When your Fridge/Freezer Breaks

The recent storms have brought some very welcome rain, the plants are all looking much happier with their drink of soft refreshing rain, rather than the more recent glugs of hard tap water.       

Unfortunately the rains were accompanied by very strong winds, with even stronger gusts,  a recipe for disaster for one rain drenched Rowan tree, which came down yesterday lunch time.    Close examination revealed that the poor tree was diseased, something which was not visible on the exterior.          It crashed down and the top most branches brushed down against the pear tree, luckily no damage was done and no one was hurt.

The fridge/freezer in the Boot room had stopped working some time during the storms and hadn't  the courtesy to tell us about it.   I managed to salvage some bits of food, but much more had to be thrown out.      Perhaps the most annoying bit (other than the waste) is discovering just how much we rely on our refrigerators these days, especially in summer.

After sorting everything out, cleaning, throwing, salvaging, etc. my head was a whirl.       I decided to bake bread, that most soothing and pleasing of occupations, especially when I have something new to try.    So this first photograph shows you what my kitchen table looks like when I am simply baking, no clearing things away to make a less cluttered photograph!

I had read an Elizabeth David recipe for making a cottage loaf - nothing new there, you may say, and you would be correct.     The interesting thing was that she recommended that the bread be put into a cold oven.

The recipe is a very simple one:

One and a half pounds of strong flour, half a pound of wheatmeal flour, half an ounce of yeast, three quarters of an ounce of salt (I used a bit less!), one pint or a little less of warm water.

The only mixing instructions:  Care must be taken not to make the dough too slack.

I will write the recipe out on my other blog, sometime soon, with full baking and making instructions. 

I didn't end up with a picture-perfect cottage loaf, but the bread is good, and the process of kneading the dough calmed my mind, so did a goodly slice of freshly baked bread slathered in butter.

Of course now I am wondering whether this cold oven start would work on other bread doughs.