In the better late than never category, I baked my first ever stollen tonight using Peter Reinhart's recipe in The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I made up some of my own almond paste, using ground almonds, confectioner's sugar and Karo light syrup. I am resisting the urge to sample this until Christmas.
Some days I don't know where my mind goes. I was baking 2 loaves of New York Onion Rye Bread from Peter Reinhart's book Bread Baker's Apprentice. Everything was going smoothly. The loaves were proofing in my make-shift proofer (microwave with cup of boiled water in it) but then disaster struck.
Lots of baking going on today, in addition to trying out a San Francisco Sourdough recipe from Dave Snyder, pie baking for Thanksgiving was in order. I found a great Sweet Potato Pie recipe on this site which was submitted by SylviaH. It's definitely a keeper.
This week our bread to have with soup at lunch time will be olive bread. I've been wanting to try this bread again from the Il Fornaio Baking Book by Franco Galli for quite sometime. I made two changes to the recipe as given. I used 1/4 cup of my 70% hydration whole wheat sourdough starter instead of the 1/4 cup biga. I also used kalamata olives instead of green olives as my husband doesn't really care for the green olives.
I decided to return to my roots as it were, and reprise an old standard bread
recipe from the Tassajara Bread Book, Whole Wheat Bread. I topped the loaf with
a little egg wash and some sesame seeds before baking. It's not 100% whole wheat but about 70% whole wheat - (2 1/2 cups ww flour, 1 cup all-purpose flour). I used to make this bread every week for
morning toast. After seeing and smelling it, I remember why - it's just good.
My husband requested some seeded sourdough loaves to go with our soup this week. I was happy to find the 'Seedy Whole Wheaty Sourdough' recipe on this site and set out to fulfill the order.
