Recently in Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge Category

Yes yes, I am alive and kicking. Just been busy. I mean B U S Y. When I capitalize AND space the letters out like that I mean business. Doesn't mean I haven't been cooking or baking or eating or enjoying. It just means I have not been posting. Did you miss me at all my loyal readers reader? Maybe a smidgen? No? Eh. Truth me told you didn't miss much. I have a few back logged posts that I am saving up for another time, however today is a bring you up to date on the BBA post. That is, the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge. Yes. More bread. Are you excited or what? (Yes Dad I know you are, I meant the readers reader that doesn't feel obligated to read what I have to say...) I DO PROMISE that when I get my act together you will be the first to know. Heck you might even recognize it before I do.

Anyway, for sake of yeast product documentation... here is where we are:

We baked the French bread:

& the Italian bread, which we turned into bread sticks. They didn't stand a chance...

and they are posted in slightly more detail here. (NOTE: I helped BAKE but did not help POST so therefore cannot be held accountable for the lack of punctuation. You've been amply warned.)

Okay, so we skipped the Kaiser for now because we are just CRAZY like that...

And moved on to the Lavash. Which was an adventure in itself and the tom foolery can be found here as well.

And then, ha, get this. Someone actually left town to avoid baking the wheat breads with me. I mean seriously what gives? So hence, in my mini-kitchen I baked the Light Wheat:

And I baked the Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire. Which I guess was like the light wheat just with more... "crunch"??? I also can't for the freaking life of me find the damn photos I took of it and no I will NOT bake it again. So kids, let's all close our eyes and imagine that yummy multigrain bread with - like - rice and seeds and psudo cereal. Now slather some home made butter on it, yea yea that's right...

Um. Okayyy. That got weird. So, moving on. We also skipped the marbled rye. "We" meaning "I" because "I" was going to do this bread when someone fled the country to avoid baking with me, but lo and behold - NO ONE SELLS RYE FLOUR. Don't you look at me with those judging eyes and scream King Arthur Dot COM woman!, I wasn't going to place an order for just one type of flour. I looked in 5 different stores. It is like it didn't exist which forces me to ask - where is all this rye bread coming from if there is no rye flour?

Anyway, we moved on to Pain de Campagne & Pain a l'Ancienne. The Campagne we baked into baguette's and they tasted like mmm... bread.

And the a l'Ancienne we froze for impromptu pizza during the week, but I turned one lucky blob o' dough in this yummy apple focaccia:

Which I promptly ate. Alone. HA. Serves you right for abandoning me mid baking book...

But I digress. If you are interested in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge just click here to visit Nicole at Pinch My Salt and get the details. And if you decide to bake along with us I suggest you buy stock in King Arthur before you purchase any supplies, because you are going to spend your retirement in flour and yeast...

Did you miss me?

Wait... who am I even talking too?

Me: Hello?

Mr. Echo: Hello hello hello hello hellooooooooo...

Just as I suspected. Ghost town.

Not that I can blame you. I have been - well rather gone. Tho you should know I had good reason to be gone. Big changes happened for this bodacious girl - that even the MOST BODACIOUS of girls needs time to adjust to.

The most important being I am A CHICAGOAN again!!! insert applause

Second most important is I got my appetite back! insert more applause. It was getting almost impossible to write about ice water and potato chips. I mean there are only so many combo platters one can make with that. (13. There are 13 combo's you can make and no I am not going to reveal them.) The biggest bonus? I took applications for a baking buddy to help me back on the BBA track. The right candidate had a functioning Kitchen Aid, an amazing King Arthur flour supply, and a nice ass. Hey, a girl has to have her priorities.

Needless to say with the creation of this:

We are officially caught up. Ta da!

More news on the Chicago front. My blog features, layout, postings, etc... going to change. Things are different now, and not everything is relevant. Like grilling bread in the hot Arizona desert. Or What the hell am I going to do with all these damn lemons? No. They just don't work anymore. Look more for "Holy CRAP it's cold here in December!" and "How the hell does Heather cook anything in THIS???"

This. Is. My. Kitchen.

It has no dishwasher... Oh positive thoughts of joy and joyness...

