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Busy busy busy

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I've been baking a lot, I've just had no time with work and home life to post. Here's a quick update of what I've been making over the past few weeks.

The sticky buns have been a big hit, but I only make them when we've got company staying over -- otherwise, I eat far too many. Photos and the recipe are here.

I've Been Slacking

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It's been awhile since I've baked bread... I'm baking some today and it's rising right now.

 

 

I haven't been a complete slacker... I made brownies recently.   They were more than half gone before I could take a picture (we had company over - I swear I didn't eat them all myself)

brownies 

Almost No Knead Bread

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My son gave me a couple of bottles of light ale, some that had been brought to a party and he wouldn't drink, so I decided to try the Almost No Knead bread. I used 1/3c of my starter instead of the vinegar, a tip I got from Marie at Breadbasket. Mixed all the ingredients at 9pm last night and by 10am this morning it was pushing up the cover. What a nice dough! Kneaded it just 15 times and put the shaped boule in a parchment lined banneton for 2 hours where it rose beautifully. I baked it in my ss Dutch oven but next time I will use my stone and big mixing bowl.

Holy Oven Spring, Batman!

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Thanks to a combination of techniques learned here (better kneading, shaping and slashing, esp.) and (maybe) a new baking stone, my oven spring keeps getting better and better. Last night I baked a simple 25% WW loaf. After proofing my shaped oval loaf for 4.5 hours, I put nice long slashes mostly-lengthwise acroos the loaf and the cuts immediately opened up, showing I'm getting good surface tension. Slipped it on the hot stone, and within 5 minutes, it exploded.

 

My first pototo bread

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My wife was asking me to make a "soft" white bread, so I hacked together a potato bread.  I'm not really sure what the recipe was, but there was WAY too much potato.  The dough was super sticky, but I forged ahead.  Oven spring was fantastic, but the bread was so soft the bread fell back in on itself upon cooling (the slash mark was strecthed flat upon removal from the oven).

Pototo Bread: my first pototo bread attempt

 

CornBread!?

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So, I made cornbread. Well, sort of. I made Reinhart's cornbread. It's not exactly what I was expecting for cornbread so I was a little disapointed, not to say it wasn't good, but I don't really consider it very good "cornbread".

Lipioshka

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Hi all,

A friend of mine is originally from Ferghana, and he told me about a bread they used to eat there when he was a kid, called "Lipioshka". I understand it is a rather traditional Uzbek bread. It is a little like a large bialy in shape: a round disc, thick around the edges and very thin in the center. The center is stamped with a special tool (or simply pricked with a fork) to prevent rising. Traditionally, it is baked in a Tandr, an Uzbek oven not unlike a Tandoor. 

Reverse Puff Pastry Recipe

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Reverse Puff Pastry

Butter Block:
190 gr soft butter
75 gr flour

Dough:
175 gr flour
7 gr. salt
60 gr melted butter
70 ml water

First, you mix the first quantity of butter and flour together in a large mixer with the paddle attachment.  Mix until it is well combined.  Take this mixture and roll it between two sheets of parchment, as square as you can manage, until it is 3/4 of an inch thick.  Rest in the fridge.

Chinese Almond Cakes

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I found a recipe for Chinese Almond cookies in a 1914 cookbook.

I think this is one of the best versions I have ever tried; they are made with rice flour and have a nice sandy texture. They are also gluten-free and dairy-free

 

Ingredients

2 cups (320 g) rice flour + a little extra to form the cookies