pear and almond cake

by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall
http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/pear-and-almond-pudding-cake-recipe_p_1.html

If you caught his River Cottage show on Channel 4, the chances are you've got your heart set on cooking up several of his recipes.
This excellent programme has everything I enjoy in a cookery programme.

I don't even like cakes as such, but my eyes were like saucers when he made his pear and almond cake & the recipe is on the internet, so I can blog about it too.

Several tweaks when I do so, coupled with lean baking details - so much so - after 35 mins of cooking at my chosen oven temp @170, it's still pretty raw,
so I decide to bake it for an additional hour as I would a fruit cake (protected on top with greaseproof paper) - and pop out to B & Q to look at doors for our bike shed.

& I come back to a delicious aroma of baked rich pear cake.

So the cooking timings here are 1hr35 @ 170.

Oh, and obviously the sugar goes in at the butter stage to be creamed - they missed that bit out.


My tweaks:

• no SR flour, so I use plain white, with baking soda
• the sugar is way too high, so I use 1 thick teasp of honey on the pears after they cook, & 130g muscovado sugar in the cake

it's perfect sweetness too!

• I never have cinnamon, so I use 1 cardamom pod seeds

Otherwise, I follow the recipe as is, till the baking stage, here it is pre-cooking:



Have a go, you'll love it.

My Art Exhibition 20 - 29 November

if you are in Cheltenham
please wander in to 12a Landsdown Walk (next to the tyre man)

hours: 10 to 4, on 20th - 29th November

It's a working studio I share with Lella so I might even be painting up an idea

leftovers and my painting

I've never been very good with leftovers. Indeed we rarely want the same meal twice in a row

but I'm on a mission to keep warm and healthy at the studio, so yesterday's chunky broth, has been given the thai coriander, red sauce & coconut treatment for lunchtime today.

I'll never get the lid on that flask

and my mission today is to decide on a frame for a painting I've taken quite a while over, despite it's simplicity.

It's entitled "death of the comic illustrator" and the narrative is thus ..................

We have the memory of 2 of my sisters in the hospital room looking out of the window, they comfort each other tenderly, and my mother has passed away after years of illness
& I watch unobserved & isolated.

My mother was an illustrator for DC Thompson in Dundee, producers of the Dandy and the Beano and the like.
So I present my feelings in an old fashioned comic snapshot style.

it's taken a while to get it "just so" for me, although the physical painting was rather quick, just an hour.
I wanted it to be like the old unambitious, fudged print on comics, with so few colours, reflecting the memories that are old and recent, that are almost monochrome.

Some things seem so dim & grey on reflection.

Bikes

We talk about getting bikes every day or so, but we've got nowhere to store them safely.
Our shed is an idea, but we've got packed boxes in there from 7 years ago.

And our Sunday stroll had us gawping in bicycle shop window bleating "how much....?" at the tri-athlete bike Tony covets.

& as these things come in threes, I've had an idea in my head to paint postmen as they fly off together on their sturdy bicycles to collect their early morning deliveries.
They're quite an impressive sight in a funny kind of way.

So yesterday, I fly off equally set to paint these ideas combined,

more to do to it when it's dryer .....

the painting's just over a metre squared:

and all because ... the lady loves ... le Creuset

That'll come off I reckon!

Popped out to the pub for a couple of liveners, as the pot roast beef and carrots were working their way to ready the moment we walk through the door.

I do like a thin sauce, but just in case, I'd rescued some out of the pot



................. for a beautiful reduction, it tasted wonderful when I went out for 2 hours




& what about our smoke alarm? It goes loopy when I use the toaster. Not a peep.

UPDATE

Tony's cleaned it with Vanish heated on the hob. It's fobby, but Zing! Look at that finish.
I wish my windows were that clean.

Cotswold blackberries "on the vine"

Go into Winchcombe, turn into the Greet road, pass the Steam Railway for enthusiasts, pass the Harvest Home pub, pass the Manor House (I wish I lived there) and continue until the road becomes a track becomes a dead end.

& there's shed loads up the lane still. I've left some for you.

So in the Sunday Telegraph there's a blackberry and brown sugar loaf recipe, by Diana Henry. I've not had a dud from her yet.

I need to tweak that 175g sugar though, and make it with 50g.

