I have an amazing bread book. It’s been in my life for so long that I can’t remember whether it actually belongs to me or to my husband, and whether we bought it or it was a gift. What’s certain is that it is so so good that it is like pornography for carbohydrate-lovers like myself.
This is the book: Step-by-step bread. It’s filled with magical photographs, and I dare you to flip through it without saying ‘ooooh!’ ‘ahhhhh’ or ‘mmmmmm’!
It’s not a vegan or even a vegetarian cookbook, but the majority of the recipes are vegan-ifiable and a few are actually vegan. It is from this cookbook that my favourite bread of all time comes: the heavenly rosemary focaccia. This is my husband’s party piece, as it’s quickish, easy and absolutely incredible, as well as being accidentally vegan without any need for substitutions.
Anyway. I digress. Bread can do that to me.
I was looking for a new bread recipe. My husband normally makes all of our bread, and has done since university, when I bought him a bread maker for Christmas, and we never looked back. The bread maker has since given up the ghost, but we still use the same recipe, which produces a nice, tasty, reliable loaf. I fancied having a go at baking a loaf myself, but wanted something new, and turned to the bread book for ideas.
The recipe is for a ‘white loaf’, which sounded simple enough for me. It only has four ingredients, all of which are vegan, which is a good start.
The recipe was simple to follow, although kneading bread is EXHAUSTING! My arms were aching after the ten minutes of kneading were done.
The hardest part about baking bread was definitely all the waiting around. I was excited to try my loaf, but it was over three hours between opening the recipe book and biting into a crust of warm fluffy bread.
The loaf went really well, and I’ll be using the recipe again. I think I ever-so-slightly overcooked it, but the end result still had a really pleasing combination of firm crust and soft middle. It worked well for toast, for sandwiches, and for stuffing straight into my mouth with a drizzle of olive oil (my personal favourite way to eat bread).
All in all, I would rate this recipe a 4.5/5.
The Vegan Who Came to Tea 