pmccool's blog

The trip was a gift to our oldest grandson for his high school graduation--two years after the fact.  Yup, COVID got in the way of that, too.

Since it was Josh's trip, we built it around his interests.  Much fun and lots of great memories but bakeries didn't figure into the mix.  In spite of that, my wife and I were both blown away by the bakeries/patisseries that we did notice in our perambulations.  The creativity and craftsmanship of the bakers who turn out such beautiful loaves and pastries is beyond impressive.

Although my overall baking activity is less than it used to be, I have made some breads recently.

First up, cranberry-orange cream cheese braids. These were donated to a fundraising cookie walk that our local Friends of the Library held.

I also baked some small sweet vanilla challot yesterday that will be gifted to friends:

Paul

This bread arose from a “What if…?” musing.  Specifically, what if I used oat flour in place of barley flour for the Barley/Wheat Bread I made previously?  As it turns out, it's a pretty good idea.  

The formula was:

350g whole oat flour

50g whole rye flour

I've been intrigued by several recent posts that feature a 100% whole-wheat Hokkaido milk bread, such as this one by Benito.  So I decided to try my hand at it.  Almost.  The "almost" being that I changed it from a sourdough bread to a yeasted bread.

This is a bread from Stanley Ginsberg's The Rye Baker.  It caught my eye as I was casting about for something to use for the current rye bread Community bake. 

It is about as simple as a rye bread can be.  There are no multi-stage levain builds, no scalds, no soakers, no seeds, and no spices.  The only components are rye flour, potato, water, and salt.  My sole departure from the formula was to use whole rye flour, rather than medium rye flour.

One of the things I enjoy about Christmas is the opportunity to bake without having to ask myself “How are we going to eat all of this?”  I can have fun baking and give the finished goods away as Christmas presents.  Yes, I know, bread can be gifted any day of the year; it somehow seems even more enjoyable this time of year.  

Whole Wheat Cranberry-Orange Country Loaf

This cake, a Jamaican Christmas tradition, came to my attention from a very strange direction.  

Back in October, my wife and I, along with my sister and her boyfriend, spent a long weekend in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula.  That's the “horn” pushing up into Lake Superior at the western end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  We happened across The Jampot, a bake shop operated by the Holy Transfiguration Skete Society of St. John, a Byzantine Catholic monastery.  Seriously, where else would one go to find out about a cake that is beloved on a Caribbean island?

The grandfather of the husband of one of our nieces (nephew-in-law?) died recently and my wife made a meal for his family.  I pitched in with ciabatta bread, using Reinhart’s ciabatta with poolish formula from BBA.  Since each loaf was a different size, we gave them the Papa Bear and Mama Bear sized loaves.  

We've been traveling. It seems a bit odd to say that we are vacationing, since we are retired, so “traveling” might be the better verb.  Last week we were in Nashville, TN.  This week we are in Sapphire, NC.  

A good part of yesterday was spent helping my brother-in-law cut, split, and stack firewood for his winter heating.  After that, I came home to clean up (and take some ibuprofen!) and make hamburger buns.  Those will be used for this afternoon's Halloween gathering.

Paul