Seeded Loaf - Bread Challenge No. 10

 Happy Easter!
Yes the day finally crept up on us and, after losing an hours slept last night due to the clocks moving forward an hour, it was a very tired me in The Old Red Lion kitchen today cooking roast dinners. 
I didnt receive any Easter eggs today unfortuntely but I did get to open my Secret Easter Bunny gift that I received in the post yesterday as part of an online craft forum swap that I entered. My gift was made by someone that I have actually been in awe of for the past couple of years and her gift to me was these seriously cute bunnies that she made herself. Ros has a fantastic blog which is full of tutorials, her makes and a little bit of gossip!

Back to bread making!! This week we have started to make plans for a new menu for the summer months. One idea I had was mushroom pate as a starter. In the week I made a sample but, although it tasted lovely it needed to be eaten with something textured. We had some slightly stale, seeded loaf from the shop so we used that to experiment on taste and it really worked well together, so yesterday I attempted my own seeded loaf.

It came out BEAUTIFUL!! You must try this one it's a lovely taste and today, a day later, still was very soft and fresh tasting.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

375g Strong White Bread Flour

125g Strong Brown Bread Flour

1 1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Light Brown Sugar

1 Tsp Fast Action Dried Yeast

1 1/2 Tbsp Sunflour Oil

2 Tsp Lemon Juice

300ml Lukewarm Water

1 Tsp Poppy Seeds

1 Tsp Sesame Seeds

For The Topping

1 Egg White

1 Tbsp Water

1 Tbsp Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds Mixed

Method:

Put the flours,sugar,salt, yeast and seeds into a bowl.Add the oil,lemon juice and water and mix together to form a dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead for 10minutes or until the dough is soft and pliable. Return to your bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour..

When risen, punch down the dough to release the gas and knead for a couple more minutes and press into a large loaf tin and leave to rise again.When risen, mix the egg white and water and brush the top of the dough with it then gently press in the pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Bake in the oven about 20-25 minutes at 200C until golden brown.

Homemade seeded Loaf

Doesn't this look good!

Homemade Seeded Loaf

The Malteser Tree

I'm rather proud of my youngest son.
He's one of those kids that excels in everything he does,and he DOES everything! Football,rugby,saxaphone, clarinet,golf,pool,snooker,fishing,scouts, to mention but a few.
 He also knows you have to work hard for things and since January has washed the plates and pots on a Saturday at Skylark Farm to earn his own money. Here he is on the right of the photo with one of my chefs.

Today he even came the other side of the kitchen as we were short staffed and i taught him the basics so he could help out.

So in the week when he asked me to help him make a malteser tree, similar to one my sister had made me at christmas,as a gift for his English teacher, who was leaving, i was happy to help.

We started with a terracotta pot and filled it with melted chocolate and put a stick in the middle topped with a polystyrene ball and left it to set.

We then poured some melted chocolate on the ball and stuck maltesers on it.

We carried on until the ball was covered.

We colured some fondant icing orange and green and made lots of flowers.

Which we stuck between the maltesers.

I tied some ribbon around the stick for decoration.

Made a gift tag.

And the end result, a gorgeous Malteser Tree.

His English teacher was extremely "touched" by the gesture and loved it.

I'm entering this post in this weeks Handmade Monday which can be found on Handmade Harbour blog organised by Wendy of 1st Unique Gifts.

 I'm off there now to see what other crafters have been up to this week.

 

Linked Also on Foodie Friday and Everything Else