Things that make me happy: 2

I love making bread!  When our last bread making machine broke (we've worn out a couple over years!), I started making the dough in my Kenwood Chef.  I just pile in the the ingredients: 

 150g strong white flour

 500g brown flour

2 tsp salt

2 tsp brown sugar

 1 sachet of dried yeast

 1 tbsp sunflower oil

 14 fl.oz of warm water

 and then turn it on!  There's something quite reassuring about the clunking and rocking of my trusty, old machine as it sets to work turning the ingredients into a dough.  I let the machine have its turn at kneading and then I always like to give it a go myself so I tip the warm dough onto a lightly oiled work surface for a few minutes kneading by hand...nothing beats it for removing the stresses of the day!  Using an oiled surface was a tip that I picked up recently from a repeat of Great British Bake Off...it works a treat, so much better than using flour!

Put the dough back in the bowl and leave to rise.

Then, when the bowl is filled with pillowy dough, comes the joy of knocking it back and kneading again before shaping into a loaf or rolls.

Leave to rise again.  Then bake - Gas 7, 30 minutes for a loaf and 20 minutes for rolls - and enjoy the lovely smell that fills the house!

Last night's loaf!

The happiness continues...

with a big bite from a door step of sandwich made with last night's loaf....delicious!

Rebecca

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Bread

Since my breadmaker stopped working a little while ago, I have been buying bread because the thought of making bread by hand just seemed all too much bother. However, the other evening I decided to get down to it and it really didn't take long at all. There was something just so satisfying about it too - all that stress-busting kneading, not to mention the lovely smell as it rose in the kitchen and baked in the oven! Here's the resulting wholemeal loaf with butter at the ready...
After Wednesday evening's storm and heavy rainfall, I had to smile at the cover of the Country Living magazine that dropped through the letterbox this morning ... "The great BRITISH SUMMER" !!


Something lovely to look at while enjoying an egg mayo sandwich (with the remains of the homemade loaf!) in the garden! I spotted Naughty Cat No.1 catching some lunchtime sunshine too!

"Oh, that's spoilt my sunbathing!"

"It's so bright out here!"

Naughty Cat No.2 is not quite such a show off! In fact, she is very shy indeed and, usually, very difficult to photograph, but I caught her..... on the garden table!

Hope the weather holds for the weekend!

Rebecca

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