No-Knead Bread

I promised this recipe a couple of weeks ago, and have now finally got around to bringing it upstairs with me. I was introduced to this method by a thread on a forum I visit. It's certainly DIFFERENT from ordinary bread making and whilst I still make my normal bashed-about loaves too, this keeps very well due to the high water content. My husband prefers this to my other bread too. And yes, it is MEANT to have lots of holes in it!

Here are a couple of you-tube links, so you get the idea . . .

HERE and HERE and HERE.

For a Dutch Oven by the way, I use my Le Creuset oval casserole pot, which works beautifully.

RECIPE

This is for an initial "trial" loaf:

400g strong bread flour
300 ml warm water
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (yes, just that tiny amount)
2 tspns salt

(Scale this up to 1 Kg flour, and 750 ml water, with 2 tspn. salt and still only 1/4 tspn yeast).

Mix ingredients lightly and leave to prove in a banneton or greased bowl for up to 12 hours. (A banneton is a French wicker proving basket). I used one the first couple of times until I went to the larger amount, which then soon outgrew the banneton!)

Take from bowl, fold 3 times, dust top with wheatgerm or semolina and tip back into banneton to rise for a further hour or so.

Put Dutch Oven into oven at 450 deg. F to preheat it - don't oil it - the dough won't stick. Place dough in Dutch Oven and cook for 30 mins, taking lid off after 15 mins.

This is LOVELY bread. I use 2/3 white flour and 1/3 rye. I haven't yet got to the stage where I can have the dough firm and tight enough to slash the top - mine has rather become the Elephant in the Room and when I tipped it out to fold it yesterday, I turned my back a moment and it was making a bid for freedom across the kitchen table!!

Have a go anyway. It certainly ISN'T time-consuming! Watch this space, as next I am going to try my hand at making a sour-dough starter. . . .

Butterflies and Beans

This has been a much better year for butterflies, without the wall to wall rain we have had these past two summers. The dry start to the year and the terrific warm spell up until mid-July really helped them. On my Buddlia the the day I counted a dozen Tortoiseshells, so there must have been a hatching hereabouts. There was a Comma, a Red Admiral and 3 Peacocks too, as well as several Small Whites, which are inevitably the commonest of the butterflies. A few weeks ago there was a hatch of Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns - they were everywhere - and plenty of Speckled Woods down the hill too.










It's a good year for Beans too, and I have been picking a motley selection daily. Some are eaten with the evening meal, but there are plenty to freeze too. The Italian flat bean has been particularly prolific and the Borlotti beans have done well too.

Fruited double ginger cake

This is what I made this morning, and it has essentially enough for two cakes but I cooked mine in one large shallow baking tin.

GINGERBREAD

1 lb (450g) plain flour
6 rounded tsps ground ginger
2 " " " mixed spice
2 1/2 level tsps bicarbonate of soda
8 oz (225g) margarine or butter
8 oz (225) golden syrup
" " black treacle
4 oz (125g) dark brown soft sugar
4 Grade 3 eggs
1/2 pt (275ml) cold milk
2 tblspns cold water

Well grease a baking tin of about 11" x 9" x 2" deep then line base and sides with non-stick parchment or greaseproof paper (latter painted with melted fat). Set oven to 300 deg. F(150 deg. C) Gas 2.

Sift first four dry ingredients into a bowl. Put fats, syrup, treacle and sugar into a pan and melt gently over a low heat. Do not boil. Beat together eggs, milk and water.

Make a dip in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour in egg mixture, followed by the melted mixture. Stir briskly without beating, making sure you work in all the flour, etc.

Transfer to the prepared tin and spread evenly with a knife. Put into oven and bake 1 - 1 1/4 hours until well risen and deep brown, and a thin metal skewer, pushed gently into the centre, comes out clean and dry.

Leave in tin for 15 mins, then lift gingerbread carefully out onto a wire cooling rack. Put into an air-tight tin when cold, and store in a cool place. (Warmth tends to turn gingerbread mouldy). Remove paper just before cutting.

I added about 4 oz of sultanas to this mix as well as half a dozen pieces of stem ginger finely chopped to the mix. It gets better with keeping, getting sticky on the top!

Chocolate macaroons

I made a batch of these this week, at my son's request.


Makes 20.

