Happy New Year!

Mt. Spurr overlooks Anchorage and Elmendorf AFB.

And guess who got Photoshop for Christmas? Thanks, Mom!

BBA #11 - Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread

The observant among you will notice that, while my bread has a lot of cranberries, the walnuts are decidedly lacking. That's because I didn't use them. Sorry, walnut fans!

Anyway, I think this is the last "sweet" bread for a while. Huzzah! Quite frankly, I just can't eat sweet breads like I do basic breads. I think it's because they don't go so well with cheese, and cheese is the best.



This bread was very "meh" for me. There was nothing new in the preparation - we've mixed in berries before in the cinnamon raisin bread. The braiding was just like the challah. Oh! The recipe called for something like a tablespoon and a half of lemon or orange extract. I used orange and it's a bit overpowering. Definitely cutting it down if I make this bread again.

I moved the oven rack higher, to avoid the toasty bottom that my challah got. It was a good thing I did, this bread cooked quickly for me, too!

Anyway, the bread is tasty enough, especially with a dollop of apple butter.

Anchorage at Night

Anchorage just after sunset, seen from Earthquake park. The lights are just turning on and the moon is almost full.

BBA #10 - Cornbread

The BBA is, with one exception, a book of yeast breads. This cornbread is the exception. It's a quick bread, using baking powder and baking soda as leaveners. Looking at the recipe, I wasn't sure what to think. First, it only uses 1 cup of cornmeal. Second, it uses whole corn kernels, which I am not generally a fan of. And third, there's bacon. Now, I like bacon, but it just seems weird to me!

As a quick bread, this bread was simple, easy, and fast to make. It did require an overnight soaker of buttermilk and cornmeal, but apart from that it was very much a "mix it, toss it in the pan, and bake" recipe. I ended up soaking my cornmeal for an extended length of time, due to some time confusion on when I'd actually make the bread. It worked alright, though!

This bread is very sweet. Surprisingly, I really didn't mind the corn kernels as much as I do in other recipes. The bacon, however, didn't add anything at all to the bread. If I make it again, I will probably skip the bacon.

While this isn't a bread that I would just eat alone, it is a very good companion bread for a meal - particularly some chili! The sweetness combines perfectly with the spice in the chili, creating the perfect mouthful!

BBA #9 - Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

I started this bread right after getting home from work. I chose not to include the walnuts, since I have an aversion for nuts in my breads. I also forgot to buy raisins, so I substituted cranberries. Taking Stacey's advice I soaked them first. Working them into the dough was a bit of a challenge - cranberries everywhere! Still, I eventually managed to beat the dough into submission and set it in an oiled bowl to rise.

About an hour into the recommended two hour rise, the Husband came home. Cooking dinner has not been my strong suit lately, so he suggested going out to eat. I eyed my dough, shrugged, and said "Sure!" It had already risen some, so I quickly divided it, shaped it, and popped it into loaf pans. I was pretty cautious when adding cinnamon sugar to make a swirl - too cautious as it turns out. You can barely tell it's there!

Anyway, we went out to dinner, which ended up taking somewhat longer than the loaves should have been rising. I ran back into the house, full of concern, to find the loaves nowhere near cresting the pan. I gave them another 30, then popped them into the oven to see what might be seen.

They ended up baking fine, although one in particular had definite rising issues still. Despite that issue, the bread came out pretty tasty. I gave the Husband a bit soon after they'd cooled and he made a bit of a face, but then I took a loaf to a party last night and he fell in love with it. Men are so weird sometimes!

Anyhow, not bad but not a favorite of mine. Onwards!

Palin-tastic.

I was out early this morning for a gig. By the time I got home, I was starving and the Husband was both starving and hungover. We decided that a frozen pizza was in order and headed to the commissary... only to find the parking lot stuffed full and a line ringing both the inside and the outside for the Sarah Palin book signing we'd completely forgotten about.

It took a while, but we did get our pizza.

Alyeska

So, I hadn't realized just how difficult it is to take pictures this time of year. Even on my half days, when I go into work the sun isn't even over the mountains. And again, even on the days I'm done relatively early, all I'm seeing is the last gleams of sunset as I drive home. Today was one of those days I really wished I had my camera with me, as the rising sun on a clear day turned Denali pink-and-blue, but I really have too much stuff to haul back and forth to work as it is. So instead, I shall share with you a shot from this weekend. I apologize for the quality - I was a horrible person this weekend. I didn't have my nice camera on top of the mountain, only my lame hand-held one. And for the next shots, I realized I didn't bring my zoom lens with me either!

