Breaking 2011 with bread

cranberry loaf

The baking hasn't begun over at this home, but over the New Year's, we received a bread & jam gift from a friend.

This was a festive and I suspect all-too-fattening buttery loaf of cranberry bread. Just a slight taste of tart from the berries, and cake-like softness in the crumb, this was perfectly matched when topped, just ever so lightly toasted, with even-yet-more-butter and a homemade organic Valencia marmalade gently spiced with vanilla bean & clove from the same friend.

The best post New Year's hangover recovery cure, if any. 

X'mas Breads 2008

Too belatedly, but better-than-never still applies here. The bread X'mas party of 2008

2010 bread

Plain White & Poppyseed Loaves

It's been too long since the D Goddess has been putting the pen and the oven to good use. There's a new Ariston oven in use now but too little has been done with it. Which is a waste as this larger beast yields more evenly baked and browned loaves, steaks and just about anything else.

With a refreshed look to this blogsite, here's hoping inspiration will strike the baker and the chronicler of these pages.

To end off 2010, a few rare loaves that were made this year ... the poppyseed having been smuggled in from some forgotten travels.

To a rising new year of 2011!

Double Double Bs -- Bertinet's Basic Bread class in Bath

Recently, the D Goddess and her kitchen companion left their humble kitchen behind for a skip-hop away to England. Long summer days and too many pints were wonderful, and as a treat, the bread master's learning kitchen was right there in ol' Blighty (ol' Blighty happened to turn out fabulous sunshine days on our holiday).

So to Bath it was, for a Basic Bread-Making Class with Richard Bertinet himself. The French man sure was way funnier, taller and audibly louder than his DVD appearance belied.

Learning little tips (like keeping apart the yeast and salt when it is first added to the flour, and being daring with more water than the recipe calls for), watching the master and his apprentices at work saving our sometimes dismal dough, getting Nutrition101 lectures from Bertinet himself (not chewing food makes you fat, he intones), sipping crab bisque and sauvignon blanc, and finally sitting down to a self-made lunch of fougasse, focaccia, pecorino and herb bread sticks alongside crisp greens and salty cheeses with the rest of the recent bread-graduates made for a wonderful day out. Highly-recommended for a lively experience, even if you're a first-timer who would simply love to re-live play-doh days.

After a hard-working day of finger-cramping dough-throwing, soak up the rest of a long summer evening at the town's Thermae Spa - something the D Goddess begrudged us for because with a Double B class in mind, she forgot her own D-cup bikini required for the spa.

Fill and spill

There's nothing like rustic country loaves a la Pain Campagne that would fill up any baker's shelves prettily. And while the crust and crumb there enjoy the bread connoisseur's appreciation, there's nothing like a tasty ingredient-filled bread like this mozarella and rosemary-filler Stromboli (right) that satisfies everyone's taste buds rather than just the bread snob's.

Supposedly a traditional Italian bread that is named after the eruptive volcano of the region, the idea is that the melted mozarella will ooze and fill in those airy gaps between to offer up mouthful after mouthful of delightful bite ... and that it did.

The perfect setting for this is a flavourful big bowl of rough-cut, stock-rich vegetable soup, matched with its savoury-rich equivalent in this bread, on a gingham-set table, eaten in approaching autumn with a blood-deep glass of robust barolo. That Tuscan dream remains with the D Goddess. For now, the tropical table will have to suffice while we bite into the stromboli and let our tastebuds stimulate the imagination of that perpetually faraway Italian sojourn...

The learning kitchen

Some things just throw up the belief in your own skills and ability - the simple act of making bread is one. Same weight, same flour, some timings ... with different results.

This was what happened when the D Goddess thought to inspire a friend, by getting into the kneading and dough-throwing on another kitchen table one Saturday afternoon.

The idea was to go for a throwback, ever-popular, practically fail-proof loaf like the Gruyuere and Cumin Cheese Bread that should prove a winner and be a confidence booster, plus the basic but ever-hard to master Baguette.

But in a new kitchen, with different oven behaviours, different temperature and humidity settings, what popped out of the oven was somewhat different. The baguettes were nicely-shaped, albeit rock-hard, the Cheese and Cumin bread suffered from a forgotten dose of Cumin (but tasted well enough) ... and it was a lesson in humility for all.

Dough reigns. Respect it. :D

The new and the old

This is a first attempt from a new anniversary-gift book, Bread (left). Dough and Crust continue to offer up many challenges, surprises and yummy breads, but sometimes, the new and un-tested calls out loud.


This is an old recipe, Victorian Milk Bread (right), that probably came the closest to everyday sliced bread back then.

This first shot following a new master, was a delight. Soft, fluffy-light and almost creamy, why ever succumb to commercially-conditioned doughs again?