Get Bread and Squirrel

Tags

Edinburgh, Pictures, Recipes, The Great Outdoors, Thesis, Writing

Hello again. I am not dead, just writing.

Despite the impression I give, these states are not, in fact, the same.

The good bread

I even made bread this past weekend, using my very favorite (read: only) wheat-free bread recipe, the one I alluded to way back here. It’s full of nutty goodness. I like it best nuked for 10 seconds with butter, or with nutella, or butter and a bit of jam, but it’s also delicious in sandwiches. Very filling, very moist, and very delicious. The recipe can be found here, but I’ll give you my notes to go with it.

• The first few times I made this bread I used an oval-shaped glass pyrex dish. The bread was delicious, but it was difficult to remove the bread from the pan part way through baking, and because the pan needed to be greased, I couldn’t melt the coconut oil in it and had to get a measuring cup all greasy. The silicone bread pan was a tremendous improvement, well worth the 14 bucks I didn’t pay for it (after giving up on the search, I finally stumbled upon a sturdy silicone bread pan for 50p in a charity shop). 
• Round components are more susceptible to falling out when you slice/eat the bread, so I use my mortar and pestle (yes, I own a second-hand marble mortar and pestle) to break hazelnuts into halves or smaller. If using hemp seed in place of flax seed, I use my tiny food processor to break them down, because small as they are, they still pop out all over the place when you eat.
• Instead of adhering coconut oil to my measuring cup, I mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix the water and honey/maple syrup/brown sugar in a mixing cup. I heat the water for about 30-40 seconds so it won’t solidify the coconut oil when I mix them together. Melt the oil in the silicone pan, whisk in the water/honey mixture, then add the solids and mix. Then tamp down thoroughly and set for 2 hours.
• UPDATE: I’ve been storing my bread this week wrapped in a clean dish towel, originally because I didn’t want to put it in a plastic container while still warm, and now because it seems to be working well. The towel is probably permanently stained now, but it makes a better wrap than towel anyway. 

I had another squirrelly visit this week. This time the window was open a few inches when I went into the kitchen. I’m still wondering whether he would have invited himself inside if I hadn’t appeared. Between the last squirrel photo session and the cute and less-cute invasion of the bees, my kitchen has the distinct vibe of a wildlife special. Which is impressive, as I live in the middle of Edinburgh.

Well, adventure is out there!