& it's perfect.

moist, subtly flavoured, soft & light and so gently melts & breaks apart as you eat it.




tweaks

175g becomes 50g sugar
pinch cinnamon becomes 3 cardamom pods
no dusting of icing sugar

all other ingredients are as the original states.

No cooking times I see and mine took 2 hours at 160deg, plus 10 minutes outside the tin to catch that just not quite done feel.

District 9: the movie

Contains no plot spoilers

We love the movies. Used to go 3 or 4 times a week in London, when we didn't have a telly.

So, we go to see District 9 yesterday, Orange Wednesdays style.

& whilst we think we've got real good seats like, in comes 4 pick 'n mix twenty year olds who plonk in front of us, and now render our good seats as the black spot.
They continue to talk and talk ................. & talk. But it's the adverts.

So they continue to giggle - rather falsely I feel - during the film clips.

Now I like the film clips as it helps me decide on the next films to see. But no Gill, be cool, it's not the main feature yet.

So the film starts - and a jolly good Peter Jackson one it is too. A smashing film to go and see, but it's odd, eh.

& they are trying to disguise it, but they are still talking. For people with the attention span of a goldfish, they've certainly got my attention.
So I kick - one, two, three times - at the back of each chair. & as they each turn round to confront, my eyes flick sharpishly up to the screen. My sense of timing is impeccable. And they do indeed shut up.

But what's this? Oh man! One of them is flashing their mobile phone round. I can't keep my eyes on the film & I'm inconsolable.

So I lean over and deeply whisper from behind ................... "I've been watching your mobile phone for the past 5 minutes & I don't like it, shut it off"
Snap! it's away faster than a Nigella speedy speedy supper.

As the film ends and the lights go up, they look round to see who their assailant is, but my eyes aren't connecting with them.

It's not often in life I get the opportunity to tell such deserving people to shut-the-fuck-up!


Ah! That felt good.

I've just picked up the ...........

to my new studio



I'm so excited I could burst ............ I'll be starting to paint in there at sunrise tomorrow.

Driving Miss Crazy: through France and Spain

Our annual holiday is taking our little blue car, stuffed to the rafters, over the channel & down through France touring via logis hotels or UNESCO sites, and then into the Costa Brava to Tossa de Mar.

Now Tossa de Mar is stunning, romantic & still very much a holiday destination, all at once.

If the weather isn't good enough, we drive further, but this year had temperatures over 30, so we walk into the local estate agency, Finques Navarro that only speaks Spanish, and as usual, rent an apartment for a couple of weeks or more, this occasion was rental property 377.

get down on your bad self!

the only cd I'd packed in the car was Bill Withers, the best of ..............................
Luckily, I knew 3 songs to sing along to, but Tony finally cracked and refused to let me play it any more after my 20th rendition of "lovely daaaaaaay, lovely day lovely day lovely day"

& seemingly I was murdering "ain't no sunshine" at the "I know I know I know I know know know" bit.

So in Aigues Mortes


at the Cistercian festival within the city walls, I bought a refresher cd to break the music impasse.
Choral chants by a tattooed leather-clad chap, who sings like a girl called Luc Arbogast - here he is on youtube:

He was at the bar in the beer tent when I approached him to buy some sounds...............




Alas nay!
I wasn't allowed to play that one in the car either, for some reason.
So on we drive without music, from Aigues Mortes, to Tossa de Mar

painting in Spain

So, the deal is, I set up my easel wherever I lay my hat, with medium and canvas & paint



This was on the beach looking out to a rock formation, protected by a spirited tree growth which sort of reminded me of the beach umbrellas around me as I worked



Day One, is just getting the canvas covered, but with no detail or strength of colour.
Leave it to dry in the sun



Day Two, where it is almost finished now. I'll have to work on the sea in the studio, but nothing more....

click on the image to see detailed brush strokes if you wish



I cut it off the stretchers with a stanley knife in order to get it onto that back parcel shelf of the car, but it's got home intact thank goodness, just needs a couple of touch-ups

Spanish food

not that great this year, in spite of it being my preferred cuisine.
Since I make quite a meal of cooking at home, we choose to keep it popular and simple on holiday. No elaborate restaurants or fancy frills eating.

But this year has floppy calamares a la romana, flabby overstuffed pizzas. Nothing special fish.
Here's a selection but it did lack something

The good dishes:

almejas al vapor, my favourite:

sobrasada pizza

buñuelos de bacalao

ensalada rusa

the logis de france food in Orleans:

duck leg confit

offal terrine - in there somewhere

veal paté

drinks in Spain

we managed to find a no-alcohol beer that didn't smell of vomit.

