The stuffed crust of deep joy October 16, 2008

As pafrt of my mission to include cheese in EVERYTHING I EAT, I recently turned my handto making my own stuffed crust pizza. I make my own pizza bases quite often – I love baking bread, and still find it immensely satisfying to eat something that I know I made entirely myself.

Start with a basic pizza base recipe, such as this one from Anthony Worral Thompson. I like deep pan pizza, and so usually make mine thicker than he suggests. Once you’ve got your dough all nice and circular, sprinkle a thick line of grated cheese (I used a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella, but it would work with most cheeses) along the whole circumference, about an inch from the edge. Then – carefully! – fold the dough over the line of grated cheese, pressing it down at the join so that it stays put. It’s quite tricky and a bit messy but you’ll get there eventually [grin]

Nothing smells quite like baking bread April 23, 2008

There are a few tricks to making good bread that most recipes seem to leave out, meaning that people end up having to work them out by themselves.

• Warmth. The room needs to be warm, the bowl needs to be warm, the water needs to be warm, your hands need to be warm. I usually make bread in the kitchen with the door closed, the oven on, and the radiator at full blast.
• Never underestimate the power of kneading. You cannot knead too much.  Stand there pummelling the stuff for hours if you fancy it, it’ll only make the bread better.
• Rise it twice. More often, if you feel like it. Beat the crap out of it, leave it to rise, then beat the crap out of it and leave it to rise again before baking. Also let it rise for as long as possible – overnight for a first rising and a good few hours for the second is my usual habit.
• Keep the bloody kittens out of the kitchen, or they’ll run straight through all your beautifully-risen dough.