Wednesday 5 August 2009

Beetroot Bread

I didn't make much of note today, other than some bread containing raw beetroot.

I made this mainly because I still have some of the beetroot my Dad gave me last time I went to visit, and partly because I've recently sown a few seeds myself, and I need something to do with them when I (hopefully) get a glut as a last crop of the year.

Also, it looked a very pretty pink hue in the photo in the recipe book... and is rather red in real life! The inside of the bread itself is nicely flecked with bits of beetroot, and is pinker then the baked crust of the bread.

I haven't included a picture of this cut bread, because the light had failed by the time I sliced it, and all the photos came out badly.

I followed a recipe almost identical to this one on http://www.selfsufficientish.com with the difference that my recipe only call for one tsp of yeast, not the two shown here. My bread didn't rise as much as I like, so I would actually recommend the 2tsp instead. I think the beetroot weighs the dough down a little.

This recipe is taken from "Bread Machine" by Jennie Shapter. The nice thing about this book is that in most of the loaf recipes give you the option of small, medium or large. Small is always big enough for the pair of us.

I never bake bread in the bread machine itself though, using a Pyrex Bake a Round instead. This doesn't give a bread that's the right size for sandwiches, but which is just about perfect for a hunk of bread or a small bit of toast. I got mine from a charity shop, and am now searching endlessly for another one. I would get them off e-bay, but they seem to be a US only thing, and if you google it you'll see they are often used for non bread making reasons.

In gardening news, the courgettes are starting to come through now. Since we only have the one plant that's producing anything, I'm fairly pleased with getting one or two courgettes off it a week. The French peas now have rapidly growing pods on them, and the Raspberry the very start of some fruit. Considering this is my first year growing my own food, and I did start very late, I'm quite pleased.

1 comment:

  1. This sounds like a fantastic idea! I love the colour of that bread.

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