The picture that sums up our Bank Holiday weekend in one shot.
A bit of shopping, with a coffee to linger over at Waitrose, lots of eggs gathered off the chickens who are all doing so well without the large cockerel and geese to bother them, the new girls have settled in brilliantly well and are all laying good eggs. Leisurely breakfasts including homemade bread.
And I think the bread was the real success of the weekend.
Made to my usual recipe, but as it was a rainy day I had more time to play so I decided to have a little experiment for a change.
Adding cheese and red onion to half the mixture, and chopped nuts and grated apple to the other half, well I say half the mixture but I also added a bit of extra flour as I do most of the time to the basic bread recipe and made us two pizza bases for tea that night.
(My usual bread recipe is on the 'Recipes I Use Regularly' page at the top of the Blog.)
I didn't have any block cheese left and the grated cheese although tasting fine for flavour would most likely have dissolved completely into the mix and I fancied being able to see the cheese so I chopped up a couple of cheese slices I found lurking in the bottom of the fridge. They were like tiny doll sized cheese slices when I had finished chopping - very cute!!
The two were added to the dough after it had proved for the first time ......
... the apple and nut mixture co-ordinating beautifully with my bread bag - so I just had to get a picture!!
Then shaped into loaves and put into my 1lb bread tins, left until they had risen above the height of the tins and then popped in the hot oven.
Cheese and Onion
Apple and Nut
They both tasted lovely, well homemade bread usually does, but the added flavours and textures made for a really good change. We had a few slices of both with cheese and chutney for one lunch, had some with homemade veggie soup for another and had two slices each with our poached eggs for breakfast on Monday morning.
We had the final two crusts last night, they were cut into cubes and had these ingredients added to them to make croutons to go with our Caesar Salad. I meant to take a picture but we had eaten our tea before I spotted the camera - oops!!
So it was a good and tasty experiment and a brilliant use of a rainy few hours of a Bank Holiday weekend. We both love simple home baked and home cooked foods and I think that bread really is the staff of life even if we have both consumed in one weekend more carbs than we have in ages.
And then last night I sat down to watch The Great British Bake Off and what should they be doing but BREAD!!
Sue xx
There is nothing better than home baked bread. Even if I do cheat and use a machine.
ReplyDeleteI use my Kenwood food mixer with the kneader attachment for most of it, it just means I can get on with something else for five minutes ... Blog reading usually :-)
DeleteGlad your getting so many eggs, there's no better flavour than fresh laid. We used to get ours from a local guy and really miss them. Both of these loaves look and sound delicious, I bet your kitchen smelt wonderful. It's rather grey and rainy here today and I was thinking of making a quiche for the freezer - but you may just have changed my mind!!
ReplyDeleteOoh, quiche AND homemade bread sounds good to me :-)
Deleteoh you have inspired me to get my bread machine out - sorry to be such a cheat! just the smell of freshly made bread makes a home feel cosy though, don't you think.
ReplyDeleteNot a cheat at all, it's the 'homemade' bit that's the best, no additives and preservatives etc, you know exactly what goes into it even doing it in a bread machine :-)
DeleteI make mine in a bread machine also..........
ReplyDeleteThey do taste just as good from a bread machine don't they and you can still add other bits and pieces :-)
DeleteYour bread experiments make me feel so boring! I just do plain every time, Oh and the tomato and herb rolls of course. I must try something different for a change.
ReplyDeleteWell I've been baking my own bread on and off for years and this is one of the first times I have added something into the dough, usually I have just experimented with different toppings, so I'm not that exciting!!
DeleteAnd there's absolutely nothing wrong with good old plain homemade bread :-)
I've always made my own bread,by hand the old fashioned way.Can't beat it!
ReplyDeleteJane x
Well I'm just a lazy oink!!
DeleteI'd rather be sat reading about what my daft Blogging buddies in Canada are up to while Mr Kenwood does the work :-)
Have you come of your juice diet then? Or are you still having one a day? Can't beat home made bread although it normally takes us a week to get through 2 loaves but I can imagine, a new tasting one was a lot more tempting!
ReplyDeleteWe are drinking juice for at least one meal a day, sometimes more and there's always a jug full in the fridge.
DeleteThese loaves were only 1lb loaves which is why they went down so quickly, well homemade bread always vanishes so much faster than shop bought don't you think?
Hi Sue,
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos today. Those eggs...mmmm
Now it's time for Sft's stupid questions;
1. We have hovis bread mix. Can we add anything to that?
2. How do you make your croutons?
Sorry!
Sft x
The eggs were yummy, Lh was annoyed he'd over cooked them as he likes a really runny yolk, BUT they were delicious.
DeleteYep, I would add anything you fancy to Hovis bread mix, if it's the wholemeal one I would go for strong flavours though as Hovis has quite a dense flavour. Play with your food!!
I'll put a crouton recipe in the recipes section - just for you :-)
Thanks Sue :)
DeleteSft x
Delicious looking bread! There is nothing like the scent of fresh homemade bread. I was not the baker of bread in the family, my husband WAS. I say WAS because we are not eating anything with wheat flour these days. And....that is very difficult! I have always loved bread. Glad you got to enjoy some.
ReplyDeleteCan you have Spelt flour? It's really tasty, and I'm sure there are a couple of alternatives you could experiment with.
DeleteI had forgotten about spelt flour. I have eaten ready made bread with spelt flour.
DeleteI bought a "gluten free flour" and it was not very good. I would love to have fresh homemade bread again. It is not so much that we want to be gluten free as is the rage right now. We have read that the flour here in the US was genetically modified back in the 60s or 70s and that now it is toxic to most people. (that means All wheat flour) I wish they would not tamper with our food. It's beyond me why they do it. Of course, the reason is $$$$$$! And GREED!
I always make bread machine bread too, but it is delicious nonetheless. Only five ingredients, as opposed to the dozens you see in supermarket bread. The cheese and onion loaf you made looks amazing. And your bank holiday weekend sounds really lovely.
ReplyDeleteBread machine, Kenwood, by hand ... the main thing is it's all homemade bread and as you say it has few ingredients, it also has twice as much flavour :-)
DeleteMmmmm...., this looks delicious! I'm gonna have to try them in my bread maker.
ReplyDeleteI bet you can't wait to get your aga to bake your bread in :)
Take it easy dear sue and LH.
Rw
I really can't wait, we think we've found a re-conditioned one that will be perfect!!
DeleteDoes happy jiggy dance all around the kitchen :-) :-) :-)
Now I am hungry! I feel inspired to do something similar. I use my ancient breadmaker quite a lot, I suspect I could use the dough setting and then add the ingredients. Do you mind me asking if you softened the onion first? Lesley
ReplyDeleteI didn't, I did wonder as I was trying to incorporate it if I should have done, but it softened nicely in the cooking so all was well in the end :-)
DeleteI used to make bread, in the achine, all the time, and then for some reason got out of the habit. Got back into it a couple of months ago. DH doesn't like homr made bread, thinks it's to heavy and filling. I, on the other hand love it. I usually make one loaf a week, alternating betwheen cranberry bread and Italia, herb bread.
ReplyDeleteTry adding some dried milk powder to your flour (and use mostly white flour) to make a lighter in texture loaf, and then when he's learnt to love that works towards more brown flour in the mix.
DeleteMmm, your homemade breads look lovely. I bet the apple and nut loaf was delicious with cheese, very tasty :)
ReplyDeleteso good
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