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
4 ounces/1 cup ground almonds
2 egg whites
7 ounces/1 cup superfine sugar
1/2 tspn vanilla extract
1/2 tspn almond extract
confectioners' sugar, for dusting (icing sugar in UK)

Preheat oven to 300F/Gas 2. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.

In a clean grease-free mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gently fold in the sugar, vanilla and almond extract, and ground almonds, along with tthe cooled melted chocolate. The mixture should just hold its shape. If it is too soft, chill in the fridge for 15 mins.

Place mounded teaspoonfuls of the mixture on the baking sheets, spaced far apart, and flatten slightly. Brush each ball with a little water and then sift some confectioner's sugar over.

Bake the macaroons for 20-25 mins, until just firm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Sorry, no photo as they got eaten quickly!!!

Waste

This post has been brewing with me for a few weeks now, after coming back from our middle daughter's Graduation. Of course, all her belongings had to come back with her. She flat-shared with several others. Some were travelling home on the train. Some were flying back home. They took the bare minimum. It is hard enough seeing decent food being thrown in the bin - and this is something that happens at the end of every University year - perfectly good food chucked away. I will admit to rescuing a few tins . . . I understand this is often a regular occurrence throughout termtime anyway - with students saying that this or that has been in the cupboard a while now, we'll throw it and buy a new packet. Old bread is thrown each week when a new loaf is bought - not used up for toast. Something is past - or even NEAR it's sell by or best before date - bin it . . . My eldest daughter was not one of these, as we didn't have the money to support such a profligate lifestyle, and she learned early on to make sixpence do the work of a shilling.

As I said, that was bad enough, but to see kitchen utensils, china, pans, thermos flasks (some of this never used), bedding and even clothes just chucked in the bin really upset me. Only one family bothered to take anything to a nearby charity shop - they were flying home to Europe. I have never seen such wastage. I can only assume it happens across the country, at every University, yet with a little forethought - these students had had time on their hands since their exams - surely the stuff they didn't need could have been taken to a charity shop - even the day before leaving. Why can't someone in each building take responsibility for the collection and donation of unwanted belongings? Why not just ask various charities to arrange to come and collect stuff? Why not put perfectly good food in boxes to be collected by charities for the homeless or even local people who struggle to make ends meet?

It makes my blood boil to think of such waste. It would take some organizing, but surely some good should come out of all this conspicuous consumption? Surely this easy come, easy go attitude is going to be carried on through life . . . no need for thrift, no considering the needs of others less fortunate, no charity . . .

As if to underline how hard life was, not so many years ago, I will mention a book I found at the car boot sale this weekend: Recipes from Scotland by F Marian McNeill. Originally published in 1946, my copy is a 1956 reprint. I suspect many of the recipes are very old ones, but gosh, there was absolutely NOTHING WASTED. Crappit Heids (Stuffed Haddock Heads) was one example, where the haddock heads were stuffed with minced fresh haddock livers and seasoned oatmeal and cooked in a little fish stock. Then there was Skirlie (Skirl-in-the-pan) made with oatmeal, suet or dripping and onions and seasoning. The oatmeal absorbed the fat (this was melted in a hot pan and the onion fried in it first). A note says that "Skirlie may be served as an accompaniment to minced steak, roast grouse, etc. In cottage homes it is often served as a main dish, with a border of creamed potatoes." Two more economical meals it is hard to think of, and those good wives north of the border would be spinning widdershins in their graves if they saw today's wastage.

Summer writing

I felt in the mood to jot down some poetry today. Just jottings, you understand - ideas . . .

A poking finger of Loosestrife
Gesticulates,
Bending away from the wind,
Whorls of purple petals -
Open-faced, eager for
The bee's caress -
Beaded with misty rain.

Tired with junketing,
Summer has laid down its weary head . . .

Getting organized

Following a wee prompt over on Rhonda's fabulous "Down to Earth" blog where she sets us a pantry challenge, my guilty conscience got the better of me this morning, and I set to and cleared mine out. No horribly out-of-date packets this time, but lots of opened stuff which should be in jars, and I had an enjoyable time looking out old jars and collected-from-car-boot-sale special glass containers to put stuff in.

The "before" picture is very blurry (hadn't realized, but you get the gist!)




The "after" picture is in glaring flash, and shows a distinct improvement!


And as a reward, I bought myself a copy of this with the last £4 in my purse. . .



Now I need to process the £1 tray of tomatoes I bought this morning, bake some biscuits (Chocolate Macaroons have been requested by my son) and make a loaf of bread.