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Rocky Road Fudge Bars

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Variety is good.  Even with all of the different types of bread to try and to enjoy, sometimes it's nice to do something a little different.  So, when my wife asked if I would make some Rocky Road Fudge Bars, I was happy to oblige.  This recipe was a Pillsbury Bake-off winner some mumble-mumble years back.  I've been making ever since I was in college.  It starts with a brownie base:

The base is then topped with a cream cheese filling:

Bialys

Toast

I almost forgot it was World Bread Day! But, my weekend baking actually applies pretty well to the holiday.

Sara Lee Cherry Pie

Toast

Last week I had 11 people over for dinner to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving..Food becomes a focal point for most ex pats (living outside their birth country). My ex chiropractor for example, would get misty eyes when he spoke about his mothers roast duck...in France.

Pastry Class

Toast

After last weeks failures of french bread...and the previous weeks sourdough fiasco, I have decided to move onto something that is tried and true in the kitchen. The thought was to check the oven's ability to remain at a constant temperature since they moved the gas tank and laid new lines on the roof.

Cold day

Profile picture for user Floydm
This morning was the first morning that it was cold enough here that the furnace kicked on. Unfortunately, we discovered that the ignitor has failed, so we got a fan running but no heat. So I've done what any good home baker would do: put together enough batches of bread to keep the oven on all day. It has kept the house warm and smelling wonderful.

And one was a salted...

Profile picture for user Floydm

I made a simple French Bread yesterday. I didn't use a pre-ferment or anything: I actually wanted to experiment with long knead times and see just how much of a difference in taste and volume it made. Something just didn't see right with my dough. It felt tight and, although moist, kind of puckered up.

 

After I tasted it it was obvious what was wrong: I added much too much salt.  Almost double.  The crumb still wasn't too bad:

 

Baking and reading

Profile picture for user Floydm

I baked a couple loaves of French Bread and a Whole Wheat Loaf today: 

three loaves

The French Bread turned out very good.  I used a poolish and autolyse, then when I went out for a hike this morning I popped the dough in the fridge so it had an extra slow, long rise. It always seems to help.