Blog posts

I haven't posted to my blog in a while, so it's high time I do. I've been away on vacation for a few weeks, which is why I haven't participated lately, nor have I been baking either. My husband and I just got back from a road trip we took to Charleston, South Carolina. Beautiful town... ever been? Unfortunately for us, the weather was gray and rainy for a good bit of our trip, so when the sun smiled down on us for one whole day, we put on our walking shoes and headed downtown.

A friend on Foodbuzz was looking for a way to use Ficoco - fig jam with cocoa. In Italy sugar was expensive to produce so many things were made with jams or mosto cotto (grape syrup) to sweeten cakes, cookies etc. Itlians have many jam filled cookies and ficoco would be perfect for raviolo dolci, in fact figs were also used to make mosto cotto. A recipe we make during holidays, Ravioli Dolci is a great way to use different jam fillings and make your cookie different everytime.

So, I've tried Susan's newest sourdough - the challenge Eric presented.  I had one barely acceptable boule and one only a tad better.  But I'm having fun, and while the two boules did not get their pictures taken, their baby sibling did. 

I usually make pumpkin challah at least once in the fall, and set out to do so this time.  I was thwarted by the lack of pumpkin in mt pantry.  ( I could have sworn I had at least one large can in there...) I decide that seet potato would substitute just fine, and it did!  I think I might even like this better.

The past couple of months have been something of a whirlwind.  Just before leaving for an internship at Mark Sinclair's The Back Home Bakery, my boss asked if I would accept a 2-year assignment on a project my employer is managing in South Africa.  Without subjecting you to the lengthy discussions between my wife and myself as we considered one factor after another, suffice it to say that we agreed to the assignment.  Since then, we've sold cars, furniture and household goods; located a tenant/housesitter; packed; made lists; checked off lists; etc., etc., etc.  And

About a year ago my wife, Carol, and I went to my favorite coffee store, Barefoot Coffee in Santa Clara (California). Carol doesn't like coffee so she picked out a pastry from the pastry display. It was something I'd never heard of before called a Kouign Aman. It was crispy, crunchy, sweet and buttery. It was so good that we started making trips to Barefoot just to get the pastry. We eventually found out they're made at Satura Cakes in Los Altos. Now, whenever we're in the mood for a really good pastry we go get a kouign aman.

Does anyone have a recipe for German brötchen?  These are breakfast rolls usually made in 3 to 3 1/2 inch ovals.  They have a hard crust and a soft chewy inside.  I prefer white over whole wheat for this roll.  I am especially interested in knowing which of the flours available in the USA come closest to the German flour used.

A recent discussion of Dan Lepard's Black Pepper Rye got me interested in this bread. There are enough interesting aspects of this mix and method I had to try it. I followed the steps outlined in Dan's blog and carefully examined the detailed photos he provided. The process calls for boiling coffee with half the rye, pepper and the seeds. I watched carefully as bubbles started to erupt off the bottom of the pan. I thought surely it isn't actually boiling, I'll let it go just a little longer.

For some reason my starter takes way too long for the second rise and I underestimate the time it takes to get a 'solid bread'. Solid I got this time.. brick (on the left). Don't know why I did not see that coming, didn't see the signs. I thought/hoped the oven would do wonders. From last time I learned to always make different kinds of bread, it increases my changes on a good result. See the improved starfish bread! (and the originator of the idea)