River Cottage Bread Making - Sheer Pleasure

These were my very own finished products - I kid you not. Perfectly imperfect - two loaves and a handful of bread rolls.

I borrowed this book from the library: Bread: River Cottage Handbook No. 3

and couldn't wait to get started.
This photo shows my basic dough after kneading it for a good 10 - 15 minutes.

The book does go into ALL the details for making a really good basic loaf - it recommends perfecting that before moving on to the trickier options - does anyone outside of bakeries actually make ciabatta? Must take 72 hours if you do it properly. This was after about an hour of letting it rise - certainly looks bigger....but now you have to deflate it (knock it back). Feels so good though - breadmaking is a really sensual experience - dough just feels so soft, warm and elastic and you know you're going to eat it too. 

Welcome to Grazing Kate

This is Day One of my new venture that is going to be a space for my reviews of Devon and Cornish cafes and restaurants, recipes that I attempt and random creative endeavours.

I am a busy mother, based in Devon, England, who cooks, writes and eats her way through the day. I am very excited by this prospect of actually recording some of the far-from-perfect results. I'll upload plenty of pictures to keep you entertained.

Welcome, glad you are here to visit and I hope I provide a moment's entertainment, information and, dare I say it, inspiration....

Cornish Sea Salt - is a great product and was on TV two nights ago. An organic baker, Tom Herbert was on a (rather contrived) quest in search of an elusive new recipe for prize-winning bread. The programme was not as satisfying as anticipated. He went down to The Lizard in Cornwall where they harvest and package the sea salt. Apparently you can use less of the salt than normal salt as it is more pungent. I enjoyed seeing Cornish Sea Salt on his programme as I try to cook with it when funds allow. It's extra pungency obviously means they can charge more for it. The area where they harvest it is one of the most beautiful places in the world and we try to go there as often as possible.

However, the salt may be top notch but there was something not quite ringing true about old Mr Herbert's presentation style. It was almost as though the director was telling him to 'big' it up (a la Hugh or Gordon) and he could manage it for the first half of his sentence and then the true Tom took over and....it all...just faded away...and he looked slightly embarassed about his phony quest to find this bread recipe for a competition. And he didn't win the competition...secretly pleased about that.