Today I baked some bread. For some reason it cheers me up and helps me put everything into perspective. Now I feel better I'm going to take the dog for his walk and I shall laugh at his antics.
I think I need a list of cheerful things to do this week. Anyone got any ideas of things that make the day go well?
xx
Hi Annie,
You've started well...so may it continue..lovely bread..I hope the sun shines..love x G x 
I'm sorry if this sounds sickeningly 'country living'; but I have discovered sourdough bread making. It takes longer; but eliminates the need for sugar to activate the yeast (it uses the natural sugars in the grain), and has a much more complex taste. I also now use spelt flour as it is much better from a glycaemic index point of view, and doesn't contribute to weight gain as disastrously. There is also lots to suggest that sourdough is brilliant for your immune system. An interesting book by Sandor Katz on the subject.
Raw chocolate's my latest discovery - all good ingredients.
Enjoy your day!
Isadora.
Isadora - that's such good advice. Everyone needs a bread buddy. I'm just a beginner at the moment but I've got a recipe for sourdough bread and want to try it out once I've mastered the basic yeast recipe. You've set me on a mission now - to start my own leaven. It looks rather complicated so I might get back to you for advice. I'll also try the spelt flour as I have friends who have coeliac disease and they tell me shop-bought spelt bread is like cardboard.
Where do you buy raw chocolate and in what form does it come? I tried out a Brazilian recipe years back which used chocolate in a beef casserole. I used Green and Black's 80% Cocoa. Call me a luddite but I thought it was a bit of a waste of decent chocolate. What do you do with yours?
Happiness in Baking xxx Annie
Hi Ally - I haven't tried much in the way of confectionary and cakes. The bread adventure is something new as well. You just don't have the time working full-time. I'm making myself a list of things to try to see what I like best to raise the spirits. We should compare notes and swap ideas. xx
I love bread-making. I always feel as if it puts me in touch with countless women down the generations. I use my grannie's recipe and my great garnnie's wooden spoon. Trouble is, I always make a few little rolls as well as a loaf and we sample them when still hot, with too much butter. Mmmmmm, I'm salivating! 
Long live baking!
You absolutely put your finger on it Wendy. It did feel very grounding and thought-provoking. There are so many spiritual links to bread with the advice in the Sermon on the Mount and it's links to christianity - not that I'm a particularly religious person. I used to wonder as a child why 'Give us this day our daily bread' was included in the Lord's Prayer. I guess it's a basic need - and making my loaves made me think of all the people in the world who don't have bread and how lucky we are even though we have this dratted disease and times can be tough for us. mmmm your description of buttery rolls is making me hungry!!
Hi Annie, I love baking too, bread. cakes, biscuits you name it. I did train as a chef so I just love cooking full stop. Dont have much opportunity to use my cookery skills as all the chicks have flown the nest but I do get volunteered a lot for cake baking for charity events and such like. My forte at the moment are muffins, stood and baked 84 of the little blighters for a 'Race for Life' event at my daughters workplace, then got volunteered to man the stand, lasted a few hours and had a good day. Keep up the bread baking its the most satisfying chore in this world and gets rid of any bad feelings too if you want Ann xx
Dear Ann, a lady after my own heart. I've often wished I'd pursued a career in the food industry. Food and nutrition has interested me since early childhood experiences helping my Mum in the kitchen. It was very strange last year to loose my appetite. In fact it was the only symptom I had and I felt a bit stupid going to my GP to say I had a problem because for the first time in my life I wasn't hungry. Good for him, he picked up on that straight away.
I think my baking frenzy is a celebration of feeling well again. It's good to think of you all in your kitchens making delicious bread, cakes and wholesome food.
Enjoy! xx Annie
Hi Annie
Your bread looks delicious and very professional! Cooking is so therapeutic and I have just started to have the energy to do it after finishing chemo. Good spelt bread is delicious - good luck with it.
Moniquex
Hi Monique, Isadora also mentioned baking with Spelt. I'm going to give it a go. I haven't really had much experience of baking bread before but my new retirement gives me time to indulge a love of cooking and an opportunity to try new things. I was given the Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall Bread book and followed his recipe for basic bread and loved the look of the round loaves covered with rye flour and slashes as decoration.
