Mary Berry's Farmhouse loaf
I can't find the recipe online and can't be bothered to type it out. It's from her Baking Bible.
This one looked the tastiest in the book and as I had most of the ingrediens in the cupboard, it seemed a sensible place to start. On closer inspection of ingredients in the cupboard, I discovered the yeast went out of date a year ago and I needed both types of flour...... Off to Waitrose we (I took EEROD for a walk) went.
Ingredients sourced, I set about soaking the oats and weighing out the dry ingredients (it turns out I had an almost full bag of bread flour hiding in the cupbaord and now have enough for a number of loaves - mental note, need to do store cupboard stocktake). I opted for hand kneeding as I felt for my first time, I should give it proper attention. And besides, Paul H always does it by hand, makes it look easy and never comes out with sticky dough covering almost all of his arms from finger tip to elbow. This is where it differed for me. The dough stuck to everything and then proceeded to fly about the kitchen when I tried to rub it off. I kneeded for a bit but with half the dough still adhering to my hands and arms, I figured it was time for a wash. I plonked the ball of dough in an oiled bowl, covered with cling and set about cleaning. Recipes should have a 'washing up/cleaning time on them).
Below is the dough happily proving in its bowl.
The dough did in fact do its whole proving thing and doubled in size in just over an hour. So onto stage 2 of bread-making. I got the dough out, knocked it back and split it into two. The recipe says to shape into rounds before baking but I wanted loaves so into two silicone loaf pans they went. These got put in plastic bags and put back on the microwave to prove again. This stage was not hard. I would like to take a moment to thank IKEA for their incredibly useful, resealable plastic bags.
Stage 2 proving
Within about 30mins, they looked ready so into the oven they went for the directed 25mins. Again, this is where I think my 'surely you can alter the recipe and things will be fine' attitude may not have paid off. I didn't do any adjusting for the loaf pans and so although the loaves appeared cooked and even sounded hollow when tapped on the bottom, slicing the loaves showed the inside not quite cooked and a little heavy.
The final result
So, in total, the bread is absolutely delicious but needs to be kneeded longer (cue Kenwood next time) and a bit longer in the oven. As Paul and Mary would say "the flavour is fantastic but you had problems with the bake itself". Sliced and toasted, we've eaten one loaf already!
An aside... in looking for this recipe online, I came across two other food bloggers who have attempted this recipe. It seems both found the dough a touch sticky and needed longer cooking time. It isn't just me!
http://selfraisingflower.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/recipe-112-farmhouse-brown-seeded-loaf.html
http://risingtotheberry.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/farmhouse-brown-seeded-loaf.html
In other news:
- The garden is amazing. I highly recommend artifical grass. LOD adores being out there
- The veg beds are ready and this weekend is propagating weekend. I think this year is going to be tomatoes, courgettes, runner beans, baby corn, gem squash (maybe), lettuce and then we shall see......
- I have been sewing up a storm inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee. Geting to grips with shirring elastic
- COD says I am not charitable and I can't really argue. I don't like parting with cash to save thousands of starving in far flung places in the world. However, I think being a member of the WI will improve my charitableness (is that a word?) as I have already commited to making my yummy apple and chilli jelly for the summer fair (all sale proceeds go to charity) and have joined knit and stitch club where we knit / crochet squares for blankets for the Vine Project.
- EEROD almost crawling. Must get the stairgates out......
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