Whole Wheat Brioche

Since, so far in my baking adventures, I've never made brioche....gasp... I decided to keep it fairly simple. Hamburgers were on the menu for dinner, so buns were on the menu to bake. They came out really nice, great texture and very delish with the burgers. I only mixed up a half batch of dough, so with the rest I made a loaf. MJOL will like that for toast with breakfast.

I have to say that I really like the buttery, eggy flavor and texture of brioche. Why did I wait so long to add it to my baking ensemble? Check out what the other bakers did over at Michelle’s Big Black Dogs.

Last week the community garden hosted some students from a local school to get in the bee hives with me. It seems that bees really catch the imagination of the kids and that gives me a chance to relate the importance of the bees and their relationship to the food supply. That in turn helps establish the connection between food and the land and the land and the environment. Fun for all!



Until our next baking adventure.

Maple Oatmeal Bread and Quinoa Bread

This time around for our HBn5 assignment we made maple oatmeal bread, and quinoa bread.


I was looking forward to both, maple and oats.. yum, and I loves me some quinoa.

The maple oatmeal dough smelled really good while I was mixing it up. Maple syrup and cinnamon….duh! I found that it didn’t rise as quickly or as high as some other breads that we’ve done. When I took it out of the fridge and shaped it, it took longer to rise. It smelled wonderful while baking and I could hardly wait to dig in. The loaf came out nice I thought, but I didn’t feel that it had the taste I was expecting. While I am writing this, I am munching on some made into toast and schmeared with butter. Not bad, still not my favorite.

The quinoa bread is one of my favorites so far. I like quinoa, and so does MJOL, if I don’t tell him that’s what he is eating! This dough rose very well, before I put it in the fridge and after I shaped it. It had a nice crust and crumb and I liked the crunch of the quinoa. We had it last night with whole wheat rotini, and sauce made with roasted tomatoes from the garden.

Check out what the other bakers did over at Michelle’s Big Black Dogs.



Until our next baking adventure.

Algerian Flatbread

For this HBn5 assignment I chose to do a loaf of WW bread, which was gone before I could get a picture, and the Msemmen. The spices smelled so good when I was mixing them up. My thought was that 3 tablespoons of olive oil was too much. When I rolled up the dough a lot of the spice mixture leak out; it was so runny. I was afraid that I had lost all of the flavor, but I was wrong. Great tasting bread with a kick from the cayenne that grew in the back of the mouth. MJOL liked it but did think it was a little too spicy.

Check out what the other bakers did over at Michelle’s Big Black Dogs.

I had an influx of tomatoes the last couple of weeks and have been scrambling to find things to do with them. I made and canned some salsa. I made and froze some stewed tomatoes and then I thought hmmm.. I think I'll try roasting. I cored, quartered and seeded them, added some olive oil, balsamic, and garlic. I roasted them at 275 for about 2 1/2 hours. The house smelled so heavenly I could barely stand it, and the product....like sweet candy jewels. I froze them for use in those cold dreary winter months when tomatoes would taste so good.

Until our next baking adventure.

Rosemary Flax Baguette

For this HBn5 assignment I chose to do the Rosemary Flax Baguette. I always have flax meal and wheat germ on hand. The rosemary came right out of the garden. So, no new ingredients to buy. The texture of this dough was really nice, and after I mixed it up..the aroma...outstanding, very earthy and robust. Rosemary has that quality. Then during baking, I think I was transported by the smell. As they say in the south, good enough to make you wanna slap your Grandmama!

I took the baguettes and sliced them diagonally, rubbed the slices with garlic, topped them with freshly harvested tomatoes, basil, and some Parmesan. Popped them in the oven until the cheese was melted and tomatoes soft. One bite and well...look out Grandmama.

Head over to Big Black Dogs to see what the other bakers did with these breads.

Until our next baking adventure.

Our Sophie

Sad news, last Wednesday our 12 year old lab Sophie got sick and after several trips to the Vet, we discovered she had cancer of the spleen. We scheduled removal of the spleen, but she didn't wait around for the surgery and died in her sleep on Saturday morning. Sophie (named after Sophie Tucker) was your typical lab, energetic and addicted to attention. She was a wild woman and never met a ball that she didn't like. She will be sorely missed by me, MJOL, and her doggie sister Sadie.

