Subscription Box Review - Earth & Wheat

Earth & Wheat is a bakery subscription box sending you wonky baked goods direct from bakeries around the UK. It's £6.99 a box and you can either get them weekly or fortnightly. (Update: since I wrote this post they've included more options. Check out https://www.earthandwheat.com/ for details)

Our first box arrived after a few days of subscribing, delivered by Hermes. 

It contained 2 packets of focaccia like flatbreads, two packets of pitta breads, some wraps and some pancakes. It's hard to tell why they're classed as 'wonky' goods as they all look delicious to us!

Our favourite was the focaccia flatbreads. We had them toasted or just as they are with soups or stews. We also put cheese and ham in them before grilling them in our panini press. We were sad when they were gone!

Our second box contained a big bag of crumpets much to my delight (plus more focaccia breads, hurrah!). I love a cup of tea with some crumpets for breakfast or lunch. I had to freeze some there were so many.

We made pizza pockets with the pitta breads and made shredded chicken taquitos with the wraps. Val and I should have enjoyed eating the pancakes for breakfast, properly warmed up with honey  or maple syrup but we shamelessly just ate them cold out of the bag. They were great.

Overall it's a nice thing to do to rescue unwanted bakery items which have been harshly judged as 'wonky'. Everything was fresh and delicious with clearly marked expiry dates on them. We planned our meals around some of the items and froze what we didn't use for later. 

I'd recommend this subscription to anyone who enjoys a hot buttered crumpet or a nice soup with a focaccia flatbread to dip in it. 😊

A-Z Blogging Challenge - P is for Pikelets

 

We got a new toaster recently and it's a wider one that fits things like crumpets and waffles. It got me thinking about what else I could toast in it. I remembered years ago (probably 20) when I worked at Betty's Bakery that I used to love the pikelets they made and often had them for breakfast after my shift. Our local supermarket doesn't sell them so I decided to make my own.

Ingredients:

200g flour

1 teaspoon yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 egg

250ml warm milk

1 teaspoon salt

Mix the flour, yeast and sugar and then add the egg and milk. Leave the batter for an hour and it should look like this.

Add the teaspoon of salt and the batter will turn smooth and thick. Dollop spoonfuls into a hot oiled pan 3 at a time to make up a pikelet.

As the pikelets cook air bubbles will form on the top. When the undersides are cooked, flip them over and cook for another 1-2 minutes and they're done!

You can eat them immediately whilst still warm or heat them later in your toaster/grill. They're halfway between a crumpet and a pancake so can be eaten sweet or savoury. I ate one with just butter and then one with lemon curd, both were excellent. Super easy to make and just the thing for a snack or warm breakfast.

P.S. Also good with jam 😀

Trying New Crafts 2/5 - Needle Felting

 

Next on my list of crafts to try is Needle Felting. I'm not entirely sure what it involves to be honest but I'm about to find out. I picked out this kit because it has everything you need and it makes this cute little Blue Tit.

I'm hoping my blue tit turns out looking like it should unlike this unfortunate penguin on one of my favourite TikToks ever 😂

The first job was to make the feet by twisting wire.

I'd soon made both legs and left a frame for the head and tail.

Next I wrapped a pipe cleaner around the body frame to make the wool stick easier. Then it was time for the felting part. Adding small amounts of wool and then jabbing the needle in and out to fuse it together. There was a small mat provided for this and it was quite nice to do.

Soon I felt like I had a good bird shape and the body was feeling more firm the more I felted.

I added some yellow wool for his underbelly and felted it into place.

Next I added some wings and some colouring on his back.

Lots of details were then added on his wings, head and face including two little eye beads and a beak made from felt. I also gave him a longer tail.

I think I made the head a bit small which made it difficult when I came to add the face. But, not bad for a first try. It is a little quasimodo-esque but I still love him 😊

Felting is quite a nice craft to do, I put some music on and just sat jabbing with the needle. It's simple but the more you do it, the more detail you can achieve. The kit I bought was nice as it had everything you needed for the project and I'm left with a lot of wool so I could do something else with that. I'm glad I've given it a try.

Next up - Cross Stitch