Bread week

It's bread week on bake off which for me means having a go at something bread related or even making something from the episode itself as bread and I started off as definite frenemies when I first dived into the world of bread. 

Slowly over the past year or so I have gotten much more confident and relaxed thankfully, and am not filled with sheer dread at just the thought of bread. With that in mind i decided rather last minute, to recreate Michael Chakraverty's Keralan star bread. 

Because the decison was so last minute, at 8.30pm i had to improvise a little and make do with  what i had in the cupboards for the fillimg and I'm super pleased to say it was a hit.

My filling ended up consisting of caramelised red onions with roasted red peppers & a little bit of heat with the additon of chilli flakes & cayenne pepper

To make my tear and sheare star bread you will need:

For the dough

500g strong bread flour

3tsp dry active yeast

2 tsp salt

2 tsp paprika

300ml room temp water 

3tbsp olive oil

For the filling 

2 meduim red onions - chopped

280g roasted peppers - chopped (jarred in olive oil)

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp chilli flakes

1/2tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp salt

To garnish

2 tsp nigella seeds 

• Start by making the filling. Take the oil from the jar of roasted peppers & add to your frying pan. Add to the oil, cook them on a medium heat until soft & beginning to caramelised.
• When the onions are almost cooked, add in the the rest of the ingredients and cook the spices for a couple of minutes on a low heat- This will stop the spices from burning. Once cooked, set aside and leave to cool 
• Whilst the filling cools, prepare the dough. Place the flour in a bowl, add in the paprika and stir through ensuring its mixed in well with tne flour.
• Add the yeast to one side, salt to the other, and olive oil into the middle.
• Slowly pour in the water, mixing the flour to form a soft dough.
• Drizzle a little olive oil onto your work surface, and then knead your dough on your work suface until smooth and elastic- this will take about 6-8 minutes. If you prefer you can use a freestanding mixer using the dough hook - this should take 3-4 minutes
• Place your dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to prove till doubled in size- about an hour
• When the dough has doubled in size, turn out onto a lightly floured work surface, knock the dough back and divide into 4 equal portions and leave for a couple of minutes - this helps the gluten to relax and makes rolling the dough easier.
• Take one ball of dough, and roll out to the size of a dinner plate, and place onto a baking tray lined with greasproof paper.
• Mark the centre of the rolled out dough using a small cookie cutter, then take one third of the filling and spread all over the rolled out dough being careful to avoid the centre, and to not go too close to the edge as you dont want the filling spilling out.
• Take the second ball of dough, again roll out the same size as the first ball, carefully place ontop of the filling and again mark the centre with the cookie cutter. Take another 3rd of the mixture and again spread all around the second circle avoiding the middle as befrore
• Repeat this process with the remaining 2 balls of dough. The 4th layer of dough should be plain - no filling should be used.
• Carefully seal the layers together by going around the edge and pressing together with your fingers and finally mark the centre of the circle again 
• Cut the circle into quarters ( as if you were cutting a pizza) nut do not go over or through the middle of the circle - cut from the centre down to the edge.
• Cut the 4 quarters into half, to make 8ths, then cut the 8ths in half to make a total of 16 pieces
• Take 2 strands of dough, 1 in each hand,  and twist 3 times away from each other and pinch the ends together to seal them
• Repeat this with all the remaining strands, carefully brush the top with water then sprinkle over the nigella seeds and leave to prove for 35-40 minutes.
• Preaheat the oven to 200c fan and bake for 20-25 minutes
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