Many Seed Bread
This is a special day. It's World
Bread Day again and this marks 1 year in bread baking
experiments for me and it has been a wonderful year of learning the
virtue of patience. I've blogged on 19 different breads and have
baked some more that I didn't blog about. I am truly grateful to
Zorra of 1 x
umrühren bitte for this event and for helping me discover the
joy of bread baking!
It's a brand new recipe this week from Peter Reinhart's new book
Whole Grain Breads. This is my first real time
baking with steam and even if it wasn't as steamy as I would like,
the crust made music as my teeth sunk into it. What a feeling! I
used to have all these phobias about creating steam but I thought
this is the day to do it. It really isn't as frightful as
it sounds - ok maybe it is, after all it took me a year to attempt
steam. It's worth it and now there are new bread experiments to try
with steam!
This is a healthy hearty loaf. Full of seeds, made with whole wheat, rye and bread flour this loaf has substance. Just on it's own, the fusion of flavours still lingers after the first tasting, the photo taking and now the blogging. Very yummy! I am so pleased with how this turned out and may I say a little proud of myself with this loaf marking a great year in bread baking!
More...Cinnamon Crumb Surprise for special favours
A few reasons motivated me to bake today. I promised muffins in
return for favours, Zorra's Apple Day food blog event, Muffin Monday (MM06) hosted by Pernille and of
course this great recipe I found in Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible. This was
meant to be baked in a loaf but decided to make muffin versions.
This is not like any apple muffin I've had before. This is
wonderfully light and fine in texture. The slice of apple in the
center is a sweet surprise and the cinnamon crumble is a
winner!
I think what makes this more special and unlike any other cake or
muffin recipe I've come across is sour cream. I also used Top Flour
instead of All-purpose and this does give it a softer texture. It
is also important to have the oven hot enough to set the structure
quickly to support the crumb topping and prevent it from
sinking.
This is a great accompaniment with a lazy afternoon beverage.
Sourdough Rye with Flaxseeds
I've finally gotten round to it, making
Sourdough Rye bread. I haven't really been spending a lot of time
baking in the last months and forgotten how long you need in
preparation for bread baking. This is my first time making
Sourdough Rye and I think I might have added just a teeny tiny bit
too much culture because the final result was a little too tart to
my liking. Then again, it might be the case that I left the
sourdough to ferment more hours than usual. I'm not too sure.
This recipe also created a very hydrated dough. I'm not very
experienced in handling wet dough so I added more flour to have it
hold up a little more and made it easier to shape. This time round
I also decided to use a thermometer to measure internal
temperatures to be certain the insides were done. I was so idiotic
too with this part too because the recipe reads in Fahrenheit and
my thermometer was in Celsius but somehow thought it was reading in
Fahrenheit and of course I thought "No no! The insides still not
done!!" The thermometer came out with tiny bits of wet dough on it
so I decided to bake it some more. I then proceeded to check the
conversions of what it should be and realised 10-15 minutes later
that my bread was already done and I'm just getting the tops of my
bread burnt!
Also what is quite lacking from this
experiment is steam - I've yet to be courageous enough to spray or
introduce water in an extremely hot oven. The last thing I need is
shattered bits of oven glass all over my kitchen and the stress
that comes with it! This was nonetheless an interesting experiment!
I need more practice! This recipe is taken from Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread: A Baker's Book of
Techniques and Recipes. Apart from the slightly over-tartness
of the bread, I quite enjoyed the flavour of rye and flax in this.
It has a lovely texture to it, not to chewy or dry - nice strong
crumb.
I'm not sure if it's fate or coincidence but I'm so glad I can now
participate in the new food blog event Bread Baking Day #03 originally created by Zorra (Goddess of
wonderful food blog events)! This time round it's hosted by
Ulrike
of Küchenlatein who is a wonderful cook and regular of
food blog events, so I am quite certain it will be a success!! I've
been meaning to take part but been too busy and only just minutes
before realising the theme for this month's Bread Baking Day is
Sourdough Rye!
