word of the week #34

There has been a feast of baked goods in this house in the last week. From last Friday night's attempt at arlettes, two separate batches of biscotti by The Husband, and tonight's Great British Bake Off baguettes, it feels like we have spent the week covered in a gentle dusting of flour.

I haven't baked all that much in recent months, and it is nice to be getting back into the habit. It can feel a bit unhealthy always having sweet snacks around though, and I've never been great at resisting a biscuit!

As much as I enjoy making cakes, recipes with pastry, bread and biscuits are not that common for me. The Husband goes through phases of making biscuits, and they are always lovely, but I tend to end up with uneven blobs of a dubious texture whenever I try. It's not often I make pastry but I can do a reasonable attempts at shortcrust, and I enjoyed learning how to make puff pastry too.

Bread and I struggle to get along, partly I think because I don't eat that much bread normally, so it's doesn't seem worth the effort, and partly because I invariably end up covered in it. I left a trail from work surface, to windowsill, on my shirt, my phone case and my face. It somehow manages to get everywhere, and where there isn't dough, there are light dustings of flour. We have been inundated with dough this week and I think we will be cleaning it up for a few more days yet. It was all worth it for the smell of freshly baked bread though!