Wednesday 21 March 2012

Tom's Flower Bread

1lb strong flour (I used 3:1 white/wholemeal for this)
Half a sachet dried easy-bake yeast
Pinch salt
2 tblspns Oil
1 very big teaspoon of honey
10 floz warm water

To make it fruity and flowery add a few handfuls of dried fruit (rasins, sultanas are good) and dash of seeds (sesame and sunflower are good). I also grated some marzipan into the mixture to add that extra dash of sugary sweetness (like a flower!).

Dissolve the Honey in the water then mix it all up and knead it well for about 10 minutes.  It should form a slightly sticky firm dough.

Put back in the bowl, cover with a tea towel, and leave to rise for 2-3 hours in a warm place; it should approximately double in size.

Knock back and split into 7 equalish sized parts.  Arrange in a flowery shape; one in the middle and the others arround it in a ring, on a greased round baking tray.  Leave a small gap between all the pieces as they will rise again.

Leave to rise once again for about an hour, until the pieces have joined and the flower shape is obvious.

To make it more like a flower I made a red glaze by mixing a bit of red food dye with some milk and icing sugar and painting the outer pieces (the 'petals') with it.  I also sprinkled some seeds on the centre piece.

Cook in a moderate (about 190°C) oven for about 25 minutes.

The bread recipe is adapted from my Mum's - and has been well tested over the years! For a normal loaf use some molasses instead of the honey to get a deeper flavour, and adjust the white/wholemeal balance to taste (1:1 is good).  Each pound of flour produces a 2lb-loaf-tin loaf.

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