It looks and smells great, but is too hot to slice right now.
Posts Tagged ‘baking’
Baking blogging
April 23, 2020Everybody knows that homemade pita bread is far better than what you can get commercially – at least around here. This week I attempted to make my own pitas. The recipe and instructions were easy. The dough was beautiful and easy to work with. The pitas only take 3 minutes per side to bake. What I neglected to calculate was that I was making 8 pitas and each of them has 2 sides – so, you get the idea. By the way, they were wonderful and I will make them again.
Waiting to be rolled out
This is a public service announcement
April 3, 2020
I understand (from reading the news) that people are attempting to bake their own bread and failing at it.
I have posted this recipe before, but will do it again because you cannot fail with this recipe (unless your yeast is dead.)
Focaccia Rolls
In your stand mixer ( I’ll bet you can use a hand mixer or a bowl and spoon for this) add:
4 cups of flour (bread flour, all purpose, gluten-free – does not matter)
2 tsp table salt
1 tsp active dry yeast
Mix that up a little
Then add 2 cups of water – just from the tap
Mix some more until the dry ingredients are all incorporated – a couple of minutes
I use the mixer paddle for all of this
Remove the paddle and cover the mixer bowl with plastic wrap.
Walk away from the dough.
The focaccia dough will rise in 8-12 hours or overnight.
When risen, remove the dough from the bowl turning it onto a floured board.
The dough is very sticky, so dust it with some flour before removing from the bowl and keep your hands floured as you form the rolls.
Cut the dough in half (2 pieces) and in half again (4 pieces). Cut each of the 4 pieces into 3 pieces (this is the only hard part) .
Form each roll into a ball and place on a parchment/silpat lined baking sheet. I have some big baking sheets, so I can get all 12 on at once – but I’ll bet if you crowd them a little, it will still work.
I make sure the tops are smooth and pinch the bottoms of the rolls in my hand so they are as tall as possible. This is just a cosmetic step. Then brush tops of the rolls with olive oil. Let rise 1 hour while heating the oven to 375 degrees F.
After an hour, pop the rolls in the oven – you can turn the baking sheet around half way through the baking, or not.
Bake for 35 minutes. When they are done, brush again with olive oil.
I promise you, they will be wonderful. Eat them right away or heat or toast them again later. They will be (almost) as good as fresh baked.
What am I noting today?
November 15, 2019
Today is National Bundt Cake Day – as you can see, I made a poppy seed bundt cake and it is going fast. This may be my all time favorite cake. The recipe is on the Solo poppy seed filling can. I have also made it with their chestnut filling, but I am afraid they do not make that flavor anymore.
It is really good.
What am I celebrating today?
March 28, 2019
Today is Something on a Stick Day
When I was a Girl Scout, we cooked out a lot. We made campfires and sit-upons. Occasionally, we had a treat that involved wrapping biscuit dough around a (cleaned) stick and baking it over the campfire. When the biscuit was done, it was peeled off the stick and then stuffed with jam. I remember that they were incredibly delicious. I have not had one since I was eleven. Imagine my surprise to find a recipe for biscuits on a stick in a book of recipes of Norwegian baked goods when I was last at the public library.
Here’s the recipe (but I think we used Bisquick):
What am I baking on Pi Day?
March 14, 2019Seattle-based pie baker Lauren Ko has a multitude of non-edible inspirations that influence her creative pastry designs, including textile patterns, architecture, and string art. These elements are woven into her colorful, and often geometric, fruit pies and tarts topped with thin, undulating strips of apples, precisely placed pomegranate seeds, and triangles of radiating strawberries. Often Ko will color a portion of her dough with natural food dyes like beet butter to add even more color to the finished dessert. You can learn step-by-step instructions for how Ko creates her enticing sweets in this video made by Tasty, and follow the evolution of her pies on Instagram.
What am I bakery blogging?
June 1, 2018
Today is Doughnut Day and I would like to mention the Blue Goose Market and Bakery in Hancock, Maryland.
What you can find there are the finest apple cider doughnuts on the planet.
They have other bakery, too.
And bears and other gifts, as well as fruit in season.
They are located near the intersection of I68 and I70 in Hancock. Look for the big flag.
What am I baking?
March 14, 2018It’s Pi Day!
“Lauren Ko brings mathematical precision to her baking, using elaborate intertwined patterns to form transfixing patterns to the top of her homemade pies and tarts. The Seattle-based amateur baker has been piecrafting for just a couple of years, she tells Mic, and if you’re wondering, this is her favorite pie crust recipe. Ko combines classic crusts with colorful fillings like blueberries, kumquats, purple sweet potatoes, and pluots to create her visually striking sweets. You can follow her on Instagram.”
What am I cooking?
January 18, 2018
I thought this was interesting, because I never thought about different grades of butter – or even knew that they existed. But, my mother had this booklet from the US Department of Agriculture (1968) that explains everything.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 