Kitchen Concoctions

I've been at it again, making my own flavoured bread.

Two to be precise. First off was another chilli loaf, but this time, using two finely chopped fresh chillies, rather than pre-prepared jallepino ones. Much hotter this time, but still not too fiery to blow your head off. I should try marketing this receipe.

The second one wasn't so successful. A celery loaf. One full stalk of celery roughly chopped into small chunks and added to the mixture. The bread itself came out fine, but the flavour of the vegetable was completely lost in the baking process. All it provided was a bit of texture to the loaf.

The hardest thing about ad-libbing in the bakery is getting the amount of water right. If any of you have tried baking your own loaf, you'll know the water level is critical. A few millilitres short and the bread won't rise and will be dry and crusty. A few millilitres too much and it will rise too much, stick to the roof of the machine and make a mess. If it's just a plain loaf you're making then there isn't a problem, the water level is pre-determined. If you are adding an ingredient for flavour however, you have to predict how much extra water it will provide.

Chillies for instance contain very little moisture, so you don't have to leave much water out. Celery on the other hand is a very watery vegetable, so I could easily have come a cropper here if I hadn't left some water out of the bake....

...I got it spot on :)

So what next? A cheese loaf seems the obvious next step. I can add a large handful of finely grated mature cheddar. Or perhaps an onion loaf? They sell those at the farmers market, but it would be much more fun to make my own. I could try a tomato loaf, but I think I'd need to use puree rather than fresh tomatoes, just for the intensity of flavour. If any one has any suggestions I'm always open to new ideas.

p.s. on a side note, I saw on a cooking programme recently how easy it is to grow your own chilli plant. You just need to leave a fresh chilli til it goes off, and the seeds rattle inside. Cut it open, plant a couple of seeds in a small pot and wait. When they sprout, keep the largest one, and remove the others. Got to be worth a go, now I've sort of proved I've got green fingers by keeping Bob alive for nearly a whole year!