Spiced Breakfast Bread...experiment

Well, I have been industrious in the kitchen - at times, and industrious at work, but writing...hmmmm. I suppose I could say the computer deleted my post, but that's as likely as the dog eating my homework! No, I have just been procrastinating, and what makes it worse is that the finer details of my 'industriousness' are slowly fading. Could this be old-age?!?

The sooner I share with you the better! One Monday I decided to stop mucking about and get into the kitchen. I had actually been missing just getting in there, donning my red apron and mixing up something different. I decided to start with something I had never made before, with some methods I have never used before. Recipe to follow in the next post!

This is a Spiced Breakfast Bread recipe from Gordon Ramsay's Gordon makes it easy.. book. It is very clearly set out, and seemed relatively simple to make, but when the moment of truth arrived, the result wasn't as desired as I would hope.

Don't get me wrong, it was edible and I have certainly managed to eat it, but it was not soft and delectable as I had hoped. I will say that I made one change to the recipe, which I hadn't thought a problem, maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, if any one's a breadmaker some guidance would be appreciated. The recipe called for 125g of plain flour (check) and 125g buckwheat flour (couldn't find) so I substituted it for plain flour. Could this have been the mistake? I followed the method of cooking to a tee, and when it came to checking the bread the clean knife I had used to test it came out clean. So I pulled the loaf out and left it to cool for 5 minutes in the loaf tin as instructed. When I can to remove it, it had sunk in the middle, and it seemed uncooked through the centre. Now, I've made 100 banana breads before with no hassle and never had a cake sink in the middle so I'm not sure whether it was the ingredient switch or a case of over- or underbeating in the recipe. If anyone has an answer, it would be appreciated as I'd really like to do this again, but I'm not in the mood for multiple flops! It's not good for my ego ;)

I ended up toasting a piece very generously and drowning it in butter, and then freezing the rest. The flavour was delicious. A really wintery, gingerbready smell and flavour enveloped the house for the afternoon and I was quite ready for a fire crackling in a fire place and a cup of mulled wine, but I can't keep baking a bread just for the smell of it!

I will post the recipe in a following post, and hopefully someone else will take a crack at it and pass on their comments. If yours is superb, pass on your hints and tips, or if any of you seasoned bakers can help let me know because...I want to get it RIGHT!!

See you soon,
xoxo