... Brian and also for Bread. Here is a loaf rescued by Brian which I had mixed, forgotten and conveniently abandoned to go to the Lake with some friends. B is for my Butterfly Brain which flits around and forgets stuff all the time.
The bread should have gone in a tin as it is a soft white bread with a little sourdough flavour, destined for toast, but he popped it in a banneton instead. When I still hadn’t returned he baked it too. I’m looking forward to having it for breakfast in the morning. I was lucky he came home and found it crawling out of the bowl!
B is also for Beans, this year we are growing a climbing bean called by the lovely name Selma Zebra which has purple speckled and striped pods. and purple flowers. When you steam the beans they turn green.
They are something like a cross between a runner bean and a french bean in texture and flavour. I only had to top and tail them, no stringing involved. I like to serve freshly picked and steamed beans in a little lemon juice and coldpressed oil. Walnut is good, rapeseed oil is fine too. Just a little is all you need. If you dress them when they are warm they taste better somehow.
And B is for my bending bookshelves in the kitchen, too many cook books to read and the shelves are protesting!
Zeb Bakes 
B is for brilliant blogger I’d say.
For someone who wasn’t sure she’d keep up with the challenge I’m loving your alphabet posts and keep thinking ‘oh yeah, why didn’t I think of that?’.
Early days yet ;) But thank you so much Nic for sharing the idea, it’s fun to have a prompt sometimes for this blogging lark :)
Brian the Brave was brilliant to bung your bubbling bread-dough into a banneton before it broke out of its bowl!! Best of all, beautiful bread for breakfast! :)
Love that alliteration Celia – you’re setting the standards for comments here ;)
Just had two slices of that fabulous bread with butter AND marmalade. Toasted. Crunch munch, open crumb, supercrusty, gorgeous. I can’t imagine not baking bread any more…. 75 grams of slightly gone over sourdough starter, 320 grams of water, 500 grams bread flour, 20 grams melted butter, 10 grams salt, half a tsp of yeast. Don’t ask me about the prove times, it was all down to B the B :)
That’s a splendid loaf, and well done to Brian. And well done to you for extricating yourself from the kitchen and having fun with a friend at the lake.
I have to think about my B contribution today. I was going to do bread but that seems a bit redundant now. Maybe broses or bradishes or brecycling…
Bread is never redundant and I love your bread posts :D
Well, after Celia’s comment, all of a sudden I don’t know what to say! ;-)
A fun idea the alphabet posting – I knew you were going to bring bread into the equation… of course!
Celia is a poet manqué. I have done the next one with her in mind ;) It’s a bit of fun – I don’t know what’s going to happen to my regular posts though. Might have to scour the index of my cook books for alphabetty inspired baking activities. Hope you’re keeping well x
B had to be for bread.
Is C going to be for Crust?
I love Brian- wish I had a man that would save my bread- although my husband likes to eat it if I don’t go too far into the healthy ingredients- he’d never consider shaping or baking it!
Your beans are so pretty- I love that they turn green in time for eating!
C will be out any time now… I am trying to catch up a bit…. Brian is a hero of kitchen disasters – don’t think I would bake without him, it’s more of a joint effort than maybe it seems from reading what I write. He’s often to be found flipping hot loaves out of the oven. He was a hero the time I decided we had to make bagels. He is high on the Honours Board. :D
The beans turn green in the steaming. I wish they would stay purple, I like purple!
Super blog! nice photos and bread recipes.
Thank you Greg, one of the fun things about doing something a bit different is that you get to meet different bloggers too ! I’ve been looking at your work and smiling today :)
I wonder if Brian could give Mr Chocolate some kitchen lessons? I don’t think it would have occured to him that the bread escaping the bowl may have needed a little help.
Brian is a kitchen being in his own right so it comes naturally to him. He’s done bits of cooking for years, having learnt next to his Gran, who had very poor sight, as a child. I am sure he would love to give Mr Chocolate a hand :)