Protein bread - easy, tasty, fast

I'm looking forward to the weekend and Mr Happy Larder being back from his trip.  The weather is forecast to be pretty shocking, so we might just have to curl up in front of the fire - love that thought!  I will also probably go for a little run - training is going well, even if it is hard most of the time.  Still, there is nothing quite like feeling your body (and your head) achieve something you didn't think it could.   The other great thing about exercising is that you can eat great food and quite a lot of it :-)

Protein bread

One of the recipes I found recently is one for a protein bread - it's fairly similar to soda bread in that it contains yogurt (or quark) but its texture is much lighter and it is packed with healthy seeds - yum! It's yeastfree, so doesn't need any rising time - ideal if you ate in a rush but want homemade bread.  I hope you like this one!

Bread rolls

Not so much a recipe today as an idea of how to shape some lovely dinner rolls out of pretty much any bread dough (I used my fluffy white sandwich loaf recipe - see here).

Simply roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a round (resembling a large pizza base) - it should be roughly half a centimeter in thickness.  Then, using a knife or ideally a pizza wheel cut the round into what would look like 12 equal pizza slices/triangles.

Roll each of the pieces up, starting from the widest end and you will get these little "croissant" shapes.  Bake in a hot oven for about 10 minutes or until golden.

Aren't they cute? They'd look lovely in a bread basket when you have guests and go ever so well with soup, pate...you name it.  A nice change from just the usual round dinner rolls.

Cheesy herb bread - no need for kneading

I spent some time at the weekend looking for new recipes to try.  It's one of my favourite things to do and this time I got so excited about a bread recipe I found that not only did I have to make some straightaway but I was also back in the kitchen at 6:30am this morning to try another variation.  The result, a cheesy herb bread, will go perfectly with soup and is also great for sharing with family and friends.  The secret ingredient in this is beer!  Yes - I couldn't believe it either but it does work very well and doesn't taste the slightest bit beer-y (although I must say I found it a bit difficult to smell beer that early in the morning...brrrr).

How to make cheesy herb bread

The original recipe was for a cheesy garlic version of the bread which I baked in a loaf tin - even quicker to make and slightly less messy (given that the dough is rather sticky).  It made for a delicious toasted sandwich for my lunch today - filled with pesto, slices of chicken breast, lettuce and tomato.  Yum!  I guess that's my lunches sorted for this week, although I will be putting some of both breads into the freezer.

Fluffy white sandwich bread

Isn't it great when your dog manages to completely embarrass you? :-)  Keith the dog decided to interrupt someone's personal training session in the park this morning by running off with some of the equipment they were using.  Luckily, I got it back relatively quickly but not without having everyone concerned in stitches with laughter.  Thanks Keith :-)

Soft white bread

Now, back to the recipe I promised to share for a fluffy white sandwich loaf.  It's probably my best attempt at making this type of bread so far.  I used a technique I hadn't heard of before but came across in my search for the ultimate white bread.  The unusual ingredient or technique is called "tangzhong" and is used in Japanese milk bread recipes.

Basically, it's a mix of water (and/or milk) and flour which gets heated to a custard-like consistency (like a roux but more liquid), then cooled and added to the bread dough.  I am not 100% sure why it works so well but it is helping to keep the dough moist and results in a fabulous texture.  I have since made a wholemeal version of this and it worked equally well, although it was slightly denser (but not much).  You could easily make this into soft rolls for burgers or a sweet cinnamon or raisin bread.  Yummy!

Sweet bread

I have to have a little rant today about sugar in unexpected places.  Well, what happened is that we fancied some soft brown rolls for our lunch at the weekend and as we were out doing our food shopping, we picked up a packet of wholemeal rolls.  Lunch was to be a roll filled with lovely ham from our deli with a bit of lettuce, a smear of mayo and lots of sugar. What?  No, the latter hadn't been the plan but you wouldn't believe just how sweet those bread rolls were.  When I looked at the list of ingredients, sugar was listed in third place, even before yeast and salt.  There is absolutely no need to add sugar to bread and especially not that much.  Needless to say that we didn't really enjoy our lunch that much :-(  What makes me really mad is that a lot of this stuff is labelled as healthy food - even those rolls had a big sticker on the packaging declaring the wonderful amount of fibre they contained.  I am sure they have a lot of fibre from the wholemeal flour but what about all that sugar? 

