Showing posts with label breadmaker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breadmaker. Show all posts

22.2.12

Time to get a breadmaker? - Charity Challenge DAY 3

The kids finished off the drop scones for breakfast and the last of the bread, so I needed to make a new loaf. Now that sounds very casual, like I do it a lot, but the truth is I can count on two hands the number of times I've made bread from scratch. 
I wasn't very confident about it at all.  

Maybe it's time to get a breadmaker?  So many people swear by them, but I don't have a great track record with small kitchen machines.  After my initial burst of enthusiasm they tend to get neglected and just clutter up the place.  Have to say though, I was just about ready to order one, when my hands and rings (eejit!) were covered in sticky dough and the phone rang....  

I chose Jamie's Basic Bread recipe as it sounded easy - and kept my fingers crossed because the flour had been in the cupboard for a very long time.  I wasn't brave enough to start on a flat surface and make a well for the water in a mound of flour, (just asking for trouble) so started in a bowl and then slapped the mixture onto the table. I managed to make a right old mess!  

I used quite a bit of flour, but it kept stubbornly sticking to the wood - is there any way round this or is it just part and parcel of making bread?  Things improved after that and I love the squeaky noise the dough makes when you knead out the air.  
It wasn't until I got to this stage that I realised there were no timings or oven temperature on the recipe! Luckily I found them in the comments - 200 degrees C for 25 minutes, then check. Amazingly that tatty bit of dough on the table turned into this.  It's huge!


We had savoury rice with chicken for tea.  I whizzed up half a large leek and a carrot (surprise!) because l find there are less complaints if they can't work out what vegetable they're eating....  You see, I do have one very tricky eater, who would be deeply suspicious of chunks of leek, but if they're finely chopped in a food processor, I seem to be able to get away with it (find it works a treat with courgettes too)  He's not keen on potatoes either - how can you not like potatoes?!  So I begged him to eat a few small,crispy ones on monday and didn't tell him what was in the soup yesterday! (he loved it)


Back to tea and I fried the vegetable mix for a few minutes, added the rice, stirred it all together and poured in my homemade stock.  When the rice had absorbed the stock and was nearly cooked I added some of the leftover chicken. Then some seasoning, parsley from the pot and a quick squirt of lemon juice at the end to zing it up. 
Plain yogurt, the rest of the peaches and a splash of honey for pud.  Day 3 done!