I was not only afraid of making curries after my first nightmarish foray into curry making, but I was terrified of baking bread. Baking I got – brownies, cakes, muffins, cookies – all of that was no real issue. Add the magical ingredient “yeast”, though, and I was out of there. Yeast implied chemistry. Where yeast is concerned, so are soap opera like behaviors of women wailing as things don’t rise.

Get the puns out of your head.

Go on. I’ll wait.

All better?

OK, so, I wouldn’t make bread. Truly too terrifying. My ego is already too frail, let’s not make some dough reiterate my insecurities. Then Alastair decided one day, out of the blue, to bake bread. And bake he did, and he did it really well. So I decided if he can do it…

And baking isn’t as hard as you’d think. Really it’s not. And it’s one million times more rewarding making it yourself than it is using a bread machine. I know, I used to have one. I gave it up when I moved to Sweden (hello, different voltage!) and in the Autumn and Winter we are regular bread bakers. That’s not to say we’ve not had failures because of course we have. I remember one particularly disastrous attempt when I was using garam flour to try to make parathas. That shit was like superglue to my hands, it was so foul it hit the bin with a disheartening weightlifter sounding thud.

But at the end of the day, what’s the worst that can happen? You’re out some flour and some time. Not big in the grand scheme of things. Make it work, though, and you will be hooked (and patting yourself on the back a great deal).

I thought I would try a bread recipe this week and Alastair suggested focaccia. I made a focaccia one year that was so beautiful my brother-in-law literally ate half the pan of it. Focaccia is tasty, easy, and above all it’s more of a flat bread so it doesn’t need to rise so much.

Two things that I have learned: bread making is time-consuming, so I do it on a day when I am home and have time to check on things. Also when letting bread “prove” (this is the pretentious way of saying “rise”) then the best place for it is covered with a cloth or some cling film/Saran wrap in a very lightly warmed oven. I warm ours on its lowest setting for about ten minutes then switch it off. I then make the bread dough and it rises nicely in semi-warmed oven. Wouldn’t we all.

European bakers can try starting with this recipe (an American one I’ve tried follows below, where we will then join up again!)

Ingredients:

500g strong white bread flour, plus some for dusting
1 ½ tsp salt
7g sachet fast-action yeast
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

If you have a KitchenAid (I love mine, I bought it off of Amazon while they were having a mass sale. I gulped at both the cost and the color of it but we really do use it all the time) then you’ll press this into service. If not, use your hands and mix it in a large bowl.

1) Put the flour into a bowl and mix in the salt. Mix the yeast into 325ml tepid water. Add the water and oil to the flour, then mix well with a plastic scraper, mixer or your hands. If mixture is too moist add more flour.

Folks not on the metric scale can use this list of ingredients:

1 teaspoon white sugar
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

1) In a small bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
2) In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture with flour; stir well to combine. Stir in additional water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until all of the flour is absorbed.

OK, so we can join the North American and European streams back together again here.

When most of the liquid is incorporated, use your hands to bring all the ingredients together into a ball of dough.

Tip the dough out onto a worktop lightly dusted with flour and work it by pulling and stretching for at least 10 mins. Try to get as much air into it as possible. Put the ball of worked dough into a well-oiled bowl, cover with a little more oil and a tea towel or cling film. Leave to rest for 1 hr or so in a non-draughty warm spot (again, the oven is the best place for it).

Check on the dough periodically – we find that one hour usually isn’t enough, so a few hours will go by and we’ll then head for the dough. I usually only start working with it when it has doubled in size.

Now stretch the dough out onto a baking sheet until it’s about 20 x 30cm (8×12 in).

Leave the dough to rise again to about half as high again, about 30-40 mins in a warm draught-free place, loosely covered with a tea towel.

The cool thing about focaccia is that almost anything tastes nice on it. Throw on some chopped black olives if you’d like (about one cup, roughly chopped). Or add one cup roughly chopped sun dried tomatoes. Or a handful of cherry tomatoes. A handful of crumbled feta is gorgeous, and I can also highly recommend anchovies on it. Or for the ultimate orgasmic carb experience, spread some pesto and tear up some mozzarella on it and later have people pledge their love for you after the first bite.

For this recipe I used two sauteed red onions, two sprigs of rosemary, a tablespoon of sea salt, and a cup of grated pecorino (parmesan works just as well). So while the dough is rising, cook two chopped red onions in 1 tbsp olive oil for 5 mins until soft, then set aside. When the dough is ready, push your fingertips into it, because it gives the “onions” purchase and besides, it’s pretty fucking fun.

Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6/475F. Spread the onions over the dough and scatter with the rosemary. Press your fingers into the dough to make dimples, drizzle the remaining oil over and scatter over the salt.

Then bake for 30 mins or until golden (I’ve also been told, and it’s true, that when bread is done it sounds hollow when you tap the middle of it. Who knew that knocking bread had a purpose?). Leave to cool, then serve cut or torn into squares.

It was gorgeous. Honestly.

I imagine bread making may seem overwhelming, or at least that’s the response I’ve previously had. It is scary to try it for the first time, but when it works you feel like you can kick the Pillsbury Dough Boy’s soft white ass. Some folks were kind enough to tell me when they made the curry and what worked or didn’t work, so if you make this then let me know!

-S.