You can't even tell you're not getting tanked up on it, marvellous stuff when you need to pull in the reins a little

Estrella Damm, Free.



Tony keeps asking how to pronounce Estrella - just stay Australia - but it doesn't sink in.

Not like when he asked me what the Spanish for smelly finger was - show him/her the smelly finger. Unfortunately, dedo apestoso - that sunk in first time.
We did get looks each time he said it and laughed, how he laughed .... ha ha ha!

& cuarenta y tres = 43 with a coffee

memory lane for me. I love the stuff.
If you ask for a tia maria, the likelihood in Spain is you may be served 43: the local equivalent that is sherry, brandy & coffee flavoured liqueur rolled into one.



Holiday pictures

Tony getting vaporised in "the garden of atmosphere", it was supposed to cool you down, but was rather uncomfortable really



Me - haven't I got wobbly fingers! I really should delete this picture


Tony is supposed to be doing the V sign on his head, but he's not very good at it



and back home on the le Havre to Portsmouth ferry

the back parcel shelf of the MX5 ........

is all mine, and this is what I have brought back from Spain & France,
coupled with my painting easel, canvases, stretchers and materials, & the laptop

- 5 litres of Spanish extra virgin olive oil
- a Spanish pot that I intend to blacken for bbqs, into the oven and for the stove top cooking, like all good Spanish mamas have
- Granxet dried beans from a Catalan market stall
- A stash of 10 tubes of Amora mustard that lasts till about February - so I've brought back extra
- mucho soap that doesn't make you sneeze
- a chair for my painting studio, I couldn't manage 2 in the back of the car
- and a new handbag

crammed into the 15 year old little blue MX5, which is sadly on it's last legs:

I confess I felt a bit sorry for the Border Control guard who felt the need for a rummage in our car - especially the boot.
I think he got oil paint on his hands and jacket!

met my sister in Spain! how odd

My oldest sister Jane was by coincidence in Pineda de Mar, with only one day window overlap at the end of her holiday - as Tony and I rolled into Tossa de Mar to start ours, 20 or so kilometers down the coast.


So we decided to catch the flying boat down the coast and say hello.

It was wonderful to see them, chilled and ready to go home, as we were starting out on our vacations.

So here we are

left to right:
Tony, Jane my sister, Abby my little niece, and Chris her partner

I wonder if she has stopped crying yet after our leaving .......

Interview with a vampire

Deb lives near Málaga, how I envy her that. I used to live in the centre of the city when I just turned 20. That's a quarter of a century ago.

I'd move back in a heartbeat if I could.

Hokay!
Deb has had a great idea to interview fellow bloggers she knows, and her first invite came to me. How kind.

So here it is, pop over to her excellent blog to read all about my dirty secrets

Jordan, eat your heart out, and do something about that chest, it's not natural:

Deb Cooks

how to oil paint

anyone can do it. honest!

go to your local town hall, and ask about studios and lessons.

and you're away ...................

from there you'll find your own style.
I paint what I feel, not what I see. Even if it's in front of my very eyes, I'll make marks inside and out of the subject.

Most of my approach is spent thinking. & my physical painting style then on is faster that a Nigella speedy supper - speedy speedy.
covering that canvas no matter what size in about half a hour.
I put a mark at the top, the middle - change the colour - and dib around the canvas.

Stand back, and if I'm lucky, the marks make sense of my thoughts & visions.

I only use 3 colours:

alizarin red

prussian blue

indian yellow

the latter is pure turmeric. & on occasion I'll introduce a fourth, such as cadmium yellow.

My dear friend Odette has recommended an oil paint maker in the States, Gamblin, so I get these tubes Fedexed into the UK if the rate is favourable enough
otherwise, I used rich paints from Michael Harding.

using these 3 I can get a deep deep black - like caste iron railing paint, tonal greys, pretty much any colour I would wish for
so you make a start on your image, get that canvas covered first before you go into any detail.

Here I'm on vacation in Catalunya, where I paint on the beach, while my husband reads or snorkels or power swims back and forth in the sea. Occasionally I digi-vid him so he can analyse his style when we go home.
I have to make do with stabbing my brushes in the sand, as I have no room for a tray - it's awkard out there - but that's part of it.

