Bread Bakers Challenge

Lavish Crackers

2009-10-03T20:54:00.001-07:00

The Mise en place and surprise of surprises, I have all the ingredients this time. When I was combining the ingredients, I did use the measuring cup (I have a new small one that measures 1/4 a cup one tablespoon at a time.) with the oil first and then followed by the honey. It was a lot easier to clean up doing it this way.

After the dough was formed. I did knead it by hand. I think this is the first bread that I did this. I don't think that the dough hook would have worked on such a stiff dough. It was very easy to manipulate.

After the dough was kneaded, I rolled it out on the counter and then let it relax for 5 minutes and transferred it to the cookie sheet.

I used a combination of seeds and spices. From the left: Basil leaves, Mint flakes, Sesame seeds, ground coriander seeds, Poppy seeds, paprika, and celery seeds. No single cracker had all spices so the crackers all had their own unique tastes. I liked the crackers.

Would make them again. I can't wait until I take them to work to see what my coworkers think about them. I have found that as the hours have passed since I made them this afternoon, the crackers have hardened up quite a bit.

I would like to try my hand at this recipe but as a pita bread. I just have to figure out what to cut the bread with to be big enough for a hummus and lettuce sandwich with red bell peppers.

Kaiser Rolls

2009-10-02T22:13:00.001-07:00

The theme of miss in place continues. I am missing two ingredients. The poppy seeds and the corn meal. Since I am using a silpath sheet and parchment paper, I have opted not to sprinkle the baking sheets with corn meal. I honestly, just forgot the poppy seeds in the picture. This dough taught me something about my ability to bake bread. I need to replace the battery in my food scale. Because the power is low, it shuts down at the most inopportune time. Like when I am weighing out 10 oz of flour. I stopped at 7 oz, it quit. I dumped out the flour and started remeasuring. I had it in my head that I needed 7 oz of flour, needless to say, the dough was very soft and sticky. Like the ciabatta dough should have been.

When I figured out that I was short 3 oz of flour, I almost, scraped the whole batch into the trash. Then I decided that I could play with it and get it to the proper thickness. I did that and I feel proud of being able to do that. I feel this is a lot of growth on my part.

I like this picture. You can see the egg and the barley malt. I added the malt with the wet ingredients because I was using the wet form.

Here is the dough at the proper consistency. Time to let it sit for 2 hours and expand.

After the first rise. I made equal balls of 2.3 oz of dough. I got not 9 balls but 16. This was a good surprise. This dough was easy to work with.

After the first rise, I took the dough between my two hands and shaped the ropes. Then I tied the loose knots and shaped the circles for the kaiser rolls. I think they look lovely. I got better the more that I shaped. I am looking forward to making these again. Easy and fun and very tasty all describe these rolls.

You can see how the shapes improved with the developing of technique.

Awaiting the second rise.

Both pans. As you can tell, I am not a perfectionist. The first attempts were simply allowed to rise next to their prettier sisters and brothers. The less formed rolls did taste yummy.

My dh(darling hubby) does not like seeds on his rolls. I do. So, this pan of rolls were for me.

This is my dh's pan of rolls. Next time, I'll divide the rolls evenly between the two of us.

After baking, they looked so pretty. I am looking forward to the next time that I make these beauties.

For the crumb shot, I couldn't resist showing off both the inside and outside of my buns.

Italian Bread Sticks

2009-09-25T21:22:00.001-07:00

We just got back from a lovely vacation in the Boston and Wells Beach, Maine area. A trip we make on a yearly basis to visit with my darling husband's lovely family. I am very blessed with some awesome in laws. Here is a picture of my darling husband and his lovely dad seconds before they learned they were going to Pappy (grandfather) and (great granddad). My son and his lovely bride are expecting their first baby in April of 2010. I will be honey and my mom-in-law will be GG (great grandma)

Now to get back to the bread baking. Here is the biga after waiting on me for two days. It was bubbly and just raring to start to work.

Per the instructions. I took out my blade and sliced it into ten kinda equal portions.

Now for my Miss in place. There is one ingredient that is not here. Can you name it? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10... Bing... times up... If you guessed water, you are right, it is in the microwave getting warmed up to 100 degrees.

