Baking day

A baking day - River Cottage-inspired digestive biscuits and sourdough loaf

Is there anything nicer than having enough time to do some serious baking?  It’s worth it for the smell that permeates the house as well as the edible rewards.  I feel like weaing a t-shirt saying “SMUG” for the rest of the day too.  My favourite cook book of the moment is River Cottage everyday by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  I’m a big fan of Mr H.  He makes great TV viewing and I admire his principles especially his campaign on battery chicken farming.  It’s the first book of his I’ve owned though as his bias towards seasonally and locally produced (especially the game part) doesn’t correspond with the ingredients I can get in the Middle East.  This book gives me lots of scope and ideas for daily meals – which is where inspiration is usually the most lacking.

I now make this cheat’s sour dough recipe at least 3 times a week, adding a bit of wholemeal flour into the mix.  If I have time, I knead it by hand (great for toning the upper arms) but I’ve also devised a quick method using my KitchenAid that is really simple.  I’ll write about this soon.

Homemade digestives were a bit fiddly – it was quite difficult to cut them out.  I would use fine grain oats next time.  They were demolished in seconds by my daughter’s netball team.  It was worth doing though as the recipe made loads.  The raspberry jam in the picture was from the Cristkindlmarkt in Munich and tasted like the fruit had just left the bush.  I think I ate the whole jar myself.  I’m not sure about the copyright issues on reproducing recipes here, so I haven’t.  If you are reading this as another food blogger, any advice?  I’m now on the quest to find fresh bakers yeast in Dubai for my first Fresh from the oven recipe.  It involves bread and chocolate – a heavenly combination that the netballers will love.

P.S. I just found a really informative article about recipes and blogs.  I’ll revist bread and biscuits very soon with some more detailed instructions. If you’re interested in the article by food writer and blogger David Lebovitz click here.