You ask, what could be more decadent, and I say absolutely nothing. Cartellate are traditionally made during Christmas. They are traditional Pulgiese fried pastries, filled with roasted almonds, honey, spices and chocolate.

They are a holiday cookie and although mostly made at Christmas time, they are our star dessert on our Thanksgiving table. They just seemed so suited to a beautiful Thanksgiving dessert table. 

These cookies are a labor of love and not easy to make, but the good news is that you can place the shells in a brown paper bag and keep some for Christmas.

http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/traditional-holiday-cookie-cartellatecluster-are-filled-with-honey-nuts-spices/ 

Well here I am;

and I will fear no bread. This is my first post outside of a few comments one of which was admitting to feeling intimidated by many of the “high-end” bread books. I buy them, get very excited, then back off and retreat to my known and used comfort formulas. But I want more. I find this site and the people here very inspiring, creative and helpful and I want in. I only have a computer at work so I’ll be a bit sporadic. I started years ago with a bread machine and a fear of yeast (”They have box mixes for these things don’t they?”). Loathing the machines loaf shape and stupid paddle hole pretty soon I got a small loaf pan and after the dough cycle put the ball of stuff from the mix into the oven. I was right to fear yeast. They are extra terrestrial beings! Like pods they rise up, take over our brains and alter our normal budgetary disciplines with mad cravings for new bread books, bannetons, heavy duty mixers, and every kind of milled grain from everywhere on the planet. They may have overcome many of you earlier but yes I am a yeast head like you. Thank goodness for this site for I will catch up.

I got PRs Artisan Breads Everyday and I find it very relaxed and accessible. After hearing a lot around TFL about Struan loaves this is where I jumped in. I was especially curious as the formula is very similar to a favorite of mine from an old bread machine book that was called Irish Brown bread. I posted this recipe here in a response awhile back (_somewhere?). I didn’t add the brown rice, and used a multi-grain cereal. It came out great. Good moist crumb and very crisp crust. Now I want to try his other versions of this bread. Has anyone done both, and how would you compare the different methods? 

I also made a small Oatmeal Maple Nut loaf from Beatrice Ojakangas Whole Grain Breads book. When I’ve used maple in the past I find it is just too subtle so this time I added some natural Maple flavor_KAF, 1/4 teas. per cup of ingredients. What a tasty loaf and boy did my house smell good. Next day I was compelled to remake this very same loaf when upon returning from a quick trip to the store I discovered I had left the loaf sitting on the edge of the counter where I had sliced off my breakfast. With irritated resignation I retrieved the tea towel from beneath a cupboard while my maple/pecan breath Boarder Collie slunk nonchalantly to his resting area. I took out the last of the pecans and began again.

Here’s also a couple of my regular sourdough loaves. They are made with a starter from KAF that I got about 3 years ago. Does anyone use the same? If you have a KAF starter and still feed by their directions (volume) what hydration do you figure it to be? I did a bunch of math weighed things out and converted it to a 100%. A month later it’s raising power had diminished disturbingly so it went back to once a week discard of 1 cup and feed the remainder (a 1/4 to 1/2 cup) with 1/2 cup of water and 1 cup of flour. It’s taken awhile to get it’s strength back but now it’s back on track. In a week I’ll have enough time off to maybe brave beginning the PR starter from his new book. Hmmm pineapple juice. Now where have I heard of a starter like that???

Love you Guys and Gals. Thanks for helping me along on my journey from the paddle hole through Norm’s fantastic onion rolls to stretch and fold prior to autolyse and maybe someday a rye starter.

Many thanks and..bake on.

Dosi

(Ureeka!!!! I just got the photos to show up...only took an hour! The Send To Editor part was what I missed. Is that in the FAQs instruction? Sorry these are bigger than necessary next time I think I know how to do it better, for now I'm leaving the office I'm too beat to redo them.)