'A,' influenced by watching the Hairy Bikers on a bread making road trip decided that he wanted to make a white tin loaf this weekend.

So I got him the tin, and he had a go whilst I made my usual batch of spelt bread. This time I sweetened it with honey and added lots of juicy sultanas and finely chopped walnuts and replaced half the olive oil with walnut oil.

His loaf turned out amazing. Great texture and lovely flavour. It was a little bit lopsided but that only added to it's rustic charm. He used strong white unbleached flour and a recipe from an old 1980's M & S recipe book. You can find a similar recipe here.

I couldn't resist pinching the crust and eating it with butter and marmite.....mmm....

Mum used to buy a milk roll (white loaf) from the bakery at the end of our road. One of my sisters was a very fussy eater. So fussy in fact that she had to have her food made into a clock with little heaps of mashed up meat, potatoes and vegetables placed at the appropriated spot for 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock etc ...... Thus making supper time more fun....

The one thing that she really liked (besides her clock food and Morning Coffee biscuits with honey on) was the crust off a new loaf of white bread with Lurpack butter and Marmite. Which meant that she almost always got the crust! I'm sure my mother in a King Solomon-like spirit of equality would have made sure that we all had our fare share, but it didn't seem like it at the time.....maybe I was just greedy!

But I think that's why that lovely white crust, fresh from the oven smothered with butter (which I don't usually indulge in) and Marmite, tasted so yummy.......

....and the spelt bread made a lovely brunch with slices of sweet galia melon and Persian, sheep's milk feta cheese. which is one of the traditional Persian breakfasts that makes a great weekend brunch, along with fresh walnuts and hot sweet tea with no milk served in tea glasses. Preferably Orange Peko Ahmad Tea....but I'll talk about the traditions of Persian tea making and sharing another time soon.....