I discovered the Alphabakes challenge run by The More than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes earlier this month and wanted to make something to submit, however I have struggled a bit as Caroline is hosting this month and the random letter is K. I thought about kumquats and kirsch but neither really appealed so I have gone the alternative route of adapting something I am familiar with. I recently got a little obsessed with bread making and there are some really beautiful knots around; one that many people will have seen is something called a monkey’s fist knot. Now I’ve never done this with a normal knot so bread dough was probably a bit ambitious but I’ve had a go.

The bread recipe is:

550g Strong white bread flour

1 sachet Fast acting dried yeast

1 tsp Salt

300ml warm water

30g Unsalted butter (softened)

1 egg beaten to glaze

• Put the flour in a mixing bowl and add the yeast to one side of the bowl and the salt to the other. Stir to distribute evenly and add the warm water.
• Mix with a wooden spoon or your fingers to incorporate the water then rub in the butter.
• Knead for at least 10 minutes either by hand or in a freestanding mixer with a bread hook.
• Leave to prove for 2 hours or until doubled in size,
• Punch down the dough and shape into a long rope – I used a rolling pin to help me stretch it out then rolled it between my hands to keep the strand circular(ish)
• Find instructions on the inter-web-net-thingy for your knot of choice – the one I used is linked above but sadly they don’t give permission to show the image.
• Leave your knotted loaf to rise for another 30 minutes to 1 hour then brush the top with beaten egg
• Cook in a 220c oven for 20 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when you knock on the top