Above, skiiers on Alyeska overlook Girdwood and the Turnagain Arm.

Below, as we drove home, we found some Dall Sheep (or sheps, as my brother likes to call them).

Do you see the sheep?

Okay, how about now?I'm really kicking myself for not bringing the zoom lens - these guys were as close as I can count on them getting!

BBA #8 - Cinnamon Rolls

This week the Husband has an exercise to deal with - basically, lots of time at work. So he requested some goodies to bring in for the guys. As cinnamon rolls were next on my list and I didn't much want to have them around my house, this seemed perfect! Of course, less than perfect was trying to cram a whole bread into the 4-5 hours in between the end of work and bed-time. But it all worked out in the end!

The dough-mixing went very smoothly. I was able to use my hand-mixer to cream the butter and sugars together. The actual kneading went super fast - to my surprise, instead of the 12-15 minutes the book suggested, the dough was passing the windowpane test before 10 minutes were up. I set it to rise then, which was silly move #1. The dough, despite passing the test, was still quite chilly. I'm blaming that on the fact that it didn't rise much. However, being on a tight schedule, I went ahead anyway.

The dough was very easy to roll out, but I do recommend flouring the counter first. It did stick a little. I did have trouble rolling the dough. It kept wanting to fold instead of roll! But eventually I ended up with a log (though the middle was much fatter than the end!). Slice, slice, slice, and there was a tray of cinnamon buns ready to rise.

Eventually.

Sometime.

I think...

Well, eventually I gave up and popped them in the oven. Didn't seem to harm them at all, they still came out tasty and fluffy!
The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread


Next time, I think I'll try making the sticky bun version, largely so that I can make my own grilled stickies in true Penn State fashion! Maybe even for Christmas day, if I'm really ambitious.

One thing I wasn't a big fan of - the fondant topping recipe the book provided. It was far too sweet for my tastes!

In other news, I'm right on track to reach the cranberry celebration bread for Christmas. But before then, cinnamon walnut bread and corn bread!

"I'll have a crown and coke!"

A true part of our semi-alcoholic family, Nittany waits patiently for the "bartender" to stop taking pictures and get him his drink, already!

Winter Wonderland

Sunday, we went out hiking at Peter's Creek. The snow isn't too deep, so we figured it was a great time to go. All in all, it was a fairly quiet day. I love the way the trees look against the snow on the mountainside.

As we were heading back, we came across a flock of chickadees.

Most of the streams were frozen over, but this little trickle broke through.

Shake that thing!

BBA #7 - Ciabatta

I love ciabatta. Love, love, love, love, love.

That said, this bread was a bit intimidating from the get-go. Wet dough, me mixing only by hand... and I've read the accounts of those BBAers who have gone before me. Bubbles? Said most of them. What bubbles?

Actually, it was probably a good thing that I'd read the other blogs, so that I wasn't super depressed with my own mini-bubbles. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I started last night with a poolish, which I had used previously for BBA #2. Unfortunately, I'd been making bread earlier that day as well so all of my bowls were dirty. I loaded up the dishwasher, scavenged a bowl out of the camping supplies, and got my poolish bubbling happily before popping it into its chilly refrigerated home. Fast-forward to this morning.

I wandered into the kitchen, put on my apron, got out my flour and other ingredients, opened the dishwasher to take out some freshly washed bowls...

Oh. Apparently I forgot the all-important step of actually turning on the dishwasher last night.

Ooops.

So there I was, scrubbing dried bread-dough-bits out of a bowl. Not the way I wanted to start my day!

After that little mishap though, things proceeded smoothly. The recipe given called for 6 tablespoons of water, plus whatever was needed to make the dough the right consistancy. The option was also given to replace the water with olive oil. I definitely needed a lot more liquid than the 6 tablespoons of water, so as I added more I alternated between water and oil. I'm really not sure how much I ended up adding!

Then it was time to stir.

And stir.

And stir some more.

My arm felt like it was about to fall off, but all the ingredients were incorporated! Hurray! I was afraid of stirring too little, as not kneading long enough is one of my weaknessess, but in retrospect I think I went a little long this time.