Anyway, if you are still reading (insert cricket sound here) - watch for new fodder. More mid west gardening folly's, farmer's market pillages, keeping up and kicking back with the BBA and my oh so lucky assistant baker, and every other food related thing I can attend, enjoy, pursue, cook, create, dish out, raise or grow. And more... much much more...big changes. HUGEEEE! (No I don't know what yet... I have been drinking and it is 11:20 at night. Cut a girl a break huh?)

Okay. Thank you for indulging me and hopefully sticking around these past 45 days while I gallivanted across country to my new home.

You, my fellow readers reader, rock.

Yes my fellow readers reader. I baked on my grill this past week. No. Not a cake. Bread. A beautiful loaf of casatiello bread. And while the daytime temperatures hit 105. My kitchen inside stayed cool. See when I decided to take on the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge, it was spring. My morning’s were a brisk 50° and I could leave my doors and windows open without a care.

But now day time temperature are hitting about 187° and the electric bill will put me in the poor house. The thought of heating up my kitchen with a 350° oven so that my AC has to crank even harder seems like a no win. Besides, those little hamsters are working their little legs off to keep that AC running and I think they are about ready to form a union. So with a little help from my friend over at Bucky’s Barbecue & Bread, I turned my grill into an oven. And out popped this beauty.

It was easier then I would have thought, but I did learn a few thing that makes baking on the grill much different then in an oven. But first the prep. After preparing the loaf and rolls for the casatiello, I placed them on a baking stone dusted with corn meal.

Then prepared the grill.

I lit the grill, which is three burners, and then turned off the center burner leaving only the outside ones going. Then took another baking stone and centered it on the grill.

Placed 4 tuna cans on the outside “corners” of the stone. Yes I know circles do not have corners, just work with me will ya?! Nit picker…

Close grill and wait until you have reached 350°. You have to leave the grill at 350° for about 5 - 10 minutes before putting the bread on to make sure you can maintain your baking temperature. The Temperature will go down when you open the grill to put the bread on, but will easily climb right back to where you need it to be.

Then I put the bread which is already on the other stone, on the grill, using the 4 cans to keep it elevated. This is done so that the stone is not directly on the fire. Fire bad.

Monitor the temperature and do not open grill until you are at least half way through your baking. Because? Hello, as we already discussed, opening any grill releases heat. Pay attention! Baking time was about 10 minutes shorter then the recipe called for. The rolls came out at the half way mark. With the exception of some over browning on the sides, the bread was perfect!

Next bread is challah. On the grill should prove to be interesting. I have, however, to make a few minor adjustments based on some observations.

1. The temperature could probably stand to be about 5-10 degrees less then is actually called for. This theory will be tested on the guinia challah.
   
   
2. Usually a baking stone should be brought to temperature prior to placing what you are baking on it. I kinda forgot that with the casatiello. It seemed to actually be a better option, as I am pretty sure a pre-heated stone would have over baked the bread.
   
   
3. Over browning on the sides of the bread was due to the flames not being covered on the sides. Covering the whole grill with baking stones should stop that. I think foil on the grill over the outside burners would also inhibit that from happeneing. More cost effective as well since 2 more stones would be about 40 bucks. That is a lot of dough.
   
   Get it? Dough? HA HA HA! I slay me.
   

Will report back on my findings soon. But baking on the grill was NOT a fail but a success. My house stayed nice and cool and the hamsters love me again.

Lousy? Hardly. Mmm bagels.

As you may have already read, my bagels were put on hold due to a little binge drinking friendly gathering. The rest of the BBA is already going into brioche week... or wait is it casatiello? Whatever, I am still slaving over bagels. But oh - they are my absolute favorite. So far. So much bread so little time. How can something that tastes so damn good be so bad for your belly. Who cares. I look forward to every little bit of it.

I, however, unlike most of my Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge friends have learned to bake for 2. I halve most recipes. If I made 24 bagels I would try and eat each and every one. It would be ugly. Very very ugly. I cut the recipe right in half and lo and behold - I didn't have to hand knead. Hint Hint to my single bakers out there.

I baked a inept baker's dozen. (11 bagels) And I couldn't decide what kind to make so I made a slew of different ones. 2 sesame, 2 super seeded, 2 plain, 2 cinnamon sugared, 2 mozzarella and sun dried tomato, and one cheddar jalapeno for my baker friend in Indiana... but I ate it before I could send it. I think they may have over proofed or were to smart to retard in the fridge or something happened because once done, they were the size of my hand. I have big hands...



