The Plainest of Plain White Loaves

'ere 'tis for those that have asked.

This recipe is for Bread Making Machines and the ingredients are added to the pan in the order listed. As a rule I try to do as much measuring with the pan on a set of those electronic scales, that you can set back to zero after adding each ingredient.

18g Rapeseed Oil
290g Water
1tsp Salt
3 tsp Golden Caster Sugar (the unbleached stuff)
450g Doves Farm Organic Strong White Bread Flour (http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/)
1½tsp Packet Dried Yeast (the fast stuff)

Use the normal program (#1 on my Kenwood BM256) and set the weight for a 750g loaf and the crust of your choice.

Enjoy.

A Fine Day for a Picture

I woke yesterday, barely remembering that there was a Venice Simplon Orient Express (VSOE) outing due through Bath Spa on its way to Bristol. This is important to me because I like steam engines and also because one of the carriages is called Zena.
After a brisk walk to the end of Hampton Row through the centre of Bath, up the Warminster Road and along the canal tow path I reached the proposed shooting location to find so much over growth I had to scramble through a hedge and set up the camera in the corner of a field.
Anyway here's the picture of the train from London Victoria pulled by engine number 35028 - Clan Line, a preserved Merchant Navy Class locomotive built in 1948.

and Zena, an original Pullman coach built in 1928.

3 Thirds Loaf

I have finally settled on a combination of ingredients to produce a reasonably consistent and tasty loaf of bread from my machine. As requested, this is how it goes (in order of addition to the pan):-

20g Rapeseed Oil
290g Water
1 tsp Sea Salt
3 tsp Golden Caster Sugar
150g Wholegrain Spelt Flour
150g Strong White Bread Flour
150g Wholemeal Bread Flour
1½ tsp Dried Yeast (Suitable for bread makers!!)

With a Kenwood Bread Maker, I use the Wholemeal Loaf programme which takes three and tree quarters of an hour when set for a 750g loaf with a moedium crust. The flour is usually Doves Farm Organic and everything else is Sainsbury's.

Enjoy.

Edgcumbe visits Bath - Solihull to Bristol via Reading

Saturday saw me at Bath Spa station again to see GWR 4073 Class 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe operated by Vintage Trains Ltd. from Tyseley Locomotive Works formerly Birmingham Railway Museum.
Here she is in all her restored beauty, preparing to leave Bath Spa, just as an Inter City 125 (HST) was about to arrive.

...of yeast and a bread making machine

Sometime ago I started making my own bread with a machine. The decision was prompted by Sainsbury's who changed their policy on discounting products with a 'one day' shelf life. I used to be able to purchase their 'Organic Wholemeal in-store baked loaf' when shopping after work (early evening), sometimes it was discounted and I'd stock up the freezer, but usually they had some. When the new policy came in there was never any left by five o'clock let alone half past six.

I started making my own loaf and tried out different combinations of  flours, yeast, salt, sugar, oil and water until I'd managed to get a bread that I enjoyed and had a decent fibre content. The yeast I used initially was Sainsbury's sachets and then I went on to try Hovis sachets. The recipe I used for the amount of flour required 1.5 teaspoons of dried yeast, so I was constantly using part sachets which I found awkward.

One day while shopping for yeast I spotted little tins of Allinson's Yeast on the shelf - "whoopee" I thought, "no more messing around with part sachets!!" What I had failed to notice was that this yeast was 'Not suitable for Bread Makers' in the small print on the front of the tin. Ooops!!

Anyway, what I have done is modify the method I use for preparing and adding ingredients to the baking tin. Previously I would add ingredients in the following order: oil, water, salt, sugar, flour and finally yeast. Now, what I'm trying is to reactivate the yeast with part of the sugar and water. So now it's: oil, water including reactivated yeast mixture, the rest of the required sugar, flour and now the salt goes in last on top of the flour where it doesn't come in contact with the yeast.

Once I've done it a couple of times I'll report back on the success or not of this experiment.

34067 - Tangmere on 'The Welshman'

+Yesterday I had the luxury of seeing and photographing 'Tangmere' 34067 - Battle of Britain class steam locomotive pulling a train through Bath. A luxury because although I am a keen railway enthusiast, I tend not to make the time to practice particularly often.
Either way here she is passing through Oldfield Park by Brougham Hayes bridge.

Later I was at Bath Spa station waiting for her return from Cardiff when the station announcer obligingly informed all present that she was still there. Making an effort I returned home and sat on the 'gen' site for news of her from Cardiff, which came through at 18:35 reporting 18:30 as the time of departure. A quick calculation against the original timings would bring the train through Bath just before 20:00.

Camera over my shoulder I got myself down to the station to get 'the shot'.
As is so often the case, getting a picture across another track always runs the risk of another train being in the way. It was one of those days...

 and away...

Hey Ho!!!

...something of an apology

To all those people who were eagerly awaiting the sequel to the 'holiday' blog, I'm afraid as is evident elsewhere on Bath 'n' Stuff, I tend to over do the writing and fall flat on my arse...

Suffice it to say that the weekend is admirably recorded and reported by The Millbooker (see The Daily(ish) Millbrooker link to the right).

Advise from a long time blogger is 'keep it short and use lots of pictures'.