COOKBOOKS GALORE

In keeping with last week's GBBO 'Bread' theme, I decided to make a loaf ; I didn't want a traditional bread loaf, so decided to make this chocolate and pecan one, which I'd made ages ago on a bread-making course. It's not difficult to make - after the dough has risen its rolled out into a square, sprinkled with chocolate, nuts and sugar then rolled up like a Swiss roll. You need a big loaf tin, 1.8l  twice the size of a normal one [or you could divide the dough, chocolate and nuts in two before you roll it into the square and then use 2 x 900g tins.] Preheat oven 200C/gas6        Grease a 1.8l loaf tin or 2 x 900g tins In a big bowl put 500g of strong white bread flour and 3 tbspn butter and rub in till it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in 1/2 tspn salt, 50g caster sugar and 11/2 tspns fast action yeast. Add 2 beaten eggs and gradually add 175ml of warm milk to make a soft dough ball. Lightly flour a surface or board and knead the dough well  till i...

Hello and welcome to my blog. I'm a keen cook who loves baking and who has way too many cookery books! Don't we all? I started this blog to encourage myself to cook at least one recipe from all these books, so hope you'll enjoy sharing some of these recipes with me. Thought I'd start with one of my favourite recipes - a bit of a cheat as I've done it many times before. It's from our lovely Delia's site and is her easy wholemeal bread. The reason I love this recipe is that there is no kneading - which is a chore. Mind you, when I was teaching, I used to take all my frustrations out on the bread dough while kneading, instead of on the little dears at school! The resulting bread was very good too! This recipes makes 1 large [as above] or 2 small loaves. 570g wholemeal flour 400ml handhot water 2 teaspoons salt [I use fine sea salt] 1 teaspoon soft brown sugar 2 teaspoons easy- blend dried yeast [1 packet] Put your flour into a bowl,...