This week I've been trying to perfect the art of making a stottie cake. Stottie cake, or stotty, is a bread from the north-east of England. It's a round, flat bread (think frisbee shape) and it features a great deal in my novel Belle of the Back Streets.
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INGREDIENTS: Makes 1 large stottie cake
400g strong white bread flour
Half a teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
Half a teaspoon of ground white pepper (this is my grandma’s secret ingredient, she used to add to just about everything!)
1 sachet of dried yeast, 7g
1 tablespoon of softened butter
2 teaspoons of sunflower oil
90ml milk
180ml tepid water
1. In a large bowl stir the flour, salt and pepper, sugar together.
2. Add the yeast and give it another stir
3. Add butter and oil and rub in with fingertips for a minute or so until everything is crumbly.
4. Put the milk and warm water into a jug and then pour around the sides of the bowl to distribute the liquid evenly.
5. Stir it so that the liquid combines with the dry ingredients. Turn it out to a floured board and work it all together by hand for about 5 minutes into a good dough. Don’t worry if it’s still wet and sticky.
6. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for an hour.
Here's mine before I covered it with clingfilm and left it for an hour.
And here it is at the end of the hour.
Have a cup of tea.
7. When the dough has doubled in size, turn it onto a floured board and form into a flat, round disc shape - like a frisbee!
8. Squash it gently with a floured bread board, not too much, it needs to be roughly 2.5cm thick.
9. Place on a greased baking tray and cover with a bonny tea-towel. I chose my Coronation Street / Hilda Ogden tea-towel.
10. Leave it in a warm place for 30 minutes.
11. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6 / 200 degrees C / 400 degrees F
Have another cuppa.
12. Squash it gently again with the floured bread board, down to approx. 1cm thick.
13. Using your finger, press down to make a hole in the centre of the stottie
Here I am putting it into the oven. Note: This was attempt 1 of 3, so that's why the shape looks slightly different from the finished stottie at the bottom of the page. I wanted to keep trying so that the recipe was as good as it could be. The first attempt was a bit doughy, but here's a photo anyway! Another chance to show off my snazzy ladybird apron if nothing else.
14. Put in the oven and bake for just 6 minutes
15. Carefully turn the stotty over, return to the oven and bake for a further 6 minutes
16. Cool on a cooling rack
17. Cut into pie-shaped pieces and slice each one in half. Eat and enjoy. Perfect with soup.
With thanks to Barry Smith, my husband and chief cook in our house, for his help!
Belle of the Back Streets
Now out in paperback, hardback, ebook and audiobook
If you'd like a signed book, all details are here.
Website: glendayoungbooks.com
After writing about the women of Ryhope baking stottie cakes in my novels so far, I thought I'd actually have a go at making some myself. I love baking bread but have never made my own stottie cake before. And so, with a recipe I've come up with and using my grandma Emily's secret ingredient, here we go with my own recipe for Stottie Cake / Stotty Bread.
Here I am at the planning stage. Have apron, will bake, but should not be left alone with scissors.
400g strong white bread flour
Half a teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
Half a teaspoon of ground white pepper (this is my grandma’s secret ingredient, she used to add to just about everything!)
1 sachet of dried yeast, 7g
1 tablespoon of softened butter
2 teaspoons of sunflower oil
90ml milk
180ml tepid water
1. In a large bowl stir the flour, salt and pepper, sugar together.
2. Add the yeast and give it another stir
3. Add butter and oil and rub in with fingertips for a minute or so until everything is crumbly.
4. Put the milk and warm water into a jug and then pour around the sides of the bowl to distribute the liquid evenly.
5. Stir it so that the liquid combines with the dry ingredients. Turn it out to a floured board and work it all together by hand for about 5 minutes into a good dough. Don’t worry if it’s still wet and sticky.
6. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for an hour.
Here's mine before I covered it with clingfilm and left it for an hour.
And here it is at the end of the hour.
Have a cup of tea.
7. When the dough has doubled in size, turn it onto a floured board and form into a flat, round disc shape - like a frisbee!
8. Squash it gently with a floured bread board, not too much, it needs to be roughly 2.5cm thick.
9. Place on a greased baking tray and cover with a bonny tea-towel. I chose my Coronation Street / Hilda Ogden tea-towel.
10. Leave it in a warm place for 30 minutes.
11. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6 / 200 degrees C / 400 degrees F
Have another cuppa.
12. Squash it gently again with the floured bread board, down to approx. 1cm thick.
13. Using your finger, press down to make a hole in the centre of the stottie
Here I am putting it into the oven. Note: This was attempt 1 of 3, so that's why the shape looks slightly different from the finished stottie at the bottom of the page. I wanted to keep trying so that the recipe was as good as it could be. The first attempt was a bit doughy, but here's a photo anyway! Another chance to show off my snazzy ladybird apron if nothing else.
14. Put in the oven and bake for just 6 minutes
15. Carefully turn the stotty over, return to the oven and bake for a further 6 minutes
16. Cool on a cooling rack
17. Cut into pie-shaped pieces and slice each one in half. Eat and enjoy. Perfect with soup.
With thanks to Barry Smith, my husband and chief cook in our house, for his help!
Belle of the Back StreetsNow out in paperback, hardback, ebook and audiobook
If you'd like a signed book, all details are here.
Website: glendayoungbooks.com
1 comment:
That looks lovely stotty cake is lovely I've made it before as well xx
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