AnnieT's blog

Twice a week I spend time with children from my grandaughter's third grade class, listening to them read. Their teacher is a friend and loves to get a loaf now and again, and she asked if I would take some bread for the children and tell them about sourdough. Always eager to spread the word I decided to use some of my "discard" bread. I made a huge batch in my trusty Bosch and baked up three pan loaves for the neighbors and two large braids for the class. I brushed the tops with eggwhite and water and sprinkled on  raw sugar.

The first "real" bread book I ever read was Amy's Bread, borrowed from the library. I copied out some of the recipes and over the years looked for it again in different libraries with no luck. There were copies on Amazon but they were out of my price range, so I was thrilled to find the new version.

I can remember reading complacently about TFL members whose stones had cracked - while sympathetic I was sure it wouldn't happen to my well used stone. That was then. This morning I opened the oven planning to remove the stone while I proofed a sourdough and found it in two pieces! I have no idea when it happened, no accidental hitting it, no dropping of heavy objects onto it. The only thing I have done differently was to place it on the bottom rack to bake baguettes from the King Arthur recipe last week.

Yesterday I made yet another one of Susan's Sourdough with a couple of new (to me) tricks. The dough was much wetter than usual and I kept it warm in between stretch and folds in the oven with the light on. Then it went into the refrigerator for the overnight chilling at about 4.30pm. Then I found out that my DIL and the grandgirls were taking me to eat at an English Teashop, a belated birhday treat, and I needed to leave here at 9.45 am so that we could catch the 10.30 am ferry.

Thanks for the reminder - I finally remembered to go to the hardware store to buy lava rocks. I asked for the ones for barbecues and they produced a fancy box of expensive and large rocks. I had the idea that the lava rocks would be small so I asked for the ones used in landscaping and found a bag for $4.95 + tax. Now I am wondering - did I get the correct ones? I had been thinking of "scrumping" some from the empty house next door but they were pretty grungy.

For the fans of Beatrice Ojakangas there is a write up about her in The Heavy Table today. I'm sorry not to be able to give you a link but it's worth a look. For anyone who is interested in Scandinavian recipes her books are the best. (IMHO) Check her out, A.

Here is my authentic Scottish Shortbread recipe which came from Margaret McLaren, a Scottish friend from when I lived near Atlanta back in 1967.

3 sticks butter (I use Challenge unsalted)room temp.

1 heaping cup powdered (icing) sugar

1 egg yolk

4 cups ap flour

Preheat oven to 300*, cut wax paper circles to fit 8"-9" cake pans. I wonder whether parchment would work?

I just found an interesting article on The Heavy Table site - Solveig Tofte, the head baker at Turtle Bread Company in Minneapolis answering questions about her career. Might be helpful to anyone wanting to get into the baking business. Check it out, A.

I'll try again

It has been too long since I made bread for my neighbors, aka "The Old People", and as I had a large yogurt container of SD discard today was the day. Or rather yesterday evening when I made the dough. I started with a quart of discard and about the same amount of warm water then added old fashioned oats, dried milk, oil, sugar, 1T instant yeast and salt and added KA white whole wheat flour and Wheat Montana ap flour. Like quahtan I lost count of the exact amount - just kept adding until the dough cleaned the sides of the bowl. Oh, I was using my trusty Bosch mixer.