OneGuyFromBarlick

PanBiker, what is your recipe for 500gms? I tend to add a few grams of different herbs just to give it a more individual favour.

I don't alter the liquid amount when I add seeds as they are not really porous as such.

500g Strong Flour
25g butter
1stp salt
2tsp sugar
1pkt (7g) dried yeast
300ml warm water (2/3 cold - 1/3 boiling)

I added about 50 - 75g of seeds to the dry mix.

The sugar gives it a better crust and helps the yeast along a bit to give a faster rise, it's not needed in the recipe if you don't want it, I tend to use demerara or brown sugar.

I would chuck all the dry ingredients in first along with the rubbed in butter and then add the water as required. 300ml is just right for my seeded effort. You might need slightly more depending how much more dried ingredients you are putting in. Same recipe if substitution Olive Oil for the butter, both of which are part of the moisture content of the dough. If you get it slightly too wet you can always add a bit more flour at the kneading stage.

Thanks Ian. Exactly the same as mine although I tend to split the Butter/ olive oil and Lard to give the same total amount. I found whole butter a bit too much of a cake mix. Possibly a little less sugar also helps.

I do miss my home made breads!

Looking at the figures below, one might ask how a tin of drink with 7 teaspoons of sugar can be palatable. The answer is that it also contains a lot of acid. This `hides' the sugar taste - and likewise, sugar hides the acid taste. This is well-known to, and much used by, formulators of food and drink products. It also explains why such drinks rot teeth. We usually put that down to sugar encouraging mouth bacteria but the acid dissolves the tooth enamel too. Why do we allow such dangerous products? We don't let kids drink sulphuric acid!

`Call to tax 'hidden' sugar in pre-mixed alcoholic drinks' LINK
`...The sweetest gin and mixer was Classic Combinations Pink Gin and Tonic, containing 27g of sugar (nearly seven teaspoons) in a 250ml can - the same sugar content as Coke. An Archers Schnapps and Lemonade and a Malibu and Cola both contained 33g per 250ml can. Nine out of 10 of the pre-mixed spirits and cocktails in the study did not have clear on-pack information about the sugar content within, the researchers found. These products are not legally required to have a nutrition label on them...
How much added sugar per day? Adults should have no more than 30g. Seven- to 10-year-olds should have no more than 24g. Four- to six-year-olds should have no more than 19g

On my early morning walk I regularly litter pick cans dropped by kids on their way to school after buying their 'breakfast' at the Co-op store. I almost always read the labels and the ingredients are horrific! Sugar and caffeine figure largely in them and many were no doubt combined with a bar of chocolate or something similar. I cant think of a worse start to the day, a far cry from my mother's porridge or eggs and bacon!
What will the long term consequences be? Will they even survive into old age? I worry about this and fear for their future. In my opinion one of the main duties of a parent is to ensure that their children start the day with some good old fashioned nourishment. And I don't mean a bowl of highly processed, sugar loaded breakfast cereal.
Bugger the cholesterol, let's hear it for the bacon butty and a glass of milk!

My favourite breakfast cereals are Oat Crisp and Oatibix Flakes. My gut copes with oat fibre whereas wheat bran fibre gives me problems. Much of the fibre in oats is the soluble dietary type but that in bran is coarse crude fibre.

It must be a constant worry Tiz. I often think of you when I am using industrial quantities of Lea and Perrins sauce..... Mind you, yesterday I made a black pudding omelette, a big mistake, it looked horrible. You would have escaped that one!

Black pudding omelette...
I can imagine Terry Jones sitting down to a meal with you and saying `Oh no, not another bloody omelette!'

It wasn't good Tiz. I am reconsidering my relationship with blood puddings after that one. I remember putting on in a stew once and that was a failure as well. I am tending to the opinion that the best way to eat them is how we were given them in Bolton one day when I was giving a talk yo the Bolton Rotary Club. We had it for a starter, just a plain boiled black pudding with Coleman's mustard.

I always have a bit of black pudding with a full English breakfast, the Stornoway black pudding is one of my favourites.

I watched a programme on the BBC a while ago about the Bury black pudding factory, interesting to see that the blood they use comes from Spain. I wonder if there'll be an impact after January 31st.

Try these from Home Bargains. Good pedigree, and a use by date of June 2020. Weighs 454 g which is a pound (lb) in old money, and costs only 90p. I reckon it could be used in an omelette without any major disaster - keeps its shape under cooking.

They've changed a lot in the last years (decades?) The big chunks of back fat have gone, and they're a lot more sliceable and user friendly. Promoted mercilessly by top chefs seeking to increase their profit margin. I saw that programme too, and recall that they are all made from powdered blood now.

I wonder what happens to the British pig blood - perhaps Brexit will create a new market for it, since of course all imports from the EU will stop next Saturday after we leave.

How do you cook your black pudding, Tripps? It always seems to get fried down here in the south. I seem to recall it being boiled back in my childhood.

I just slice it and gently fry it. bear in mind it is already cooked, and you're just reheating it. Boiling is a thing of the past for me. I still get the Bury Market ones very occasionally when family visit Bury - and if I'm very good - a tin of Uncle Joe's Mint Balls.

Ah, Uncle Joe's Mint Balls. A Wigan speciality! (if I remember rightly, Joe Santos.) I love the hard white fat in black puddings, I was once told it was imported from Normandy so that might vanish as well! I agree about frying black puddings. They go well with egg yolk! I shall never put one in an omelette again!

Perhaps black pudding should be studied by this team!
`Space cookies: First food baked in space by astronauts' LINK

I haven't given up on them. I got one yesterday at Kathy's to replace the one that I used in the omelette. This one will be fried and eaten with eggs!

Tesco is selling Easter eggs in January!

Co-op are doing it and Hot X Buns as well. Have they no shame?

I forgot to mention that on Shrove Tuesday Mrs Tiz was on the team that made the pancakes for a local village WI event. It's a long established thing in the village and very popular - the WI make good pancakes. Mrs Tiz was in charge of the `toppings'. They made 200 pancakes and sold 180. She was worn out on her return home!

That brought back a memory Tiz. My mother stood at the gas stove making pancakes and us sitting at the table eating them as fast as she could turn them out. I remember that the 'topping' was always the same, a sprinkle of sugar and freshly squeezed lemon juice.....
Saw a programme on TV yesterday on take-away meals and how unhealthy they are compared to the same meals made at home (and far more expensive). I suppose I knew but was still shocked at interviews with families who subsist almost entirely on take-aways. Such a sad commentary on the 'modern' way of life. Include me out!!

Contrary to what some might think, the WI can be very `modern' - they also provided gluten-free pancakes!

I have always been a fan of Jam and Jerusalem. They occasionally produce very good calendars as well...

I used to buy jam and the occasional cake, from WI stall on the market. The whole market is now almost deceased, and the jam and cakes were banned by the Health and safety barons who deemed it not safe to make them in an unregulated kitchen.

I don't go to the local small market town much now, and my last visit was depressing. Lots of Turkish barbers and cafes , Vietnamese nail bars, charity shops, tattoo parlours, and so many ladys' hairdressers. Almost nothing to make me want to go again.

Enjoy Barlick while you can. Its isolation may put off the evil day?

Tripps wrote: ↑01 Mar 2020, 12:23 Turkish barbers and cafes , Vietnamese nail bars, charity shops, tattoo parlours, and so many ladys' hairdressers.

We already have all of them apart from the Vietnamese nail bars, ours or run by locals but we do have lots and a tanning studio as well.