Recipe 9: Cottage Loaf

Oh wow, Cottage Loaf – what an epic fail!


I thought it was going to be okay as it's just a normal bread recipe, the only difference is that it's pretty! It is less common in Bakeries today due to it being time consuming to make and difficult to slice.


There isn't much to tell with this recipe as like I said, it is a normal bread recipe but something went wrong! Right from the start I nearly threw the mixture away and started again – which I should of done! The mixture was just being so difficult, I'm not sure what I did, maybe too much water?



















When I started to knead the mixture, it sort of went normal so maybe it needed flour but it still felt far too sticky. Hopefully when I get to understand bread more, I'll know where I went wrong!



It raised quite well but as soon as I started to knock the dough out, it was very sticky again! It was a nightmare when I had to shape it into the shape, I thought it was going well, the cob shape when fine! But then (before the proving) you have to make a hole in the top with your fingers and make cuts in the side which usually you do right before putting in the oven which I thought was odd! As I was putting the cuts in, it felt like it was deflating so I knocked the air out of it, just in case I hadn't done this right but alas, the same thing happened once I shaped it, etc again!
So after you've done the cuts, you then leave it to prove...



It was always a bad shape to begin before it went in the oven for 30 minutes but it looked even more like a fail afterwards! You can see in the picture below my one and in the background the picture from the book – oh dear!!



Maybe when I've got through the whole book, I'll try this again...