My Life by Design

Okay so I had this awesome idea to have these ready to eat christmas morning with a little breakfast casserole – I realize that this sounds “mom-ish”  haha but my mom used to make it and I thought it would be exciting.

It took me forever to figure out how to have these ready christmas morning w/out killing myself to make them lol so I decided to make them a day ahead and they were actually really easy!

I decided to use some whole white wheat flour in addition to the usual unbleached bread flour b/c I like my english muffins a little nutty and more hearty. Next time I make them I might use a little more whole white wheat than unbleached although you could taste the difference.  The recipe was very typical of most breads until I got to put them on the skillet for 5 to 8 mins on each side. Well, this step was exciting b/c I got to use our brand new and really big skillet. Check it out!

check those little guys out

So as I  finished up the skillet phase, the english muffins became flat on each side just like the real ones you can buy at the grocery store!

look at them!

the next step was to put them straight into the oven for some baking time. This is how the middle of the english muffins bake all the way through.

the finished product

They were very yummy, especially with some breakfast casserole inside!

The Christmas morning breakfast was a success!!

This bread was really interesting to make b/c it was my first hearth bread. This means that a hearth was recreated within the oven in order to bake the bread similar to what it would be baked inside of a hearth oven or a wood-brick oven. The purpose of hearth baking is to promote oven spring and a crisp crust. This process involves setting the temperature of the oven to 500 degrees and setting an empty steam pan on a rack above where the bread will be. Once the bread is placed inside of the oven, you should pour a cup of boiling water in the steam pan and close the oven immediately. After this, you begin misting the sides of the oven in order to create more steam and vapor. In thirty- second intervals, you continue steaming the sides of the oven for 2 minutes.

Besides the difficult steam process, this bread had to be shaped in a new way using the stretch and fold method. This bread is well-known for its big holes and amorphous shape. These characteristics are due to the stretch and fold method. This method is done once and then the bread proofs and is shaped once more. This creates the holes and crevices that are well-known to ciabatta bread.

Peter Reinhart offered a few different varieties of these recipe – toppings to add like cheese or mushrooms, carmelized onion and herbs – I chose to use cheese of course b/c you can’t go wrong lol. I used sharp cheddar and gouda.

First of all, this bread requires a poolish preferment – providing more flavor and more fermentation

shaping the loaves

Second, the shaping process is pretty much like folding a letter – you stretch the dough as far as possible and then proceed to fold from the left over and the from the right over.

right before the oven

the pretty loaves

they are a little funny shaped haha

I thought that the bread turned out very well, considering a lot of new challenges and processes that I had never done before.

Oh and in case you were wondering…my bread def. had some big holes. I was pretty excited.

Okay cranberry-walnut celebration loaf – you are so braidy (yeah thats a word) and sometimes difficult. I think I would know. I have also made you twice.

But man are you pretty when you come out of the oven all brown and lovely

So this braid was great for thanksgiving and christmas.

It really is a show-stopper. My family was super impressed. I felt pretty accomplished.

a little preview

oh yeah – shes a beauty. First time I made this sucker I struggle with the braiding b/c it starts in the middle, but eventually I made it through with flying colors!

This bread really is made up of simple ingredients with no preferment or soaker.

It can be made in one day – can’t beat that!

It is also made up of a double-braid. One big braid with one smaller braid on top which makes it look stunning

the double braid

side profile of the double braid

and the final presentation on Christmas Eve…

go ahead...you can gasp a little

mmm…that word just sounds good.

so good that I’ve made this bread twice.

once at school and once at home w/ the awesome brioche pan!

check it out!

its like a big flower!

okay well this bread is an amazing combination of meat and cheese – i mean really – who doesn’t love that?

So I chose italian dry-cured sausage with different combos of cheese (I’ve used things from gouda to provolone to sharp cheddar) All equally very good.

This bread is a combo of the previously mentioned brioche bread (a buttery bread) with additions of meat and cheese

The smell and taste of this bread will make you weak at the knees.

I know that this is one of my favorites!

Sponge

btw...peter reinhart loves my new oven and this is his new favorite spot in my kitchen

and if you are confused who peter reinhart is ..he’s the author of the BBA book haha and one of my heros

the shape of the loaf

all baked up!

out of the pan

isn’t the shape of it so pretty??

Anyways…sooo much more to come….ciabatta, english muffins, cranberry celebration loaf, and tons of christmas goodies! Hope everyone had a fabulous and blessed Christmas!