The biga meets all its dry ingredients friends in the KA's bowl and the mixing begins.

A little blurry but you can tell that all the ingredients are really getting to know each other well during the kneading stage.

Time to let the dough sit for two hours to rise for the first time.

I had decided to make Italian Bread Sticks to go with the Spaghetti and Meatballs that my hubby loves having for dinner.

During their second rise awaiting on the time while vegging out on the pan.

I sprinkled half the bread sticks with celery seeds, sesame seeds and poppy seeds. I liked all three but would love to make just celery seeds on some single sticks. My hubby asked for plain bread sticks. I just couldn't make naked bread sticks, so I put garlic powder on them. He said they tasted alright but he would prefer just plain. This coming from a man who puts Tabasco on everything (including me, but we won't talk about that right now.)

Fresh out of the oven. They look lovely because they are definitely rustic and handmade. They are very yummy.

A close up of the seeded sticks.

The crumb shot. They were airy and with enough holes that they look as good as they tasted.

When I asked dh(darling hubby) if he wanted me to take them to work. He responded, "Yes, please, they are too good to stay here." Translation, I can resist your cakes and cookies woman but your bread sticks, drive me crazy. So, being the devoted wife, I took them to work to share with my co-workers. They loved them. They are very happy that I have taken on the bread challenge.

Would I make these bread sticks again?? You betcha... They were fun and easy and very tasty.

One of my co-workers mentioned Olive's Garden. I just don't understand what Popeye's gurlfriend, Olive Oyl has to do with my bread sticks. I didn't think that anyone knew what happened in Olive Garden.

French Bread

2009-09-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

I tried twice to bake the French Bread.

After I baked it, my darling husband told me it was hard as a rock.

I will not try this bread a third time.

As a very good friend told me, if I master all but 1 of the 43 breads, then I can hold my head up.

Terri

Focaccia

2009-08-03T20:27:00.001-07:00

I have really been looking forward to baking this bread. It sounded so yummy. I skipped the usual step by step pictures. Seriously, how many times do you need to see my miss in place, the kitchen aid mixing and kneading the ingredients. I simply took the pictures of what was different.

I made the olive oil and herb mixture about a week before the bread. I used my Herbs of Provence with garlic and onions in the olive oil. I heated the oil slightly, to 100F. Then let it sit out for a day or two. Then I put it into the refrig.
Here is the bread in the refrigerator after the first two rises. It is on the pan with the olive oil and herb mixture.

I decided to add pine nuts and fresh cherry tomatoes and feta cheese to the bread. The first two ingredients are added precooking. The cheese should have been added when I just put the bread into the oven instead of after I turned the bread 180 degrees. Tasted great.

Doesn't that look so very pretty. The reds, greens and yellow. Good enough to eat. Pretty dimpling.

Here is the crumb shot. I got a lot of open holes. The olive oil gave it great flavor. Decided to serve it with spinach ravioli.

Another crumb shot with an overview of the top of the bread. Almost hate to slice it up and give it away. Maybe I can frame it and make it into art... Naaaaaaah, it tastes too good. Another reason it is very important to get it out of the house.

English Muffins

2009-07-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe that I've been eagerly awaiting baking. This is actually a mess in place, believe it or not, I have all the ingredients in this picture. Would someone pick Tammy up off the floor because I know she just fainted.

I love having my own personal kneading machine. Didn't take too long to knead it.

First rise. This was one of the hardest parts of this recipe, waiting for time to do the next step.

Nice and pretty with the rise complete. I think because the kitchen was hot, it took less time than originally determined.

The parchment lined pan waiting for the second rise.

Lovely to look at with the cornmeal.

I used my George Foreman Grill for the first step. I have the one that you can change out the grill pans. Made it very easy to grill the muffins.

The bottoms aren't really very brown. Guess I should have let them go longer on the griddle, but they tasted good.

The crumb shot. Looks great. See the nooks and crannies? I used a fork and split the muffins. I ate one right away, OK, after 30 minutes. Then next one I ate the next morning for breakfast. I have one set aside for tomorrow's breakfast. The rest were tossed into the freezer as frozen assets to be enjoyed in the future.