I'm really glad you're feeling more energetic and you can enjoy cooking again. I'll think of all you ladies next time I bake bread. xx Annie
HI all we should have a recipe board . A monthly bake off . I have volunteered to do lots baking for a fundraising for the school 6th year prom . Daughter is head prom commitee along with all the other things she is volunteering for
Ally
Dear Ally, What a fab idea! A Recipe Board and Monthly Bake Off and we could share our various cooking experiences. What a super idea to have a board where we can post our favourite recipes for different occasions. When I lost my appetite last year having chemotherapy the only food I really enjoyed was from my Ken Hom recipe book. I found a few recipes that were quick to make so even though I was tired I managed to cook and enjoy them. Some of you have experience of bulk baking for fundraising. It would be good to share those recipes too.
I feel another blog coming on - even if only to signpost where to find these delicious wholesome recipes.
xxx Annie
I can only make bread via a breadmaker- I have tried so so many times and just come out with a sodden brick that even the birds wont eat. I reckon I have made enough breeze blocks to start an extention on the house as well as a garage and outhouse!
I just stick to chutneys, pickles, sauces and soups, all made from foraged or home grown produce- I am toying with the idea of going on a breadmaking course tho.......
sue
After reading the blogs from you energetic ladies on bread making hands on I thought does anyone like me who is also a Coeliac make it the easy way by using a bread machine?Then I read Ladygooner's blog and felt better. The thing I like about making bread with hands or machine is the aroma that fills the kitchen mmm.......Love Wxx: :-D
Hello again, Winner,
It's a bit late to reply but I somehow missed this question earlier. I had been making my GF bread very sucessfully in a Panasonic machine for years, or by hand, using Juvela or Glutafin GF flour mix - then my Health Trust changed it's prescribing rules a year or so back and will no longer allow us in this area to have those makes. They will only permit three odd makes (Then one dropped out) made of very different materials with the result that I can no longer make bread, just sour-smelling very white, un-risen bricks. Neither may we have fresh bread - only the vacuum-packed loaves that are really doughy and go mildew before I get through a (small) loaf . I treat myself to a Genius or Warburton loaf, if I find one, sometimes, but almost £3 for a very small loaf is a bit much, isn't it?!! I also love to have a fruit loaf, too, but again - £3 for a small loaf .... Still, I suppose you wouldn't be allowed a fruit one, would you with your extra diet to cope with? It's made me feel very lucky, thinking of you.
There - I've got that moan out of my system. Sorry!!
Love from Solange
Dear Solange,
I am really sorry that you have been deprived of your flour mix and fresh bread. Juvela is the one I like and have the combination of rolls and sliced bread. Yes you are right about the fruit loaf.
So far I am allowed the bread but who knows how long........
Love Wxx
Hi Sue, I know what you mean about brick bread. Had to laugh at the idea of you baking up breeze blocks! I've had plenty of kitchen disasters in my time. I'd really like to learn how to make chutneys and think your idea of foraging is brillliant. If you know of a good book to get me started on my foraging, chutneys and pickles I'd really love to have the title.
I had mostly made bread with a machine and my daughter recently gave me the Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall Bread Book. It seemed quite a faff to start with but as I had time to spare I followed it step-by-step and the bread came out perfectly - and without that hole in the bottom you get with a bread machine.
We're going on a cookery course. I'm getting a new kitchen - builders in right now - and we're going to learn how to use the new ovens. I'm really looking forward to the day as you get the lesson from a proper chef and before the end of the session everyone sits down to eat what's been prepared.
What with all the expertise on this site I think you ladies should be doing cookery demonstrations yourselves.
xx Annie
Hi Annie
now you've got me started on my fave subject!
Richard mabey wrote a book in 1973 called' food for free' which is still the best one, but river cottage do a good book called 'hedgerow' . As for chutneys etc, try val and John Harrison - easy jams, chutneys and preserves, or the lovely Pam (the jam) corbin- another river cottage , called 'preserves' - the runner bean pickle is the best way of using them up that I know of! Very good sloe gin recipe as well.......
Happy reading!
Sue x
Thanks for all the tips. You've really whetted my appetite for foraging. I've also found a phone app called Foraging. It has handy photos and explanations as well as a guide to the seasons when the food can be harvested. It'll be a handy reference as I generally have it with me all the time. This all adds a new dimension to walking the dog! xx
Thanks so much for the recommendations. Now I remember the Food for Free book we all bought in the '60s but most of us probably never followed up the excellent advice. I'm so impressed with the River Cottage books I have so far - Meat, Fish, and the Bread book, that I'll have a look for the Hedgerow and the Preserves Books. What I like about River Cottage books is that they have such well-informed commentaries so I tend to curl up with one and read it like a novel.