Next time you buy ready-made stuff from your supermarket or shop, have a look at the ingredients and you'd be surprised what items have been sweetened: soup, bread, so-called low-fat cereals and "healthy" yogurts.  Before you know it, you will have eaten several teaspoons of sugar without even realising you've done it.  Don't get me wrong, I love to have a sweet treat now and again and you will find plenty of cake recipes on my blog.  But the thing is that I'd like to decide myself when I have something sweet.

Anyway, rant over!  Guess I will just have to try to make even more stuff from scratch and where I don't or can't, I need to read the labels even more carefully.

The positive result of all of this is that I have since discovered a wonderful recipe for a fluffy sandwich bread that will satisfy when we crave soft bread - minus the sugar.  I will share the recipe for that tomorrow, so watch this space...here's a picture to get you drooling :-)

Soft white sandwich bread

To health with wholemeal bread

It's been a strange few days.  My visit to Germany was lovely but also tinged with sadness as my sister's father-in-law had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, aged 70.  The day after my return he passed away, four short weeks after his initial diagnosis.  A difficult time for the immediate family and everyone who knew him.
For me, it has brought into focus (yet again) just how precious our health is and how we should do everything to protect ourselves from illness. 

It's a bit difficult to find a cheerful link to a recipe but I guess today's recipe is all about health, so that's positive.  I have been looking for a good recipe for wholemeal bread and tried a few - by combining the bits I like most from all the different recipes, I have now come up with one that is not only easy but also super-tasty and good for you.  The most surprising ingredient I found in one of the recipes was half a vitamin C tablet - apparently, it lightens wholemeal bread's texture...I tried it and it does seem to work!

This bread doesn't contain any sugar or other sweetener and yet rises fine by just using the natural sugars (starch) in the flour - another plus for our health.

I hope you enjoy this one!

Easy-peasy pitta (pita) bread

Pitta pockets

I've not done that much baking lately but put that right over the weekend when I made pitta breads for the first time. 

These little pockets are a lovely alternative to sandwiches, especially when stuffed with all sorts of things - salad, hummus, chicken,...the list is endless.  The version I tried didn't contain any yeast and was therefore a lot quicker to prepare.  I opted for wholemeal flour and am really pleased how these came out :-) 

I turned mine into a yummy lunch with red pepper hummus and a vegetarian chickpea burger - delicious!  I will post the recipes for both soon.  For now, I can highly recommend giving these a try!

Biscuits, gravy...what???

If you are a sports fan and British (or nearly British after having lived in this country most of your adult life as in my case), yesterday was a fantastic day: Britain's Andy Murray won the Wimbledon tennis championships (the first British male in 77 years) and for just a brief moment, nothing else mattered. Yes, there are more important things in life but it was just so lovely to see someone achieve their dream - heartwarming stuff :-)

Talking of heartwarming stuff, there are some dishes that are just so comforting and satisfying, they deserve a special mention.  For me a great example of this is biscuits and gravy which I tried for the first time during our recent trip to the US.  Now, I was a little confused as biscuits here are what I guess other countries would call "cookies", so having those with gravy was not exactly on the top of my breakfast wishlist.  Once I realised though that biscuits are what we call scones and the gravy a type of savoury white sauce, it made more sense.  I tried it, loved it and promised to recreate it at home.  So that's what I did this weekend and we were very happy with the result :-)  I "slimmed down" the recipe a little by omitting the bacon fat. 

A great dish for brunch/lunch or a small evening meal - filling and satisfying and whilst I am sure there are hundreds of variations and handed down recipes for this around, I hope that this version is acceptable :-)

"Out with the old"...or "A new tortilla wrap recipe"

Isn't it funny how we sometimes hold on to a recipe because we have always used that particular one?  A while ago I found a recipe for tortilla wraps and have made these a few times since.  Given that the recipe was from my treasured River Cottage Bread book, I didn't think I could find a better one.  These are good and quick - what's not to like?

Fast forward to today and I have to say that I think I have unearthed the ultimate tortilla recipe for lovely soft wraps which are no doubt going to be my new favourite (sorry, River Cottage).  I love the soft texture which makes wrapping them so much easier. 

