Bread in the Kenwood - for Fay!

Here is how I make our weekly bread in my fabulouso Kenwood mixer... This makes 2 standards loaves.

First weigh out 2lb of flour and a big pinch of salt into a bowl, then add 1 sachet of yeast, 1 pint of tepid water and a couple of tablespoons of oil:

 

Then put the bowl on the mixer and mix until it all comes together....

I then add a bit of flour and give it a couple of turns with my hand in the bowl to bring it together and make it smooth.

Take the bowl off the mixer, cover with a cloth and leave to rise.  NB do not be tempted to leave the bowl on the mixer under the plastic cover - I have done this and when the bread rises you end up with bread in every nook and cranny of the mixer - it's not good...

When the bread is risen prod it a couple of times to release the air and then scoop it out onto a floured bench to knock back (do not put it back on the machine to knock it back as this will kill it!).  I just turn it over a few times to make it nice and smooth again.

Then when it's nice and smooth I gently cut in in half, then turn the halves over to smooth them off and pop them into a greased and floured tin.

Cover the tins with the tea towel and leave to rise again.  I also put my oven on as high as it will go to warm up, but it depends on how long your oven takes to heat up for when you should do this.  

When it's nicely risen pop the bread in the oven - in my oven it takes 25 mins to be done in the loaf tins I use, but your timing will depend on your oven and whether you use tins or do it freestylee!

Here's our bread for the week.

Stocking up for winter and a little baking...

I'm still catching up with the blog from things I did last year - I guess this is the perils of having little cupcakes of my own and working... So, this was me making the most of the bountiful fruits of autumn and laying a little in store for gifting and enjoying over the festive season.
We had some lovely apples from next door and some tomatoes from our garden...

We also made the most of what was in natural abundance and collected blackberries, sloes and elderberries - most of which were added to gin to make a range of liqueurs to give as gifts for Christmas, although I did make some into some very lovely elderberry and clove jelly to go with cooked meats.  The lemons weren't local or season, but I LOVE preserved lemons and often make them to keep in to add to things!

The bread was our usual running as we endeavour to make all of the bread that we eat, and the cakes were part of the basis of the birthday cake for my daughter which is coming up in another post!