Friday, February 6, 2009

Silence is Golden...

But in Girl's little corner of this world, things have undoubtedly not been silent...which, in an ironic way, is the reason for Girl's failure to post anything on this blog for about 2 weeks. But despite Girl's seeming taciturnity, there were certainly still crumpets and tea...well, not exactly crumpets... but there certainly were crusty loaves of bread for dunking into soup and for mopping up hearty stews and a pillow soft loaf, sweetly studded with sultanas...

Yes! Girl, in her quest for the perfect loaf, finally stumbled on the reasons why her loaves were not turning out as well as they should have....they are listed below in no particular order...

1. Girl was not kneading her loaves enough before the first proving...

2. Girl was not letting her loaves prove for long enough...

3. Girl was kneading her loaves too much after knocking back the dough (after the first prove)...

4. Girl was not letting her loaves prove for long enough before baking...

5. Girl was not using a loaf tin to bake her loaves in...thereby resulting in foccacia-type loaves (the recipe that Girl used produced quite a wet dough) when what she really wanted was an up-right loaf that she could slice and pop in the toaster...





This is a sultana loaf that Girl made by tweaking the basic white loaf recipe that she had. She added 3 handfuls of sultanas, 25 grams of butter and a tablespoon of honey and substituted some of the water for milk. The loaf was baked in a 200c oven for fifteen minutes then was removed and the top covered with tin foil to stop it burning. This loaf took about an hour to be cooked to perfection. But whether the extra time needed was due to the higher fat content in the loaf or the tin-foil cover, Girl does not quite know. Girl's self-control was tested severely as she waited for the loaf to cool sufficiently for it to be cut. When she finally cut the loaf, she had three slices straight away, to make up for lost time...