The English muffins made into egg muffins. I used Egg substitute and the cheese was garlic onion white cheddar cheese. Very yummy. The muffins were very tender. I think I may stop buying English muffins and make them.

I finished up breakfast with watermelon and blueberries.

Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread

2009-07-19T18:36:00.001-07:00

Miss in Place. It seems that whenever I set out my ingredients, I always miss one. I made a few changes to this recipe out of necessity. I did not have Lemon extract, so I used Butter Flavor. I only had 1 cup of craisins so they were a little short.

The dry ingredients are gathering together to start making dough.

This was the missing ingredient. Butter. I popped it into the microwave and melted it. Yes, I did take off the wrapping first.

The wet ingredients are together except for the eggs. I don't know why I decided to go eggless with this bread but I did figure it out and added them a bit late. Glad I didn't toss it into the oven before I figured out my error.

Here is the bread dough before I figured out that the eggs were missing. It looked very dense and not quite right.

The eggs are in and the kneading process is complete.

Add a little flour because the dough is toooooo soft.

After the cranberries and walnuts are kneaded in before the first rise.

Ready for the first rise. It should take until 1110. I'll have to throw it into the refrigerator and pull it out after church.

Before time to go to church and because the house is so hot, it completed it's first rise before I had to leave for church. Punched it down and then went to church.

Threw the dough into the refrig to await my return after church. When I came back, the dough was as big as it was before I punched it down.

The three big rolls are rolled out. The small rolls are awaiting their turn.

The big rolls are braided into a triple braid. Looking pretty.

The small one is done. Looks like an old man with the eye and his nose and cheeks.

The egg wash and my favorite basting brush. It cleans up in the dishwasher. Must have in the kitchen.

The egg wash is complete.

The double celebration bread. Two triple braids atop of each other.

The temp is just right for the bread.

Fresh out of the oven. A pretty shade of golden brown. It thumped nicely also.

Mama, do you have bread??

Do you mean this bread?

No, I mean this bread. Please Mama. I came all the way from Washington to San Diego just to get some of the bread.

Sliced the end off to get this crumb shot. Made sure that I got low and close. UMMM.

The crumb shot. I got in close on the loaf and the slice. Looks as yummy as it tasted.

The bread is all packaged and ready to leave with Alden. When it was time to go, he almost forgot it until I mentioned that he had bread to enjoy this week.

Corn Bread

2009-07-17T21:32:00.001-07:00

I am amazed that the only quick bread that we are making in this challenge takes two days to make.
Here are the ingredients for the overnight soak. I was very happy to pull out 2 cups of buttermilk from my frozen assets (out of the freezer).

The next day, the polenta looks so very pretty.

It is easy not to forget anything when it is on the counter waiting to be used. Doesn't it look so pretty.

This is what 8 ounces of bacon looks like. I know because I weighed it. Turned out to be 9 pieces.

Since I was making cornbread, out came my great grandmother's skillet. I put the bacon in the skillet and tossed it in the oven.

The dry ingredients in the big bowl.

I don't like sifting together dry ingredients, whisking it together gets the job done.

The three eggs awaiting the whisks.

The eggs are beaten.

2 Tablespoons of butter, yes, I did take the wrapper off before I melted it in the microwave.

Adding the honey and butter to the eggs. I was worried about the hot butter cooking the eggs, but it didn't happen.

All the wet ingredients are combined, this is a very easy bread to make.

Adding the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. I really liked this shot.The wet ingredients combined with the dry ingredients.

The corn is in the mix. I liked the idea of corn in cornbread.

The bacon is coarsely crumbled. Of course I had to test if first.

I baked up all the bacon figuring that I would put the excess into my frozen assets. I forgot to figure in the hubby. He came home and wanted dinner. His evening plans had changed. The evening was supposed to be him enjoying time at a local pub and eat there. I gave him 2 BLTs for dinner and had no extra for the freezer.

The batter is in the skillet. The bacon is on the top. Looks good enough to eat. Time to throw it into oven for 30 minutes. I checked it after the thirty minutes, it was very wet in the center and the internal temp had not been achieved. I added 5 minutes to time because it just wasn't ready. The final time was 50 minutes because of the skillet.

