In Britain, we spend more than £3.5 billion on bread every year.
I come from a family of bakers,
but I still want to encourage you to bake your own bread at home.
The smell that is coming off that is... is fantastic.
I think every home is improved by it,
so I want to show you that making bread in your own kitchen
is much more satisfying than buying a loaf...
Because it's a feast for your family, and for your senses.
The smell of it,
the feel of it...
Beautiful stuff.
The look of it...
Not like the ones you buy in the shops.
It's more special than that.
The sound of it...
This is a beautiful loaf.
And the taste of it.
Wow!
It just tastes so good. You've got to try it.
I want to show you that making bread is simple, really.
You mix,
knead,
prove,
shape,
prove again,
then finally,
bake.
Some loaves I show you may seem complicated,
but with time and focus, you can grasp them all,
as I will guide you every step of the way.
Once you've mastered them,
I'm going to reveal how bread can be much more than just the loaf.
It can be a meal in itself.
One of the only things that will keep my mouth shut.
So, there's no excuses.
Get baking.
Soda bread. It's the most simple bread to make in the world.
You do not have to be scared.
My son could do this, and he's 11 years old.
In this program, it's all about speed.
You can do the whole lot in 45 minutes.
Breads traditionally use yeast to make them rise,
which takes time, but I'm going to bake breads that use bicarbonate of soda
as a much faster rising agent.
For breakfast, a twist on a breakfast classic -
eggs Benedict, served on a crumpet with a home-made hollandaise sauce.
For lunch, a smoked salmon pate with its own stout soda bread.
For dinner, a hearty British stew, with a cheesy scone topping.
But to begin, a traditional, crusty Irish loaf.
Now let's get cracking.
The dried mixture is 250 grams of plain white flour,
and an equal amount of plain wholemeal flour,
a teaspoon of salt, then the bicarb.
Bicarbonate of soda is the alkaline in the mix.
This for the rising agent. At the moment, it's bone dry.
Add acid to that, it'll start to activate and produce carbon dioxide.
That is the leavening agent in this bread.
Just give it a little mix at the moment.
The reason being, when we add the buttermilk, which is the next thing to go in,
it will instantly start working.
For 500 grams of flour, you need 420 ml of buttermilk.
So, the ingredients are very basic. This goes straight in.
If you haven't got buttermilk, you can use sour cream if you like.
The whole thing in there is beginning to buzz.
It'll start to bubble now, the reaction is already started.
So, you've got to be quite quick.
Time to get your hands in and mix.
It's a lovely soft mixture.
I want to incorporate all the flour on the edge of the bowl.
If you want to add cheese to this, you can.
If you want to add bacon to this, you can.
You can add a lot of ingredients to this.
If you don't want to use wholemeal flour, you can use all white.
You just end up with a white soda bread.
If you look at that now, it's just been brought together.
There's no real structure to it, and you can see it crumbles and breaks very easily.
No need to knead. Just bring the mixture together and shape.
All you have to do is gently flip and turn.
You don't want to start kneading, because the last thing you want to do on a soda bread
is bite into it and have a bit more of a chew.
You want it to crumble and melt in your mouth.
Lift it up,
and just gently massage.
You want to add a little bit of flour to the bench, just to stop it from sticking too much.
I like to use a little bit of wholemeal flour as well, to dust.
I think it adds something to it.
Because that little bit of dusting on the top when you bake it off
caramelizes and forms a very light brown crust on the top,
which gives it a little bit of bite, as well.
So, tuck it underneath.
Push your hands together underneath, to give it a little bit of tension on the top,
and turn it in the flour.
Get a little bit of flour, pat it on the top,
that'll go straight onto a baking tray.
There's no need to prove, just give a traditional finishing touch.
The last thing you do is let the devil out.
Letting the devil out is a very old term.
When people were making soda bread, they used to rise and they thought it was the devil,
and so they needed to release it, because it was the devil's work.
