Spicy
Bloomer

strong white bread flour

 

#Story
Time

 

So completely unrelated to bread but brains are remarkable things - one thing leads to another and boom you’re completely into another little world. Get me? No? Think about that game you played during that crappy team building day at the office, you know, the word association one!

Well, here we go… Bloomer > Blooming!

So, after that genius intro…

When I was a child I used to visit my Dad at the weekends, school holidays and all the other days I was allowed to. Dads place was the fun cool house: no rules; eat everything; stay up to whenever; rarely told to do anything etc. You get the drift! In all honestly he was the most fabulous parent. Not because of what I mentioned but he genuinely just had such an amazing way of making any child feel as utterly important and valued as any other adult in the world. The amount of love and time he had for those he cared for was beautiful.

My Dad loved to make you feel special, and like any gentleman knows, some perfectly blooming flowers will always make a girl smile. Now, if you think about it you wouldn’t normally give a kid flowers but thats just what he was like. Every morning he would take a wander up to the shops, pop into the post office, pick up his prescription etc. He’d even make the time to nip into the graveyard and give his Dad’s and my God Father’s grave a kiss. Anyway, when it was time to head back down the road he would always try to pick some flowers for his girlfriend and I. This was something that just used to make me beam.

Now, he was a gentleman but he was also a bloody chancer and a poor one at that! After several years and a bloomin’ lot of flowers later. I gave my Dad a chum up to the shops. On the way back down he’d said he wanted to grab some flowers for his current beauty. He honestly must have nicked the nicest flower out of every garden we went past. Can you guess what next? We got to the graveyard. He went in, gave his kiss and on the way out grabbed half a dozen flowers from the wall edge. Bless his soul, they weren’t on someones grave but I just stood there while the poor mourners just looked over in disgust.

I of course told the girlfriend bloomin’ everything. Somehow he still managed to charm his way out of it!

Jade x

Junk’s Jam:

Serves 4-6

Hey!

What can we say about this… It’s bloomin’ delicious. You see what we did there!? Eh! Not again! Nice soft fluffy bread with a cheesy spicy crumbly topping. Simples!

Equipment…

>Stand Mixer
>Spice Grinder
>Sieve
>Grater
>Wire Rack

The Recipe

Stage #1
>Mix it up!

The Dough

40g Yoghurt
8g Yeast
120g Tepid Water 
250g Strong Bread Flour
8g Maldon Sea Salt
5g Caster Sugar

  • Add the Yoghurt, Yeast and Tepid Water together and let it sit for 10 minutes.

  • Place the Flour, Salt and Sugar into a mixer and start on low.

  • Pour in theYoghurt & Yeast mix and continue to turn for 10 minutes on a low setting.

  • Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and work gently folding back over the dough three times each. Rotate it 95 degrees and repeat the turning and folding four times until the dough is smooth and elastic.

 
 

The Topping

1 Tsp Togarashi
1 Tsp White Sesame Seeds
1 Tsp Black Sesame Seeds
1 Tbsps Crispy Garlic
1 Tbsps Crispy Fried Shallots
1 Tsp M.S.G
1/2 Tsp Chinese Five Spice
1 Tsp Maldon Sea Salt
1 Tsp Cracked Black Pepper
35g Chilli Heatwave Doritos
1 Tsp Chilli Flakes

  • Place all the ingredients into a Spice Grinder.

  • Pulse til’ a crumble, not too fine and not too chunky!

Stage #2
>Prove
yo’ Self!

1 Egg Yolk
Bloomer Topping 
20g Parmesan

Butter for Greasing
Plain Flour

Clingfilm

  • Grease a Bowl with Butter to stop the dough from sticking.

  • Place the dough into a Greased Bowl and cover with Clingfilm - leave to prove for 2.5 hours.

  • After the first prove sieve some Flour onto a dry surface and turn the dough out. Repeat the process as above.

  • Shape the dough into an oblong oval shape.

  • Gently whisk the Egg Yolk and paint onto the top and side of the loaf.

  • Coat in a generous amount of the Topping and grate the Parmesan on top of that.

  • Grease a piece of Clingfilm and lay it on top of the loaf. Leave to prove for another 1.5 - 2 hours.

Stage #3
>Bake it til’
you make it.

1 Cup Cold Water

  • Preheat the oven to 200ºc.

  • Gently remove the Clingfilm from the loaf.

  • Place the dough into the middle of the oven and throw the Cold Water into the bottom of the oven. Close the door immediately and bake for 15 minutes.

  • Remove your bloomer from the oven and leave to cool on a Wire Rack.