On this occasion I used wholemeal flour and filled the wrap with leftovers from yesterday's salad - delicious!  My dough-rolling skills were obviously not quite up to scratch today, resulting in the wonky shape you see in the picture but hey, it's homemade :-) 

I hope you'll give these a try - so simple and yet so satisfying.  And if you make a couple of batches, you can always freeze them for later use.

Little treasures

Keith the dog has been keeping us up in the night - first he thought it was really important to bark at the scaffolding outside the house...at 3:45am (!) and the following night he let us sleep in until 4:45am before alerting us the the "terrible threat" of a badger by the back door.  Several jugs of coffee later and I slowly resembled more than a mere shell of a person.  Bless him - he was only trying to be a good watchdog.  Needless to say that he went on to have a snooze, just like when he was a small puppy.

Despite the lack of sleep I am pleased to say that I have finally got the search function on the blog to work - now, the "Search for Inspiration" button on the right-hand side will make it so much easier to find dishes and good food ideas.

The recipe I tried out yesterday was one I found in a handwritten cookbook which must be a good few decades old.  What a treasure! This date & walnut loaf is so easy, you can make it in your sleep - which is probably just as well - see above :-).  The result is what I call an old-fashioned, simple cake/bread that isn't too sweet.

You could amend the recipe by adding raisins, other dried fruit or chocolate chips but I must say I like the original version and enjoyed a couple of slices for my breakfast.

Have a lovely weekend!

The staff of life

A batch of muffins cooling down

Bread has to be one of the most satisfying things to make and eat.  In my view, there are not a lot of things that beat freshly baked bread with butter.  And there are just so many types to choose from!  When I first arrived in the UK, I came across some breads that I had never heard of before - one of these was the good old English muffin.  I thought it was a cake but little did I know - had Wikipedia existed then (gosh, I am showing my age) I would have found that "a muffin or English muffin is a small, round, flat (or thin) type of yeast-leavened bread which is commonly served split horizontally, toasted, and buttered.".

So, there you have it - little breads made for toasting. Topped with butter, cheese, poached eggs or even jam they are hard to resist. And if you are partial to a bacon sandwich, look no further - these make the best bacon butties ever!

I had never made these muffins before and was surprised to learn that they are actually baked in a pan on top of the stove.  The dough is a yeast one which needs to rise and the cooking/baking method is really quick and simple.  I took the recipe from the River Cottage Bread Handbook and was very pleased with the result.  The dough yielded 12 muffins rather than the 9 stated in the book but you won't see me complaining :-)  A batch has already gone into the freezer - each muffin cut in half, so that we can just toast them from frozen when we feel like having "fresh" muffins for breakfast.  And in the meantime, I have enjoyed one with cottage cheese and homemade strawberry jam.  These will definitely become a firm favourite in the Happy Larder household!

On a roll...

When Mr Happy Larder and I first got married, we fulfilled one of our dreams and went to Africa on honeymoon.  We did a safari in a less touristy part of Tanzania and stayed on the beautiful spice island of Zanzibar.  We saw nature at its most beautiful, made fabulous friends and ate stunning food.  It still amazes me how the cooks in camp were able to create the delicious food we ate with hardly any equipment to speak of..  When bread is baked in a hole in the ground, you know you are somewhere quite remote :-)  One of the things we had for breakfast were the most incredible cinnamon rolls we have ever eaten.  In fact, on arrival at the camp the handful of other guests did not mention the wildlife first but these cinnamon rolls - that's saying something.

Well, cut a long story short - ever since that trip I have been trying to find a recipe for something resembling these rolls at least in taste.  EUREKA!  Yesterday, feeling better, I went up and down the internet and stumbled across a recipe that looked straightforward enough to give it a go.  What can I say?  Not only did I make a small batch (I usually make half the quantity when I first try out a new recipe), we loved this so much that I had to make another batch straight after :-)  If you have enjoyed the cinnamon rock cakes recipe, then you will love these (Pigsmightfly, this should go down a treat in your household)!
I amended the recipe slightly and I hope you like what I have done with it.  It just uses slightly less fat and sugar and I left out the cream cheese icing, drizzling mine just lightly with a mix of icing sugar & lemon juice (totally optional - the second batch was made completely without and that was just as nice).  These freeze really well as well - perfect for a little treat later in the week.

I reckon these will also work really well as savory rolls - maybe filled with pesto instead of the butter/sugar/cinnamon mix... mhm, might have to give that a go...

Have a good start to your week!

