A Very Foodie Sunday

I normally start my Sundays with a spin class, followed by a GRIT class. Today I opted out.

I had a long lie in, went to the shop for milk and chocolate and came home to make pancakes.

I made banana pancakes and for now I will leave you with the photos. The recipe will come in another post.

I decided to take a walk into town as it was so sunny. I bought a few supplies and before walking home with my heavy bags I stopped at Maidstone's vegetarian cafe for some fuel. They do good coffee and the best brownies in town!

One of the reasons I went to town was to buy some bread making ingredients. Last week I baked my first focaccia which I will make a post on. This week I decided to make flatbreads. Will talk more about bread making in the next bread post but today's recipe was by Paul Hollywood for Stilton and grape stuffed flatbreads. I however had some blue and smoked goats cheeses to use so did cheese and tomato instead. I halved his recipe but forgot to halve the butter quantity, which actually didn't hinder the dough!

250g strong white bread flour

5g salt

5g yeast

30g soft butter (should have been 15g) 

155ml cool water 

Some cheese

Some cherry tomatoes.

After adding the bread flour, salt and yeast to a bowl, I added the soft butter and 3/4 water and mixed with my fingers. Then continued to add the water and mix until it was dough like. Then I started kneading on my floured counter top. 

Once kneaded I left it to prove in a bowl covered with a Tea towel. Paul says an hour should be enough bt can be left for 3 hours. My dough hadn't changed after an hour so I was resigned to the fact that my excess butter had ruined my dough and ran a bath with a new yummy Lush bubble bar I picked up in town. 

When I got out of the bath however, the dough had risen! Woohoo! I left it for just over 2 hours and then folded out the air and split it into 6 balls. Then Paul's recipe instructed me to poke a hole in the balls and add the fillings, folding the edges of the dough to cover the and then roll them into flat circles. 

Whether or not I have a rolling pin, I'm not entirely sure, but I was too lazy to look and used an empty wine bottle. 

To cook the breads I added coconut oil to a pan. I figured tomatoes would release more moisture than Paul's grapes so before adding them to the dough is liced them and squeezed their innards into my frying pan with the oil, some garlic and some fresh rosemary. I didn't want the juicy tomato flavours to go to waste. 

Then I whisked up a spontaneous dip as I didn't have any. 

Soy yoghurt

A few cherry tomatoes

Cucumber

A little garlic

Smoked paprika

Salt and pepper

It was incredibly refreshing but stole away from the cheese flavours in the bread. But I didn't mind too much :) I ate three, which is very naughty and not the most nutritious dinner. I also had left over dough which I put in the fridge (no idea if it keeps). 

That's my first foodie post.

Until the next meal!