Blog posts

A dessert: Pineapple upside down cake

Entertaining my little boy again tonight, so time for another easy baking project he could help with. He loves pineapple and we had some a couple of days old, so time to do something with it. Recipe from The Joy of Cooking (I've always had good luck with the basics from there). Took about 20 minutes to prep and get in the oven, bake at 350F for a little over 35 minutes.Pineapple upside down cakePineapple upside down cake 

mystery bread

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I had to babysit tonight and was invited to eat supper with the family - I work cheap. There was a very nice little loaf on the cutting board, crisp crust and holey tender crumb. Imagine my surprise when my d-i-l told me it was one I had baked and she had retrieved from the freezer! I didn't recognize it and I'm still not sure which bread it was. Could have been Will Wraith's baguette, judging by the crumb. Also heard from my friends who received their loaf today in the mail. It was the whole grain sourdough from Breadtopia and got rave reviews.

19th Century Breadmaking

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My interest in the 19th century comes from researching my family history. Four of my ancestors were soldiers during the American Civil War (1861-1865). This peaked my interest in doing more than just researching names and dates. I have been participating in living history events and reenactments (with my Civil War reenacting unit) and teaching the ways of a typical 19th century Pennsylvania German woman since 2000. I dress the part and strive for authenticity by using reproductions or originals items.

Ramadan Pide

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Authentic Ramadan Pide (www.40firinekmek.com)

In my country, arrival of Ramadan is easily noticed by the long lines in front of the bakeries and the tempting smell of pides wafting into the streets. It is a special type of flatbread with an incomparable aroma and flavor. This recipe will yield the delicious authentic pide made by the bakeries during Ramadan time. Enjoy!

Earth oven construction, part 2

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Continued from an earlier entry....

 

We let the first layer dry a few days, and some fairly big cracks started to form. I decided to pull out the sand to give the oven more room to shrink as needed, and to help it dry out faster. I cut a smaller door than the final size, you can see the final door scored into the surface:

Mud oven construction - foundation and first layer

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I finally got up the gumption to move my construction photos over to my flickr account. Here they are in the entirety, I tried to make the titles fairly self-explanatory:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/7541655@N03/aX31kR

 

Here's a condensed version with some commentary:

First off is the foundation. Our frost line in in theory 48 inches, so we dug down quite a bit. We hit a VERY large rock, which made us decide the hole was big enough, and which we figured would act as a foundation in itself.

Pita Bread

I post this recipe before for JMonkey, you can see it here.

 

1 Tablespoon yeast.
1 Tablespoon honey or sugar .
2 1\2 cup warm water.
3 cups white flour.
1 1\2 cups whole wheat flour.
2 teaspoon salt.
2 Tablespoons olive oil.

1)Preheat the oven to 550 degrees.

A slightly smaller miche

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Today I baked the sourdough wholegrain bread from Breadtopia, and this time I used my ss dutch oven. I treated the dough like the NK bread and proofed it in a parchment lined banneton so I was able to score it before lowering it into the pan. No scorched bottom crust and in fact the loaf looks great. This is the one I am going to mail to San Diego, and the frustrating thing is that I won't know what the crumb looks like. Maybe my friends will send a picture - I have my fingers crossed that it is as good as it looks, A

Rustic Flax Seed-Currant Bread

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This flax seed-currant bread is similar in texture and technique to ciabatta. It was really fun to make and tastes delicious. The recipe and more photos are here.

Flax seed - currant bread Flax seed - currant slices

Susanfnp

Earth Oven - Early fall baking

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Still working on the nuances of oven temperature. It’s really a comedy of timing between two ancient processes—bread making and fire building. It seem like if I get it over 600 degrees at the start, it takes a good 45 minutes to reach a more comfortable 550 for bread baking, but then it holds the temps nicely for hours. Handy if you have multiple batches, less handy if you were hoping to cook your dinner at 350 degrees anytime soon. I do crack the door to bring the temp down a bit quicker.

 

Common occurrences when firing your mud oven: