KNEAD TO TRY
Bread Week starts today (20th) and it’s the 12th annual, international celebration of local, independent ‘Real Bread’ bakeries and of course, baking your own bread.
During the lockdowns, bread making at home has increased hugely with ‘banana bread’ leading the way.
It became the most-searched recipe on the BBC website, and 45,000 photos of banana bread were posted on one social media site in April alone.
As well as going bananas about bread, a Streetbees poll found that 86% made cakes and 56% made biscuits. The UK’s millers doubled their output from two million 1.5kg bags a week to four million - and still didn’t meet demand.
Following the flour frenzy, the great thing is that a percentage of new bakers will become regular bakers, having learned a new skill and acquiring a taste for delicious bread straight from the oven.
Each year Bread Week normally encourages bakeries and baking schools to hold classes, and relevant events and activities around bread.
It’ll obviously be a bit different this year, but if you haven’t yet discovered the benefits of baking your own bread, why not try this week?
And if like me you try to swerve bread – I love it, but my stomach doesn’t – then try the latest ‘bread on the block’, Cloud Bread.
It’s low in carbohydrates, high in good fats, naturally gluten free, and perhaps the most attractive thing of all, it’s incredibly easy to make in just 40 minutes and with only four ingredients
You’ll need three large eggs, 3 tbsp cream cheese softened at room temperature, ¼ tsp cream of tartar, ¼ tsp salt, parchment paper, and a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 150°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Separate egg whites from the yolks, placing whites in one bowl and yolks in another.
In your egg yolk bowl, add cream cheese and mix together with the yolks, preferably with a hand mixer, until well combined. Add cream of tartar and salt to the egg white bowl and mix together until you have stiff peaks.
Slowly add the yolk mixture to the egg whites, carefully folding in until there are no white streaks. Spoon the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, about ½ to ¾ inches tall and about 5 inches apart and bake in the oven on middle rack for 30 minutes, until tops are lightly golden brown.
Resist temptation to try when they come out of the oven as they will be a bit crumbly and are best left to cool before using.
As well as making delicious ‘light’ sandwiches, Cloud Bread can be used for pizza bases, and instead of regular tortillas.
There are several different recipes on the Internet, and whilst it’s nothing like the more traditional types of bread, I think it is a great if you ‘knead’ an alternative.
■ Throw on a jacket, woolly hat and gloves and step out into the garden as there’s plenty of winter debris to be cleared up. Remove twigs and leaves from ponds, lawns and beds; wash down patios and clean them; and make sure drains aren’t blocked with leaf litter.
■ winter pansies and primulas.
■ Deadhead winter flowering heathers as the flowers start to go brown.
■ Prune autumn-fruiting raspberries right down to ground level.
■ In the greenhouse, take dahlia tubers out of storage and coax into growth in a light, warm place. You can also get overwintering fuchsias back into growth by repotting, watering and feeding.
■ Early seedlings in the glasshouse will crane their heads towards the little available light – be sure to turn them round so each side gets the light equally.
■ Order onion sets to be ready for spring planting.