Sage and Onion - Tear and Share Loaf (The HBs)

Hairy Bikers Sage and onion tear and share loaf.
 

I must say this one was supposed to be done at the same time as the fougasse, but a funny thing happened on the way to the theatre, I in my pure stupidity used fresh yeast instead of quick acting dried yeast, for reasons that I myself don’t really understand as I had about 5 sachets with me and the piece of yeast that I did use cost about €0.10. I suppose it was me just being thrifty and as I had this piece of live yeast left over from the fougasse thought I may as well use it. Result being it didn’t react so well and in fact didn’t come up to proving until the next morning. But one thing is sure when I did bake it , it was fantastic, light and so tasty, I shall try it this weekend with the fast acting yeast and compare, but I cannot see it being any better.

So let us get baking.

I will give you the recipe from Si and Dave with an asterisk* of any changes that I made and a reason why.

150 ml of fresh full milk * (we only had low fat) and a bit for brushing the top.

400g of strong bread flour * (Germany 550 mehl).

1 sachet (7g) of fast acting yeast * (I used normal bakers fresh yeast about 20g).

1 tsp caster sugar * (I used normal as I had no caster, for Germans this is fein rafinade).

1 tsp of fine sea salt * (all salt came from the sea at one time so I used what I had).

15g butter.

1 tbsp sunflower oil * (I used peanut oil).

1 large onion (how big is large?? Always baffles me when they cannot be a bit more exact, such as 150g) peeled and chopped.

1 clove of garlic crushed.

15-20 sage leaves * (I only had about 10) plus the 8 to decorate.

Fresh ground pepper.

Method

Heat 150ml of water and the milk in a saucepan until it is blood heat (now in the HB original list of ingredients there is no mention of water! Why?).

 

Sift the flour into a large baking bowl (I have one of those nice beige coloured ones just like “Wor Mams and as you notice so has Linda), mix in the yeast *(in my case crumbled), the sugar and salt.

 

Make a well in the centre of the flour, and add the water and milk mixture into flour and mix well (I suppose you could have used a processor with a dough hook, but the lads said a wooden spoon).

 

Gather it into a ball and turn out onto a floured board * it may well have been my fault but the dough was exceedingly wet, now I don’t mind this as a wet dough will normally lead to a light and airy bread.

Knead for 10 minutes, it was like massaging flubber (can anyone remember flubber).

Place the dough in a well oiled bowl covered with oiled cling film for 45-60 minutes until doubled in size, now here I discovered my mistake, it had not doubled it was just showing signs of increasing in size, as I wanted it for that evening, I just let it get on and do its proving.
 

I did cook the onion, garlic and sage in the butter and oil over a low heat. Seasoned with plenty of black pepper, this I set aside to cool (until the next morning).

 

Next morning after I had been to pick up my car, I had a look at the dough and as it was now doubled in size, I now proceeded as directed and spooned the onion mixture on top and kneaded it in, the lads said use a bit of flour if it becomes too sticky and boy did I need that extra flour.

Here the instructions said form into 8 neat balls by pulling equal pieces from the large ball, this was not as easy as it sounded, in fact it was neigh on impossible, the dough was that soft and sticky I was glad to get 8 mis-shaped balls out of it and onto the baking tray covered with baking paper. I put one in the centre and surrounded it with 7 others (of varying shapes and sizes, I thought, this is going to be a right pigs ear). I covered with an oiled piece of cling film, hoping upon hope that it did not live up to its name.

I placed on top of the cooker to prove for 45 minutes (the cooker was not on and the kitchen was quite warm so it was ideal proving conditions. I went to watch a bit of tele (I do like the Andrew Mare show on a Sunday morning). On returning low and behold, I kid you not, it actually had formed into a relatively uniform loaf, I was so chuffed.

On went the oven at 180°C and when it came up to heat, I placed a sage leaf on the top of each ball, milk washed the top and popped it into the middle of the oven for 20 minutes checking half way through (for the mathematicians amongst you that is 10 minutes), I turned it so that it got an evening browning. (a sunset tan??)

I was quite impressed with the finished result so I slid it out onto a cooling rack (well Linda doesn’t have a proper one so it was a roasting rack that came to the aid).
 

Now I must say I do not know how it was meant to taste and feel but this was light and airy, had a nice moist crumb and tasted absolutely fantastic. Linda was impressed when I gave her a piece with some left over shrimp butter, well that’s what it is all about this tear and share bread lark. Well done lads, I shall try it again this weekend.