A Poem

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. Her bright eyes are intent. Her eager body quivers. Suddenly she begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, her legs carrying her faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

Jalapeno and Basil Bread

This time around for our HBin5 challange, I made the Mesquite Bread. Really, that is probably a misnomer, because, even though I looked high and low, I couldn't get my hands on any mesquite flour. I substituted WW and it worked fine. I imagine I lost some flavor, but all in all I thought the bread was quite good. Since cilantro is not my fav I substituted basil, fresh from the garden. The jalepenos were also right off the plant. I used two, and took out the seeds and veins. Great flavor, with just a little heat. This bread is definitely a make again. Go on over to Big Black Dogs and check out what the other bakers did with this challange.

Today I went down to the garden and picked some eggplant and okra. The rice cooker is loaded up with brown rice and now the eggplant, okra, and onions are in the oven roasting to be added to the rice. A little dressing of lemon juice, and balsamic...yum.



Till our next baking adventure...

A Story About the Community Garden

We had a little excitement around the community garden last week. One of the local channels did a story on us. See it here:  http://www.whas11.com/community/Honey-Bees-invade-City-Community-Garden-99255469.html

Brownies

For this week's assignment I went way out of the box and instead of the gluten free breads I decided to use my sourdough starter for something different, brownies. They turned out great! A cake like brownie that was sweet with a hint of sour in the backround. They didn't last very long.

I activated my starter like I would when making bread and then used it in the recipe. To activate I use 1/2 cup of starter from the fridge and add 1 1/2 cup WW flour and 1 cup of water and let it proof for 12 hours. Then I add 1 more cup of WW flour and 1/4 cup of water and let it proof for another 12 hours, this is the activated starter. There was more than I needed for the brownies, so a loaf of bread was a nice side product. Worked like a charm.

Sourdough Brownies

4 (1 ounce) squares sweet baking chocolate
1/2 cup hot water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup Margarine ; (2 sticks)
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sourdough starter

Place chocolate in small saucepan and add hot water; bring to a boil, stirring. Add baking soda and mix well. Mixture will be foamy. Set aside until lukewarm.
In a large bowl, cream margarine and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs and mix in thoroughly. Add vanilla extract and cooled chocolate mixture and nuts. Gradually add flour that has been sifted with salt. Lastly, add the starter. Beat well after each addition. Grease and flour a 9 x 13-inch pan and pour batter into it. Place pan in a warm spot for 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake brownie for 35 to 40 minutes.



Go on over and visit Michelle at bigblackdogs and check out what the other bakers did this time around.

Mixed Berry Bread

This week I made the mixed berry bread from our HBin 5 challenge. I kind of liked it, not my favorite, but with some peanut butter it was pretty good. In general we are used to the sweetness of batter breads, so these whole grain breads are an acquired taste. I used more berries (raspberries, blueberries and blackberries), than called for in the recipe and got a pretty good berry flavor. One loaf went to friends and they liked it toasted with butter. Check out what the other bakers did with this recipe over at Big Black Dog.

I harvested my first eggplants and cucumbers from my garden. Looks like the eggplants are going to be very prolific this year. MJOL thinks he doesn't like eggplant.....I'm going to have to be very creative with some recipes. The basil is also getting busy and full of fragrant green leaves. Pesto is in my future!

The community garden is doing very well this year. So successful, that we have become our own non profit, called Billy Goat Hill Garden. Billy Goat Hill for where the garden is located. Goats were raised there at one time. We have partnered with local schools, a boy scout troupe (for 3 Eagle scout projects), and an adult daycare program. We have converted the hoop house into a hoop shade house for the summer. Neighborhood folk love to come sit in the shade house to watch the birds, bees, butterflies and other goings on. The wildflower area is blooming away, the sunflowers are headed for the sky (some as high as 10 feet) and the raspberries and blackberries are getting loaded with fruit. It seems that everybody has tomatoes in their raised beds, all types and colors, heirlooms and hybrids, hopefully there will be lots of trading going on.

BTW, does anyone know how to post pictures side by side in blogger? It would make for a smaller post. :)

Until our next baking adventure...

