Bread, Buns and Mousetaches...

Definitely a "kitchen day" here chez Casa Witty...

First on the agenda, bake the batch of Chelsea Buns that I got going yesterday. I pinched Drogon's recipe and method in lieu of my usual one. Have to say it was a beautiful dough to work with; silky, stretchy and so easy to handle. Filled the buns with a mix of 65g melted butter, 300g of raisins, 75g caster sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, pinch of cardamom. The verdict?

Lovely light buns, soft, tasty - everything I'd want in a Chelsea Bun and far nicer than the recipe I've been using for a long time. Shared them with a good friend and my lovely neighbour who is nearly 90. Fabulous recipe Gordon, thank you :-)

Next step was getting a bread going - in this case a sour rye. It was a gift for the friend who buys Poppy & Lexi's Royal Canin cat food. I haven't made this recipe for a few months; actually it was the very first bread I baked when I became hooked...

202g rye flour

202g strong white flour

9g salt

4g dried active yeast

15g lard

270g tepid water

45g rye starter

Activated the yeast in some of the water. Mixed in the flour & salt, then rubbed in the fat.Then in went all the wet ingredients (water, yeast, starter), I kneaded the dough for about 15 min before doing a 3 hour bulk ferment at around 22C. I knocked it back, shape into a batard, then into my shiny new oval banneton to prove for an hour and a half. When it poked ok, into the chicken brick it went before being scored and popped into a preheated oven; 25 mins in a shut brick at 230C, then 20 mins open at 200.

I do have a small confession though... I wasn't paying attention when I was reaching for flour, so the rye sour ended up being a three grain sour after the inadvertent addition of some spelt. Still, it smelled wonderful, with a lovely crisp crust - hope my friend will enjoy it... Anyways, for contrast, here's what the bread looked like the very first time I baked back in April... Can't believe how far I've come since then - in the most part thanks to the wonderful advice on here. Thank you folks, it's really appreciated. :-)

The culinary shenanigans then switched to soup, and I brewed up a large pot of celery and courgette soup (zucchini to you US folks) for tonight's supper. Also accompanying that was a crabmeat, dill and creme fraiche puff pastry tart - both went down very nicely... (Didn't make the pastry today, simply took a chunk out of the freezer.)

And last but not least, Madam Lexi decided to add to her Human's culinary efforts by contributing a pretty impressive mousetache. Maybe I should have baked it in some pastry for her... ;-)