It was witchcraft that these breads used to rise.
But what this cross really does is ensure an even bake.
Keep it quite tight together.
As this thing grows, it will bloom slightly, and open up like a flower.
Get a little bit of the wholemeal flour on the top,
the rest of the work is done by the oven.
The final stage is baking.
Bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes.
The heat will help the air bubbles formed by the bicarb and buttermilk make the loaf rise.
That is a great soda bread.
I'm carving slices out of this, but look at the crumb on that.
I mean, this is a very beautiful,
crispy loaf.
I'm going to transform this quick, crusty loaf into a fast lunchtime meal.
Irish rarebit.
Very much a peasant food, which is me all over, really.
Begin by finely slicing some spring onions,
add a chunk of cheddar.
Roughly grate this.
That is a lot of cheese.
Warm up some milk, and whisk in some flour to thicken.
Now I'm going to pop the cheese in here.
Add breadcrumbs, and a teaspoon of mustard powder.
A little bit of kick to it as well.
And finally, I've got a good glug of stout.
Once the rarebit has cooled slightly, add two egg yolks for richness,
half the spring onions, and give it all one good final mix.
Now it's ready to go on top of the toast.
Pop under the grill until bubbling and golden.
Look at them. Proper cheese on toast.
There you have it. A quick loaf becomes a quick meal.
Soda bread is just one of the many loaves that evolved during the 19th century,
because of the introduction of bicarb.
To find out more, I'm meeting food historian Ivan day in South London.
He's going to tell me how the northern teatime bread, parkin, evolved from this...
To this.
How long has that been around? Because I mean, looking at that,
that does look like it's prehistoric, to be honest.
Well, it really is a very ancient dish. It was originally called tharth cake...
- Yeah. - And they only had this on special occasions.
So, you think this looks a bit primitive and prehistoric,
but this is holiday bread.
This is what you have on a special occasion.
Most people didn't have ovens.
- Yeah, of course. - And...
So all of our breads in the north of england tended to be
- what were really like chapattis. - Yeah.
To make this historic parkin recipe,
Ivan mixes the oats with golden syrup,
treacle, melted butter and powdered ginger,
and then forms it into a large griddle bread.
- I'm going to put it onto this. - Yup.
This is called a thivel.
That is more or less how the very earliest sort of tharth cake or
- parkin was made. - Yup.
We've now got to get it off there, so we have another tool,
which is called a spurtle.
- Yeah. - So, you've got your thivel, your spurtle...
So, it's a pizza wheel and a spatula!
The bread is cooked on a griddle for about ten minutes on each side.
- Once you get this crisp on the outside, - Yes
and soft and sticky on the inside,
and the thing you would drink with it is not tea, but ale.
That's delicious, isn't it? I'd have that any day of the week.
And that's how it stayed for centuries.
But in this cookery book,
hand-written in the 1830s by Yorkshire woman mrs Morton,
we discover the revolutionary baking ingredient that changed parkin for ever.
Bicarbonate of soda.
This sort of recipe actually makes the flat half-baked parkin
extinct within a few decades.
So, we're actually going to make that one now.
One of the first, certainly the earliest parkins.
We're mixing the oats, treacle and butter together.
- And what else goes in there? - Well, we've got to put ginger in.
So this is, you can see I'm being very, very generous with that.
Oh yeah, aren't you just.
Shall we put the eggs in while you're here? Go ahead.
We've got the rising agent going in now.
- Just one spoonful, ok? - Yup.
Now, don't stir it in just yet,
because there is a final ingredient which was used, vinegar.
In the original recipe, it was gooseberry vinegar,
but we're using some white wine vinegar here.
- Of course, this is acid... - Yes.
And it will react with the carbonate to produce a fizz.
- There's your rising agent. - Exactly, so if you stir that in.
The treacle is also quite acid, and that'll react with the bicarbonate.
The mixture is left to rise for 24 hours,
then poured into a lined tin and baked for about an hour.
