes a dough. Put some flour on the top and cover it with a cotton cloth. Leave it in a hot place until it rises. After that take the dough and do 2 oval-shaped lepinjas (25x15 cm). Put them on an oven pan and cover it with a cloth until it rises again. Before putting in the oven do some little holes with your fingers and in the recipe it says you should put a few drops of olive oil (I forgot to do it, but it was good anyway). Bake in the oven. (It should be 20 minutes on high heat, preheated.)