Okay, here it comes, the great self-referential post for the week. Every year I make Irish soda bread for St. Patrick’s Day. Is it because it’s the one day when you’re so drunk you won’t notice if the bread doesn’t…
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Baking Together
Last night I was making our weekly bread and Child Harbat begged me to help. She couldn’t wait to get her hands washed and the stepstool set up so she could work beside me, pouring the ingredients and mixing them…
Cardamom Braid
Sometimes it’s good to go back to your roots. I started with more decorative breads some years ago and was asked to make a nice gift bread so I put together a cardamom braided bread. It uses my basic white…
Break Bread With Family
This holiday season, take some time to sit down with family and friends to celebrate the simple act of breaking bread together. Communal dining may be one of our species’ most basic activities, and what better way to celebrate the…
At Least I Can Still Bake
It’s reassuring to know that, despite my faults and impatience, my inability to clean the house without grumbling, and scathing reviews of most drivers on the road (honestly, it’s just rain! Move!) I can still put together a trio of…
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…
Holey Holes
Sometime in the distant past I proclaimed I’d finally mastered the no-knead ciabatta recipe. Wrong! Whatever my stupid self in the past thought, I didn’t have it down. Each loaf of ciabatta came out like pita bread, with the air…
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…
Easter 2011
As you age you forget the simple joys of Easter: the Easter bunny, baskets of goodies, egg hunts, and frilly dresses. That last one I really miss, as a young lad I had many crinoline and taffeta Easter get-ups. No,…
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