Posted on EvilShenanigans.com on 6/12/09
I have been on something of a pizza kick lately, and not those commercially prepared pies with flavorless cheese and mushy veggies.
I'm sure 99% of you are familiar with Nancy Silverton, her books, and her bakery, La Brea. Through a lot of hard work and innovation, La Brea has been able to mass produce artisan loaves of every description. The machinery handles the dough in such a way to produce bread that has a hand-shaped look and artisan taste. The loaves are par-baked, flash frozen, and distributed throughout the country. One of their breads that really appeals to me is the Petite Baguette. These, like their other breads, are available in grocery store deli bakeries and warehouse clubs.
Besides bread making, one of my other hobbies/interests is homebrewing. I have brewed for over 15 years now. I am an all-grain brewer which means I brew with grains rather than extract. I am also an AHA beer judge at certified level. You need to pass a test for this. I am a member of a very fine beer club, QUAFF which put San Diego on the map beerwise by winning the National Homebrew Club of The Year award 6 years consecutively and several California titles. You may ask yourself why am I telling you this when this is a bread oriented forum.
I took a break while on a businesstrip to Berne, Switzerland, and found a breadmarket! I was sort of a promotion, all different booths. It was a promotion activity of http://www.swissbaker.ch. Looks like the Swiss bakers community. Just a few impressions:
Roses decoration, looks nice! Pictures quality is from my phone...
Well, I had a birthday party to go to (pool-side at my Brother-In-Law's house) and I wanted to do something a little different than the standard birthday cake...so I decided to make a giant chocolate chip sandwich cookie. It's about 12 inches in diameter and contains about a pound each of semi-sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. At the end of the mix, I fold in about 4 ounces of walnuts. The cream filling consists of powdered sugar, egg white, shortening, and vanilla. The cookie dough is from a recipe you can find on any Toll-House chocolate chip bag.
This is the second of my reviews on artisan breads available at my local Whole Foods Market. Actually, I visit three locations in my area (Raleigh/Durham, NC) and they are all the same because the are all baked in the same "bakehouse" which distributes them to all of the area stores. As many of you commented in my previous post, nothing quite compares to what you can produce at home....however, there are good bakeries out there and some of this retail stuff is pretty good.
The oatmeal bread that was exhibited on The Fresh Loaf a few days ago inspired me. I made my first attempt at this bread:
Bread Ready for Baking
Bread Out of Oven
Another View
There is a bakery in my neighbourhood called Baker's Delight which is a chain all around Brisbane. They have a bread with a surface that looks like mottled skin of a tiger and it's called Tiger's Bread! It looks most unusual and every time I walked past that bakery I wondered how it got that spotted skin on top.
Ten Teachers, Ten loaves, Ten days.
I am going to give all of the teachers who have impacted me each a handmade loaf of bread. I need to find recipes for visually appealing, distinct loaves so that I can express my appreciation, and of course so that I have an excuse to try new recipes!
If any one has any suggestions, Id love to try them. I also plan on using some of the recipes on this site and in the BBA. And of course, as my graduation present was a new camera, I'll share all of my experiments.
Happy Baking.