Ciabatta is a very delicate dough and must be handled gently. Shaping is accomplished with careful folding - under no circumstances do you want to degass this dough! So I was most cautious as I folded, rested, and folded it again. I thought it looked a little funny, but after it rose for a while it looked more like what I expected.

While it was rising, I was improvising. Because the dough is so soft, the final rise after shaping calls for using a couche. A couche is basically a little nest for the dough so that it will keep its shape as it rises. I do not have a couche, so I floured a dishtowel and balled up some other towels to make the sides of my "nests" a little stiffer. It seemed to work well!

The baking went quickly - two minutes occupied with the steaming process, then another 20 or so (with a turn of the tray in the middle, of course). And boy did my house smell good! I waited the bare minimum before cutting into my bread, eager to see if it looked as good on the inside as it did on the outside.Well, the holes weren't anywhere near as big as in the picture, but they are there, little tiny ones in the middle-top! And really, it tastes so good no one will notice if you don't tell them!


The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread

Nittany Bakes!

Unfortunately, the apron is not Nittany sized!

BBA #6 - Challah

The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread


I have to say, I am getting very tired of all these enriched breads. I went into the challah episode just hoping to get through it so that I could move on to some ciabatta. However, this bread has proved to be very intriguing - particularly the braiding of the bread.

All together, this was a very fast bread - less than six hours from start to finish. It's fairly basic, apart from the addition of the eggs: mix, knead, rise, degass, rise, shape, rise, bake!
At first the dough was a little sticky and it never quite got the silky texture I was looking for, but it was pretty quick to pass the windowpane test, so I commenced the rising process. After the second rise, the dough had become quite silky and was really fun to work with during the shaping process.

After some debate, I decided to make one smaller loaf, then use the other half to make rolls. I wasn't entirely sure how big the rolls ought to be, so I just divided that half of the dough into six. Then it was time to braid.
This is where I really fell in love with this bread. It just looked so gorgeous sitting there, and the little roll-knots were so cute! I could scarcely stop taking pictures long enough to pop it in the oven. I'm glad I did though, because this bread browned up beautifully. The rolls came out a bit larger than I had expected, but I think they're the right size. Perfect for sandwiches!One note: this bread cooked a LOT faster than the book indicated. I expected the rolls, being small, to cook quickly, but even so they were a bit scorched on the bottom and I pulled the loaf out just in time!

In which Nittany finishes my soup

Bookshelves and soup. Some of my favorites! Also, some of Nittany's favorites. At least when there is soup involved, he is less likely to start removing books from the shelf to get my attention!

Snowfall

The first snowfall of winter 2009. A month and a day later than last year's first snow, but I'll take what I can get! Let's break out the skiis!

BBA #5 - Casiatello

One summer in college, my family took a vacation to Ireland. We saw a lot of amazing things there, but one of my strongest memories is from the morning we were leaving. We left the hotel quite early, so that we could walk around Dublin one last time before heading for the airport. We passed a bakery that was just opening and stopped for breakfast. I got a sausage roll that was fresh out of the oven and was quite probably the best thing I have ever eaten in my life. I've tried to recreate it, to no avail.

Until I tried the casiatello, that is.

Oh, it's not perfect. Not the same. But it's much closer than anything else, and I think that with some tweaking, I can definitely make this mine.Now, I was a little nervous about this, after the difficulty I had with the brioche. Casiatello is, after all, a brioche variant. But my sponge was bubbling merrily, right on schedule and even a little early. It wasn't quite as awesome as the bagel sponge, but was still pretty cute.
This time when I stirred in the other ingredients, they actually combined the way the brioche should have. I took my time with the butter too, while watching the game (don't even MENTION the results of the game, please), and took breaks for my hands.

Then it was time to stir in the meat and cheese. I had an Alaskan salami (mmm, Rudolph) and mixed the recommended provolone with Irish cheddar and a bit of habenero jack I've been hoarding.

This dough rose well. Not particularly fast, but not slow either. After some juggling to get pans ready in time, I set the loaves to bake. They were still a little small, but oh so tasty!
As I said earlier, I am definitely going to be playing with this recipe in the future, to create something as close as possible to my Dublin sausage roll. I shall keep you posted!

The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread

BBA #4 - Brioche

This was... well, a minor failure. Things went wrong at just about every step, but the final product tasted alright. I'm pretty sure it did, anyway, brioche isn't one of my favorites so I'm not exactly sure what it "should" be.

