A Jolly Good Cooking Day!

Hello Dear Reader,

I have so many things to say, I don't know where to start or where to stop!!

We have a lovely sunny morning here at the moment and I will be making the most of the weather with a little walk shortly.

When I woke today I wondered why I was so achy, then I remembered all the cooking I did yesterday. And entertaining too!  My mum and sister were visiting.

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I recently found Cathie's lovely blog:  Cath@Home, and discovered she was starting up a linky party for recipes and meal planning, which I thought was right up my street as I am often at a loss what to cook, which is why I am linking to Cathie's What's for Dinner - Wednesday today! (Running weekly from Wednesday to the following Tuesday.)

Cathie invites us to link to existing posts, but I felt the need to introduce you to this new idea hoping you might want to join in too!

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Yesterday was definitely a "Baking Day"!

In the morning I set up our breadmaking machine, filled it with the usual ingredients (which you will find listed on this post).

Then, while the breadmaker was whirring away, I decided I should use some of  the apples from our very own tree! I set about making Apple and Cranberry Muffins (but unfortunately this recipe only uses 1 apple).

The recipe says "makes 12 muffins" but I had to use a Yorkshire Pudding tin after filling the 12muffin cases, to cook the mixture that was left in the bowl - hence the large one in the middle of the picture!

Apple and Cranberry Muffins

The muffins aren't fancy, but they are "healthy" (if you don't count how much sugar is in them), and they taste wonderful (even if I say so myself!).

I am unable to give you the recipe for the muffins as it came from a cookbook I had purchased.  I therefore understand I would be breaking copyright law to pass the recipe on!

Suffice to say, the ingredients include oats, cranberries, soft brown sugar and wholemeal flour.

Today's bread!

Then after prepping the cake mixture, and kneading the bread dough, I had to prepare dinner too!  More cooking! I am pleased to say that after eating, Darling Hubbie insisted on doing the clearing up, whilst my mum, sister and myself sat down in the comfy chairs for a nice natter.

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Thank you, Cathie, for running this new Linky Party. Why not take a look at Cathie's blog for some meal ideas.

Cathie's Linky Party is a good opportunity to show off your favourite recipes, or your menu for the week's meals, and be entered into her Monthly Giveaway Draw (see Cathie's post for details)

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I still have lots more to say, but not about cooking, so that will be in another post!

Hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,

Barbara xx

Homemade Organic Bread - The Recipe

Hello Dear Reader,

This is going to sound a bit cheesy, and I am not bragging about my breadmaking but, last week Darling Hubbie was out on a guided nature ramble in a disused quarry which is rarely open to the public and when they stopped for a break dh discretely took out his oversized homemade cheese roll and started happily munching away.

The Ranger leading the group spotted this from a short distance away and shot over excitedly exclaiming "is that amazing roll homemade, and why does it look so dark and crispy" (no prompting! Honest!)

He was eager to know all about it!   Dh explained to the best of his memory how it was made (ie kneading, rising and baking in the oven).  It turned out the Ranger uses a breadmaker himself but he leaves it in the machine to bake. This has prompted me to divulge my recipe.

In my previous post I mainly talked about my breadmaker and explained how I prepare the dough for rising and eventually for cooking but didn't give details of my recipe, which I highly recommend as it has worked brilliantly every time I use it!

Ingredients:
Water - 360ml
Salt - 10ml
Oil - 15ml (I use Rape Seed Oil)
Soft brown sugar - 25ml (I used Billingtons Demerara sugar)
Flour -600g  ( I used Waitrose Duchy Organic Strong Malted grain bread flour)
Fast action yeast - 7.5ml  (I used Allinson's Easy Bake Yeast)

Today I made a medium sized loaf of bread and 2 rolls (see below).

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I have amended this post, as I realise, thanks to Catherine's comment, that I missed this part of the process out previously:


As I remove the dough from the machine I turn my oven on to heat to 100 degrees C.   Once it reaches temperature I turn the oven off.

Meanwhile I clean the work surface with very hot water which has a couple of spoonfuls of white vinegar in - antiseptic properties or something, I believe.

