Our Daily Bread

Now that it's almost christmas (whoo!), and you hopefully have some time off, why not try baking your own bread? It seems daunting but it's actually surprisingly simple. Just make sure you start in the morning and not at 8pm like I normally do, so that you have time to let it rise and cook without being kept awake. Even though the whole process takes around 3 hours, the hands on time is maybe 25-30 minutes. You could do it whilst cleaning, cooking something else, or as short breaks from revision and at the end of it you get delicious homemade bread. It tastes incredible with good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar and I often find myself at midnight on the night I made it having a little snack!

a midnight snack to reward myself

Admittedly, I only started making my own bread once I got my KitchenAid (I think I need a name for it - any suggestions? The best name will get a special recipe named for them) but as that coincided with moving into a flat with a good kitchen, I don't think it was the only reason and you certainly don't have to have one to make bread. Your hands will work perfectly, as has been proved for 30,000 years (thanks Wikipedia!). I started by making brown bread, which I later learnt is very hard to master, but switched to white bread when I couldn't get brown bread flour one day. If you make your own bread, I honestly don't think brown bread is much "better" for you than white - there's only 6 ingredients in both and no preservatives. Anyway, I'm sure I read somewhere that brown bread is better in some respects but worse in others, so to be honest, it's your personal preference.

French Fougasse

Ready and waiting to be eaten

Fougasse is a delicious type of bread that you get in France, that is often stuffed with different fillings - my favourite is made with bacon and shallots. I used purchase this in Paul bakeries on trips to London and was disappointed when they changed it from being a large tear and share bread, to a personal sized tear and keep bread! I can't find it in Manchester and so I decided to make my own! (And for some reason I just read that in Jeremy Clarkson's voice!). What better reason to make it than for the French society's French food evening? Grace came over to help, and make her own contribution, a Moroccan salad, and between us, we made 6 fougasse that were so good we decided not to take many of them with us to the food evening (none got eaten there anyway as I arrived late and all the other food had already gone!).

Still Alive And Cooking

Red velvet cupcakes

Hmm, it's been ages since I last posted and for that I apologise. I've spent most of the last week huddled up on the sofa, tissues and lemsip to hand, watching food network and Gilmore Girls reruns. I have, however, still been cooking, though somewhat half heartedly. Also, on Friday, I had an early 21st birthday party (less than a month until I actually turn 21!) at Cloud 23 in Manchester, where we had a cocktail masterclass that was So. Much. Fun!!! As well as the excitement/illness I've also had a few essay deadlines but they are no more! Unfortunately it's now procrastination, I mean, exam revision time.

My 21st

I have a list of recipes that I need to share with you over the next week or so: if I get my act together I'll write them tomorrow and set them to post a day at a time, so keep checking back - I'll set them for 11am each day so you have something to look forward to. The recipes include: macarons; red velvet cupcakes; fougasse (a type of French ciabatta that I made for a uni food evening); pizza; more bread; the ever promised and half written about chicken and cashew nuts; and pork potsticker dumplings.