The final product looked superb. Because of the bacon grease, it flipped out of the pan very easily. I think next time I make this bread (and there will be a next time) I will reduce the 2 tablespoons grease in the skillet. The bread was a little greasy. The next day, the extra was absorbed and the bread was very moist but not too much.

Isn't this a very pretty crumb shot. See the corn kernel peeking out of the middle.

I would like to add some onions with the corn in the future.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

2009-07-17T04:55:00.000-07:00

This is the only picture that remains of my lovely Cinnamon Raisin Bread. My habit during this challenge is to bring my digital camera into the kitchen and snap a step by step journey. I did that. I loaded the pictures into my computer and at the same time asked it to delete the pictures from the camera. (Mistake #1) As I was looking through the recently uploaded pictures, I noticed one that didn't look good. I decided to delete that picture. (Mistake #2) When I told it to delete that single picture, (Mistake #3) my silly computer decided to delete all my lovely pictures. I won't be making those mistakes again.

As you can see from the single surviving picture, take after my mean computer deleted all the rest, I had a very nice swirl going on.

I liked the taste of this bread. It was very easy to make. I made a slight change to the recipe. When I was looking for bulk raisins at Henry's, I saw crimson raisins. I had never had them and so I sampled one raisins and then bought the cup and a half for the recipe. I would do this again even though the cost is a bit more.

My friends at work said that my bread rivaled Dudley in Ramona. If you live in San Diego, you know what a big compliment that is.

My dh does not care for raisins, in the future, I would make one loaf with dried cranberries.

I loved the walnuts in the bread, great crunch.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

2009-07-13T12:56:00.001-07:00

I want to thank my sistah, Tammy from the Missing Piece. My silly computer deleted all my pictures and she told me how to recover them. Thanks Sis.
Mess in Place. I have the sugar crystals to decorate the top of the loafe.

Dry ingredients in the bowl.

Wet ingredients added to dry ingredients.

Cinnamon sugar in a bowl.

I love having my kitchen help kneading my bread. I have to steady her when it gets close.

Time to take the dough out of the KA and knead in the raisins and walnuts.

The first rise the time is on the wrap so that I don't forget.

A new find at Henry's, Crimson Raisins. A little costier than regular raisins but a lot more tasty.

It took a bit to knead in the raisins and the walnuts but worth it.

Second rise. I made two loaves in 9 inch pans instead of 8 inch.

In the oven with a lot of oven spring. Looking yummier. I can't wait.

Melted butter for the top of the loaf.

Cinnamon sugar with the egg wash.

It's out of the oven. Love the look. I don't care that it's warty that means that goodness is awaiting under the surface.

On the cooling racks.

With the sugar crystals, cinnamon sugar on top. Unfortunately, the crystals didn't ahere very well. Ended up on the floor.

A lovely swirl.

A friend told me this bread rivals Dudley Bakery.

The crumb shot with the crimson raisins and the swirl.

Cinnamon Rolls

2009-07-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

Finally, cinnamon rolls, I have been looking forward to cooking these since I first paged through the Bread Bakers Apprentice Cookbook. This was a busy week, I was an actor in our vacation bible school, A Week in Rome. I was an early Roman Christian and led our visitors to the Cave. We also had an out of town visitor, Pete (Waldo) Greenwald made it safely back from Afghanistan.

Here is the recipe. The picture of the book looks great.

My ingredients waiting to become something very yummy! I used the last of my lemon extract in this recipe. I will experiment with other extracts. I think maple, rum, butter would also give the rolls a nice flavor.

The ingredients are in the bowl, the kneading starts.

The kneading is complete. Doesn't it look so pretty.

This window pane test, this is the first time that I have actually taken the time to see what this meant. Looks pretty. Hard to photograph being both the photobug and the hand doing the test.

Time for the first rise. Since its busy here at the house, noted the time to finish the rise on the saran wrap.

Since neither Larry nor I drink buttermilk, where is Alden when I really need him? Guess up in Bremerton going to college and enjoy that Lovely Bride, Katherine. I put 1 cup of buttermilk into ziplock bags to go into the freezer and await for another time when I need buttermilk. Great addition to my frozen assets.