Last night I started the sponge. Problem one came when the sponge didn't get as bubbly as I'd hoped. No idea why! I decided to continue, thinking that maybe it was supposed to be like that - after all, what do I know about brioche? So I added in the eggs and stirred in the flour, salt, and sugar. Then it was time to add the butter.

Problem number two. I don't have a stand mixer, so I had to do this by hand. It was getting later, I was tired, and the Husband actually had time to talk, so I did this all while on the phone as well. When I gave up, the butter wasn't fully incorporated, but my hands were covered in blistered and I was done! So I spread it out on the tray (note: do NOT forget to spray with oil before covering with plastic wrap!) and popped it into the fridge.

This morning when I checked on the dough, I was pretty sure that it wasn't right. It didn't seem as hard as what I'd seen from bloggers who have reached this point before me. I wasn't sure if the earlier problems had caused this, or if 16 hours chilling wasn't enough. Whatever, I figured, I've gone this far. See how it comes out. So I maneuvered the dough into the pans and set it to rise.

This took hours.

And hours.

And more hours.

By this point, I have my casiatello just about ready to go into the pans (pans which the brioche is still occupying), so I pop the darned things in the oven. They rose a little more, but never crested the pans. Despite their compressed exteriors, the interior looks alright. But I do have to say, it was pretty nasty how much grease came off these things as they were cooling. I don't think that I will be trying this one again, at least not any time soon!

BBA #3 - Bagels

I love bagels. Delicious, chewy bagels, frequently covered in melted cheese. Bagel sandwiches. Bagels for breakfast, bagels for lunch, bagels for dinner. Bagels! Needless to say, I was most excited to try this recipe.

Now, this wasn't a complete success (although I still have hopes for the other half of the batch waiting in the fridge) - but more on that later.














This recipe started off with a sponge - and what a sponge it was! I tell you, this was the most adorable sponge ever!

After letting it sit for an hour or two, I pulled it out to take a look and it talked to me. I could hear the bubbling from across the room. It was really cool, I was almost sad to mix in the rest of the ingredients.



Now, this recipe called for two ingredients which are rather difficult to find for the home cook. Fortunately, Stacey lives in a more... accessible... part of the country than I do, so she was able to obtain some malt powder. And, because she is fantastically awesome, she mailed some to me!


I spent the rest of the evening kneading and shaping before popping the bagels into the fridge to retard overnight. I think the shaping is where I made my first mistake. Not having a scale yet, I couldn't weigh my dough to make sure I had the right size, so I had to guess. I shaped 6 regular sized bagels and 12 mini-bagels, and endeavored to make them the right size.














Early this morning I found myself unable to get back to sleep. So, before the clock hit 6am, I was in the kitchen preheating the oven and boiling some water. I pulled my six regular bagels out and... wow. They were pretty large, some of them, and I think because they were so large, they'd sort of flattened and spread out, rather than maintaining a nice puffy rise. The mini bagels looked fine, so I decided to just finish off the large ones and see how they came out. So I popped them in the boiling water, two by two, then into the oven they went.
















When they came out, they were nicely golden brown - but pretty flat. They smelled right though, so after impatiently waiting for the 15 minute cool-down to finish, I sliced one open and dove in.

Delicious. Chewy, and incredibly flavorful. I don't usually enjoy eating my bagels with nothing on them, but I'd scarfed down half a naked bagel before I realized what I was doing!

I'll definitely be making these again, and experimenting with flavoring the dough (my favorite ever bagel is a cheddar-jalapeno bagel, I must recreate it!). Hopefully I'll be able to get a puffier result next time!

Regarding toppings: Personally, I'm not a huge fan of crunchy bits of stuff on the outside of my bagels, but I did top three of these - if for no other reason than that they make a better picture that way. The mini-bagels will be topped as well, as they're intended for my coworkers come Monday.

BBA #2 - Greek Celebration Bread

The second bread in the challenge is artos, a Greek celebration bread. Traditionally used as part of religious celebrations, the bread would be baked at home, then brought to the church for blessings. The basic recipe and shape of the loaf can be adjusted depending on what holiday it is for.

