A pal of mine sent me this recipe. This has to be worth spreading the word to the uninitiated.
The recipe suggest a traditional filling. My favourite was always chips!
What the heck is a Stottie? I hear you non-Geordies asking.
A Stottie is basically a flat round large bap from the North East of England. The Geordie stottie has a fluffy texture and was often traditionally eaten filled with bacon and peaspudding. Elsewhere in the world, bread similar to the Stottie is known as Oven Bottom Bread. However the recipe and tradition of the Stottie is unique to the North East of England.
Originally made from leftover dough in the days when everyone baked at home, the round, flat bread-cake was introduced to the High Street by Greggs bakery in the 1960s. Although there is some dispute about exactly how the bread got its name, the most likely explanation is that it has something to do with the way the dough is bounced on the table as it is kneaded ("stot" is Geordie for "bounce").
The stotty is also known as an "Oven Bottom Cake", since it was traditionally baked on the oven floor - not something to be recommended with today's cookers!
Make yer own Stottie!
Ingredients
1590g Plain flour
30g Salt
70g White Fat
14g Sugar
90g Yeast
850g Water
30g Milk Powder
Method
Sieve all dry ingredients together and rub in the fat
Dissolve yeast in warm water, then add to ingredients and mix thoroughly
Knead for 10-15 minutes
Cover dough with a cloth and allow to stand for 30 minutes in a warm place
Knead dough again and allow to stand for a further 30 minutes
Weigh dough into 285g pieces, shape pieces into a round ball and allow to stand for a further 10 minutes
Roll dough pieces out to a diameter of about 22cm, cover and leave in a warm place for 20 minutes
Place on hot tray and press a shallow hole in the middle with a finger
Cook in hot oven (gas mark 8/230C/450F), turning after 8 minutes and baking until golden brown
Allow to cool, but remember that the best way to eat a stotty is when it's still warm and fresh from the oven.
14 comments:
Sorry, DarkDwarf, you got the recipe wrong. The housewife made a stottie from taking a piece off the main dough after the first rising, shaping and cooking it immediately cos she needed bread for her mens' "bait"
This recipe is nothing like me mams.
A stottie is not fluffy it is crusty.
It needs to be rolled out thin and put into a hot oven straight away without a second rising.
If you want fluffy go to Greigs but they are not authentic.
Being 'born in the sixties' ah have to admit that most of me stotties came from Greggs.
Ah'm layin no claims to the accuracy of the recipe - besides which remember that recipes do vary from area to area, and family to family. No such thing as in incorrect recipe. Causes no end of debate between the Northumbrian and the Geordie sides of our family! :)
Anyway - when your stuck in barm cake country, any stottie, no matter how "inaccurately made", is a welcome reminder of hyem.
the stottie is beautifual and i love it. right up the botty on a november night, hot and crumbly. i am a real stottie man. "no way" to anything not a stottie.
Just spoke to my dad. He's 85 now. Geordie born and bred and still proud. He says that his mam (and all the other mams) used a bit of leftover dough rolled flat to test the oven temperature in the cast iron range to make sure it was hot enough to bake the "proper" loaf. All the kids preferred the stottie, because when it was done it was filled with jam (which could heat up to scalding point) and they could fill their empty bellies before dinner. Grieg's is an OK substitute but Morrison's is a travesty and should be banned.
Greggs were not the first to sell Stotties. Most traditional bakers would sell stotties before Greggs began to sell them. A bakery in the east end of Newcastle, 'Fairbairn's' sold them along with other bread products that make Greggs look like amateurs.
They may not have been the first bakery to sell them - but they were the first place I remember buying one from. Filled it with chips bought from the chippie next door.
just wantto know, where do I get fresh bread yeast in the toon, like?
if ye want fresh yeast, just gaan to asda or any big supey that has a bakers in it. Ask and theyll gi ye some.
i dont know any Geordie who has ever filled a stottie with bacon and pease pudding, its usually roast pork, pease pudding and sage and onion stuffing and mustard, thats the way to eat a stottie, and as for greggs no thanks :)
Best way to eat a stootie is to cut it half and fill it with a full english breakfast, most burger vans up here in the north east offer a breakfast like this for 3 quid or less.
My nanna was a cook for the angle in corbridge and I was born in the 50tys that side of the family are all gordies and my nanna baked stotty cake all the time and we would have boiled bacon shank and peaspudding as a filling never chips!and their was one bakery that sold stotty and that was Chaffey the only way to get a true stotty is to make one the way your nanna made them but only if their a true gordie
To be honest I prefer the Greggs fluffy stottie, as that's what I grew up with.
I am a over sixty northern lass who used to bake with my mam every Saturday and stotty was never made with powered milk and water, it was made with milk that was just starting to "go off" and maybe a little water to get the right consistency. I now live in Cornwall and still make my own ham and peaspudding, couldn't live without it!
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