Trying to Keep my Mancard

This time around I only made the roasted red pepper and Fontina pizza in the oven from my WW dough with olive oil. Two reasons for this, one I knew that MJOL wouldn't eat the pita loaf, and second...gasp.. we don't have a gas grill. Now that I've admitted that publicly, I'm going to be watching for someone to come and take away my mancard.


The pizza was very, very tasty. I love fontina and I added some goat cheese too, another of our favorites. The roasted red peppers gave the pizza a nice smokey taste. I would definitely make this one again.

Until next time.

Stalking the Wild Kentucky Yeast

Early on in my baking adventures, I developed a fascination with sourdough and wild yeast starters. Twenty years ago I kept a culture that my Mother had given me. It was the kind that required feeding with potato flakes and sugar. It was vigorous and had a great rise, and though the baked loaves, or cloverleaf rolls that I loved to make, were very good, they hardly tasted like sourdough. After some months of neglect it expired and I went for years with no starter in my fridge. Then the bug bit again and I ordered a starter and book from Sourdoughs International. They have quite a selection, but I chose the original San Francisco sourdough. This culture served me well. But again, neglect and life got in the way and I discovered that starter way in the back of the fridge, looking like a science experiment gone very wrong. So once more I went for several years culture free.


Now, after baking for this blog, I felt the call of the siren’s song. This time I decided to attempt a capture of my own yeast. Armed with info gleaned from many resources, most contradictory, the journey began. I mixed 2 cups of all purpose flour and 1 ½ cups of warm water in a plastic jar I found in the cabinet. No doubt left empty by the lost lives of past starters. Covered with cheesecloth, it went out on the deck. After one day there seemed to be some activity, could this be? Or had I captured some mutant urban bacteria hungry for my flour?

I added another cup of flour and ¾ cup of water. The next morning, definite signs of life! I did this for two more days and had a respectful head of foam and rise. I took one cup of this and added 2 cups of flour and 1 ½ cups of warm water. The next morning it was ready as far as I could tell. Using the recipe for World Bread from Classic Sourdoughs, A Home Bakers Handbook by Ed Wood, I started my dough. It behaved beautifully and made two nice high loaves, each with a nice sourdough twang. I only got a picture of one loaf, since the other was scarfed up while still warm, with plenty of butter.

Now, once again, there is a starter snuggled comfortably in the fridge, waiting for this weekend’s feeding.

Steamy

The heat and humidity are on! We’ve been having temps hovering around 90 for the past week. The tomatoes and other summer veggies are loving it, but the lettuces, broccoli, and other greens are a some worse for the wear. My raised bed is now full, with petunias, marigolds, peppers, okra, basil, rosemary, cucumbers and tomatoes, all still small plants yet, but with great promise! The bees are going gangbusters after a rough winter, and the rabbits are growing by leaps and bounds.


This time around our HBinFive breads were made with the master recipe. Like the other blogfolk, I’m glad to get back to the basic recipe. However, this assignment’s breads are far from basic. I knew that I would like the cherry black pepper Focaccia, but with ingredients like shallots, dried cherries and red wine, I was a little concerned about MJOL, but he thought it was scrumptious and ate it up. This is definitely a make again recipe.

The cinnamon raisin bagels were a challenge for me. Since I’m a little OCD, I wanted them to be perfectly shaped. I had to let go of that dream! It was the first time I’ve ever made bagels and it was an adventure. I have to say though; once I lowered the perfection threshold it was a lot of fun. They also were very tasty, toasted with cream cheese slathered on them, or toasted with honey…that hint of cinnamon and just sweet enough….delish! MJOL liked these toasted with butter for breakfast with his bacon and eggs.

The moon and stars bread was easy to shape and came out pretty, but really…it’s just a regular bread shaped differently.

Check out what other bakers did with these recipes at Big Black Dogs.



Until our next baking adventure…

New Additions

Well, I'm way late in posting this bread assignment. We now have some new additions to our family, three florida white rabbits. One male, Hemingway, and 2 females, Bette and Judy. Yes, they are in seperate hutches, so no baby bunnies until we decide. So, one excuse for not getting this post done sooner was that I was testing my carpentry skills building a shelter for the rabbits. Now, I never claimed to be that efficient with power tools, but it came out pretty well. A little off plumb, but then again, so I am; it fits right in!