The first step is to make either a sourdough starter or a poolish. I haven't gotten a starter going yet (and it takes a week!), so I went with a poolish, which is easily made the night before. Quite simply, flour, water, and yeast are left to ferment overnight. Beautiful and simple! It is also incredibly sticky, as I discovered the next day.

The next day, the poolish is blended with a whole mess of ingredients - the usual salt, yeast, and flour are joined by milk, honey, spices, orange zest, and almond extract. It took a lot of stirring to combine them, because the poolish was just so darned sticky. Eventually they bonded enough that I could begin kneading. It was fairly sticky, but not too bad. I kept it going for 15 minutes or so, until I got as close as I've ever gotten to passing the windowpane test before I set it aside to rise.



The rise was uneventful, and the shaping simple with the advice the book gave. Pretty neat, actually, I don't think I've ever made a boule shape by hand. I split the dough in two as recommended by those who are further ahead in the challenge than I am. I'm glad I did, the loaves still came out to be a good size!

The second rise was a bit more troublesome - I had some trouble with my loaves drying out (Alaska is soooo dry this time of year!), and some difficulty figuring out if they were actually done rising or not. Eventually I gave up and popped them in the oven anyway. It all seemed to work out fine, with a lovely golden-brown result.

Now, to be frank, I'm not a huge fan of sweet breads, so I probably won't be making this again. I'm not entirely sure why, but I just prefer a plainer loaf. That said, I'm sure this bread is fantastic if that's your thing. I wish I'd added some raisins, but it still tastes great - especially toasted with whipped cinnamon butter.

Lamp-cat

For Halloween this year, Nittany gets to be a lamp. He is not entirely pleased, but is becoming accustomed to the limitations of his lampshade. Of course, this requires some trial and error, which is why I spent half an hour cleaning up after he managed to flip his litter box straight over on top of himself.

Moose Run

The moon overlooks the mountains, the mountains overlook the lodge, and the lodge overlooks the golf course. This photo was taken on Arctic Valley, just prior to sunset. I wish I'd hung around longer and waited for alpenglow, but I wanted to get up and catch the sunset from further up the mountain.

Deliciouso

This is one of our recent acquisitions. Since Stacey and six months in the desert living with the Italians addicted the Husband to olive oil, and I have been lusting over this artist's work, it seemed like a perfect addition to our household. Of course, we can't really get good olive oil up here, but we're making do with what we've got.

Of course, I really want the trifle bowl, but it is several hundred dollars out of my price range and glass is not conducive to repeated moves.

BBA #1: Anadama Bread

The first recipe in the BBA Challenge is anadama bread. Anadama bread is a New England bread - which surprised me, as I'd never heard of it in my life, despite growing up in New England! Maybe Connecticut just isn't cool enough.

This recipe is a pretty basic loaf bread, with the addition of cornmeal and molasses. The first step was to soak the cornmeal overnight. Now, it called for a coarse-ground meal, but all I had was fine-ground white cornmeal, so I just used that.

Next is to make a sponge, with yeast, water, flour, and the soaker. My sponge didn't get quite as bubbly as I'd expected, even after I let it sit an extra half hour. I grew impatient, and continued on anyway.

Once the sponge was ready, it was time to mix in the remaining
ingredients - more flour, salt, butter, and, of course, molasses.
Mr. Reinhart advocated for using a light molasses, but I happen
to be a huge molasses fan. So I used my strong, dark molasses, but I did use only 2/3s of what was called for in the recipe.

Kneading was a bit of a challenge, but I'm really still working out my technique in this area. After 20 minutes, with my dough still not passing the window-pane test (though it was close!), I gave up and just set it to rise.

Stacey had given me a heads-up at this point that hers moved a lot faster than the recipe indicated and accordingly I kept a close eye on mine and it had finished about 30 minutes early.

From there it was time to divide and shape! I've actually never made a loaf bread, but I think the shaping went well. The dividing though... well, let's just say this is one of those instances where I really wish I had a kitchen scale! My loaves ended up being clearly different sized.

Different sized or not, this bread is absolutely fantastic. I managed to wait until it had cooled to slice it up. I'm in love! Then I remembered that I had some brand new apple butter in the fridge - delicious! I'm about to try it as a ham sandwich for my dinner. I am definitely glad that I used the darker molasses. I don't think the bread is too sweet at all. It's got a nice, rich flavor. The cornmeal gives it an interesting texture, too. I will definitely make this one again!

The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread