Bread - Making vs Buying

I made bread last night. Just two small round loaves of wholewheat. Finishing up some bits of flour. I'm really pleased with them. Good crust. Nice crumb. I ate three pieces fresh out of the oven with super yellow salted butter.

And I got to thinking about the value of making bread at home.

1. It isn't always better than what you can buy. It's special, because it's homemade but Eau a la Bouche has better bread. But Tesco (or any big store that is producing hundreds of loaves) isn't going to be as good. So homemade wins against mass produced, but not fancy artisanal.

2. Ingredients: Flour. Flour is cheap. But what about quality flour? What's the difference between grocery store brand flour and the Shipton Mills I have my eye on? The Shipton Mills is twice the price of the grocery store. Will it make that much better a loaf? What kind/quality of flour do commercially produced loaves use? Is that one of the factors in E5 Bakehouse vs Gregg's?

I feel a challenge coming on. Will buy my Shipton Mills basket (currently at ten kilos of flour), make bread and report back. And maybe ask the nice bakery people in the market if they know anything about the flour their products are made from... requires further investigation.

3. Ingredients: Extras. My bread is flour, yeast, salt and water. There is a brilliant double page spread in Richard Bertinet's book Dough - one side is a loaf of homemade bread and the ingredient list. The other side is the store bought bread and ingredient list. Four ingredients versus a long list. No question. Make your own damn bread.

4. Time investment: Not that much really. I mean sure you need to do it but seriously - making the dough takes maybe 20 minutes? Then it's mostly leave it alone until it's ready to be shaped and baked. Hell you can even do the no-knead thing. Total active time investment is probably less than walking to your nearest bakery. Unless you're super lucky. In which case can I come stay with you?

5. Love. Well, there is that.

My Grandma on the Mountain could bake anything but she didn't bake bread. The story is that she made a loaf once and my Grandpa and Great Uncle Malc took it out in the backyard and played football with it. She never repeated the experiment.

The recipe for buns that my mom makes for holiday meals is from her Aunt Jessie who was a fabulous cook. I crave her apple pudding recipe often.

Baking bread at home is special. Maybe not for everyday, but always preferable over big store bread. And it fills the house with warmth and love.

Bean in the cake

Did you grow up planting a bean in the cake? Or perhaps a coin, wrapped in tin foil? Was it for birthdays? Christmas? Some random Saint Day? What happened if you got the elusively baked bit in the cake? Did you get a prize? Was the coin/bean/figure the prize itself? Did you get to wear a silly hat? Were you granted luck, love, happiness? How long did it last - a day? a month? a  year? As long as the piece of cake in front of you?

Seriously. This bean in the cake thing pops up all over! I started thinking about it on January 6 - epiphany. In France all the bakeries bake galette des rois in honour of the three wise men who arrived at the baby Jesus' manger with very expensive and inappropriate gifts. Actually I think by the time they arrived he was meant to be a toddler but that would make a very complicated nativity scene so they just stick with the baby Jesus part. Anyways the tradition is that inside the lovely puff pastry almond cream tart is baked  a figurine and whoever gets the figure gets to wear the silly crown that is provided with the tart and gets to be king for a day.

All very cute and quaint, no?

Except this bean/figure/nut/whatever baked in a cake or tart shows up all over the place. Repeatedly. All sorts of random saints days are celebrated by making a cake (often heavy on nuts or dried fruits) and hiding a Thing inside for one lucky person. How peculiar. I thought it was very strange and sort of silly but then I realised my mom used to put coins wrapped in tin foil in my birthday cake. And I think I thought that was the neatest thing ever. (Don't worry I'm sure she washed the coins first) So maybe the whole thing isn't so peculiar. But I wonder where it started? I haven't been able to find that out so if anyone knows...

Galette des rois aren't at all difficult to make. Puff pastry and almond cream. I made a smallish one as I quite like them and I knew that if I made a big full sized one I would end up nibbling away at it sliver by sliver. Which I did anyways with the help of C and T, but at least it didn't start out as big...

There are a ton of recipes for the galette des rois flitting about on the internet. I used the one at Chocolate & Zucchini and used about a third of the filling for my slightly smaller circles of pastry. I did not eat the leftover filling from the bowl. No. I did not. Stop looking at me like that!

This is what I made. I was quite pleased with it.

Until I looked over at the counter. And I realise I had forgotten to put the god damned bean in it.

Tart Tart Pie

When C & I moved to London 18 months ago, we left a lot of stuff behind. Books, sofas, daleks. But most importantly, kitchen stuff. We gave away, made friends take and sent to storage all manner of kitchen necessities that we had acquired while living in Toronto. Not that we came with nothing. Oh no. C & MM laughed, pointed and ridiculed me for the random things I insisted that we bring. One cooling rack (also serves as a trivet!), one decent knife (can't chop an onion with a Swiss Army knife), Riedel O wine glasses (I heart them- thanks Ebot/Gnomily!), et al. I'm so pleased I dragged it all here. Nothing has gone to waste.

Anyways, we've since started to repopulate our kitchen with even lovelier things, but I've been lacking certain baking implements, namely a pie plate and tart tin. I don't know why it's been so difficult to locate a pie plate. I thought England invented pie? Isn't it a traditional end to a roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and gravy dinner? Shouldn't there be a pie shop on every corner? And tart tins? The ones with removal bases? Why can't I find them everywhere?

Sigh. I finally tracked both pieces of kitchen love down in a lovely kitchen store called Gill Wing in Angel. I should, perhaps specify that I tracked down appropriate versions. There were others but they weren't quite what I wanted. If you're going to bake love you need to have love bakeware. Right?

So! First off I made C's favorite - apple pie. It tasted great. It looked … well, the pie plate looked great. But sadly we ate the whole thing too fast for a photo. And really, do you need a recipe or photo for an average apple pie? I didn't think so.

However! The next week I decided to inaugurate the Tart Tin with the Chez Panisse Almond Tart care of David Leibovitz. I've wanted to make this since David posted it on his blog. But I've never owned a Tart Tin with a removal base. But now I do. And life just got that much better.

Here it is.



Isn't it beautiful? It wasn't perfect, I'm no pastry chef (YET!) but it was delicious and satisfying to make. I will definitely be making it again.

This week I decided to go with a more traditional crust and tart. A Pear and Frangipane Tart. The crust and I were having some difficulties so I tore it up and flung part of it on the table, which then splattered across the room. After a certain amount of swearing, fridge time and patience (and more swearing) the crust came together. Not quite as beautifully as I'd hoped (you mean second time STILL doesn't make me a pastry chef?) but delicious nonetheless.

They are so satisfying to make! So very homey but elegant and accomplished at the same time. Now I need further inspiration. Which are the most delicious, loveliest tarts? Which should I make next? Suggestions? Requests?

Demi Gourgeres

When I was a kid I made choux pastry with my mom and we filled them with all manner of lovely sweet things - custard, whipping cream, chocolate mousse, et al. It seems to me now that I loved making them then because they were cute, delicious and infinitely moreish.

So when David Lebovitz made a savory version called gourgeres for a post New Years Eve drinks partay at his (no doubt lovely and welcoming) flat in Paris, I was besotted and decided that I had to make them. I had forgotten how much I liked making choux pastry. (It's very satisfying for some reason.)

Anyways, I was not having a partay (maybe I should have - anyone want to do a wine and gourgeres evening in East London? call me!)and, there being only two of us, I made half his recipe. Which was relatively easy to do, measurement wise. David's makes 30. SO, mine should have made 15. Right? Right.

Except in my tired brain I thought - half the amount of ingredients. Should make them half the size. Which made topping them with extra cheese slightly more difficult! But they were delicious all the same and we ate them all.

How to eat a banana

I don't like bananas. I don't like their texture, their taste or their smell. I dislike them in smoothies, or as fillers in juice. Peeling them grosses me out. I eat them occasionally because they're good for you. But I never like them. (Though I did like them in Peru. They were better there. Smaller.)

For the month of July C&I got an organic box from Growing Communities in Hackney. It has contained a variety of nice yummy things but it always, always contains at least three bananas.

The first week we ate them. Dutifully. The second week we ate them begrudgingly. The third week they sat on the counter and looked at me every morning and I just ignored them. Now it's the weekend of the fourth delivery of bananas and we have way too many of them and they are starting to get brown spots on them. And I cannot eat them with brown spots on them. I just can't. I'm not that grown up.

So this weekend I baked. On Saturday I made banana pancakes care of Nigella. (Verdict: Not bad, quite moist, but banana-y. Sang along to Jack Johnson's Banana Pancake song in my head. ) Today I made banana bread, inspired by Joy of Cooking but with extra bits of goodness (almonds and cinnamon). I still don't think I'll like it, but if I put enough nutella on it, it should be ok.

UPDATE: With enough nutella ANYTHING tastes good.

Black Treacle

I love these tins. I refuse to throw them out. I'm starting a collection. Soon I'll start taking them back to Canada as gifts and people will love me.

Freddie's Calzones

I read a lot of food blogs. I probably have 30 RSS feeds that update me of any action on the blog front. I don't actually read read them all- who has that much time, really? But I like to look at the headlines, see what's up and click through to posts that catch my fancy.

I always click through to The Great Vegetable Challenge.
Seriously, love the premise of this blog- get a kid to eat his vegetables by going through the alphabet and trying everything twice. They are trying vegetables I've always picked up and then put down in favour of something more familiar and ones I've never even heard of!

When it came to sweet potatoes they made fries (8 out of 10) and sweet potato calzones. Which sounded really good, and pretty easy and well, we had a sweet potato and so I made them for lunch one afternoon. And they were really good- a neat blend of flavours, sweet potato, salty cheese, herby pesto. Lovely.

Freddie's sister (who has great hair) has a recipe for asparagus twists that I'm going to try this weekend.

About Curiosity & the Cupcake

Curiosity & the Cupcake is the name of the bookstore/bakery I would run if I wasn't so busy saving the world's archaeological heritage, helping to fix the UK's healthcare or getting overly excited about food policy.

It came about as C & I were wandering back from the St Lawrence Market in Toronto via the lovely  Nicholas Hoare bookshop while discussing our plans for the Italian espresso bar we'll have in our office (one day) and bemoaning the lack of a bakery in our neighborhood.

C&C would be about lovingly chosen books and a small, bespoke and ever-changing selection of baked deliciousness. We would have space for artists to hang their work, and cosy chairs where you could read and enjoy a proper (one size only) cappuccino or where you'd meet your friends (maybe we'd start a cookbook club?) for a snack.

It would never make a profit and it would be filled with love.

Instead I have this blog. Which will also never make a profit and be filled with love.

Lavendar Honey Bread

This looks lovely, doesn't it? And sounds good- delicately scented with a hint of sweetness.

All I did was take a batch of whole wheat dough and add a teaspoon of lavendar and a tablespoon of honey.

Subtle deliciousness.

Cinnamon Buns

According to Toronto Life, the best cinnamon buns in Toronto can be found in Leslieville at Sweet Bliss. After two failed attempts, C&I finally got to taste them a few weeks ago and they were pretty damn good. I think, however, that I have found an even better spot- in my very own kitchen.

I've been searching for the recipe that I wanted to try for sometime and last night I found one and decided that I would make them for breakfast. Then, morning came and I decided I would make then as an afternoon snack.

This is the first time I've made a dough with egg and the texture is so satisfying to work with that I think I'll be making these again and experimenting with others.


1 t white sugar
1 (.25oz) package active dry yeast
1/2c warm water

In a small bowl, dissolve 1 t sugar and 1 package active dry yeast in 1/2 c warm water until it's creamy.

1/2 c milk
1/4 c white sugar
1/4c butter
1 t salt

Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat and mix in 1/4c sugar, 1/4c butter and the salt. Stir until it's all melted and let it cool a bit.

2 eggs, beaten
4 c all purpose flour

In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, milk mixture, eggs and 1-1/2c flour, stirring well. Stir in the remaining flour, a bit at a time until the dough comes together. Turn it out and knead gently until smooth and elastic and luxurious.

Let rise in a warm spot for an hour or so.

3/4 c butter
1-1/2c brown sugar
1c chopped pecans

While the dough is raising,melt 3/4 cup butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in 3/4 c brown sugar and whisk til smooth. Pour into buttered baking pan and sprinkle with nuts.

Combine remaining sugar and pecans and set aside.

Turn dough out and roll into a rectangle. Brush with 2T melted butter and sprinkle with sugar/nut mixture. Roll up the dough and pinch the seam shut. Cut into 15 pieces and place in prepared pan.

Cover and let rise for an hour or so. Then bake in a preheated oven (375/190) for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Breadsticks/Grissini

I didn't cook at all last week. I'm pretty sure C did, otherwise I wouldn't have eaten. I can't remember. It was all a bit of a blur.

So I was really excited to cook Saturday night. Mike was going to come over after film fest and we were going to eat and drink and play games.

C & I spent the day wandering the city's various markets, visiting our butcher in the St Lawrence Market and buying $20 worth of cheese at Global in Kensington - lovely.

Then home to start leisurely cooking.

Except Mike didn't get into the movie.

So he and his friend Natasha came over a full two hours early, hungry and cold.

I didn't expect to eat dinner until 9:00. At the earliest. So, after a mad dash to tidy up a little (for Natasha, she was new. Mike's been around so long he's family and we don't have to tidy up for him!) I was happy that I had made bread sticks to nash on while the rest of dinner was being made.

Grissini

1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons yeast
2-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb. flour
1-1/2 teaspoons salt

Put 1-1/3 cups of warm water in a small bowl and stir in the yeast and honey. Leave it to froth and foam.

Sift (I actually enjoy doing this) the flour and salt into a bowl, then add the yeast mixture, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and mix until the dough clumps together.

Form into a ball and knead until smooth and elastic-y. Put the dough on a baking sheet and flatten it out to fill the pan, brush with the remaining oil and let rise for an hour or so.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Cut the dough lengthwise into four portions, then cut each portion into 8 pieces(or 5, or 4, whichever!). Roll, stretch and cajole the pieces into 8 inch long strips and then toss in the hot hot oven for about 15 minutes, until crisp and golden.

C's Commentary: Breadsticks. They were simple, lovely, and fed us during an antipasto, a soup main, and our pre-dessert drunken Uno.

Biscuits & Late Summer Tomatoes

Even though it was hot out today, you can still sense the change. The students are back, apples are appearing at the farmer's market. Fall is sneaking into Toronto.

We got home from the market with hot, luscious tomatoes that taste like the very essence of all that is good in a tomato and a big glorious bunch of basil that perfumed our walk home. And we were hungry.

But, despite our visit to the market, we had virtually no other food- no flour, no sugar, no butter, no bread, no crackers, no cheese- with which to make lunch. So I made biscuits with self-raising flour, margarine (I know! I know! but it was all we had!) and left overs bits of bacon, leeks and cheddar cheese. Sliced open while hot and layered with thick tomato slices and basil ribbons, annointed with sea salt, pepper and olive oil.

I'd have served them to Gordon Ramsay for a light lunch.

Biscuits

1/4 cup shortening
2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup milk (about)

Work the shortening into the flour until it resembles oatmeal.
Pour in milk and stir until just combined.
Turn out dough onto counter and knead in left over bits of flavour stuffs.

Make into biscuits (I made 8 largish ones) and bake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Baking Frenzy

Yesterday I made five batches of mini loaves for my friend Susie and Nathan's housewarming party: Sweet Vanilla, Maple Walnut, Apple Strudel, Strawberry Yoghurt and Chocolate.

At the end of my baking marathon I was so pleased with them- they looked good.

Unfortunately after baking them I couldn't bear to eat any of them so I had tastes here and there. People seemed to like them though, and I was thrilled.