Tag Archives: baking

Cheese, Onion & Garlic Bread – Some Suggestions

Cheese and spring onion and garlic soda bread – using he green bits

t actually a recipe, more a list of guidelines, suggestions, anecdotes and possibilities relating to the production of an easy way to make bread. It started off as a recipe (from the BBC) but a bit I’ve made it a number of times and have yet to make it the same way twice. However, every variation seems to work. I wouldn’t say it’s foolproof, but so far I haven’t managed to mess it up. However, like sales and poems, you are always judged on the next one, not what you have already done. To be fair, I actually used the recipe as a guideline in the first place as I had no wholemeal flour and no buttermilk. I did have salt and bicarbonate of soda, though I admit I reduced the amount of salt because I always do. Grossly overweight, various health problems, but I always use less salt because it’s a healthy thing to do. It’s like the captain of the Titanic giving a sailor a sticking plaster and telling him to fix the leak.

To start with, you need buttermilk according to the original recipe on the internet. I have also made it by adding lemon juice to milk and by adding yoghurt to milk. In fact, the first time I made this loaf I used milk and lemon juice.

Spring onion and cheese bread using all the onion

To do this, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to the milk and leave for ten minutes. That’s four teaspoons or two dessert spoons. I actually used a dessert spoon of lemon juice because I always get mixed up. But it still worked. I’m tempted to say “heaped” spoonfuls and see if anyone actually tries.

You can, according to the internet, also use vinegar to provide the acid, or mix plain yoghurt and milk. The BBC recipe says 50:50 but other suggestions are available.

If you don’t have buttermilk for the soda bread recipe, you can use half-and-half plain yoghurt mixed with milk. You can also use milk that has been soured by stirring in a tablespoon of lemon juice and allowing it to stand for 10 minutes. Some recipes say you will get better results from allowing the milk to get to room temperature However, the chances of me planning that far in advance are small and it worked OK cold.

Bread and margarine – part of my extensive range of serving suggestions

OK – the measurements. Take 12oz plain flour (or All Purpose Flour if you are from USA), half a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda, 10oz of buttermilk (or whatever you decide) and mix it. Do this by adding the dried ingredients and whisking them up with a fork them make a well in the middle and add 90% of the liquid.

Mix with the fork, add more liquid as necessary and then mix a bit more by hand. Don’t use both hands until you have a\ nice ball of dough – remember to keep one clean for opening ovens etc. Talking of which, when you start, you should pre-heat the oven to 200C or 180C Fan. Or about 400F and 360F.

You should end up with a fairly stiff dough ball of dough. Don’t overwork it. Round it off, pat it down and cut a cross in the top. That might help it cook better, or it may be a way of letting the fairies escape. I personally don’t think it helps it cook any better and just makes the slices a strange shape. And I recommend sweeping the kitchen regularly to get rid of fairies. Half the time my crosses look unimpressive, to say the least.

Cook for 30 minutes or thereabouts. When a tap on the bottom sounds like a drum, it probably isn’t cooked, despite what the books say. It should sound more like a snare drum – a bass drum means it isn’ quite cooked.

JUst ordinary soda bread

IF it’s OK, put i on a rack and cool it until you want to eat it. Try leaving it at least ten minutes as it’s better then.

For cheese and onion bread add about three spring onions cut into quarter inch pieces and about 100g of grated cheese. I buy the ready grated cheddar from the shop. For the garlic, I used one nice big, plump clove just a bit smaller than the top of my thumb, chopped very small.

I’m going to try powdered mustard in it at some point, and possibly Stilton. You can buy books on making soda bread. Some cost over £10. It’s only soda bread, how could you write a book about it?

Got

Bread that came from wet dough – the cross healed up

Serving suggestions – in a sandwich, with soup, with stew, with Italian food as toast. Warning – the garlic one is best with Italian food and not good with marmalade.

to go to bed now. If I’ve missed anything out let me know.

