Home cooking

Well as you may already know I like cooking.....and I am a big believer in home cooked food...it's the best....well for years I have had many many many many attempts at home made bread....home made bread is different to shop purchased .....we have had bread machines various..and many of the bread baked have been fine, whether they have been cooked inside bread machine...or just used the machine to knead the dough or kneaded by hand..and cooked in separate tins I have used flour of various types buying by the 25kg bags even the Granary malt flour I used to buy most of it straight from the mill....
But one thing I do know all flours are different you can not guarantee it being the same as the last pkt you purchased....even the same brand...purchased at different times of the year can bring big changers in the finished bread....one may need extra flour or extra water from the last time...
I live in France who have some lovely bread....BUT it is of the French style....and when you have been here for many years you are looking for the good old English bread....not the soggy doughy bread that goes mouldy in the pkt...BUT white soft fluffy white bread....now over here I have struggled to get  strong white Bread flour...even our baker who has a bakery in the next village but lives in our village..every time I ask her for 1kg of bread flour she sell's me normal white flour for patisseries / cakes ??
well I have looked on you tube....till I am going blind looking..at white bread making. some are baker's...but a lot of them are of the american style bread lots of sugar and very sweet..not what I am looking for being Diabetic plus I do not like sweet bread....
WELL on you tube I watched a small Asian chap.....and there was something different about his bread....he used normal plain white flour....so I tried it... it was very very near perfect to what I was looking for...except a little sweet...so I halved his sugar down to 1/2 level tablespoon .....well the bread is Fantastic....and he uses another method to make the tops soft instead of crusty...
Because we can not get bread buns/rolls here in our part of France neither hamburger/beefburger rolls... now I have made bread bun/rolls many times now and they just perfect....and last week I tried to make ham/beefburger rolls... it the shape, size and thickness...plus the soft fluffy rolls...second attempt was great..as the photo will show....and today I have made HOTDOG ROLLS ...what all you lot take for granted...so here is a photo of the hot dog rolls as well...FANTASTIC all using the same recipe just made into different shapes....

And yes Adele and Polly we are still heavy into cupcakes and home made real PORK PIES

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Well I've just been introduced to Bannocks while in Shetland, love this type of bread and have got a couple of recipes that I'm going to try, this is supposed to be a really easy bread to make and ideal for cooking on a camp fire, maybe you can make us some at Bridlington

No Ken I will leave all the cooking up to you...

Hia
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
They look nice

Hia

I know it's not cooking but I had a salad tonight with garlic chicken and fetta cheese and I missed the olives

But my point is I didn't reliaze how much I had missed it

Here is the link I used....very good
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the Bread is just as he say's
Its called Ladi Pav bread

This is the same recipe just altered slightly to what I use

Normal white flour,
Mix the dough to a very soft mix BUT not sticky

2 Cups of Normal Flour…(or 312grams).
1 cup + 1/8 of Cup of Milk…
4 Teaspoons of Butter….(16 grams of butter)
1 1/2 Tablespoons of Milk Powder
1 Packet of Dried Yeast
½     Table Spoon of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Salt

Mix in the mixer with dough hook for about 4 to 5 mins…..take out a knead stretch a little on the board for about a minute and form into a ball ..place in a oiled bowl cover with cling film place in a warm place for a least 1 hour…then turn out and knock down knead a little …then press out into a square…fold forward into the middle three times….the stretch into a long tube…cut into a dozen pieces….fold each one up underneath and into a round ball…place in a greased tin with sides  leave to proove for 1.5 hours at least covered with cling film… then place into a preheated oven….cook for 15 mins at 195c to 200c in a pre-heated fan oven take out

Only Brush with melted butter on top of the buns if you want a soft top then leave for at least 30 mins to 1 hour to cool before removing from the tin …leave on wired rack to cool.

Polly wrote:

Hia

I know it's not cooking but I had a salad tonight with garlic chicken and fetta cheese and I missed the olives

But my point is I didn't reliaze how much I had missed it

WHAT the Olives Polly you missed

Hia

Yes I missed


Would like to make some Eccles cakes I think

what is stopping you Poll

Hia

Nothing
Made stones sorry scones yesterday 
Family always referred to them as stones even though they had them 
When I say family I mean extended family

We love Scones and I like Eccles cakes not sure about Chris and the Eccles though...So we/ I will look forward to those Scones and Eccles cakes Mmmm Yummy when we see you  at the Wilsthorpe Meet Polly...
And also we are looking forward to trying out Ken's Bread when he cooks it on the camp fire....I should imagine if Ken is the chef.....Adele will be stoking the fire.....Adele there will be loads of drift wood on the beach...Adele when you reach the beach (the sand) turn right (south) and you will find plenty of drift wood, all you want within a mile of beach....some of the tree trunks / planks may be toooo large.... so take a saw Adele ....see you all soon

I wont be stoking any fires at brid will be that hot won't need a fire ,your bread looks lovely but don't forget were having a pork pie evening so you'd better bring plenty .

Hia

Oh are
Pork pie evening 
Ummy ummy ummy

It's a shame that I can not bring the items mentioned above... due import laws on food...but we will be quite happy to eat Ken and Polly's home cooked food..Mmmmm Yummy