bread

I've been baking little loaves of bread these days. I like to give them to the people I like. It makes me happy!

I have also been trying different "cutting" methods on the dough to create different patterns on top of the bread:


I made a little star on this one before baking.


This one I cut a little cross on the top.


And this one had criss cross on it.

How will the next loaf look like?

brioche

So I've been testing out a few brioche recipes. I like these little French bread-y pastry-y(!) rounded things.


First attempt.

I like the fluted molds, but even though I buttered the mold the brioche still didn't come out completely easy. So I tried again in a slightly greased muffin pan:


The muffin pan fit in the smaller oven at the caffe pretty well.


The muffin pan works!

I *heart* brioche.

a large(r) loaf

So there were some dough left in the batch. It was way larger than a regular rounded loaf, but too small for two... I was wondering how it would be if I just "cloak" the dough and let it rise and bake the whole thing...

By the time it was done rising, the bottom of the dough was already larger than the bottom of my clay pot, but I "squeezed" the dough (that still had a parchment paper underneath it) into the clay pot and baked it anyhow.


It turned out OK!

Apparently the dough "grew" upwards, since there was no room for it to grow sideways. I've got myself a tall loaf of bread. Awesome.

bread in a clay pot

I had read about baking in a clay pot, but never tried it until now.

I let the artisan bread dough rise for a few hours to ensure the better texture inside the bread. About 15 minutes before baking, I placed a Japanese clay pot (nabe... it was all I have in hand) inside the oven, and preheat it to about 450 F.

When the oven and clay pot were heated, I floured and placed the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper, and carefully removed the lid of the pot (with an oven mitt, of course), drop the parchment paper and dough into the pot, and re-placed the lid. I baked the bread on convection for about 15 minutes, and then removed the lid of the pot and continue baking for another 5 minutes or so.

**The clay pot was super hot. Oven mitts must be present the whole time when handling the heated pot.**


My first clay-pot baked artisan bread.


Since I let the dough rise for hours, it almost had some sourdough characteristics.


Interesting enough, Ginger wanted some.


"Gimme da bread."

The crust was light and delicious, and the inside of the bread (the crumb) was soft and slightly chewy. I liked it. I'm going to bake another loaf in the clay pot soon.

baguette pan in use

I'm still trying to make yummy baguettes.


Bought a baguette pan. Love it.

The pan allows the whole baguette to get evenly baked, plus there are little "dots" (as seen on a loaf of French bread) on the bottom of the bread when it's done.

Note to myself: allow the dough to rise longer... more than 2-3 hours is ideal.


The inside is still a bit too dense... but the crust was delicious.

Oh, and I used a pair of kitchen shears to slit the top of the bread. Artsy, yeah?

artisan bread

I baked my first "artisan" bread. I had to quote the artisan part because I was not quite good at it at all.


I made a small loaf and a small baguette for John to make a sandwich with tomorrow.


I think the small loaf looks cute... it just didn't turn out as round as I shaped it to be.

The center of the bread was still pretty dense. I think I'll let the dough rise a bit longer before I bake it next time.
Gonna

rock-hard baguette

John bought a fresh baguette for sandwiches. It was 2 days and the baguette became rock hard!

So no sandwich baguette for John. Who likes rock-hard baguettes?


Nuki did.


So did Yama.

azuki bun

A few of us were going to have an afternoon tea at the caffe, and my friend Joanne made some azuki-filled buns.


with black sesame seeds on the top.

I think I took an almost-commercial-looking photo... with my tiny little camera. I love natural light!

[Tokyo Fall 2008] Yokohama: Anpanman Kids and Pigeons

There were cute kids and adults at Anpanman Museum.


He looked very mature for his age for some reason (probably thinking about Anpaman), and I think he's going to be a heartbreaker when he grows up. CUTE.


These kids were eating bread from Uncle Jam's Bakery... but watching something under their feet...


What do you know, there were pigeons around waiting for kids to drop their bread and crumbs... These two little guys did not want to share their bread with the pigeon apparently, and their mom was making noise and trying to get the pigeons away.

Cute people.

[Tokyo Fall 2008] Yokohama: Anpanman "uncle Jam" Bakery part.2

"
So what did we get at Uncle Jam's Bakery?

After we got into the bakery, more fresh bread came out!



We decided to grab Melon pan, Toast pan, and Curry pan.


The girls at the counter were really nice and they seemed very happy. Who wouldn't when you work with cute and yummy bread all day!


Toast pan and Curry pan.

Toast pan was two thick slices of soft white bread with custard center! It was really soft and sweet. Yummy.

