Bread.

We have ran out of bread again!

Today I am using warm Beer instead of water in my bread. This is more likely to have been used in the past before we had clean running water. I can not wait to see how it tastes!

I have plans to make a tiny wood fired bread oven in the back garden this year.

I have the base, the form and the clay ready. But, my husband has decided the form has much more use storing his stones for the garden.

I will have to get on with it soon because it will take months to dry before I can actually use it.

                                       (Picture from the Lutrell Psalter)



I have made bread using a sour dough in the past. It does rise but very slowly. I leave mine to rise over night. It tends to rise sideways rather than up wards! It has an interesting and not unpleasant taste.

I always have a batch of sour dough somewhere. It can be kept in the fridge and re vitalised when needed. But, it does take more patience than modern yeast. You have to prepare in hours in advance and sometimes the night before depending on how long it has been stored. Sour dough makes lovely cakes!

We are spoilt today with our fine bread. In the past the flours would be mixed - barley, pea, rye and so on. The wheat did not contain as much gluten either so the loaf would be heavier and more sustaining.

A bread made entirely from pea flour and prepared in the same way as normal bread is made tastes fowl. There is no gluten in pea flour so the loaf is like a brick. This would be a famine bread. But, if you use a quarter in total or less of pea flour it tastes quite good.