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 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.

Friday's Cheddar Loaf

I've based this recipe on Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet suggestion for an easy white loaf. So I've used  400g strong white flour, one sachet of dried yeast, one teaspoon of salt, and 300ml of warm water. As he suggested, I've added 200g of strong cheddar to boost the flavour. I roughly mixed the ingredients together and left the wet scraggy mess for 10 mins before kneading for 5 mins in our food mixer. The resulting dough is very elastic and springy. I am going to leave it for 3 hours as I normally do, although Dan Lepard recommends 2 separate kneads by hand and then leaving for 45 mins on a floured tray. A good tip that I've picked up from him is if you are kneading by hand, to oil hands and board as this does make it a lot easier to get the dough from your hands.


Deal and bread making or rather milling, has a long history in these parts. The excellent book "Deal Sad Smuggling Town" by Gregory Holyoake tells how the blockades of ports during the Napoleonic wars led to corn ceasing to be imported. The cost of wheat rose dramatically and the working class families who subsisted on a diet of bread, cheese and beer suffered. As the surrounding countryside of Deal was rich in wheat fields, poorer inhabitants learned to be self sufficient. But the main reason for the presence of over 7 windmills in Deal and Walmer was due to the Royal Navy and Merchant Marines, who were anchored near the Downs and would take on flour for fresh bread and biscuits. Some millers took advantage of this market and sold the flour at exceptional prices, leading to complaints from the ship owners. This monoply was crushed through the enlightened approach from the Deal Mayor, Thomas Oakley and a syndicate who in 1787 sold their own flour at a competitive price.

There is still a working mill in River, near Dover, which I've yet to find open. But, I hope to do so and will then source a regional bread recipe, perhaps one used by the Navy to supply the sailors.

This bread smells fantastic when cooking, and only needed 30 mins in an oven at 200 degrees centigrade.

Friday's Rosemary Loaf

Friday's Rosemary Loaf

I only make bread once a week, and tend to do this on a Friday to be enjoyed with homemade marmalade or our own allotment jam, over the weekend. I've mentioned some of the plants that survive in our garden, near the sea, but there are many others that simply love it here. Fennel is one, it grows like mad in the gardens and on the beach itself. It's great in the summer when you can take handfuls and stuff them into locally caught fish, or soak the stalks in water for 10 mins and then use them as a bed for a barbecue. The other herb which luxuriates in this corner of Kent is Rosemary. We have well established bushes of Rosemary Officinalis Mrs Jessop's which gives us a ready supply of stalks for scenting a fire, for adding to stocks or for chopping and adding to meals. I know that Elizabeth David hated the herb, saying it would never touch any of her food, but we cook with it all the time. Today, I've added a handful to my Friday loaf. I am using my usual easy recipe of 500g strong flour (i've used 400 white and 100g wholemeal), with one sachet of dried yeast, 350ml of warm water and kneaded for around 5 mins in our food mixer. It needs to rise for around 3 hours and then bake in the oven for 40 mins, with the last 5 mins out of the tin.  We bake at 200 degrees centigrade pretty much most of the time, and adjust times to suit. This bread has a hard crust and is nice and chewy - it will last the weekend and go on longer if kept wrapped in tin foil. Rosemary is the herb of remembrance and has been used in recipes for funeral feasts to celebrate the life of the deceased. It adds a real depth of flavour to a loaf, smells fantastic when cooking so give it a try. I can assure you it will be a loaf to remember.