Chestnuts were an important traditional foodstuff in parts of Italy. Peasants could supplement their diets with chestnuts, and flour was a natural extension of this. Roasted chestnuts remain a common sight in Roma over the winter, though I’m skeptical about whether this is because Romans demand it, or because it’s another cute novelty to sell [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Baking'
Chestnut and walnut bread
February 2nd, 2012 · 4 Comments · Baking, Food misc, Main thread, Rome
Tags:bread·chestnut·chestnut flour·farina di castagna·farina dolce·walnut
Wholewheat farro bread
January 20th, 2012 · No Comments · Baking, Main thread
Invented this one as I had some farro grain, which I’d bought when I was trying to make the Tuscan zuppa di fagioli e farro, aka bean and farro soup. Farro itself is a type of wheat grain, though the word can also be used to refer to barley and other grains, depending on where [...]
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Zombie cakes
June 15th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Baking
Been learning how to decorate cakes. I’ve done some frou frou and flowers, so I thought it was about time I did something closer to my heart – zombies! This project involved making six mini-cakes, themed around a festival… so my excuse is that it’s Samhain/Halloween, you know, the night when the barriers between life [...]
Hazelnut loaf with rye grains
April 18th, 2011 · No Comments · Baking
This is my first take on another recipe from Dan Lepard’s essential The Handmade Loaf. As we’re gearing up to move house, I’m trying to use up ingredients – resulting in some changes to Dan L’s recipe. I also didn’t strictly follow his method – hey, a baker’s got to follow their instinct’s right? So, [...]
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Couronne experiments
April 3rd, 2011 · No Comments · Baking
I’m loving the ring shaped loaf at the moment. It’s also called a couronne apparently, though I don’t know much about the real thing from France. I did this one summer 2010: Annoyingly, I didn’t make a record of it at the time and I can’t remember where I got the recipe. Recently, however, I [...]
Wheatberry tin loaves
February 21st, 2011 · No Comments · Baking
This one is loosely based on a sourdough from The Ballymaloe Bread Book, but I varied it to use some other bits and pieces, and use techniques I’m more comfortable with. It doesn’t use any commercial yeast, just a leaven – in this case one made with a strong white flour. In a roomy bowl, [...]
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Busy baking, Xmas and new years 2010-2011
January 5th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Baking
It’s been a very busy month on the baking front for me. For Lawrence and Jo’s wedding on 19 December 2010, I made the cake, with Fran doing much of the decoration. I’m slightly disappointed with most of the photos I got of the cake, many of them are pretty gloomy – not ideal for [...]
Sour cream sandwich bread
October 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Baking
The tops grew kinda sideways in the oven, but otherwise these are cracking loaves. Perfect sandwich loaves, and just the sort of thing to win over people who don’t believe you can make soft white bread in the home. The sour cream adds fat, which is a way of keeping bread moist. The recipe comes [...]
24 hour leaven bread
September 29th, 2010 · No Comments · Baking
I dropped my camera. My dear old camera. And now it refuses to focus. It was just a compact, but it has been with me a long time, and it certainly took better pics than my phone – as demonstrated with this post. This is a loaf I made up as an experiment. I wanted [...]
Tags:bread·cob·leaven·loaf·soaked grains
Polenta crust tomato bread
September 19th, 2010 · No Comments · Baking
This is a Dan Lepard recipe – published in the Saturday Guardian, but also over here on his forum. In his intro, Dan says it’s “A loaf that’s unfairly despised by foodies and artisan bakers…”. I wonder why it’s despised. It’s not got the deep flavours of a naturally leavened bread, say, but it’s fun [...]