Frozen Potential Originally posted on September 8th, 2021 In Discworld, Nanny Ogg would say “They make it with banananananas.” She knew how to start saying the fruit’s name but didn’t quite know how to stop. I’ve written down my basic recipe for banana bread long ago but was asked in a forum to be a little more … Read More →
The sort of cake CMOT Dibbler would sell on the streets of Ankh-Morpork In Star Trek, counselor Troi can walk up to a digital wall panel and say “Computer, a slice of cake please.” Ten seconds and a few special effects later she’s got a full fork – no doubt chocolate in her case. Well it seems for tiny cakes of all flavours that future is here now… … Read More →
Don't rush the crust Pandemic supply line constraints have forced a change in my brand of rye flour which led to a rework of ratios and the addition of a little malt. You might need to adjust a bit too. Rye is tricksie that way. Find the newest formulas in the just-revised original post here. More Spork Here
Now With More Cheese Than Necessary Here’s another update to a post from Christmas Past that I finally got around to translating into video. My original recipe here gets a boost from rosemary and far more cheese than you should eat in one bun but it’s Christmas and indulgence is encouraged. You can of course exercise some restraint and make a … Read More →
Don't Stuff This Anywhere I’m only six years late getting round to putting this on video but it’s still the same delicious holiday “dressing” – the more enlighted version of “stuffing” – I’ve made for decades and talked about in my original post on the topic. Easy. Cheap. Sagely Tasty. Go make some for your next feast but try … Read More →
Frozen Potential In Discworld, Nanny Ogg would say “They make it with banananananas.” She knew how to start saying the fruit’s name but didn’t quite know how to stop. I’ve written down my basic recipe for banana bread long ago but was asked in a forum to be a little more precise with the directions for fledgling … Read More →
Just enough for a day or two As requested in some of the food forums I haunt, here are the ratios I use for my “little bloomer” loaf. If you’re a family of four (or more) stick with full-sized versions but for one hungry or two normal humans this is just about the right amount to get through in the cruicial few … Read More →
Brownies Without The Brown I’ve never been a huge fan of chocolate. Sure I’ll take the odd piece from grand Swiss or French choclatiers and love a cocoa-laced red velvet cake at holiday but other flavours are more apt to tempt me. Vanilla for example. Or butterscotch. When the mood strikes for something like a brownie in texture and … Read More →
Today's Loaf. It really is automatic around my place nowadays. Ever skeptical, the internet needed a bit of convincing when it came to my claim of six-minute daily bread. So I timed it. See the results below and find the price analysis and recipe in the post right before this one. So there commercial bakeries and bread doubters of the world. But honestly, if you … Read More →
Thirty Five Cents Every Other Day A forum of internet bakers I occasionally haunt recently went on a “daily bread” tangent. Specifically how much does it really cost to make your own ‘everyday’ bread? The original comment gave a fair estimate of US$0.25 but then a litany of know-it-all responses began to chime in with haphazard estimates for everything from the … Read More →
Rye Needs Extra Water Which Makes An Interesting Crumb I’ve been wanting to add to my “everyday loaf” repertoire where an oatmeal & molasses version has reigned supreme for quite a while. To measure up to that flavour I’ve had to resort to another grain in the mill, namely rye. Bread from rye flour can be tricky even when mixed in small proportion with … Read More →
Bread Twists By Hand Fair warning: Jump past my rant about television to the bread recipe & video if that’s all you want to see. I’m not a fan of food ‘competition’ shows. In fact, I find them somewhat distasteful and disturbing on many levels. Food and cooking are basic human needs that everyone should enjoy regardless of skill … Read More →
Don't Ignore The Bun Wrapped Around Your Burger Sometimes you just need a sandwich. For me it’s usually in the middle of the night during hot summer months and yesterday was a prime example. I had all the pieces of the puzzle just waiting in the fridge – my horseradish coleslaw, homemade mayo, habanero pepper jelly, and the choice bit of meat that … Read More →
Eight Minutes Prep, Three Minutes Cook, $2 Ingredients. Done. Very few things please me more than a good pizza. Whether simply topped with cheese and basil or loaded with a farmer’s market full of veg, you can’t beat the universal appeal of flat bread with interesting things on top. The fact that it’s a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide tells me I’m not alone in … Read More →
Tender But Square - Because I'm Odd Like That Whether with butter and honey over morning coffee, next to fried chicken, or smothered in sausage gravy, proper Southern American biscuits* are made to be eaten the same day with the best coming from experienced hands who can form them from memory and touch. There’s usually a dedicated pan or time-honoured mixing bowl parked in … Read More →
Don't be afraid of the deep, dark spice Brownies are as much about texture as they are flavour. Whenever I’m trying to dance those two attributes around each other in a recipe I inevitably think of the buzz that chiles can add to the tongue which leads me to experimentation. Where better to try than inside a chocolate sponge laced with other exotics? … Read More →
Definitely Not Pancakes Sometimes a single word triggers a memory. Sure experts tell us that smell and taste are powerful mental alarm bells but my internal dictionary seems to also have a web of recall attached. Today that word was ‘crumpet’. A leftover from Welsh, a language that my brain can barely hear at full speed let alone … Read More →
Foolproof Everyday As regular readers will know, I’ve sworn off most all bread from the local factory bakers. Try as they might, they can’t afford to invest the time that makes bread taste great. My everyday oat bread has gotten a lot of attention lately it seems and so I thought I best share my even quicker … Read More →
Butter for Flavour, Shortening for Flaky Layers Some online discussions cropped up about the ‘perfect’ pie crust so here’s my entry into the fray. Happy pie making out there you crust-obsessed whackos. People still insist they can’t make a good pie crust. I make a lot of pies, especially this time of year when apples literally fall off the roadside and root … Read More →
Three rises means fabulous texture - Best Teatime Ever It’s still uncomfortably hot by day. Nights at least cool down to below 20C which is when I’ve been baking my daily bread if I don’t otherwise fire up the outdoor ovens. I’ve been tinkering around with some old recipes that needed updates for one reason or another in between hammering out fiction chapters that … Read More →
Faster Than Waiting for the Banana Boat to Dock Technique is everything in baking. An abundance of cheap bananas had me making my stock standard banana bread a few different ways this week in an attempt to get the lightest version possible. Not an easy task sometimes thanks to a few factors in the classic recipe. Bananas lift about as well as a lumpy … Read More →
Crusty & Quick It’s a holiday and all the shops are closed. You’ve just made a stew and need some hefty bread to match. You can’t wait around for yeast to do their thing in a well-risen oat bread. You don’t own a giant upright mixer. You have a bowl, your hands, and an oven. What do you … Read More →
Faster than your morning shower Most mornings I want something with my tea but stale packaged biscuits (“cookies” to the Americans) just aren’t my mood. Full on cookery efforts for something elaborate aren’t always the best idea in my bleary-eyed early hours so I came up with a small batch take on scones to fill the void between buckwheat pancakes … Read More →
Paris or your own oven. You choose. (Video below) I’m not sure when or why kneading became such an insurmountable evil that people felt the need to eliminate it from their baking repertoire along with most of the decent texture in their daily bread. No-knead this and no-knead that are all the rage among food trend groupies these days and while I … Read More →