The first batch of rolls got over cooked. Not quite burnt, although Larry said that he really like them that way. Mulligan, here are the dry ingredients added to the creamed ingredients.

A bit more adding. I am glad that I decided at the beginning of this challenge that I would let my kitchen help do that task for me.

Time for the buttermilk to be added.

The paddle did it's task so prettily. Dough hook, it's your turn.

The process of kneading the dough. Looking good.

Time for the rise. Note the time in green.

Cinnamon sugar in a bowl. Looks pretty. I wonder if my colored sugars would work here.

The rectangle is rolled out. The pretty cinnamon sugar is spread. Time to roll it up. I found the dough really sticky and a little hard to roll but guess it needs to be sticky to stick into a roll.

The roll look very pretty. Tammy, do you like this picture better. I tried to get closer to the bread.

A little longer view of that lovely roll.

Tammy suggested cutting the dough with thread. I found this very awkward. I did use my rocker knife. It did a great job and it was easy to transport the rolls to the pan.

Don't they look pretty on their pan?

This step is done. Time for them to rest and rise for 90 minutes.

The rise is complete. Time for them to go into the oven. Not the 30 minutes, we will check on them at 20 minutes and then let them go for a bit longer. I am heartsick that I burnt the first batch. I was happy that these were pretty easy.

A close up of the rolls after they rose. Love the look of the cinnamon.

After 20 minutes of baking. They look very pretty.

A close up of one of the pretty babies. It looks like she was ready for her close up.

Here are the cooled rolls. Note the glaze in a ziplock bag to make it very easy to drizzle the glaze.

It's hard to drizzle and snap a picture also. I think I did a good job. Don't they look lovely?

Yummy. There weren't enough of these beauties to make it to work this week. I will definitely make these for a future red hat event. The ladies will love them. I think if I want to make them, it would be easy to find other people to give them to eat. The hard part would be not having enough to give everyone who would want one.

Fun in the Kitchen

2009-07-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

My very favorite thing to do in the kitchen besides washing dishes or mopping the floor, is chopping garlic. Okay, Tammy stop laughing.
First step. Separate your garlic cloves from the garlic head. This recipe called for four cloves.

The two choices to mince the garlic are the garlic press or the trusty knife. I choose the knife because it's more fun. Does anyone want a garlic press. Cut the bottoms off the cloves.

Turn your knife on its side, place the clove under the knife, with your fist slam the knife smushing the clove. Take the outer cover off and toss it in the trash.

Then comes the fun. You start chopping and keep going like a jack Russel terrier until the garlic is in tiny little bits. You garlic is already for your recipe. If you had any stress lingering from the turkey who cut you off on the road, that should be done. If you darling hubby is anything like mine, he'll come into the kitchen wondering what you are cooking.

A closer look at the knife relaxing after a great work out.

Garlic is ready awaiting time to make meatballs, bread, or simply to drive your hubby wild thinking about what good is cooking in the kitchen. Now, that's fun.

Chibatta

2009-06-29T03:36:00.001-07:00

Since I have used the poolish method to start bread before while preparing the greek celebration bread. One goal that I am seeking during this bread journey, is a variety of ways to prepare the recipes.

Here are the dry ingredients dry ingredients safely in the kitchenaid awaiting kneading.

Here is the lovely mixer at work kneading together the wet and dry ingredients.

The biga is made. Put to rest in the bowl to rise for 2 hours until it's put into the refrigerator. The biga is more like bread dough and the poolish is very wet mixture.

After the rise and safely in the friggie to await rise over night.

Here are the ingredients for the mushroom style chibatta. I did leave out one ingredient. I fear this may turn into a theme. The missing ingredient is pictured in the shot 2 below this one.

No, it's not dried mushrooms. Although, these did get left out of the final bread. I had the fresh mushrroms and garlic in the bread. Which was very tasty.

That's right, I forgot the garlic cloves when I gathered my ingredients for the bread.

The lovely button mushrooms while they await cutting into 1/4 slices.

The mushrooms all sliced and ready for the pan.

The quarter cup of evoo. Seems like a lot in a teflon pan but love the taste.

