Chicken bread plait

Tags

Bank Holiday weekend, bread, chicken, favourite dough, mixed spice

This is, by far my favourite dough recipe, not that I’m an expert or anything, it really does make a lovely silk, easy to knead dough,

Not only did I forget to write out a proper shopping list last week, I also forgot it was a Bank Holiday Monday, which meant that I really having been scraping together dinner this week, I could’ve gone shopping like I usually do on a Monday, but it’s a beautiful day and everyone and their screaming kids would have been there panic buying barbecue stuff, so I thought I’d give it a miss.

So knowing I had bugger all I made some dough in the afternoon which gave me a few hours to decide what to make..

This is, by far my favourite dough recipe, not that I’m an expert or anything, it really does make a lovely silk, easy to knead dough, I’ve made buns for burgers, sweet and savoury breads, pizza bases and flat breads with it, I’ve put half in the fridge over night and it’s been fine the next morning and I’ve accidentally knocked it back before I’ve needed it and left it to rise again and it’s always worked for me.

500g Strong white bread flour, 10g salt, 10g easy yeast, 4/5 tsp oil and 9 fl oz water, kneaded on an oiled top and left to rise til it’s doubled or trebled in size.

After having a think about it, I came up with

Chicken bread plait:

As I said, I really didn’t have much in the way of ingredients.

A piece of back bacon left from the quiche I made in the week, a couple of chicken breasts, of which I only used one, and some frozen spinach leaves.

I cut a third off the dough and put it to one side.

I bashed out the chicken, cut it up and cooked it off with the bacon and some onion, seasoned it and let it cool down

then laid it down the middle of a rectangle of dough, on top of the spinach, I cut both sides at angles.

Then I ‘plaited’ it..

brushed it with an egg wash and left it to prove while I made a mixed spice one.

Same technique, but with mixed fruit, butter,sugar and mixed spice.

I egg washed that and baked them both until they were lovely and golden.

I sprinkled some Parmesan on the chicken bread.

and served it with some potatoes that I covered in a bit of leftover Camembert.

It was lovely, there was even enough leftover for lunch.