I have been baking “The no knead bread” for over a year now, and I make other breads that rank as high as that one, and now I have yet another one. Welsh clay pot loaves!
Recipe is from one of my baking books, “The ultimate book of baking”, nonetheless, and even though I had to make it with no herbs, and no garlic (boo-ho, I love garlic), the bread itself (never mind the pots) is awesome. I can’t play with herbs, and garlic when baking for my kids. After I put the dough in pots, I remembered I could have made one flavored “pour moi”! Oh, well, next time; soon for sure!
This dough would be perfect for many uses, especially hamburger or sub buns.
I loved the idea of clay pots too; as you may have noticed, I love combining art with cooking! I do some pencil drawing from time to time, and I love art of any kind, with favorite being renaissance era.
Anyway, back to cooking! : ) Here, I will share the full recipe, and you can adjust the herbs, and other optional ingredients.
Welsh Clay Pot Loaves
You'll need:
1 cup whole-wheat bread flour
3 cups unbleached white bread flour
1 ½ Tsp salt
1 package quick rise yeast (7g) or ½ ounce fresh yeast
2/3 cup lukewarm milk
1 ½ cups lukewarm water
4 Tbsp butter, melted
Beaten egg, for glazing
1 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbsp chopped fresh sage
1 garlic clove, crushed
Fennel or other kinds of seeds for sprinkling (optional)
Let’s make that awesome bread! Sift both flours, and salt into a large bowl, and make a well in the center. Mix yeast with a little bit of milk until blended, and then stir in the rest, and pour it all into the well, and sprinkle with some flour from the sides. Cover and let it sit in warm place for 15 minutes, to get things going : )
Now add water, and butter. This is also when you would add the herbs, and garlic. Mix it well, and knead for about 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Transfer into lightly oiled bowl, and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 ¼ - 1 ½ hours, or until doubled (in my case it quadrupled : )
Now, turn it out on a lightly floured surface, divide into 2 parts, and shape it into 2 clean, lightly greased clay flower pots (now, I wasn’t happy with this, I am going to line it with parchment paper next time, had trouble taking it out). Clay pots should be about 5 ½-inches in diameter, 4 ½-inches high. See, I am sure I could have made another one of those with the amount of dough I had, you be the judge when you make it, but have en extra clay pot handy.
OK, well, now that the dough is in the pots, let it rest, covered with lightly greased plastic wrap for another 30 minutes or so. Preheat oven to 400 F. Then brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with some seeds, and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy the bread and awes you will get when you present it to your friends and family! ;)
Oh, and DON’T WATER IT!!!! :)
8 comments:
Wow, they are beautiful!
Thank you Marija! Most importantly, I liked the bread; I'll be making this one often! You should try; I bet you would make nice clay pot bread, and some wonderful pictures. Do share, if you decide to make it! (use parchment paper though)
I check your blog often; love your delicious work; I have shown my friends too! :)
These are really beautiful.
that is some good-lucking bread - the clay pots are too cool for school. it really does look like it would make a great hamburger bun; i'll have to give this recipe a try when grilling season gets here.
I just made these today, without the pots in order to hopefully use them as hamburger buns tomorrow! I sampled a piece and it tasted pretty good. Thanks for the recipe! I didn't have sage, so I left that out, but I think it will taste alright, although I bet it would have tasted even better with the sage!
This bread was PERFECT! I made ten in pots for a church dinner. They were great conversation piece too. The next day I cut off the top of a few and scooped out the middle to put in a batch of the leftover Cawl,(Welsh Stew), I had made.
I used Baker's Joy spray before I put the dough in the pots. They fell right out of the pot with no problems. Also the Kitchenaide Stand mixer did most of the work.
Thank you for the recipe, it made the dinner a hit.
Fred, I am so glad you liked it, and it was such success!!!
Thanks for the tip on spray,and thank you for visiting! Cheers!
All of the articals I have read require that you cure the clay pots first. I followed the folling when doing mine: coat the inside & outside with oil, bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Do this 4 times (when doing other baking). Loaves should slide right out. This worked on mine, have had know sticking problems.
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