I recently took a quick trip back home to catch up with my beautiful boys which then results in me spending more hours than I really want to cleaning up their mess, more on that another day.  So because of that I never get a chance to catch up with everybody, but I did make time to see an old friend whose domestic goddess tendencies I happen to admire, especially her baking.  During a lovely afternoon spent admiring her gorgeous garden, whilst at the same time being given a very generous gift of two plants I was able to sample her latest bake Ninos Envueltos from Jane Mason’s book, ‘The Book of Buns’.  and decided then and their that I must join in.

I’ve been watching Stasher’s bakes on her blog for quite some time and had purchased Jane’s book a couple of weeks previously during one of my nocturnal raids on Amazon’s book store, but it had been put to one side whilst I concentrated on my bread making.  Now was the time and with my friends careful guidance as to where to find the facebook group that had bubbled up and formed from sheer enthusiasm for Jane’s bakes I was all set to go. I chose Krentenbollen,  from Holland where apparently they are almost the national dish, I do like a fruity bun.

Firstly one infuses milk with orange and lemon zest, such pretty colours and the smell was a comforting milky citrus, the perfect way to start a morning.

The dough ready to be formed into buns.

The buns having been glazed just resting for a few more minutes.

And fresh from the oven. One ready for sampling.

It reminded me of my very favourite bun from a high end supermarket I know and love.

And according to my calculations each bun is approximately 253 calories, worth it, oh so worth it.

Hubby and I collected the boys at Euston just after 10.00 a.m. and after breakfast of pancakes, bacon and other American styled treats and the wonderful ritual of the present unwrapping we  caught a black cab to take us to London Zoo, which illustrated just how small London really is, the cost was just over eight quid.  We trotted in and immediately headed over to the penguins.  Son no.1 and I have a passion for penguins so we were transfixed with their jumping for joy in the bright morning sunshine.   Then we settled into bumbling around to see what we could see, we had a marvelous day in which we had a spot of lunch, afternoon tea with cake and then at the end of the day we trotted off to Soho to our favourite Chinese where we had reserved a table for the birthday boy where he was spoilt rotten.

Just a few snaps of our most precious of days together.

For some reason the local cats seem to congregate around our garden, is it because of Toile, the gently sloped south facing shed roof ideally situated for sunbathing or that they can find fresh drinking water and the occasional treat?, I have no idea.  Although I feel that the rather lovely looking fully intact ginger tom has other reasons for his interest in Toile.

I’ve been letting Toile out of late, she goes out for a trot around before breakfast and I call her in after fifteen minutes and then when I am pottering around in the garden she’s always beside me playing ball in the garden and comes in when I do.

Recently the cats are coming to play with her.

And when they do I let her out to say hello.

And I think she is doing very well.

Sometimes there are distractions and she’s off.

Much to the disappointment of this bemused pussy cat.

There she is the white cat having a break from her kittens, come to call.

She disappeared seconds after this photograph was taken.

I must say though that since she’s been chatting with the local cats I’ve had to up her flea protection regime, I’m highly allergic to flea bites so I am very well aware of her flea status or as we like to say, ‘pets have pets’.

Having run out of bread yesterday I needed to get some going rather more quickly than is possible with sourdough.  I’ve really been enjoying the sourdough and it has had the effect that I simply can’t eat commercial bread at the moment – its a bit like socks, I can’t wear commercial socks now my toes have felt the woolly delights of the hand knitted versions.

So my recipe today was,

500 grams of bread flour, of which 375g was white and 125g was wholemeal.

10g salt

10g dried yeast

350 ml (weighed rather than measured) of blood heat water.

I mixed it all together with my dough hook on the Kenwood until the gluten was nice and stretchy,  let it rest for an hour until it had doubled in size, gently knocked back and shaped, let it rest for another half an hour, dusted with flour and slashed it with a serrated bread knife and then popped it into the preheated for half an hour oven at 250 c, for ten minutes, turning the temperature down to 190 c for another 15 minutes, during the last five minutes you need to check on your bread.  All ovens are different and you might need to ventilate your oven, or let it cook for longer – I know my oven runs a bit hot.

This was the start of the birthday boy’s weekend, a trip to Tate Britain to see the world’s largest collection of Turner’s work.  Of course we were side tracked as soon as we walked in with some beautiful and some not so beautiful artwork, we loved it all.  We only saw a tiny fraction, enjoyed wine in Members and then, with promise of further adventures, were gone into the night.  (or rather we trundled down to Soho and had a meal)

I made this bread a couple of weeks ago when it was all going so well and my learning was indeed hitting the upward slope of the Bell learning curve.  Since then it toppled out and I had a spectacular failure mainly because I let the dough rise for too long and the structure of the bread just flopped – whether that was from overstretching the gluten or the yeasts doing something odd would take a suite of laboratories to decide.  I am thoroughly enjoying Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson, its a true sourdough bread lovers book, it is written in blog format with wonderful photography and If you buy just one bread book this year….  honestly make it this, its such a gorgeous book, just reading it will make you feel as though your living the sourdough dream.

Just as a quick pointer, there are many video’s on Sourdough bread, I found this one interesting and useful to explain various tips in the book,  there are many more. Tartine Bread Video

Hubby reaches his 70th birthday today.  We are indeed blessed to have him steering our ship through life’s turbulent waters.  We love him more with each passing day.

Just a quick note in my blog. I trotted off to see Les Mis, (I feel I can say the abbreviated version now I’ve seen it) after wanting to see it for some time.  Hubby calls it The Glums and as such didn’t want to see it, however I loved it.  Its a three hour spectacle which in any other show might stretch before you like a chasm to be crossed, especially when your bum has gone numb., but these hours just flashed by in a whirl of human emotion often raw sometimes comedic,  flashes of colour, gunfire and song.  It was magnificent.  I must watch the film, having been told about it.

There is one thing that I must remember for next time. The Queen’s theatre is quite small, well it is when you compare it to the Birmingham Rep.  And if I was to look at the distance from the stage one sits in in the best seats at the Birmingham Rep, one might realise that same distance is definitely down to cost wise of 2nd level and even 3rd level seats.  I stood at the back of the stalls, and the back was still quite close.  It must be the beauty of the small London Theatres and is something worth considering when booking in the future, it might be worth spending the twenty five or so pounds on the cheapest tickets rather than not see the production at all.  There is another thing about the Queen’s I loved, I have a 33″ inside leg, the leg room was spacious, well it was in Row C of the stalls.   I’ve never known such leg room in a theatre, the space  makes such a difference to the long legged amongst us.  Of course always check with Theatre Monkey  for hints and tips on the best seats.

I had such a great time, and one day I will learn how to buy really cheap tickets, I haven’t learned how to pick up the last minute deals, hints and tips very welcome.

Before my new found addiction to making sourdough bread, of which I have just spectacularly failed, two loaves went in the bin last night –  they had been proved for too long and instead of rising majestically, they ended up being soggy, yet brick hard flat , inedible loaves which mocked my attempts at mastering the wild yeasts – oatcakes were my main carbohydrate come lunchtime.

Recently I ran out so decided to make some up, my recipe inspiration came from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, I used pin head oats and porridge oats as that what was in the cupboard and rape seed instead of olive oil, but good Cornish sea salt.  They were simplicity themselves, tasted so good with tomatoes and made wonderful lunches, snacks and suppers.  Even hubby liked them, tentatively trying them, he proceeded to demolish them.  I shall make more.