The more I make bread, the more I am convinced of the importance of the
kitchen being in the best position in the house. When we designed and built our
house, I was determined that the kitchen should have a view and be on the front
of the house. Now that it’s six-fifteen of a summer morning and I’m up early, kneading bread, because we’ve run
out again, I’m especially happy to be looking out over a sun-soaked landscape to
the distant mountains. Every time you make bread you’re guaranteed a good ten
minutes of contemplation as you knead it, the mechanical rhythmic activity frees
the mind to wander or switch off…very therapeutic. Having a view thrown in as
well is just an added bonus.
I haven’t always made bread. It is a
comparatively recent development. Making jam was the first breakthrough into
self-sufficiency, then came the day when our local supplier of rye bread, who
made a loaf that (miracle of miracles), all the children would eat, decided to
switch recipes and use caraway in it…instant rejection by the whole family.
We’d stopped the wheat bread to try and help my son’s allergies and found it
helped most of us, so apart from the occasional indulgence of fluffy white
bread, I wanted to stay off it. There was no alternative; I would have to take
the leap into bread making. The main reason that I’d resisted was that it seemed
to take so long. First the mixing and kneading, then the rising, then knocking
down and forming loaves, a second rising and finally the baking. Who could keep
track of all that in the chaotic life of a three-child family?
So eventually
I take the plunge, turn to my friend Nigel (Slater, not namedropping but he and
Nigella (Lawson) are ever-present in my kitchen, in book format of course) and
find a foolproof recipe
for a white loaf, simpler to start off with white I think. Well the first try
produced a reasonable, if huge, loaf, and though my son still remembers that it
was a bit doughy in the middle. Second try, I got two pretty perfect loaves and
I was on a roll.
Now to find a recipe for rye bread. It seems that 100% rye
is usually made by the sour dough method and I couldn’t see my family going for
that, so settle for a half and half rye/whole-wheat recipe… triumph. Ok, my son
the food connoisseur complained it was a bit too sweet, so next time round I
reduced the amount of honey, but this recipe has been our staple diet ever
since, and I am now truly ensconced in my kitchen, looking at the view, every
other day, while I endeavor to keep the supply level with the ever increasing
demand.
Any way, finally to the recipe:
500g rye flour
450g
whole-wheat flour plus more for kneading
50g plain flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 10g sachet of instant yeast
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons oil
670 ml milk
125 ml water
Warm the milk to lukewarm. Mix the flours
and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and put in the yeast, then
honey, then oil, pour on the warmed milk and water and mix. When it gets doughy
turn out on to a well floured surface (it will be extremely sticky) and knead
for 10 minutes. You will need to keep adding flour as you knead. It is better
for it to be too sticky than too dry – you can always add more flour, but too
dry will make a dry, hard loaf. After 10 minutes, put it back into the bowl with
a plastic bag over it and leave in a warmish place for two hours or so. Then
knock down, firmly pressing out the air, but not over kneading, then form into
two or three loaves on a baking sheet, cover again and leave
to rise for another hour. Then bake for 30 minutes at 190C until they sound
hollow when you tap on the bottom of the loaf. Cool on a wire rack
So how do
I keep track of the bread making, in between school runs, mealtimes and the
rest? Well I don’t always. There are times when I optimistically start the bread
off, leave it to rise and four hours later remember about it, knock it down,
forget to switch on the oven so it has had an extra day or so in rising time by
the time it gets cooked. It does seem to be very forgiving though – whatever you
do to it, you do generally get bread out at the end, it may not always be the
perfect loaf, but then variety is the spice of life after all. There was one
time it hadn’t quite finished cooking by the time I had to do the school run, so
I asked my husband to take it out in ten minutes….. By the time I got back we
had a very useful weapon against intruders. We didn’t eat that one…I think it
was rivet for lunch…!
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