Make the most of the season’s bounty with these delicious and comforting recipes from Gill Meller, to cook and eat outdoors in autumn’s golden light, or indoors as you wish
A SIMPLE CAMPFIRE LOAF
Cooking bread in the embers of a fire might seem like a trivial achievement, but in reality it’s quite the opposite. In that bread, we get a glimpse of our evolution, our history and even our future. We see humankind’s capacity to survive, to learn and to adapt. The bread itself represents our reliance on the land – it encapsulates the domestication of plants and the consumption of their seeds, the very bones of agriculture.
MAKES 1 LOAF
• 50g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
• 250g wholemeal (wholewheat) flour
• 1 heaped tsp quick yeast
• 1 heaped tsp sea salt
METHOD
1 Combine the flours, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add 320ml of water and mix until the dough starts to come together. You can knead the dough in the bowl by stretching it out, then folding it in on itself, or turn it out on to a floured surface and knead it. Do this for five mins. Shape the dough into a round, return it to the bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, which should take an hour or so, but can take 2–3 hours if the day is cold.
2 Turn out the risen dough on to a board – this will knock a lot of the air out of it. Gently stretch the top and bottom edges and fold them into the middle. Repeat with the left and right edges. With each fold, crimp the seam of the edges together. Turn the dough over and use your hands to form it into a nice, tight round shape. Cut out a round of baking paper, about 30cm in diameter, and place the dough on it. Scatter over a little flour and leave it to rise for 30 minutes.
3 Light the fire, if it’s not going already. You want a mixture of burning wood and hot, chunky, glowing embers. Take a large, heavy-based, cast-iron pot or Dutch oven. Place 3–4 pebbles over the bottom and lay the base of a springform cake tin on top. When your fire is ready, level off an area within it, so the pot will sit evenly. Put the lid on the pot and place it in the fire to heat up.
4 When the dough is ready and the pot is hot, lift the lid. Pick up the dough by the edges of the paper and lower into the pot. Put on the lid; use tongs to put embers around and on top of the pot. Bake for up to one hour, keeping the heat consistent by shuffling the embers, feeding the fire and rotating the pot every 10–15 mins. To test the loaf is done, take it out and tap its underside; it should sound hollow.
