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This year our daughter turned 6 and she wanted a "cake with rainbows...and also roller skates" because her birthday party was going to be at a skating rink with her friends.

I have seen various pictures of rainbow cakes on the internet for a while now and have been wanting for ages to have an excuse to try it, so I was happy to finally get a chance!

I took a week away from baking last week.  It could have been a visit to the East Coast, or a pulled muscle in my back, or a very unpleasant gut infection.  In fact, it was all three.  But the good news is (1) the absence of discomfort now seems like heaven, (2) I didn’t forget how to bake, and (3) I got the chance today to try the Central Milling “Organic Type 85”  high-extraction flour for the first time.  And I never knew what I’d been miche-ing!

This is the Miche from Peter Reinhart's “The Bread Baker's Apprentice” (BBA). I followed the instructions Reinhart provides, with the following modifications:

I am glad to be able to add this bake to the experience of others with our new toys, the cast iron combo cookers. I love cast iron so it didn't take much to have me clicking away on Amazon for one of these. It's a terrific piece of cookware that I expect to use for other things as well.

Un aggiornamento sull'ultimo mese. Dopo il fantastico paesano che potete vedere nel precedente post "Working for Favaglie Bread Baking" ho avuto un paio di settimane senza pane, o meglio di pane ne ho fatto ma è andato direttamente alle galline!

Last month update. After the great country bread you can see in the previous post "Working for Favaglie Bread Baking" I had a couple of weeks without bread, I mean I baked but the bread went directly to the hens!

Leftover Panettone makes a flavorful bread pudding.  A warm dessert for Christmas or New Years Eve.

http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/panettone-bread-pudding/

For the past year and a half I’ve been trying to generate a healthy dose of steam in my extremely well vented gas oven. Steam that would be present in good volume for at least the first 15 minutes.  My experimentation had mixed results.  The bread tastes great, but I want the appearance be as good as the taste.

Not sure I did this right it is my first time at trying to upload a picture.

Today was also my first go at a Challah. I used the BBA formula. While not perfect I think it came out ok.

enjoy

gene

In the preview I don't see the picture but will send this anyway as a test if nothing else.

Anyplace you find a substantial Italian-American community, chances are you will find a bakery, and chances are that the bakery will offer something called "prosciutto bread" or "meat bread." It usually has nuggets of prosciutto, or pancetta, or even just cubed cold cuts. Sometimes, cheese is in there too, usually provolone. There might be semolina flour mixed in. Zito's in New York is an example of an Italian bakery with a good reputation for their prosciutto bread. There are others.