The other excuse for not getting this post done was that I didn't have most of the ingredients for gluten free bread, and I knew that it would probably go over like a lead balloon, so I ducked out. Bad me. :) To see what the other bakers did with the bread check out their posts here, http://www.bigblackdogs.net/search/label/HBinFive.

Instead of the gluten free bread, I saw Ina Garten make some Irish soda bread that looked really good, so I made it. Although it's not leavened with yeast, it's still no knead. :) MJOL really liked it and so did I. The recipe is available on the Food Network website, here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/irish-soda-bread-recipe/index.html. It has a touch of orange and some currants. Very tasty.

I also made the soft whole wheat sandwich bread which was a big hit at our house. This time I used molasses instead of honey. I know, how awful since I'm a beekeeper, but I use honey all the time, so thought I would use something different. It was tasty, but I think I like it with honey better. :) I think that I'm a little partial!

For those of you not from Kentucky, we here in the Bluegrass are gearing up for The Kentucky Derby. All this week there are festivities, a parade, a steamboat race, hot air balloon races, chow wagons, concerts and lots and lots of parties. Yesterday Churchill Downs opened for the spring meet and we attended. It's always a lot of fun. Check out the goings on here: http://kdf.org/ and be sure to watch the Derby on May 1st.

Until our next baking adventure.

Carrot Bread and Olive Spelt Bread

I want to start this post by thanking everyone who sent wishes to me and my family after the passing of Mom O, such support always lifts the spirits. Things are beginning to return to normal, if they were ever normal anyway! The garden is beginning to shape up, the bees are buzzing and spring is in the air.

This time for our bread baking challenge we made Carrot Bread and Olive Spelt Bread. I have to say I really liked both of these breads. Check out what the other bakers did with the recipes and our esteemed leader Michelle at her blog Big Black Dog.

First the carrot bread; it was great, and just sweet enough but with great yeasted bread quality. It was very good with cream cheese, and toasted with butter, forget about it! I took all the dough from the ½ recipe and used it to make one big loaf. It seems that most of the ½ recipes don’t make enough dough to fill the pan twice, but using it all made a nice loaf. I had enough to share and I did! Everyone loved it and I certainly will make it again.

I had a few stumbles with the Olive Spelt bread. Focaccia was calling to me, so I oiled up my sheet pan and spread out the very wet and sticky dough, let it rise, dimpled, sprinkled with kosher salt and baked. The smell was amazing; it looked amazing, but was absolutely glued to the pan. It took me about 3 days to chisel it out. I thought that I had put enough olive oil on the pan and the dough to keep it from sticking. Wrong! Not to be deterred, I whipped up another batch of dough and this time just shaped it as usual and put it on parchment paper on my pizza peel. It spread out quite a bit. Once again it smelled fantastic and came off the stone looking great. I let it cool and sliced it and it was delicious! I love olives. Next time I’m going to add some garlic to the dough, shape it as a baguette and make bruschetta. Fresh tomatoes, onions, basil, olive oil, more garlic, piled on top, wait I have to wipe the drool off the keyboard!

Now, I have a confession to make. I miss kneading. The rhythmic motion of turning the dough over and over, feeling it come alive in your hands, smelling it, seeing the blisters start to form on the surface. So, I made my favorite challah dough and did a six strand braid. Ah, desire calmed.

The weather today is gorgeous, so enough time sitting here at the keyboard. Garden work is calling, the bees are calling, so until our next bread adventure together, happy baking.

Avocado-Guacamole and Pesto Pine Nut Breads

My Avocado Guacamole bread for this assignment was a big hit. The tomato and avocado made the bread very moist and tasty. I was afraid that the dough would be very sticky, but it was very easy to work with. When I made the 1/2 recipe I still used the whole garlic clove, because, really, can you have too much garlic? I thought the bread was really good with a smear of cream cheese.

The pesto pine nut bread was also one of my favorites, but then again, garlic, basil, well you get the picture. After reading Michelle's blog about making a baguette, that's what I decided to do also. Very nice. Thanks Michelle! I made the dough with walnuts, because they were on hand and I think they were a great substitution for the pine nuts. Yummy, Yummy bruschetta.

