Posted by Nick.Hancill
Friday, 6 Jan 2012
Channel 4 have given flight to the new cooking duo brothers Tom and Henry Herbert. The baker and chef combo have set up shop right next door to each other and it’s clear from the outset that we’re going to see a fair bit of healthy competition. Over the series the boys will be showing us lots of their favourite recipes and we just had to get involved. We gladly donated a handful of appliances to the boys just to be part of their fantastic food phenomenon.
The first episode aired on Wednesday and in it the boys showed us their kitchen secrets and tricks of the trade that can only be uncovered through generations of baking tradition. Tom, the eldest of the two, gets his hands dirty and shows how to create the perfect white loaf - A classic staple of the British kitchen.
Without spoiling his recipe for you, Tom lets us in on few secrets to getting your loaf absolutely perfect. Firstly, an extra 5 minutes of kneading your dough will ensure your bread is nice and light. Not enough kneading and you might end up with a brick, so if you have the energy, put the time in. The simplest trick with the biggest results was how to get the best crust on your bread. By throwing a little water in the oven with your bread it intensifies the heat and makes for a brilliant crunch.
You can just throw about 400ml in the bottom of the baking tray if you have a normal oven, though if you want completely professional results why not consider a steam oven which can do this all for you. The Siemens HB25D5L2B Steam Oven comes with 22 litres of space, so there’s loads of room for your loaves in here. Cooking with steam not only gives you great results, but also takes less energy. You can produce steam at much lower temperatures, which is great for saving your money in the long run.