Spanish kiddies on the beach sit behind and play, making gentle simple remarks as I chat to them, and their parents make sure I'm not being disturbed

- ¿Qué es?
- ¿qué ves?
- no se
- el ojo de la imaginacion
- ¿como?
- el mar
- ¿dónde está la playa
- detrás
- ?y las palmeras?
- detrás

For someone with no children, I enjoy this kindergarten new role of mine

any way.
Those ideas have to come to life somehow.

from a boring, boring painting here, I pick up the canvas one year later after I've seen something.

My husband in the hotel room, cannot switch off the digital TV screen that dominates our room. So he covers the image with FT newspaper pages
which flutter and drift due to the static, and through the dark obscure pages, I detect lines of dramatic pixelated boats.
I drift off to sleep with the impression in my head
and work on that canvas for half an hour, recreating the hotel TV image as I've remembered it

Just paint anything and everything you want & feel. That's all you have to do when you pick up that brush

the Workshop painting: of my day at Dan Lepard's sourdough class

I've been trying to think how to paint my wonderful day at Dan Lepard's workshop.


Clean, crisp, clear memories of a day I want to remember. I've got the bread making for the rest of my life.
But I want to represent my interpretation of the feel of the day.


First thing, the aprons
Second thing, the intimate group of people
Third thing ................... I'll carry on with that later.


So I've got a piece of heavy sacking that I bought for the princely sum of €3 in a little shop in France.
So I've stretched it, fixed it, PVA'd it, & most importantly I've primed it ready


After too much pondering, I've started to just get on with that first approach to the gathering for the workshop:

I'm thinking about the impression of mainly the tidy white aprons, that offer quite a lot of comfort
and steel worktops, steel bowls, a group of different people who all look and feel like-minded

And I move on to pick out the remnants in my imagination of the moment

Can you tell which person is Dan?

And at the third session, I want to soften up the background.
Steel in a kitchen isn't cold. So I've warmed up the colour a little.




and finally, the painting is complete. I've signed it today.

Not a bread roll in sight I hear you cry, but I'm not painting the bread baking, I'm painting my lasting impression of the day, something from my imagination.
It's a gathering of same-minded people, all differing essentially & yet all the same on the day.




It reminds me of Alice through the looking-glass &, if I'd read the book, I might be able to cobble in some symbolism and parallels from it.
But I haven't, so I can't.

DavidW.
You are in there - tall chap standing beside, & to the right of, Dan. & if you'd rather, you can be the one in the middle peeking out with the bright red pair of lips.

& which one's Dan, then?

The chap on the right, with a cap on (as in the photographs I've seen of him) his apron tied to his waist, and his hands to his pockets looking rather cool.
He's got flat colourful trainers on.

& me? I'm left centre canvas - with the orange lips holding a cup of coffee.


Sorry about the photo, the heavens opened just as I was leaving the studio, so it's a little dull.
But you can see what it's about I think.
I'll take another better picture if I can.


& the piece is titled "the Workshop".

~ ~ ~ * * * ~ ~ ~

the painting is now absolutely complete.
David, I've put your glasses in, and some hands
& I've changed Dan's trainers slightly, so they no longer look like fluffy rabbit slippers.
It's now hung on the studio wall

Click on the image direct, and you can see the original size & can navigate around the work to see the brush strokes if you so wish

no-knead bread in a pot

via youtube

I might be the only person in Christendom, nay beyond, who hasn't heard of this bread.

The fella in the vid claims it as his own, but it has been around for yonks, I think. Anyway, Hickybank at the BBC messageboards brought it to my attention last week, so I thought I'd give it a punt

but in the back of my mind, thinking it to be a right dud!

ingredients

3 metric cups strong white flour
1/4 teasp dried Allinsons yeast
3/4 teasp salt
1 5/8 cup room temperature water

I'll have to check my conversions, as my mind wondered whilst pressing the digi-scales, but that's:
strong white flour (515g), 1/4 teasp yeast, 3/4 teasp salt. cups water (340g)

Now then.
That's not much yeast is it.

bring it all together quickly with your hands

rest, covered, overnight - 15 hours here

on a clean, oiled surface, fold your stretchy, stringy dough

shape into a boule & rest seam-side uppermost, in a heavily floured t-cloth and bowl
for one hour

turn out onto baking parchment, seam-side down

lift into a suitable baking cocotte

lid on
& bake at 220 for 25 minutes (amended baking instructions here to bake as per Dan Lepard's bread in a pot - I'm sure the original method would burn bread)

turn the temperature down to 180, and bake with the lid off for 15 minutes further
& rest on the oven bars directly whilst the oven cools for 5 - 10 minutes

Not a bad loaf, not bad at all.
It really is very good, but you don't have any control over the end shape really

I give it 9/10 as the salt is way too high at 1.5 teaspoons. I've amended the recipe

Next time I'll make it with leaven!

