Challenge Number 34: Bake 40 Loaves Of Bread In A Year.

I’ve managed to bake five so far. All using the breadmaker, but that’s allowed at the moment.

Numbers one and two were on a rapid bake white loaf setting. The first (half-eaten with daffodils in the background on its photo) was for some friends who came to lunch. The second contained olive oil rather than butter as Charlotte had been throwing up and tends not to tolerate any dairy for a while after a stomach bug. The yeast I used for both loaves was also about two years out of date but the loaves still rose OK. I did have some yeast in date; I just removed the wrong packet from the cupboard. 

The third loaf was made with in-date yeast, still a rapid white loaf, but on a darker crust setting. As it turned out, there’s a fine line between darker crust and burnt crust.

The fourth loaf was done on a normal length bake setting, and contained mixed seeds. This was the best loaf I’ve made so far. But I was worried that the pumpkin seeds were just the right size for Charlotte to choke on, so I didn’t let her have any of this one. Seems completely paranoid in retrospect.

The fifth loaf was to feed our friends Ann, Rich and Tom as an accompaniment to leek and cauliflower soup, and was once again a rapid bake white loaf. I need to organise myself to bake bread more than two hours before I need to eat it, then I can diversify a lot more. But hey, there’s a nice fruit bowl in the background of the photo of this loaf at least.

Am I really going to post about 40 loaves of bread on this blog? It seems that way. If I don’t, you won’t have proof that all 40 loaves existed, but I'm sure you will find reading about and looking at them more than tedious. So part of the challenge is to make loaves of bread seem more interesting, I guess. 

But I’m an eighth of the way there on this challenge!