Pullman bread, also known as sandwich bread, English bread or pain de mie, is commonly available in stores in North America as Wonder Bread. As a way to boost flavour, we started by making a sponge, a mixture of yeast, water, malt and flour. We let this rest in a covered bowl ...
In addition to a 375 mL bottle of Belle-Vue Kriek beer, I also used some of the leftover brandy to make a double batch of these muffins. The cherries soaked for 24 hours, making them very plump. The batter was simple to mix up as it used melted butter. Some of the reserved soa...
In addition to cherries, I used dried apricots, peaches, pears and cranberries too, soaking them overnight in the brandy. For the bread, I used some plain pandoro and reduced the sugar to about one-third cup. I didn’t mix in the unabsorbed alcohol, and just spooned out the mac...
My disappointment with this class deepens.Sourdough has a rich history: natural leavening techniques were used in ancient times to make bread and many bakeries have starters that have been carefully nurtured and used for years. So when the recipe we used included commercial so...
Argh, another poorly proofread recipe: there’s no mention of ginger anywhere except for in the title! In the crust mixture, I food processed some diced candied ginger (about two tablespoons) along with the cashews and also added a half teaspoon of ground ginger. Instead of a 9...
We started Saturday’s class by preparing chop suey bread. Fortunately, the bread did not contain assorted vegetables; rather, it was a yeasted fruit and nut loaf. The ingredients included eggs and sugar, and the cinnamon gave the kneaded dough a tan colour. After a period of r...
The nests were fairly simple, although by the time I made the last few, the meringue had started to warm up and I had difficulty making the rosettes form a nest. I had no trouble with the praline. The mousse proved to be straightforward, although I had apprehensions about what...
The most time-consuming part was skinning the nuts; blanched almonds can be purchased, but I’ve never seen pistachios without skins. These spread quite a bit in the oven and will burn quickly so keep an eye on them. Even in airtight containers, the florentines’ edges lost thei...
We finally got to make some whole-grain breads today. The class is becoming a model of efficiency as everyone is showing up early to scale ingredients and try to finish as fast as possible. I don’t know if I’ve ever described how we scale in class but it usually goes something...
This issue has an article featuring a master muffin recipe with ideas for different fruit/nut/chocolate combinations. I used chopped apple and pear, walnuts and ground ginger. Cinnamon would have livened the flavour some more. The batter is quite rich (melted butter and sour c...