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Well i got a lot of free time on my hands these days.  Believe it or not I'm baking more and more at home.  Figured I'd share a couple bakes I did this week.  I had a friend pass through from NY on a vacation and had to make her some bread.  Then I had a meeting a different week and thought well I might as well make them some bread.  And so Rachael's Rye (a spin on the 20% Rye from T3) and a Semolina Porridge Bread.  Both were quite good.  The Rye is more of a multigrain than a Rye even at 20% Rye but it's quite delicious.

With hot cross buns on the bake list it has to be Good Friday.  Last years version lasted 11 months in the freezer having finished off the last one a month ago – tasted great by the way.

Let's face it: you can look at a Google's worth of Baking Powder Biscuit recipes, and with the exception of small variations in flour, shortening, and liquid ratios they are pretty much carbon copies of each other.

Here's the one I've finally settled on after baking a few hundred buttermilk biscuits with small tweaks in the flour: shortening ratio.

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Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients:

480g             All-purpose flour (4 cups)

This isn’t like our usual Kitchen Sink Banana Bread because it isn’t iced and doesn’t have the usual snickered fruits.  So this is just plain Chocolate Chip and Walnut Banana Bread but it did have an extra banana in it making 4 total.

The skiing has been fantastic and I am down to one bake a week for three weeks running now. This is the third go around of my yeast water pulla/babka dough. Again another take on the ITJB yummies! I actually have a store bought loaf of bread because it was free. We will see. This loaf was filled with a mix of walnuts and hazelnuts on top of a chocolate buttercream. OH MY! 

Nothing fancy, but I baked a few days ago.  First time in quite a while.  

Overnight poolish, slow rise of the final dough the next day, not a scale or measuring cup in sight. 

Not one of my best efforts but, all things considered, still quite good.

I hope folks here are having a wonderful spring.

Attemtped some Ciabatta, this time not such a bold bake was requested by the sainted Wife.

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About a month ago I began my quest of making Brötchen (German bread rolls). There was a demand in town for such rolls and I had to fulfill it. I mean, I had to. I'm opening a German-ish bakery albeit in Cambodia. And a German bakery without Brötchen is like a poem without words.

With cracked rye soaker (ground in coffee grinder) instead of cracked wheat. This recipe is very similar to Glezer's, but with addition of some IDY and a shorter fermentation time. I think I prefer her's since the all-levain dough has a deeper flavor, which helps such a subtle loaf. A hint to anyone trying this recipe: do the folds with wet hands rather than dipping in flour. This is sticky dough and you don't want to make it dry.

These buns were a make it up as you go along effort. I was still deciding on the numbers with the mixer running, working the dough I had thus far and I liberally added spices in the style of a well seasoned chef.