Busy morning in the kitchen.
First, I began a "starter" to make a sandwich loaf. We make all of our own bread, usually with the breadmaker (or getting the breadmaker to make the dough which we finish by hand). The Shipton Mill newsletter arrived in my inbox a couple of days ago, and I decided to try making their Sandwich loaf by hand. http://www.shipton-mill.com/the-bakery/recipes/article-413/the-proper-sandwich-loaf
I was dubious about whether it would really look like a sandwich loaf. I'm using a standard 2 pound loaf tin. I'm quite happy wit bread made in these tins, saves me cutting the sandwiches in half... but the picture promised a proper sandwich loaf.
While the starter was getting fired up, I measured out everything else for the bread. I then made the dough, and put it in the airing cupboard to prove.
While that was proving, I made some lemon curd. I've tried the traditional methism and I've tried a couple of fast methods. The fast methods (Delia and Nigella) I find are fine for turning into dessets, or if I'm going ot eat it all immediately, but the curd isn't quite as smooth as when it's done "properly". Last year I got DH and a friend to do a blind tasting, and they both preferred the "proper" one. I'd forgotten quite how long it takes for the eggs to thicken!
I also decided to ry making some jellied "sweets". I drink a reasonable amount of one particular fruit tea - it's the only one I've found where the taste lives up to the smell. The other day I wondered what it would be like as little jellies, so I used the water from heating the lemon curd ro melt some fine leaf gelatin, made some tea (using 6 teabags, as I reasoned that things tend to lose flavour when chilled). I decided not to add any sugar, so these aren't going to be "sweet" sweets. I sieved the final mixture, and then poured it into heart-shaped silicon ice cube mould.
I then did the next step of the dough, and put it back in for final proving, and got on with making a pork-and-beef bolognese. I like to give the bolognese a long gentle and slow cook (in fact, it tastes even better the next day). There's enough for at least 2 meals for the 2 of us. Actually, there's a lot more than that - we tend to eat a lot of bolognese with our pasta.
The bread is now in the oven. I've just taken a peek, and it has risen beautifully above the top of the tin. It looks sandwich loaf shaped! Fingers crossed it comes out OK.
First, I began a "starter" to make a sandwich loaf. We make all of our own bread, usually with the breadmaker (or getting the breadmaker to make the dough which we finish by hand). The Shipton Mill newsletter arrived in my inbox a couple of days ago, and I decided to try making their Sandwich loaf by hand. http://www.shipton-mill.com/the-bakery/recipes/article-413/the-proper-sandwich-loaf
I was dubious about whether it would really look like a sandwich loaf. I'm using a standard 2 pound loaf tin. I'm quite happy wit bread made in these tins, saves me cutting the sandwiches in half... but the picture promised a proper sandwich loaf.
While the starter was getting fired up, I measured out everything else for the bread. I then made the dough, and put it in the airing cupboard to prove.
While that was proving, I made some lemon curd. I've tried the traditional methism and I've tried a couple of fast methods. The fast methods (Delia and Nigella) I find are fine for turning into dessets, or if I'm going ot eat it all immediately, but the curd isn't quite as smooth as when it's done "properly". Last year I got DH and a friend to do a blind tasting, and they both preferred the "proper" one. I'd forgotten quite how long it takes for the eggs to thicken!
I also decided to ry making some jellied "sweets". I drink a reasonable amount of one particular fruit tea - it's the only one I've found where the taste lives up to the smell. The other day I wondered what it would be like as little jellies, so I used the water from heating the lemon curd ro melt some fine leaf gelatin, made some tea (using 6 teabags, as I reasoned that things tend to lose flavour when chilled). I decided not to add any sugar, so these aren't going to be "sweet" sweets. I sieved the final mixture, and then poured it into heart-shaped silicon ice cube mould.
I then did the next step of the dough, and put it back in for final proving, and got on with making a pork-and-beef bolognese. I like to give the bolognese a long gentle and slow cook (in fact, it tastes even better the next day). There's enough for at least 2 meals for the 2 of us. Actually, there's a lot more than that - we tend to eat a lot of bolognese with our pasta.
The bread is now in the oven. I've just taken a peek, and it has risen beautifully above the top of the tin. It looks sandwich loaf shaped! Fingers crossed it comes out OK.
