SUNSHINE AND FLOURS.

This should have been yesterdays blog but I very stupidly took a tumble yesterday and managed to damage my shoulder, while still feeling the effects of the fall I am vastly improved so here goes.

By now you will know that I bake all our bread these days and I like to vary each batch to suit the weeks menu. Granary is a favourite as are wholemeal,seeded white bread.,spelt and Kamut,in fact over the years I have baked with just about every type of flour. Recently however, I have found some of these speciality flours difficult to obtain.

The range of flours at many supermarkets has been drastically reduced,I have been unable to buy Kamut, a wonderful Egyptian flour fro over a year, even granary flour,once common is now unavailable for Sainsburys on line store. I managed to obtain a bag of Spelt flour yesterday but the price was ridiculous,I have been milling my own flour,in small quantities for some time so I decided to extend my activities.

Finding the price of a small bag of seed and grain white flour,sufficient for two small loaves had gone through the stratosphere I am now making my own

TO MAKE WHITE SEED AND GRAIN FLOUR

for six pounds of plain white bread flour added

2 oz golden linseed

2 oz brown linseed

2 oz poppy seeds

2 oz sesame seeds

2 oz sunflower seeds ,lightly ground.

I then made the bread in my usual way and from the above amount I made .

1 extra large pizza base

2 x 2lb split tin loaves

1 large bloomer

1 large cheese loaf

2 small pan de Campagne loaves (see picture)

4 English muffins.

It is worth filling the oven whenever you make bread as it freezes very well and save time .

To make this amount of bread would have required either.

White seed and grain flour 1kg x 3= £3.60 minimum

ordinary white bread flour 3kg x 2- 0.80p

The cost of the individual bags of seed was£ 3.86. enough seeds for at least 18 loaves ,the saving is obvious.

The same can be done if a wholemeal seed and grain bread is required and of course the seeds may be varied according to your taste.

Granary bread is also proving difficult to find and expensive when available and at the moment I am in the middle of an experiment to see if I can malt the whole wheat grains myself as I remember my father doing many years ago,for the brewing of ale.

So far so good I think but time will tell.

In the mean time if a course flour is needed for either the bread itself or for a topping ,take a cup of whole wheat at a time and put it through a grinder or a spice mill,a mortar and pestle will do the job if you fancy a work out and you can make your flour as fine or as course as you like.

One more tip,if like me you are sometimes forgetful and find that you have run out of icing sugar, just run ordinary granulated sugar through a grinder, it soon becomes as fine as icing sugar and does exactly the same job.

Now I am heading for the shower.......I may be some time!

P.S. My son's novel "The Price of Admiralty) is rising in the charts and has out stripped his wildest dreams,he is surprised, I am not.  Well a mums must have the bragging rights under such circumstances!