Here are the shrooms and garlic with lovely eevo in the pan. Now time to cook them until they are soft.

The shrooms are all ready. Time to get back to the biga since it has warmed up while I prepared the mushrooms.

The biga has been sliced up into ten slices. Doesn't it look cute on the pink cutting mat.

The shrooms are chilling. At the point I should have combined the two types of shrooms and the dried ones wouldn't have gotten forgotten on the counter.

The chibatta is being kneaded in the mixer. It took a lot of extra flour for the bread. I don't know if I mistakenly added too much liquid. This was where I should have added the mushroom but didn't read the book closely enough. But, they did get used.

The dough after it's 2 minute rest to relax. Time to fold it like a letter.

I did not have the fancy dancy couche. I did buy some new kitchen towels from work recently and they did a great job for their cousin the couche. My lovely bratty sister told me that hers stuck to her pastry cloth and next time she was going to put the chibatta on parchment paper. I decided to learn from her experience. Thanks Tammy. Maybe mom didn't make a mistake having you after all. Wink.

After the loaves were rested and risen.

Here is the bread in the oven, on the stone. Loved how it baked up.

The first loaf is out of the oven and resting and awaiting it's brothers and sister.

The holes are small in the cut. But they are evenly distributed. There were some large holes elsewhere in the bread.

The mushrooms were folded into the bread with the letter method. Next time, they will be throughout.

My bratty little sister who likes to boss everyone around, told me that I could make 4 smaller loaves just fine with this recipe. Sounded good to me. Don't they look pretty?

I don't know if you can read the time, 9:47 a.m. I know you can't read it because my photo of the clock ran away. Which means it's time for me to gather my things and go to church and play with the babies. It's my week to do nursery duty.

I did take the bread to work to share. My co-workers loved the bread. One even suggested that making garlic bread with it would be good. I think take the garlic butter idea, add a good ham and cheese and grill it. Yummy.

Challah

2009-06-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

I was visiting someone else's blog and saw that they had their ingriedents with the cookbook. I like the look. Can you tell what ingredient was omitted?

Here are all the dry ingredients in the mixer bowl. Since I didn't want to have all the flour, yeast, sugar and salt to fly into the air, I took the whisk to combine all the dry stuff.

I used a little bowl to combine all the wet ingredients. When I tried to whisk them together I started getting spills on the counter. I didn't take a picture of the bowl with the wet ingredients because I put the small bowl above the mixer bowl and whisked and I didn't really care that I sloshed the wet ingredients into the dry because that is where they would end up. I did miss one picture.

Here is the dough after it was combined but before it was kneaded with the dough hook for 6 minutes. This dough really made the mixer dance on the counter top. It was really slapping the dough against the bowl.

Here is the dough after it was kneaded but before it was molded into a ball shape and placed in the oiled bowl.

Here is the dough in the oiled bowl awaiting the first rise. Doesn't it look cute and little.

This is after the first rise. Look at the time. It's 9:50 and church is at 10:45. There is a 20 minute drive. Time to put it into the refrigerator.

With the bowl being safely guarded, I was able to leave for church to return to finish the bread.

After church, divided the dough into three equal parts. I had a pretty picture of the dough before I baked it. It ran away and I don't know how to add the picture back in. I did a simple three braid for my challah. Maybe if I decide to repeat this bread at a later date, I may do the 4,5, 6 or if I get really crazy, the 12 braid. This wasn't my most favorite bread. It seemed hard to work with and not that tasty once it was baked. So don't hold your breath for me to repeat it soon.

The bread, fresh out of the oven and on the extra oven rack cooling awaiting to be cut in half.

I sliced the bread in half to see the lovely inside.

It was very hard to get the crumb shot with the bread. For some reason, my camera wanted to over light the bread. I hope that you can see that it looks lovely.

The bread is already packed up and ready to go to work. I forgot the bread on Monday because Trish call for a ride to work. That is okay since it was in an airtight container. The little red container did make it to Larry's work.

