Yesterday we had a break through. We got quality flour!

Yesterday we got our hands on the best flour we have seen in Lisbon! A few weeks ago we blogged about Diogo Amorim and his new bakery Gleba in Alcantara. Like us Diogo is not impressed about the quality of the bread you get these days. Now he is taking up the fight to bring the quality back to the Portuguese bread industry that has faced huge massification from franchisings that have dragged down many of the small, family owned bakeries due to their low quality products. Baking is not our business – but we bake our own bread. Still we have problems with the quality. Or had problems. After several months research we finally managed to get our hands on quality flour from Icopa less than 30 minutes drive from our hotel. And not only wheat. Together with a big bag of wheat flour for our sandwich and break fast bread the guy from Icopa brought a bag of rye in T85 quality!!! And more important – they told us that they also have yeast and several other products. I immediately opened the wheat bag and started making bread from the recipe I have been working on the last many weeks – one that fits in to our kitchen routines and at the same time so easy to make that every one can make it. I started making the dough yesterday at 6 pm from cold water and put it in the fridge for ‘growing’. It took me less than 5 minutes!!! This morning at 7 am I took out dough from the fridge (now double size) and put it in a hot-pot, put on the lid and placed it in the oven in medium heat. This took me less than 3 minutes After 30 minute I took off the lid and turn up the heat to maximum. After 15 minutes the bread was ready – and 10 minutes ago I had my first slice – its amazing how much better it is only because of the flour.

Since the oven was in use I decided to make our sandwich bread

Our sandwich bread is a recipe we originally got from our close friend and chef Karma Claus from Karmaman in Copenhagen who has played in our kitchen in Kathmandu several times (I’m sure he will do the same in our kitchen i Lisbon. The bread is softer – and inspired by a focaccia but with out the crunchiness that destroys your mouth. And it’s as easy to make as our morning bread. When the morning bread was in the oven I made the dough from luke warm water, yeast, a little salt and a few drops of olive oil yeast and our new flour. [caption id="attachment_31918" align="alignright" width="339"] Still work in progress – but the flour is working!![/caption] Them I poured the slightly wet dough in a flat pan and left it growing while the morning bread was in the oven. That process took me only 5 minutes. While the morning bread was in the oven and the other bread was growing I checked my mail, blogged, had a cup of coffee, enjoyed the smell of home-baked bread and listened to a podcast about John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme After 35 minutes I replaced the bread in the oven with the dough in the pan – now double size – that just had gotten a few drops of good Portuguese olive oil and seasoned with Portuguese flake salt (I wanted to season it with Rosemary but didn’t have any). After another 25 minutes the sandwich bread was ready – and I have had my morning shower. Why the whole world doesn’t make their own bread is a mystery to me. Can’t wait to work with the rye flour and the new yeast…. Thomas]]>