I sprinkle a dessertspoonful of bread flour over my squeaky clean worktop and swish the flour about to make sure it covers the actual spot where the dough will be placed.  I rub a little of the flour over my fingers and palms so that when removing the dough from the machine the dough doesn't stick to me or the worksurface.   The dough will be sticky as you remove it from the pan, just keep dipping your fingers in the flour from the worksurface, brushing the excess flour back onto the surface and easing the dough off the pan again. Once the dough is on the floured surface I work the edges into the centre of the dough all round until all the sticky edges have disappeared. I knead for a few minutes. The dough will feel firmer and will be getting drier. I continue working until I think it isn't going to stick to itself anymore. This probably takes about 5 minutes.

As I knead the dough I do add a little more flour to the surface if necessary, bearing in mind too much flour at this stage can spoil the mix of the bread - the flour that is in the dough already has had its gluten worked in the kneading in the machine.

Place the dough in your lightly oiled bread tin, cover with clingfilm (as described in my previous post), cover with a tea towel and place in warmed oven for 30 minutes to rise.

When risen remove from the oven and warm oven to 190 degrees C.  When oven is ready, remove tea towel and cling film, place tin in oven and cook for 30 minutes.

I hope this is not too much information now!

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On a previous occassion I used the same mixture to make 8 rolls. My recipe book indicated they should be cooked at 190 degrees C for 15-20 minutes, however we tried this and felt the rolls were too soft, so I now cook them for 30 minutes (still at 190).

Dough covered with lightly oiled cling film

Allow to stand for 5 mins after cooking

After cooling for 5 mins the bread will be easy to remove from the tin.

Cool before covering

A crispy crust of bread with organic butter.

Once the bread has cooled, I usually leave it on a plate overnight,and cover with a clean tea towel   I find the bread will cut easier the following day.  I then slice the loaf and freeze what won't be used immediately.

I find this breadmaking process quite easy, however I did have a couple of disasters in the early days when I forgot to add the yeast!

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I have put Izzy to one side and am working on a cat door stop which I hope to show more of next time.

Barbara xx

Homemade Organic Bread

I was looking at a post by Josie the other day when she was reviewing her Kenwood breadmaker that she had bought on EBay for only £11!   Amazing, what a bargain.   My breadmaker cost considerably more than that!  I bought this model last year and it is my second machine from Morphy Richards (due to natural wear and tear) and each one has given excellent service (No, I'm not being paid to say this!).  They have modified/improved the model over the years and it is now easier to place and remove the baking tin from the machine.  Both the bread or the dough are very easy to remove from the non-stick baking tin and the mixing paddle no longer gets stuck in the baked bread as it used to with earlier models.

The Flashing Scissors

I make Organic Malted Wholegrain bread and it's amazingly light - as Josie said about hers  - and so tasty!   I've never costed my bread out so Josies figures made very interesting reading.  I make about 2-3 loaves from one bag of flour (1.5 kg)  so I don't worry too much about the cost because I know my bread will be nicer and cheaper than shop bought bread and more importantly I also know exactly what goes into it.  I find that unless you can get to a decent real bakery it's impossible to buy quality wholesome bread.

The Flashing Scissors

We like our bread cooked in the oven as it gives a very crusty finish, so I set the machine for mixing and kneading only and when it has done this I take the dough out and give it an additional manual kneading.  Next I place it in an oiled tin, covered with cling film (which has also been lightly oiled), and then cover this with a teatowel and put it in a cool oven to rise.  I heat the oven at 100 degrees C for 10 minutes, then turn the heat off and place the covered dough in the oven to rise for 30 minutes.  Then I remove the risen dough from the oven, heat the oven to 190 degrees C, and remove the teatowel and cling film and cook the risen dough for half an hour.

The Flashing Scissors

The Flashing Scissors

The Flashing Scissors

It has not always been a success but on those occasions it has been due to operator error, i.e. rushing too much, which had caused me to forget to add the yeast.

It can be a bit of a chore, but when we are eating the bread I am glad I spared the time.

It is really lovely to get fresh bread out of the oven.  You can't beat that homely smell of just cooked bread which drifts around the house and it is just so delicious!

Until next time I take my leave of you.

Thank you for popping by, hope to "see" you again soon, when I will air some ideas about stitching problems.