New bread recipe

A little blue-tit in the garden this morning

The kitchen has been put back together after the leaking pipe episode.   We had to replace some boarding that the fridge had been standing on, but luckily N was able to  find another piece in the shed that just needed trimming down to fit the job perfectly.

Bread proved and about to go into the oven

I tried a new bread recipe yesterday which has produced an excellent loaf of white bread.  I think I'll stick with this recipe for a while and see what kind of loaf other types of flour produce.  Here' s the recipe I used:

500g strong white flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp granulated sugar
15ml vegetabel oil
7g fast action dried yeast
300ml luke warm water

Mix flour and salt in a bowl, stir in sugar and yeast.  Add oil to water and add to dry ingredients to form soft dough (I found I needed a bit more water).  Knead for approx 10 minutes to form smooth, elastic dough.  Shape dough and place in oiled 2lb loaf tin.  Leave to prove in warm place - I always place a damp cloth over the dough - until doubled in size.  Place in pre-heated over 230C / gas mark 8.  Bake for 15 mins then reduce oven temp to 200c / gas mark 6 and bake for further 15-20 mins.  Bread should be risen, golden and sound hollow when tapped on base.  Turn out to cool on wire rack.

Perfect slices!

Poor N continued to have real problems following his dental work last week.  Now he has an tooth/sinus infection to contend with ;(, but fortunately we had some antibiotics so he was able to start on those over the weekend.  We're hoping it will have cleared up by next weekend as we have an engagement party to attend :)

I was pretty pleased I managed to link to some other blogs yesterday.  And I even posted a comment on Down to Earth.  BTW, it makes me smile to myself that being in the UK, I read the post for the 25 March on the 24th!  When I checked to see if my comment was there, Rhonda had put a little reply to it.  Big grin :))

Housework, emails and things ticked off list yesterday and today.  

Latest sewing project under way

The weather around the UK has been terrible this weekend - freezing cold, drifting snow, ice bringing power lines down.  I really feel for all those people affected by the bad weather - it can't be much fun to be without power in these temperatures.  This winter seems to be never-ending.  We rarely get much snow this far south, but we've had far more this year than I can remember for a long time.   Spring still seems a long way off.