Books and cakes - 52

    Not 'books and cakes', as such today, but 'books and bread'. As far as I could see there was no mention of cake in Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter, which the CBG has been reading this month. Virginia ham on Ritz crackers is served at the McKelva house, and strawberries figure elsewhere, as a recollected pleasure of the Judge's from his days of travelling in some style on the New Orleans-Chicago train, and for Laurel's late mother from her mountain upbringing:

"Nothing you ever ate in your life was anything like as delicate, as fragrant, as those wild white strawberries."

    But it's bread that is the subject of a crucial scene towards the end of the book where Laurel remonstrates with the dreadful Fay over her mother's bread board, made for her by Laurel's late husband Phil:

"Phil loved bread. He loved good bread. To break a loaf and eat it warm, just out of the oven."

    Making bread allowed me to kill two birds with one stone - bake for this book and try out Paul Hollywood's How to Bake for the first time. I chose the recipe for Spelt Bread, and the resulting loaf has turned out very well indeed, much like the picture in the book (see top left) both in terms of crust and crumb, though I have a feeling my tin was smaller than Paul Hollywood's so mine puffed out over the edge a bit rather than achieving the very straight sides of his version, but no matter.

    Yes, we did start in on it warm from the oven.

Comments

[Anji]

It looks delicious!! Enjoy

[Rose Taylor]

I also have Paul Hollywood's How to Bake and I love it. I also like how the color of your bread compliments the book cover.