I had a dream. It involved my own business. And food from a particular region of the world that I love. Since moving out of London and being a mum I'm feeling a bit lost to be honest, without a purpose I suppose. But my little dream got me excited and was (still is) something I feel very passionately about. I had been making in roads earlier in the year, potential premises, local suppliers, branding, a friend offered to give me advice on their similar business, blah blah....Then the rug got pulled from beneath us. A sudden death in the family, Wig's A+E visit, trying to keep my hand in with my freelance work, rearing a toddler and dealing with yet more costs on our moneypit/house sucked all my motivation away.
However, the dream is still there somewhere, inside my shattered shell, I just need to pick myself up again and plod on. 2015 is a clean slate, if I can just crawl my way to the New Year...In the meantime though, toddler permitting, I have been testing out recipes at home. Luckily a steady stream of visitors to our house is giving me plenty of victims to test them out on.
The first recipe is from Doves Farm. It's for a very easy Rye bread. I'd only ever made bread once before and found it frustrating as I'm a very impatient individual. All the 'proving' and 'knocking back' put me off. However, this loaf is fairly quick to make and has, so far, worked out every time. I have been making a loaf on a Friday night (Soho, Soho, where for art thou Soho? ...) and it has lasted us all week. I was probably buying about 3 loaves a week prior to discovering this recipe, but as it is such a dense loaf we aren't tending to eat so much. But it's great toasted for breakfast with a boiled egg. The black treacle in it gives it a slightly 'Malt Loaf' taste and you could always add seeds to the mix if you wanted to change the flavour.
Dark Rye Loaf
400g Doves Farm Wholemeal Rye Flour
200g Doves Farm Strong Plain Flour
1tsp Sugar
1tsp Doves Farm Yeast
1tsp Salt
30g Black Treacle
400ml Warm Water
2tbsp Oil
200 Fan / 220 Oven / Gas Mark 7
*Mix together the dry ingredients
* Dissolve the treacle into the water
* Add the treacle/water to the dry ingredients, as the dough comes together add the oil
*Form the dough into a ball, cover and leave in a warm place to rise
*Knock back the dough and vigorously knead for a few minutes
* Place dough in an oiled loaf tin (2lb size) and leave for a further 45 minutes
* Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes
* To make a crustier crust place a dish/tin of hot water in the bottom of your oven.
However, the dream is still there somewhere, inside my shattered shell, I just need to pick myself up again and plod on. 2015 is a clean slate, if I can just crawl my way to the New Year...In the meantime though, toddler permitting, I have been testing out recipes at home. Luckily a steady stream of visitors to our house is giving me plenty of victims to test them out on.
The first recipe is from Doves Farm. It's for a very easy Rye bread. I'd only ever made bread once before and found it frustrating as I'm a very impatient individual. All the 'proving' and 'knocking back' put me off. However, this loaf is fairly quick to make and has, so far, worked out every time. I have been making a loaf on a Friday night (Soho, Soho, where for art thou Soho? ...) and it has lasted us all week. I was probably buying about 3 loaves a week prior to discovering this recipe, but as it is such a dense loaf we aren't tending to eat so much. But it's great toasted for breakfast with a boiled egg. The black treacle in it gives it a slightly 'Malt Loaf' taste and you could always add seeds to the mix if you wanted to change the flavour.
Dark Rye Loaf
400g Doves Farm Wholemeal Rye Flour
200g Doves Farm Strong Plain Flour
1tsp Sugar
1tsp Doves Farm Yeast
1tsp Salt
30g Black Treacle
400ml Warm Water
2tbsp Oil
200 Fan / 220 Oven / Gas Mark 7
*Mix together the dry ingredients
* Dissolve the treacle into the water
* Add the treacle/water to the dry ingredients, as the dough comes together add the oil
*Form the dough into a ball, cover and leave in a warm place to rise
*Knock back the dough and vigorously knead for a few minutes
* Place dough in an oiled loaf tin (2lb size) and leave for a further 45 minutes
* Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes
* To make a crustier crust place a dish/tin of hot water in the bottom of your oven.
I tried to stick Pumpkin seeds on this one but they just fell off when it came out of the oven.
Apart from that, I was very happy with it.
Thank you Doves Farm!
No comments:
Post a Comment