Paul – Page 27

May 6, 2009March 4, 2015

The Inaugural #BBA Loaf: Anadama Bread – now with crumb shot!

The very first loaf in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, (a.k.a. BBAC) the very first loaf in the book (alphabetically) and the very first loaf out of the new oven. How’s that for a pantload of firsts?

So let’s recap what we have.

[easyazon_image align=”none” height=”110″ identifier=”1580082688″ locale=”US” src=”https://yumarama.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/517BQgzhYzL._SL110_.jpg” tag=”yumarama-20″ width=”101″]

“The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge”, which you can read in more detail about in the linked post above, is basically a whole whack of people doing all the bread recipes in [easyazon-link asin=”1580082688″]The Bread Baker’s Apprentice[/easyazon-link] book by Peter Reinhart, all in order of appearance and on a weekly schedule (mostly). It’s more of a personal challenge, I think; there are no prizes or penalties (that I know of!) for doing every single recipe or skipping a couple but we’re all aiming to cover all 43 recipes at a pace of about one per week. So we’ll still be at this come February 2010, maybe a little later given there will likely be breaks for holiday baking and such.

Continue reading “The Inaugural #BBA Loaf: Anadama Bread – now with crumb shot!”

May 5, 2009December 18, 2014

Stinky Oven: An (Happy) Update

A little later…

UPDATE to the “New Stove” post of a few days back:

Well, I decided to give the oven a good bake, so I put the bird in the basement in a closed room with a window then went and cranked on the Self-Clean for two hours. Man it stunk!! But that seemed to do the trick. Two days later, the Whirlpool folks reply saying “let your oven go at 450º for 1 to 1.5 hours and that should do it”. Well, it was at about 800 for two hours, so that did it too.

Then I pop in a batch of cookies. No stink! The cookies were a “gift mix” from a friend, a jar full of cookie stuff I added an egg and water to. I even got the convection part going. Press “CONV” five times and it’s set for cookies! Not sure what it’s exactly doing on that semi-auto setting. But since I had fired up preheat then just plain CONVECTION already, I probably had two or three things going on so I dunno if any were in effect for real.

Cookies came out… fine, I guess. There was no problem with them overcooking or anything. I think the problem was too much “stuff” (choc chip, white choc chip, toffee chips and TONS of each) and not enough “cookie” to hold it all together. Still quite edible even if flattened and really not cookie shaped at all.

BUT we now have a stink-free oven and it’s ready for some BREAD!

And so I will now start up on the [easyazon_link asin=”1580082688″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”yumarama-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]The Bread Baker’s Apprentice[/easyazon_link] Challenge and put this sucker to the test! (See recent entry for details).

Onward ho!

[easyazon_image add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”1580082688″ cloaking=”default” height=”160″ localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517BQgzhYzL._SL160_.jpg” tag=”yumarama-20″ width=”146″]The Bread Baker’s Apprentice[/easyazon_image]

Get your copy here.

May 5, 2009July 16, 2011

Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge #BBA

PinchMySalt, a.k.a. Nicole of the (yummy and gorgeous) PinchMySalt blog, has set up a challenge that will surely prove tobe a ton of fun and very educational. She’s invited people, novice or otherwise, to join in and do all the recipes in the great Peter Reinhart book [easyazon-link asin=”1580082688″]The Bread Baker’s Apprentice[/easyazon-link] (Click the link or cover below to get your copy.)

The goal is to go through each recipe, in order (which happens to be mainly alphabetical) until you’ve done them all. A quick count and I get about 43 recipes in there – probably a little more if you include the small variations suggested. So if you’re like me and do a loaf or two on weekends, this means it will take the better part of a year, or a tad over 10 months, to get through the whole lot.

Now that seems like a lot of bread but if you think of it, it’s also going to get you to step off the “comfortable few recipes” track and not only try others you may not have felt confident making but you’d definitely be getting some excellent skills under your belt as you delve into areas you may have shied away from. Then show off your results on the Flickr group and post and read as you go on Twitter , using the search tag #BBA.

If you’d like to join in, hop over to the PinchMySalt blog and read up in more detail, then send in your info to be added to the challenge’s growing list of participents (as of this post date, it was up to 68 crazy bakers!). Although most people will be getting started around the same time, it’s pretty much open season and there are no set deadlines for doing any of the loaves. Work at your own pace, do as many as you like. It’s more of a SELF-challenge than a competition.

[easyazon-image-link asin=”1580082688″ alt=”The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51f8aSiQREL.jpg” align=”none” width=”250″]
Get your copy here.

You’ll also want to peruse the recipes before you decide to move on to them to make sure you have all required stock on hand. I had to go out and get some cornmeal (coarse) for the first recipe – it’s soaking as we speak…

Can’t wait to see how it all works out, looking forward to the challenge for me and the results are, one can expect, almost always edible, success or bomb.

Come on, join in. It’ll be fun!

April 28, 2009May 12, 2009

New stove’s here! More bread imminent!

Hooray and yippeee!

My god, what a load of buttons! Pre-heat, RAPID Preheat, Bake, CONTROL Bake, Convection, Broil… and a whole bunch more for the cook top, as well as other things there’s not buttons for (“Accutemp”, etc.), Steam Cleaning, Double Burners, when to use the Rapid Preheat and when not to…

I can see this thing taking a few tries and likely glitches to learn and get used to it’s multiple functions. I’ll have to look online for video classes on steering this jet.

ovencontrol

Then there’s that “New Stove Smell”. Gotta burn that stuff off quickly so we can get baking (there’s some coating on the glass top too that has to get fried off). And it needs to be done when it’s nice enough outside to put the parrot there so she’s awys from deadly fumes during this starter stage. Hopefully this weekend.

BUT THE NEW STOVE’S HERE!! WOOTNESS GALORE!

Continue reading “New stove’s here! More bread imminent!”

April 19, 2009April 2, 2014

Do-It-Yourself Butter

If you think butter only comes form the dairy case now-a-days, you’re in for a pleasant surprise.

Since we’re out of the bread baking loop until our crappy GE “Burn-O-Matic” oven gets replaced, I thought I’d add this little gem of an entry found on the always tasty, beautiful and very educational JoePastry blog: How to make butter

If you can get your hands on some heavy (35% or whipping) cream and spend about two minutes with a food processor then you have all the required ingredients and tools needed to make your own fresh butter. Although he says that just makes it easier, a big mayo jar, a marble and half an hour of shaking will work too, so you can definitely still do it low-tech. Just like great grandma used to do.

buttermaking10 — Butter, fresh made; from the JoePastry Blog

And if it so happens you’ve never seen his blog, you’re in for a mouth-watering treat. Check it out if you’re into bread, cakes, treats and just cool food factoids.