Childhood Muffins
I got really excited when I first read about the theme for the
latest Muffin Monday (MM05) that Wonder Sophie
had planned. Childhood Muffins! It sounded really fun but at the
same time challenging because a lot of what I had during my
childhood is not quite the same now. But the first thought that
popped up in my mind where these wonderful bite-sized biscuits with
colourful piped dollops of icing sugar on top.
I honestly don't know if there is a formal name for these
confections. These are sold at your neighbourhood provision shops
by weight. I bought mine pre-packed for $1 for (150gm pack) - with
no formal label on the package, so it appears there still is no
formal name for these gems.
My contribution to MM05 are regular muffins filled with these bite-sized sugar surprises. I had placed a bite-sized biscuit on the top but the heat caramelised the colourful tops to something brown and not so pretty. The icing sugar made the insides of the muffin really colourful (and a bit strange), it was fun all the same to make them and everyone enjoyed it!
More...Wasabi Glazed Muffins
Care to wake up to Wasabi Glazed
Muffins? This will make your brain explode and your eyes pop! It's
actually not as weird as it sounds (you can stop making that
strange face now), the glaze is complimented with salty
seaweed-bonito-sesame seed flakes so it works quite well to balance
the shocking flavour of wasabi. And much of it depends on your
preference and tolerance to Wasabi - if you don't want to shock
your eyeballs out of their sockets you can of course opt of a
milder subtler taste.
Why Wasabi Glazed Muffins? Gourmet's is hosting Muffin Monday (MM03) and this time round, it's
all things SPICY SWEET SAVOURY! I'm just making the deadline (30
May) and when I saw the round-up (Lip smacking!) - I needed to come
up with a spicy muffin FAST! And to be honest, I'm not really big
on spicy food - save for a few wonderful exceptions. I think I
suffered from some sort of childhood trauma relating to chilies and
that memory has been blocked out. So I was only left with the very
few spicy options that were left open for me and hey! Wasabi!
This is very basically a generic Muffin (sweet) recipe with a
Wasabi glaze (spicy) and sprinkled with Nori Goma (Seaweed - Sesame
Seeds ) Seasoning Mix (savoury). The basic muffin recipe is adapted
from Peter Reinhart's Crust and Crumb: Master Formulas
for Serious Bread Bakers. This is the best basic muffin I've
had - very moist, spongy texture and nicely balanced
flavours!
Note : I would try the glaze on 1 muffin first, just to
see if you like it. If you don't at least you won't have to get rid
of otherwise perfectly yummy muffins!
Muffin Monday (MM02) Round Up!
First up, I want to send out huge huge
thanks to Food blog S'cool, Sticky Date,
Is My Blog
Burning and the Herald
Tribune for posting the Muffin Monday event on their site and
to everyone who participated!
A total of 28 different most unique and unusual muffins that make
us all go *Ooooh!* were submitted for the second Muffin Monday! I
was initially a little uncertain how this theme was going to be
received - it was more challenging than the previous one. But the
creativity and originality that was exuded from the participants
well exceeded expectations - I (and I'm sure many many other
readers) was really impressed by the amazing variety and the
enthusiasm the bakers presented. This most evidently proves to the
world that there are many many incredible and creative
muffin bakers out there!
As I had mentioned in my Muffin Monday (MM02) post, I will be
passing on the torch for the next host for Muffin Monday (MM03). I
am pleased to announce that Gourmet of Un tocco di zenzero will be hosting the Brand
New Muffin Monday! It's an Italian language blog but fret not all
English language readers/ bloggers, Gourmet has assured that the
event will be in English and it's going to be Spicy! Her post for
the next Muffin Monday is not yet on her blog as she is away for
the long May Day weekend but details should be posted in the next
week. So keep a look out for it!
It's been wonderful being your host for Muffin Monday! I'm most
grateful for all the wonderful encouragement and support everyone
has shown me!