Challah French Toast

2009-06-21T03:27:00.000-07:00

Just to show you how much trouble your bratty little sister can get you into. Tammy and I were talking about our latest bread, Challah. She said that she was going to make French Toast out of hers. I thought that was great. I didn't think that I was going to follow suit because mine was going to work. Generally when a bread goes to work it doesn't come back home. Well, Challah was a challenge. On Monday, I was rushed out the door by a friend that wanted a ride, so the bread stayed on the counter. On Tuesday, there wasn't a truck so not many people that I could give the bread away to eat it for me. On Wednesday, although the bread had stayed in airtight container, it was starting to go stale. I took it home, decided that I was going to make French Toast. I am glad that I did, don't tell Tammy, but that was a good idea. After eating French Toast on Wednesday night, I still had a lot leftover. I decided to take the French Toast to work to share with Kathie.
Since simple French Toast was dinner the night before, breakfast was French Toast with ripe banana, walnuts, syrup and a dusting of powdered sugar. Yummy.

Here the French Toast is retoasted in the toaster oven. The banana is waiting to be sliced and the walnuts are there.

The next step. It's looking better and better.

Whoops, forgot the dusting of XXX sugar. Even better.

This is too dangerous to keep in the house. All the elements are packed up to share for lunch.

A nice healthy breakfast. All the pictures are ready and this blog is done. Enjoy.

Casatiello

2009-06-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

This bread was easy. I'm glad that it was fast. It only took 5 hours and that included starting the sponge.
Since my Kitchenaid was back in commission, thanks to a phone call to Marts Appliance in Escondido, CA. Love a business that cares for a customer. Here the sponge is in the bowl of the mixer.

I decided to add in Canadian Bacon, Sun Dried Tomatoes and grated smoked Gouda cheese. The grater attachment to the mixer came in handy for the cheese. I diced up the sun dried tomatoes because they were in Julian strips and smaller pieces were desired. My co-workers thought they were dried cranberry until they tasted them. I used 6 ounces of the bacon and fried it up in a skillet. I didn't weigh it afterwards to see how much weight it lost from the frying.

The ingredients in the mixer becoming a lovely dough. I think this is before the meat, cheese and tomatoes were added.

Its time to rest. Pulled out and greased out the large white mixing bowl. Flipped it to grease the bread. Covered it with plastic. I had 90 minutes to nap.

After reading some of the other blogs, they mentioned using a collar. I think mine was way too be here, but better too much than not enough. I have learned that from trying to buy pants that are long enough. I'm 5'9" and all the designers think that we should be only 5'6". I used a spring form pan that my brother, Mike gave me. The bottom was lined, the collar put on. Then the sides were greased with the extra butter, the sides were added to the collar.

The lovely dough that had it first rise was put into the pan and the collar. It looks so very cozy.

After the bread went through the second rise. I trimmed down the collar so that it still had several inches to climb while it baked, but now it could fit into the oven.

Before the dough went into the oven, I took out my trusty silicone basting brush and olive oil and brushed the top. Then I used some left over melted butter.

Doesn't this bread look lovely. See the meat and sun dried tomatoes. I liked how it browned up nicely.

The bread after it was taken out of the sprngform pan. This made it very easy to unpan.

My bratty little sister told me with the last bread that I needed to cut open the bread so that I could show off the inside of the bread. Tammy, this shot's for you. Doesn't that look lovely?

I want to make this bread again. I think this time, Swiss cheese, bacon, and green onions will be the add ins. Almost like a Quiche Loraine. My milk option will be buttermilk. I will try to add pictures of that bread to this post later, if I remember.

Brioche

2009-06-08T03:15:00.000-07:00

When my lovely sister talked me into doing this Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, I decided that hand kneading was not my cup of tea. This is bread number four and because I own a Kitchenaid, it was easy to do the bread and not knead.
I was talking on the phone with my sister and I undid the screws on the side and took out the motor brushes. Needless to say, my lovely mixer did not work. Since it was Saturday night, the 800 number was not an option. After calling the number, I knew that I had to wait until Monday to get the help that I needed. After calling the 800 number on the side of the machine, I was given a local number and the maintenance man from Marts Appliance Service, was able to help me fix my machine over the phone.

Luckily, I was able to pull out my Oster Kitchen Center. I have made bread with it in the distant past. I was very happy to be able to mix the bread with this animal. I didn't have the problem of the dough moving up the beaters.

