I have some bread flour which looks as though it might be right for making Pan Gallego or the similar bread from Asturias.
I have looked for a recipe, preferably that uses yeast, but have only found one for sour dough that is far too large an amount for just 2 of us.
Does anyone have a good recipe that will make just one small to medium size loaf please? Metric or old fashioned UK lbs and oz will be equally useful.
Well, apart from advising you to halve the quantities . . .
Take a look at this YouTube video
Pan Gallego
It's in Spanish but the lady speaks very clearly and you can switch on closed captioning in English and there aren't too many "odd" translations.
It's more of a "sponge" method than sourdough. The sponge takes about 24 hours to prove rather than a week! I used Canadian Strong White flour (Allinson's in the UK) and Hovis dry yeast but activated it in some warm water with a teaspoon of caster sugar (so it dissolved quicker)
Then the hard work begins. It must have taken me about 7 hours in all to make it by hand. The first kneading, which takes her about 30 minutes . . . well I must have spent close on an hour including rests - exhausting!
It's also very sticky - if you're used to kneading on a floured surface then don't panic, just keep on working it.
I used a terracotta plate - it's actually a circular tray from a garden centre, normally I use it with an upside down terracotta bowl (also from a garden centre) to make a bread cloche -and line it with parchment paper.
I didn't bother with the "top knot" but did slash the top with a (clean) box cutter blade. After all that work it had flattened off quite a bit.
The end result was pretty good - not as good as hers but the crust was reasonably thick and the crumb, the crumb looked like a good quality sea sponge! It tasted pretty authentic too but I should have wrapped it overnight - the remnants the next day were pretty rubbery but it toasted well.
Would I bake it again? Probably not but we're all pretty much time rich at present and it was fun to do. I might sacrifice crust quality for speed if I do it again.
Sorry, didn't take any photos - too tired!
¡Buena suerte!