So okay already! Let's Muffin Monday!!
Muffin Monday Publicity
When I checked my mail this morning,
the last thing I expected was a writer from the Herald Tribune newspaper from Sarasota, Florida
informing me that she's written an article about Muffin
Monday (MM02)! Laura J. Cullumbine (the writer) has also
contributed her very cool recipe of Root Beer Muffins to the
event.
I am completely honoured, totally trilled and it really made my
day! I don't think I've ever had an article written about what I've
done. It's usually part of a credit list at the end of a Film or TV
programme.
This is so going to boost my ambition for Muffin World
Domination!!
Muffin Monday (MM02) Muffins that Make you go *Ooooh!*
Are
you ready for another round of Muffins galore?! I was so excited
with the previous round
and inspired
by all the wonderful ideas everyone had created for their muffins -
as I am sure many readers are! Again, huge huge thanks to
Food blog
S'cool,
Sticky
Date and
Is My Blog
Burning for posting
the Muffin Monday event on their site and to everyone who
participated and in making MM01 a great
success!
This time
round, you will have a month long to experiment and create your
muffins because the Deadline is only 27 April and Final Roundup 30
April. We'll talk about the details
later...
Inspired by
the amazing previous
round-up, the theme
for Muffin Monday (MM02) is
Muffins that Make you go *Ooooh!* Unusual and
Unique Muffins - using ingredients that you won't normally find in
a muffin that you could buy from a store. So that means no
regular
muffins, no
chocolate chip muffins, no banana muffins, etc. Think very healthy
and wholesome, think comfort and sweet, savory and surprising,
spicy and exotic, think junk food, think outside the box. The
wonderful thing about creating a muffin is it's versatility, you
can include almost anything in it! I know everyone is going to
create something totally fabulous, amazing and fun (and
yummy)!
Again, you
can Create-Your-Own-Muffin with the provided basic recipe or you
can use another recipe from a preferred source! It's completely
your choice.
Also the next
Muffin Monday (MM03) will be hosted by you! I'm passing on the
torch to someone who will give Muffin Monday a different twist. For
anyone who is interested, please indicate in your entry if you
would like to host the next Muffin Monday and your plan for the
next theme. I will be organizing a poll (just have to figure out
how to do that in my blog) and have readers vote for the next theme
and host for Muffin Monday (MM03) and this will be how the next and
next theme and host will be. Like Reality TV! To those considering
hosting the next Muffin Monday, please read these
this and
this!
Update
2 April 2007
Is holding a poll a bad or good idea? Because the last thing I want
is people to feel like they lost out on something. Please let me
know your thoughts.
Some tips to
keep in mind when baking muffins here and
here.
To
participate:
Create your muffins!
If
you are a blogger,
• Post a photograph and recipe by Friday, 27th April 2007 (please
be sure to include a link back to this post).
• Send an email to muffinmonday[at]sqpixels[dot]net, your name,
name of your blog, where you are from, name of recipe and a
permalink to your post.
REVISED
19 April 2007
Code for a small banner (200px x 75px):
<a
href="http://www.sqpixels.net/files/muffinmonday02.html"
><img src="http://www.sqpixels.net/files/mm02_sm.jpg"
width="200" height="75" alt="Muffin Monday" /></a>
If you're not
a blogger but would like to take part,
• Send an email to muffinmonday[at]sqpixels[dot]net with an
attachment of a photograph of your muffin, your recipe, your name,
where you are from and a few words of your creation by Friday, 27th
April 2007.
Deadline for this event is
Friday, 27th April 2007.
As I receive
entries I will be posting them up here.
Round up of
this event will be posted on Monday, 30th April
2007.
Happy
Baking!!
Basic Muffin Recipe here...
Muffin Monday Round-Up!
Early round up! (Couldn't wait to blog about this!)
