One Goal Down.

I have a new follower – Rachel. Good day to you! Thank you so much for visiting! X

Whoo Hoo! 15 followers, am I almost a cult?? :o)

Hand on heart, all yesterday I was planning on posting today about the wrap dress. Then I started thinking about May Goals and that got me started on bread, which got me reading my new Hairy Bikers Bakeation Book. Ooooo I love it so. Such a shame the series has now finished.

So yesterday I decided I was going to make their Rosemary Focaccia Bread.

Mentally, running through my store cupboard ingredients I realised – no rosemary and living in a flat – no garden to pick it from. Hmmmm will have to pop to the shop to grab some then.

A couple of hours later and I am in the car driving home from another horrid day. “To heck with this!” I thought “I am not spending more damn cash!”.

One of my favourite things about having made bread for a couple of months, is you feel a bit more confident about making substitutions in a recipe.

After reading Home Joys’ blog and her 6 part post on sugar I have for the last few weeks been substituting refined white sugar for maple syrup which is a natural sugar and better for you. 2 teaspoons of sugar called for? Put in 1 tablespoon of maple syrup instead.

So I did the same with the Hairy Bikers recipe. Once you have made bread a couple of times you can feel when a dough has been kneaded enough and apart from alterations to a bread basic recipe e.g. less flour and more olive oil, it was very straight forward.

(disclaimer – I am not a bread expert and have only been baking my own since February.)

After the second proving, is when I should have added rosemary. Hmmm, a quick review of the fridge revealed the opened Dutch Goats Cheese I bought two weeks ago when I was in Amsterdam. That will do!  Grated about a quarter of a very small wheel and sprinkled it over the bread after dribbling the bread with more olive oil and salt / pepper.

Came out looking like this, and tasted absolutely delicious!

"G” at the office this morning was raving about it when I took in half as an office treat. Her favourite of everything I bake is “my” Nigella Lemon Loaf. So G measures everything against that.

We might have a new favourite on our hands. It was perfect at 9.30am with our second cup of tea of the day.

Another May Goal down!

And,  a No Spend Day today, and aiming for 2 in a row.

And finally, thanks so much for the ebay information Mrs No Spend. All very useful. Will get set up on PayPal over the next couple of days and then start the selling! Excited but nervous.

Frugally yours

Abigail

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