A Return to Soda Bread

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Note poor attempt at cross

This morning I rose at 6.30, decided it was too early, went back to bed and eventually emerged at 7.30. I then squandered my early start by going through an auction catalogue online. Then I trotted off for my secret mission. I planned to wake Julia by wafting the scent of freshly baked bread through the house. In fact, the clinking of kitchen implements woke her early and she pottered down to see if the er was any tea going. This burst the bubble of my planned surprised and slightly soured the the tone when she realised there was no tea.

Imagine a grumpy bear, roused from hibernation early, and wanting tea. It is, admit, a slightly confused metaphor. But it is an accurate description of the atmosphere in the kitchen – double disappointment with just a hint of fury.

So I made tea and we had cereal. The bread baked. It was only soda bread, because I haven’t actually baked for something like nine years. There was a programme on TV last night, where soda bread was cooked, and my ambition was rekindled.

For lunch we had bread and cheese and pickles and then Julia went to work in the cafe.

The recipe actually stipulated half white and half wholemeal flour but I used cheap plain white flour, because that was what we had. I also squeezed lemon juice into milk to produce a substitute for buttermilk. I would have used yoghurt and milk, but we have had all the yoghurt this week. Apart from that and reducing the salt I didn’t alter the recipe at all. In other words, the only thing that followed the recipe was the half spoonful of bicarb. Amazingly, it was one of my better attempts, as I’ve never quite got the hang of soda bread.

Poor photograph, which flatters the bread

There were a few problems along the way. I added 90% of the milk and it wasn’t enough so I tipped the erst in and produced a very wet and sticky dough which stuck to my fingers. I used to be able to produce dough with a light touch and rarely get it stuck to me, but I have lost the knack. It must have looked like a kid trying to bake, apart from the lack of joy. I hate it when it sticks. Eventually, after shaking more flour in, and getting doughy fingerprints on the flour bag, I ended up with quite a wet dough, but was able to manage it, even though the cross in the top wasn’t very distinct. I hope the fairies were able to get out despite this poor attempt.

It tool longer to bake than suggested and, I confess, was a bit dense towards the bottom. Apart from that it wasn’t too bad and it went well with cheese and pickles. I have now ordered buttermilk with next week’s groceries and will be baking again next week. Soda bread is good because it is quick and simple, but above all, it doesn’t hurt my fingers. A loaf taking a lot of of kneading is still beyond me, though if I get the bug again I may buy a food mixer to do he hard work.

Compared to the excitement of baking, nothing much happened for the rest for the day. Next week I am going to try cheese and onion soda bread.

Ready to test

Wednesday Week

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Mince pies – time to start testing

Yes, it’s Wednesday, sometimes called “Hump Day” according to the internet. This may be true in the USA but here we just call it Wednesday. It wouldn’t be accurate for me anyway, as a lot of my working life has encompassed Saturdays and Sundays. The track is Wednesday Week by the Undertones. It’s one of those songs that you remember when you put it on. Otherwise it just slips you mind.

Not much happened today. I did a few minor bits and pieces and looked for my motivation. Unfortunately I couldn’t find it, but I did find some cheese on toast and two boxes of junk to sort out. I now have just one box of junk, so it hasn’t been a wasted day. However, do not fear – I still have plenty more to sort out.

Foodwise, I am on 22 plant based food sources, with four of them being things I didn’t eat last week. I’ve not made such a thing of it this week as I did last week. Avocado for lunch and a decent helping of veg for tea tomorrow night should see me most of the way there. I haven’t planned as well as I did last week so I may have a few things less than last week but it will still be over 30. It feels a bit like failure, but you can’t keep finding new things to eat without proper planning. This week I thought I’d just coast along and see what happened, so I’m not too disappointed. I have still done 30.

Baking tomorrow – Julia wants cheese scones, I want banana and walnut loaf and I’m thinking of doing an apple bread pudding. Then maybe a rice pudding, fruit scones or a ginger cake. It’s a case of using all the oven space. If I’m going to have the oven on I may as well fill it. The main problem will be finding enough energy to eat it all.

