Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Wednesday 30 July 2008

Discovery of the day

Out of habit I take a quick look at the River Cottage forums before I have my breakfast. I usually just look at the 'Fruit and Vegetables' and 'Poultry' sections, but this morning I also had a quick scan through the 'Chat' forum and my eye was caught by one contributer's sign off line "Join me watching grass grow and nailing jelly to a tree" – and yes I clicked on the link and learnt from Atomic Shrimp how to nail jelly to a tree!

Atomic Shrimp may be an English eccentric but he's one who likes to bake – he's even made a cute little instructional film demonstrating just how easy it is to bake bread
. After watching it I realised I had all the right ingredients (even the exact same large jug with a plastic lid!) so I put Atomic Shrimp's challenge to the test.

Ta-daaaaah!!!!

Home baked plaited loaf and a garlic and herb focaccia. My slight variation was that I used organic 'light brown' flour (that's sort of in between white and wholemeal) produced by one of our local flour mills, Marriage's, who are also the suppliers of excellent layers pellets and mixed corn for our hens.

By the way, the bread tastes as good as it looks!

10 comments:

  1. Hey, thanks - and well done - your bread looks fantastic.

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  2. This is the slippery slope! We NEVER buy bread. I like a black olive and rosemary focaccia with a barbie - heavenly flavours.
    Your loaves are making me salivate!

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  3. I wake to the smell of fresh bread most mornings as we use a bread maker on a timer. They taste great but they all come out square and loaf like. A little boring.
    Your bread looks so yummy and so interesting.

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  4. Yum, they look fabulous. I could imagine munching through the plaited one with some home made veggie soup for lunch. YUM and thrice YUM!

    Nothing is quite as comforting as good bread, why is that?

    Zoë

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  5. Atomic Shrimp - your video instructions were just the encouragement we needed!

    Veg Heaven - Oh dear! I am thinking of making up some dough so it can bake while the oven's on this evening.

    Rhiannon - I've resisted getting a breadmaker for years - having seen two friends each pile on 2 stone because they can't resist all the home made bread (plus butter and jam and cheese!)

    Zoe - Hey! that's exactly what I've just had! We made a very hearty borlotti bean and vegetable soup (stew?) and I've just had the remains for lunch. Very sustaining.

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  6. Mmmmm! Homemade bread - it looks delicious and bet it smelt wonderful. I received my parcel thank you. The badges are great fun and your cards will be useful as ever (though I do struggle to part with them!)

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  7. I used to bake bread twice a week (also made ginger beer)when we were in the country.I sweetened with honey from our hives.And for communal parties and barbecues I always took 2 loaves which usually disappeared before the salads did!
    I will give this recipe a try as it cooks 180 deg C in half an hour. That's quick and low!

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  8. The bread does look lovely but really did no-one else wonder about the nailing jelly to a tree thing? Why would you? And if you are going to cheat and only add a little water then why bother at all? He might just as well have opened the packet and nailed the block straight to the tree!
    Pamela

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  9. Gina - the bread is all too tempting!!!

    Moreidlethoughts - I've made another batch of the bread and it's really really easy to do!

    Pamela – LOL!!! I think you'll have to raise this question with the Atomic Shrimp himself!!!


    Celia

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  10. I couldn't have passed by 'nailing jelly to a tree' either! Thanks for putting up those links, you've given me my first smile of the day.

    As for the bread... it looks heavenly.

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