Our Daily Bread

It's said that man cannot live on bread alone; however, we are a house of women.

 

I've always eaten a lot of bread, and loved making it, but I hadn't done much over the last two years because gluten free bread is just so difficult. Now though, I'm back on full-baking-form, and between us Jamie and I are making a loaf of bread every few days. 

It's the easiest thing, and so cheap to make. Seriously - a 1.5kg bag of bread flour costs 80p, the 7g of yeast costs about 4p, and 1½ tsp of salt would be about 0.3p. Which brings the cost of a basic home-made loaf of bread to about 40.3p!

The thing that puts a lot of people off making bread is the time needed to make it, but that's one of the reasons I love it. Spend 15 minutes on the initial mixing and kneading, then go to campus for a few hours of lectures. By the time you get back you'll have a beautifully risen dough with minimal amounts of effort! 

So give it a go.

Basic White Loaf - Ingredients:
- 675g strong white bread flour
- 7g yeast
- 1½tsp salt
- 450ml warm water

Method:
1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then make a well in the centre and pour in the water.
2. Using your hands, mix everything together until you get a dough. If it's too dry you can add a little more water, but if it's on the wet side try your best to work with it rather than adding flour as a wet dough often leads to a better loaf.
3. Sprinkle your worktop with flour, then turn out your dough and knead for 10-15 minutes, until it's silky smooth and elastickey. If you're not sure about your kneading technique I recommend youtube - there are thousands of videos with instructions and demonstrations.
4. Put your dough back in the original bowl and cover with cling film, then leave it alone. It needs at least an hour and a half to prove, but it can really be left for as long as you need it to be.

Before and after proving

5. Tip out the risen dough and knead for a couple more minutes, then shape and place on a greased baking tray. Cover with cling film and leave for another hour or so.
6. Heat your oven to 230°C. Take off the cling film and, using a sharp knife, cut a few slashes diagonally along the top of the dough (you can also dust it with a little bit of flour at this point to achieve a more rustic look), then stick it in the oven.
7. After 15 minutes, turn the oven temperature down to 200°C, then bake for a further 20-25 minutes (the initial blast of heat will give you a better crust).
8. Remove your beautiful creation from the oven and transfer to a wire rack if you have one, or just a likely chopping board if you don't. You should leave it for at least 15 minutes before attacking it with mounds of butter, though in our house we can never wait that long.

Hangover Heaven: Eggy Bread

I handed in my last essay of term on Tuesday, and I feel more than due a good night out in celebration. Luckily there are two of those lined up for this week, but not-so-luckily they're one after the other. Plus, Fraser's coming to visit and will be here for the second one, so I need to be alive rather than wallowing in the hangover hell.

Solution: Eggy bread (or French toast, if you want to be fancy). And also tea. Lots of tea.

It couldn't be simpler really -
1. Heat up some olive oil in a frying pan. You can add some butter too, if you're feeling extravagant.
2. Grab some bread, it doesn't matter what sort, and slice it up.
3. Then in a bowl, beat together an egg per person, add a good dash of milk and season.
4. Soak your bread in the eggy mixture (flipping over so both sides get done), then transfer to the pan.
5. Cook for about 3-5 minutes and then turn over and cook for a few more. Both sides should be gorgeously dark gold and crunchy-looking.
6. When it's done, transfer to some kitchen towel and whap your next lot in the pan.

If you run out of mixture, just top it up with another egg and some more milk. Easy peasy.

Serve with ketchup, or, for an alternative, you could skip the peppering stage of making the mix, then once the bread's cooked serve it with a sprinkle of caster sugar and cinnamon. That one would go well with fruit, too.

And don't forget the tea.

Frying eggs in two directions

I only learnt how to fry eggs this year.

(The first time I typed that it came out as fly. That would be far more exciting.) 

But they make an excellent breakfast lunch or dinner food. And talking to a few people, I found out I wasn't the only one who got a bit baffled by eggs. So hopefully, this will be the first of a few simple ways to cook eggs.

Here's the basic method...

Two eggs.

One tablespoon of olive oil.

1. Heat up the oil in a pan. 

2. Crack the first egg. (Someone told me once that you gotta put a hole in the egg shell before you bin it. Otherwise witches will use them as boats. Of course, I'll leave you to make up your own mind, but those pesky witches can get anywhere.)

3. Tip the egg into the pan. When it has set a bit, repeat with egg number two.

4. Let the eggs cook for about two minutes. If the oil starts to spit, turn the heat down.

5. Occasionally spoon some of the oil over the tops of the eggs as they're cooking to help them set. 

6. When the yolks are still wobbly but the rest of the egg is solid, scoop them out of the pan with a slotted spatula-ey thing. 

7. Voila. Fried eggs.

Now to serve... Here's the simple way:

Salt, pepper and buttered toast.

And the fancy way:

Salt, pepper and buttered toast yet again, except this time, spread the toast with goat's cheese and sprinkle with fresh herbs - I used thyme but you can use whatever you fancy.