Ultimate recycled bread "tins"

I've been going through the larder, using up packets and odds and ends that have been lying around for a while. This way there'll be less to pack and move when the time comes. How I will survive without my walk-in larder? That's one of the many difficult things about leaving here. I designed the house, everything about it is there for a reason, to fit furniture, ornaments and ideas from houses I'd worked around and grown up in. I always remember the big larder in the cottage I grew up in: shelves from floor to ceiling, and if the door had been shut, the smell of spices and food when it opened wafting out to tickle our noses. 

Malted apricot bread in the making

I grew up in a family of bakers and cooks: everything made from scratch, economical and thrifty. I'm a grand-daughter of a butcher, of a generation who lived on rations through the war and who knew how to make food stretch far and grew all their own fruit and veg.

Free bread tins

I have naturally kept this going because I love to cook and bake and I love seeing my family fed with healthy, freshly produced, interesting food (and until recently some home grown too). I like new recipe books and the Good Food magazine, trying out new ideas and meals.

The bread dough in the tins ready to prove

Anyway I digress, this was to be a blog about my recycled mini bread tins. Don't ask me how this idea came about, it was just one of those thoughts that led from one to another. Oh and clearing out the larder, I found a part used bag of malted flour so decided to make some bread with it, put the two together with some dried apricots and sunflower seeds scattered on top and I had mini loaves. It was lovely to have the smell of baking bread in the house again. 

A tea towel over the top whilst proving

You can use any bread recipe you fancy. Because I was using up the bag of flour, I used the recipe on the back of the packet. Once you've proved the bread, divide it up in to however many pieces you want, or however many tins you are using, I used four and a quarter of the mix fitted nicely into a tin. Because they are smaller pieces in thin tins, you need to bake them for a bit less time, so keep and eye on them until done. Another couple of tips: don't use tins with the plastic linings, just plain good old tins and don't use tins that have pull lids: the bread gets caught on the rim when trying to get it out, not fun.

Out the oven, ready to cool

Really looking forward to these at the weekend, with some cold meats, pate and cheeses