The Ferca Times: Crustum - Broken Pieces of Bread

Since 10,000 BC the humans has been passionate about one thing.

The word itself, old English bread, is common in various Germanic languages. Known around the world and present in most homes - Bread, Brot, Brod, Crustum, Pan, Panne, Hlaf, Loaf - is a staple food prepared from dough of flour and water usually by baking it. It is one of humanities oldest food.

From Neolithic cooks making breads that weren't leavened in rocks, the used of yeast us a leavening agent by the Egyptians around the 4,000 BC that will bake their breads in beehive or barrel shaped containers of baked clay to these days where commercial breads might include additives and other non nutritional ingredients in order to improve flavour, texture, color and shelf life.

With so many different traditional recipes and makes of preparing the bread, to the many differently types of flour used and ingredients added to it.

I do all types of loaves: gluten free white or seeded from corn or rice flour, gluten free from seed flour such as quinoa, whole meal, sourdough, sandwich bread white and whole meal, garlic bread, loaves with olives, with herbs, with cheese, with seeds, ryde flour, .... The choices are endless.

For this article I choose a simple recipe that will result into a health wholesome food. A Wholemeal loaf with fresh herbs from my garden.

It's really easy, you can use the yeast in this recipe or if you wish to have a yeast-free bread leave a stickier dough (a little bit more water) in a metal bowl wrapped with cling wrapped for 24 hours to ferment and that will give you a good result.

RECIPE

Ingredients:

1140gr wholemeal flour (plain flour if you prefer white bread)

1l lukewarm water

36gr good quality bakers yeast

60ml extra virgin olive oil

Pink Himalayan salt or sea salt & pepper to taste

Fresh Herbs: thyme, rosemary, oregano

Method:

Place the flour in a large mixing bowl, with your hands break the flour to make sure there are no lumps or dirt. Add the fresh herbs. In a measuring jar add 1L of lukewarm water and mix the yeast, whisk it. Make a hole in the middle and pour the water, start folding with your hands working towards the middle.This will result in a sticky dough. When you achieve a firm consistence, place the dough in a floured surface (the kitchen counter), and work the dough adding flour as needed, keep doing this for 15min. This process is knows as kneading and it's the most important as is here where gluten gets released.

Once you are happy with it, shape it in the form you wish your loaf to have and place it in a baking tray pre-sprayed with oil. With a knife make a few superficial incisions to achieve a good crust. Cover it with a wet tower and leave it to rest in a warm area to double in size. Preheat the oven to 220C. Bake for 15min to that temperature and then lower to 180C and bake for another 30min.