Some Feelgood Photos

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Stilton and Date Scones

Yes, I admit that I could have included kittens, puppies and seals, or even smiling babies and teddy bears, but none of them really make me as happy as pictures of home baking. I really should start doing more of it, but my hands make it difficult. Maybe a mixer is in order. I could also have included pictures of Julia but that would just be sentimental, and, let’s face it, most people would rather see scones.

The scones in the picture above are Date and Stilton Cheese scones – my own recipe. They are better than they sound, in case you don’t like Stilton, because the Stilton flavour doesn’t really come out in them. If you do like Stilton they are slightly disappointing, for the same reason.

Grantham Gingerbreads

Tricky biscuits because they are supposed to open up and be hollow in the middle. I’ve never quite got that right, though they taste OK and look alright on the outside. Only made them twice because, to be honest, they are more trouble than they are worth.

Peppermint Creams

I like peppermint creams but I may as well just inject myself with glucose syrup as they are basically just sugar with a bit of extra effort thrown in. The most important thing about making them was that they pick up any bit of loose colour in the cooking area. They even managed to take up blue from the chequered table covering.

Gingerbread Men

Probably should be called gingerbread people in these days of political concern. Or Gender Fluid Gingers, as there is no actual indication of gender. This would probably annoy people with ginger hair…

OK, they are biscuits with ginger in them. Since when did biscuits get so political?

Wheatsheaf Loaf (with mouse)

Mouse on Wheatsheaf Loaf

These are useless because you can’t actually eat them, but they were always nice to make. Not only was it good to feel artistic for once, bu it was nice to be part of an ancient tradition.

Some Photos from the Archives

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I had a look through a few old photos on an SD card last night. I’m having to use one of the cameras as a card reader now the reader on the computer is bust. None of my plug in card readers work because they never seem to last long. It’s very frustrating.

The first ones are a few photos from the days when I used to cook wheatsheaf loaves at harvest time. The farmer’s mother used to like to take one to church for the harvest festival and we used to display them at the local show. They aren’t particularly artistic, and nothing like as good as one produced by a professional, but it does show what you can do with dough and patience.

I’ve shown these before, so sorry about the repetition, but it’s a nice reminder of the days when we could get flour.

Wheatsheaf Loaf – Raw

Wheatsheaf Loaf – Baked

This is a pair I made using leftover pizza dough. They were about eight inches high and we handed them round to visiting school parties until they fell apart. I’m told that if you dry them properly whilst baking you can make a loaf that will last for years. I never found that, mine always seemed to crack and fall apart. It may have been the way I constructed them as they seemed to fracture along fault lines as if there was an internal problem. One did last a couple of years but these small ones, like the larger ones, lasted a couple of months before the faults developed. It’s long enough – as harvest ends and autumn begins everyone wants to move on to apple juice and jam.

Mouse on Wheatsheaf Loaf

These are a couple of mice from different loaves. You make an egg shaped piece of dough, poke two eyes in the sharp end, make two scissor snips for ears and then stick it on the stalks before applying a tail. It’s actually what you are judged on.

Nobody remarks on the 30 stalks you laboriously roll out, or the 100 ears of wheat (and the hundreds of snips you make to give them texture) – they just want to point at the mouse.

It’s like peering at the Mona Lisa for ten minutes before saying ‘Nice frame.’

Wheatsheaf Loaf (with mouse)

I can’t remember the exact instructions, but you make a dough with less yeast than usual and divide it into three. One third becomes the base, which is a keyhole shaped piece of flat dough you use as a base – it’s important to get that in the right proportion if the finished loaf is to look right – it took me several goes to get this right. One third becomes the ears and one third becomes stalks and extras.

Do the stalks and position them, do the ears. A piece of dough about the size of the top finger joint will be OK – give it a few snips for texture and that’s a good enough impression of an ear of wheat – nobody ever criticised. Make a decent width of plait to act as the binding – it also serves to cover the raggedy join between stalks and ears.

Then finish off with a mouse. The previous tedious hour of shaping and snipping means nothing if the mouse isn’t right.

