Following my rather successful recipe for Pumpkin and Sage Bread, I thought I’d bring you another bread recipe from Gail Duff’s Vegetarian Cookbook. Is there, in all honesty, anything quite as good as baking bread in one’s own home? Indeed, I urge you to forget the mass produced bread which is sold at a premium in supermarket and instead to begin baking your own bread when possible. The taste of a home-baked loaf is very difficult to replicate and the smell emanating from the oven will fragrance your house wonderfully.

Autumn is one of my favourite times of year, a fact which you may already know. The main reason for this is that the food considered acceptable to consume during the autumn and winter months is so incredibly rich and comforting. However, there is one problem – levels of sunlight. After around four o’clock, post meridiem of course, there is simply not enough direct sunlight in which to take photos of food. It really is rather frustrating that all the food prepared for this blog must be finished and photographed by half-way through the afternoon! Four o’clock is time for tea and not for a meal.

As you can probably tell, this bread isn’t designed for making sandwiches as it is a little small. I suppose one could double the quantities and make a larger loaf, but to be honest the flavour of this bread makes it an ideal accompaniment for soup. Stay tuned for more bread recipes from the wonderful folds of Gail Duff, or something like that.

Rye and Spring Onion Bread

Makes 1 small loaf

Ingredients:

• 225g rye flour

• 25g butter

• A generous pinch of salt

• 14g dried yeast

• 1 tsp honey

• 1 egg, beaten

• 6 spring onions, finely chopped

• 3 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

• 100ml warm water

Method:

1. Put the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and rub in the fat. Cream the yeast with the honey, mix in the egg and put aside to froth. Toss the spring onions and parsley into the flour. Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture and beat in both the yeast mixture and the water. The dough will be fairly wet, if necessary mix in a little more flour. Knead the dough in the bowl until the mixture is consistent. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and set aside to rise for 1 hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 200C. Knock back the dough and place it in a greased 1lb loaf tin. Flatten it out a little and leave it to prove for 10-15 minutes. Bake for 40 minutes and leave to cool on a wire rack before eating.

Cost: It’s no secret that bread baked at home is very cheap indeed. I suppose one pays for convenience when they buy low quality supermarket bread. Indeed, though this bread is not necessarily convenient, especially when one slices into one’s thumb when preparing it, it is undeniably cheap at a mere 80p.