After the sourdough fiasco I felt the need to purge the memory by baking something successfully. This is a handy recipe as it uses only store cupboard essentials: flour, salt, yeast, honey and lager.
Entries Tagged as 'Bread'
Lager Batons
September 1st, 2008 · 8 Comments
Tags: Baking · Bread · Vegetarian
Sourdough Fiasco
August 20th, 2008 · 6 Comments
Ok, so we now have our sourdough starter sitting ominously in a jar at the back of the fridge gently seeping brown water. Time to make some bread. For a recipe I turn to the Observer Organic Allotment Blog and follow their elaborate and long-winded instructions to the letter.
Tags: Baking · Bread · Disaster · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Making a Sourdough Starter
August 19th, 2008 · 1 Comment
If you believe the hype (well in my narrow Guardian reading world anyway) everyone in credit crunch UK is now an artisan baker spending their precious downtime in the kitchen fashioning crusty bloomers and squeezing out granary torpedoes. Generally (and childishly) if I find myself on a bandwagon I have the irrestable urge to jump […]
Tags: Baking · Bread · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Rosemary Focaccia
August 10th, 2008 · 9 Comments
On Saturday we went to a rain-drenched Oxford and had lunch at the highly recommended Branca Restaurant. Before tucking into fried calamari with lemon and chilli dressing followed by a big fat skate wing with scallops and mash, I soaked up the house red by nibbling away at some fine rosemary focaccia. So fine in […]
Tags: Baking · Bread · Vegetarian
Avocado Gazpacho
June 12th, 2008 · No Comments
What could herald the arrival of summer more than a big bowl of cold soup. Wasps perhaps. Or possibly sharing the big bowl of cold soup with a wasp. A wasp in shorts. Anyway, if you’ve bothered to read the posts below, you’ll know I am intimately familiar with the red, tomato-based gazpacho, however, up […]
Tags: Bread · Main Course · Outdoors · Soup · Starter · Tapas · Vegetarian
Feta & Mint Bread
June 9th, 2008 · No Comments
Regrettably, and I feel unreasonably, Tower Hamlets Council won’t let us keep sheep on the balcony so making our own feta cheese is out of the question. We do however have a healthy and ever-expanding mint plant and so at least were able to locally source half the ingredients in the title.
Tags: Baking · Bread · cheese · Vegetarian
Gazpacho
June 9th, 2008 · 2 Comments
Summer reluctantly and briefly visited the UK this weekend, and so as a gesture of thanks to the mighty sun god Ra we held up this delicious offering – the first gazpacho of the cold soup season.
Tags: Bread · Main Course · Outdoors · salad · Soup · Starter · Tapas · Vegetarian
‘Fancy’ Rolls
June 3rd, 2008 · No Comments
I knocked up these whimsical little critters one Sunday morning partly because I was in the market for a bread product less brown and worthy than the usual, and partly because it was an effective way of delaying various foreboding DIY chores. Four of the five fancy shapes are illustrated below. The fifth, a curly […]
Tags: Baking · Bread · Vegetarian
Traditional Fermented Bread
April 29th, 2008 · 2 Comments
Now it seems it’s no longer middle class enough to simply bake your own bread. To be a fully paid-up member of the bourgeoisie takes more time. We have to allow our dough to slowly ferment overnight to encourage friendly bacteria which will protect our delicate constitutions from bloated, irritable bowels and leaky gut-type conditions. […]
Tags: Baking · Bread · Vegetarian
Couronne
April 6th, 2008 · 7 Comments
According to Babel Fish couronne is French for crown, and according to the title this loaf is meant to be couronne-shaped. But it was snowing, I got over excited, couldn’t concentrate, and failed to read the recipe properly. As a result I missed out one small, but essential, step and by way of punishment the […]
Tags: Baking · Bread · Vegetarian
Oatmeal Soda Bread
March 30th, 2008 · 2 Comments
I’ll tell you what bugs me, people who travel to work in the morning drinking their tea/coffee from those aluminium thermos mugs. They’re designed for camping in the woods, not commuting from Forest Hill. Are we supposed to look on enviously and wonder at the cool, impulsive, incandescent lives led by these urbane creatures? Probably. […]
Tags: Baking · Bread · Vegetarian
Cider Vinegar Muffins
March 16th, 2008 · No Comments
If you came here in search of an American-style muffin to accompany your tall caramel macchiato, then you’ll be disappointed. They’re not muffins, they’re cakes. If however you are in search of an English muffin which is light and yeasty and perfect for toasting and smothering in butter, then you’re in luck. A word of […]
Tags: Baking · Bread · Brunch · Vegetarian
Soda Bread
February 16th, 2008 · 1 Comment
As well as being very tasty, Soda Bread is also great when you need a loaf in a hurry or can’t be arsed with all that kneading and proving. Unfortunately on such occasions you’re unlikely to have soured cream (a major ingredient) and a desperate trip to your local urban Costcutter is guaranteed to prove […]
Tags: Baking · Bread · Vegetarian
Sunburst Rolls
February 3rd, 2008 · No Comments
Another recipe from the much used ‘The Bread Book’ by Sara Lewis. This time I turned towards the back where the more fancy bread-based products can be found. Essentially this is a loaf which can magically be torn into individual rolls. We live in exciting times.
Tags: Baking · Bread · Vegetarian
Delia Smith’s Quick Wholemeal Rolls
November 11th, 2007 · No Comments
Now I’m a big fan of Delia, although I appreciate that some people are less enthusiastic. Whatever your opinion, compared with the current crop of TV cooks whether they be two hairy geordies on bikes, a simpering goddess on prozac, or a Michelin starred narcisist on EVERYbleedinTHING, Delia shines out as a beacon of understated […]
Tags: Baking · Bread · Vegetarian
Quick Light Wholemeal Loaf
October 13th, 2007 · 2 Comments
Obviously what with the world as we know it ending in 2012 and all that, it could be argued that time is too precious to be squandered on baking bread. However, life and food are about quality not quantity, and besides as the title says, this is a ‘quick’ light wholemeal loaf.
Tags: Baking · Bread · Rant · Vegetarian