Ugh. What was I thinking of? The more I think about it, this recipe, whilst it might have tasted good, never had the pedigree to be a good looking blog post from the start.
From now on I vow only to decide to bake things that at least stand a fighting chance of being pretty.
Normally I would bin stuff that turns out like this but a) it’s my Fresh From The Oven entry and my good friend Helly at Fuss Free Flavours is hosting this month so I didn’t want to miss and b) I never claim to be any kind of “expert” so here is the proof.
Helly gave us free rein to make any kind of (hideous, disastrous) bread this month but stipulated that we should be able to trace exactly where our flour came from. This malt loaf flour has stamped on the pack that is a blend from three different mills in Oxfordshire. I would trek downstairs to check but since it’s nearly midnight I’ll assume it’s enough detail to say it’s from Lewknor.
At the Masterchef Live show back in November, I came across the Wessex Mill flours stand who were selling malt loaf bread flour. Nostalgic for Soreen and keen to buy things that I don’t normally see in the shops, I pocketed a bag and looked forward to making my own home made malt loaf that would eclipse the sticky wodges from the supermarket.
Only like Monster Munch and Oreos, somethings are pointless to make yourself when they taste better out the packet and aren’t expensive anyway. Malt loaf would appear to stand in this category.
I wish I could tell you it tastes good but I reckon it needs loads more sugar and also dried fruit (oddly absent from the ingredients list).
You may laugh louder when I tell you that this is the malt loaf upside down. It looked even worse the right way up. I hate cookery errors. I’m too busy for them.
I have been testing out a Morphy Richards bread maker which I was sent to review. Today is not the review. I have had two pretty disappointing experiences with the bread maker so far but I will put these down to arrogantly trying to run before I can walk and persist in making some more straight forward loaves before I cast final judgement.
The recipe on the flour bag did warn that less water may be required for bread makers but advised trial and error with your own machine.
My first attempt using the bread maker had occurred when the whole family were ill. I know I keep banging on about the whole family being ill, it’s kind of had an impact on life round here. Thankfully I am better. The boys are still lurching from post viral hangovers into the next bug appearing without any gap in between. We’re not normally like this.
Anyway, whilst we were running on empty and were too dead on our feet to make it to the convenience store, I decided to use the new bread maker only to realise that it required skimmed milk powder for all the bread recipes. The only thing I could make from the instruction manual without dragging myself to Spar to buy Marvel was the gluten free fruit cake you see above. It was pretty funny looking but we ate it anyway. I guess if you had serious medical grounds to go gluten free you’d be glad of a cake like this but I found it a bit grim. I’m also disturbed by the mark left in everything by the dough hook, it’s like a scar.
I’m not writing the bread maker off yet by any means, enough people I know swear by them so you will hear more about this soon.
No recipe today. I’m assuming noone out there is masochistic enough to make this.
In the meantime, what are you views on bread makers? Do you have any tips or stories for me?
And while we’re at it, should I hide my disasters? Or do you prefer to see them? Even if I am growing alarmed at their frequency lately.
Other Maison Cupcake baking disasters include:
Burnt Hot Cross Buns That Were More Like Rock Cakes
Burnt Stollen (there’s a theme here)
More sucessful bread maker recipes include:
Sunflower Seed Bread in the Bread Maker
I like my bread machine, but like Michelle I only ever use it to make dough. I set the timer so the dough is ready when I get back from work, and all I have to do is knock it back and shape it, throw it in a tin, let it prove again and bake it. I still prefer doing it by hand but unfortunately I rarely seem to have time these days, so this is the next best thing.
Really can’t imagine ever making a cake in it though!
Definitely a lot of people are saying that. I’m still not convinced I want to surrender the counter space though
Sarah, you do make me giggle!
Bread machine bread can be good, and is a huge time saver, but trial and many errors are key!
Thanks for persisting and taking part in FFTO
It’s been really interesting to hear everyone’s bread making machine experiences… Trial and error sounds time consuming!
What a shame! Homemade malt loaf can be truly delicious – sticky and dense and smothered in butter. I’ve never used a bread maker – i don’t have the space for one in my kitchen – but you definitely can do this by hand.
Thank you for posting your mistakes though – it helps more amateur bakers realise that every so often things do go wrong, and is as interesting to read about as all the gorgeous successes you normally post!
Even though my kitchen is quite spacious a bread maker still takes up a lot of room and I’m yet to be convinced it’s worth it yet…
Your post made me laugh!..you’re hilarious Sarah! 🙂 Love reading your write ups. I never used a bread machine before either. I always knead by hand so it would be nice if you master it and write about it – failures included..:D
Thank you Faithy!
Unfortunately I have to stick to a gluten free diet so yes Id be very glad of a cake exactly like yours..actually it looks quite attractive to me:)
Thanks. I reckon it would have been much nicer with a more generous ratio of fruit.