The Curry pan was still hot when we ate it because it just came out when we went into the store! He had ketchup eyebrows and mouth, with yellow mustard nose and cheeks. I believe his eyes were cream cheese and chocolate(?). The inside was of course curry (with savory ingredients)... I loved it!


cute little Melon pan.

She was so cute. I had to have someone imitate her:


OK I don't think it worked.

All three breads were yummy!

CUTE!

[Tokyo Fall 2008] Yokohama: Anpanman "Uncle Jam" Bakery part.1

One of the first shops we saw at Anpanman Museum area was "Uncle Jam's Bakery."


Uncle Jam's Bakery.

There was a sign by the door indicating when fresh breads were coming out... and we waited for the new batch. I was watching the bakers work inside the window. I think they were a little shy when they saw me.


Raw Anpanman waiting to go into the oven.


Ahhh Anpanman and friends inside the window.


Anpanman in progress.

And then there was a bell... the new breads were out!


Uncle Jam and his apprentice(?) welcome you.


Lovely pan lady.


cute cute cute.


umm... I didn't quite know who he was, but he seemed nice. Confused, but nice.


custard pan.


It was almost Christmas, so there was Santa Anpanman.


curry pan.

There were other cute breads but they were gone in a just a couple of minutes! "What did you get?" you may ask. Let me post another entry for that.

sally lunn bread

It's Christmas Day, and a day for more food and naps! :p



I made a loaf of Sally Lunn and it was delicious! It was the first loaf of "normal-looking" bread I made from scratch! It actually rised right and looked pretty. I used Betty Crocker's recipe.

Sally Lunn - 1 1/2 Pound Recipe

1 egg plus enough water to equal 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons softened butter
3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon bread machine or quick active dry yeast

Place all ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer (usually liquids first, then dry ingredients, and lastly the yeast.) Choose basic/white cycle with medium or light crust color.


Yummy!

mexican bread

There's this wonderful Mexican market in a plaza on Redwood Road (whose name I could not quite pronounce or remember yet, but I shall find it out soon), and I visited it for the first time last week. There were great looking meats and produce, as well as rows after rows of hot sauces and spices. I was in love.

Right next to the market there was a deli/bakery, where there were trays of large bread and cookies. They were not like the Asian or European bread that I was more familiar with... they were HUGE, and they "looked" hard. I waited until several people pick up little trays full of these bread and decided I had to try some.


I think the one on the left looks like a cooked turkey!

These were some simple and yummy bread! I was very pleasantly surprised. From the picture: The turkey-looking bread was a simple sweet bread, and the cookie in the middle was a chocolate-and-spices cookie, and the GIANT biscotti looking bread on the right was a sweet bread with butter and sugar. Simple and delish!

These breads probably have better and proper names that I still need to figure out. I took John there a couple days ago and we chose a few more different bakery items. They were so fun!

Next I'm going to try the big flan that I saw AFTER we already paid for the breads.

hawaiian sweet bread

Our last bread project was not as successful as we thought it would be, but I figured we'd just try to make another one this weekend.

Yesterday when I got home the kitchen smelled sweet! John had made a Hawaiian sweet bread in the machine!


I was really happy to see the lovely and perfectly browned puffy bread top when I opened the bread machine lid.


A good looking brad. Yay!


The inside of the bread doesn't look all that different from a loaf of good white bread, but it tasted sweet and molasses-y!

Thanks, John! It's a very delicious loaf. The dogs love it, too. I think you can be the official bread maker in our household now.

whole wheat flat beer cheddar bread

My friend Joanne is very much into bread making these days, and that makes me think of our poor little bread machine that's been ignored andsitting in the guest room for months. I decided to make a loaf of flat beer and cheddar bread. (OK I made John make it for me.)

I let about a cup of beer sit out for about an hour to make the "flat beer." It makes the bread sweet and soft. Last night before bed John put everything in the bread machine and this morning the whole upstairs smelled like a giant piece of yummy bread!



John wrapped up the bread and brought it to the caffe today. I was so excited! The crust looked so good! After the morning rush I cut out a couple pieces to try. The inside of the bread was really dense and brown-ish. I took a bite and it was yummy (but not very sweet), and the texture was really dense. Did I mention it was really dense? :O



Anyhow, John remembered that the bread flour we had at home was whole grain wheat bread flour... and the recipe called for regular bread flour. Hmm... I wonder if that was the reason this bread turned out to be super dense.

I really want the soft and sweet beer bread! I guess I'll have to kindly ask John to make me another load pretty soon.