I have mentioned plenty of times before how much I love making bread. There’s just something therapeutic and exciting about it at the same time. Baking is wondrous in how it turns something colourless and shapeless into a piece of edible art, and I think this magic is more evident in yeast breads. It starts out as a sticky piece of dough that somehow has a life of its own thanks to the yeast. You wait patiently as it rises and grows and puffs up, and once you shape it and put it into the oven it bakes into perfect little breads with beautiful crumbs. It sometimes pays to sit back and just appreciate the transformation from dough to bread.…
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An excuse to bring out the strawberry jam
Once upon a time I had a craving. I went down to the kitchen and opened the pantry doors, pushing aside bottles until I found the one I was looking for: strawberry jam. I picked it up and stared at it a long time. I don’t know why I like to make life harder for myself. I could have just toasted some bread and slathered on the jam, craving satisfied, but I pushed that idea aside. As I held on to the bottle, staring at but not really seeing the label on the jam, a flicker of a memory crossed my mind.
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Hi chocolate, it’s nice to matcha!
Did I really just write that title? I’m sorry. So I finally managed to track down some matcha powder some weeks ago, and unfortunately it’s not the sort I’m looking for. It seems like a really mild type of matcha. From what I’ve been seeing in photos, the concentrated one has a greener hue; and from what I’ve been reading, it has a stronger taste. I can barely taste my matcha in this bread. No, scratch that– I can only taste the matcha if I concentrate really really hard. If I close my eyes and really try to unlock my tastebuds, I can taste the wonderful green tea notes with…
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{Countdown to Christmas} My first panettone
I think one of the best things in life is breakfast. I can’t seem to survive the day without it. Mornings composed of coffee and some form of bread are perfectly blissful in my book. Oh, and silence. I like to take my breakfast with a side of that. When I think about it, my being a morning person has its perks. I get to have mornings to myself. The rest of the day tend to be filled with people and noise, endlessly ringing telephones, paperwork scattered all over the place. The evenings are filled with family stories and laughter, which of course is always a pleasure. Then again, I…
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The awesome pull-apart bread in Herb & Cheese style
Among the homemade yeasted breads I’ve made thus far, I think the pull-apart bread is quickly making its way to the top of my heart. Fortunately, all the recipes I have tried for this particular type of bread have been nothing short of stellar. While my favourite remains to be Flo Braker’s heavenly Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake, this version is no less scrumptious. This is basically the same bread recipe as Flo Braker’s, but instead of the sweet and tangy lemon filling, we switch it up in favour of the savory. Each bite is a warm explosion of garlic and herbs, intensified by the slight salty punch from the cheese.…
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On bread-braiding and BBQ Chicken
Among the important life lessons I’ve learned so far, one of my favourites is how sometimes the things we fear, once overcome, can turn into things we grow to love and cherish. I think this is the sort of relationship I have with yeast. I used to be so afraid of failing with it, always getting ahead of myself in imagining all sorts of possible mishaps, that I turn into such a nervous mess whenever I start the recipe. My fear prevented me from getting into my usual concentrated calm that helps me make sense of what I’m baking. My first few attempts at making yeast breads were major disasters,…
