when red was the favorite color, a week ago

A week ago, Koda Bear's favorite colour was red.  Now, it is light blue.  But, between the three days he changed his favorite colour he asked for a red cherry cake.

I decided to make him a red cherry buckle.  I used my blackberry buckle recipe, but I used 10 ounces of dark cherries and red food coloring.  A sprinkle of granulated sugar before baking just like with the blackberries.

Because of the fruit, it takes almost an hour and half to bake.  I sprinkled it with powdered it with sugar for a finish.

The small bear liked the cake.  I would say the cherries did not add much flavor, more texture.  Those who liked the cake, seemed to be very pleased.  Me?  The plain version or the blackberry is my favorite cake if I have to have cake but I am not a cake fan.  I find I toast it and then I like it better.  I do not know why but it is what I do.  Oh well.

The favorite color is light blue now.  There is a blue cake in the house.

working on laminations

I have been playing with sourdough and dough laminations.  It is slightly obsessive.  The week before last I realized I did not need bread when I though I did but since the sourdough was already started, I was going to laminate some dough and play.  Not bad but not great.  I did get that was the first chocolate croissant that was actually liked.

This weekend, I did the same thing with intention.

I took my cornetti dough, which I like better then most croissants anyhow, and laminated it with about 40% by weight of butter.  I did three folds for the butter.  On the last, I added a couple tablespoons of sugar that had been mixed with a couple teaspoons of cinnamon.  There was enough sugar to cut the bitter of the cinnamon.  

I shaped the dough as squares with the corners pressed into the middle.  Two were just the dough and its added cinnamon sugar.  One had a center of chocolate.  The last, had chocolate and dark cherries added to the center.

The shapes failed on the bake.  I am going to need to do some more research about how to get those corners to hold.  I baked these yesterday, fairly late.  Today, there chocolate cherry is the only one left and I have been asked when I can make more.  Weekends.

But even though the shape opened up, look those layers.  And the flavor!  The flavor and smell were excellent.  

I am not sure that you can really say experimentation anymore but more play is surely needed.

a simpler english muffin (or how did you get that muffin to look right?)

Oh what to say?  Yesterday was about friends and watching the Great British Baking Show.  I could not believe it was only Tuesday with the angst that is going on at work.  More layoffs will happen but those who have been garunteed jobs for the next little bit do not know what they are doing.  A lot of chaos.  A lot of angst.  People show their true colors and sometimes they are not very pretty.

I have been finding my baking has been much simpler during this process.  I have mentioned before I love English muffins and I have posted a lovely recipe.  But the recipe is fiddly.  Especially when you have to wash all the rings or some of the dough slides out the bottom during the bake.  I follow a lot of bakers on instagram and one was posting English muffins inspired by Tartine bakery.  

I decided to give it a try.  Lovely.  Less washing.  Slower proof.  Just a yumminess, especially with melted butter and homemade strawberry jam.  The Tartine English muffin is their baquette dough made into an English muffin.  I used their porportions but I do not use their very fussy technique and I baked instead of cooking on a griddle.  I am simple.

I eat these at work and when I told someone they were homemade I got ask how I got the big holy crumb.  She could not tell they were not store bought except I made squares.  Remember simple.

simpler english muffin

Note:  This is based on the Tartine bakery baguette dough and then all my own twists.

sourdough starter

1 cup flour

3/4 cup water

1 cup (250 ml) water

2 teaspoons salt

3 - 4 cups flour

Mix the starter, 1 cup flour, and 3/4 cup water in a bowl.  Cover and let become bubbly.  8 to 12 hours.

Take about two tablespoons out for next time.

Mix in 1 cup water and 2 teaspoons salt.  Mix in 3 cups flour.  At this point I usually mix in 1/2 cup more flour and then knead with the rest but  I used some whole wheat flour recently that was very dry (already modifying!) and did not need to do that.

Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead until smooth.  Put in a gallon ziploc and store in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.  Pull out the dough and shape into a rectangle.  I make a rectangle about 16 inches by 6 inches because I cut it into eight squares.  I separate them and let them warm and rise until about double or the spring back just a tatch at a touch.

Put them in a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 15 minutes.  Notice, I did not preheat.  The top should just start to brown.  Turn over.  Bake another ten minutes.

Serve with butter and homemade jam.

Now, Paul of the The Great British Baking Show would like the outside browner but no one in my family really likes toast except me.  I leave them paler because they do not cut their mouths on them that way.  Boyos!

I toast.  I take them to work.  I get envious comments.  Life is good and simple.

binding

The exhaustion is still here.  And then on top of it I got hit by allergies hard last night.  Topple me over and scratch my face off hard.  I took benadryl and put myself to bed.  My level of energy is so low that putting the binding on this quilt is about all the attention span I have.  Or spinning fiber.  I have soooo much fiber.

There was an article in the New York Times today about baking artisan bread.  I just ordered some of the flours they were talking about and made our Easter bread from them.  I am going to share that recipe but I might make more bread before that.  They talked about heritage flours, sourdough, and time.  All which I have but I was sitting in my office when I read this without any access.  I do believe I need to rectify this.  They talked about croissants made with sourdough and live yeasty beasties.  Maybe I will finally share that recipe.  Not what you expect if you are getting a croissant from an American bakery but yummy.

I do believe I need to mix some flour and water for the yeasty beasties!