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This is where I note my efforts as I try to recreate some old recipes. Most are taken from my small collection of handwritten recipe books which date from the late 1700's to around 1922. I also have a collection of old tatty old recipe books, well thumbed and heavily splashed from years of use. I love all of them.

The old-fashioned very stylised handwriting writing is sometimes difficult to decipher, measurements and cooking instructions are minimal, no tin sizes given. Luckily I enjoy a challenge. Just to complicate things I cook and bake on my wood-fired Rayburn, which can be... unpredictable.

I suspect this blog is less about the food and more about my passion for these lovely old books and the wonderful women who wrote them.


Saturday 18 June 2016

A Chip Butty Loaf

I haven't had much time for baking, although I have had time to write down a list of things I would like to have a go at.  

Some of it is weather-dependent.  
The flowers I require should be gathered dry and in the sunshine.   I live on the east coast of Lincolnshire where the weather has been far from summery and sunshiney.   Right now it is very cold, grey and breezy.   Darn it.
 


I was stuck at home, waiting for a parcel to be delivered so I decided to have a go at making a recipe which I had seen in a Dan Lepard book.    (Despite my definite preference for browsing around and playing about with the recipes from my old books, I do own quite a few modern ones.)

The recipe was for Flash Bread, or Bread in a Flash - something like that.  It can be found in Dan's book, Short and Sweet.     It took about 2 hours from start to finish and was very easy.

What I loved about it was that the recipe called for malt vinegar and grated potato...need I say more, you know how much I enjoy using vegetables in my baking.      I have a wide range of vinegars in the pantry but I used bog-standard malt vinegar.

The resulting loaf had a wonderfully crisp crust.    The bread itself was moist and delicious.  I can't say that it really tasted of potato and vinegar, for it didn't, although the flavour was excellent for such a quick loaf.

I had a good slice of it decently slathered in butter and it was really tasty.   It didn't taste of potato, nor did it smell of vinegar.  

However, my brain kept feeding me images of chip butties (years since I had one of those, perhaps it is time for another) so perhaps you wouldn't want to eat it with jam or lemon curd on top, but served with butter or cheese, or perhaps with soup, it really adds flavour in a subtle way.

I will be making it again, it was quick, easy and tasty.

4 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Hello Dom, It was delicious! I absolutely love fresh, crusty, bread. I bought that book after you told me about Dan's 'low-knead' method of bread-making - it is now well thumbed and much used. x

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  2. The one thing I would love to 'master' is a really good loaf of bread that can be relied on time after time.This one certain looks the part. No recipe?

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    Replies
    1. Hello Cro, Good bread is at the top of my favourite food list. The reason I didn't put the recipe down was because it is bad-form to write out in full a recipe which belongs to someone else. It is easily found on-line, though, and well worth tracking down if you ever wanted to give it a go. We are exceedingly busy right now as we count down to my son and his wife returning to their cottage. I found this little bread-making session very therapeutic.

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