Bridge Rolls

I do miss photographs in this book, helps to give you an idea of what the final result is meant to look like! I assume these are what we think of these days as finger rolls..

I found quite an interesting definition of these; apparently they date back to 1926 but made a decline in popularity in the 1960’s but they were popular at bridge games, hence the name!!

Anyway first off I rubbed the fat into the flour and salt..

Then I added the milk, egg and yeast and formed into a dough. I didn’t knead for too long, just long enough until the dough was smooth..

After about 2 hours of rising I shaped them into fingers..

After slightly longer than 20 minutes they had risen slightly more and almost joined together..

Then it was into the oven for 20 minutes..

They have joined together a bit more whilst cooking but do think they should’ve been even closer..

I left them to cool for a bit and then we had this with a variety of fillings for lunch..

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Well these are good wee rolls! Lovely and soft, perfect with bacon or hotdogs or even just butter! I've definitely not made enough of these…

Would I make these again? Yes, another easy bread recipe made with plain flour..

Welsh Rarebit

I fancied cheese on toast for lunch today but decided to fancy it up and make this instead!!

I’d never heard of buck rarebit before, I guess if you like poached eggs it would be a nice addition on top. I didn’t fancy having the egg on top so kept it just the regular rarebit!

I started by putting the cheese, mustard, seasoning and ale into a pan to melt..

Once it had all melted together it seemd a bit runny! I was picturing it all pouring off the sides of the toast, but thankfully seemed ok, only a few drips down the sides!

After only about 3 minutes under the grill it was golden and bubbling..

So this was lunch. I think it’s the kind of cheese on toast that you need to eat with a knife and fork! Really not much to say about this expect that it was good! You could taste the mustard and the ale which was nice, the only criticism is that I didn’t make enough..

Would I make this again? Yes, I obviously had to finish off the ale with my slice….

Quick White Bread

All the bread recipes from this book use plain flour, I think I’ve mentioned before but the start of this chapter does talk about bread flour but says it’s not readily available and you’d need to ask your baker for some! Now it obviously is available but for these bread recipes I opted to stick to plain flour to see how I get on. I have already made the quick wholemeal bread which turned out ok, so today we had no bread in the house and no bread flour so thought I’d try this..

I didn’t activate the yeast as I used fast acting stuff. I had tried to get non fast acting dried yeast but my local supermarket only had the fast stuff! I did add a little extra water than the recipe suggests..

After a good 10 minutes kneading my arms are tired but it was looking nice and smooth..

I think the quick part of this is that it’s not given a second rising stage. Once kneaded it was straight into the tins, then it does say to leave till the the dough fills the tins, but that could take a while if you use different sized tins like I did!

I did wonder if I left them too long as they looked a bit weird..

Maybe I’ve over proved them??

Anyway I carried on to the baking stage. The start of this chapter has all the details about baking; it’s 15 minutes at 220 then reduce to 200 until they’re ready. I think my loaves were ready after about 30 minutes.

This smells just as good as any other bread recipe, but there is a note to say bread made using this quick recipe does not have such a good appearance or so even texture as bread made by other methods!

It looks ok once out of the oven..

Left to cool for only a few minutes before I sliced to try a bit..

It does have quite a crust on it, which I actually quite like, but the inside is nice and soft. It’s maybe not fit for sandwich use, but we had toasted with cheese and was ideal for that!

I think it does need to be toasted or dunked in soup to soften!

Would I make this again? Yes, if I had no bread flour and wanted some toast!

Currant Bread

I have a fruit loaf recipe that I think came from my mum that I make loads, it’s packed with dry fruit and do love it! So thought I’d try this recipe for a change of fruit based bread!

This is another bread recipe that uses plain flour rather than bread flour, it’s also tells you to activate the yeast but I was using fast action yeast so didn’t need to do that step. I was tempted to add some cinnamon at this stage..

I did add the full quantity of milk and was worried my dough was a tad wet..

After a good dose of kneading it was looking much smoother and I set it aside in a warm place to rise. I didn’t actually time how long I left it but it was a good while before it had doubled in size..

I have two slightly different shaped loaf tins so just used them and rather that grease and flour them I opted to line rather haphazardly with grease proof paper..

I then left them a bit longer than the recipe says, again I didn’t time how long I left them but was dark when I went to put them in the oven hence the photo looks completely different..

After 40 minutes in the oven they haven’t risen much more, but smells pretty good and looks a nice dark brown colour..

I opted to add the sugar and milk glaze..

I left to cool only slightly before slicing..

Ordinarily I’d be having this warm with butter but I’m trying to be healthyish this month so not eating butter! On it’s own this is good. It’s not sweet like a tea bread normally is as there’s not much sugar in it. We had with jam and was nice, but I can only imagine how fab this would be toasted with butter!

Would I make this again? Yes

Quick Wholemeal Bread

I had made the wholemeal bread a few months ago and it turned out ok, I had made that with just plain wholemeal flour, so today I thought I’d try this one to compare..

So,I guess the thing that makes this quick is that it only has one rising stage, so the actual quickness if this bread will depend on how long you leave it for that!

The initial mixing and kneading took about 15 minutes, then rather than put in tins I opted to make rounds..

I don’t know exactly how long I left this but by about an hour they had almost doubled, my house is quite warm so maybe that sped up that process!

I do love the smell of bread baking and it was smelling so good that it interrupted my daughters playing as she had to come downstairs to find out what the nice smell was!!

They didn’t rise much more in the oven and aren’t the biggest of loaves, so I guess you could try just leaving as one rather than splitting into two.

I obviously had to try a slice of this warm from the oven with butter and was brilliant – but then most things warm from the oven taste good with butter in my opinion!!

