Old fashioned cottage loaf

This week's Friday loaf is a beauty. Just look at it!

I've used Linda Collister again and this recipe is contained in her fabulous Bread from ciabatta to rye book. I am coming to the conclusion, albeit rather sadly, that the best way to make bread is really by hand, as everytime I've tried I haven't been disappointed.

For this recipe I had to combine 700g of strong white flour with one 7g sachet of yeast, 450ml of tepid water, 1 tsp of honey. It had to be kneaded for 10 mins which was pretty hard going, but I could tell when it was ready by how elastic it became. It had to rise for 1 1/2 hours, then be punched back and shaped into two separate rounds, using one third for the smaller round. It had to rise again on two separate baking sheets for 45 mins.

The larger soft bouncy roll is then placed onto a large baking sheet and the smaller roll tenderly placed on top. With two fingers and a thumb you press down on the top of the loaf to pinch both together, baste all with an egg, and score both top and bottom roll as seen above. It baked at 230 degrees centigrade for 15 mins and then 20 mins at 200 degrees centigrade.

The instructions in Bread are much clearer than mine and I do urge anyone interested in bread to pick up a copy of this excellent book.

Friday's Easy White Loaf (again)

This week's Friday loaf worked out rather well. I used 400g of strong white flour, 1tsp of salt, 200ml of warm water and diluted 1 tsp of yeast granules with 100ml of warm water. I then used my food mixer, combining the dry and wet ingredients gradually until I had a wet dough. This was left for 10 mins, and then my mixer did all the kneading work for me using the dough hook, for around 4 mins, until I had a smooth elastic dough. This was left in the bowl for around 2 hours until the dough had doubled in size. Placed onto an oiled baking tray for a further 45 mins, it was then baked at 230 degrees centigrade for 25mins. The resulting dough had great texture, a good crust, with lots of air holes, and a lovely chewy taste. I plan to use some of this with a French Onion Soup, topped with some gruyere cheese. 

Seaside Garden for National Gardening Week

A very windy, blustery day in April

As part of National Gardening Week, the RHS is encouraging everyone to email photograph of their garden, in order to build up a national picture of gardens around the country. Mine is a rather long and thin seaside garden, which I have cultivated for around 10 years. A combination of lack of willpower and a passion for plants means that I have often been tempted to buy plants which simply don't suit a small garden, such as the 14 trees that I have, many of which are growing in pots. 

The latest additions being an unnamed variety of Pear tree (just hoping that it is self fertile),

and a Juniper tree. They join a Magnolia Soulangeana, several Pine trees, a Hazel tree, a Gingko Biloba, a baby Oak tree grown from an acorn from Drumnadrochit forest, Olive trees, a very handsome Dicksonia tree fern and my favourite which is seen in the main picture off to the right, a Katsura which perfumes the air with its candyfloss scent when the leaves fall in August/September.

I know that I am going to have to find good homes for many of these trees, once they outgrow their pots and my plot, but for now I take care of them and enjoy the height, scent and magic that trees give to my narrow strip of land. 



Friday's Vetebrod Easter Loaf

Vetebrod sweet loaf

Another success! Rather than make some hot cross buns I wanted to make a loaf that felt a bit special to have on Good Friday. A book that I've used loads over the years is Bread from ciabatta to rye, by Linda Collister. It is an overview of baking from around the world and contains some delicious, really easy to follow recipes. 

So, for Easter I've made a sweet loaf from Sweden called Vetebrod which is flavoured with cinnamon and cardomom. This is typically served with coffee, but  I think that it will be just as good for breakfast with a selection of cheeses and salami. Although this recipe is a bit fiddly with a filling to make, I must say that it didn't give me the usual angst over proving and rising, even though I did adjust the times to make it with my food mixer.

The initial dough is made by combining 300g strong white flour with 1/2 tsp of salt, 50g light muscova sugar, 10 green deseeded and ground cardomom pods, a 7g sachet of active dried yeast, with 50g of unsalted butter that have been melted in 150ml of hot milk. I mixed a third of the wet/dry ingredients at a time in my Everhot Artisan food mixer on speed 1/2 for 5 mins, to make sure that all were combined. Then it was left to rise for an hour in a warm place to double in size.

The filling was very easy, simply combining 50g unsalted butter with 50g light muscova sugar and 1tsp of cinnamon and mixing in the food mixer on speed 3/4 for around 2 mins until light and creamy.

The risen dough is then rolled to 30cm square and the filling pasted on. This is then rolled length ways and pinched tight at either end. With scissors you cut quite deeply at 1cm spaces, and then alterately pull the dough from left to right. This is then left on a baking sheet under a plastic bag to double in size, taking around an hour. I was so impressed with the size of this when I peeped after an hour. It was then popped in the oven for 200 degrees centigrade for 20 mins.

I do urge anyone interested in giving bread a go, to get this Bread book from Linda Collister, there are some really good bargains on Amazon, and they may save a bit of the heartache that I've gone through with my regular Friday loaf.

A perfectly crispy crisp with a great cheddar taste

Appealing packaging

Light doesn't shine through

Some things were meant to be: fish and chips, strawberries and cream, eggs and bacon, and another in my opinion is a bag or crisps with a pint of beer. One of my favourite combinations has to be cheese and onion crisps accompanied by a bottle of Spitfire. And top of the list for crisps has to be Kent Crisps, which I only learnt about a couple of months ago. What great packaging - bright and fresh, conjuring up a picture of the Kentish countryside.

Perfect match

These are crisps as they are meant to be: a good strong cheesy aroma, deeply golden and thickly layered in appearance, an exceptional cheesy flavour which literally explodes onto the taste buds, and above all a very satisfying hard crunch. Just listen!

Using the local Kent Ashmore cheese helps to make this an authentic Kent Crisp, and one that perfectly matches the malty notes and hoppy freshness of the Spitfire beer.  Not many things get better than this. (Love the new Spitfire livery to celebrate the Jubilee).