jb says: No I didn’t know about the Elizabeth David treatment; but I’ll follow it up first chance I get. Thanks.

jb says: I bake all the bread for my family and don’t have many problems. You just need to experiment a little, find out what works for you. People have been doing this as a basic task for many thousands of years. It’s simple.

While trying to create a new recipe, you might have to try many times before attaining perfection… Too much for me!

http://www.revistabula.com/materia/virginia-woolf-tentou-curar-sua-loucura-pelo-suicidio/598

jb says: Bon Appétit . . .

While reading the recipe you posted I had memories of Grandmom’s and mom making bread. (and even myself) Even the smell of loaves rising floated back to memory. Thank You.

jb says: Hi Bonnie, I think it’s Virginia you have to thank. But it’s good you came by, and I’m getting a sniff of the memory of your Grandmom’s bread even here. And at this time of the morning, too, she must’ve been an early riser.

I visit because you have such an eclectic range of posts and I never know what to expect. In that lull between Christmas and new year, here you come again with another curve ball, mixing the literary with a recipe. (Please excuse the pun. Well, I think it’s a pun…)

You have me tempted on that cottage loaf. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Have a grand new year!

jb says: Well, yes, I had to dig deep to publish an actual recipe. But it was partially done in the hope that someone would tell me that Virginia Woolf or one of her acquaintances did leave the real recipe for her bread. That might still happen, if anyone knows of the existence of such a document, please tell me. And it was prompted by a recent article about the literary affects of Patrick White. The Patrick White Archive is at the National Library of Australia in Canberra and among the papers are some recipes written in White’s own hand. I have written to the NLA twice, asking if I could sight these and explaining that a digital image would do fine, but they haven’t even bothered to reply. My interest in the the White Archive relates to a project which includes the culinary interests of various writers, of which the piece on Virginia Woolf’s bread was only a taster.

But this is not entirely new to my blog. One of my categories is food, and these past entries all relate to it in some way.

In answer to your questions, no, I haven’t tried the recipe, because, as I mentioned above, I really hoped that someone would tell me it was wrong. But it’s the closest I’ve got to imagining what VW’s recipe was and if no one corrects it I’ll go ahead and make it up. These days I only make unleavened bread, but I don’t think that would be very successful with a cottage loaf. And the Brioche . . . oh, I was so tempted.

Have a good New Year, and it’s great to see you reacting to a curved ball . . .