Bread and Jam for Frances

I loved this book as a child. Its about a little badger who only ever wants to eat (you guessed it!) bread and jam. She wouldn't eat the soft boiled egg her mother tried to feed her at breakfast, nor the breaded veal cutlets and string beans for dinner. (But really...its veal. Cut the girl some slack.) I think the reason I loved it so much was because I could relate to Frances. I, too, was once a picky eater. You would think this would be the start of a post about more strange food I am trying, having graduated from picky eater rehab into the fearless beyond of kippers and black pudding, but actually this post is about bread. Even a bit of jam, too.

I found a recipe for muesli bread over the holidays and, having never made bread, decided I wanted to give it a try. It is a mix of rye flour, white flour, muesli (I used my favorite Dorset muesli), nuts (it calls for hazelnuts but I used a mix including brazil nuts, cashews, and almonds, as well), yeast, sugar, salt, water and olive oil.

This was the finished dough. 

Now the tricky part was coming up with an effective and unique way to keep it warm while it rose. Our kitchen is a frigid place and although I could have tucked it in the oven at a low heat (as my mother pointed out after I had concocted my master plan), I instead decided to prop it up against my radiator with a chair. Worked quite well, actually. 

Despite my fears of totally buggering it all up, the loaves turned out quite nicely! It is a somewhat dense bread, with all the oats and nuts/seeds/dried fruit and was the perfect accompaniment to my new sugar-free Blackcurrant jam from Meridian Foods. Available at my favorite health store, Holland & Barrett, this company makes the only sugar and salt free peanut butter I have been able to find (I have a massive tub of it) and a selection of jams, as well. 

The loaves turned out smaller than I expected and I think next time I may add more nuts, but overall, its a lovely recipe. A bit fluffy, crisp crust, and nicely filling. Just give me a shout if you would like the recipe as I took a picture of it from a cookbook I was reading and can send you the file. 

Decided to have breakfast for dinner and had the bread as a side to yoghurt and bananas. 

The recipe made two small loaves and two baby buns, which worked quite well too. I think next time I will try making spelt bread...or maybe irish soda bread. So many to try!

P.S While searching for an image of the book at the beginning, I happened across a blog by the same name, which has some lovely-looking salad recipes.