Baking Bread 19

I tried two recipes from Dan Lepard’s Handmade Loaf the other day. I got the book for my birthday way back in February and had so far only tried one bread, the Raisin and Cinnamon Loaf.

This time I made a Simple Milk Loaf. I’m always looking for nice white breads to please Mr Meike’s Kitchen (as if…) and this one is definitely a winner. It did help that we’ve been having quite warm temperatures so the dough was rising beautifully. It was fantastically easy, mix, rest, knead, rest, knead, rest, knead, rest, shape, rise, bake. Those kneading periods at the beginning are very short, just 10 seconds, and the rest in between is 10 minutes. For some reason this produces a lovely light loaf, it’s absolutely amazing. It tastes nice as is and toasts well. Everybody likes it.

The other loaf was more for me and the kids, a Spotted Soda Bread. Why it’s called a Soda Bread, I don’t know. I always thought the defining ingredient for these is bicarb but this one only uses baking powder. It’s not very heavy on the raisins and I did contemplate putting more in but it’s just right. Master Meike’s Kitchen, lover of everything raisin, likes this bread a lot. Maybe because it’s more like a cake than a bread but it’s also definitely a keeper.