Erzsebet Gilbert's blog

Okay, I admit this post has nothing to do with strumpets, but I couldn't resist the ridiculous rhyme!  

But this has everything to do with crumpets!  I've read other users' posts about Rose Levy Berenbaum's English muffins, and I know there's been debates about what the proper boundary between the muffins vs. the crumpets.  I've tried her English muffins, but her crumpets are in my bumbling opinion by far the finest of the two.  I love the wet batter and the stove top process, and the texture is so fluffy, classic, and moist.  We enjoy them with omelets and jam...  

The batter...

The griddling...

The finished display...

And darn it, I forgot the picture of the crumb, and the little red toaster that makes it complete!  And there were no crumpets left to tell the tale...

Hello, everybody!

So, here in Hungary, it seems like everybody's got a farm, and coextensively a vineyard.  My husband David and I don't, but we do have an incredibly kind old neighbor who's teaching us to make our own red wine. It's so much fun - picking our own grapes, grinding them, removing stems...  Like so:

Naturally, in gratitude I've baked him lots of bread.  We're not quite done, but in approximately two weeks we will have (for $50) 150 litres of red wine!  Which leads me to my question:

I've seen and read a number of beer bread recipes.  But obviously, we've got plentiful wine...  Are there any breads which call for a splash of wine in the dough?  It seems like it would be possible, but I've never seen any; I'm still a student baker, so I don't know if there are any chemical or taste-related reason for this.  Does anybody know, and if wine bread exists, any ideas?  

Thanks!  

Erzsebet

Also, if anybody is interested in other pictures and a diary of our winemaking process, it's on my blog - http://erzsebetgilbert.blogspot.com