Bread

Today I decided to get the bread maker out again. I used to do this every day, but stopped when I was newly pregnant. It just seemed like too much work - but most importantly, I just went off the whole idea of home made bread! The taste and smell just didn't do it for me anymore. However, just as I am now enjoying coffee again, the whole bread thing is no longer grossing me out.

I was planning to pick up some bread at the bakery in Kelburn, but couldn't face going out this afternoon in the cold, wind and rain unless I really had to. So, out came the Alison Holst breadmaking book and away I went. I decided on the 5 seed loaf, partly because I have had success with it in the past, and partly because it would use up lots of ingredients. I have heaps of yeast, flours, nuts, seeds and various breadmaking things lying around unused in the pantry. When you're making bread every day, you can afford lots of variety - when you're making it just every now and again, things start going off before you get around to using them. I only threw out one thing that looked dodgy (the lecithin), but noticed that my yeast only has a month to go until it expires. I toasted up lots of sesame seeds (in the hope this might improve their shelf life) and I'll do the sunflower seeds tomorrow.

Well, the loaf is cooling on the bench and it looks fine.

Thankfully there were no real breadmaking dramas. The most exciting thing was when the toasted sesame seeds were cooling on the table. I was in the kitchen and heard Aidan say:

"Nice, warm!".

No guessing where his hands were....think I'll make sure I use those seeds only in things that will be cooked!