This month we are trying a nifty little Madeiran flatbread made with sweet potatoes.  Typically they are made with white sweet potatoes, but will work with red as well, though they may need less water for those garnet sweet potatoes.  The breads are crispy on the outside and soft and slightly sweet inside from the sweet potato, and are cooked on a hot stone or griddle.  Cast iron or a heavy bottomed pan is a good stand in.  The breads are usually served warm, and slathered with butter or garlic and parsley butter.  They are also used to make sandwiches.  My kidd ..read more

  Our BreadBakers theme this month focuses on multigrain breads.  This is a recipe I happened to find in a book I've had for a while, and adapted just slightly.  (Ancient Grains for Modern Meals).  It has the ease of a bucket bread and provides a delicious porridge bread crumb.  The crumb is moist, chewy, and filling, but not dense and heavy.  It uses the traditional bread spices for a whole grain German bread loaf and has great flavor and texture.  I love it toasted, hubby has been nibbling on it just plain, and it is recommended to be enjoyed with cheeses a ..read more

My poor sourdough had a good layer of hooch on it yesterday.  I made some waffles, fed it, and it still doubled by the afternoon!  I so dearly love that starter.  Today I decided to use it again and give it another feed before chilling again.  These muffins were the delicious result.  Everyone liked them and I am usually the lone muffin person.  I will make them again for sure, I love cardamom anyway.  Cardamom and Orange Sourdough Muffins makes 8 muffins 1 cup (130g) flour 6 tbsp sugar (can reduce to 4 tbsp if desired) ⅜ tsp baking soda 1 tbsp arrowro ..read more

My kids love getting Panera as a special treat.  My eldest has a standing order for their turkey bacon bravo sandwich, which is made with their tomato basil bread, along with a blueberry peach smoothie.  The bread is a nice, typically soft sandwich loaf slice with a slightly sweet coating on the crust.  I tried a number of different recipes before finding a version that passes muster for the kiddo.  It makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches, which is invariably what we use it for at home.  I always keep a loaf of this on hand, pre-sliced, and bagged up in the freeze ..read more

Do you like chocolate?  Milk or dark?  Do you think white chocolate qualifies as chocolate?  I love chocolate, both milk and dark, and I don't mind white chocolate though I consider it very sweet.  It is indeed cocoa butter based when it is true white chocolate and not just a vanilla chip.  (I love the smell of cocoa butter.)  And while I like dark and milk chocolate, I actually tend to not prefer it in bread for some reason.  I.e., I'd typically go for the plain croissant over the pain au chocolat.  But although I am not the biggest white chocolate see ..read more

Well, it's a week and change past New Year's but since our BreadBaker's theme for January is Mediterranean bread, I still wanted to bake this bread.  Greece is a Mediterranean country with very unique and recognizable flavors indeed.  This enriched loaf is a New Year's or St. Basil's day tradition and can be found both as a cake and a yeast bread.  It is a sweet and moist loaf, lightly scented with orange, and traditionally served right after midnight.  Also included is a tradition is the hiding of a coin in the bottom of the loaf, and whoever gets the slice with the coi ..read more

Did you forget to brown the butter for that recipe you have made often enough that you only looked at the ingredients and totally forgot about that step of the method?  And now you have a whole bowl of creamed butter and sugars that is lacking that delicious brown butter flavor?  It CAN be fixed without starting over or finding a different recipe to use your mixture. Did I figure this out the hard way?  Um... Don't ask. But hey, this means you can add fantastic brown butter flavor to other established recipes without changing the basic creaming method too!  Or even add d ..read more

The French cousin to the wonderful focaccia is the leaf shaped fougasse. The last time I made fougasse was as a buddy bake, 12 years ago! Another version is our bake for this month with both a yeast and a sourdough option. Our host chose the delicious option of a rosemary and sea salt leaf. I, being me, have chosen a slightly different flavor profile. Apricot ginger fougasse, with poppy seeds. And because I was just given the fantastic gift of 3 varieties of local wheat to try out, I decided to use 30% fresh ground red wheat. To complement and temper the stronger flavor of red wheat, I switch ..read more

  Baked goods made with laminated dough are a treat very often relegated to gatherings and holidays.  Laminated dough has been a bit of a nemesis for me and I tend to stick to rough puff.  That's perfectly fine though!  Rough puff works a treat for so many things.  So for our BreakBakers challenge to use laminated dough, I decided on a nice little appetizer with my favorite rough puff. These are a simple little treat, not too sweet, just rich and satisfying.  They really do benefit from that tiny drizzle or dusting of sweet on top though!  (Hubby decided ..read more

For November, Karen has shared with us a nifty little butter crescent she discovered at a Japanese bakery.  They are called Shio Pan or Japanese Salt Bread.  These flavorful beauties are stuffed in the middle with a long piece of butter that melts out around the baking bread, and browns up and crisps the bottom of the roll. That brown butter adds even more flavor.  (Be warned, you should use a baking sheet with a rim to avoid butter oil spilling in the oven and creating smoke.) These are a wonderful, small batch recipe which my hubby devoured while making happy noises and ..read more