Wednesday 14 April 2010

Lucky duck

When I was a kid, if you got something good like a present or a new toy, my neighbour Jonathan used to say you were a "lucky duck". I always liked that expression :-) Well today I was a lucky duck. I won a contest on Hilary's blog, Let Her Bake Cake, which is gorgeous and which always makes me feel hungry after reading her latest post. Go and visit her and try out some of her recipes - the latest one for rice crispie squares looks fab.

Anyway my package from Hilary arrived this morning and I was pleased as punch with my little haul! She sent me the most gorgeous book about bread, The New Family Bread Book by Ursula Ferrigno, as well as two bags of Allinson flour and a tub of yeast. She also included a gorgeous tea towel which hopefully you can see in the photo, but it's too nice to use for drying dishes so I think I'll turn it into something lovely. Maybe an apron, but if you have any better ideas please let me know!

Naturally I wanted to get stuck in and make something from the book immediately if not sooner, and I was tempted to try a fougasse, but then I was distracted by a recipe for Irish brown soda bread and had to make that instead for a little taste of home. Here it is in progress (look at my kitchen tiles, aren't they hideous?!):


The recipe wanted you to shape it into a round on a baking tray, in the traditional manner, but I thought I'd be clever and stick it in a silicone loaf tin so it'd be sliceable.

Unfortunately the silicone is so flimsy that the dough forced the sides of the tin to splay out and the loaf kind of rose outwards instead of just upwards, but at least I know for the next time to do it in a proper metal tin. And I'm going to scoff some of it right now with some lentil soup I made the other day, and a lump of Bowland cheese!


Oh and I did put the yeast to work straight away too, here's a sneak peak of a milk loaf rising away happily.


Thanks again Hilary, I'm so happy with my new book and can't wait to work my way through all those pizza recipes next!

15 comments:

Siobhan said...

Fresh bread and lentil soup must be the finest combo known to man! The bread looks so tasty...I didn't know you could get silicone loaf tins, but from the sounds of it they might not be that useful. Do you think they would work with a lighter bread or a loaf cake or would you totally advise against them?

Aveen said...

Well it's the second time I've used this silicone loaf tin, the first was for some banana bread and the same thing happened, it pushed the sides outwards so it ended up rather mis-shapen. Perhaps it'd be better with a very light batter but I kind of think it'd happen no matter what - this one might end up in the charity shop! I have some silicone muffin cases though and they're fantastic, I use them all the time.

jacqueline said...

Oh wow you lucky duck! :D Such a wondeful wonderful package! Oh yes and i could see that lovely tea towel! Love your idea of turning it into an apron! That bread looks sooo yum, yum, yummie! Have a lovely merry happy day and love to yoU!

Mika said...

Great blog you have. Be back soon. Mika (www.mikascrap.typepad.com)

Unknown said...

I'm very glad you got to be my lucky duck! :)

I've made the Irish brown soda bread from that book and found it quite good. But yes, the fougasse is gorgeous!

Hilary said...

Whoops, I meant to mention that somewhere - yes, I just used golden syrup in the gooey butter cake.

skirmishofwit said...

What a lovely package to get! The bread looks very yummy - your lunch sounds delish!

MarmaladeRose said...

I never even noticed your tiles, I was too busy admiring your pink scales and mug tree! I have a pink kettle, don't we have good taste! lol.
The breads making my tummy rumble, I can almost smell it.

Aveen said...

Hehe, I have a pink kettle too! One day maybe I'll have a pink Kitchen Aid mixer - when I win the lottery :)

Unfurled said...

What a lovely treat! Bread baking is my new obsession. As if I need another one!

stellar pans said...

That bread look delicious, I can just image how tastey it all is.

Dallas R. Monsen said...

Feeling awesome after seeing you post .

Shannon J. Wright said...

A lot of thanks for this amazing post here . I admire your post .

Robert Smith said...

Awesome article thanks for sharing this blog it gives lots of information

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That looks really tasty. excellent baking skills. I would like to say you need help with decorating your cakes. Then it would look perfect. I love your blogs. Thank you for posting.
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