Almost Easter...and another give-away

Hot Cross Buns...

We have just finished our dinner (fish pie - yummy!), the dog is asleep and I can finally get round to writing my blog post.  It's been a busy day - with Easter fast approaching, I am getting a few things ready for our visitors.  I am hoping the sun will come out, so we can go for walks etc - an Easter egg hunt outside might be pushing it a bit.


I have baked a batch of hot cross buns (they are a traditional Easter bread here) - I have popped these in the freezer...they will taste freshly made once defrosted and toasted.  They will be fab for our Easter breakfast :-)

Karl...

I have also made some of the decorations for our Easter cake. This is the first one, made out of marzipan (the little carrot is shop-bought & made out of chocolate).  I have named the little fellow Karl but now I am not sure I will be able to eat him.

Note to self:  never name your cake decorations if you are planning on eating them! :-)

Before I forget, I am planning another give-away to take place on Monday, 1st April (no April fools joke!).  So, if you missed out last time, please remember to visit the blog next week Monday, leave a comment on the day and I will draw the winner from all entries.  The prize is a great one which I hope you will enjoy...more details soon!

Have a great start to your week!

Of flat breads and not so flat running...

Oops - I'm a bit late today!  After walking the dog for a long time this morning, I put on my running shoes and actually went for a run.  It was freezing cold down by the sea with the icy wind bashing around my ears.  And on the way back I had to run up two long and steep hills, just to finish me off. I loved it! :-). I used to run quite regularly (never fast or particularly well) and enjoy it, so I'll try and get into that habit again, now the winter is over (haha - so much for it being over - the temperatures are around freezing and we are still getting the odd snowflake).

Anyway, on to today's recipe!

I love eating wraps - add a delicious filling and make a great lunch or turn into a Mexican meal for dinner...simply yummy!  I usually buy a packet of wraps from the supermarket - the cheapest ones cost around £1.20 for a packet of 8 wraps.  But I wanted to make my own.  My River Cottage Bread Handbook has a recipe for tortillas and I thought I'd give it a go.  OMG - it is so easy!!!!  I actually feel embarrassed to think that I have been buying the packaged stuff for so long when making these little beauties is just so easy.  And not only that - making your own is far cheaper, contains no preservatives or additives and is super-tasty as well.  And no plastic rubbish either!  Just think:  a 1kg bag of organic white flour costs roughly £1.30 here and would be enough to make 32 (!!!) tortilla breads.  All you need is to add some water and salt.  So, for almost the same amount of money you can make four times as many wraps!  I was really shocked when I realised this.  And it doesn't take long at all either.  I'm not saying I'll never buy the supermarket ones again (after all, life sometimes gets in the way & then we need convenience) but I think I will definitely try and make these from scratch as often as I can.  I hope you'll give these a go - they are fabulous!

And the winner is...

Ta-dah!  It's Monday morning and as promised, I have drawn the winner of the Fragrant Freebie giveaway under the watchful eyes of Mr Happy Larder and Keith the dog. So, without further ado, the winner is: JANE!  Congratulations!  Your name came out of the hat - Keith was very excited about all the little bits of paper and wanted to help, so he ate the winning ticket as soon as I had taken it out :-) Could you please email me with your details (my address is in my profile), so I can send your prize to you as soon as possible.
 
Thank you to everyone for taking part and a big thank you also to Sue at Somerset Suds for providing the goodies!  There will be more giveaways coming up soon, so watch this space!!!

And after all that excitement, here is today's recipe...

Roti..busy puffing up...

I'll let you into a secret: I love eating with my hands! I don't get to do it very often but it is strangely liberating when I do.  We went on a camping safari in Africa last year and standing around the fire, grilling tortilla bread and sausages for breakfast is one of my fondest food memories. So simple, so basic, so delicious!  But whilst you might not want to throw away your cutlery just yet, how about making some bread to help scoop up that curry, stew,...?  Meet roti, the little flatbreads popular in India and Nepal and for good reason: these are so easy and quick to make, it's unbelievable!  I made some to have with our chicken curry last night and they were delicious!  So, next time you cannot be bothered to cook rice, have a go at making these and be prepared to be amazed.

Of muddy paws and comfort food...or Shortcut to Supper - Part II

No comment!

It's the weekend!  There will be a few chores to catch up on but we'll also make time for some fun stuff like taking Keith the dog out for a long walk...preferably on the beach, since the park is still very muddy and he loves doing his "wallowing hippo" impression a little too much for our liking...