Hello friends!!

It’s been so long! So many things have been going since I posted last. College has gotten the best of me – I have been baking, but so much less unfortunately. I am in a new Bible study learning about grief and how we deal with it…very interesting topic. I was just recently home for fall break and I wish I didn’t have to come back to S-burg. But, Thanksgiving is coming oh so soon – which means I need to bake more!!!!! I am missing my kitchen at home! While I was home at fall break, I managed to bake a homemade apple pie (courtesy of my aunt’s recipe), mini pumpkin cheesecakes, some halloween cookies, and a pear spice cake with walnut praline topping. MMmmmmm. Regretting leaving all of that cake back at home w/ dad.

So, I figured to get back in the swing of things I can show a few pics of just my recent fall break baking – but there is so much more that I need to catch up on! Including my senior interior design project, applying for grad school and jobs, etc. So many things to chat about!

first of all….fall break and bake!

fall =’s pumpkin, apples, cinnamon, spice, and fun halloween cookie cutters!

look at all the halloween cookies

frankenstein head!!!

so many!

witch’s hat, cats, ghosts, crossbones, witch’s broom!

oh the mess...

Now, on to the mini pumpkin cheesecakes – whew these were adorable.

in the pan

look at them!

I didn’t have time to decorate them with little jack-o-lantern faces, but you get the drift.

Thanks to Bakerella for this recipe – google it! it’s an amazing baking blog.

hello my new favorite cake!

 yes ladies and gentlemen, this is my favorite cake right now

wanna know what it is??

pear spice cake w/ walnut praline topping

yes please?!?!!!

for the recipe go to joy the baker  – google it!

My other NEW favorite for fall:

Pumpkin Cookies!

Sooooo goood!

they just melt in your mouth

Another BBA Challenge bread post. I know you all are loving these!!! This should be the last one for a little while. This bread was very good!!! Yes I definitely baked it at the hallway kitchen at my dorm! Whew – it was a little challenging. Convection microwaves can be a little dicey when baking loaves of bread (esp. when it doesn’t rotate – which means that the loaves will not be evenly-baked ugh). So although one side was a little bit more brown than the other – the little guys still tasted DIVINE. Let me tell you – I had people coming to my room to try it and I sent a half loaf home with a suitmate’s bf.

here is the dough rising!

here are the little loafs!

microwave/convection oven

there they are ladies and gentlemen! baking away!

oh so yummy!

Okay so my internet is now working…no wireless. but hey you can’t have everything in life right? Anyways, I have a lot of blogging to catch up with! Before I left for Converse, I did a lot of bread baking haha. I might have ended up with five or six zip-lock bags of sliced whole wheat bread. Well, I was definitely prepared for college with a year’s supply of frozen bread behind my belt. That’s a whole lot of sandwiches people…haha get it??? okay so I going to explain that I made two different types of whole-wheat bread. One was from the BBA challenge – toward the very back of the book…and the other recipe was from king arthur himself! the flour that is….and I have to say that I preferred King’s Arthur’s recipe…which can be found on the internet! It was very good: a lot more flavor, less dry, and oh so yummy!! First recipe that I have been disappointed in Peter *aka – the BBA Challenge*

First up is the BBA whole-wheat bread

the poolish!

the soaker!

the loaves themselves...

All baked and ready!

the loaves!!

look at that slice!

Okay so I have made yet another bread…mmmmm. This is oh so good. and so buttery and sooo flaky. It contains 2 sticks of butter so you are only allowed to have a little! I knew from the beginning that brioche was going to be good b/c my fellow partner in crime – aka Courtney had already made it and I had tried it at her humble abode. Boy was I excited to make this one.

This bread called for a sponge – which just ferments for 20-40 mins. before making the dough. The dough has to chill for 4 hrs +(and a few ferments in-between)  in order to be able to shape it into loaves. I made one large loaf and then a few smaller ones so I can give them away haha. All of this bread is starting to get to me…and my dad. Pretty much, I am trying to pawn bread off on people – so if you would like to volunteer…comment and offer your services. RIGHT NOW. haha. Anyways – This bread was the medium-richness version of brioche -meaning it had medium amounts of butter. Not too rich, but not too “poor.”

loafs!

mmm....golden, flaky, and buttery

It’s okay…….go ahead and drool a little bit!!

even brought one over for dinner w/ joey's family lol