On Monday night, I was angry, very very angry.
Anyone who saw my post last week can guess what the issue is. It was the builder, he didn’t show on Monday. This is the frustrating thing about renting, I don’t employ the builder but I’m the one living with his half arsed work ethic. The three day job he started last Monday is still not finished, my bedroom is a mess and I don’t appreciate adding ‘cover bed with dust-sheet’ and ‘move furniture’ to my morning task list. We are now in day 7 of a 3-day job, and the delay is entirely due to the personal issues of the builder. If I had employed him, I would have fired him by now, but I can’t, so I seethe. The chances of the job being finished by Wednesday are getting more and more remote.
Anyway, enough whining about the flat. on Monday I decided to cheer myself up with some baking. It didn’t go well. I knew what I wanted, an apple-y cinnamon sweet bread. It didn’t happen and I know why, which means, I’m frustrated with myself because I know better and should have warmed the milk to activate the yeast. I am an idiot. Knowing that the rise, or lack thereof, was an issue, I bunged it in the oven anyway and didn’t cook it long enough.
It really wasn’t good.
It bits that were cooked actually tasted good, if a bit stodgy, so I’m going to re-visit the recipe on the weekend. Moral of the story, baking when cross and tired, not a good idea.
Nic Dempsey 
I’ve got my fingers crossed for you that everything gets sorted soon.
It’s so hard when those kinds of feelings take over. I try to do something physcial that doesn’t involve thinking, but it’s getting harder now winter is upon us. So broke out my bread book and bought ingredients to start making more bread so I can knead for stress relief.
The bread sounds like it could be amazing so keep keep trying 🙂 Will you put the recipe up?
Thank you, I think I started it for stress relief, I’m a lazy baker and do minimum kneading if I can help it! But I was too cross to actually engage my brain. Maybe the moral is not too try any new recipes when I’m feeling like that!
Winter is tough though, every year I surprised by now emotionally I react to it being dark but at least it will be spring again soon!
And yes I will put up the recipe when I get it right, though I’m thinking buns rather than a loaf next time. What book are you using? We should have a swap of recipes!
Good plan. Stick recipes you know well and get comfort from! Mine is a peanut butter cookie recipe (which reminds me I should blog that!)
A friend sent me a Paul Holloway Bread book (not the big one) so i plan on working my way through that, starting right at the beginning with a basic white loaf recipe 🙂
Yes lets do that! Any tips too woudl be great 🙂
I don’t know that I have too many tips, except show it no fear and don’t knead too much! I love Annalisa Barbieri’s blog, Pane Amore e Cha Cha Cha, she bakes a lot of sourdough, I wouldn’t have tried it if I hadn’t read about her doing it first and she’s made me a fan of Dan Lepard, who’s recipe for baps is the best one I’ve ever used. The recipe for sourdough that I use most often is HFW’s from the Guardian, I just muck about with it as needed, varying the flour I use or added stuff. I’ve been adding raisins to it recently! And bunging some of the spare starter into my usual pizza dough has been a genius move! I’m really looking forward to seeing how you get on with the baking, it always gives me such a sense of accomplishment. There was this point were I sat down and ate toast and jam and I’d made both of them, that was a good moment!