Well
that next time is with leaven.
I subbed 100g of white leaven for the 1/4 teasp yeast.

The result the following morning was very slack. Maybe I used too much.

Nevertheless, with a bit of man handling - I've shaped it into a boule to rest, scooped it into the pot & baked it:




It's certainly a "better" bread for the leaven

la cuisine de bourgogne - boeuf bourguignon

Whilst in the Dijon tourist office, coupled with our purchase of the "owl trail" or parcours de la chouette map: the foot guide around the city marked by little owl birds in the pavement showing where to pause for your points of interest,
I also zoomed in and bought a 2€ cookery pamphlet of local recipes from the Burgundy region:

pears poached in wine, oeufs en meurette and; that classic dish, boeuf bourguignon


Now I have access to the authentic recipe for the dish, I can make beef burgundy just as the French intended

Try not to muck about with it any more than you see here

1.5 kilo beef chuck, shoulder, collar or topside

50g butter
50mil oil
100g lardons
2 onios
2 carrots, finely sliced
3 tablesp plain flour
2 cloves crushed garlic
1.5 bottles Burgundy red wine (I used 1 X 75cl bottle)
bouquet garni (using parley leeks thye & bay)
salt and pepper
optional extra: add other spices

trim and cut your meat into chunks
gently brown the lardons, meat, onions and carrots in a lidded casserole pot/ cocotte with the butter and the oil
when they are nicely coloured, sprinkle with the flour, stir, then add the bottle of wine
add the bouquet garni, salt and pepper to taste, and simmer gently with the lid on for 2 -3hrs according to your cut of meat
if the liquid is a little runny, remove the meat and the garnish from the pot, and reduce the sauce (over a medium heat for a few minutes)

Note:
if you wish you can create a tight seal for the pot, by mixing 200g flour with a little water to form a thick paste. Shape into a sausage and make a tight fitting collar that fits between the rim & the lid of the pot during cooking.

1.5 kilo de paleron, macreuse, collier ou gite à la noix
50g de beurre
5 cl d'huile
100g de lardons
2 oignons
2 carottes
30g de farine
2 gousses d'ail écrasées
1 bouteille det demie de vin rouge Bourgogne
1 bouquet garni (persil poireau thym laurier)
sel, poivre gris
épices (facultatives)


Préparer et couper la viande en morceaux réguliers
Dans une cocotte, faire revenir au beurre et à l'huile les lardon, les morceaux de viande puis les oignons et les carottes coupés très finement
Attendre que le tout soi bien coloré puis saupoudrer de farine et recouvrir de vin rouge
Ajouter l'ail écrasé et le bouquet garni, saler, poivrer puis faire cuire à feu doux pendant 2 ou 3hrs (le temps de cuisson dépend de la taille et du choix des morceaux
A la fin de la cuisson, retirer la viande et la garniture aromatique, et faire réduire la sauce si elle manque de consistance

Servir.

Pour la cuisson, il est possible de fermer hermétiquement le couvercle de la cocotte en préparant une pâte ave 200g farine et un peu d'eau.
Une fois la pâte terminée, en faire un boudin que vous collez entre le couvercle et le rebord de la cocotte.

Benedictine Big Bread - brewed from beer

click here for slideshow

You can make bread from the dregs of organic conditioned ale - the dregs are called "trub"

No need for yeasts, just bring the trub to life using strong white flour and water. And with this beer, you can produce a one off, unique Benedictine loaf of bread, just like they did in the Days of Yore

Mick, a baker in Bethesda, Wales from Dan Lepard's own forum told me exactly how to do it.
So, in concert with Dan's ale bread with wheat grains recipe, from the Handmade Loaf, I set off to see how

To be true to Mick's method, it is important to keep this loaf HUGE, mine weighed in at 2.6 kilos after baking!

