Herb bread, made in a breadmaker

Sometimes the Gods smile on you: and they did today.

I made toasted cheese for lunch, and as I pulled the grill pan out from under the grill, one of my slices slid off the edge and onto the floor. Bye bye tasty, toasty cheese-on-toast.

But my luck was in:

• the toast landed cheese side up


• the floor had been cleaned yesterday, and that makes it clean enough to eat from


• the toast was made from herb bread, and a visual inspection only showed black bits that were from the herbs in the bread.

It was very yummy.

To make herb bread in my breadmaker:

Starting with a very low heat, warm 60ml of olive oil in a saucepan.

Meanwhile, squash a clove of garlic under a knife blade and cut in half: add to olive oil. Add herbs, perhaps a bayleaf, or a sprig of rosemary, and also some dried ones: 1/2 - 1 tsp of oregano, sage, basil, and thyme. Put the timer on for 2 minutes. When the timer rings, switch off the heat and go away - do some shopping, or knitting, or make a quilt.

After several hours, get out the breadmaker. Put in 1.5tsp of dried yeast (ie normal breadmaker yeast), 12 oz bread flour, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar. Then add 60ml milkand 120 ml of water, and finally the oil: take out the bayleaf, rosemary or similar first, but leave in the rest.

Set the breadmaker for medium loaf, medium size and white bread, and wait for it to cook.

Feed to hungry children and grateful husbands.