The 111th Bake: Paul’s Povitica
Special things are worth preserving and sitting down to a cup of tea the other morning I saw birds in my newly fruiting fig tree. Ahhhhh. I love figs, and it’s the first year it’s fruited (I banned the husband from pruning it so there’s a pretty good crop!) So I raced out in my pajamas to chase away the birds and save my figs. I now pick them slightly early to beat the birds to the prize. I really should just get a net, another trip to the hardware store, dangerous place that and expensive once you’ve perused the shelves and aisles for everything else you might possibly “need.” Might be best to avoid it, but I will keep rescuing my figs. From someone who doesn’t always have success in the garden, I would recommend planting a fig tree. You might get lucky too.
Povitica, what is it? Well it is in the bread section of the recipe book, so I am making bread of sorts, Eastern European sweet bread as it turns out, but reading the recipe ahead made me scared of what was to come!!! It was nothing I had ever done before. Here is Paul’s Povitica recipe if you want to give it a go btw. https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/povitica_92623
I made the dough by adding flour, sugar, salt, yeast, melted butter and beaten egg to the free standing mixer fitted with the dough hook and then added the seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod along with lukewarm milk. I mixed this for 8 minutes to make a soft smooth and stretchy dough.
I tipped the dough into an oiled mixing bowl, covered and let rise for one hour, until doubled in size. Now time for the scary bit…
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I recently went to a fundraising event with Victor Rodger, the playwright and scriptwriter as guest speaker, with the aim of promoting and supporting the Writers in Schools programme run by the New Zealand Book Council. The objective is to get New Zealanders to read more and to spread the joy of reading and writing. “Telling our stories enriches all of our lives,” and as Victor said after reading his story, “that’s a piece that really resonates with the youth and I love that it does.” It’s such important work promoting reading and writing, with so many stories to tell and so many stories locked away in words in books. Our youth need to know the benefit of this easily accessible art form, and not have it lost to technology, Instagram and Netflix. My daughter is currently reading and enjoying “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A hard read but undeniably funny. Classics will never go away, but books have to be picked up to be enjoyed and that is what this program promotes and tries to facilitate. 
Just like bread, reading takes time, but the whole process is enjoyable and the end result is well worth the effort. Here’s the link to the book council if you are interested in following their programmes or supporting their efforts to inspire students to develop a love of reading and storytelling. 
I’m about to head off to the gym, but will quickly blog about this amazing bread. It looked fascinating in the recipe book and just as amazing when it was baked. It took a while, though not really as long as you’d expect, but it was the interesting and different way that the dough was assembled which gave it its Je ne sais quoi. Last time I was at the gym I was sitting with the weights resting beside me between sets and a guy came past and said, “Don’t think about it, just do it.” I liked that. Sometimes, we do need to just do it. As one of the teachers said during a prize-giving speech recently, “Feel the fear and do it anyway, let it motivate you to do better.” Whether it be fear of the unknown, change, a challenge, a new opportunity, it does add spice to our lives and that guy was right, sometimes its best to not think about it, but just do it. This bread was different and well worth just doing it!! The bake required 
Being a sunny long weekend was a good time to make bread. I weighed out the flour, ground sea salt and yeast and put them in the mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook. I then added the luke warm milk, melted butter and golden syrup and mixed them together slowly. I love that machine, so wonderful seeing the ingredients of bread combining so effortlessly. A friend of mine this weekend undertook to be the first woman to sail the Coastal Classic solo. She was more than 29 hours at the helm, sailing from Waitemata Harbour in Auckland to Russel. Now that’s something. 
Not effortless but a dream come true, and a challenge accomplished, her Dad being one of the founders of the race in 1982. Fantastic to take your skills and use them to the best of your ability to achieve goals that you set for yourself. Now that’s living! 🙂 
Making bread is so much fun and soooo therapeutic. As Mary Berry once said to Paul Hollywood in a masterclass, “When you’re making bread it takes a lot of energy out of you and if you’re feeling a bit cross and angry it releases it.” Well, I don’t know about angry, but it certainly releases a lot of emotion in me, warm, fuzzy yum emotions. There’s nothing more satisfying than mixing the dough, adding the delicious ingredients, getting the satisfaction of seeing it rise and then baking the loaf in the oven. Should be like a daily mantra or prayer to keep us all satisfied and sane, although that would take a lot of time and be very fattening! Speaking of Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, the next Great British Bake off is about to start!! 
How exciting, Paul Hollywood posted a photo of the lucky contestants. 🙂 So baking this bread was easy and fun…