We are going to make the most delicious garlic bread ever.
But I want to do things slightly differently today
because instead of cooking my own recipe, I want to shine a spotlight
on an amazing piece of work called Cook for Ukraine.
Now, Cook for Ukraine started off as an idea between my friend Olia
Hercules, a London based Ukrainian chef and her friend Alisa Thomasina,
originally from Russia.
Now they both share a mutual love of food and a desire to help those in need.
They've teamed up to increase awareness
of the humanitarian crisis that the world faces right now.
And what they want to do is raise funds to help children and families in Ukraine who've been displaced.
So today I'm joined in the movement by cooking up this incredible garlic bread.
It's known as Pampushky. Olia wrote the recipe and it's also from her utterly
beautiful book, Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine and Beyond.
Very excited to make this. So what we have here is what Olia calls a sponge
Look at that.
Let me tell you how we made this. It's really, really simple.
So we got 200 gm of strong flour into the bowl. With 1 teaspoon,
about 7 gm of caster sugar. Then one sachet, which is 7
gm of yeast, dried yeast. And about 225 ml of tepid water
Tepid, meaning blood temperature.
Mix that up until it's nice and smooth.
Cover it.
Put it in the fridge and let that basically develop and prove overnight.
Now what happens?
Okay.
You get the development of the gluten in the flour,
but you also get loads more flavour.
So this is going to be a garlic bread, which is soft, spongy, but full of flavour.
So that is a nice tip.
Now, a day later, we're going to finish this off.
So I'm going to go in now with 200 gm of strong flour.
So that's 400 in total.
And then I'm going to put about 8 gm of sea salt in as well.
And of course, the sea salt seasons the bread and gives you
delicious flavour, but yeast and salt don't really get on.
So we've developed the yeast and now we're finishing it.
So I'll just use a fork for a second just to bring it together
until it's not sticky anymore.
And then we can turn this out onto a clean surface.
Now we just give it a nice little knead...
until it's smooth and elastic. Take your time.
Enjoy the process.
Of course, people would say, why make bread but it's more than just bread, isn't it?
Its so nice to make something for yourself, for your family?
So look when you have your lovely dough like this,
what I tend to do is just kind of roll it out into a little sausage.
I don't want to get the scales out, but what I do want to do is create 8
even-ish sized bowls
So in half
we go and then in half again and in half again.
So I'm going to take this little dish
put a little olive oil in there. Just lubricate the edges.
And then what I like to do is take each ball, put it onto your clean surface,
put a little bit of weight on it, move it around, and it'll start to get traction.
And you can kind of go quite nice and fast.
And as you can feel it going into the shape of a ball,
I kind of bring my fingers down like that.
And then you end up with that. A beautiful supple bulb.
I am now going to just rattle through these, 7 around the outside
and one in the middle.
And then as that proves, that will double in size,
which will be like soft and spongy, but they'll all begin to touch each other.
And you have this wonderful tear and share bread that I know you're going to love.
Beautiful.
Get a clean cloth, wet with warm water, wring it out,
and then simply and gently lay this over the bread.
And we're going to let that prove until it's doubled in size
So these have been proving for an hour.
It's quite a nice, warm day.
Look at those. Beautiful.
So this is ready to be cooked now.
You can see the yeast has done its work,
you're going to get a nice crisp outside, spongy inside.
Typically, Olia would have this with beautiful soups and borscht and things like that.
So you can use it for so many different things.
But what she does, which is really interesting
I think is, she egg washes the bread, which I love.
It gives it the most beautiful shine.
She uses duck eggs. Of course, you can use any egg you like.
But of course, the duck eggs, I think are richer
and have this incredible colour like that.
And when you do egg wash it don't go kind of like whacking it and
you know, knocking it.
You want to keep all the precious air inside this beautiful homemade bread.
Don't put the love in and then ruin it at the last minute from brushing it
to cooking it in the oven and not slamming the door.
Don't slam the door. Like keep that air in this beautiful pampushky.
Can you see this literally just blooming out of the tin?
So it's going to go in the oven at 225° C
which is also 425° F for 20-25 minutes.
Olia, I hope I've done you proud. In the oven it goes.
Don't slam the door.
Okay.
So while the pampushky cooks in the oven until lovely and golden, I'm
now going to do the garlicky part.
So it's the classic combination of garlic and parsley.
So half a bunch like that, I'm just going to finely chop it.
In this recipe, they're using sunflower oil.
Of course, you could use melted butter if you wish.
You could use olive oil if you wish.
But I'm going to stick true to Olia's recipe.
So finely slicing the garlic.
I have pretty much finely chopped the garlic.
All of that goes into a little bowl
and then just loosen it with the sunflower oil
and we'll give it a nice little pinch of salt.
You want that nice salty outside and then just mix it up
and let that just infuse now to bring out all the flavors.
And when that lovely golden bread comes out of the oven,
we can slather it with the good stuff.
Okay.
Look at that.
Come on!
Look at that colour.
Absolutely beautiful.
While this is hot and sort of ready to absorb flavour, we're going to take this
amazing garlicky parsley oil and put it all over the top.
I personally would be liberal, get it everywhere.
The smell is absolutely amazing.
Of course, what's interesting is it's raw garlic, right.
So you have that heat, right,
So take it out of the mold and then brush it with the garlic.
Don't do what I did. I got too excited.
Embrace the garlicky mess.
So there you go.
A beautiful recipe from Olia Hercules.
Enough talking.
Now it is time to show you the insides of the glorious pampushky
Look how spongy that is.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely delicious.
For those garlic bread lovers out there, have a little look at Olia Hercules's pampushky.
Please, please support Cook for Ukraine.
It couldn't be easier for you to get involved,
do a bake sale, or do a supper club.
Just send a little bit of love to our brothers and sisters in Ukraine
and use food to spread the word. Take care.
Good luck.