Category Archives: Bread

Chocolate Cake Heart’s Desire

This is the sort of cake that you want when you go to the garage late on a Saturday night. And do they have a cake that meets the following criteria? Well, did you really think they would…?

Fortunately the man from River Cottage has come up trumps as far as I am concerned with this easy to make (and even easier to consume) cross between a brownie, chocolate mousse and, depending on whether you eat it hot or cold, chocolate fudge or chocolate soufflé.

I was happy, in fact we were all very happy; I decided we needed a pudding, friend coming over at short notice, and so, in between making beetroot and walnut hummous, Thai carrot salad, couscous with pomegranate molasses and tomato, Dan’s perfect pitta bread and mini lamb souvlaki marinated in thyme and lemon, cooked outside by a man with a torch on his head, (forgot to say, pitch dark and freezing cold!) somehow I found myself on the chocolate cake page of Everyday Cooking. Mad, moi? 40 minutes to go and considering making a cake…

chocolate cake So bless you Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall. I must stop calling you by silly names, because I do love many of your recipes, I do! And I really, really like this cookbook. It’s friendly, well laid out, easy to read and there are some cracking good ideas for easy everyday cooking, which is really all I hope to do most of the time.

Cake made I could settle back onto sofa happy and content. It’s better warm than cold, but that’s only my opinion! Heat for 30 seconds or so in the microwave and it transforms back into chocolate souffle cake from the solid, fudgey-looking slice you see above. Anyone got any good tips on photographing chocolate cake by the way?

I’m much happier photographing bread… here’s a pic of what we’ve been eating for breakfast this week, sourdough challah with sesame and black onion seeds (nigella). Pop that in the toaster and the aroma of those toasting seeds takes me to a warm Greek bakery somewhere. Ah ! Proustian bread moments. Do you have those? Maggie Glezer Sourdough Challah Crumb Shot

Maggie Glezer's sourdough challah

A moment to stop and think

It’s been a long year and this cold, dark winter started early for us here in Europe back in November. Outside the garden birds are twittering as if Spring is only round the corner; 6.30 am, still dark, and they are shrieking their heads off on the last day of the year. I watched the male blackbird triumphantly drag a very long earthworm from the grass yesterday, so relieved to see the earth had melted enough to allow him to practice his artistry once more. He walks around, taps the soil, cocks his head on one side so as to listen and then hearing something I can’t even imagine, taps his head sharply down, stabbing through the short grass and comes up with Worm! So very focussed and quite wonderful to watch.

I drove out to Sandford yesterday, or rather the sat nav took me. Going up and down the Somerset hills, past the airport, through thick fog for a mile, followed by watery sunshine over the brow of another hill, past Barrow tanks, wondering vaguely if any interesting birds were overwintering up on the other side of the steep banks, it was a quiet sort of a drive, in which I had a little time to contemplate how fast life changes and also how slowly.

I visited a sparkly new nursing facility, saw my neighbour who is staying there, getting her confidence back after her hip replacement at the age of 94. She is full of plans and focus: to get home again she has to be able to walk confidently once more. Her path is clear to her. It is always good to spend time with people however young or old they are. Other people are a great strength and joy and cherishing others is the basis of all qualities.

So my old year/new year thoughts are very simple, to do more listening with an open heart and be kind. Make that my default and it will be a good year.

If you want to write a little something here, please do, I hope to listen better and this is as good a place to do that as any. Happy New Year to you all!

The bread? A challah in the form of the sun; bread magic to help the year to turn once more.

Just keeping in touch (1)

Toast bread pretending to be sourdough

Warm milk, bread flour, a little cornflour, a little wholemeal, salt and yeast together yield a soft and tender loaf that toasts beautifully, makes great rolls and has a lovely colour. It’s not sourdough and I’m wondering if you add cornflour to a sourdough loaf whether you will get the same soft crumb… I’ve added the ingredients list at the bottom of the page.

Not had one of these in the garden before!

This little being is a white wagtail – we usually get pied wagtails in our towns, but not these. We get a grey wagtail sometimes, they of course are yellow bellied. This morning saw one of the jays from the woods come into the garden as well as the usual gang of finches, tits and starlings. The wood pigeons are getting fat, they will become sparrowhawk food if they carry on eating all the food we put out.

Better late than never!

Christmas cake, christmas cake, mix and put in tin. This is Mr Lepard’s caramel cake and I baked it today. I really enjoyed the bit where the cream hits the caramel and turns to liquid fudge. I quite wanted to stop there and just eat the whole lot with a spoon, but I didn’t…

Glad I used a deep tin and made a cuff for this one

This is an 18 cm diameter tin and the recipe came to the top exactly! The cake survived baking and I will think of something to put on the top tomorrow. I’ll tell you what it’s like when we cut it.

PS: Someone asked me how to make this bread. It’s pretty basic but here we go….

Zeb’s golden toast bread:

520 grams of full fat milk warmed to at least room temperature (aiming for a dough temperature of about 76 F)
700 g strong white (bread) flour
50 g of cornflour
50 g plain wholemeal flour (not the strong sort, but the sort you use for pastry)
16 g sea salt
15 g fresh yeast or 1 sachet of active instant yeast
1 tbsp barleymalt (optional – gives a nice colour to the crumb and some easy food for the yeast)

Mix dough in your preferred manner. I used a Kenwood this time. Milk in first, followed by yeast, barleymalt, salt and flours. You should have a medium firm dough that is easy to knead. Mix for about 3 minutes on lowest speed. Hand knead briefly and into lightly oiled bowl to prove for ninety minutes. Divide the dough into two, shape 650 g boules, final prove in 750 g size round bannetons, until doubled, dusted with flour. Bake at 220 C for 30 minutes, reduce temperature to 200 C for 10 minutes more. Cool on rack. This dough will also give you a nice baker’s dozen of 100 g rolls.