Teacakes at tea time

When the clocks have changed and we suddenly have darker evenings, one of the bonuses for us, is that we sit down at the weekends and enjoy afternoon tea. Real tea, with teapot, tea cosy, strainer, cups, saucers....well the British Tea ceremony takes place, with of course something to eat.

A bit taken aback by how prices have risen recently, I put back the four teacakes for about £1, and was determined to make my own. I selected the recipe from Paul Hollywood's 100 Great Breads. We enjoyed them last weekend and had plenty to freeze too. This morning I took a couple out, and Mr S had everything ready and have had mine with damson jam, and a couple of cups of Darjeeling, am suitably refreshed and ready to continue my blog updates. They did not suffer from their short time in the freezer.

The other bread recipe which caught my fancy was his Pain de Campagne, which we have now renamed mighty white....with 400g white flour to 100g of the superb stone ground wholemeal organic rye from Waitrose, we have a loaf, which Mr S considers to meet his requirement for a 'white' loaf! I've made the same twice since, and just as successful each time, though I did not use the 1 tbsp salt thinking that was far too much, and used just 2 tsps.

On the same day, I also baked a chocolate cake using a recipe from my old Good Housekeeping, which was the best I had ever made, and which we had in the place of desert on a couple of evenings. I added some vanilla which I think gave an added depth to the chocolate.