My basic bread recipe is 250ml warm water and 1 tsp easy yeast mixed up with one and a half cups of strong white flour. At this stage I also add some seeds – linseed, poppy, sesame, sunflower, whatever I’ve got or feel like. I reckon the yeast can happily feed on the wheat without recourse to sugar or honey if you leave it in a sponge for long enough. So I tend to leave the sponge at least three hours, if not longer – like all day.

To make up the dough, add 1 tsp salt, 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid powder (which I’m experimenting with) and another cup and a half of flour. I tend to mix it up flour-wise – wholewheat, granary, whatever I’ve got, whatever I feel like!

I’m pretty casual about my kneading – maybe do the Dan Lepard method of three short kneads over the course of half an hour, or loose variations of that. Then leave for another hour or so to rest, knock back, put in tin and leave. I forgot I had one proving and left it for nearly two hours – I thought it’d over-rise and have bit airy gaps, but it was actually great, so I tend to leave them quite a while in the tin now, till they’re coming over the edge nicely. Then 25 mins in hot oven (fan over at 220c).

When it’s baked and a knock on the base sounds good, wrap in a damp tea towel – this keeps the crust nice and soft.

With this one (which was about two thirds white, some wholemeal, some granary, some other seeds), it was last thing at night, so I wrapped it in the towel then put it under a large mixing bowl to stop the cats getting at it. This kinda steamed it, as there was a fair bit of condensation in the bowl this morning. The result is lovely and soft. Best loaf I’ve made and long way from some of the dense, hard-crusted breads I’ve made during the old learning process.

So in the last few weeks leading up to the ‘due date’ I need to be eating lots of energy food – perfect excuse to make a load of flapjacks! These are banana, with honey rather than golden syrup – so kind of healthy. Flapjacks so often have hydrogenated fat in them if you buy the shop kind – yuk.

The lemon and poppy seed muffins are delicious – not sure they’ll last long with Lawrence around – lemon is his thing.

We had our first pregnant lady meeting outside of NCT class yesterday, which I hosted, hence the totally valid reason to make lots of treats and get Grandma’s Conran tea set out. Everyone probably thought they’d stepped back in time to the 1950s, if only i could fit into my 50s dress at the moment, it would have finished off the look perfectly.

Flapjacks are easy but here’s the recipe for the muffins:

Makes 12
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
225g caster sugar
300g self-raising flour
2 tbs poppy seeds
1 egg, lightly beaten
225ml milk
60g butter melted

For the lemon syrup:
100g icing sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Oven at 200, grease 12 cup non-stick muffin tin (not paper cases – they will absorb the lemon syrup at the end)
Mix 2 tsp of the lemon zest and 2 tbsp of the sugar in small bowl and set aside
Mix the flour, poppy seeds and remaining sugar in large bowl. In a separate bowl mix remaining lemon zest, lemon juice, egg, milk and melted butter. Add this to dry mixture until combined.
Spoon batter into tins then sprinkle tops with reserved sugar and lemon zest.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden and well risen.
Meanwhile mix the icing sugar and lemon juice. Spoon this over the hot baked muffins and leave to cool in the tin. (I pricked the tops to make sure it soaked in)

Yum!