Sweet Potato Bread

To make this I used the recipe for a white loaf from my bread making machine's cook book, with the addition of 21/2 oz cooked sweet potato mashed into 1tbs milk. I then left the bread maker to get on with the job. The result was lovely, a crispy crust and good stucture to the bread. The flavour was almost like a sour dough bread.

I have also made roasted butternut squash bread. I blitzed 5 ounces of roast squash with the water that was to be added to the flour and used the bread maker and white bread recipe. This bread had a lovely sweet flavour.

Happy Easter

another chocolate creation from the Chocolate Festival at the South Bank.

below, from the garden

Hot Cross Buns

Freshly baked hot cross buns

Hot cross buns!

Hot cross buns!

One a penny, two a penny,

Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters,

Give them to your sons

One a penny,Two a penny,

Hot Cross Buns!

Traditional nursery rhyme

Hot cross buns were traditionally eaten on Good Friday. Nowadays they are available from supermarkets for weeks before Easter.

For my version I boiled the dried fruit in 4 fl oz tea in a pan until most of the liquid was absorbed. This makes the fruit juicier and makes it stay in the dough. With earlier attempts I found the fruit kept popping out of the dough as it was mixed.
I used a bread maker for the dough using 8 fl oz water to about 1lb flour. I added the fruit when the beeps went. When the dough was ready it was shaped and left to prove before baking in the oven. The water and tea took the place of milk and egg, otherwise the recipe is similar to Delia’s.

Lovely eaten still warm with a bit of unsalted butter.