Bread and Cheese

Science in the Kitchen

February 18, 2012

Spent this morning in the kitchen, doing three things. A new batch of peanut butter cookies. Hypothesis: They’ll be as good or better, made with peanuts finely chopped in my fine chopper instead of peanuts. Method: Follow recipe, but substitute 265 gm finely chopped salted peanuts for 265 gm peanut butter. Results: They are as [...]

Read the full article →

The Believer – Atomic Bread Baking at Home

February 15, 2012

“When Hana enters the small bakery I have borrowed for a day, I am dividing a loaf into 1.5-centimeter slices. The loaf’s tranches articulate a white fanned deck, each one the exact counterpart of its fellows. The bread is smooth and uniform, like a Ba…

Read the full article →

The art of making bread

February 14, 2012

Very pretty video; not exactly technique, or a recipe; just a hymn to making your own bread.Original article: the art of making bread

Read the full article →

Bread is for real

February 13, 2012

You can follow someone on Twitter and friend them on Facebook, but real friends are people you break bread with. Got that?Original article: My Dinner With Clay Shirky, and What I Learned About Friendship

Read the full article →

I’m a winner!

February 12, 2012

Lotteries, raffles and the like are not generally my friends. But last night, I was lucky enough to win not one but two Regency Wraps reusable parchment sheets, which unlike other reusable baking sheets can be cut to size. This happens so seldom I just had to share my good fortune. There will be a [...]

Read the full article →

P. O. Bread Box

January 24, 2012

Marvellous story. “A compelling example of the potential that de-anchoring services from the static cartography of a fixed storefront holds to reconfigure diet, public space, and the food system itself.” In essence, baker delivers.Original article: P. …

Read the full article →

Benefits of a baking cloche

January 15, 2012

Two identical loaves — my basic part wholemeal sourdough — had been retarded overnight in the fridge. They were brought out at the same time, and warmed up on the counter for about an hour. Then I had a madcap whim. Why not bake one under a cold cloche? So I did just that, and [...]

Read the full article →

Kosher-bread stamp and host as snack

January 12, 2012

The tiny stamp was used to identify baked products; experts think it belonged to a bakery that supplied kosher bread to the Jews of Acre in the Byzantine period.Original article: Israeli archaeologists find 1,500-year-old kosher ‘bread stamp’ near Acre

Read the full article →

Pita Bread | Five Euro Food

January 9, 2012

Every time I see pita bread for sale in stores these days I chuckle to myself. €1.40 for ~5 is a typical price around here. This recipe will make four times that quantity, for a third of the cost, and what’s even better is that, as with all … Pr…

Read the full article →

God in the Starter Bowl

January 6, 2012

And of course bread and beer are just the beginning of the blessings that fermenting microbes have brought to humankind over the millennia. There’s cheese, yogurt, sausages, ham, pickles, vinegar, the list goes on. You can safely ignore gods; the anthr…

Read the full article →

What Is Farro? An Ancient Italian Grain – Sorting Out the Confusion

January 5, 2012

The ancient heirloom Italian grain called farro is enjoying a resurgence of popularity in the U.S. Actually, compared to most of the tosh one reads on the subject, this does indeed sort out the confusion, a bit. One thing to remember is not so much tha…

Read the full article →

European Bread Of The Week

January 3, 2012

We all make mistakes, no?Original article: The Presurfer: European Bread Of The Week

Read the full article →

anissa’s blog » k’sra (or moroccan bread)

December 29, 2011

It is the day before Christmas and I wouldn’t be cooking normally. If I am in Beirut, it is either my mother or sister at the stoves and if I am in England, I would be in the country with my English adoptive family. Anissa’s recipe for Moroccan bread i…

Read the full article →

Best meals 2011: olive bread gas station epiphany

December 26, 2011

Since we met him about two and a half years ago, Paolo Cantele has become one of our best friends — in part because we all laugh so hard when we’re together, in part because he shares my interest… It is true that great sandwiches can be found e…

Read the full article →

Authentic German Baking Is Growing in Connecticut

December 19, 2011

Whether the focus is on breads, desserts or pretzels, stores are following European tradition, where rye is rye, not caraway. Some good recipes for Christmas baking.

Read the full article →

Last of the autumn pickles

November 14, 2011

Just finished putting up what may prove to be the last of this season’s dill pickles; four litres, 12 cucumbers. The dill is still going strong, and there are cucs in the market, but I fear that the secret ingredient — grape leaves — will not be available again till spring. And having done that, [...]

Read the full article →

Grilled Cheesus

November 2, 2011

From Rob Corso and Meg Sheehan: now if they could make it with interchangeable imprinting elements, they’d be onto a global sure-fire winner.

Read the full article →

Not stiff enough? My Pain de Beaucaire

October 30, 2011

Like any craft, I suppose, my bread-making is torn between tramping the paths of old familiar loaves, where I know my destination will be pleasant, and exploring new ideas which, gasp, might take me to a bad place. Susan’s recipe and photographs for her Open Sesame Pain de Beaucaire, however, gave me itchy feet. First, [...]

Read the full article →

The scales fall from my eyes

October 10, 2011

I read this piece in the New York Times, about the desirability of using weights, not volumes to measure ingredients when it first came out a month ago. And naturally ignored it; I mean, who needs to be told that? But today, when I went to print it out for some people who might need to [...]

Read the full article →

Cucumbers fermented beautifully

September 24, 2011
Thumbnail image for Cucumbers fermented beautifully

It all came together in the end. There was dill in the market, although just before we went away on hols so into the freezer it went. There were cucumbers aplenty when we got back, and some dry green chillies. A stroll around the neighbourhood produced the grape leaves (in lieu of the preferred cherry) [...]

Read the full article →

A seedy bread of my own devising

September 11, 2011

I had a bunch of good, ripe 100% starter left over from a batch of oatmeal sesame bread that I made last weekend. I wanted a seedy bread, but I finished the last of the sunflower seeds a couple of breads ago, and haven’t got enough items on the mail-oder shopping list to get some [...]

Read the full article →

Cucumbers and a recipe, but no dill

July 7, 2011

It is just too bad. The cucumbers in the market are plentiful, small and cheap. San Diego Food Stuff just published her family recipe for Dill Pickles, with the elusive and vital information about how much salt to use, for this is not a vinegar pickle, no sir. But have I got any dill? Well, [...]

Read the full article →

More on burnt flour

May 6, 2011

Continuing to look for farina di grano arso, I’ve found somewhere that sells online, but availability is limited. Better yet, a friend over at The Fresh Loaf showed more initiative than me and actually looked in the Italian Wikipedia. There she found a detailed description — ground from grains gleaned in burned over fields — [...]

Read the full article →

Flaming flour whets my appetite

May 4, 2011

Ordering new supplies of flour yesterday, I came across something called farina di grano arso for sale. Suppressing a titter, I texted my compadre; nope, he’d never heard of it. Chatting to a chum over tea this afternoon, she suggested burned grain (past participle of the verb ardere). And she was bang on the money. [...]

Read the full article →