THE STAFF OF LIFE!
This week has seen the tenth annual, international celebration of supporting our local, independent Real Bread bakeries and baking your own bread. Certainly an enjoyable task many AGA owners follow each week of the year. As many of my friends will tell you I do actually bake a couple of Granary-style seeded loaves each week using my large (2 lb) AGA loaf tin, which I have had for about 5 years.
Nevertheless for the blog today I thought I would introduce something a little bit different, this is a very quick bread recipe, which uses baking powder as a raising agent instead of yeast and if you haven’t made bread before it is a good beginning. In fact I find it is rather similar to a soda bread – sorry Real Bread Campaign no fermentation with this loaf.
The original recipe came via my friend Richard’s visit to New Zealand and was made with beer (try this too as a variation, it’s so good). However cider provides an interesting, rather fruity taste for the loaf and the finished result is wonderful served with local cheese and of course your favourite (own) chutney!
My preference for cooking bread is a silver anodised aluminium tin, as it conducts heat so well. The 1 lb size tin has a capacity of 2½ pints (1.4 litres) and is Made in England. The tin is easy to prepare, just place a little butter in the base of the tin then put on the Warming Plate to melt, or use the top plate (place on a piece of kitchen paper or AGA cork mat to protect the top plate enamel) then brush the melted butter over the tin paying particular attention to the lettering. Allow to set while you make the loaf.
The recipe is quick to make and just needs a wooden spoon and basin to beat the ingredients together to make a batter – don’t worry the batter will be quite slack. Scatter over the grated cheese and cook!! Couldn’t be easier.
In support of the real bread philosophy my choice of flour would be a stoneground white flour mixed with a coarsely ground whole wheat flour – or you can use all of one flour of your choice.
By Dawn Roads
