Blog posts

I have always wanted to make a naturally leavened croissant for no other reason than to see if I can do it. But most sourdough starter / levain croissant recipes I see on the internet have both commercial yeast and levain in the dough. I have nothing against using commercial yeast in croissant making or in any other bread for that matter. Whatever floats your (bread) boat is fine with me. Croissants and other laminated yeasted doughs are challenging enough without using sourdough starter / levain as the sole means of leavening.

After taking the summer off of baking bread (too hot in house) I took the opportunity of our recent long weekend to bake up some Neopolitan style pizzas on the grill.  As usual with my pizzas, I used unglazed quarry tiles and a grill flare-up method to re-create that fire hot environment a traditional forno would give.  No shots of the wild mushroom, goat cheese and arugula pizzas I made, but here are the Margheritas.  The very puffed up cornichione makes the pizzas look like the crust was thick and deep, but it was actually about a 1/4 of an inch thick, just the way we like

Hi all im wondering if anyone out there has tried the Devil's Tooth Bakery (Outer Sunset, San Francisco) cinnamon rolls? They are a molten caramel buttery wonder, but the dough is thinner and more carmelized then a "traditional" cinnamon roll. I wonder if this is the result of the laminating process? Anywho I was just wondering if anyone out in TFL world knows what I'm talking about so that I can attempt to re-create the recipe at home. I live 5 hours from SF so I can't just pop in to grab one. ; )

Well the move went well and the new Oven is a DELIGHT.

Here a picture of the new Oven

Just out of the Oven. * drooling *

Cooling down * waiting, waiting ... wahhhh *

Crumb * Kids stole the first slices pffft *

     My wife asked me to make a simple Pumpernickel bread to bring to my Nieces birthday party this past Saturday.  She wanted to stuff it with her Sour Cream Spinach Dip and I didn't have a lot of time since she asked me Friday afternoon.

I haven't been baking much bread lately - two toddlers are taking a little bit too much of my time :)

But I HAVE been making a lot of quick bakes - pancakes, biscuits, cupcakes - you name it.

Here is a full post of two of the most delicious and the least time consuming pancake recipes you will ever find - full recipe

And here is a photo of someone enjoying a pancake :)

Funny how these things happen,  RobynNZ in a response to JCrising recommended the Bourke street bakery as a good Aussie bread book and i concur, In fact after thinking that i had loaned my copy and was not going to be getting it back, my wife unearthed it under some piles of papers and to celebrate its return i decided to use it for some breads that i was going to be making with a bread enthusiasts group that i formed at work from staff and students whereby we bake some interesting breads for use in a retail outlet/training centre down in the West end of Fremantle.

Just a few pics of breads that I took to the fair this year.  I had a lot of fun, earned a few ribbons, and got a lot of bread out of it! 

The idea seemed a good one, in my mind at least. The nuttiness of spelt, combined with the sweetness of corn. Never tried anything like it before, so it was a complete shot in the dark. I missed spectacularly, and yet, I have hit the mark at the same time. Weird ey? 

Since I have never baked a corn bread before, I used a recipe from FloyM, and altered it to my liking/ingredients available. Here's what I did.

Every year my parents receive many gifts of mooncakes in the days leading up to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Most of the time they are the traditional mooncakes filled with lotus seed paste and salted egg yolks. I thought I would try baking a different sort of mooncake to bring to my family's gathering. I call them American-style mooncakes. I made a trail mix inspired one and a coconut one. Mooncakes need to be baked at least a day (and preferably 2 days) before serving. Freshly baked ones do not have the correct texture since the pastry shell is still too crispy.