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Christmas Recipes: Edible Gifts. No.3 of 8 - Gingerbread Decorations
Christmas recipe makes: 2 dozen Calories per biscuit: 125
Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 10 minutes Suitable
for freezing at end of step 5.
Christmas recipe ingredients:
* flour, plain white 350 g (12 oz) * bicarbonate of...
Christmas Recipes: Main Dishes. No.2 of 12 - Plaice with Tomato and Caper
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Calories per serving: 340
Not suitable for freezing
Christmas Recipe Ingredients:
* Plaice fillets, 8 (550 g, 1.25 lb)
* Black Olive Paste, 75 g (5 tbsp)
* Dry white...
Délices de France, A Delicious Way Of Cooking, A Culinary Art
Would you like to taste authentic French specialties gourmet food and recipes? Well, this is what Délices de France can do for you. Délices de France was founded in January of 2004 by Anne Garrett. I know all the fine dining of her country....
Delicious Vintage Chocolate Recipes For All Seasons
Whether it’s a party, a quiet day in the house or just cruising downtown with friends, there’s always an occasion (or excuse) to gratuitously munch on chocolate.
Everyone loves chocolates, especially the types made from those secret vintage...
How to cut a cake
Have you ever wondered how to cut a cake? I have had a lot of practice. When I turned 16 and requested a Spider Man sheet cake I busily honed my cake cutting skills by making concentric rectangles and then served up the master piece. My family all...
Planning a Football Party
When fall comes and football is in full force women around the country begin to use the phrase football widow. I can attest to a few Saturdays and Sundays where the TV in our home is going all day and my husband is glued to his favorite chair. ...
Regional Cuisine - New England Clam Chowder
Sea air, crisp apples, the brisk, spice of fallen leaves - there are few things that say autumn in New England like the scents that seem to buffet the senses from everywhere. Among those marvelous treats for the senses are popular dishes from...
Summer Basil Pasta Salad
With the long hot days of summer, you will find that you will need something lighter than a T-bone steak.
If you are seeking a fresh and light pasta salad, then you will need to serve this at your next gathering.
Summer Basil Pasta Salad
...
The Secret to Cooking for a Crowd
Having a large family growing up, I learned to cook in a big
way. With 5 brothers and 3 sisters plus Mom and Dad, I started
out cooking for eleven people by the time I was twelve. Mom
needed help and taught her daughters to cook at an early...
Top 3 Reasons Why You Need Cookie Recipes
When it is time to bake cookies, we usually think that it is
complicated, that it takes a lot of time. In one word : that it
is not worthwhile ! We will show you hereunder that it is simply
not true. Baking cookies is easy, fast and, most...
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A Recipe for Rye Bread
The more I make bread, the more I am convinced of the importance
of the kitchen being in the best position in the house. When we
designed and built our house, I was determined that the kitchen
should have a view and be on the front of the house. Now that
it's six-fifteen of a summer morning and I'm up early, kneading
bread, because we've run out again, I'm especially happy to be
looking out over a sun-soaked landscape to the distant
mountains. Every time you make bread you're guaranteed a good
ten minutes of contemplation as you knead it, the mechanical
rhythmic activity frees the mind to wander or switch off...very
therapeutic. Having a view thrown in as well is just an added
bonus.
I haven't always made bread. It is a comparatively recent
development. Making jam was the first breakthrough into
self-sufficiency, then came the day when our local supplier of
rye bread, who made a loaf that (miracle of miracles), all the
children would eat, decided to switch recipes and use caraway in
it...instant rejection by the whole family.
We'd stopped the wheat bread to try and help my son's allergies
and found it helped most of us, so apart from the occasional
indulgence of fluffy white bread, I wanted to stay off it. There
was no alternative; I would have to take the leap into bread
making. The main reason that I'd resisted was that it seemed to
take so long. First the mixing and kneading, then the rising,
then knocking down and forming loaves, a second rising and
finally the baking. Who could keep track of all that in the
chaotic life of a three-child family?
So eventually I take the plunge, turn to my friend Nigel
(Slater, not namedropping but he and Nigella (Lawson) are
ever-present in my kitchen, in book format of course) and find a
foolproof recipe for a white loaf, simpler to start off with
white I think. Well the first try produced a reasonable, if
huge, loaf, though my son still remembers that it was a bit
doughy in the middle. Second try, I got two pretty perfect
loaves and I was on a roll.
Now to find a recipe for rye bread. It seems that 100% rye is
usually made by the sour dough method and I couldn't see my
family going for that, so settle for a half and half
rye/whole-wheat recipe... triumph. Ok, my son the food
connoisseur complained it was a bit too sweet, so next time
round I reduced the amount of honey, but this recipe has been
our staple diet ever since, and I am now truly ensconced in my
kitchen, looking at
the view, every other day, while I endeavour
to keep the supply level with the ever increasing demand.
Any way, finally to the recipe:
500g rye flour 450g whole-wheat flour plus more for kneading 50g
plain flour 1 tablespoon salt 1 10g sachet of instant yeast 1
tablespoon honey 3 tablespoons oil 670 ml milk 125 ml water
Warm the milk to lukewarm. Mix the flours and salt in a large
bowl. Make a well in the middle and put in the yeast, then
honey, then oil, pour on the warmed milk and water and mix. When
it gets doughy turn out on to a well floured surface (it will be
extremely sticky) and knead for 10 minutes. You will need to
keep adding flour as you knead. It is better for it to be too
sticky than too dry - you can always add more flour, but too dry
will make a dry, hard loaf. After 10 minutes, put it back into
the bowl with a plastic bag over it and leave in a warmish place
for two hours or so. Then knock down, firmly pressing out the
air, but not over kneading, then form into two or three loaves
on a baking sheet, cover again and leave to rise for another
hour. Then bake for 30 minutes at 190C until they sound hollow
when you tap on the bottom of the loaf. Cool on a wire rack
So how do I keep track of the bread making, in between school
runs, mealtimes and the rest? Well I don't always. There are
times when I optimistically start the bread off, leave it to
rise and four hours later remember about it, knock it down,
forget to switch on the oven so it has had an extra day or so in
rising time by the time it gets cooked. It does seem to be very
forgiving though - whatever you do to it, you do generally get
bread out at the end, it may not always be the perfect loaf, but
then variety is the spice of life after all. There was one time
it hadn't quite finished cooking by the time I had to do the
school run, so I asked my husband to take it out in ten
minutes..... By the time I got back we had a very useful weapon
against intruders. We didn't eat that one...I think it was
ryvita for lunch...!
Good luck with yours.
Copyright 2005 Kit Heathcock
About the author:
Sometime flower photographer, keen observer of the resonances of
life and fulltime mother. Born in the UK but now living on a
farm in the southern hemisphere. Contributor to the creation and
maintenance of A
Flower Gallery one of the homes of chakra flower art.
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