Burger Baguettes...

So, once we've cleaned the sand off the dog and done all the other bits and pieces around the house, we will probably fancy something quick and comforting for dinner.  Now, you know I am all about easy food most of the time and it strikes me that this could be a time for burger baguettes.  Another family-friendly favourite, I know these from living in Germany but haven't come across them anywhere else since.  You may already know these and are an old hand at preparing these but if not, then I urge you to try...they are fast and quite yummy indeed.

I hope you have something fun planned for your weekend!

Of frogs and flowers in February...

It's February already, can you believe it?  In the park, the Spring flowers are appearing and in our little garden pond the frogs have made their annual return.  They always turn up almost on the same date every year and I wonder how they do that.  Isn't nature just amazing?

It's still a little chilly outside and whilst my mind is shouting "Spring!", my body still wants warmth and comfort, so I guess it'll be soup for lunch today.  But that probably won't be quite enough, so we will have some bread with it and the following will go amazingly well with the hot soup: soda bread.
  

I love how quickly this can be thrown together and whilst I love sourdough (see my previous post here) and other yeast breads, this little loaf of loveliness is simply ideal when you don't have a lot of time but want to make your own bread.  And if you have a tub of plain yoghurt lurking in the fridge that's approaching its use by date, then these couple of recipes for soda bread should come in handy.  Also very useful: it can easily be frozen in slices to use up another day but it's so tasty, I am not sure there will be any left after a couple of days anyway :-)

Happy Friday!

The simple stuff

I woke up early this morning, made a big mug of tea and just sat here, cuddling Keith the dog.  It was quiet and peaceful and it made me think about how lucky I am.  A little over a year ago we made a few choices about the direction we wanted our lives to go in and that meant me quitting my job, us moving to Wales and my husband being the sole breadwinner.  We were lucky that we had that option available to us and we are grateful every day.  We can now enjoy a simpler and happier life.

Pretzels....

Moving on swiftly to my favourite thing: food - what could be a more simple and yet delicious than fresh bread with butter?  And if you have never made your own bread, maybe this next recipe is something fun to try: pretzels!

In Germany (where I am originally from) these are sold pretty much anywhere and are known as "Laugenbrezel", referring to the fact that the pretzels are dipped in lye (yep - much the same as drain cleaning lye but luckily of food grade).  Now, I don't know about you but I am not too confident using lye in the kitchen, so I've been looking for an alternative and have finally found one: my old friend bicarbonate of soda.

Similar to bagels, pretzels are briefly poached in hot water prior to baking and in this case, the water contains bicarb.  It gives the finished article a lovely brown shine and whilst the pretzels come out a bit softer than the lye variety, they are absolutely delicious, especially served slightly warm with butter.  You could make smaller ones for a picnic, filled with ham & cheese, salami, just cheese & lettuce or anything else you might fancy.   It's the first time I made these and - although my pretzel-forming skills need fine-tuning - this was definitely not the last time.

Bread out of thin air

Every now and again you come across something in the kitchen that truly amazes you.  In my case, this was sourdough bread!  I never knew anything about the process involved in making this type of bread but was astonished when I found out because all you need is flour, salt, water and air (well, and some heat to bake the bread) - that's it!  The magic is done by the yeast spores found everywhere around you.  It doesn't matter how clean your house is or where you are, it's a simple fact of life that you are surrounded by those little spores that you won't necessarily notice but that come in handy when you want to make your own bread.  The process might seem a little involved at first but it really does take less time than you think and once you have established the starter, it'll be the gift that keeps on giving...

You'll end up going from this...

Sourdough starter

Sourdough bread

to something resembling this...  Amazing, isn't it?  Bread out of thin air...

What to do on a rainy day...

Well, what not to do is take the dog out before 8am and get absolutely soaked!  You know that the weather is bad when not even your 9 month old puppy is keen to go out!

Old bananas = banana bread...ta dah!

Instead, a much better thing to do is to use up the squishy old bananas that have been lurking in the fruit bowl to make banana bread...mhhhhm! I can see a slice of this with a hot mug of tea in my near future...The funny thing about this weather is that instead of wanting summer foods like salads, I am now craving casseroles and looking forward to making Christmas cake...that is just wrong in July, isn't it?