Pretty, pretty, pretty good. From the ol' trotski & ash standby. Kicking Delia (and Nigella - c'mon, rising in the fridge? No.) to the kerb, three years in a row.
Yum. We've been making the River Cottages ones this year and they are fab - a hit with Mr Baby, too. The only adaptation I make is to double the fruit (using mixed peel instead of orange zest because just sometimes I can be old school like that) and adding some powdered ginger and cloves to the mixed spice. I've been too lazy to make the crosses, though :)
Truth be told, this is the first year I've added crosses... It does make them look rather more like they should, and is only moderately faffier than not doing them, but laziness may well win out again next year.
Is this River Cottages recipe from a bread book you've written about before? I remember someone raving about something somewhere, and I cannot find the source. (Which, now that I write that, is not surprising at all.) It's my birthday soon, and I'm thinking I might reward myself for continuing to breathe for another 365 days with a book about bread. I am still too scared to go much beyond Jim Lahey's miracle loaf that simply cannot be ruined, and it's about time I pulled my socks up on that front.
Happy birthday! (It's mine soon as well - the Doppelganger thing continues ... )
I have raved about that book on all sorts of social media, so it probably was me. Is the Jim Lahey recipe the one from the NY Times? I made that for a couple of years, and it's so damn good - and to be honest it's quite hard to make bread that good the conventional way, at least when you're starting out (like I am). The closest I've come is when I've been too disorganised to get it done on the same day, so I've abandoned the dough in the fridge for a day between stages. It feels like cheating but I've been using the stand mixer to knead it lately, then I remind myself that (a) no one knows, (b) no one cares and (c) it doesn't matter.
I'm hoping to have a sourdough starter going by Auden's second birthday. The Red Beard Bakery in Trentham has a bread-making workshop that looks quite good.
For serious? Hilarious. Happy almost birthday to you too!
Yep - that's the NY Times recipe, but with yeast from a packet and an amount of water that doesn't require me to use the woefully withered part of my brain that deals with fractions. Tres forgiving, it is.
Abandoning dough for days at a time sound like just my speed. And I am all for the machine, for reasons a, b and c. We don't have a mixer, though, just a plastic blade for the food processor. I'm yet to figure out whether it does the same job...
I've been eyeing off these classes at Brasserie http://www.brasseriebread.com.au/baking-classes/melbourne-classes/unearthing-sourdough.aspx. Not as picturesque as Trentham, but somewhat closer to home, even from the northside!
Mmmm. I must say, those look awfully tasty!
ReplyDeleteYum. We've been making the River Cottages ones this year and they are fab - a hit with Mr Baby, too. The only adaptation I make is to double the fruit (using mixed peel instead of orange zest because just sometimes I can be old school like that) and adding some powdered ginger and cloves to the mixed spice. I've been too lazy to make the crosses, though :)
ReplyDeleteTruth be told, this is the first year I've added crosses... It does make them look rather more like they should, and is only moderately faffier than not doing them, but laziness may well win out again next year.
ReplyDeleteIs this River Cottages recipe from a bread book you've written about before? I remember someone raving about something somewhere, and I cannot find the source. (Which, now that I write that, is not surprising at all.) It's my birthday soon, and I'm thinking I might reward myself for continuing to breathe for another 365 days with a book about bread. I am still too scared to go much beyond Jim Lahey's miracle loaf that simply cannot be ruined, and it's about time I pulled my socks up on that front.
Happy birthday! (It's mine soon as well - the Doppelganger thing continues ... )
ReplyDeleteI have raved about that book on all sorts of social media, so it probably was me. Is the Jim Lahey recipe the one from the NY Times? I made that for a couple of years, and it's so damn good - and to be honest it's quite hard to make bread that good the conventional way, at least when you're starting out (like I am). The closest I've come is when I've been too disorganised to get it done on the same day, so I've abandoned the dough in the fridge for a day between stages. It feels like cheating but I've been using the stand mixer to knead it lately, then I remind myself that (a) no one knows, (b) no one cares and (c) it doesn't matter.
I'm hoping to have a sourdough starter going by Auden's second birthday. The Red Beard Bakery in Trentham has a bread-making workshop that looks quite good.
For serious? Hilarious. Happy almost birthday to you too!
DeleteYep - that's the NY Times recipe, but with yeast from a packet and an amount of water that doesn't require me to use the woefully withered part of my brain that deals with fractions. Tres forgiving, it is.
Abandoning dough for days at a time sound like just my speed. And I am all for the machine, for reasons a, b and c. We don't have a mixer, though, just a plastic blade for the food processor. I'm yet to figure out whether it does the same job...
I've been eyeing off these classes at Brasserie http://www.brasseriebread.com.au/baking-classes/melbourne-classes/unearthing-sourdough.aspx. Not as picturesque as Trentham, but somewhat closer to home, even from the northside!