Blog posts

It's been 10 weeks since our last parade so we will cut out about half the sandwiches and other stuff we would normally post.  We want to promote good, well balanced lunches just like the ones we had in grade school 50 years ago but we don't want to go so overboard that they compete with or are nearly as good as the ones kids enjoy in public schools today.  There might be some other stuff that sneaks in there now and again.

Hey Everyone,

Thought I would introduce myself to this site by telling the story of how I first learned to make bread. I started baking bread out of necessity - I grew up in a Jewish household where every friday night we would have a traditional Chala ("Jewish sacremental egg bread"). My mom would always buy the Chala from a local bakery, so I always (naively) assumed you needed some sort of special equipment in order to make it.

Hi to all! I'm a teenage baker, who has been into cakes and cupcakes and cookies and pies (but not much of pastry). One of my passions has always been beautiful, crafted breads, the like of which are seen on this site. I hope very much to contribute as much to this site as I have already gained from it and continue to gain.

I'm home-based, which means that I research, order books, and study them, trying out recipes at home. My favorite cookbook author has to be Rose Levy Beranbaum, who is thorough and precise, and whose recipes always satisfy.

We all love to bake, right? Well, what are we doing with all the breads we make? I know a lot of times I will just eat it, plain or with butter or cheese, maybe a little meat sandwiched between a couple slices, maybe a bit of tomato. Maybe dipped in olive oil. Sure, that's good, but historically bread is accompanied by various foods. So shouldn't we give some indications of foods we would / do eat with the breads we make? Like chefs do when they recommend wines to go with their dishes. I submit these from the last week:

I am not sure if things happen for a reason or not, but sometimes pleasant surprises occur and push you in directions different from what you had in mind. These events can be small or epic, but I am sure they are all important in the making of ones life. What I do believe however, is that if you put out a question or an idea to the world and keep it close to your heart it will be answered … one way or another :)

Sending this toYeastspotting.
Click here for my blog index.

Hello friends. 

This comming January I have an opertunity to go to Ghana and install a dripp irrigation system for people in Homabenase so they can grow their own food. In order for me to get there I have to raise money and who else can I ask if not people who I share interest with. Please take a moment to look at this site and help me out. Thank you http://www.gofundme.com/Ghana

Soooo....

ive been reading this site for a few months, and have officially been a member for five minutes. 

I keep a bakers journal here at home, but thought it might be enlivening to start a virtual one. I've been baking for three years. Seriously for about six months. I began a sourdough  starter four months ago and haven't looked back. 

Ill be posting recipes, baking schedules and photographs of my loaves--which I make about twice a week. But to start, I'll post a little history and information about my process. 

The last few weeks have sucked TREMENDOUSLY around here. Good bread is how I cope. In order to stop the current round of chaos that was the wind down for bedtime last night, I offered to the kids that we should mix up dough.

400g flour

2 pinches of yeast

8g salt

300g water

I wanted a wet, tasty dough that would be ready in time for dinner the next day. I woke up today and at 3 or so punched it down and shaped it. A couple hours later I put it in the oven. Half an hour at 425 later, this is what I pulled out of the oven:

House sweet dough

This sweet dough is a mixture of two recipes; The brioche recipe from the Tartine bread book, but with the percentages of butter, eggs, and hydration scaled back to similar percentages as  Richard Bertinet's sweet dough (My favorite yeasted basic sweet dough).   I use this dough for most of my basic sweet dough pastries, some of my favorites are Monkey Bread, Cinnamon Rolls, Orange/lemon sticky buns, fake croissants (in this case with chocolate), Fruit braids, etc.