Harvest bread-making: the Wisbech and North Nene Parishes Mothers' Union gets kneading

 Well it's been a long time since there has been a blog, but it has been a really busy summer. It's now time to catch up with all that has been going on.

This Harvest-time, the Ladies and Gentleman of the Wisbech &  North Nene Parishes Mothers' Union decided to make some harvest loaves to celebrate the harvest home. The trusted "bread-in-a-bag" approach was employed so minimise the mess and maximise the success. This involves adding all the dry ingredients to a (strong, zip-locked) bag, then adding the water and the oil and kneading it in the bag. The loaf can then be left to prove in the bag, "knocked back" and given a second rise and then baked for the perfect lunch time accompaniment.



Here they all ready to get going....


 ....and the group hard at work. Kneading bread also allows for catching up on the gossip so good multi-tasking




Each bag carried with it the Mothers' Union Harvest prayer so that each loaf felt special.

And here is the end result:

    

Our Secretary and Canon Matthew showing off their beautifully baked loaves. Yum!

So the process is very simple and a lot of fun. A good way to celebrate such an important time of year in this, a traditional rural community.

Here's the recipe: 225g Strong white flour, 1tsp. easy blend yeast, 1/2 tsp salt, 1tsps. sugar. Add 100mls warm water and 1 tab olive oil.

Enjoy.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On with the Hard Hats #2

Image
Flushed with the success of the first tour, more intrepid congregation members braved the trip up to the roof to check on the progress. There has been a lot completed in the last little while. The north roof is almost completely finished and the contractors are about to start on the south side. The first photo shows the completed roof. A total of 112 msq of lead has gone on to the roof and this weighs 12 tons, which is more than a full laden double-decker bus. This picture shows one of the roof beams that was repaired by the Victorians (renowned for their bodge jobs). Although this was done properly, the bolts they used to make the mend were too short which is why the beam has failed again. This time a new piece of oak has been spliced inside the beam and the job is good for another 150 years. Before the work began, the obligatory bat survey showed that there were some long-eared bats in residence among these beams, but they are safe from all the disturbance and work. One o
Read more

On With The Hard Hats!

Image
A little while ago, some of the more intrepid members of the congregation climbed the 20ft ladder in the company of the architect to see progress on the south side of the roof. The process so far is to strip off the old lead and then melt it down, roll it out flat (by pouring the molten lead onto a bed of sand so that it is completely flat and smooth) and the re-applying it to the roof. Simples! Just factor in the weight of the lead (17lbs per square foot or 71Kgs per roll) which has to be hauled up by a hoist and there you are. The purpose of the lead is to weather-proof the finished roof, so each sheet has to be overlapped by 3ft. This has been happening to church roofs across the country since the earliest church building and hasnt changed much in all that time; indeed the Romans perfected the method of making water pipes out of lead (another of the amazing things the Romans did for us!). But why lead? It's extremely soft and easy to work into any shapes required and has a v
Read more