The trub starter - ingredients for 600g


1 X 500mil bottle conditioned organic brew - Scottish wheat beer here or any ale that has some sign of flotsam in the bottom
at least 1 teasp of said trub
strong white flour & water

• shake your bottle to remove the sticky dregs in the bottle base
• settle for 10mins & open, then pour into a jug to rest overnight
• pour off the beer & reserve it for later
  mix the wet trub remaining, with a little strong white flour to form a paste, like so
• cover and leave for 24hrs

• then double the amount of your paste by adding equal parts strong white flour & water
• cover and leave for 24hrs

• now it's showing good signs of life, so we need to treat it as a starter by feeding it so - measure 50g of the bubbling paste, add 100g flour and 100g room temperature water
• throw the remainder away
• repeat that evening, 50g of starter: 100g strong white flour: 100g water
• repeat morning and evening for 2 days

you have now just made some bubbling, sour, beer starter

onwards to the loaf ................... it's a big old boy!

The Benedictine bread - ingredients
600g strong white flour
300g rye flour
100g wholemeal flour
2 teasp sea salt
500mil bottle conditioned Scottish wheat beer, or other ale
600g trub starter
100g water
400g barley grain, or wheat or rye, as you wish in accordance with your beer choice

• mix your chosen grain with the beer bring to the boil, and simmer gently for 40 - 45 mins till softly cook to al dente in the centre, topping up with water if it's dry - mine was
  
  store overnight

09:00 - 10:30

• in one bowl mix flours and salt together
• in another bowl mix the water, trub starter & grains - and leave for 10 mins
• combine both bowls, bring together well kneading to a dough with your hands for exactly 10 mins, rest for 10 mins
• knead briefly on an oiled surface X 3 times at 10 minute intervals, covering and resting in between
• rest for 30mins

10:30 - 12:00

• turn the dough and repeat at 30mins and 1hr X 3 times, by flattening to a rectangle, fold over left side, fold over right side, fold over top, fold over bottom, like so

12:00 - 14:30

• shape your dough to a ball shape, and rest seam-side up, on a heavily floured tea towel in a very large bowl, till almost double - for 2 hours to 2hrs30

14:30 - 16:00

• heat your oven to 210deg, carefully and skilfully place your risen, round ball of dough onto a baking sheet, seam-side down now
• slash your chosen design
• & bake for 1hr15mins, turning at intervals for even colouring and crisping
• rest in the cooling oven for a further 15mins to ensure the centre is baked well
• cool on a wire rack

grissini

By Dan Lepard - the Handmade Loaf

delicious!

Bread! Bread! Bread! - plain pitta breads

Bread!
I just like saying it now.



& Dan Lepard's perfect pitta bread recipe is just that.
Taken from his Guardian Guide to Baking, Nov 2007, I've taken his yeast version and used leaven

ingredients

100g plain flour
400g strong white flour
150g white leaven (or Dan's recipe uses a teasp of dried yeast)
325mil room temperature water
1 teasp salt
1 glug sunflower oil

• add the water to the leaven and stir
• mix the flours and salt & add into the leaven, pour over the oil
• & bring together well with your hands
• cover & rest for 10 minutes
• knead in the bowl (unlike Dan's usual method on an oiled surface) 10 seconds x 3 times, at 10 minute intervals - 1 ~ 2 ~ 3
• cover & rest for 45 minutes
• cut your dough into 10 pieces each weighing 100g
• shape into balls and rest on a floured board for 15mins, turn oven on to max
• flour your work surface well and roll out your balls 2 or 3 at a time, to pitta shapes 4mm deep
• place on a baking tray & cook on high for 4 mins till they puff up well, but do not colour

• wrap in a cloth to keep them soft
• freshly roll 2 or 3 more & bake for 4 mins

• cool your pittas in their cloth - ready for grilling, griddling, barbecuing or freezing
• when required, grill either side for 2 minutes

Dan Lepard - sprouted grain seed loaf

I believe this is the best loaf I've made to date

The recipe is here in the weekend Guardian, June 09

choice of ingredients I used

alfalfa sprouts
aduki beans
pumpkin seeds
spelt flour, for the rye amount
& 3/4 teasp dried yeast, 60g rye leaven

I used a 2lb tin, which doesn't look to be quite big enough, so the dough needed some scaffolding, which didn't affect the loaf one bit