Baking and making

This was a recipe I'd marked in a book (One Hundred Bread Machine Recipes by Vicki Smallwood) intending to make long before now.  However, we needed a fresh loaf yesterday so I set to and made this one, using the last two oranges in the fruitbowl.  O.M.G. it smelt DIVINE whilst I was making it and even better when it came out of the oven, looking a little as if it had been to the Bahamas on holiday as I had given it a good egg glaze and then put a tray of hot water in the bottom to give it a good crust.

I shall mix it better next time as the fruit stayed around the edges, but practice makes perfect and whilst it might not have got 10/10 on Bake Off for presentation and technique, it would have got 11/10 for flavour!  You start it off in the bread maker, but if you don't have one, just mic by hand in a bowl.

CRANBERRY AND ORANGE BREAD

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups (525 grams) white bread flour
1 teaspoon yeast

To finish:

Juice of one orange
75g (3 oz) dried cranberries
Zest of one orange

Place the first 7 ingredients in the baking pan in the order in which they are listed.  Set the programme to Dough.

Place the juice of the orange and the cranberries in a bowl and set to one side (I also added the zest of the orange.)

When the programme has been completed, remove the dough, strain the cranberries (I froze the remaining juice and orange zest to use again), add to the dough and knead until they have been well incorporated. (You may need to add some extra flour to make the process easier).  Shape the dough into a long sausage shape, roll it up into a coil, and then place it on a lightly oiled and floured baking tray  Loosely cover the dough with a damp tea towel and leave to prove until nearly doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 200 deg., C/400 deg. F/Gas mark 6.  When the dough has almost doubled in size, remove the teatowel and bake it in the oven for 20 or 25 minutes, or until it is golden and has cooked through.  Transfer the loaf to a wire rack and leave it to cool.

Ignore wonkey centre (it improved with practice), but this is the latest crochet project, which will end up as a big circular cushion, seen in the photo below.

I love the Granny Squares deckchair cover behind it too, but would rather just make a Granny Squares throw.

I loved this "acid-drops" green of the late afternoon sun on the autumn fields behind the farm.  Quite a contrast against the rain-laden clouds.

View beyond the top of the yard, to the right of the previous photo.  The Ash trees are losing their leaves and are laden with Ash keys as always, some a deep Parkin cake brown, others more golden.  We have had two days of rain following a lovely Indian Summer last week, when I was able to get out in the garden and carry on with the Autumn tidy up.

The corner of the bed where the ramblers grow.  I haven't been able to get on top of this for years, but had a really good clear out, and dig through and removed rubber trug (Itsy's old feed bowl) after rubber trug of Bindweed roots which spread easily here through a sandy corner (old builder's sand), plus eradicting a goodly amount of Ground Elder too.  I am going to plant a few bulbs here for spring.

The area is usually covered by the huge leaves of the Oriental Borage, which has just been cut back within an inch of its life.  I am going to remove a few of the Thugs further along the border to make it more easy to maintain.  I must have taken 30 barrowloads of spent leaves and stems from these borders, which is a bit ridiculous really and NOT low maintenance!

If it stays dry today we will pick the cooking apple tree and put them into store in boxes down in the larder, where it is nice and cool.  I like free food . . .