Square toast bread and other treasures

I've been writing about change recently, mostly because I've undergone significant change in the last two years but also because that’s what we all do - we change. Change is healthy, it shows we’re evolving and not standing still. However, my change topic today is not about personal change, I’m changing the shape of my bread, it will be square, and the recipe is changing to suit the shape. I have many posts here about baking bread and yes, I've been through all the changes you're currently going through - sourdough, artisan bread, sandwich loaves, ancient grains, rye, milled oats and the rest. But now I'm focusing on square toast bread and, of course, scones. I will bake scones using the recipe now engraved on my brain that was taught to be by my mum when I was about 10 years old. She used to tell me I had "a light hand" and that was what was needed to make good scones. Who knew!

Almost all the bread I eat now is in the form of toast, generally one slice with my breakfast. It bugged me that my tall loaves had to be put through the toaster twice so the complete slice was toasted from top to bottom. Then I came across Japanese square bread made in a loaf tin with a lid. Now that I think back on it, I'm amazed that I didn't think of this sooner and looked for the right tin to bake it in. But I'm there now so that's all that matters.

I bought my loaf tin at Amazon au I've been using it for a couple of months now and I'm very happy with it. I don't grease the interior of the pan nor do I use parchment paper, The dough goes in, bakes and it comes out as a perfect square - there’s no sticking to the loaf tin and no fiddling with it.

The first problem I came up against was my normal milk bread recipe, even when I adjusted the amounts in the first loaf I baked, it was too big. I was getting a square loaf, but there was too much dough in the tin and because the lid stopped the dough from rising, the bread was dense. I kept working on it and I’m pretty happy with my recipe now. It makes slightly more dough than I need but I always take a small portion off to make pizza.  I looked at the Japanese recipes traditionally used with this loaf tin but they used a fermented starter that had to stay in the fridge overnight and I didn’t want that added hassle. 

I've been baking bread for over 20 years now and most of that time I baked every day. The reason I didn't give up on it was I simplified the process so it didn't take a lot of time. People were shocked when I said I was using a bread machine to knead the dough - I still use one now to do the same thing - but back then most of the people who baked bread used the traditional methods which I thought took too long. I worked from sunup to sundown in my home, cooking from scratch, preserving, gardening, keeping chickens, harvesting, composting, making simple cleaners, recycling, mending, sewing and knitting, and saving 20 minutes, or 2 ½ hours a week, made a big difference to me. I needed a way of making good bread that was just another task, not a time sponge. Now, of course, bread machines are commonplace and although I usually don't buy everything new that comes along - I have no airfryer, pressure cooker/Instapot, Thermomix or coffee machine, my bread machine will probably be buried with me. 😀

My next step is to source quality bread flour online so I don't have to rely on the white bread flour available at the local supermarket. I'm thinking I'll probably go for the Wholegrain Milling Co.'s Stoneground flour from Gunnedah - they have a selection of white, wholemeal and rye. If you have a favourite flour, please let me know about it. This is my current recipe:

500g bread flour
2 teaspoons dried yeast
300g warm water
2 tablespoons milk powder
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar
20g melted butter

 

I bought too many citrus last week so I've been drying a few lemon and orange slices. I also discovered 20 red and green chillies growing in the back yard so made up a few jars of sweet chilli sauce. I bottled it yesterday so that will sit in the fridge for a few weeks to mellow and I'll have some delicious quick sauce for pasta and for adding to soups and stews. I had steak, onions, mushrooms, broccoli and carrots for lunch yesterday so today I'm making miso and pumpkin soup. I'll make enough to store for later in the month too. The sweet chilli sauce recipe will be in the PDF/ePub cookbook.

And there have been a few repairs to do this week too. I've had to learn about repairing all manner of things since Hanno died but it's been good for me to do it. Sarndra helped me replace a venetian blind in my office that refused to open or be adjusted in any way and this morning I learnt how to unstick a press-in bathroom plug. I also had to fiddle with the back door lock to free it up and reapply a skirting board that fell off. What next? LOL

Hello to Judith Waller in Victoria. Thanks for your letter Judith, I appreciate you thinking of me. xx

I hope things are going well in your home. Thanks for your visit today I hope you're enjoying this time of year. Stay safe and well. xx

ADDITIONAL READING:

Great vintage bake-off: why lamingtons survive while fruitcakes fell from favour

Play outside and sing together: what living in Denmark taught me about raising ‘Viking’ children

‘Every household needs to work out a system for their fridge’: how to throw out less food

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