A tear-and-share breads that came about by a lucky accident and is sure to become a family staple:
Today we had ourselves a party. I think, February is always a nice time for parties, people have got over all the Christmas excesses and are ready to indulge a bit again.
I thought long and hard about how to cater for the guests. Officially, the party was 2-5pm, so missing all the main mealtimes. Yet I also knew, we never actually finish till a good couple of hours after the time we say just the sort of lovely friends we have and no one wants to go home! It was no different today either. We had a ball!
Fifteen adults and ten children.
I knew I wanted bread to play a big part in the meal- because its ideal both between meals to nibble on or for people who missed lunch. Yet I decide what I actually wanted to make and what I ended up making evolved till the last minute, till it was put in the oven to prove:
Originally I intended to make mini meatballs and mini burger buns to go with them, but just ran out of time i.e. I didnt start it the night before, but only this morning, which didn’t really leave me enough time to make those cute little dough balls or the meatballs. So instead I coated an unsmoked gammon joint and had to come up with a bread to suite.
I decided on a tear-and-share bread; making it in our breadmaker; and to go with the gammon I went for a mustard flavour:
Mustard tear-and-share bread recipe
for the bread:
- 1 ½ tsp yeast
- 550 g strong white bread flour
- 2 tbsp/ 50g honey
- 25 g olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 300 g lukewarm water
for topping:
- c. 3 tbsp mustard
- small bowl of grated cheese
- Place bread ingredients into your breadmachine
- Put breadmachine on PIZZA DOUGH setting or similar (Mine machine has a 45 minute program for this)
- After machine has finished dough you can leave it rest for a while, if you have the time
- Next roll out your dough on a smooth surface sprinkled with flour. I tend to turn it over a couple of times too, as well as gently pull some of the thicker bit by hand.
- It should make about a 45cm (18 inch) circle
- Spread the mustard, making sure its not too thick and you cover to the edges
- Sprinkle your grated cheese all over
- Now roll your dough up like you a carpet
- Cut your rolled up dough into about one and a half finger thickness circles
- Put your little snail houses into an oven dish (can be round or square/ rectangular) flat, making sure to leave about 2 fingers width of space all around each one
- Place in a warm place for 30-45 minutes to rise. I use my oven which has a 40C setting, which the ideal temperature. (Try to get temperature as close to this as possible)
- Then put in a 180C preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
- When finished, tip it out onto a cooling rack to allow to cool
- Eat warm or cold with family and friends
Overall verdict:
This tear-and-share bread was very popular. Lots of guests said they expected something sweet, but then complimented me how delicious this loaf was. It was finished in no time at all.
The mustard filling was a perfect complement to the thinly sliced roast ham.
The above batch made 22 roll. However, for the number of guests we had I would make 2 batches next time.
Enjoy!
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