Glaze it, remembering not to clog the detail, bake it, try to dry it out as much as possible then cool it and stand back to receive compliments from people who don’t really understand how simple it is.

Remember that although the traditional ones were often two or three feet long that is because they were made by commercial bakers with big ovens – in a domestic oven you can do one about eighteen inches high.

If you feel inspired to try one, here are some better instructions.

Tomorrow I have some pictures of scones.

Sunday Morning Catch Up

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I haven’t been particularly fluent in the last week and I’ve missed a few things out.

The anti-coagulant blood test came and went. They managed to get the blood first time and the next appointment is in two weeks time so things are back on track. I’m hoping to extend the interval so I only need monthly tests. I know someone who has quarterly tests, which would be even better.

We went to the farm on Friday, as I mentioned and found that Evie the sheep dog had died at the weekend. The general view is that she had eaten poison, though I’m not sure where she would have found any as all the rat poison round the place is put out properly in bait boxes. It’s not the best run farm but they do get that right.

She was bred to herd sheep, and as I mentioned when she first arrived she immediately tried to herd the Quercus group, but she was never properly trained and I’m not sure if she had a fulfilled life or not. She didn’t seem overly happy at times, which is a shame.

The new puppy

The men in sheds were saying how good my bread was on Friday. This isn’t linked to any proper measure of quality, they just used to like getting free bread when I was practising and made too much. I said I didn’t bake these days as the kneading plays havoc with my arthritis. Next thing I knew I was being offered healing.

Gingerbread men

Wheatsheaf Loaf

The proof…

Brown loaves

Soda bread

I’m not much of one for faith healing and that sort of thing, and was prepared to feel no benefit, but can’t say that was the case. There may have been some improvement for a couple of days, but it might just be wishful thinking. The jury is out, but I’m certainly not going to dismiss it. The improvement may show more about my imagination than about my arthritis, but even an imaginary improvement is worth having.

Then on Saturday I met a paranormal investigator. You’ll have to come back later for details, as I need to get down to the launderette now. Suffice to say that if I had doubts about healing…

Feeling Better Already

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The foot still hurts, but I’m feeling a lot more cheerful and I’m actually starting to think again, even though it’s only a couple of hours from my last post. Julia says I’m also looking pink again after several days of looking grey.

While I was in the surgery this afternoon, despite having a book in my pocket, I just didn’t have the energy to read it. This is much more of an indicator of my wellbeing than a temperature measurement, because, as we saw earlier, I didn’t actually notice I had a temperature.

I’ve been missing my photography recently so I’ve decided to post a few of my favourite photos.

The featured image is one of the mice off a wheatsheaf loaf. I always liked making them, both the loaves and the mice. It’s actually very simple, though I never did get the knack of drying them out properly, so they had a tendency to curl up and go mouldy.

Little and Large!

I couldn’t do without a picture of the Odd Couple. I haven’t been able to visit for a few weeks now, but I’ll be going as soon as I can walk.

Nuthatch at Rufford Abbey

I like Nuthatches, and we had a good day at Rufford on this particular day. In fact we’ve never had a better day photographing birds in the woods at Rufford. However, I live in hope.

Julia at Clumber Park

There are other subjects for photography apart from birds, wives for instance. This is a particularly fine example, and I would probably have starved to death if she hadn’t been here to look after me over the last few weeks.

I forget the name of this one, but it’s quite impressive.

I’m going to miss the garden this year, it was so easy to pop out when the sun shone. Our own garden needs a bit of work after being ignored for years.

Right place, right time

I may have to enhance the rainbow, but it’s still a favourite shot of mine.

More photographs in a day or two.

Medecine, mistakes and a misapprehension

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On the grounds of good taste I’m not going to go into detail about what happened at hospital this afternoon.

The facilities are good, the staff were cheerful and I was only away from home for 45 minutes (we can see the hospital from our house so travel doesn’t take long). Despite this I’m not very happy with the experience.

