Fresh from the Oven - Polenta Bread

This month at the Fresh From the Oven Blog we all made Polenta bread.  I ought to show my interest here because this month the recipe was my pick.  J and I have long been fans of cornmeal and polenta breads - by which I mean yeasted breads with a portion of the flour substituted for cornmeal.  We love American Style cornbread as well but not as a "go to" loaf.  So I scoured my bread books and found a fancy little recipe for an Italian Polenta bread with lashing of melted butter and toasted pine nuts. 

Luckily I made the bread (and took the photos) before I came down with the everlasting virus.  A really nasty germ which has completely knocked me out and meant I haven't been able to do anything except sleep, watch murder mysteries, sleep, read trashy novels and cough...a lot.

I made this loaf as a treat because we had family visiting.  In truth I left it to rise for too long which meant that the bread wasn't stable so when I took the cover off after the final prove it collapsed and went a bit flat.  My own fault and nothing to do with the recipe.  The final loaf was lovely, great flavour and beautiful soft texture (although this was likely due to the large amount of melted butter and not my brilliant technique this time).  Everything enjoyed it and the whole loaf was eaten very quickly.  An excellent toasting bread as I predicted as well thanks to the polenta grains - which make it wonderfully crunchy.

Here is the final photos

If I had one criticism of the recipe it would be the final sprinkling of pine nuts.  In my heart, when I read about that stage in the book, I was concerned that they would burn and they did a little so another time I probably wouldn't bother as no pine nuts is better than overdone pine nuts.

Dough was also very sloppy so I cheated and did each knead in the mixer - I know I know - bad baker!


Polenta Bread Recipe

50g polenta
300ml lukewarm water
15g fresh yeast
1/2 tsp clear honey
225g white bread flour
25g butter
3 tbsp pine nuts
1 and 1/2 tsp salt


For the topping:

1 egg yolk
1 tbsp water
pine nuts for sprinkling

Makes 1 loaf

1. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Mix the polenta and 250ml of the water together in a pan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring continuously with a large wooden spoon. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, or until just warm.

2. In a small bowl, mix the yeast with the remaining water and honey until creamy/frothy (depending on the yeast being fresh/dry). Sift 115g of the flour into a larger bowl. Gradually beat in the yeast mixture, then gradually stir in the polenta mixture to combine. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.

3. Cover the bowl with lightly oiled cling film and leave the dough to rise in a warm place for 2 hours or until it has doubled in bulk.

4. Melt the butter in a small pan add the pine nuts and cook over a medium heat, stirring, until the pale and golden. Set aside to cool.

5. Add the remaining flour and salt to the polenta dough and mix to a soft dough. Knead in the pine nuts cooked in butter (and the butter). Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.

6. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

7. Knock back (punch down) and turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough into two equal pieces and roll each piece into a fat sausage about 38 cm/15 inches long. Plait (braid) together the two pieces and place on the baking sheet. Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave in a warm place for 45 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C/ 400 F/ Gas Mark 6.

8. Mix the egg yolk and water and brush over the loaf. Sprinkle with the pine nuts and bake for 30 minutes or until golden and sounding hollow when tapped on the base. Cool on a wire rack.

I hope it turns out yummy for everyone!

Elevating Women Writers - Forbidden Planet disappointment

Last week when I was on holiday I visited Forbidden Planet, a shop for all things geeky, SF, fantasy, comics, cult etc.  I was ambling around looking at the books when I noticed the Staff Picks section so I popped over to have a read to see if there was anything interesting I might want to try. 

I had read a couple of the picks and the Forever War is already on my To Read list when I suddenly had a thought.  I wondered what the distribution of male to female authors was in the Picks list and what I saw wasn't great.  There were 15 staff picks, of these 1 was obviously written by a women and most of the other authors I knew were men rather than pseudonyms - James Tiptree, I am looking at you!

I wandered over to my partner and told him and said I was thinking I ought to mention this oversight to Forbidden Planet.  He pointed out that since they were Staff Picks - Forbidden Planet might just say that they had no control over what their staff read and recommended and he had a point. But I felt sad, marginalised and a bit alienated over the whole thing. So I went away and consulted some good friends and then emailed Forbidden Planet with a list of our Reader Picks because there is some amazing SF and Fantasy writing out there by women and it seems a shame if the staff of Forbidden Planet are not reading it. In compiling this list I leaned heavily on many excellent friends who had many excellent suggestions.  Some things made the cut and some didn't but obviously this list is not exhaustive and will probably grow organically over the years.

I am posting it publicly because in my quest to compile it I was really sad to see many of my good friends say that they couldn't really name any SF or Fantasy they had read written by women.  So to all of you I say take this list as an inspiration for some really cool stuff you might enjoy.

