Crossword clues for cottage loaf
cottage loaf
Wiktionary
n. A traditional English loaf of bread shaped like two round loaves, one on top of the other.
Wikipedia
Cottage loaves are a traditional type of bread originating in England.
A cottage loaf is characterised by its shape, which is essentially that of two round loaves, one on top of the other, with the upper one being rather smaller: the shape is similar to that of the French brioche and the pain chapeau of Finistère.
The origins of the name and shape are unknown but possibly extend back hundreds of years. Elizabeth David, who described the cottage loaf in her English Bread and Yeast Cookery, surmised that the shape may have arisen as a way of saving 'floor space' in old-fashioned bread ovens. The name, however, did not first appear in writing until the mid 19th century. It was formerly possible to find an oblong version, known as a "cottage brick", and common in the London area.
Cottage loaves, while formerly common, are now rarely found in bakeries, as they are relatively time-consuming and difficult to make, and in common with other round loaves are less convenient for slicing.
Usage examples of "cottage loaf".
At Skif's head shake, the other boy wordlessly gestured at the table, where half of a decent cottage loaf of brown bread waited, with some butter and a knife.
He pushed aside the bead curtain and stalked into the outer shop, where a small fat woman, looking rather like an angry cottage loaf, was hammering on the counter with a haddock.
The woman who opened the door was still straight and sturdy, her steel-grey hair pinned up in a cottage loaf.
To one side lay a homely looking cottage loaf and a big wedge of dark yellow cheese.
Ivy Wrangton must have been seventeen, Wexford calculated, her face plain, puffy, young, her figure modishly pouter pigeon-like, her hair in that most unflattering of fashions, the cottage loaf.
When tha' goes to 'em in th' mornin's tha' shall take a pail o' good new milk an' I'll bake 'em a crusty cottage loaf or some buns wi' currants in 'em, same as you children like.
A little old lady[10] shaped like a cottage loaf helped him into a costume apparently made of sheets inexpertly dyed black, although given the current state of accommodation in Holy Wood they were probably just sheets taken off a bed at random.