No bread is an island

...entire of itself. (With apologies to John Donne!)
I live and breathe breadmaking. I’m an evangelist who would like everyone to make his or her own bread. I want to demystify breadmaking and show it as the easy everyday craft that it is. To this end I endeavour to make my recipes as simple and as foolproof as I possibly can.

I call my blog 'No bread is an island' because every bread is connected to another bread. So a spicy fruit bun with a cross on top is a hot cross bun. This fruit dough will also make a fruit loaf - or Chelsea buns or a Swedish tea ring...
I'm also a vegan, so I have lots of vegan recipes on here - and I'm adding more all the time.

Thursday 14 May 2015

REAL BREAD WEEK (9-15th May 2015)

The week of 9-15th May 2015 is Real Bread Week, organised by The Real Bread Campaign when everyone is encouraged to make their own Real Bread.

Here's how the week went for me:

Monday 11th May
I was short of bread for myself - so I made this seeded loaf with toasted sesame seeds.

And I was due at a coffee morning on Tuesday, so I made a batch of 
Chelsea buns (plus a GF, vegan chocolate cake for a coeliac friend who attends) for a coffee morning.

Tuesday 12th May

My usual session at Myday services this week had been moved to Thursday afternoon, so I was able to get to Taunton Association of the Homeless much earlier - 3pm instead of 3.45.

Early as I was, I found one of my students already in the training kitchen, making some frying pan soda bread!

On the menu was a lentil and potato stew or hash, which we then go on to make pasties with, so we quickly got cracking with that!

We were soon joined by 2 more students who set to to make the dough for the pasties. Once these were shaped and proving, the 1st student made another soda bread in the frying pan - at the same time, teaching one of the other students, whose first session this was.

Lentil and potato pasties and frying pan soda bread 

Wednesday 13th May
Longrun House care home, Taunton.
I had 8 students in the afternoon, who, between them made Chocolate and banana bread, marzipan and apple tartlets, apple and strawberry 'snake bread'* and marzipan sandwich shapes**. (Plus a chocolate cake to keep one of my students occupied.) 

(*Sweetened dough roll out with a row of sliced apple and strawberries across it. The dough is then gathered up around the filling and shaped into a log shape). 

(**Shapes cut out of the rolled out dough in pairs - the bottom piece has a circle of marzipan placed on it, which is then covered with the same shaped dough. Sprinkled with icing sugar after baking.)

Chocolate and banana bread (sweet calzones, really!)
Apple and marzipan tartlets (sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon)
Matt always wants to make 'snake' bread. This contained strawberries and apple.
Marzipan sandwich shapes

Thursday 14th May
Seeded rolls and marzipan doughnuts - at MyDay services, with three students who were able to choose what they made.


Sesame seed rolls

Marzipan doughnuts (and one small marzipan pasty with the leftover dough).
Friday, 15th May
Family breadmaking at Halcon Primary School, Taunton.
5 more batches of bread this morning:
The families made garlic batons and iced buns:
A Special Needs youngster, who dips in and out of the session, made a batch of cut out shapes;
The Forest group cooked a small loaf in a mug inside a pan of water* on a wood fire, and;
I made a batch of 24 Chelsea buns (linked above) for the staff room [with conditions! :)]




A simple bread dough, rolled out and cut out.
K for Keeleigh's garlic baton

J for Jamie
After the Family Learning session had finished, I stayed behind and made a batch of 24 Chelseas for the staff. The deal was that if they took a bun, they must go onto my blog, make some buns at home and bring in some evidence they had done so - either by taking a pic, or bringing in a Chelsea bun!
Terms and conditions of accepting a Chelsea bun!
Chelsea buns for the staff. Plus a bit of spare dough from the boiled bread.
(I was too slow to take a pic of the iced buns.)

The bread made in boiling water on the fire was, again, a simple bread dough placed in a mug lined with baking parchment. The mug is placed inside a small casserole dish filled with water, with the lid almost in contact with the mug so that it cannot tip over. The dish was placed on the wood fire for about half an hour. When I went back to check on the bread's progress I was told it was all gone - everyone, staff and pupils had had a taste and pronounced it 'gorgeous'!

I shall post this recipe, with pics, as soon as I get a chance.

So, to sum up the week:
14 different breads - 15 batches altogether.

And, since Saturday is 'Pizza day' in our house, that's what I'll be baking tomorrow! 

Breadmaking can be a bit addictive, you know! J

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