Baking – A New Hope (Star Wars Fan)
BAKING. It is something that many of my friends do, but have never really thought much about it myself. Of course anyone of my age will probably have grown up as a young child knowing that smell wafting from the kitchen, as Mum baked bread, scones and all sorts of cakes and pastries Those were the days.
When I was a child we had something similar to this Rayburn, in what was a big family kitchen, and I remember having something similar to stand alone cooker too.
I can shut my eyes and see Mum busy in the kitchen, these are very fond memories.
So with the current pandemic going on, I decided that I would like to start baking my own bread. My BF Jason has been baking for a while and suggested what I needed to get up and running, and to my surprise he presented me with a gift, a brand new baking machine. Morphy Richards Fast Bake. It is a comprehensive baking machine, am totally humbled by his generosity, thanks Jason and Sarah.
Armed with everything I needed, having ordered the ingredients I started out on my first bread bake, and I have to say the machine is amazing, it does all the mixing and kneading. I anxiously waited for the result of my first effort. Well it was a disaster, and so was the second one !
It wasn’t “rising” and yet the ingredients were exactly as the recipe.
I did one more and it was exactly the same, the same shape, and like thick stodgy porridge in the middle. This was frustrating , and for the bakers out there I am sure you know what was wrong? I had ordered the quick acting yeast, as recipe’s stated.
Sainsbury had substituted my yeast , which was ok, and the packet just said yeast but what it didn’t state was that it was inactive yeast. I can’t really blame Sainsbury, but having found the same packet on line it stated that it was inactive and this yeast is what some people put on their food.
Problem solved, or was it? Finding yeast has become like Gold since the Pandemic hit us, and I was struggling to get any, but to my rescue came eBay. I ordered 160 grammes and I was expecting it to take a couple weeks, but to my amazement it arrived recorded delivery on the 2nd day, that was a very pleasant surprise :-)
So armed with the new yeast we had try bake number 4
Ingredients in, Yeast in, close the lid and let’ s go. The smell of baking bread is such a lovely smell to have wafting through your home, it did seem to be rising so i just enjoyed the smell until the machine had done. Friends had been calling on Whatsapp to find out how it was as they knew the problems I had been having.
Eureka!!!
I was so thrilled…I know it’s only a loaf of bread but its was wonderful to see the results. The bread was crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle. I had a crust spread with butter immediately! It was lovely, so tasty, was feeling pretty pleased with myself.
I decided I would wait until it had cooled down, and I was busy trying to get the Radio programme (The Sunday Hour) completed, so I needed to get back to that, but I was feeling pretty good to be honest.
So I decided I would do some more work and have a cuppa and some toast later……..
Slicing the fresh bread and popping in the toaster, I felt like a child waiting for tea time with Mum, but it was worth the wait. Buttered toast with Marmite, a piping hot cup of coffee, what could be better, honestly what could be better?
I am pretty sure that I wont be buying bread again, and once have mastered the simple loaf I will be experimenting with ingredients, so watch this space, I may even post some recipe’s :-)
I know Marmite you either love or hate …. but me? I LOVE it :-)
So, what have I learned from this exercise? Has it changed my life?
I can answer this way. We all have skills we aren’t using, we have the ability to try anything, and can succeed if we apply ourselves. It has become too easy for me to just be mainstream.
For me I have learned how to make food from ingredients, and spend the time enjoying the experience. So yes I have learned, overcome, and it has given me a new life experience for the future.
1 Cor 16:13
“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be people of courage; be strong. Do everything in love”
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Hi Keith,
Loving that you kept trying positively to make this machine work & to have finally succeeded in baking you a tasty loaf of bread. This is the kind of attitude that we all need especially during the current tough times :-)
It certainly looks good! I wonder if your machine would be successful with gluten free flour….???!!
I had one for years and really miss it now! I enjoyed reading this, Keith. And to answer Jenny’s question, it may well make a nice GF loaf, as some modern machines do!
Have looked into this Mandy, and yes there is GF mixes available, so will see what I can for Jenny. Thank you for taking the time to comment :-)
Yes ! Will see what I can do
Frieda, thank you for your kind words, The smell of bread baking spreads throughout, I hope you will be baking for your family too :-)