Rainy Day, Bake Away
[Note: after the very detailed bread-making posts of recent weeks, I think it's time for something a bit more....ummm lesser].
It was a dark and stormy morning. I woke alone. I looked around. Someone had set the clock back an hour. Strange. If today is an hour longer than yesterday, and no one else around, I should probably bake something.
Then I remembered! There's really great fresh sourdough downstairs! I walked downstairs. I made coffee. I fed the cat. I ate some sourdough toast. I drank some coffee. I watched the rain fall. I read the paper. I drank some more coffee.
Later, I made a cappuccino and ate some sourdough toast. It was good.
I listened to the rain pounding on the window. I flipped through my one and only bread book (I gotta go to the bookstore).
And then....AHA!!!
I hatched a plan involving the Beloved's returning from her business trip to find her favorite bread (along with her favorite spouse and favorite pet).
I mised everything en place. I mixed dough. I kneaded nuts and fruits in. It rose.
I flattened it, and poured on the cinnamon sugar (adding a proven aphrosdisiac, grated bakers chocolate).
I rolled it and panned it. It rose.
I baked it. I cooled it. I cut it.
It was good.
I had lunch of sliced chicken on San Francisco Country Sourdough Baguette. It was good.
It stopped raining.
I went to the bookstore. I found used copies of Bread Alone (Leader and Blahnik), Artisan Baking Across America (Glezer), and The King Arthur Flour Cookbook. That was good too.
I returned home. The Beloved returned home. She smelled cinnamon. She was happy. She tried the bread. She was very happy.
We dined on yesterday's soup and the SFCSD boule with butter. It was good, even better today.
The kitty again has the requisite two laps. She is happy, too.
And when Kitty's happy, everybody's happy.
Comments
and it is nice to bake something that doesn't take 2 or 3 days. You got up and just wanted to relax and bake. I know the feeling. What a lovely choice of breads for a relaxing kind of day. We caught a little of your weather baking bug here yesterday, finally some cool weather again. I did a ricotta,raisin filled brioche braid, spread a bit because I didn't latch together the braids...but it sure filled the house with buttery, sweet aroma's and so delicious, I had to share some with the neighbors...I noticed he never lifted the paper it was under, but put his nose right down, breathed in and rolled his eyes and smiled...everybody was happy!
Happy Baking! Sylvia
Oh my! That sounds incredible!
Is there a recipe?
Thanks.
Glenn
It is in Beth Hensperger's 'Baking Bread' Old and New Traditions...which is the same recipe that I believe Floyd used for his lovely, Blueberry Braid loaf and that recipe came from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' there is another book and another author's that bears the same title...so don't get the two books confused...now...the recipe is called Lemon-Ricotta Coffee Cake, in BH BBOandNT. For the ricotta filling I made a few changes, added honey, golden raisins, cream cheese. For the brioche........that's another book...I needed something easy, I don't have a heavy duty mixer...so I used my bread machine and another book's recipe, Beth Hensperger's The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, and the recipe in it is 'Brioche Bread'. I mixed it in my homemade 'mode' in the machine and some by hand. I have a photo of the baking..and it looks very good...but the rest...well it was sliced very, very warm and consumed...I knew I wouldn't be posting the recipe..you see why...but Floyd's Blueberry Braid has fantastic reviews, I just used the ricotta filling and a brioche bread...not sweet but buttery just right sweetness...I sprinkled bakers sugar crystals on top.
Sylvia
Glenn
Fairy tales do exist it turns out.
And all was good.
What a great way to spend a rainy day. And a happy end, too! I really enjoyed reading it.
The bread looks delicious, beautifully done!
Can't believe you found all those USED!!
Congrats -- wayne
It was a good day, but I only reported the good parts. The day was punctuated with work, chores and errands, too. But that doesn't make good reading. So it was kind of a fictionalized account of a day. It did end well.
Wayne, I was actually a little disappointed at the bookstore. My neighborhood bookstore, Green Apple Books (the second best used bookstore on the West Coast, after Powell's in Portland), is usually a treasure trove. I expected to find several used copies of Tartine Bread [jk]. Or at least Hamelman's Bread or ABED. But, I will enjoy the ones I got, and I'll enjoy going back in a couple months to see what's new among the used.
Glenn
ROFL.
A couple of used copies of Tartine Bread, that's exactly what I hope to find. Especially because the book is expensive over here.
One can always dream!
You had a very industrious day, left to your own devices and your "lesser" storytelling was very entertaining! I'm jealous of your book finding adventure.
Saturday night I started the biga for a Scalia formula from Steve at Bread cetera. That was easy. Sunday morning I got up and assembled for bulk ferment and away we went for a 22 mile bike ride...to work off the baguettes from the day before. Then I divided, braided, egg washed, sesame seeded, proofed & baked.
To honor my hard work & Italian heritage, the man of the house made pasta with scallops in wine sauce to go with the Scalia.
We sat down for dinner and...had to use our butter knives to fend off Big Fat Kitty who had decided he wanted scallops for dinner!
It was all good.
Toni
Sounds like you had a good day, too.
Glenn
If I could figure out how to upload pictures to this site I would post my humble attempts at bread baking. No fancy camera or lighting...I just take quick pics with my Blackberry because it's alway handy. If I have to go hunt for the camera and leave the bread unsupervised, I usually come back to the results of a sneaky spouse!
Toni
Scali right out of the oven
Crumb
Okay, Glenn...here they are!
Toni
Beautiful, Toni. That would be great for lamburgers [grin].
Thanks.
Glenn