Sewing, stitching, baking, cooking, gardening, shopping and general homemaking.

Saturday 24 October 2009

Tea Time


I wanted to make some black bread after seeing it on Master Chef the other evening.  After surfing the web I came across a recipe that I thought I could manage.  It contained fennel seeds, caraway seeds, cocoa, coffee granules, rye flour, bread flour, syrup, dark brown sugar as well as the usual water, butter and yeast.  I expected it to taste sweet and of chocolate but it didn't.  It was very light and fluffy though not as black as I wanted it to be, more dark brown.  The toppings I used were dressed crab and tomato for one lot and cream cheese, chopped cornichons and prawns for the other.  The bread didn't overpower the toppings at all.


I only make bread in my bread machine, I'm not fit enough to do it by hand - it's hard work isn't it!!!  My kitchen has quite a few gadgets, the one that I found the most disappointing was the juicer.  The one I couldn't do without is my food processor, I bought my first one about thirty years ago.  Just recently I got rid of my Moulinex electric hand mixer, I'd had it forty years so it had seen good service.  Another gadget I've had for a long time is my electric carving knife, it's great for cutting bread as well as meat.


Another thing I find very useful in the kitchen are the Teflon baking sheets, they last for years and nothing ever sticks to them.  For my baking I buy the ready cut greaseproof paper circles for the bottom of my sandwich cake tins and the cake and loaf baking tin liners, it saves energy not having to cut them out like I used to.  I've also got a multi-size foldable cake pan, the sides slot together and you can make from a huge cake to a very small one.  Recently I've been using measuring cups instead of weighing, this is because of the recipes from the USA that are on the internet.  I have bought myself some decent digital weighing scales though, they weigh starting at one gramme.  I'd love to hear what anyone else has in their kitchen and what their favourites are and what was a total waste of money like my juicer.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish I was your neighbour Ann - I'd learn to sniff out the signs of baking day and find some reason to pop by at just the right time ;o).
I like fresh black bread in Germany but the packets in the supermarket here are a poor likeness and somewhat bitter in taste. I'm glad yours turned out well.
My favourite kitchen item is my german egg boiler. Perfect eggs every time with no need to stand by with a stop watch because it buzzes really loudly when it's ready (works by steaming the eggs).
The biggest waste of money (my brother's money thankfully not mine) was his purchase of an electronic orange juicer! It was a fiddle to clean and a hassle to get out for the occasional juicing so it went to the charity shop and I went back to my good old hand held citrus press.

Melissa Price said...

I find myself wishing I were at your kitchen table! Everything looks delicous, Ann. I'm glad your bread turned out well.

My favorite kitchen gadget would have to be my KitchenAid mixer. It will kneed bread, whip cream into butter, and is great for general hands-free mixing. Plus it has mutliple attachments for grinding grains or meats, making pasta, juicing, and pretty much anything else you can think of! It's been a real timesaver for me.

God's Peace,
Melissa

Berit said...

I completely love tea--both the drink and the meal (thought I haven't had many opportunities to "eat" a tea).

As for kitchen gadgets, I don't have many. Recently, I bought a little toothed pincer to take the greens off of strawberries--it also works famously on tomatoes, and I now get two more slices out of each--yay!

I made a blog today about WIPs that has photos with the floss tag you made in them--come by 'n see. :)

Peggy said...

Hi Ann, It looks a very posh afternoon tea! Also very pretty and inviting.I was intriqued by your multi sided cake tin it sounds a great buy! I never seem to have the right size tin for a recipe.I had a Kenwood for years but it recently packed up on me and I bought a simple hand held mixer again which I find extremely usefull as it can be used in any size bowl and there is alot less parts to clean up afterwards.