Granola

We went to Totnes Market on Friday, and I brought a bag of Peanut Granola from the Common Loaf Bakery stall. I've been a huge fan of them for a long time now and their produce is probably the best bread I've ever tasted.
I fancied making my own Granola for a while now, and seeing theirs and trying it gave em the push to have a go for myself.

I found a recipe for the basic mixture online, looking around the cupboards I found Pistachio nuts, Walnuts, Cranberries and Chocolate Chips to use for a filling.
My recipe had no indication of the amount of fillings to use but I figured that as long as they were no more than 50% of the total ( 270g of Oats) it should be OK.

Here's the dry mixture, Oats and filling plus Sugar and Cinnamon,

And here's the Canola Oil and Honey, with a dash of Vanilla.

Mixed together we have this, which I spread out on a lined sheet.

I baked it at 140 for 25 minutes and left to cool.

After it had gone hard I broke it into pieces and stored it away.

 That's breakfasts sorted for the next few days.

Samples

I've just about recovered from my bad back, actually having a week off was quite nice, no 5am starts but now we're back to the grind.

In the middle of the Oats Order ( 2 Small Rye, 4 Spelt, 2 S/W White, 1 Soda, 10 Teacakes, 10 Rolls) I'm trying to do some samples for a new customer.

So I've done some Sourdough, Some rolls and Focaccia, I can't do the full range because I bake to order and I can't do a batch of everything, so I'm concentrating on the quality, with a suggestion of what I can do.

Here they are, at least the new ones, I will cut a slice off of my  White Sourdough and the Walnut Bread in the Morning.

Thats White Rolls, Cheese and Chorizo Rolls Tomato Focaccia, Rye Sourdough.

Festive Cookies

Here they are, he Cinnamon, Orange and Chocolate Cookies. They have sourdough starter in as well.

Millie and Me have expressed an interest, so I'll be taking samples down tomorrow, I've had to hide them as they are so tasty!

Please excuse the short post, I'm snowed under with bread orders and NaNoWriMo at the moment, 18000 words in 10 days!

Panic

 I was minding my own business yesterday, when I got a text from Oats, 'we have had an order, can you do another 3 Spelt for tomorrow.'

Yes, I replied, that will be 7 loaves then.

Then a few minutes later another text, 'we have had an order, can you do another 3 Spelt for tomorrow.'

I thought maybe it was a queue of people in the shop, each wanting three spelt loaves, a bit unusual so I queried it.

Back came the reply 'Please if possible'

Better make sure I thought, 'So that's 10 loaves' I sent.

No, only 7 was the reply.

Then the explanation, the message had been sent twice, I nearly had to panic as I would have been up before I went to bed, with all the other stuff I had to do.

Still, 7 is better than 4. Maybe next week.

Flavoured Bread

I haven't made it for a while, but I did a Marmite infused loaf yesterday, I wish I had done two as the smell was so enticing, I almost didn't want it to go to the customer. I know they say that the first bite is with the eye, well the second must be with the nose then.

I also made an Apple and Cinnamon loaf for the same order, that one filled the kitchen with the smell of Christmas, the two combined to make a sweet and sour fragrance that lingered all day. Until it was replaced by Bread and Butter Pudding that is.

Apple and Cinnamon and Marmite Loaves

Spelt Bread and Butter Pudding

Cranberries, Sultanas, Almonds and Brown Sugar

Just a few Croutons

With the onset of winter, although it has warmed up a bit this week, I feel the need to eat more soup.
 
A vital ingredient to complete the experience is the humble Crouton, but not the ones you can buy, I'm talking about the home made, larger than usual, crispy artisan type.

I made one extra spelt loaf on my Wednesday Oats order, and cut this into cubes about finger-tip size, and put them on two baking trays.

I liberally splashed them with my home made Blackberry Vinegar and some Olive Oil, then put them in a low oven for an hour, at about 140 degrees C, turning them a couple of times.

I turned the oven off but left them in till it had all cooled down, this crisped them up a treat. Right now they are in an airtight container in the fridge, but I dont think they'll be there for long.

By the way, they are also good with cheese, as an alternative to crackers.

Oh and when I said finger-tip, I meant just the bit from the tip to the first knuckle.

Saturday Project, Baked or Fried? Plus Fruit and Nut bread.

The days when I'm not baking for customers, I like to try something different. This saturday I had two projects that I wanted to try, one that I have been meaning to do for a while and one that I only found this week.

I had to start my prep on Friday, when I got my sourdough starter Hortense out of the fridge and woke her up. I fed her twice on friday and by saturday morning she was raring to go.

What I wanted to try was sourdough doughnuts, I had seen the recipe ages ago but never got round to it. I wanted to see if I could bake them, so I divided the dough and tried both ways.

 

 Oh and here's the Baked one looking sad......Healthy but sad.

As you can see, you can't bake this particular recipe, so fried it will have to be in future. I had a look inside one and it had puffed up perfectly,

Now I just need a thing to fill them with jam..



Now for Part 2

Here's the address of a superb website, and the place I found my next recipe.(Well spotted Yvonne!)

http://www.red-brolly.com/2014/10/summertime-bread/

I don't need to tell you all the details because its so well done over there but take it from me, and from Yvonne and from Norma our neighbour and from Phillip her husband (I think you get the idea) that the Bread is amazing, I made it in a springfrom tin in the end as it seemed a little loose for a freeform loaf but that was probably something I did (without my glasses on.
)

Ready for the second rise

Oven ready

The bread was really nice buttered.