Bread bags: the perfect touch for the dinner table.
As any hostess knows, the time between oven and eating is particularly difficult to control – with any group of people, but the closer they are the least timely – plenty long enough for lovely warmed bread to cool and loose its ‘freshly baked’ appeal. (I can imagine for the loaf it must feel a little like the dash from the hot shower to the freezing bedroom when you have forgotten your towel on a winters evening..)
There is a solution for these tragic times.. a solution that is both stylish, a bit novel and incredibly useful. Bread bags, which are the big brother of ‘baguette bags’ (another Design & Make project) soon became a talking point in our household. They are simply cosy bags for your bread rolls, loaves and short baguettes. The trick is in the base of the bag, which works along the same lines as hand hotties and bed warmers. We filled the double lined base of this one with cherry stones, but you can use hemp or wheat seeds, all of which are odourless and perfect mediums for heat retention. And we have a supplementary hottie pad which we can pop on top. And if you prefer, you can dot your i’s and cross t’s by double skinning the whole bag – then filling the sides with seeds or stones as well as the base. Peasant woven linen, hemp or wool are good materials for retaining heat.
We just take the bread out of oven, place it in the bag, fold over the lid and it’s all set for the table – by this we can enjoy warm bread with cheeses or soups all year round, and it’s just a nice touch to be able to pick at it all evening with it still being warm. More than being useful, they are fun and they look great – adding a touching of country chic to the dinner table.
They can be made in any shape and size, from old fabrics or new – the left overs from a hemp coffee, grain or flour sack would be just perfect ! – and you can be flexible with your method; machine sewing or completely by hand. So – there really are no excuses, whatever your ability……..
Not only that but we’ve found bread bags make perfect storage bags and that they adapt to pretty much any fabric. And that the base can just as easily be square, oval or rectangular….We’ve added some examples to our pinterest board.
For the next few weeks the project is free, so that you can add yours to ours !!
