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IRISH TREACLE BREAD

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Irish treacle bread is quite simply delicious straight from the oven with a cup of tea and lashings of butter. There is no proving required to make this bread as soda is substituted for yeast. I first came across this bread whilst searching for a basic soda bread recipe and I have been hooked ever since, making it regularly through the summer months to eat outside with a cup of tea in hand.

We are into August now which for me signals the start of the foraging season so I am looking forward to collecting lots of blackberries and sloes to make everything from jams to flavored vodkas. I really do love this time of year especially with summer being at its height. I love my long walks along the shoreline with my camera hoping to get that killer sunset shot that I seem to manage to do every year. This summer a new micro brewery has opened up in the village offering all sorts of wonderful cask ales and real ciders to taste. So I am sure I will post a review of some of their wares in the coming weeks.

For now though sit back and enjoy a nice summer afternoon lazing in the garden with some of my delicious Irish treacle bread.

 

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IRISH TREACLE BREAD
Author: 
Recipe type: bread
Cuisine: irish
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4 Persons
 
Ingredients
  • 500 g or 1lb plain flour (sieved)
  • 2 Tbsp treacle also known as molasses in america .
  • ½ pt butter milk or cows milk (approx)
  • 2 tsp cream of tarter
  • 1 tsp bread soda
Instructions
  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.
  3. Add sufficient liquid to mix ,to a soft dough then onto a floured surface and lighting knead.
  4. Shape into a round circle, place onto the flat baking sheet and make a cross on top of dough with a knife.
  5. Place into pre-heated oven and bake for about 40 minutes.
  6. Treacle bread is a traditional Irish favourite.
  7. When baked the bread will have a hallow sound if trapped on the base.
  8. cool on wire tray for 5 minutes.
  9. 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..

 

Lazy Days Beetroot & Raisin Tea Bread

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Well the weekend seems to have flown by and on these lovely hot sunny days what could be nicer than a nice refreshing cup of tea and some freshly baked beetroot and raisin tea bread.

The beetroot season has just started and it is a vegetable that I feel is particularly unused. Mostly bought in jars pickled in vinegar but it is so much more versatile and good for you too. Beetroot is a good source of iron and folate (naturally occurring folic acid). It also contains nitrates, betaine, magnesium and other antioxidants (notably betacyanin). More recent health claims suggest beetroot can help lower blood pressure, boost exercise performance and prevent dementia.

There that’s the science out of the way which I have to confess I copied from the internet to save you all the bother of going to look it up for yourselves. This weekend was a true lazy weekend for me as I didn’t really do anything at all except a bit of baking and lounging around in the sun eating the fruits of my endevours. There is a new micro pub opening up in my high street in the coming weeks so I will be sampling some real ales before too long and hope to write a review here in this blog about all my “hard” work in sampling said beers.


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Lazy Days Beetroot & Raisin Tea Bread
Author: 
Recipe type: Bread
Cuisine: Baking
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6 persons
 
Ingredients
  • 200g Light Muscova Sugar
  • 4 Large Eggs, Separated
  • 200g Finely grated beetroot
  • Zest and Juice of a Lemon
  • 100g Raisins
  • 100g Ground Almonds
  • 200g Self Raising Flour
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 tsp Grated Nutmeg
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 3 and lightly grease a loaf tin. Then line with baking parchment.
  2. Using a whisk beat together the egg yolks and sugar until soft and fluffy.
  3. Stir in the beetroot, ground almonds,lemon zest and juice and the raisins.
  4. Sift in the flours and spices and fold in gently.
  5. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and slowly fold into the cake mixture.
  6. Pour into the loaf tin and bake for around an hour until you can insert a skewer and it comes out clean.
  7. Allow to rest for 10 mins in tin before removing to cool.

 

 

Maneesh

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Maneesh is a middle eastern flatbread that makes the perfect edible spoon for baba ganoush, hummus, tabbouleh or Labneh, as well as a delightful sponge to wipe up leftover sauce or meat juices. It’s a really easy bread to make and its fragrant za’atar crust makes it tasty enough to eat alone. You can take it from me that after a boozy dinner party, any leftovers make for an extremely satisfying breakfast. It has a slightly sweet flavour and the texture of the sesame seeds make a lovely contrast to the soft, sponginess of the bread.

Shop-bought flatbread just can’t compete, so why bother opening your wallet for pale and dusty supermarket pitta, when you can knock up Maneesh in no time. Granted, there is proving time (not true of all flatbreads) but all that really means is that you have an hour off to get on with other things, like putting your feet up.

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Maneesh
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • Maneesh
  • 350g of strong white bread flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp of caster sugar
  • 7g of fast-action dried yeast
  • 1 tbsp of olive oil, (not extra virgin, plus extra for oiling the table)
  • 250ml of water, lukewarm
  • For the za’atar topping
  • 3 tbsp of sesame seeds
  • 1 tbsp of dried thyme
  • 1 tbsp of dried oregano
  • 1 tbsp of dried majoram
  • 1 tsp sumac
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil, at least
Instructions
  1. Sift the flour into a large bowl and place the salt on one side and the yeast and sugar on the other. Make a well in the middle and add the oil and two-thirds of the water. Mix together thoroughly, adding the remaining water a little at a time until you have a smooth dough
  2. Oil your worktop and knead your dough on it for about 10 minutes or until the dough is elastic. You can do this in a freestanding mixer with a dough hook if you prefer. Form a ball, and place it in a large oiled bowl and cover the top with cling film. Pop it somewhere warm (I stick it in the airing cupboard) for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size
  3. Knock back the dough by giving it a good punch and tip it out onto the worktop and knead again for a couple of minutes. Divide the dough into two and shape each piece into a ball. Roll each ball of dough into a large round about a centimetre thick and place each on a lightly floured baking tray
  4. To make the za’atar topping, simply mix up all the ingredients into a paste and spread half of the mixture onto each flatbread
  5. Leave to rest for 15–30 minutes while you preheat your oven as hot as it will go (230°C/gas mark 8 in my case)
  6. Bake the Maneesh for 15–20 minutes, or until golden and transfer to a wire rack to cool before

 

Rosemary & Garlic Focaccia

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So here we are again! A year after The Knobbly Plate was hacked out of existence we rise from the ashes once again to bring you the very best in vegetarian and vegan cooking for your everyday life at an affordable price.

So what has been going on in the year that we have been away? Well sadly I have split from my wife but there is a silver lining in that. I don’t have to answer to anyone being single so have been able to develop and experiment with recipes to my hearts content. This Focaccia recipe though is an old favorite in this house with everyone who has tried it and has never lasted long enough to go cold being eaten usually within minutes of it coming out of the oven. So I felt that it was a very good recipe to start off the new blog with.


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Rosemary & Garlic Focaccia
Author: 
Recipe type: Bread
Cuisine: Italian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 500g Strong White Flour
  • 4 Garlic Cloves Crushed
  • 4 Tablespoons Rosemary Chopped
  • 10g Fast Action Yeast
  • 10g Sea Salt Plus More for Dusting
  • 50ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 300ml Tepid Water
Instructions
  1. Place all the ingredients in a food mixer with a dough hook and mix until smooth and elastic.
  2. Oil a bowl and transfer the dough to bowl, cover and prove for 1 hour until doubled in size.
  3. Knock back and roll out to around 1 inch and cover and prove until doubled in size again.
  4. Dust with salt and drizzle with extra olive oil.
  5. Bake in an oven at gas mark 9 for 10 minutes
  6. Turn the oven down to gas mark 4 and cook for a further 20 minutes.