oat and molasses bread

Left with the rest of the jar of molasses that Real Foods kindly sent me to try, I decided to give this recipe a go. It meant I had to dig my American cup measures out for the first time in ages, and if I want to make it again, I’l translate the recipe into metric measures.

I used all the 350g of flour – about 2 parts strong white, 1 part wholemeal and 1 part rye. And I wrestled a bit with the molasses as it is, by its very nature, extremely sticky. So it stuck to the spoons I used to get it out of the jar, and it stuck to the cup measure, and it stuck to the spoons again. And the dough was, as you might have anticipated, exceeding sticky too.

When I put it to do its first rise, I thought that it wasn’t going to do anything much, but I put the bowl on a sunny windowsill, and it looked as though it was ready to invade Poland after a couple of hours (comparatively speaking). And knocking it back made me all sticky again (I did the first mix in the KitchenAid with the dough hook).

But it rose and made a lovely loaf. Bit like a soft pumpernickel. Very sweet, though.

Note to self (and you, should you give it a try); flouring the baking tray wasn’t enough; next time I’ll use baking parchment.

This was one of the things I made on a busy baking Sunday (no point in wasting a hot oven!); more to follow.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

a chicken pie

(I said it was a busy weekend).

The last of last weekend’s roast chicken was languishing in a bowl in the fridge, and the weather forecast was Not Nice. So we decided that A Pie was called for.

Due to the unexpected trip to Lakeland, I started the filling in the tiny slow cooker before I went out. In went two chopped rashers of back bacon, about 30g of finely diced chorizo (oh, chorizo, how I love thee), a chopped leek, and about half a punnet of tired chestnut mushrooms. A small glug of olive oil, a grate of black pepper, some fresh thyme, and I set it on low, and went to Beverley. I’m getting so much use out of that thing, I just love it. I want a medium slow cooker now, but I really don’t think I have anywhere to keep it :(

There was a gorgeous smell when we returned! Once the cake baking marathon was over, I transferred the mix to a deep frying pan, added the chicken and warmed it through. And then, while warding off the Senior Cats, I added about two or three tablespoons of plain flour and cooked that off, and then just enough milk to make a sauce. No idea how much, just until it was right.

Pete manfully rolled out the puff pastry (which came from the freezer – I’m not that daft), and we ate it with mashed swede and carrot, and very nice it was too. And we were so hungry I forgot to photograph it, but I will do so when we have reheated the other half for tomorrow’s supper.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

Sybil and Polly

Or, as we tend to refer to them, the Piranha Sisters (and my word, their teeth are sharp). They arrived last Wednesday, 16 Oct 2013, and have charmed everyone who has come into contact with them since. Apart from the Incumbent Cats who still remain really quite unmoved (understatement). Although, to be fair, only we have seen them, together with one friend and her six year old son, but we are all charmed, trust me.

The names are not, as many have assumed, from Fawlty Towers; they are, like all the Tribe, from Discworld characters. Lady Sybil Ramkin (m Vimes), and Polly Perks from Monstrous Regiment. Sybil is most definitely the leader, although Polly is a tiny bit bigger, and they are progressing by the day, although they look very small to have been eight weeks old last week. But they eat, and they sproing, and have enslaved us.

They’ve been living in our bedroom since they arrived, and the Incumbents have been downstairs, so last night we took the kittens down for the evening. They thought it was all rather fine – Sybil decided that plants were good to eat and Polly, although much more cautious, had a good explore.

This morning, Sybil followed me downstairs for the first time, and attempted to partake of the Big Cats’ breakfast; this didn’t go well, so I bore her back upstairs with a dish of kitten mush.

You can find the Tribe’s antics on Twitter, Flickr and Facebook.

 

Mirrored from the Tribe.