School holidays - Day 11: Bread & cousins

The breadmaker has been languishing in the back of the cupboard for a while, so it was time to pull him out and put him to work. (For some unknown reason, all the household appliances in this neck of the woods are male, particularly if they can cook. It may have something to do with my culinary reluctance.) Anyway, we forgot to buy bread yesterday, and apparently the crumpets we do have weren't good enough. So the breadmaker was called on to do his duty. I love his delay function - I can throw all the ingredients in and have fresh warm bread ready when we wake. And because that hasn't happened in a while, I woke to a fresh warm 7 year old throw herself at me in gratitude this morning!

As he was already out, and the MIL & cousins were coming over to play today, I pressed the breadmaker into further duty, and made a rosemary and fetta pullapart. Oh my! It was magnificent. Awesome. Delicious. Light & buttery. And so, so easy.



And it worked - it pulled apart, just like it was supposed to! MIL was impressed - first tiramisu, then this. I have so gone up in the world!

The recipe came from baf65 at forumthermomix.com (although i didn't use the Thermomix this time) via brazen's culinary adventures (hers is prettier than mine). Definitely a keeper.

Pullapart loaf

750g Bakers Flour
450g lukewarm water
15g yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
5 tbs oil

Filling - 120g herb butter (you can use herbs, garlic, sundried tomatoes, whatever takes your fancy mixed in with the butter)

Prepare yeast dough and leave to rise (I used the breadmaker on dough cycle).
Roll dough out into a big rectangle.
Spread butter over the dough.
Cut rectangle in half widthways then cut 3-4cm wide strips lengthways.
Fold strips into a concertina and arrange in a springform tin (lined with baking paper on the bottom).
Bake at 180 degrees C for 40-45mins (you can put straight into a cold oven without proving again or you can leave to rise and then put into warm oven)


Oh, and about the cousins. Can you tell me why the volume of four children is far greater than double the volume of two children? Especially when it's a sunny day but they inexplicably would rather play inside when you're desperately trying to get some work done (I mean paying work. I have no problem with housework being interrupted).