Nomadcruiser53's blog

Today I tried Jason's Quick Coccodrillo Ciabatta. It was quick and easy as stated. I did do the SD variation to use up some of my starter and found I did have to add another 1/2 cup of flour for it to come together even after 1/2 hour mixing.

With the leftover I did up a pizza dough for supper tonight.

The pizza was great with a garden fresh salad and red wine. Dave

Well we went on holidays and I forgot to take my starter along so I had to live on bread machine bread while we were gone. My starter (Bob) survived the 3 weeks home in the fridge just fine. Today I finally had some free time and what I wanted most was Beer and Cheese SD. I used PR's basic SD recipe and replaced the water with beer and added the cheese after the 1st knead and rest.

I made 4 loaves. We just had to cut into them to go with supper, thus a perfect photo op.

This one is a lager and swiss SD. The swiss taste comes through nicely and my Starter seems nicely sour after his 3 week stint in the fridge.

This is an ale and spicy gouda. Wonderful SD flavors and the heat of the gouda is noticable, but not over powering.

Well, I watched Bobby Flay take on The Elegant Farmer in Mukwanago, WI. in an apple pie throwdown. The Elegant Farmer did his with a sugar cookie crust done in a brown paper bag. I just had to try it. Eating it all ourselves would have been selfish so we had another couple over for dessert on the deck. I'm not artistic and don't try. Here's the pie. It was great.

The pie steams in the bag at 375 for and hour. Then cut a circle out of the top of the bag and brown for another 15 mins. I was very happy with the outcome. Dave

Well, I've been pressed for time lately, but can't bring myself to buy too much store bread. So I whipped up a couple of SD sandwich loaves. I used a half cup of starter for each loaf plus a 1/2 tsp rapid yeast. The dough had good rise in a couple hours. I then divided and put in pans. Nice rise in the pans, but it fell some putting them into the oven. I misted 3 times in the 1st 10 mins and Now I can make toast and sandwiches once again. We had SD waffles this AM and I must say, they are always wonderful.

That was it for me today. Not pretty, but very tasty. Dave

Work has been brutally busy, so bread had to go on the back burner. I did manage to get out some sandwich bread and a couple no-knead SD. The sandwich bread is a little sweet since that's the way I like it and the SD has about 25% WW by weight. I did get a little flour rolled into the SD when I shaped it, but luckily it wasn't too much. The house smelled great today. Dave

I started my firm starter last night. This morning I prepared the dough. I did my first autolyse ( I didn't have a clue what that was before TFL). The boules shaped up ok this afternoon. I think they over proofed a little because I had some deflation when I scored the loaves. Using steam was something I wanted to do so I preheated the oven with my cast iron skillet inside along with my stone. In went the boule onto the stone followed  by a cup of boiling water into the skillet. I made use of the parchment tip this time (see, I'm not that slow of a learner). I pulled the parchment out after the first 10 minutes. Here's the results of the day.

It's just a simple all white SD, but I'm happy with the outcome.

The crust is thin and a little chewy with some crackle to it. The crumb is soft and slighly chewy with a very nice SD tang on the palette. Not much oven spring or gringe, so I still have lot's to strive for. Dave

A quick entry today because I didn't do much. The raisin bread is wonderful and filled the house with that "to die for" smell, but I can't take much credit for it. I had a mound of dough left over from the sticky buns yesterday so I figured I'd just stretch and fold some raisins into it and let er rip. It sat and proofed for another hour and into the oven for 40 mins at 350. I think the neighbors could smell it from the street cuz it's going fast. I just made myself a "moscow mule" and browsed BBA for SD tips. I have a firm starter getting ready for a basic white SD tomorrow. I need bread for work sandwiches. Anyway, here are the raisin bread shots.

A nice crumb and tasty treat with fresh coffee. Dave

         Hi. Here is a short introduction. I'm one of the newer Dave's on TFL. I'm 56, Canadian  and getting ready to retire. I spent my early years in open pit mining and oil field construction work. I spent a couple cold and interesting years in mine construction in the high Arctic. The last 16 years have been spent operating in the pulping and steam side of newsprint production. Now we're waiting for our house to sell in a slowing Alberta economy so we can move to our second home on Vancouver Island. My baking for now only happens on days off work so it's sporatic at best. Once retired, I'm hoping to settle into home renovations, time in the kitchen and recreational fishing. It's now time to start a blog so I can keep my bread and baking attempts in some sort of order. The bread machine used to be my home baking tool of choice, but since finding TFL I am discovering the joy of handmade loaves. I tend to have more failures than successes, but when the successes come I sure injoy them. Even the failures seem to get eaten at my house. Between my wife, 24 year old son and company, food doesn't last too long around here. I also have a 29 year old married daughter and 4 year old granddaughter living Regina so they don't get to enjoy the fruits of our kitchen as often, but we see them when we can.

         Today was a lazy day, but I did manage SD waffles and sticky buns. Both recipes came from the KA site.

These are a couple of left over waffles and they sat for awhile before I took a pic. Great with butter, syrup and a side of good old Canadian back bacon.

The sticky buns are wonderful and soft. I do think I pulled them out of the oven 10 mins early though. They were smelling more than done, but I was wrong. Next time I will wait.

Dave.