Sunday, May 24, 2009
Knackered
That's what I get for doing a 30-minute workout instead of my normal 15-minute one.
I've been a bit lazy recently and haven't managed to do my near-daily 15-minute session with My Fitness Coach. So today I thought I'd get back onto the horse and push myself a little by doing the 30-minute workout, thus catching up one of the missing days. Urggghhh. That does not feel like a good idea right now, as the result is that I'm knackered. I have visions of me crawling into the shower shortly, verticality being beyond me right now.
It would be counteractive to have a piece of currant bread to revive myself, wouldn't it? I actually have some currant bread at present, having today experimented with the breadmaker. The machine has been sitting in the corner doing nothing since I moved in and I'd decided this weekend that I would see if I could make fruit bread with it. I was temporarily halted by the fact that I don't have any dried milk but with the application of a little Google-fu I discovered that it was fine to replace that and the water with normal milk and add more flour to the equivalent mass of solids. It seems that the main purpose of the milk is to enable the loaf to brown more easily.
So this morning I filled up the breadmaker with flour, milk, yeast, sugar, salt and about half of the recommended amount of cinnamon for a fruit loaf. I'm don't mind cinnamon in small amounts but certainly not to the extend that seems common in American recipes. I managed to stop myself from opening the machine just to see how it was going on and then added the fruit when the machine beeped at me. Then it was just a case of being distracted by the Grand Prix while it cooked.
And it did indeed cook. The outside is a bit darker and crispier than I'd have preferred, and the bread is dark russet thanks to the cinnamon, but it's definitely fruit bread and tastes pretty good buttered. I can see that I'll be making more of this one, although on a lower browning setting and without the cinnamon (which is unfortunately repeating on me).
I suspect that making bread will be a lot cheaper than buying it, given that decent bread is on the expensive side. This week's shopping list will therefore have to include strong white flour, I think.
I've been a bit lazy recently and haven't managed to do my near-daily 15-minute session with My Fitness Coach. So today I thought I'd get back onto the horse and push myself a little by doing the 30-minute workout, thus catching up one of the missing days. Urggghhh. That does not feel like a good idea right now, as the result is that I'm knackered. I have visions of me crawling into the shower shortly, verticality being beyond me right now.
It would be counteractive to have a piece of currant bread to revive myself, wouldn't it? I actually have some currant bread at present, having today experimented with the breadmaker. The machine has been sitting in the corner doing nothing since I moved in and I'd decided this weekend that I would see if I could make fruit bread with it. I was temporarily halted by the fact that I don't have any dried milk but with the application of a little Google-fu I discovered that it was fine to replace that and the water with normal milk and add more flour to the equivalent mass of solids. It seems that the main purpose of the milk is to enable the loaf to brown more easily.
So this morning I filled up the breadmaker with flour, milk, yeast, sugar, salt and about half of the recommended amount of cinnamon for a fruit loaf. I'm don't mind cinnamon in small amounts but certainly not to the extend that seems common in American recipes. I managed to stop myself from opening the machine just to see how it was going on and then added the fruit when the machine beeped at me. Then it was just a case of being distracted by the Grand Prix while it cooked.
And it did indeed cook. The outside is a bit darker and crispier than I'd have preferred, and the bread is dark russet thanks to the cinnamon, but it's definitely fruit bread and tastes pretty good buttered. I can see that I'll be making more of this one, although on a lower browning setting and without the cinnamon (which is unfortunately repeating on me).
I suspect that making bread will be a lot cheaper than buying it, given that decent bread is on the expensive side. This week's shopping list will therefore have to include strong white flour, I think.