It’s hard to feel satisfaction when you go in for tests and come out without having the tests done.

The NHS did not cover itself in glory today.

However, my day was better than the man who was waiting with me. He was under the misapprehension that they were going to put the camera down his throat.

Today’s photographs are just a few selected from thousands…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Enjoying winter sun at the Ecocentre

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Quercus Community with cake and mince tarts

Pride, a fall and more gingerbread

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I was very pleased with myself last week after the gingerbread baking session.

Obviously I should have known better, pride going before a fall, and all that. Or, Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18) for those of you who prefer your quotes accurate.

To put it another way, whilst having a second go to make sure the recipe works, I had a bit of a problem and the biscuits were not as good this time. I won’t bore you with details, but I will have a bit of a rethink.

Then I tried making Grantham Gingerbread. They are a traditional biscuit, first produced by accident in 1740, and not really like a gingerbread at all, being light in colour and sweet in taste, with not much ginger flavour. That will be something that changes before the next batch.

Grantham Gingerbread

Grantham Gingerbread dough

Mine turned out looking suitably cracked, but rather flat, at which point I remembered that I should have used self-raising flour rather than using the plain flour I had just used in the gingerbread men.

Even so, some had risen and had honeycomb centres, so they weren’t too bad.

Based on a post in Pies and Prejudice (a fine food blog, though modesty prevents me mentioning who writes it) I had an unusual salad with my lunch today – nasturtium leaves and flowers, feral rocket and a cultivated sorrel leaf.

Foraged nasturtium salad

Julia and the girls started to assemble the poppy project ready for November, using the poppies made by using the bases of plastic bottles.

Poppies made from plastic bottles

Poppies and corn wreath

We had enquiries about Men in Sheds, an educational visit for next spring, renting the room, apple pressing and a forthcoming visit (the teacher wants to know what we have planned – I’m not sure she is expecting the answer “nothing” so I’d better get thinking).

At the end of the day, we had unexpected visitors, which was pleasant, and gave me a chance to offload some biscuits.

That’s about it.

I’ll be going soon, just need to get down on my hands and knees to find out what is jamming the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet.

There’s always something…

Flintham Show

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Well, after days of baking and making salt dough shapes the show finally arrived, as did busloads of kids.

Apart from salt dough and bread tasting we had the bread story, corn dollies (with paper straws), the bread shed, adverts for our two new educational units (Festive wreaths and the Great War), the famous Ecocentre bread-plaiting roadshow (modesty prevents me telling you which charismatic, bearded fat man runs that) and Julia’s two pig sculptures made from straw bales..

Of course, with all the good stuff, we also had a helping of adversity. One of the wheatsheaves, having dried badly, developed cracks before falling apart, and Julia’s pigs suffered from an outbreak of vandalism. They were popular all day, but for some reason we kept having to retrieve the snouts and ears from various souvenir-hunting children.

The cracks start to show

Back to the drawing board!

In a short break I managed to knock up a small wheatsheaf loaf to check how practical it was as a group exercise. It seems OK in terms of scale and time, though I couldn’t get anyone to give it a try on the day. That’s one for next week. Note the decorative charring to the smaller loaf – a feature of all our bread on the day.

Two sizes of wheatsheaf loaf

Small wheatsheaf with salt dough plaques

Fortunately the day, which started cold and drizzly, was dry and sunny by the time the gates opened and all the hard work of the show committee paid off. The photos don’t do it justice, but it’s hard to fit it in with the other activities. By the end of the day all I wanted to do was sit down – one bread roll a child for 80 children is works out at about 12 sessions and 6 kilos of dough, all mixed by hand.

The results of the Bread Test were:

Home baked white
TESCO cheap white sliced
Home baked brown and shop bought seeded brown (a tie)

We’ve run this session a number of times and it’s always the same – a narrow win for home made white over Chorleywood white sliced with brown, seeded and sourdough lower down. So I won, but it’s depressing.

Horse drawn ploughing

Children tour the site by trailer

REsettling the plough

quercuscommunity

Life after the Care Farm