Daily bread

 

Many years ago my sister and I decided to make bread for our family, it was not a one of our greatest achievements to say the very least.

First of all we winged it a bit on the recipe, didn’t have the right measurements, probably put things it at the wrong time. We let is rise for about fifteen minutes and decided who needs to stick it in the airing cupboard all afternoon and pummel it that hard??

We proceeded to bake varying sized of rocks and stones, even Bogart the Staffordshire bull terrier declined which was saying something as Boggie usually eats anything and everything!

I learnt that day that I wasn’t a natural baker, I am impatient, terrible at following instructions; always want to do something other than what I am told. None of these are useful traits if you intend on becoming a baker!

 

But this al happened many moons ago in deepest darkest Africa, now I live in a flat that has running water and electricity all day every day! The modern world has also presented me with wonderful machines and equipment to develop my skills, much to my boyfriends amusement as I arrive home regularly wielding a giant box with either a new or batter old hand me down something or other that will be wondrous and do everything a person could ever want.

The vitamix came first; he brought the magical machine with him. Then came multipurpose food processor, then a mandolin, then the ULTIMATE grater (Microplane), an awesome super amazingly sharp knife, sticky mats for chopping boards, Tupperware, millions of glass jars (they populate every corner of the flat as I use them for juice fasts for one of my clients), two fridges, an ancient dehydrator, and so on and so forth.

The final addition is a humongous bread maker a hand me down from my second cousin once removed (I cannot explain it coherently so you will have to use your imagination) which I had to sacrifice leaving my dear bicycle at the station whilst I wielded the awkward machine down the street and puffing slightly into the front door. Immediately ripping all my wooly clothes off I unpacked it and stared at this new plastic alien giant egg in my kitchen wondering where on earth was this thing to live on a daily basis? “Cross that bridge when I come to it”, I say to myself and hurriedly head to the shops to buy yeast and flour.

 

Nervous that the machine may not work I followed the instructions (almost to the T), substituting some flour here and there, brown sugar instead of white and completely forgetting to warm the water before adding it. Brilliant start I would say!

I should add that this was all done just before all the dinner guests arrived, as each arrived they were invited to stare intently through the little viewing window and the bread rise…. and then collapse. Having not read all the instructions in my haste to bake bread there was much dinner discussion on the state of the bread, was it ready? What did the beeps mean? Was it a beep or a buzz? It’s definitely a beep. Ok, its ready. Me – but its flat, how come it doesn’t look like the picture?!?!

At 11pm, guests gone, I tipped the bread out and we tried a piece whilst still warm with melted butter. Good lord it was glorious in a yeasty-home-made-sort-of-way.

I taste it again in the morning and as if like magic the yeasty taste has mellowed leaving a divine loaf of home made wonderfulness, moist, firm but not hard, textured with warm reassuring flavour and a scent of safety as it sits quietly warming in the toaster. Oh the joys of homemade bread.

The most wonderful thing about home made bread is not even just the taste but the purity of the ingredients meaning that you actually don’t feel like a lethargic, bloated, brain dead version of your former self. Additive free, no caking agents, no emulsifiers, no preservatives artificial or otherwise.

 

Have a look at the recipe below:

 

Add ingredients in this order

1.5 cups luke warm water

4 tbsp skimmed milk powder

4 tbsp organic unrefined brown sugar

1 tsp salt

4 tbsp organic sunflower oil

3 cups Rude Health organic sprouted whole-wheat flour

1 cup Rude Health organic cracked porridge oats

2 tsp active yeast

1 tsp organic cracked pepper

1 tsp ground organic cinnamon

 

Turn the machine to “Basic” setting – not sure what other machines may have but this has a total bake time of 1hr and two minutes but total time of 3hrs 30 minutes.

 

Iron the shirts, make the bed, wash your hair, go for a run, pay the bills and come back in a few hours to a glorious loaf of bread YOU made (with the help of a magical machine which allows you to avoid the kneading, mess and using up your precious time)!

 

YUMMMMM