Wednesday 22 April 2009

Making Bread.....and stuff.

I feel so sad...or do I, I must be getting old and sad...

But recently as we have had a new kitchen we decided instead of using it for cheese on toast we'd actually learn something useful in it, over the last few weeks I am happy to (sad I know) say I have learnt how to make bread!!! Yes bread....



It happened because one day I went to the local ASDA to get some basics including bread and due to the traffic it actually took me 45 minutes to get home....I thought sod this I could of made my own bread in that time.



So when I got back me and Steph looked into a kids book (we are kids) to find out how to make a loaf, and my god its easy so so so easy (except for the dam kneeding)...since that day we have made about 9 loaves, learnt about the history of wheat and the methods used over the centuries, Im not going to give you a recipe but I will tell of a few mini secrets that helped us -



1) kneed for at least 10 minutes twice (wholemeal needs more) and then kneed a third time while you proof the shape, let it rise before you put in the oven...

2) Put the salt in the mixture last..

3) And let the water and yeast react alone before entering the rest of the ingredients...

4) Put the water in warm water alone first, or if mixed with the floor use warm water to mix with...

We have also been making soups and stews which are stunning as well as cakes....

God I feel so sad coming out with this crap, not to mention the fact that we are growing our own herbs (basil and Coriander) in the garden..as well...



But let me tell ya I have never tasted bread so good, even the fruit cakes are better than the shops...sod the shops for the 3o minutes of effort its well worth it.



This lasted about 20 minutes..with lashings of tea..

weve worked out that our loaves cost us £0.42p but we were buying loaves for £1.30..

And here is the last batch look at the size of that baby...lets eat !!!



cheers all....munch munch...

No comments: