Fougasse

I have the most delicious bread to tell you about. It’s studded with tart sun-dried tomatoes, salty olives, and fresh, woodsy rosemary. True to its french bread roots, it is soft inside but has a nice crusty exterior. Plus, it’s finished with a sprinkling of sea salt over the top. When all is said and done it is not time-intensive, but the dough does have to sit overnight, so be prepared to start it the day before you want to eat it. And the best news about this recipe? It makes two loaves, which means you can share one with a friend, although after you taste it, you may wish you’d kept both for yourself.

Challah

Last Sunday we returned from a full ten days of holiday traveling. We had a fantastic time with Jeff’s extended family in Phoenix and my immediate family in the mountains. But it was also wonderful to be home again. After a run to the grocery store I spent the entire day in the kitchen. I’d really been aching for some cooking time after such a long absence. Among other items, I decided to try my hand at some challah. You’ll likely be seeing more bread recipes on here in the coming months, as I’m making an effort to bake most of our bread at home, rather than buying it from the store.  We can get beautiful whole wheat flour from our CSA with Brinkley Farms. And we just found out last week that they are now doing cornmeal as well. It seems like a shame not to use these great local ingredients more often, so I plan on doing just that. I would love to find a local source for white flour as well. Does anyone know of one in the Durham, NC area?

Olive-Rosemary Bread

The Durham Farmer’s Market has gone through many changes in the two years I’ve been regularly shopping there, and I’m sure there are many evolutions yet to come. It’s been fun to see the new vendors who’ve arrived in the past year, like Dolly Mama, who makes her own North Carolina inspired chocolates, including specialties like Sweet Tea (black tea & honey), The Southern Belle (white chocolate & peach), and Sea Turtle (caramel & local pecans).  I love the idea of the CSP (Community Supported Pie) offered by Scratch. Rather than picking up a box of veggies each week, you get a sweet or savory pie. This past winter I fell hard for the coconut cream pie with a layer of chocolate ganache.

But my favorite addition this year has been Loaf, a husband-and-wife bread team. He bakes the bread, she sells it. From what I’ve  seen, they’ve had a lot of success right off the bat; probably because they have tasting cubes of all their breads set out and they encourage you to try as many as you want until you settle on the one that is just right for you. Even though I’m usually at the market early, they are almost always sold out of my favorite: olive bread. On several occasions, though, they’ve had a second delivery. I’ve been known to wait around a little while longer just for the chance to shell out $5 for an olive loaf. Last week we were at the market much later than usual and decided to try one of the few types they still had available. We chose walnut rye and have been loving it as breakfast toast all week long. I enjoyed it this morning spread with some peach butter I’d made for canning. It’s had me thinking about tomorrow’s breakfast all day long!

Whole Wheat Rolls

I bought instant mashed potato flakes for the first time in my life. As a child, when my family ate out I would always ask my mom before I ordered whether the mashed potatoes were real (or whipped cream depending on whether we were ordering dinner or dessert.) Instant potatoes are actually fine I’m sure, but they were not well thought of in our house. So what prompted my purchase of this forbidden item? I’ve been on a quest to use our whole wheat flour from our farm share in ways in which you can really taste and appreciate it. And this clipped recipe really intrigued me. So I hunted through the aisles for potato flakes, the recipe’s secret ingredient.

The results? Good. I’m not a bread expert so I don’t know if the potato flakes are crucial or not. I thought these rolls were just sweet enough but could have been a little fluffier. The oats on top were good for a bit of added texture. Great for their purpose, which was to accompany (of course) soup.

Read on for the recipe.

Back to Baking and Blogging

Hi everyone! We returned mid-week from our fabulous “mini-moon” in Asheville. The wedding was more beautiful than I could have imagined and went off without a hitch. Well… if there were any, I didn’t know about them, which is the way it should be, right? Both Jeff and I were probably most touched by how many of our lovely friends and family members traveled such long distances to be with us in our somewhat remote location. We hope you had as much fun as we did! We’ve gotten a few photos sent to us by friends and family. Here’s one of my favorites. Note the flowers. Killer, huh?

