The Fresh Smell in the Morning...

Good morning Steemers! I hope its a cracking day for you! Today again I woke to that fresh smell...

Bread... yes I finally got a bread maker a belated birthday gift from my sister! 

The box arrived just after new year, a nice a speedy delivery. However a sudden realisation I had no flour; or anything to make bread with delayed production.

Here she is (the bread maker not my sister).

I have wanted to make my own bread since my step-father use to make it when he was alive. I always intended to learn from him but alas this was not meant to be, I was not in the right place then I guess. "Well learn" I hear you say and this would be a valid point and quite easy to do. But that's a project for when I have more in place in my life; currently a bread maker is convenient and right where I am!

Next on the agenda was flour!

A vital ingredient for bread. I wanted to get good flour that is not full of GM pollution and fancy chemicals that are no good. So after a days research I decided on Organic Khorasan Flour. This flour gets its name from the Khorasan region of Northern Iran, where it originated. A little more blurb about it.

According to a legend, those grains were found in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, hence the nickname "King Tut's Wheat." It is not known when and how Khorasan wheat was introduced to Egypt. Another legend relates that Noah brings the grain on his ark resulting in the nickname "Prophet’s wheat."  

So this flour appealed to me and I bought some.  I am quite fascinated but ancient Egypt so I think that played in the decision making here too. Again after some research I got 5kg for £8.75 a bargain as other more well know flour places were selling it for around £4 for 1kg so bonus there!

And then another setback...

I then realised a lack of weighing scales would again hinder this project! Ok you might laugh and fair play. But in my defence I only moved in six months ago and have not really had a use for scales. Again it was back on the internet and I got some and a Pestle and Mortar too; as I have some lovely pink Himalayan salt with is tedious to grind with spoons and I think a Pestle and Mortar will come in handy in the future.

The first attempt ...

Not too bad I dont think, tasted bloody marvellous. And then waking up to the smell was cracking; although it was five in the morning. I made a note to set the times a bit later after this one.

Attempt two...

Ok so this one I used honey instead of sugar as ideally I would rather not have sugar in it at all but apparently you need it to activate the yeast so la de da! Again tastes amazing just not rising enough. I am unsure why, it maybe be not enough sugar, I mean I used what the recipe say two and a half tbsp (of honey). But I wonder that maybe the Himalayan salt is stronger so it effecting the yeast so I will reduce this next time!

Any tips for reducing the sugar content would be greatly appreciated, or in general👏🏼 😃 !

All in all quite a success I think for a complete novice. And who cares if it doesn't look right when it tastes good hey.