Pain au Noix

Walnut bread... using walnuts from our own garden of course! Patricia's favourite!

South African Seed Bread

An interesting one.  Not only really easy to make - no kneading required - but also a very healthy recipe. Mostly wholemeal flour, runny honey, and lots of nuts and seeds.  Absolutely wonderful eaten warm with melted butter.  This one will be repeated!

Dark Chocolate Bread!

Made with 100g of cocoa.  The recipe recommended it be eaten with rich broths and soups.  I ate it with melted Kerrygold butter and plum jam! A rich sour-cherry jam would be perfect.

Broa, a traditional Portuguese corn bread

Turned out really well, tasted great.  I washed the outside with salt-water before baking, which gave a nice crunchy crust. 

Wholemeal bread, made in the machine

Didn't really follow any recipe for this one, just dumped a bunch of ingredients in the breadmaker from a list in the manual.  It turned out really well, the ingredients included a little sugar which combined with the wholemeal flour gave it a really nice taste.

Victorian Milk Bread

This was only the second loaf I made. It turned out completely perfect, a simple white bread made with mostly milk instead of water.  I glazed it with an egg wash before baking which gave it a really attractive shiny soft crust.

Beginnings

Prior to one month ago, I had never baked anything more than a few chocolate chip cookies for the kids. We have a breadmaking machine but don't use it frequently, and I had never used it at all. On the other hand I love bread and even though one can buy a lot of nice freshly-made bread in Hungary, I have become very bored with the standard loaves.

I'd often glanced through a very nice bread-making recipe book that has been lying around at home for a few years, with breads from all over the globe. So recently, I decided I am going to work my way through the book during the coming year, bake all the breads it contains.

I might use the machine now and again but mostly I am going to make them completely by hand.  From start to finish this is often 4-5 hours during which I cannot stray too far from the kitchen so it will be more a winter activity. However I've started with enthusiasm and made 5 in the last 2 weeks.

Photos of each will be posted here.

Well, except the first one which I forgot to photo.  It was the most basic recipe, a french "Pain Ordinaire" which turned out ok except I messed it up when putting it into the oven and it flattened out a bit. Learn by mistake...