After I kneaded the bread. I put it out on a cookie sheet and spread it into a rectangle.

I covered the dough with plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator. I didn't think that it had risen very much. I pulled it out.

It was time to shape the brioche. I decided to use my muffin tins to bake the bread.

I chopped up 2 ounces hazelnuts and combine them with 7 ounces white chocolate and chocolate swirl chips.

I put some dough in my hand. Put about a tablespoon in the middle of the dough. Wrapped the dough around to form a ball. Placed them into the muffin tins.

Here is the dough awaiting the second rising. I was given this pretty muffin pan for a Christmas gift one year. I like having this in my cupboard.

After the second rising, the brioche is ready for the oven. They look lovely.

The bread was out of the oven after 20 minutes. They look a lot like muffins but the taste was a lot better.

Here is a close up of the bread. I took it to work and shared it with my co-workers. They loved the bread. I think this is their favorite so far, since I have had requests for repeats of this bread already.

Onion Garlic Bagels

2009-06-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

Bread Bakers Challenge number four Bagels. When Tammy first told me that she was really looking forward to this bread. Frankly, I wasn't too excited about making something I can buy at the local bakery or in the freezer.

I didn't take any pictures of the sponge or the batter.
Here are the formed balls of dough during their first rise.

Here are the rolls of doughs after weighting in at about 1 ounce each.

After the first rise, I shaped the bagels by poking my thumb in the ball and shaping them into bagels.

I used dried garlic and onion after rehydrating them. A bit of sesame and poppy seeds were also added. After they were boiled.

Awaiting the oven step. Don't they look lovely with all their toppings.

After toasting in the oven. I took the bagels to work to share.

There was enough garlic on the bagels that I'm sure that we didn't have any vampires as guests that day.

Yummy. Can't wait to bake these again.

Anadama Bread

2009-05-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

Tammy thinks that I have a lot to learn.

She invited me to join her in the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge. We will be baking all the breads in this lovely cookbook.

Here is a picture of my first finished bread.

She also taught me how to blog.

This is my first page.

In the future, when I make Anadama bread, I'll take more pictures along the way of make the loaf.

The bread was good. Easy to make.

Bread List

2008-12-31T14:22:00.000-08:00

An adama Bread pp. 108-110 18 May 2009
Greek Celebration Breads (choose one variation) pp. 111-114 25 May 2009
Bagels pp.115-122 1 June 2009
Brioche (choose one variation) pp. 123-128 8 June 2009
Casatiello pp.129-132 15 June 2009
Challah pp. 133-134 22 June 2009
Ciabatta (choose one variation) pp. 135-142
Cinnamon Buns and Sticky Buns pp. 143-146
Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread pp. 147-149
Corn Bread pp. 151-153
Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread pp. 154-156
English Muffins pp. 157-158
Focaccia (choose one variation) pp. 159-167
French Bread pp. 168-171
Italian Bread pp. 172-174
Kaiser Rolls pp. 175-177
Lavash Crackers pp. 178-180
Light Wheat Bread pp. 181-182
Marbled Rye Bread pp. 183-186
Multigrain Bread Extraordinare pp. 187-189
Pain a l’Ancienne pp. 191-194
Pain de Campagne pp. 195-197
Pane Siciliano pp. 198-201
Panettone pp. 202-206
Pizza Napoletano pp. 207-212
Poolish Baguettes pp. 213-214
Portuguese Sweet Bread pp. 215-218
Potato Rosemary Bread pp. 219-221
Pugliese pp.222-225
Basic Sourdough Bread pp. 233-235
New York Deli Rye pp. 236-238
100% Sourdough Rye Bread pp. 239-241
Poilane-Style Miche pp. 242-245
Pumpernickel Bread pp. 246-248
Sunflower Seed Rye pp. 249-251
Stollen pp. 252-256
Swedish Rye (Limpa) pp. 257-258
Tuscan Bread pp. 259-260
Vienna Bread pp. 261-264
White Breads (choose one variation) pp. 265-269
Whole-Wheat Bread pp. 270-272
Potato, Cheddar, and Chive Torpedoes pp. 278-280
Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche pp. 281-283