Bread 2006 (September through December)
Let's take a short break from the vacation for some bread. These are breads that I baked the final 4 months of last year. I know, I should have really written this entry a long time ago. But here goes.
This first bread is called Onion Caraway Bread. My second try at this bread.
Let it rise:
Then bake:
It was a nice, oniony bread, with not too strong a caraway taste (I'm not too fond of caraway seeds, to be honest). Next we turn to the brioche again. I first tried brioche earlier in the year, and using the same basic brioche dough, I made a couple other variations on the bread. The first is called Raisin Brioche:
After the dough has been kneaded, but before being rested in the fridge overnight, divide into 2 parts. Add raisins to half of the dough, mix it in and then store in the fridge overnight. Also put the other half (plain) in the fridge overnight. Take the dough with the raisins out when the dough has been chilled. Divide into 3 sections and quickly roll into long thin ropes (again, work quickly so the butter rich dough doesn't get sticky and hard to work with when it is warmed up).
Braid the dough and glaze with an egg wash:
Then bake:
And slice:
How about some Petit Pain au Chocolat (little chocolate bread)? With the other half of the brioche dough that was left plain, divide into 2 equal parts. Keep one in the fridge while working with the other so it doesn't warm up. Roll into a loooooong strip:
Put a strip of semi-sweet chocolate bits:
Roll the bread and filling and pinch the seams to seal tightly. Then cut into 6 equal parts to make the small rolls:
Place the rolls on a cookie sheet and allow to rise.
Then bake:
Here's some close up:
OK, so it's supposed to be equal parts but my eyeballing was not the greatest, so I had rolls of differing sizes. But I tell you, I looooved this bread!!! Bye bye diet, hello petit pain au chocolat!
Next is Cheddar Cheese Bread, a bread that has cupfuls of sharp grated cheddar cheese in it! It ended up being waaay too cheesy for me, but Vin liked it:
Now for the slices:
Next is a bread that I baked while Mak and Abah were here. It is a festive bread called Kolach. Abah took most of these pictures. The dough was soft and buttery. First braid the dough into a big plait, then coil it (like Princess Leia's hair) into a little bowl like so:
Brush with an egg wash, then put in the mata (eyes). In this case, I used pecans:
Then bake:
And now for some slices:
Mak and Abah got to taste the above bread. I hope they enjoyed it! Next I made a whole wheat bread that is called Pain de Campagne Honfleur. It's a french whole wheat bread that calls for the dough to ferment and bubble overnight. Make a little starter ball of dough that has yeast in it.
Let it ferment overnight:
Then knead, add more flour, and place on a baking sheet:
Let it rise uncovered so that it forms a crust:
Then bake and slice:
After making this complicated and days long bread, I decided to make something simple. It's called Savory Drop Biscuits, a variation of the southern biscuit. It's flavored with beef bacon, onions and fresh thyme and uses buttermilk as the liquid. I believe Mak and Abah also got to try a variation of this while they visited last year.
We're still not done yet. How about some pancakes? These were baked from scratch - mix was not used.
This next bread is called Lemon Nut Bread. I first made it when Mak and Abah visited, and wouldn't you know it, the freaking thing actually exploded in the oven. Look!
It made a huge mess in the oven but it did cook up, what was left of it. Of course it would explode while my parents were here. Just to show them that it was in control, and not me! They still ate the bread and said it tasted good even though it looked like a disaster. But I decided this bread would not get the best of me. So I made it again.
Here it is out of the oven:
Put a lemon glaze on it:
And finally, pizza! Here's the freshly made pizza dough (made from scratch, of course!), ready to be worked:
First, I tried my hand at Pizza Bianca, which is supposed to be a roman pizza that is brushed with oil and sprinkled with herbs. Mine was sprinkled with fresh thyme and garlic.
Just for variety, we added some other toppings including anchovies. I even started putting a bit of coarsely grated parmigiano reggiano on the bread when it first comes out of the oven:
Then of course the real thing. Here is Vin's Pizza Margherita (Mozzarella, Basil, Tomato) before it is baked:
Fresh out of the oven:
Mine was a mish mash. Half with tomato sauce base, half pesto sauce base. Mushrooms, cheese:
Here's what it looked like baked:
That's it! Well, there is one more bread, but I'll put it in a separate entry of its own since this one has grown sooooo long! Sorry for the long entry! As you can see, I'm still obsessed with baking different kinds of breads.
I'll have more breads from this year and the final one from last year another time. See y'all later!
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