Once cooled I had some toasted with homemade grapefruit marmalade and it’s great.

Would I make this again? Yes, easy and relatively quick!!

Milk Rolls

I think I’ve only tried to make rolls once and it didn’t go to well; they were like rocks!!

This turned out slightly better..

Again this is another bread recipe that uses plain flour rather than bread flour, would be good to try with bread flour and see if that does make a difference.

I made the dough earlier in the morning and left for a couple hours to double in size.

I decided to just do round rolls rather than any of the other shapes. I don’t think I made a very good job of shaping them! I just couldn’t get them to look nice and smooth!

I actually think I left them to rise for longer than 20 minutes…

They cooked really quickly, I was worried I had actually left them in a bit too long as they are more of a dark brown than golden brown! They didn’t rise much more in the oven.

I obviously had to try one warm form the oven, and despite the dark colour they are really lovely and soft and light inside.

We have loads of leftover lamb from last night so may have a few rolls and lamb for tea!

Would I make these again? Yes, will try some of the other shapes next time!

Wholemeal Bread

I made white bread a while back and I used regular plain flour rather than bread flour and it turned out ok, so thought I’d try this loaf today..

As I mentioned in the white bread recipe the book does talk about bread flour, but it says you would need to go to the baker and ask them to order for you and it’s expensive. Obviously nowadays we can get loads of different bread flours, but it’s good to try and make a loaf with the most basic type of flour.

I halved this recipe and I got 2 small loaves. I also used all wholemeal rather than a mix. I had been watching a programme this week about the contents of food, and one thing they had been talking about was wholemeal breads. Apparently a lot of the brands of wholemeal bread in the supermarkets also contain other types of flours. So at least with this one you can be guaranteed it’s all wholemeal!

I know the whole bread making process is a bit time consuming but if you have the time it’s worth it. I started this first thing, left it till about 11 to rise and then was in the oven at 1. It was hard to make sure I had the dough smooth enough at the kneading stage. The grains if wholemeal make it harder to tell.

This did rise really well and was more than doubled after the first rise. I have two different shaped loaf tins, that’s why my loaves are different shapes!

I have to say there is nothing better than a slice of homemade bread warm from the oven simply spread with butter!! This bread is lovely, it’s nice and light but it has a decent crust.

Would I make this again? Yes, can’t beat homemade bread!

White bread

This recipe comes from the book, one of the few loaf recipes.

Ingredients

3lb plain flour
6 level tsps salt
Half oz dried yeast
1.5 pints water

Activate the yeast by sprinkling it over a quarter cup of the liquid which has been brought to blood heat and leave for 10-15 minutes. Mix the flour and salt then add the yeast and the rest of the water. Knead for 10 minutes then leave to rise until doubled in size. Knead again for a further 2-3 minutes. Grease and line tins if using. Shape dough and fill tin to three-quarters or shape into rolls and place in a baking sheet and leave to prove until filled the tin or has reached the desired size.
Bake initially at 230 for 15 minutes then turn oven down to 200 and bake for further 20-30 minutes until golden and base sounds hollow when tapped.

This quantity is enough to make three 1lb loaves. I thirded this recipe as I only have one 1lb loaf tin. So this time I made this with just regular plain flour, not bread flour. I mentioned in the poppy seed plait recipe that the book does mention bread flour but as it wasn’t widely available back then that plain flour can be used. It worked fine with the plain flour was easy to knead and rose really well. Always a great smell having fresh bread in the oven! Also had to sample warm with butter, was great. Slightly denser texture than breads I’ve made with strong bread flour but still was a great loaf.

Would I make this again? Yes, now know I can make a decent loaf even if I’ve run out of bread flour!

Poppy seed plait

This is from the bread, rolls and buns chapter. There’s actually not many loaf recipes, instead most of the yeast recipes are for cakes and tea breads.

Ingredients

1 tsp sugar
Half pint milk
Quarter oz dried yeast
1lb plain flour
2 tsps salt
2oz butter
Egg or milk to glaze
Poppy seeds

Dissolve the sugar in quarter pint of the milk. Activate the yeast by adding to the remaining milk which has been warmed to blood temperature. Mix the flour and salt, rub in the fat, then add the yeast and milk and mix to a soft dough. Beat and knead until smooth then leave to rise until doubled in size. Knead lightly and roll into an oblong. Cut into three strips lengthways, keeping the dough just joined at the top, plait the strips, damp the edges to seal together. Put on a greased baking sheet brush with egg or milk and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake at 220 for 30-45 minutes, reducing the heat if the bread becomes too brown.

The recipes does say plain flour, but there is a blurb about flours at the start of the chapter that says strong bread flours should be used but as they are not widely available plain flour would work. Also at first had no idea how to measure a quarter of an ounce of yeast, but apparently it’s just about the same as 3 teaspoons, so that’s what I used and worked perfectly. I did turn the temperature down as it was looking well browned quite quickly.

I find bread making quite satisfying. The kneading stage is a good workout for the arms and quite therapeutic! I also take great satisfaction in seeing the dough once it’s risen. I have few places in the house I leave the dough to rise; in the summer it’s at the back window with the sun beating in, then in the winter it’s either on the tumble drier or beside the radiator! I’d love an aga but our little house is not big enough! I think I ended up leaving this to rise for about 3 hours. I do have a bread maker that I use for making sandwich loaves during the week but at weekends I do enjoy making bread by hand.

The smell of bread baking is just brilliant and freshly made bread warm from the oven spread with butter is even better! Would be great with sesame seeds. Maybe next time I’ll try the 8 strand plaited loaf!

Would I make this again? Oh yeah