A very clean oven and roasted vegetable focaccia

I really don't like to clean which isn't a good thing when I love to cook. 

I do the basics all the time but my oven very rarely, one because I hate the fumes from oven cleaners and two, it requires you to turn off your oven...

So when the lovely people from Oven Express offered to clean it for me I was overjoyed.

And they use eco-friendly non harmful-methods which mean it doesn't smell and you can use your oven straight away- how good is that?!

So I've included a few before and after shots of my oven.

So what to cook in my sparkling oven - well I decided to cook my favourite thing to bake - bread.

Miss E recently did another holiday class at Brasserie Bread and came home with some delicious roasted vegetable focaccia. 

It was an absolute winner and will be baked many times to come.

The recipe/method for the bread can be found at Crunchy Tiger.

If you have not baked bread at home I really encourage you to try.

So simple - yeast, flour, oil, water, salt.

Knead for two minutes, rest for two minutes. Repeat about five or six times.

You then rest the dough in the fridge.

Miss E shaped the dough for me with oiled fingers and then topped with the roasted vegetables.

After proving into the oven it goes. 

Its quite exciting to be able to see through my oven door ;)

I am still amazed at my clean and beautiful oven. 

Oven Express did an excellent job, make sure you check out their website or facebook.

Grissini Bread Sticks

After enjoying a Brasserie Bread baking class so much I was quick to register Evie for a kids summer baking class.

At Brasserie Bread Summer Baking class

They learnt to bake grissini sticks and cornbread, she enjoyed it so much.

I love that they let 5 year olds cook and treat them like 'big kids'.

While it was still fresh in her mind we baked them at home.

We made the dough using our usual method I found at Crunchy Tiger.

Nate loved getting in on the kneading action.

The recipe is very similar just with the addition of a small amount of malt syrup and butter.

The dough after kneading is left in the fridge for an hour.

We then flattened it and allowed to prove for twenty minutes.

We cut sticks of dough.

Evie showed me how to stretch the dough, then flatten and pinch, worked a treat.

Even Nate became an expert.

The sticks are then baked at 210 C for twenty minutes.

Evie got very creative with curly ends, they were gorgeous and delicious.

We will be making these again soon.

Sourdough & a Brasserie Bread class

Wholemeal sourdough (made by me!)

Recently I attended a 'Start your Starter' class at Brasserie Bread, an Artisan Bakery in a suburb far far away from mine.

You know its going to be good when you are greeted with this, fresh croissants warm out of the oven, absolutely delicious.

You realise quite quickly how passionate they are about bread, as we are introduced to artisan baking by Matt.

Here is everything you need to make a loaf of sourdough - starter, water, flour and salt.

A sticky mess to begin with.

Slowly as you work through the kneading process you really begin to feel the dough develop (though mine not as quickly as Matt's in the background!).

Happy resting away in one of the many steps.

Meanwhile we were able to use dough preprepared to learn to shape and bake beautiful bread.

Not surprisingly after all that work we were famished, but not for long as we were presented with samples from every bread they bake to eat with local produce.

And of course we made our own starter, using honey, flour and water.

I took it home and left it until it bubbled before starting a feeding process every eight hours.

After one week I baked my first loaf and I was amazed, beautiful.

Every loaf so far has been delicious in flavour and texture.

Want to bake your own? 

You can learn all about the starter and recipes at Brasserie Bread. 

Caramelised Garlic Bread

I first tasted Brasserie Bread's caramelised garlic bread a while back and I was instantly in love.

Sadly I have to go out of my way to enjoy some of its deliciousness.

So I decided to make it my myself.

I made the dough using a Brasserie bread recipe I found (and absolutely love) on Crunchy Tiger who attended one of there workshops. It is an amazing technique for bread making and I do suggest you try it!

For the garlic I firstly brought some sugar water to the boil (1/3 cup sugar and 1-1/2 cup water).

I blanched the garlic so I could easily remove the skin.

The popped it back in until it was soft.

I then reduced it down to a toffee and added some balsamic vinegar (about 1 tablespoon).

Back in went the garlic to become one with the sticky goodness.

I added plenty of salt and pepper. 

The dough after it first rising process was then rolled out into three segments, covered with my caramelised garlic and then folded up.

The three pieces I then plaited together.

The loaf was then left to rise again before baking.

As you can see I tend to lose some of my toffee, I think I need to work on the shape.

But otherwise it was so delicious eaten warm out of the oven.

The soft warm bread with the sweet soft garlic. 

Yum!