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After all the heavy food, sweets and rich baked goods at holiday time, I decided to bake some nice healthy loaves of bread and make some soup with local North Coast seafood.  OK, the chowder has a good dose of cream in it, but I used a recipe without bacon, so it’s dietetic compared to my usual.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Around my native town Freiburg in south-west Germany we have thae habit to eat some huge and elaborately decoreted brezels made of sweet dough for breakfast on New Year's Day. (Usually they are made by professional bakers.)

I made  some of them in the past, here some impressions from this year's bake.

A little mouse made by my wife, peeking into the future:

The somewhat more conventional Neujahrs-Brezel I made:

Well I was able to cross off a long standing item on my to-bake list with this Miche from The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

Reflection is a bitter sweet thing.

Why do we have dessert at the end of a meal? Dessert gives us a feeling of happiness. Why do we love coffee? For me, to counter the sweetness that has accumulated in my palate.

On this last day of the year I reflect:  Bitterness gives meaning to sweetness.

I got a call that there's a discount on one kitchen item that I've been eyeing for like 3 years.  After lunch, I quickly hop over to the store,  the buy is not only a discount but also a free meat grinder,  well,  I wanted the pasta maker.  The sales girl promised that there will be a free surprise gadget in the pack,  and ok,  fine, we decided to buy it.  Well,  the surprise was not there and the sales girl decided to give us a the pasta maker for free!,  I was exhilarated.  

Having lusted over High percentage, multistage Rye breads for some time now, and being inspired by recent posts such as Phil’s and Cordruta’s, I finally took the plunge.

This is one time consuming, precariously scheduled recipe, that leaves you wondering at the end, whether or not crafting this bread is worth it.

Medium Rye is not available where I live, and so I improvised by sifting whole grain rye flour. The resultant flour consistency is close to a medium rye (I think).

During the holidays, and for the first time, we baked 1-lb. loaves, one-third smaller than our usual 1.5-lb loaves. We did this because we gifted a number of family and friends that live alone, reasoning that a larger loaf would likely stale before it was consumed. Furthermore, I can bake three 1-lb per load in my household oven, but only two 1.5-lb loaves otherwise. We  baked more than was needed, so we've been consuming the leftovers. We've realized the smaller loaves serve our needs--there is only two of us--as well, or possibly better than the larger loaves.