Perfect Cheese on Toast

A quick recipe for cheese on toast.
You might think that cheese on toast is the most simple thing in the world, some bread and a couple of slices of cheese and Bob is your proverbial uncle. However I am here to tell you that with only a couple of extra steps you could turn this simple dish into a culinary delight.

Always use a good cheese, this recipe does lift a boring cheese a bit, but for proper perfect cheese on toast use a good cheddar. I am using some Wyke Farms Mature but creamy cheddar because Wyke Farms sent me some cheeses to try. It is lovely and creamy too, not crumbly but still with a nice mature bite, so it's easy to grate.

This is handy because grating the cheese is where we begin.

Making Bread Rolls from Scratch

On Saturday I made bread rolls from scratch. I love to make bread at home when I have time, it smells great while it's cooking, tastes better than shop bought, isn't full of additives and is fun!

Let's face it - making bread rolls is adult Playdoh, as we shall see.

I like to make the bread dough in my bread maker because it's less messy, and it makes sure I leave the dough for the full proving time, I'm too impatient if I do it myself. So I bung the ingredients into the bread maker, set the 'dough' setting and amuse myself for an hour and a half (if anyone is thinking rude thoughts now you should go and have a cold shower). I don't bake the bread in the bread machine though as I don't like the shape, and I prefer to be able to adjust the oven temperature and cooking time too, and of course I like to make bread rolls as well as loaves.

The ingredients I use for basic bread rolls:

• 1 and 1/3 cups water
• 4 cups unbleached strong bread flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• a knob of butter
• approx 1 teaspoon of easy bake dry yeast (I use some of a sachet)

I add the water first then all the dry ingredients. It would be just as easy to make in a bowl, mix it all up, knead it, leave it 30 minutes, knead it again, leave for an hour...(in my house Mr Bread Maker is doing that bit)

Then take the dough and divide it into two, divide each half again and divide each resulting piece into 3. Don't ask why, I just like 12 rolls, those keen can make 13 for a 'baker's dozen'.

And here's the playdoh bit. I make the rolls into fun shapes because I can, and because life is too short to eat boring bread. I like to knead and roll and pull the soft dough, I favour knots and plaits and mini cottage loaf styles, (DD said they looked like anuses), and I admit I was worried about the hedgehogs..

Roll and tie for the knot, and for the cottage loaf use two balls and poke a finger hard into the middle!

Cut the dough so it looks like it has three tails and plait, at one end the plait stays joined, fold the other end under

Use a pair of clean scissors to 'snip' in the hedgehog spines.

The rolls were cooked in the oven at gas 6 for 20 minutes. (Don't forget to tap their bottoms when they look done, they should sound hollow)

And even the hedgehogs turned out OK - you'll be pleased to know they all tasted good too.

The most useful gadget you've never used

Is your kitchen an old style Amish one? No electricity, a mangle and a washboard? Or are you a teensy bit more high tech?

I have a few gadgets, I say a few, once I start to list my 'labour saving appliances' it seems I really do have quite a few. I don't have a dish washer or a tumble drier, but I do have a washing machine, a bread maker, a smoothie maker, an electric whisk, an electric carving knife, a food processor...

The smoothie maker is a recent acquisition, a gift at Christmas and I love it. DD and I have smoothies at least once a week and often more, I'm sure as it gets warmer we'll experiment further, maybe making ice lollies, or alcoholic smoothie cocktails (for me not her). We love the smoothie maker, it's simple to use, quick, easy to clean. Those are things that for me are really important! 

I rarely use the carving knife. I inherited it, I assume it's for enormous roast beef joints and getting smoothly cut slices for everyone, but as we don't really have roasts, and there are only 3 of us, and we don't care if our meat looks 'tidily sliced' we never use it. It's silly, it takes ages to plug all the bits in, has two blades, has to be used near an electric point and takes as long to clean as it does to set up. I don't know why I keep it...

The bread maker is really DH's domain. He makes bread every other day, his own recipe (yes ladies he not only has a beard but he bakes too - I win!) he bakes wholemeal or raisin bread with no salt. It's good. So the bread makers we buy tend to wear out, not rust away. I think this is our third in 10 years. He loves his bread maker, he only uses it to do the initial mix and knead, but it saves time, presenting him with a risen dough ready to shape and bake.

We use the washing machine of course. Too often I expect, when did we get so clean? :-) I'm sure in the 50s a weekly bath and a weekly clothes wash kept everyone alive (if slightly fragrant).

And obviously I have a cooker which (quite frankly) I am in love with, it's one of those big country range affairs (though it's dual fuel not coke fired) and it cooks things so much better than my old cooker (which had heat up to 9 but needed at least up to 11)

 And we have a fridge, I'm sure this is standard by now in most houses (though when living in my bedsit I used the shady window ledge to keep milk cool) 

So what about you? Is you kitchen full of useful gadgets? Or gadgets that seemed like they would be useful but actually sit there doing nothing? (I disposed of a slow cooker after about 3 years of not using it at all!)

I want to know about your kitchen gadgets! And if you tell me you'll be entered into a competition to win £100 in Amazon vouchers! Seriously! What an awesome prize, you can spend it on more gadgets! Ones you might actually use! Or just buy a few books to read while your gadgets do all the work.

So a huge thank you to Appliances Online who have offered this super prize. (You might like their Home Style Blog too - it's pretty good!)

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