One of my greatest joys in life is working in the kitchen. I think it takes a man to say that, unafraid of the social mores of ignoring football on Sunday. I don’t give a rat’s ass what the San…
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Making Christmas
Posted in Baking, Brewing, Parenting Tagged with: baking, Chinese toys, christmas, christmas bread, Confucius, food, golden oat bread, number two, sourdough
Back to the Things That Matter
Periodically you have to shut off the glowing screens, break out from your patterns of eating, sleeping, working, cleaning, and remember the things that matter. For the last few days we’ve been lucky to have family from Portugal in town. …
Oh Yeah, Pizza!
It seems like a silly thing to forget, pizza. People are constantly talking about it, folks on TV are eating it, people who work at pizza shops are asked to make complex drawings on pizza boxes. It’s everywhere! So how…
The Magical Smell of Bread
Something in the electrical static of my brain produced the smell of freshly-baked bread. This isn’t unusual, considering I bake three or four loaves of bread a week, but this was an olfactory memory of the yeasted white sandwich bread…
Add Some Fat
The left side of my jaw is still sore from a bread-related incident two weeks ago. Maybe it was because I was in a bad mood. Maybe it was because I chomped down on a piece of sourdough bread with…
Baguettes: The Final Frontier
Really I’ve been putting this off for far too long. I have a workable and tasty sourdough recipe, an oven setup that works well, and all the tools to make a baguette. What’s been holding me back? Fear. A baguette…
Is the Sourdough Done Yet?
No. The sourdough is not done yet. Always a work in progress, always a project that keeps me busy, the sourdough is getting close but might never be there. Good. I would feel so empty inside if it was done,…
Sometimes Things Don’t Work
I like to think I know the basics about bread. This weekend I decided to change my normal wheat sandwich bread recipe, a daily bread that’s become routine to make (boring). I want more whole wheat for health and taste…
Sourdough Ciabatta Continued
My newest creation, naturally-leavened ciabatta, has me thinking about variables. How much time to ferment? Should I leave the dough someplace cool or someplace warm? Is the high-gluten/bread flour blend making the dough too chewy? Should I stretch and fold…
Fear Not, Bakers
Heat is a good thing. We like it when we put our palms to the fire after coming in from the wind-whipped snow. We like it when we blow on a spoonful of split pea soup with ham before gulping…
