Friday 23 December 2016

Yule 2016 + Origins of Father Christmas

I normally post on Sundays or Mondays, but since it's Christmas Day on Sunday this year, I decided to do a post today and then maybe write one about Christmas on Boxing Day (Monday).

It was Yule on Wednesday (21st December). I usually buy a chocolate Yule log although two years ago I made one. This year I bought one again, this time from Asda. I've had Sainsbury's most often but more recently it hasn't been as nice. Last year I had a Tesco one. Asda's was quite nice, it was Belgian chocolate. Here's a picture:





Sunday 4 December 2016

Quick Dinner Bread (+ Soup)

Last week I made 1 hour dinner bread. I've made bread a couple of times before in 2010, the first time it was a Bread Spell from the book Spells for the Witch in You by Marina Baker and the second time I used a recipe from a flour packet, lol. (I think we also made rolls at first school!). The first time it didn't rise but when I did it again the next day it worked. It was 31st July and I'm not sure if I had properly started celebrating Lammas then (2010 was the first time I celebrated Madron) but it was that time of year, so baking bread fit the season!

Bread making can be quite a difficult process to get the hang of but I  expect once you've done it a few times it's much easier. What I liked about the dinner bread was that it only takes about an hour to make. It's quicker because it doesn't have any yeast in it, one of the main ingredients is Greek yoghurt. I'd had the recipe on my Pinterest Recipes To Make board for 2 years, so I'm glad I finally got round to making it! lol. The recipe is from a trEAT's affair (formely Roxanna's Home Baking). Here's the link: http://atreatsaffair.com/1-hour-dinner-bread-recipe/

It's a good site; I also made her Christmas Vanilla roll cake for Christmas 2013.

I was pleased with the bread. I didn't have quite enough Greek yoghurt (I realised later that I'd got a smaller tub than the recipe said) so I wasn't sure how it would come out but it was nice. I used Clover instead of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! because that's the spread we have in my house. And I used white bread flour instead of wholewheat/wholemeal because that's the one I had in. So it came out slightly different to Roxana's. I also dind't use sesame seeds because I wasn't bothered about having them in it. It took me longer for the prepratation part because I don't have an electric mixer, so I did it by hand and I'm a slow mixer! lol. But the baking time was 50 mintues or just under.

Here's a picture: