What are you baking? July 2024

BODKIN!!!

There’s a word that’s seriously fallen out of favor. All the internet points to you for using it.

Now, can we work in way for ‘bumbershoot’ to come up naturally in conversation?

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I get tired of watching TV and needed something to do, especially on these lazy days of summer. Making bread seemed the perfect activity, especially after seeing the “new” price of whole wheat bread.

Personally, I got “sticker shock” from the (price of) loaves of bread at the store, I just said “No, I won’t pay that for a loaf of bread” There is so much more I can do with $6-$7 – things I can’t make. For example I can get two (one pound) packs of Beef Liver for $6 (Walmart) and that will be a tasty main course for 4 meals (for the two of us).

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Since you and I love bargains, today I inquired at Target if they price match. YUP! I showed cashier item on my phone for Amazon and saved $2.

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Thanks!! Good for Target!

As promised, sourdough results.

I’m not a novice. I have several dozen tall, crispy, blistery loaves under my belt. These two, though….


Short. Kinda underproved-looking. Should be way more open. Skin should have pronounced, shatterable blisters.

The shaping just fell apart. I could not get a taut surface no matter now much I messed with it. Everything stuck, it was all a wreck. A kinda crappy note to an already crappy few days.

I think what happened was I mismeasured the amount of whole wheat to bread flour. Only by 2-3%, but that was enough to turn the whole thing into a soupy, unworkable blob.

It still tastes just fine. Adding in just 50g melted butter to the dough really thins out the crusts and you’re left with something you can actually bite through, and you don’t have to gnaw at it like some rodent to get into it.

I guess any bread you can eat is successful by some measure.

I’ll get ‘em next time.

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Short is OK – :grinning: Think of it this way: If it was a car, you’d qualify to park in sub-compact spots in the ramp. And you’ll easily fit 3 sandwiches in the skillet when making grilled cheese. :wink:

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KAF rustic ciabatta, using levain instead of the poolish called for in the recipe. Turned out very nicely, although I prefer a more open, holey texture. I suspected the hydration level (75%) was not high enough to get me there, but decided to follow the recipe and see what happened.

Flavor is lovely, though less complex than I would have expected with so much levain. Will bump hydration to 85% next time. DH had a BLT for dinner, I indulged in a couple of slices with runny Camembert and another with Nutella for dessert!

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It could be your flour. I had a spate of bread failures and it turned out that I had a bad batch of flour. It wasn’t old, it just didn’t have what it takes to make good bread. As soon as I got a new bag of flour, the bread turned out well again.

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wouldn’t a brush with egg white before placing the berries work?

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This is from the same bag that several excellent loaves have sprung from, so I’m pretty sure that’s not it. I think it was a combination of more whole wheat than I’m used to (it sucks up much less water than bread flour or AP) and just being a bit out of practice with my shaping.

But the slices contain meat and cheese just fine, so it performs its job well enough. :slight_smile:

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Quite possibly. I’ll try it!

Two recipes from Dorie’s Cookies. Espresso chocolate sables and smoked Gouda cookies.
Espresso sables are delicious, not too sweet and very coffee tasting. The Gouda cookies are also worth repeating with all the cheese bits that seem to accumulate.


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Yum to both!

The Gouda cookies remind me of pimiento cheese cookies I baked a few holidays ago — have to dig up a recipe.

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The rosemary parm cookies with ground pecans in Dorie’s Cookies are also really nice (aside from calling for too much sugar, but that’s easy to remedy), as are the Cheez-It-ish crackers in Around My French Table. The latter are especially great served warm.

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I made those espresso sables - flavor develops amazingly over a couple of days. Very addictive cookie.

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Both sound amazing, but particularly the espresso sables. On my list!

Wow

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Easy to make. You can buy the meringues and caramel sauce if you wish. What you dont finish can go back in the freezer. Dorie also says you can use ice cream instead of the whipped cream and it can be made ahead and frozen for a long time.

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I made blueberry clafoutis yesterday. Didn’t take a pic but here are the leftovers about to be eaten for lunch

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A free-form blueberry slab pie. I used my go-to filling of blueberries, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, butter, and Cointreau. The binder was flour and corn-starch, with a few mashed up berries to get things going.

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