It's incredible to think actually that that started life as that.
That hard biscuit
has ended up as quite a light, aerated cake.
Bicarbonate is the thing that did the trick.
But this is not the only afternoon treat given a lift by this miracle ingredient.
By combining yeast with bicarb, you can create some really interesting effects,
like in the quintessential teatime favourite, crumpets.
My nan used to make them when I was a little kid.
Big, big treat for us. You've got yeast and bicarbonate of soda.
So, actually, the two of them work in tandem to create something that is unique.
Start by mixing equal amounts of plain and strong flour.
The strong flour extra gluten helps give the crumpets structure,
whilst the plain flour keeps the texture soft and light.
Now, we're actually going to add our yeast at this stage.
This is fast action yeast.
What it does is, it's got a vitamin c in it, it's got ascorbic acid in there,
and it activates the yeast and gets it up to speed as quickly as possible.
And it sort of pushes it along, when it's thinking,
"do you know what, I've had enough feeding today,
"that's enough for me," the vitamin c is, like,
"go on then, go on, go on. Eat more, eat more!"
Dissolve a teaspoon of caster sugar into lukewarm milk,
now beat that into the mixture to create a batter,
similar to that used to make pancakes.
And then you cover it,
and leave it for at least 20 minutes, to become active.
That is the yeast that has grown, and then it's fallen back,
and it forms little crease marks.
When I was a little boy at my nan's,
it was the smell of this that I distinctly remember.
But then she used to work her magic.
And the magic ingredient is the bicarb.
Going to add a little bit of water to this.
Add this liquid slowly to the dough,
turning it back into a smooth batter.
See it bubbling and reacting already.
And all of the sudden, the mixture goes from quite a malleable piece of dough
to a very batter-ish, cake looking mixture.
Victorian bakers had the original idea of adding this second raising agent,
which eventually creates the crumpet's characteristic craters.
And the bicarb'll start working now.
It'll start activating with the acid of the yeast.
And that'll start creating bubbles.
Now, you need about 20 minutes at that stage, which is
almost batter consistency, but a little bit more glutinous. You see the way it hangs.
Turn it round again slowly, start breaking it down.
And then beat it in.
Perfect.
Leave for about 20 minutes until it's full of air and bubbling.
Now it's ready to pour into some greased baking rings on top of a hot griddle.
Get some into each one of the rings.
Fill the rings only half way up,
because the batter will expand as it cooks.
The mixture can't be too thick, because you won't get the bubbles.
The mixture can't be too thin,
cos it'll just run out the bottom of the mould.
You've got to get it just right.
This is my favourite bit.
Watching the bubbles appear and burst,
leaving little holes which will give the crumpets their distinctive, dimpled look.
We need to leave them to cook for about three to five minutes.
I won't move them until the bubbles are beginning to set.
And when they're ready, flip them over.
All that's going to happen now, it's going to cook the bubbles underneath,
and they'll be ready to eat. Slather a bit of butter and away you go.
That takes me back to when I was six years old.
Fantastic.
For this and other recipes, you can visit the BBC food website.
Delicious as they are with melting butter,
I think these are great at the heart of a breakfast with a twist.
The perfect eggs Benedict.
Swapping the usual English muffin for a crumpet.
Here's my recipe for a delicious homemade hollandaise sauce.
To make it, place three egg yolks and a splash of water into a food processor.
I'm just going to add the juice of half a lemon, straight in.
And then, begin to mix it, and emulsify the mixture together.
You can just see it begin to lighten up a bit now, it's blending in well.
Keep it running while you add the melted butter.
The secret to a good hollandaise
is putting in a little bit of butter at a time.
That looks pretty good.
Once all the butter has been incorporated, season with a little white pepper and salt.
Mix that together.
Beautiful mixture.
I know some guys who really know the value of a hearty breakfast,
they work at Smithfield's meat market in East London.
We're doing breakfast down in the bottom in about half an hour.
