Blog posts

Lucy is so excited in finding out that her Mice and Pumpkin won runner up in the Arizona Republic’s Halloween Baking Contest.  She won a gift card and this Wednesday she has her entry featured in the Food and Drink section of the newspaper along with the winner and the other runner up.

Unfortunately, the site will turn my photos upside down.  I think there is a Mac issue.  This is my 5 AM Double fed sweet Levain.  It is a 9.5 hour retard compared to a 12-14 hour.  The crumb is very moist and airy

Warning...if you don't like the flavor of coffee you will not like this bread.  I have used coffee in my breads before and usually it is very subtle since I use a higher percentage of whole grain flour and add-ins but since most of the flour in this bake was on the white side the coffee flavor was very strong.

I would like to make a big shout out to dabrownman for pm'ing his detailed for producing and maintaining a YW starter. I have tried and failed twice and this time I was anal: boiled the glass jar, boiled the Brita filtered tap water and sat in the sun in a glass jar for the day to fully eliminate the chlorine. Next as per dman, 1/2 un-washed organic apple cored and minced and half crushed, ditto 20 organic raisins ditto. I am going to follow the dman's instructions to the tee and post daily photos. Another new fun project.

Thanks again dab, you are DMAN!

Regards, Brian

Yep, thats right!  ....Don Corleone...

I love Don Corleone...Not Micheal so much but I digress...

What does the Godfather have to do with bread?

Sicily...

Pane di oggi e' dalla Sicilia.

Stupendo, Bellissimo, Sfarzoso.....

amo questo il pane.

Che e' giusto, amo, amo, amo il pane dalla Sicilia.

Urgh my Italian is very very RUSTY!!

Another trip is needeD soon!!

I just posted the Sicilian Lemon Orange Sweet Bread that I made for dessert for my husband's birthday.....the main course was pizza (with salad made from lettuce and vegetables from the farmer's market.

When I was in the UK lfor a wedding around Easter time, I made this Paul Hollywood traditional Sicilian lemon orange sweet bread for my husband's family at Easter.  I didn't do the best job as I never made it before, but it tasted great and everyone liked it.  My husband requested it for his birthday yesterday, so I made it.  It turned out well.

When I made it earlier, it didn't rise very much and was more like cake.  This time, it got huge!  Live and learn.  I've attached a link to the recipe below:

This weekend will see me take the first tentative steps in to the world of Sourdough and naturally leavened breads.  My barm (pictured above) that I fondly refer to as ‘Susie’ is strong and ready to go.  It’s scary but also very exciting to be taking the first steps away from my comfort zone of using fresh yeast – I feel I get better results both is action and taste with fresh -  and the yeasted loaf which in comparison is quite predictable and going in to this new frontier of Sourdough. 

This is my first bread. I made it following the instructions of the instant Lesaffre yeast plus some stuff I saw in a BBC video with some french cook who loves too much the bread and cheers artisan ones. The portion is small as it's just for me ^_^