New Years Catching-up
I have been busy baking. Not all bread. Been working on my pastry and cakes. Wanted to share some pics for your amusement and inspiration.
First up is my experimentation with the Tzang method, focaccia.
And here it is out of the oven.
KAF Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal bread.
Been making pasta and learning to use a ravioli pin.
I have made some breads but nothing to really talk about except the one I have been playing with the tzang method. It is the popped loaf leading the entry. After trying out some stuff with my favorite loaf bread, the KAF parkerhouse roll recipe. It started to dry out after 3 or 4 days. I figured the egg drys the crumb and the butter makes it cakey. Well, oil makes things fudgy so I replaced the butter with oil to counter the drying effect of the butter and egg. And to keep cost down while experimenting I replaced the milk with water. All I can say is WOW! This loaf went nuts. It popped like a balloon in the oven. I had better success with subsequent loafs but not enough to post the modified recipe yet. When I get a good result I will post the recipe and process. Intill then here is a pic of a loaf that faired better than the one at the top of the page.
Here we are getting into winter. How big are the piles of snow where you are?
Comments
but i will take all of those breads and the ravioli too :-) Well done and happy baking in the new year!
Thanks!
That baking looks amazing... I am just learning to use the great KA attachments by husband and sister got me LAST Christmas... that ravioli pin looks fun... do you just put the filling thinly in there and rolling it smooshes it where it is supposed to be???
Keep that snow... and send the ravioli!!!
What fun!
Diane
The pin works great. You make some pasta dough a little on the soft side. Roll it out into the biggest sheet you can handle. Spread the filling across half of it. Fold over and run the pin across. The filling moistens the pasta and since the dough is slightly soft it doesn't squeeze the filling out during rolling.Cut out the squares with a pastry wheel. Transfer to a sheet pan and freeze. Then place into freezer bags. Cook from frozen. Mine took about 6-8 minutes to cook. They float in the first minute but they are not fully cooked by then. It took me 2.5 hours to make 150 ravioli. That's includes making the pasta, filling and ravioli.
That sounds like something I can tackle... thanks for the inspiration.
Pasta attachments, here I come.
Thanks, Diane
I think we may have caught up to you with the snow....it's like zero degrees out this morning and my feet are still numb from taking the dog out for a walk :).
Love that ravioli pin. Do you like the way it works? I just finished making a bunch of periogi for the holidays and ravioli was on the list to make next.
Can't wait to see your final formula for the bread when you perfect it. That exploding loaf made me smile....we've all been there before at some point or another.
Regards,
Ian
What does over-proofing and the extreme oven spring of the tzang method look like? Now you know. It came out of the oven just huge. When the cool air hit the loaf it just collapsed on itself. It still tasted good though. Gave the kiddos some with butter and they were ecstatic. I never let them have bread warm from the oven. It always has to cool first, so they were happy.