- The cafe, yeah. - Are you in there?
I'm going to be in there doing crumpets with a difference.
Many of the butchers and market porters have been up since 2.00am.
Where better to road test my breakfast.
I'm fairly confident that they're going to enjoy this, because
it's my sort of spin on a classic dish.
That,
as a breakfast,
you've got your crumpet,
your poached egg, a little bit of hollandaise, and crispy bacon.
I just hope they like it.
I think Mary could do a better job on that bacon.
It seems to be going down ok.
It was a lovely breakfast. Really enjoyed it, thank you.
It was lovely stuff.
Delicious. Very nice. Best eggs Benedict I've had.
As the baguette is with France, the bloomer with Blighty and the rye with Germany,
so is soda bread most closely associated with Ireland.
With that in mind,
my next bread celebrates two of their other great exports,
stout and salmon.
Stout soda bread is a particular favourite.
It's the use of the stout in the mix that gives this a very
pungent flavour.
Measure out the wholemeal and plain flour.
I'm not using the strong stuff, because the gluten will fight
with the bicarb of soda, which is the rising agent.
Add the salt, bicarbonate, brown sugar,
buttermilk and the all important stout,
which will give the loaf a toasted nutty and faintly caramel flavour.
I've gathered up all these ingredients in the bowl,
so I've got a nice soft, mixture there.
I'm not going to knead this, I'm literally just going to fold it a couple times,
pop it in tin, job done.
Wholemeal flour is in the mix,
so I'm going to use wholemeal flour just to dust the table with.
It's important to shape all soda breads very gently.
And I don't want to do any more than that.
I'm happy with that now.
Now, if you put this in a tin,
there's only one way it can rise, and that's actually straight up.
A splash of olive oil will stop the dough sticking to the tin.
Squeeze it in there, flatten it down a bit,
leave it to rest for ten minutes. There's no rush.
While that's in the oven, I'm making a simple
but delicious smoked salmon pate.
Just tip all that into the blitzer itself.
Add creme fraiche.
Add the cream cheese.
If you want something very quick to impress your friends,
don't go and buy. Just make it. It's very, very simple.
Now a bit of zing.
The zest and juice of a lemon, and a bit of horseradish.
Adds that little bit of kick to it, a little bit of heat.
Some dill. Just roughly chop it,
most of it will get blitzed in the mixer anyway.
And that's it.
Try and keep it rough you don't want it too smooth.
Slather this stuff over.
Delicious. I'm going to have a bite of this one.
I'd have that any day.
And any time of the day.
It's delicious.
I'm after a key ingredient for a rich and hearty dish I want to show you.
- Hello. - Hi!
After some cheddar. What have you got?
The God minster cheddar, really creamy.
I've made different types of soda bread for breakfast,
lunch and afternoon tea, but now I'm making one for dinner.
As the crowning glory of a classic British casserole.
This cobbler is a fuss free, one pot meal.
A hearty stew with a cheese and Rosemary scone crust.
This is delicious, especially on those cold winter nights.
Keep the vegetables quite chunky, so they retain their shape during the long, slow cook.
And over here, I've got some stewing steak.
Coat it in seasoned flour and fry until brown.
Put the meat to one side while you sweat the vegetables in those lovely juices.
I'm just going to add a good squirt of puree to this.
It's important that you cook this out,
because otherwise it remains quite bitter.
Add a good slosh of red wine, which deglazes the pan
and gets all those lovely meaty bits off the base.
Now you need to put the stock in.
A bit of good beef stock here.
Pop a bay leaf in there, just turn the heat down to a simmer.
Just to release all those juices, the vegetables will begin to break down,
and we'll have the perfect stew. I'd say about an hour and a half.
And leave it alone. Don't touch it.
Now I'm going to make the cobbles,
the cobbler bits for the dish, which is basically a cheese scone.
I'm using malt flour, wholemeal flour and white flour,
all self-raising flours.
