More Bread Round About Eastertime...

My second attempt at English Muffins... aside from the excessive yellowness from shooting under household lights they really did turn out very well!

Cloverleaf rolls for Easter dinner.

Walter's 6th Birthday Party

Walter had his birthday party celebrated a bit early on the 1st which is also coincidentally, my mom's birthday! As usual, Walter made out like a bandit getting multiple Lego sets from Mommy and I, Grandma, Monica and Gruncle Jim and Kathy. Not to mention he has money coming from Grammie yet!

Our homemade, little sloppy looking, but yummy Lego cake!

Bagels Take One!

A few weeks ago I tried my hand at making bagels and while my rolling technique left alot to be desired, I was pretty happy with them. Tried again last Sunday and much happier with the way they looked, but whoops, no pics! Just finished the last one for breakfast this morning!

And there was this experiment using the buttermilk bread recipe but made VERY wet and fermented overnight. Baked it later in a covered cast iron Dutch oven and it produced this low, flat but incredibly tasty bread. I used very little yeast trying to rely on natural wild yeast. Next time I may use a bit more cultured yeast or let it rise and gather wild yeast longer.

The Bread Continues

English Muffins courtesy "The Bread Bible" and yours truly.

And a stab at whole wheat and barley tortillas... not too bad, but not as thin or flexible as I had hoped.

My Birthday!

Couple of weeks ago I turned a young 41, at least that's what the birth certificate says.

M and the boys gave me stuff to further support my bread making habit including The Bread Bible, baking sheets and a chef's apron! Love it!

But the festivities were too much for Byron who passed out early!

71 and 45 Months!

Two Weeks Worth Of Bread

Some successful results and some lessons...

Very happy with a hybrid of a recipe that I came up between the pre-fermented wheat and an English Muffin recipe.

Naan that I made to go with some Rogan Josh chicken that I made, yum!

Went well especially with Guinness!

Last week I also tried my hand at making a sourdough starter. It was ready by last night and I baked it off. Unfortunately while strongly smelling of sourdough throughout the refreshment process, it didn't rise well for the final proof. The final result was an ok loaf and two small-ish boules, but too dense and not sour enough. Well, try, try again. I'll start another starter soon maybe with rye flour rather than whole wheat. Pretty amazing the power of wild yeast!

Another experiment that I attempted with a pre-fermented hybrid of the earlier oatmeal bread, this time with oats, wheat germ and sunflower seed. Good, but too dense, too many ingredients and maybe not enough yeast to give a good rise.