Unfortunately MJOL's mother passed last Thursday and we've been a little preoccupied around here. Mom "O", as she like to be called, was a formitable woman, and a typical Irish Catholic matriarch. Her strength was only outshined by her grace. She was commited to her family, church and neighborhood and will be sorely missed. Luckily her passion for those commitments and our city was passed on to her five children. We all take strength knowing that we now have a very special angel guiding our paths.

As I often do in times like this, I turn to baking. It calms my soul and gives me peace. I made 2 loaves of braided bread to share with our family, made with honey from our hives. Mom O was so very proud of the community garden and insisted that we give her 2 bears of honey, one to eat and one to save. That saved honey bear was sent with her on her final journey yesterday.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh sí

I'm looking forward to our next baking adventure.

Gardening and Beekeeping

So our next 8 raised garden beds are being installed next week in the community garden. That makes a total of 24. Last year we had 16. I am taking on a bed this year and am going to try the square foot gardening thing. The beds are 4 feet by 8 feet so they are the perfect size. I'm planting petunias, marigolds, okra, peppers, eggplant, basil, rosemary, tomatoes and cucumbers. My seeds were all delivered wednesday, and obsessive compulsive as I am, I already have my planting guide all figured out. Starting my pentunias indoors today!

We started our weekly work parties for the garden last week also. We need to prepare the hoop house for the gardners to use for starting seeds. The raspberry beds need to be cleaned out and we hope to add 3 more bushes. We hope to put up 2 more bat houses, work on our bulb bed, and compost bins. We are partnering with a local school and the 7th and 8th graders are going to have classroom instruction in the garden twice a week. We are really excited because these are urban kids who really haven't had a chance to see how the plants, the earth, the bees etc interact. We are also partnering with a local Eagle Scout troop and they are going to identify native plants, create a meditaion area, install some walking paths and create a bird sanctuary for us.

This weekend the temperatures are supposed to be close to 60 so it's time to start beehive inspections. I afraid that we may have lost another hive over the winter. It seems that everyone I've talked to has lost at least half of their hives over this winter.

We would like to go up to 5 hives this year, so we may have to start either 3 or 4 more depending on what I find on inspections tomorrow. Starting a hive is an interesting process. We order a mated queen and 3 lbs of bees (about 10,000) for each hive that we want to start. The queen and bees are installed in the hive and then you hope that your beekeeping skills are up to par. Once the hive is established and healthy (An established healthy hive has about 50,000 bees)it can last for years, with periodic queen replacement and maintenance. Bee society is amazing and will always keep you humble.

Last year we got about 60lbs of honey from our hives. Our first harvest in June was entered in the Kentucky State Fair and won 1st place in our catagory (light amber). Very exciting stuff. We should be so lucky this year!

100% WW Bread with Olive Oil

This time our Healthy Bread in Five baking assignment was to make 100% whole wheat bread dough w/olive oil. If you're interested in joining our baking group head on over to Big Black Dog for information. Thanks again Michelle for your hard work!




The dough worked up nicely for me. It was not nearly as sticky as some of the past recipes. The first project we were to make was a loaf. The dough was easy to work with, but as it was resting it did spread out quite a bit. During baking there wasn't much oven spring and even though the loaf was crusty when it came out of the oven it softened up as it cooled. It had a tight crumb and was a little chewy. I didn't really like the taste very much. All in all it wasn't my favorite bread and I probably won't make it again.

I didn't make the Aloo Paratha loaf. MJO hates peas and as my main taste tester he was not too enthused about it. So, I forged on to the focaccia. I made mine more like a pizza instead, and rather than a Southwestern flare I did pesto, goat cheese, fresh grape tomatoes, left over roasted chicken and mozzarella. The dough was easy to shape and I thought it looked very pretty.
 

I used parchment paper to put the pizza on the stone and after ten minutes removed the parchment and let it finish directly on the stone. It smelled wonderful while baking and looked nice when it came out of the oven, but once again the crust was not really crisp enough. I wonder if that is because there is so much olive oil in the dough? It did taste ok, but again I don't think that I will make it again. I had been baking 300 ginger cookies and flax oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for a friend's birthday and kick off for her campaign for Councilperson, and was anticipating the pizza as a reward.
 

