more bread!

So while I was feeling somewhat chuffed about recent successes with bread making, I came across this lovely post on Friday. And by Saturday morning I was itching to try it. I had a jar of lemon curd sitting in my fridge calling me to bake it into a lovely bread braid. But alas, I had no flour. So I took myself into the garden

and lugged soil around to make my arms and back ache. I was really just trying to get my assortment of containers filled up and ready for planting.

 But after some gardening and preschool soccer and a trip to the garden center and the grocery store (yes - I remembered to buy flour) I was too tired to bake bread. But yesterday I gave it a go.

The dough is easy to make and mine did take a while longer to rise than the suggested 60-90 minutes for the first rise. I did have the back door open so it may have been a tad drafty but the sunshine was so lovely. I decided to divide the dough into two as the loaf seemed to be quite large and I thought it would be better to be tea bread sized somewhat like a local bakery chain makes. The braid technique is easy but do remember to place the dough on the parchment paper prior to filling and braiding to avoid hassles with transfering to a baking sheet. One loaf I made with the dough wider than longer and one I made longer than wider. Here they are filled and braided before rising.

Here are the pictures of the baked breads. Wider braid -

A bread of beauty! and the skinnier braid -

This reminds me of our cat, waiting to have her tummy rubbed! So skinnier isn't better, at least when it comes to bread. But delicious! Not too sweet, delicious, lemony bread. Perfect for breakfast or tea or brunch...(or maybe a post posting snack...). Try it!

And speaking of bread - here is tonight's version of oatmeal spelt bread. Sandwich or toast anyone?