There is lots on this list I haven't read that I can't wait to get stuck into so please bear in mind that this list is a group effort and that everyone likes different things.

So without further ado... the list

 Octavia Butler - the Parable of the Talents/Lillith's Brood
 Ursula Le Guin - The Earthsea Trilogy/ The Left Hand of Darkness/The Dispossessed
 Elizabeth Moon - The Sheepfarmer's Daughter
 Joan D. Vinge – The Snow Queen Cycle/ Cat
 Tanith Lee – Tales from the Flat Earth/The Silver Metal Lover/Drinking Sapphire Wine
 Robin Hobb – The Tawny Man trilogy/The Liveship Traders series
 Patricia McKillip – The Riddle Master Trilogy/ Fool’s Run
 R. A. MacAvoy – The Lens of the World series/ Tea with the Black Dragon
 Michelle West – The Sacred Hunt and The Sun Sword series
 Elizabeth Haydon – Rhapsody series
 Andre Norton – Witch World series/Red Hart Magic
 Mercedes Lackey – The Last Herald Mage trilogy
 Sheri S Tepper - The Gate to Women's Country/The Margarets/Beauty.
 Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow/Children of God
 Lois McMaster Bujold  -  Vorkosigan saga
 Robin McKinely - The Blue Sword/The Hero and the Crown
 Barbara Hambly -  Darwath/Dragonsbane
 Naomi Novik - Temerarie series
Katherine Kerr - Palace series/Deverry series
James Tiptree - Writes SF short stories, all of them are recommended.
Gwyneth Jones - The Aleutian Series
Trudi Cannavan - The Black Magician series
Felicity Savage - Humility Garden/Delta City
Julian May - Saga of the Exiles
Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

This is my back up of my old blog 447 entries which is quite a lot really and came as a surprised to me :)

http://posterous.com/manage#import-mmje/posts

A Hard Day's Night

Gah - worst migraine since I was 17. Up all night, threw up my painkillers.  I am totally exhausted now.  Finished Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong because I definitely couldn't manage Gabriel Garcia Marquez in that state. Going back to work tomorrow after my holiday is not filling me with glee.

The Hard Pile

I love reading and this year I have resolved to do less aimless internet surfing and more reading. This has gone very well so far and I have managed to read 36 books since the start of the year. However I am very well aware that none of those books are classics or classified as even remotely challenging. Like most readers I have a hard pile. A pile of classics and other books which sit and look at me and make me feel guilty about reading something more lightweight. Now I am back in slightly better habits I am working on the hard pile.

The rules of the hard pile are:

1. The book is complicated, the ideas and language are more difficult than the average pulp fantasy novel e.g. anything pre-twentieth century.

2. The language and are ideas are easier but are emotionally or intellectually challenging – such that when I get home from a long day at work I don’t feel I want to tackle them e.g. anything with sustained emotional violence or prison rape.

3. The genre of the book isn’t something I usually read – meaning that it is far less appealing to me than my usual SF/fantasy/detective fiction. Several popular novels fall into this category but I do want to read them because I like to have a foothold in general pop culture. I think it is important to understand some of the themes and trends of the time I am living in.

So my current hard list:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love in the Time of Cholera

Toni Morrison – Beloved

Guy Deutscher – the Unfolding of Language

Zoe Heller – Notes on a Scandal

Franz Kafka – Contemplation

Rousseau – Reveries of the Solitary Walker

Leonardo Padura – Havana Red

Donna Tartt – The Secret History

Lily Hyde – Dreamland

Gaston Leroux – The Phantom of the Opera

Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment

So to the reading pile, lets try and cross all these off by this time next year!

To Done

Taking inspiration from another friend’s blog this is the To Done list – a list of the things I have achieve today no matter how small. Sometimes the To Done list will include just thinking about things as it was pointed out to me the act of really thinking about things is exerting and important in itself. But the idea of the To Done list is to give yourself a sense of achievement over what has been accomplished rather than beating yourself up about the items remaining on your to do list.

So today I have done…

1. Visited Dr’s for minor check up and decided I really need to get back into the healthy eating kick.

2. Worked on new embroidered hankies I am making and realised I have RSI in my shoulder again!

3. Emptied bin

4. Watched two episodes of Murder in Suburbia – Love the idea of having two female leads, disappointed that the writing was cliched and generally not as good as I was hoping.

5. Realised Vox is dead and spent forever setting up new WordPress account. Resolved to learn how to bend WordPress to my will.

6. Started reading “Love in the time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

7. Ordered Organic Veg box.

8. Sent out Write Club email.

9. Read and commented on a friends new article.

10. Loaded and unloaded dishwasher

11. Handwashing