434538>/s> 40
The response of the first ever Muffin Monday was fabulous and I am
overwhelmed by everyone's enthusiastic participation. I was
initially uncertain if anyone would be interested and was really
hoping to have at least 5 people participating. It became really
exciting when more and more people filled in my inbox with their
great recipes.
How Muffin Monday came about and became a food blog event?
Muffin Monday was something I created at work some months
ago - every Monday I would bring in muffins I've baked to treat my
colleagues (who I've since spoiled). And quite honestly, I was
running out of ideas. At the same time I was having quite a lot of
fun participating in other food blog events that other food
bloggers have hosted. So I thought - why not make Muffin Monday a
food blog event and have other food bloggers make their colleagues
and friends very happy people on a Monday morning! Share the love!
And then I'll have so many recipes to choose from every week for
weeks to come!
It was fantastic to see how everyone got creative in the kitchen,
transforming a simple basic recipe into something scrumptious and
delightful! Bananas, coconut, chocolate and pineapple were the more
popular ingredients used (you really can't go wrong with them).
While there are some a little more adventurous bakers who went with
more unusual ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes, mars bars and
zucchini.
I've had a blast hosting this event, it brought me to wonderful
food blogs I've never known and it was fun reading everyone's
entries - also it was great knowing people had fun baking their
muffins! I'm so glad how well it all turned out because I now have
so many more food blogging friends from around the world!
So what's next?! When is MM02 going to happen? Who wants to host
the next Muffin Monday MM02? How does this work? I don't know!
Leave your comments and I guess we'll find out!
Introducing Muffin Monday (MM01)
Introducing a brand new food event -
Muffin Monday!
Muffins make the best breakfast and if you're like me -
so important to
start the week right with a good cup of coffee and a yummy muffin.
The variety of flavours are endless and amazing - sweet ones,
savoury ones, sweet and savoury ones, healthy ones, clever and
interesting ones and bizarre ones.
Baking muffins are the easiest baking item to make and the fastest.
With a basic muffin recipe you can add any ingredient you like. Mix
dry ingredients in a bowl, mix wet ingredients in another bowl. Mix
wet and dry ingredients together until combined, don't stir
too
much, divide
batter up into muffin tray and bake! Easy
peasy! You can't
go too wrong when baking muffins.
It only gets a little more complicated when you start baking
english muffins - which in my opinion fall into the category of
bread - simply because yeast is used and it requires proofing
time.
So here's the fun part!
Create-Your-Own-Muffin with (or
without - it's completely up to you) the basic muffin recipe here,
or from any other preferred source! Eat it all by yourself or share
it with your friends!
Some tips to keep in mind when baking muffins here and
here.
To participate:
Create your muffins!
If
you are a blogger,
• Post a photograph and recipe by Friday, 2nd March 2007 (please be
sure to include a link back to this
post).
• Send an email to muffinmonday@sqpixels.net your name,
where you are from, name of recipe and a permalink to your
post.
Code for a small banner (200px x 75px):
<a
href="http://www.sqpixels.net/files/muffinmonday01.html"
><img src=http://www.sqpixels.net/files/mm_small.jpg"
width="200" height="75" alt="Muffin Monday" /></a>
If
you're not a blogger but would like to take part,
• Send an email to muffinmonday@sqpixels.net with an attachment of
a photograph of your muffin, your recipe, your name, where you are
from and a few words of your creation by Friday, 2nd March
2007.
• Post it on your photo sharing site such as Flickr
by Friday,
2nd March 2007 (please be sure to include a link back to this
post). Send an email to muffinmonday@sqpixels.net
your name,
where you are from, name of recipe and a permalink to your
post.
Deadline for this event is
Friday, 2nd March 2007.
Update!
(14 February
2007):
As I receive entries I will be posting them up here.
Round up of this event will be posted on Monday, 5th
March 2007.
Happy Baking!!
P/S:
This is my first time hosting a food blogging event so please be
patient with me if I fumble about a bit!
Basic Muffin Recipe here...