Now the beauty of using self-raising flour is that you don't have
to bother with the rising agent, it's already in there.
Most people do have self-raising flour.
If you've only got plain flour, think of
15 grams of baking powder per kilo of flour, will give you self-raising flour.
I'm just going to add a little pinch of salt to that as well.
And I've got some rosemary
in here.
Fresh rosemary's fantastic in this, it really is.
It's got such a pungent flavour.
Married up with a very strong mature cheddar cheese,
it's gorgeous.
Just chop it up roughly,
that'll do. That goes straight into the mix as well.
Now I'm going to add some grated cheddar to this, a very strong one.
A good, mature cheddar.
There you go. About 150 grams of that goes in. Quite a lot, you think.
Going to hold some of this back,
to put on the top and that'll just melt into the scone, as well.
So, just blend all the ingredients together, so it goes into the flour.
The last ingredient to go in there is your full fat milk.
This gives a little added richness to the scones.
Stir that round.
There are different schools of thought on how to mix the ingredients.
Some say with a flat-bladed knife, others say a mixer.
Me? I just get my hands in.
I've been asked a few times about the difference between a "scoan"
and a "scohn".
There's no such thing as a "scohn".
It's called a "scoan".
End of conversation.
In fact, the name scone is said to derive from the Dutch word for fine white bread
schoonbrood.
Give it a little bit of a working, but not too much.
As with all other soda breads I've made,
I'm just lightly bringing the dough together.
The worst thing you can do is overwork it,
which would make the scones hard and chewy.
When I cut my scones, if you cut it with the straight side,
they're, like, really posh scones.
If you cut it with that side, that's, like, common as muck.
I used to have scones like that.
And now I have them like that.
The secret when making a scone, whether it's savoury or sweet,
is actually to have a bit of height to them.
Don't be scared. Put your cutter in, cut right through.
And again.
And again. And again.
Just take your scones out, pop them to the side for now.
To give the scones a golden glaze, brush the tops with a little egg wash.
Try not to get it too much down the sides, because it just
restricts its growth, when you brush the top, cause when you bake it,
or indeed stew it which is what's going to happen to these,
it actually acts like a glue and prevents them from growing too much.
These scones can be made on their own.
Just bake them for fifteen minutes for a light texture and a cheesy crust.
But these raw scones are going into a cobbler,
and they'll soak up all those meaty juices.
Perfect.
Now what I'm going to do is just lay these scones on the top,
like so, get some of this cheese,
laying the cheese onto the top.
Again, this is going to add a little bit of crust to it, as well.
That blends really well with the rosemary inside the scone.
You've got plenty of cheese in there, as well.
This goes into the oven and that'll crisp up the scones on the top
and bake the scones, as well.
I've invited a couple of the guys I met at Smithfield market
to pop by and test my hearty beef cobbler.
Here you are, guys. This is a hearty meal for you.
It's basically a beef cobbler, with cheese scones in it.
I think you'll enjoy this, guys.
Tuck in, and tell me what you think.
Yeah, that's good.
I've got a recipe for Carmen.
And that crispiness on the top from that cheese works really well with it.
I think with the meat and the sauce...
It's really good.
It's tasty, isn't it?
It's absolutely delicious.
- You can have some more if you want some. - I'll have a bit more. Yeah, please.
I've showed you the quickest loaves to bake, not by using yeast
but by using bicarbonate of soda as the main rising agent.
I hope I've inspired you to turn your hand to baking soda breads,
for breakfast...
Best eggs Benedict I've had.
Lunch...
I'd have that any day.
And dinner.
Next time, I'm going to tackle enriched breads.
I'll show you how to master British lardy cake.
That's pretty good.
An Italian loaf perfect for any special occasion.
Absolutely delicious.
Danish pastries with a savoury twist,
and a brioche crown stuffed with the flavours of the med.
- To baking bread. - To baking bread.
Subtitles by red bee media ltd
Synch & corrections by Vegemite.