Homebaked bread to nourish the stomach and soul

I’ve always hankered after the idea of making my own bread with the yearned for idea of that scrummy freshly baked bread smell wafting lovingly through the house. But after many failed attempts, where, although the aroma was there, my bread was as dense as a household brick, I gave up, feeling this was way beyond my meagre domestic talents.

But today all that changed! I can now make bread, thanks to a work colleague of Gray’s letting us in on the secret of the easiest bread recipe ever currently taking Switzerland by storm.

Well, actually, Gray first experienced this amazing process a couple of years ago on a Dad’s and Kids trip to Ticino. One of the dads whipped it up in a jiffy, with no kneading required. (However, it is a slow process, proving overnight, and then two hours for the second prove the next day - but effort wise it’s a sinch) It really is idiot-proof. Ha, although I guess I must mention that it did go a little wrong when Gray first made it because he didn’t use enough flour in the process and poured the final dough into a cold instead of a hot pan and it just stuck. But I’m pretty sure you won’t make the same mistake :) It really is a cracker, as recipes go.

Here’s the magic recipe:

130g Dunkelmehl

 300g Weissmehl

 350ml water

 1/4 tsp of yeast

 1 & 1/2 tsp salt

Simply mix the ingredients together into a damp dough and leave to stand overnight in a covered bowl.

The next day pour the dough out of the bowl onto a heavily floured surface and fold in the corners to make a round shape, turn it over in your (heavily floured) hands and place on a clean tea towel. Cover and let it rise for two hours. Then pour it into a heated cast iron pot.

Bake at 250C with lid for 30 minutes, then brown without lid for 10-15 minutes. And there you have it – a crunchy crust, airy crumb, and the simplest recipe in the world.

It doesn't look too promising at this stage, before the first prove but don't lose heart!

Looking much better now :)

Eh voila!

Classic reads from Winti's Give & Take shack

I love, love, love the Give/Take hut behind Manor and often drop stuff off and come out with a little gem in return. There is something quite intriguing about this little hut. You never know what you are going to find and you always have an interesting little conversation with someone else dropping stuff off at the same time. It’s the loveliest way to do a little something for someone else without much effort and my things always disappear fairly quickly. I’m hoping to get one established in our village sometime soon. We have had a few refugee families moving in recently and I think it would help them along a little too.

Anyway, back to Winterthur’s fab Give/Take hut. Yesterday I dropped off an inflatable Hello Kitty bed and came out with a couple of books in English – The Fourth Hand by John Irving and Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I have never read Woolf in my life and feel it is a gap in my reading experience that I need to fill so was chuffed to bits to see this sitting there.

And then – lo and behold – if Google pops up today with a Doodle celebrating the lady herself – and 136 years since she was born. Although she died in 1941 at the tender age of 59, she is still acknowledged as one of the greatest writers ever. How amazing is that?

I love reading as much as I love writing but life is so busy these days I struggle to squeeze it in. At best, I manage to creep away from the Gogglebox with hubbie in the evening and crawl into bed half an hour earlier to curl up with a good book. Again, one of my many new year’s resolutions is to read a little every day.

Happy reading!