These really are crazy times. We have a disease spreading across the world killing thousands. It may not kill a large proportion of us, but health services will struggle to cope and many families will lose loved ones. China, Italy, Spain and Iran have already lost thousands. So we in the UK now find ourselves told to stay at home. Before we got to that point some were already clearing out the supermarkets of certain goods. As well as toilet rolls and pasta they also tool a lot of the baking stuff. I could find no flour or yeast recently.
Luckily I had some stocks. A friend is a miller and supplied us with some sacks of white bread flour. His other half works in a supermarket and got us some yeast (see below). So I was able to bake this loaf in our Panasonic machine.
I have been exploring some of the recipes beyond the basic loaves. This inspired me to add some porridge oats to add some flavour. The dark crust setting makes it really crispy.
As for the yeast, I usually get the dried sort that lasts for ages. What I got this time was fresh yeast that comes in a huge block. I only need a few grams per loaf. I read that it keeps for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator, but that you can freeze it. I think this is what they use in the bakery where they will make hundreds of loaves each day.
There were various opinions expressed online. Some thought you needed to mix the yeast with some water and sugar, but I just crumbled some in the bottom of the pan. Last night I did a loaf on timer using the same method and it came out fine. Having the water on top of the flour seems to keep the yeast dry as you do not want it to activate too early.
The family demolish a loaf in a day so I will be making another tonight. This still leaves me with far more flour and yeast than I will get through soon so I put out an offer on the local 'good neighbour' Facebook group in case anyone was desperate. One lady came for some of each. I also have my old bread maker that I am willing to give away and I offered that too.
There is a lot of good work going on to ensure everyone is okay. Some cannot get out to buy supplies.
There is extra respect for our National Health Service that is doing all it can to care for the sick. It is such a shame that Tory governments have tried to run it down for years. They are all in favour of private enterprise, but it should not be about profit. As a gesture of thanks someone proposed that we all go outside this evening and applaud the NHS workers even if we cannot get together. We were out clapping and could hear many others doing the same. It is going to be interesting to see if there are some policy changes when this is all over.
Enjoy your bread, but think of others. I hope everyone is well and has what they need to get by.