I'm really enjoying getting to know you all a bit better and to have something more than cancer in common. I'm planning on a bit of foraging this weekend as the blackberries seem to be ripening very early this year.
Ah yes, Sloe Gin. A colleague gave me a bottle of home made sloe gin at Christmas and it was delicious. I've just harvested some of my tarragon to make tarragon vinegar and thought I'd find a recipe for Strawberry Vinegar as it costs a fortune in the shops and yet strawberries are so cheap this time of year from the PYO Farms.
You've really got me going now!! Lots of love Annie
Hi again Annie,
I was drooling so much over your loaf I forgot to say, just a little warning in case there are any new Coeliacs around on this site - SPELT flour is NOT gluten free. I had to check it out recently when my youngest son, who also has Coeliac Disease, was looking for something for a snack in his lunch hour phoned and asked me. (Nice to know I'm still useful - even if he is grown-up with a wife and 3 children !! )
I was very happy in Wales, last year (Can't remember exactly where now) to find a stall in an indoor market where a young chap had made, and was selling, Gluten free soda bread. It was such a treat.
Love Solange
Thanks Solange for the warning about Spelt flour and the soda bread is something I have not tried but will now lookout for it.
Wxx
Thanks for your message, Winner. Does this mean that you're a fellow Coeliac?
Solange x
Yes Solange, was diagnosed 1983.
Wx
I was diagnosed 1976. How much easier it has become to sticking to a GF Diet, nowadays !! I wonder how many other OCa people here have Coeliac Disease .................
Love Solange
Yes it would be interesting to see how many ladies are C's as well as OC's.
Now I am on a low residue diet my options have been restricted a lot and my hubby has taken on the role of cook etc.
Love Wxx
Dear Solange - Thanks for that bit of information. I'm so glad you told me. I looked up Spelt and it just says it is reduced gluten and not gluten-free. My recipe book seems to suggest Sour Rye Bread, Pumpernickel, Bannocks and Cornbread are totally gluten-free. I've also found some interesting recipes including gluten-free soda bread at glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.... .
I've followed up Isadora's advice on sourdough breadmaking and it does seem eminently sensible as sourdough contains natural bacteria which are good for our digestive system and must surely be a good thing after our veins have been filled with killer chemicals.
Thanks everyone for so much information and advice. I now have enough information and inspiration to make for many happy days.
xxx Annie
Thanks very much, Annie, for the Gluten Free cooking site - I've not seen that one and will enjoy a browse. I agree - anything that's good for our digestive systems must be a good thing.
As regards Rye bread - it's very suspect as Coeliacs have to avoid not only Wheat, but Rye and Barley, too. Many have to avoid oats as well, although it contains a different sort of gluten, and also, it may have been grown in fields that previously had the "forbidden" cereals grown in them. The chance is too high that some of them will have self-seeded and polluted the oats.
Golly, this makes me sound a bit neurotic about it!! I'm not, though, I'm just quoting my Consultant's and The Coeliac Society's guide lines. I was hopeful about the sourdough bread as sometime the gluten can be destroyed in fermenting but when I looked into it - sadly it wasn't.
Happy Baking, love Solange
Hi Solange and Winner, I found another link to gluten-free breads and treats at: lovefood.com/journal/featur... . They look worth trying. Xx Annie
Thank you, Whippit,
It's so nice of you to look this up for we Coeliac Disease folk - especially as you've put the e-address to straight way click on. I've not felt much enthusiasm for cooking lately but I've had a quick look and the Vegetarian hotpot looks a good one. It can be a bit of a palavar cooking for my family as we have several vegetarians as well as Coeliacs. The sugestion that you could serve meat seperately was a good one, there, as my Husbands favourite bit of the meal is the meat!!
Hope you've regained your energy after your sailing trip. If only there was something we could do to immediately counteract fatigue.
Love Solange
I've been doing a lot of baking as well recently
What are your favourites? I've been making ice-cream using lots of summer fruits. Not quite baking but it takes a bit of fiddle to get the egg and milk custard base just right. Now working my way through some of the excellent suggestions above. xx
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