Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Tasting the Stars and the Heavens


"If thou tastest a crust of bread thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.”


So wrote the 19th century poet Robert Browning. Who can resist the aroma of newly baked bread, and who indeed can bear to leave the loaf to cool before grabbing a sharp knife and hacking a still-warm crust off the end and smothering it in butter "just to test it” ?

Over at Written.inc, Carmi’s thematic photographic challenge this week is ‘Edible’ so it allowed me to segue neatly from my previous post, ‘Sifting Through the Memories’, which was about flour and baking, and to show off my twin loaves above. You might say I ‘rose to the occasion’!

It’s around the traditional Harvest Festival time too, and a loaf of bread often graces the centre of the harvest display in churches and schools throughout Britain, so in a way this is my harvest offering.

I used The Sunday Times Book of Real Bread, originally published in 1982 and full of wonderful recipes, by well-known cooks and celebrities, including the thriller writer Len Deighton. I can highly recommend it.

I was obviously very excited with the results and so pleased with myself that the loaves turned out well, that I and had to photograph them before the urge to try the first slice overcame me. I don’t have a breadmaker, but I do have a vintage Kenwood Chef with a dough hook - and of course, leaving the dough to rise in a warm place is no problem in the Lanzarote sunshine.

Why not pop over to Written.inc and see what other contributors are offering on the theme; there’s everything from cake to snails - no really!

I’m also linking to Weekend Cooking, Beth Fish’s great blog, where you are invited to post or link to anything vaguely foodie-related. Have a look; I’ve learned so much from some of the lovely bloggers on there.






23 comments:

  1. The Lurpak and knife are poised here, as is my neighbour's plum jam. If only I could reach in and grab some!

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  2. Wow, you made those! I keep trying to reach into my screen to grab one. Ouch.

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  3. I can still taste the fresh bread we would buy from the village bakery when I was a boy. With a loaf between three of us we sat in a tree and polished it off while it was still warm.
    Now I know where to come for warm bread in Lanzarote!

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  4. I make bread every week, enough for seven days. It's actually a recipe for focaccia, but it produces wonderful rolls.

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  5. Your loaves look absolutely beautiful. There's not much in this world that I love more than freshly baked bread =)

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  6. Nothing smells or tastes as good as fresh-baked bread!

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  7. Oh my did you know I can smell them all the way over here! Really....bread, pies, roasts and leeks baking in the oven are my most favorite baking scents ever! ...in that order too!

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  8. Oh, that looks so delicious! :)

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  9. Gorgeous! I could just imagine eating a crust smothered in butter.........

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  10. Excellent: eating that lovely bread with Lanzarotean goat's cheese and tomatoes in the sunshine, could only be improved by washing it down with a glass of Lanzarotean wine!

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  11. I love fresh homemade bread, preferably rolls speckled with an assortment of seeds, then lathered in butter and stuffed with ham and pease pudding. Yummy!

    When the kids were young (and I was younger!) I used to make bread rolls and chelsea buns every weekend, but now I've got lazy....

    Anna :o]

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  12. good one,hope that you will visit my blog

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  13. Nell, I can actually smell that delicious warm bread! Got lots of creamy butter and homemade jam for that? Yummy!

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  14. I often play "Desert Island Smells" and new baked bread is up there in the top three along with boiling tarmacadam and - of course - a working brewery.

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  15. Just a little slice with some butter and honey, it's all I would need...

    Beautiful loaves! I can just smell them!

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  16. I love to bake, and bread baking is at the top of my favorites list...
    Those loaves look wonderful. I am off to investigate the bread baking book you referenced as I don't believe I've ever seen that one. Thanks :)

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  17. What a beautiful photo... I do believe I can even smell it!

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  18. I have never made yeast bread..in fact I am a bit scared of yeast.
    those loves look perfect!

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  19. Bread is my weakness. I adore baking bread, by hand, by mixer, by machine . . . I don't care; I just love fresh homemade bread.

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  20. Your bread is beautiful, and I'll bet it tasted terrific! We've had a bread machine for a while now, and really like it. After decades of making my bread by hand, now my husband does it all in the amazing machine.

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  21. This is beyond spectacular. You have made me so hungry that I'm ready to jump through the screen to grab a bite :)

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  22. I can smell the picture...mmmmmmm :)

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  23. Looks beautiful! I could just imagine warm from the oven, butter melting, I'd love a nice thick slice of bread.

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