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Mrs Bailey’s Party Bread

(honestly, this is a lot easier than it looks)

Chaz Brenchley
2 min readSep 3, 2020

360g bread flour

8g instant yeast

5g salt

112g lukewarm milk

75g lukewarm water

1 egg

35g olive oil

Mix that all together and kneady-beat it for five minutes. Be aware, it makes a very sticky dough that’s horrible to handle; I use a stand mixer with the dough hook, and end up with something clinging tight to the floor of the bowl, halfway between a batter and a dough.

Work it into a ball with your fingers, splash a little olive oil into the bowl, roll it around till the ball is coated. Cover and leave for an hour or so. It’ll rise into the airiest of doughs. Deflate it gently, and spread it out on a board. At this stage, it’s suddenly lovely to work with; you can stretch it almost to translucence, and it’ll stay coherent and peel off anything. Shape it into an oblong about two foot long and ten inches wide. Give or take.

Pulp some garlic with a little olive oil, and spread that over the dough. Grate 200g of cheese [your call: I’m using Gruyere because I have a great block of it, but cheddar or parmesan would work fine, or half a hundred others] and scatter that over. Chop half a bunch of basil…

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Chaz Brenchley
Chaz Brenchley

Written by Chaz Brenchley

I write. That’s what I do. Forty-five years a pro (and counting), and never a day job. Betweentimes I cook, and garden, and am very married.

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