I of course enjoyed my favorite of the group, the sesame bagel, with some chive and onion cream cheese. The best thing about these bagels other then the taste was the texture. Because I am sure I did something wrong, I do not know if this was the desired effect, but the crusty outside was just that, chewy and crusty, especially after I toasted that big ole' bagel and sent myself into carb paradise mere minutes after they came out of the oven.

I do wish I took photos while I was doing the sponge and the kneading and the shaping and the retarding (which wasn't overnight... shhhh) and the boiling and the baking. But the chances of an ever so slightly hung over under the weather baker's apprentice wielding her camera while the Kitchen Aid whirled and flour kinda exploded out of the bowl and she ended up looking like she was being prepped to be dipped in beer batter - not so good. Not. So. Good. But they look good don't they? They don't look like the bagels of an abusive alcoholic mother.



I think not.

If you my readers reader would like to join me on this baking adventure, pick up The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge by Peter Reinhart and get baking. Be prepared to wear more flour then you use...

Everyone have a good holiday weekend?

Anyone need a holiday from their holiday? Whew. I thought it was just me. Then yesterday I realized I need a holiday from my holiday from my holiday and at this rate - I won't get anything done...

Where my fellow Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge peeps have almost finished baking the whole book, I took the holiday weekend to bake the second in a series of breads... the Artos loaf. I also decided to make it Christopsomos style, which is basically taking the Artos recipe and adding cranberries, raisins and walnuts. I was excited. It sounded like one delicious loaf of bread. Braiding and weaving and shaping aside, I just decided I would go monkey bread on it. Pour on that glaze and go to town.

Best laid plans.

But, it looks nice doesn't it?

Taste? Oh it tasted WONDERFUL! (As you can tell from the inconspicuous tear taken from the top right of the loaf...)

It even started out great. My poolish bubbled and doubled. My Kitchen Aid even handled the rather dense dough. I added the flour and the yeast, the milk and the oil. I used agave rather then honey and it smelled wonderful for unbaked bread. I molded it into a ball and placed it in an oiled bowl where it would sit and double in size. Mmm. THIS would be a GREAT day!

BUT WAIT!

What is that little bowl of nuts and cranberries and raisins and spices I see behind the FLOUR!

*panic*...

Shouldn't that be in the DOUGH THAT HAS ALREADY DOUBLED IN SIZE?

I 911 twittered my fellow BBA'ers. They suggested to add it after the first proof, just let it re-proof another 30 minutes or so before the final loaf shaping thing...

So I punched the dough out like Sicilian pizza maker and spread a thin layer of nuts and cranberries and raisins and SPICES over the dough. (Yesssss, even the spices were omitted...) Rolled it up and started forming it into a nice ball - but wait - NO! - the nuts and raisins and cranberries are breaking through! I pinched the little raisin holes up only to have 324 more open. Pinch! Ball! Pinch! CURSE! Pinch! PINCH PINCH PINCH! GAH!!! Cover with plastic wrap and come back in 30.

In that 30 minutes the outside temperature increased. The inside temperature increased. The dough proofed to ohhhh 3x its size. With little raisins and cranberries and nuts all trying to escape... not a pretty site.

Why oh why didn't I take photos...

Now I should have just taken this as a sign to screw the monkey and his bread and MAKE A REGULAR LOAF but noooooooo... Now the big ball of protruding raisins, cranberries and nuts had to become a bunch of little balls of the same.

Someone just shoot me.

If any bread should be called a monkey loaf - this was it... as if this wasn't enough, a minor situation involving beer, chips and salsa made me FORGET about the damn thing for 45 minutes. It was all, nuts, fruit and dough trying to escape the pan. 

:-|

Laughing and cursing, I threw it in the oven and hoped for the best.

Sure - It looks good in that photo - ok, kind of - but what you see is merely the top of a GINORMOUS loaf of monkey **** bread ever. This bread was 7" tall!

But it tasted AMAZING.

And the next morning - I learned that Artos french toast ROCKS!

If you my reader readers would like to join me on this baking adventure, pick up The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge by Peter Reinhart and get baking. You may have just as much fun as me...