Easy Little Bread

Right this second I'm eating a slice of butter-slathered homemade bread. And quite frankly, it's the least interesting looking bread you've ever set eyes on. But at this particular moment, there isn't anything on this earth that would taste better. I'm convinced of it. It reminds me of the bread my dad would sometimes bake for us as kids. A dead simple yeast bread recipe made from ingredients I can nearly guarantee you have on hand. My dad's bread was made using all-purpose white flour, whereas this bread is made with a white, wheat, rolled oat blend. I've baked it three times this week, after I came across the recipe for it in a beautiful, heartfelt cookbook by Natalie Oldfield.

I snapped a few shots of the book to give you a sense of it. Super cute, right? I love the grids of vintage family pictures, and the soft color palette of the recipe pages. Really well done. It's a collection recipes inspired by the notebooks of Dulcie May Booker (who must be 96! by now), written by her granddaughter Natalie. It was published in New Zealand, then Australia and the UK. I stumbled on my copy of it the other day at Omnivore Books here in SF, although I don't think it's been published in the U.S. yet. The recipes are classic and no-fuss. The kind that can and (clearly) have been whipped up a hundred times over - scones, fruit pies, chocolate cake, lemon bars, shortbread, and a selection of savory dishes as well.

So, to all of you who embraced the soda bread recipe, yet still shy away from yeast-based rec! ipes - y ou've got to try this one. You can have the dough in the pan in 5-10 minutes. It sits around for 30 minutes while I'm in the shower, then straight into the oven. Thank you Gran & Natalie. It's a beautiful book.

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