Pregnancy changes everyone. I like to think it changed me into this domestic goddess who is patient and kind and a super mom and cooks and looks like a dream.
Of course, I'm dead wrong.
What it did do was give me this crazed but half-baked nesting instinct (more about that later) which drove me to try all kinds of things during my pregnancy. My only excuse is hormones frying my brains. Can you think of any other reason why I would (at 4 a.m.) look up an online craft store and order knitting needles in ALL the sizes they have available?
Anyway, one of the crazed experiments was bread. I must have waded through hundreds of recipes in my lust for the perfect home-made whole-wheat/ multigrain bread. And most of them added all-purpose flour to the recipe which I emphatically did not want. I did finally hit upon one that worked for me with the addition of some baking soda and baking powder.
Of late, I've been on a selective health kick to lose the pregnancy kilos. I eat chocolate and ice cream but make bread at home in the belief that it will keep me healthy.
So while I was doing the weekly loaf today, the yeast gave up the ghost. It just wouldn't foam. I tried adding more yeast, I tried more sugar, placed the bowl in the sunlight and even left the kitchen only to pop my head around the door suddenly to make sure it wasn't pulling a fast one on me. Didn't work.
I went ahead with the dough anyway and was grumbling away when (of course) it refused to rise. After tea with the MIL (blessedly free of breast milk - the tea, not the MIL) I was rummaging through the fridge and spied a pint of beer. All excited, I ran back to the MIL, "Mamma, beer is well, yeast and bubbles, isn't it? It ought to rise with beer." She gave me a jaundiced look and said, "Well, you like to add alcohol to EVERYTHING - your husband does it to mutton, you do it to apple stew, cake, and once, memorably to soup... so I don't see why you shouldn't try this, especially as it will mean a couple of sips from the bottle for you."
So I did, and realised, upon a quick Google search, that loads of people do make beer bread. Aha. And here it is... Not the best but 'twill do... and we shall bring on the beer from the start next time.
Of course, I'm dead wrong.
What it did do was give me this crazed but half-baked nesting instinct (more about that later) which drove me to try all kinds of things during my pregnancy. My only excuse is hormones frying my brains. Can you think of any other reason why I would (at 4 a.m.) look up an online craft store and order knitting needles in ALL the sizes they have available?
Anyway, one of the crazed experiments was bread. I must have waded through hundreds of recipes in my lust for the perfect home-made whole-wheat/ multigrain bread. And most of them added all-purpose flour to the recipe which I emphatically did not want. I did finally hit upon one that worked for me with the addition of some baking soda and baking powder.
Of late, I've been on a selective health kick to lose the pregnancy kilos. I eat chocolate and ice cream but make bread at home in the belief that it will keep me healthy.
So while I was doing the weekly loaf today, the yeast gave up the ghost. It just wouldn't foam. I tried adding more yeast, I tried more sugar, placed the bowl in the sunlight and even left the kitchen only to pop my head around the door suddenly to make sure it wasn't pulling a fast one on me. Didn't work.
I went ahead with the dough anyway and was grumbling away when (of course) it refused to rise. After tea with the MIL (blessedly free of breast milk - the tea, not the MIL) I was rummaging through the fridge and spied a pint of beer. All excited, I ran back to the MIL, "Mamma, beer is well, yeast and bubbles, isn't it? It ought to rise with beer." She gave me a jaundiced look and said, "Well, you like to add alcohol to EVERYTHING - your husband does it to mutton, you do it to apple stew, cake, and once, memorably to soup... so I don't see why you shouldn't try this, especially as it will mean a couple of sips from the bottle for you."
So I did, and realised, upon a quick Google search, that loads of people do make beer bread. Aha. And here it is... Not the best but 'twill do... and we shall bring on the beer from the start next time.
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