La rentree...

This is the time of year I really love most of all. I do not (yet) mind the grey, stormy days, I find them exciting. I love the colours of the leaves, the smells, the acorns, the different sort of fungi that sprout up everywhere, the chestnuts, the autumn festivals and the general feeling of tranquility in the air.
This sense of contentment lasts till just after Christmas, I then start to feel depressed by the endless greyness of the skies, the everlasting rain, the darkness of it all... But as yet, I am nowhere near that stage. I always feel the same sort of excitement at this time as at the beginning of the school year, which the French so charmingly have named la rentree...
I was a weird child probably, but I used to love the first few weeks at school after the summer holidays. There were such countless possibilities of hundreds of new things to learn and do, the smell of new pencils and notebooks, the wonder at new subjects... So in that spirit ( and definitely inspired by the great British bake off) I decided to give bread baking a go. I never before did any of it, was always happy to leave that to my dad. And even he chickened out most of the time, and would bake Irish soda bread, however lovely that was none the less.
I did buy a book with lovely bread recipes 5 or 6 years ago and decided to dig it out. As I also found somewhere else a good recipe for toasted teacakes ( which you can not get in this country for love nor money), I had my first go last weekend.
This is my attempt at rye bread. I have always loved the idea of a Rueben sandwich or pastrami on rye, but that particular kind of bread is not to found in the shops here. So finding this recipe was a huge bonus for me. I find it a real wonder that from something looking like this...
After some pummeling and kneading gets to this, I loved the sheen on the dough, which unfortunately does not show in the photograph...
And after some proofing turns into a monster...
I forgot to take a picture of the end result, which tasted quite good, but would not have stood up to any close scrutiny. It looked a bit tight, and I am not sure what caused that, obviously I need to practise a lot more and read a bit more about baking bread.
As I had promised a friend to get her a recipe for Sacher Torte, I had to make a few first to see what the best recipe was. I like baking, which is funny as I am quite slapdash, and if there is one area in cooking where you should not be that, it is baking. Anyway, this is quite a fiddly recipe and I did not quite master the icing. It looks a bit rough and ready, but it did taste quite good.
Now I am off to find a few nostalgic recipes for a children's party, I guess I will find a few in here...

Have a gorgeous weekend, even if it is raining!