Foodie Friday

Cheese, Onion & Origanum Boertjie Brood

It must be said that I am a bit of a boere-meisie- not a thorough breed, no, my Dads family is from the UK. My mom's side of the family however, are the real deal! My Great Grand Parents raised my Gran in the Wilderness area (Western Cape) in a house made from cows dung (yes...cows dung),  with no electricity and water only from the river nearby. What a beautiful simple life they lived. My Great Grand Father, a Wood Cutter and my Great Grand Mother, a wife, mother, home maker and prayer warrior. The two most important things in their lives was serving God and ensuring there was food on the table. I'm very blessed to have known my Great Grand Mother and even more blessed to have been so close to my Gran, who passed away last year.  So... having said that, this recipe is a tribute to my heritage. My Afrikaans, cow-dung huisie, potbrood baking hertiage!

For those followers outside of South Africa- Pot-Brood is an Afrikaans Bread made in a traditional cast iron (potjie) pot. A special thank you must go to our friends Ruan and Lauren who let us use their potbrood pot and also gave us amazing tips for this recipe. If you don't have one of these cast iron breadpots- don't stress- you can use a normal loaf pan instead.

Tips: 

• If you don't have time to make the dough from scratch- go to your nearest bakery (Spar sells a pretty nice dough) and buy a packet of ready to bake dough.

• If you are having a braai/barbeque you can simply put the pot on a few of the braai coals (the coals cant be too hot), put 2 coals on the lid and bake for 45 min. Easy!

Ingredients:
560g cake flour
2tsp salt
300ml room temperature milk
30ml vegetable oil
1tsp baking powder
2 level tsp instant yeast
2 handfuls Grated cheddar cheese
125ml Cream
1 Onion Chopped and Fried in Olive Oil
Some chopped origanum
Freshly ground black pepper

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1. Combine the milk, oil, half of the grated cheddar cheese, the onions, and origanum in a bowl. 

2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Add dry yeast and mix. 

3. Next add the liquid mixture little by little to dry ingredients. mix to a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead dough for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place dough in a bowl, cover, and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

Ps.  I'm lucky enough to have a mixer that is able to knead the dough for me (thank goodness for that because it really is an arm workout!) but if you don't have one of these knead the dough by hand until it has an elastic consistency.

3. Divide the dough into kiwi fruit sized balls (usually about 6 balls).


4. Lay them side-by-side in rows in a greased loaf pan/ potjie bread pot and pour the cream over the dough balls.

6. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 45- 50 Minutes until cooked (Skewer must come out clean). Take the bread out, top with the remaining cheese and the Bake for a further 5 minutes.

7. Serve WARM with Butter

8. Repeat Steps 1-7  as your guests will definitely want seconds :)


DIS NOU LEKKER NE!