Now, on to the matter at hand. Today is Daring Bakers day! I made the challenge recipe the weekend before the wedding, so I was a little bit rushed and therefore not all that creative. This month we were challenged to make a vegan and/or gluten-free version of lavash crackers with whatever kind of dip we wanted, as long as it was vegan and gluten-free. This was the first challenge designed to accommodate those the group fondly refers to as “alternative bakers” and was hosted by Natalie of Gluten a Go Go and Shel of Musings From the Fishbowl. I knew from the beginning I’d make my crackers whole-wheat and therefore sacrifice the gluten-free aspect while still remaining within the rules by keeping it vegan. I’ll admit that it took me a little while to think of a dip that didn’t involve cheese of some kind, but finally I realized I could use my other favorite ingredient, olives, to make a tapenade, which needs no wheat or dairy products to shine.

The Great Banana Bread Debate

I’ve seen several recipes lately for peanut butter banana bread. Since banana bread is the only recipe I know by heart, I figured a little updating couldn’t hurt. So I made a batch of my mom’s recipe as is and then I modified it a bit to make a peanut butter version. I’m bringing the loaves with me to the beach this weekend where there will be plenty of taste-testers. I’ll let you know which version takes the crown!

(Ignore the strange look of the regular banana bread – I’m still mastering how to use my mini loaf pans and learned the hard way that one large loaf = approximately 3 mini loaves.)

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

One of my earliest memories is of baking chocolate chip cookies in our kitchen in Cleveland with my mom, sister, and a neighborhood friend. I remember sitting on the counter, snatching bits of cookie dough from the stand mix

er, and popping them in my mouth. My mom used to say that since we hadn’t suffered from salmonella yet, we might as well continue to eat cookie dough

With this kind of history is it any surprise that to celebrate being officially on summer vacation, I chose to bake on Saturday afternoon? I knew I wanted to

bake bread and after flipping through the cookbook The Best Recipe, which is a compilation of recipes from the magazine “Cook’s Illustrated,” this seemed like the perfect afternoon project.

A few notes: I had to add actually about 3/4 cup extra flour after kneading and it was still a bit sticky, though workable. It didn’t seem to affect the end-product. Also, as you can see in the pictures, I made a mini loaf and a regular loaf. The disposable pan I’ve been using isn’t quite 9x5x3 so I rolled the dough out as instructed and cut an inch or two off each side and used the scraps to make a mini loaf.

That’s it. Enjoy!

Scones

I am fond of blackberries for their own sake of course, but also because a big part of my family’s summer vacations in the NC mountains involved picking blackberries for cobblers, jam, and eating. Buying them from the store always seems a little bit strange, after so many years of picking them. But the ones from Lyon Farms at the Durham Farmer’s Market are as big as my thumb, dark purple, and melt-in-your-mouth juicy. As soon as I got home with them on Saturday morning, I made these scones. Though they taste good plain, I think folding in some berries makes them even better. Try them with whatever you have handy.

Scones

Makes 8-12

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

6 tbsp. butter, cold, cut into small pieces

1 egg

1/2 cup heavy cream + a little extra

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Whisk together flower, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender (or your fingers!) until the largest piece

s resemble peas and the rest are the size of breadcrumbs.

Whisk together egg and cream, then add to flour-butter mixture. Mix together just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Gather the dough into a ball and knead it gently against the sides and bottom of the bowl 5-10 times, turning and pressing any loose pieces into the dough each time until they adhere and the bowl is fairly clean. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and pat the dough into an 8-inch round about 3/4 inch thick. If you are using berries, sprinkle them over the top of the dough, fold dough over once and reshape into an 8-inch round. Cut dough into 8-12 wedges and place 1/2 an inch apart on a baking sheet. Brush the tops with cream and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake scones until the tops are golden-brown, about 12-15 minutes.

I have no idea where this recipe is from… it is one of those I just acquired sometime along the way. Sorry I can’t give credit where credit is due!