Coca De Forner

It’s January (or limbo month as I like to call it), the start of a brand new year, a time for diets, resolutions & setting expectations for the year ahead. Personally I don’t believe in the resolution side of things & certainly don’t believe in the new year diets (I still have mince pies that need eating).

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It’s also the most depressing month of the year (does anyone really like January??), so like most people it’s when I set my sights on all things travel & set about booking holidays, trips, getaways & weekends away.

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My inner organisation geek comes into its own as I trawl Easyjet & Booking.com looking for inspiration, creating detailed spreadsheets of costs, transportation & timings (yes, I am THAT person). It’s almost a need for me to fill my calendar to give myself something to look forward to, the time away from the mundane day-to-day (yes, again like most people I hate my job).

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Looking back on 2018, I was lucky enough to have traveled quite a bit, checking off places like Cornwall, Barcelona, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Edinburgh, Prague & Santorini (2018 was a good year for travel), taking a shocking amount of photographs & eating an even more shocking amount of food!

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One thing I like to do when I travel is to make notes of all of the weird & wonderful foods I eat, trying to establish what ingredients & flavours were used to create whatever delight is it that I’m devouring. Then when I arrive home (or when I have the time to get around to it), I can attempt to recreate those memories.

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One such treat I noted down last year was coca de forner (meaning bakers cake) in Barcelona. A traditional Catalan bakers flatbread, coca de forner is a sweet bread glazed with anise liqueur & is eaten for breakfast or as a snack. Bread is s crucial to the Catalan diet that Catalans have a word for someone who loves to eat bread: panarra (aka my new favourite word).

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Me & my partner in crime ate many delicious breads & pastries whilst in Barcelona but coca de forner was a firm favourite for both of us. We first tried it for breakfast in a fantastic little bakery right around the corner from where we were staying in El Clot. With a huge array of golden, glazed or iced breads, pastries & biscuits on offer, we frequented here a few times (plus it was ridiculously cheap!) but it was this pine nut topped little flatbread that had me intrigued.

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With no clue as to what I had ordered (it was a point & mime kind of situation so asking just what it was I was actually pointing at was out of the question) I was pleasantly surprised to find that what I had ordered was a light, sweet & flavourful bread. The anise glaze is just sweet enough to add flavour without overpowering the bread itself. This glaze combined with the addition of pine nuts adds a wonderful contrast in texture to the light & fluffy dough.

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Relatively simple to make, I’ve made a glaze using whole star anise ground & combined with sugar & oil as opposed to a liqueur but I think it works & tastes just the same as the ones I devoured. I’ve made 4 coca de forners out of my dough but by all means, if you haven’t got gluttonous eyes like me, then divide the dough into 8 smaller coca’s & reduce the baking time by around 5 minutes.

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COCA FORNER
(makes 4)

Ingredients:

For the dough:

  • 500g strong white flour
  • 7g fast acting dried yeast
  • 5g salt
  • 30g caster sugar
  • 60ml olive oil
  • 240ml water

For the topping:

  • 50g olive oil
  • 20g caster sugar
  • 3 star anise, ground
  • 10g pine nuts

Method:

  • In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, salt & sugar
  • Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture & pour in the olive oil & enough of the water to form a dough (you may not need all of the water or may need a little more, start with two-thirds & keep adding more until the dough comes together, adding more if your dough seems a bit dry)
  • Empty the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface & knead for 10 minutes (or 5 minutes if using a stand mixer with a dough hook) until it is smooth & elastic when stretched
  • Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with clingfilm & leave to rise for about an hour, until it has doubled in size
  • Whilst the dough is rising, place all of the topping ingredients into a small saucepan & gently heat
  • Once all of the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat & set aside to cool
  • When your dough has risen, tip it out onto a floured work surface & knock back the dough(knead out the air pockets)
  • Divide the dough into 4 evenly sized pieces
  • Use your hands or a rolling pin to shape the dough into four oval-shaped flatbreads
  • Cover with a tea towel, or (my preference) place inside a large plastic bag & leave to prove for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until doubled in size & the dough springs back when gently pressed with a finger
  • Use your fingered to poke the dough, creating little crevices

  • Brush the bread with the topping & drop pine nuts into each of the little crevices
  • Bake the bread at 220C for 15-20 minutes until golden brown

  • Optional: Heat up 4 tbsp or apricot jam in a small saucepan & brush this over the breads whilst still warm to add a tempting glaze

 

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