As a side note, this last tuesday I attended a bread baking class given by Mary Wheatley of Cook with Mary. We did "no knead bread" baked in a dutch oven, pizza and ciabatta. It was a great class and you can imagine the smell of the kitchen as we cooked. Yummy!
Mary gives lots of classes, so if you're in the Louisville area or close it's a great thing to do.

Valentine's Day

I made one half of the red beet bun dough and let it rest for 2 days. I read somewhere that it takes a while for whole grain flours to absorb the water in recipes and become fully hydrated. I also read that this is especially important for spelt flour.


I cheated and grated the beets in the food processor, so I avoided the red stained mess.

The dough had a really pretty red, almost purple color. I made the buns according to the directions and they came out a nice red color. They were moist inside and very tasty. Mike commented that he thought they tasted like they had potatoes in them, but then again he's Irish. :)
I was wondering if these could be made with grated carrots instead of beets..hmm..

The chocolate espresso bread was somewhat of a challenge to work with, very wet, and a very interesting texture. I used Ghiradelli chocolate and didn’t have the bitter taste that some of the bakers talked about. I was fooled in that the tangerine bars looked like brownies, so my taste buds were geared up for a sweeter treat, but with a dollop of chocolate ice cream on top the contrast was very tasty! With the left over dough I made a small loaf of bread that was pretty good with peanut butter.

As a side note, for Valentine’s Day I made a buttermilk chocolate cake (not with the bread dough), a one 9 inch layer that I sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar over a cut out heart stencil. It looked very pretty and tasted pretty good too. One note though, don’t sprinkle it until right before you get ready to serve because the sugar fades into the cake.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Soft Whole Wheat

Well, the soft whole wheat bread was a mixed bag for me.  I have to brag a little here though, the dough was made with honey from hives that I tend. The loaf, I think turned out nice, great taste, great texture and was really good toasted with apple butter.

The hamburger buns were a little hard to form, with the dough being so wet, but after a few I got the hang of it. They also had great taste and texture.

Now, the apple strudel bread was quite a challange. I thought that I would have trouble rolling out the dough, but I used my Roul'Pat and enough flour and it rolled out pretty well for me.

I used cameo apples (they were on sale) for the filling. Rolling up the bread was a little difficult but I used a dough scraper to help and got it rolled up pretty nicely I thought. After letting it rest I brushed it with an egg wash and baked it for over an hour.

I suspected something wasn't quite right when I was getting spill over into the oven. The outside crust was great, nice and brown and tasty, but inside it had air pockets and wet spots. I think maybe I should have covered it and let it bake longer. My partner loved the taste of the filling but the dough wet spots were a bit off putting.

Some suggestions were to saute the apples before using them, and maybe using a thermometer to make sure the internal temp is correct. I don't know that I will make the strudel again though.

Now, on to the beet buns! My usual store didn't have any beets, so I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and head up to Whole Foods.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. This is turning out to be great fun!

Crackers

Yesterday I attempted to make the crackers. First I tried to use a pasta roller to make the dough very thin and uniform, for me that was a disaster. So, I took the bull by the horns and rolled the dough out by hand. I had some issues getting it even and thin enough, but all in all not bad. I didn't have any chili powder on hand so I used some garam masala that I had made a few weeks ago. I really liked the taste.
Last night I made the dough for the next braid, it looks nice and is sleeping in the fridge until tomorrow.

First Attempts

Today I'm venturing into the scary world of blogs. Well, at least scary for me.
I've baked bread for many years, but never using this no knead method. I made my dough earlier in the week, after returning from a very chilly Key West. Today I shaped and baked my first loaf using the Master recipe. Then, I shaped and baked the Epi. The Epi was somewhat of a challenge, and I've posted a picture of the results. It was great fun and with a little practice I hope the next ones will turn out better.

I'm going to attempt the crackers tomorrow armed with the great advice from the other posts.
Thanks Michelle of BigBlackDogs for organizing this blogging adventure, I would have never taken it on without you.

I made applebutter from Michelle's recipe at BigBlackDog. I did it in the slow cooker. It took a little longer to get to the right thickness, but great flavor. I'm going to serve it with HBin5 bread at a neighborhood meeting on thursday.