Ingredients
- 500g Strong White Bread Flour
- 450ml lukewarm Water
- 1 teaspoon Sugar
- 10g Sea Salt
- Olive or Rapeseed Oil
- 7g packet of Bread Yeast
- 1 tablespoon of puréed Wild Garlic
- Gruyère Cheese, grated (optional)
Equipment
- 2x Ciabatta tins
Green Wild Garlic Bread? Who would have thought it? For an extra-tasty touch of decadence, sprinkle with finely grated Gruyère cheese before baking.
How to
First of all you need to prepare your Wild Garlic. Pick a good two or three handfuls, only taking the leaves & not uprooting any bulbs.
Use whatever you have to blend the Wild Garlic – in truth, I put mine in the food processor first, then scoop it out, add oil and blend with a hand blender (the kind you use for blending soup – see photo below).
Drain after washing
Use a salad spinner or tea towels to remove any excess moisture after washing the Wild Garlic.
Food Processor
Add a little Rapeseed Oil to get things moving
Hand Blender
Add a good splosh of Rapeseed Oil to get things moving.
Add the Flour, Sugar, Salt & Yeast to a large mixing bowl, making sure the Yeast is at one side & the Salt at the other.
Pour in the water & mix together with a scraper or spoon until roughly combined.
Lift up the dough and slap it back down into the bowl to add some air & work the gluten in the Flour (5-10 minutes).
Add one large tablespoon of pureed Wild Garlic to the mixture, and fold in. You don’t need to mix it thoroughly as it will create a ‘marbling’ effect when risen.
Cover surface with oil.
Cover with cling film, leave for 2-3 hours to rise (the mixture should rise up and fill the bowl).
Ingredients
As always, ensure your Salt & Yeast are on opposite sides of the bowl.
Add Wild Garlic
Note not thoroughly mixed in.
2-3 hours later.
The dough has risen.
Heavily flour your tins & a work surface.
Tip out the batter-like dough and, working quickly, use your scraper to shape and cut it into two roughly equal pieces.
Quickly lift each piece into a tin & even out any gaps.
It is important you handle the dough as little as possible to keep the air in.
Plenty of flour
In your tins and on the surface.
Roughly shape.
Divide the dough in two.
Work Quickly
Life each piece, place in a tin and shape with your scraper or fingers.
Sprinkle your loaf with either flour or finely grated cheese.
I have made one of each to show the difference.
Heat your oven to 220°c.
Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.
With cheese
Gruyère works well.
With flour
A good sprinkle.
Baked
25 minutes at 220°c, fan-assisted.
Turn out onto a cooling rack.
Get stuck in.
Come closer…
Floured Wild Garlic loaf.
….closer….
Cheese topping.
….Just there
You can almost smell it.
Wild Garlic
Pick the young leaves, don’t pull the bulbs.
Wild Garlic
Best picked young.