Long weekend

It was Steve's birhtday on the long weekend. We bought a nice chocolate mud cake for the occasion. We wanted to cheer him up a little as he is going through some major changes in life at the moment. Lara insisted that it was her birthday. We did slot in a quiet '...and lara' when we sang 'happy birthday to Uncle Steve'.

My amazon books arrived just before the long weekend for me to try the bread in 'Artisan bread in five minutes a day' after reading so much about it. We took a nice long walk in the morning while the dough rested. It came out of the oven smelling great and looking like a shop-bought bread. The crust got a little softer when the bread cooled. I think it was a little undercooked so I did a second loaf that afternoon. (You make up enough dough for 4 or 5 loaves in the fridge and just rest and cook one loaf every time - that's why it only takes 5 minues (of active efforts) a day thus the name of the book)

We had the second loaf as lunch on Tuesday. It was much nicer. I still need to improve on the crust at the bottom(a little hard). Maybe I'm just a little too ambitious trying to bake bread in this basic oven where the temperature at the bottom is a lot higher than that at the top of the oven. I'm trying a bread with a softer crust next and am definitly going to get an oven themometer to work out the real temperature of this oven!


(First loaf - I like this simple 3-line pattern better)


(Second loaf - trying a different pattern)