Mick’s 5-Seed and Spelt Sourdough

It’s been too long…

It’s been too long since I made a seedy loaf and anxious to remedy that I grabbed Monsieur Hartley’s Bethesdabasics and gave his Sourdough Spelt and 5-seed bread a workout yesterday evening. Luckily I had some white starter waiting patiently for an outing so it was meant to be.

I’ve never put poppy seeds in a dough before, usually sprinkling them on the top and in the bottom of the oven, on the floor and so on. I like the adrenalin rush of skidding in my socks on the fine layer of baking debris on the floor, especially carrying a hot tray or a kettle of boiling water; all part of the home baking process. Sometimes I have to vacuum my feet; the dogs mysteriously vanish as I open the cupboard under the stairs as the vacuum cleaner is one of their sworn enemies.

I confess that I didn’t soak the seeds overnight, only for a mere hour, but the mix of linseed, poppy and other bird seed (sorry Jackdaw) absorbed nearly all the water in that time so I figured I would get away with it. Linseed has an interesting glutinous quality once soaked which makes the dough a little sticky when you work with it, but also gives the dough a lovely moistness and makes it easy to shape and score.

I mixed the dough up at about 5 pm and baked it just after midnight, leaving it to cool while the foxes roamed the garden, calling to each other and the robin sang away in the dark. Did I mention I live in a city? It’s full of animals out there and they take full advantage of the night.

This morning the sun is bright and the temperature has risen to a balmy 6 º C, so I’ve celebrated by dragging the Hartley loaf outside for its photocall and then hastily back indoors as it’s not that warm really. You can’t beat a breakfast of fresh bread and butter, just delicious!

This is a moist and well fermented bread full of nutty seedy goodness, yet with no sense of crunching on tiny seeds as the soaking has softened them all right down – Brian won’t eat seedy bread, but that’s all right because he has endless loaves of white toast stuffed in the freezer. To each their own!

Not long now till the Bethesda shindig in July when you can meet Mick, marvel at his eyebrows and bake with him and anyone else who chooses to come. It’s not a workshop, but a gathering, a get together, a bake-in, it’s what the participants want it to be and it will be fun! If you fancy stepping off the internet and into a floury environment for a day or a weekend find out more here.

Snow on Adelsö

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By way of contrast, winter is still alive and well in many parts of the world. My aunt has sent me these pictures to remind me of that this morning!

On Adelsö on Lake Malaren (Sweden) where Barbara lives, there is a landscape of blue skies and white snow. She doesn’t expect to see the grass re-appear till the end of this month.

Barbara was one of the most important people who started me off making my own bread. A few years ago she was staying with us here and we went off on a mission to buy fresh yeast and a mixer and then spent a happy afternoon making bread together. As you may have noticed, a lot of bread has been made since then…

Barbara also makes jams, marmalades and elderflower cordial. She has an ancient orchard of morello and eating cherries from which she makes the best cherry jam in the world and a wonderful cherry pan cake as well as growing tomatoes and other vegetables in the long warm days of a Swedish summer.

She weaves and reads, teaches cookery, is passionate about good food and when it all gets just a bit too much, escapes the winter to New Zealand or Thailand for a winter break.

If you have any questions about Swedish cooking or life in Sweden please ask her and I’m sure she’d love to reply.

Hej Barbara! What is the first flower to bloom in your garden? I’m guessing it’s one of these that you sent me last Spring…

The extra pictures

These are the ones that should have gone in the post yesterday, only I hadn’t taken them till after I wrote the post. Some of the blossom is from my neighbours’ gardens and I have included a shot of a thatched cottage on the High Street. The plum blossom is alongside the big field in Badocks Wood.

Please do identify the blossoms if you know them, to me one pink flower on a twiggy tree is not always easy! ( I think I know mahonia, forsythia, cherry and the magnolia stellata is in my garden.)

As you can see the sun didn’t quite make it through the clouds but I think today might be the day. Have a lovely weekend ! (Brian took the magnolia pic on his Canon G10).

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PS If anyone is curious about the history of the thatched cottage at 166 Henleaze Road, Google books has The Henleaze Book by Veronica Bowerman and you can read about the cottage on Page 32. (There is a lovely photo of it being rethatched included there too) What is striking about Henleaze is that much of it was farmland and large houses until comparatively recently, a good example of the way cities develop, taking in more and more land for housing as their populations grow; the local quarries have become a children’s play park and a swimming lake.