Best selling bread

Café 4 has been known as the lunch spot in Hamilton with the most popular salad bar. As for the sandwiches? All the fresh breads are made in house, using four ingredients — organic flour, local eggs, water and temperature controlled yeast.

Here’s a recipe for their multigrain bread:

Yield 4

STARTER:

• 500gm bread flour
• 20 gm fresh yeast
• 500 ml lukewarm water
• 4 teaspoons Sugar

Soak the following with 500ml water for 2 hours until soft:

• 50 gm Sesame seeds
• 80gm Pumpkin seeds
• 50gm flax seeds
• 60 gm Sunflowers seeds
• 100 gm rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons toasted wheat germ

DOUGH:

• 460 gm Wheat flour
• 540 gm Bread flour
• 32gm Butter (SOFT)
• 32 gm Salt
• 2 tablespoons honey

Directions

To make the Starter: Stir together bread flour, sugar and yeast in a medium bowl. Stir in water until thoroughly blended. The dough will be like pancake batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 2 hours at room temperature. The dough will become frothy and double in volume, with lots of little bubbles.

In the meantime, soak all the seeds and rolled oats for 2 hours until soft.

Mix together all the dried ingredients, starter, soaked soft seeds and oats in a bowl. Turn the mixture out onto a clean kitchen surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the ‘windowpane effect’ is achieved (where the dough can be stretched until it is so thin that it becomes transparent).

Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and let it prove for 2½-3 hours or double the volume.

Turn out the dough onto a clean kitchen surface and knock back (deflate the dough). Portion the dough into 4 and shape into two ball-shaped loaves. Place seam side up on a towel or parchment paper generously dusted with bread flour or rice flour. Cover and let rise 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until ¾ volume size.

For the best baking results, place a baking stone, pizza stone or unglazed ceramic tile on the bottom shelf of oven. Preheat oven to 475°F for 20 minutes to allow the stone to get to temperature. Depending on the size of your baking stone, bake 1 or 2 loaves at a time, placing seam side down on parchment paper. If desired, brush flour off the top, lightly brush with water and sprinkle with oats. Score each loaf with 2 to 4 slashes using a sharp knife or blade. Slide the dough with parchment onto bread peel or rimless baking sheet. Carefully slide onto the heated baking stone, immediately spritzing the oven with water around the dough 7 to 10 times. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes spritzing every 5 minutes, 3 more times. Bake to an internal temperature of 200°F. Remove from the oven and parchment; cool on wire rack. Bake remaining loaf.

This article was originally published in the 2019 edition of the rg Food Magazine.

The post In the bakery: Café 4 appeared first on RG Magazines.

If your first thought when you see avocado, chocolate and cake in the same sentence is, “errr, that’s disgusting” then you’re not alone. However, you’d also be wrong, and here’s why.

It turns out that avocado as a substitute for eggs and butter is amazing, once you get passed the whole “why did you have to go and ruin my guilty pleasure” thing.

And look at this way, with all the other bad-for-you-food you’re going to eat over the holidays, with this, you can have your cake, and eat it too.

Here’s one of our favourites; a decadently delicious dark chocolate cake.

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 55 mins

Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

Ingredients

For the cake: 3 cup all-purpose flour; 6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder; 2 tsp baking powder; 2 tsp baking soda; ½ tsp salt; ¼ cup vegetable oil; 1 ripe avocado, mashed until very smooth; 2 cups water; 2 tsp white vinegar; 2 tsp vanilla extract; 2 cup granulated sugar.

For the frosting: 2 large ripe avocados, peeled and pitted; 2 cups powdered sugar; 4 tbsp cocoa powder

Instructions

For cake:

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease and flour a tube pan.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, avocado, water, vinegar and vanilla. Whisk until well combined.

Whisk sugar into the wet mix.

Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture all at once. Beat with a whisk (by hand) until smooth.

Pour batter into a greased tube pan. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cake cool in pan for 15 – 20 minutes on a cooling rack. Turn cake out onto cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

For buttercream frosting:

Scoop avocados out into a food processor. Process until smooth, about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down avocado with spatula if necessary.

Add powdered sugar and cocoa powder to pureed avocado. Process for another minute or until creamy and combined, stopping once to scrape down mixture if necessary.

Frost cake. Let cake sit a few hours before serving, allowing time for flavors to blend.

The post Lindo’s appeared first on RG Magazines.