Friday 30 December 2011

BYOB 2011 Year End Roundup

As 2011 draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished this year and set new goals for 2012.  It has been a great year for the BYOB Bakers. We’ve baked our own bread together, made new friends, shared recipes and photos, and passed the bread basket around for all to enjoy.

I want to thank all of the bakers that participated in BYOB this year.  We made it through a year of baking our own bread. That’s quite an accomplishment! 

 

But let’s not stop there…let’s keep the momentum going.

This bread wagon started in 2009 with Sandy of At the Bakers Bench and she passed it on to Bread Experience in 2010 and now it’s time to pass it once again to Heather of Girlichef.

Heather will be hosting the BYOB roundups in 2012.  Check out the details on her blog.

Before the bread wagon departs for it’s next destination, I invite you to take a look at what the BYOB Bakers made during December. 

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Jacqueline of Designing My Day starts us out with a formula for a Spent Grain Loaf. The spent grains were donated to them by a local microbrewery. Pretty cool!  She also did a recap of the breads the Chicago Amateur Bread Bakers, made for their “Taste and Tell”.  Sounds yummy!  

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Whole Wheat Sourdough with Spent Brewer's Grains

 

 

 

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 Tuscan bread (from Recap)

 

 

 

 

 

 


Tina of http://www.tinaculbertson.blogspot.com/ has joined the BYOB adventure for end of year 2011 and beyond.  I love what she said about her hamburger buns, “It’s the thought that counts when gift giving, right? Am I right? Same should apply to your efforts in the kitchen. I tried. They tasted fine…...but they look like potatoes instead of sandwich or burger buns!”  Well, I think it does apply to our efforts in the kitchen.  Welcome aboard Tina!

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 Sage and Onion Bread

 

 

 

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 Hamburger Buns

 

 

 

 

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 Soda Bread

 

 

 

 

 


Ian of mookielovesbread joins BYOB this month as well and shares his Sourdough Beer Bread with Caramelized Onions and Rolled Oats that was inspired by some loaves he got from King Arthur Flour and made using Peter Reinhart’s methods. Those are two of my favorite sources as well.  Welcome to BYOB Ian!    

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Sour Dough Beer Bread with Roasted Onions

 

 

 


Heather of Girlichef made a couple of delectable breads this month.  She also won the Iron Chef Challenge past-Winners Competition with her submission of Cinnamon Lover’s Delight Ice Cream made with the Cinnamon Raisin Bread. What a great way to use old bread. Way to go Heather! Check it out 2011 Iron Chef Champion.

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 Brioche

 

 

 

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Cinnamon Raisin Bread

 

 

 

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Cinnamon Lovers Delight Ice Cream (made with the Cinnamon Raisin Bread)

 

 

 

 


Jill of BakingBread-101.com was busy in the kitchen this month making Blackberry Muffins, Kahlua brownies, Gingerbread Men and other assorted goodies. She made 1500 cookies for work.  Wow! That’s a lot of cookies!

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  Gingerbread Men just got their hearts

 

 

 

 

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Now they are happy!

 

 

 

 

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Hall of our brothers

 

 

 

 

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Yummy bread for December

 

 

 

 

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 Ginger Cookies

 

 

 

 

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 Ground Sesame Quinoa Bread

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Loaves of Sandwich Bread

 

 

 

 

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 Peppermint Stripe Cookies

 

 

 

 

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 Coconut Almond Wafers

 

 

 

 

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 Coconut Almond Star Cookies

 

 

 

 

 


Margie of Tea and Scones made a lovely loaf this month.  She said “I am trying to get back into bread baking. It has been way too long since the fragrance of fresh baked bread has wafted through my house.”  Well, you’ve come to the right place. Can’t you just smell that aroma!

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 Sweet Potato Bread

 

 

 

 


Connie of mydiscoveryofbread said she baked more than she posted this month so her contribution is in the form of a collage. Very nice indeed!

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Winnie of Somthing Sweet stayed busy in her kitchen this month baking.  She made an assortment of delicious breads and other baked goods. Those oreo cookies are to die for and the soft and fluffy Challahs and rolls!  Definitely something special!

 

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 Oreo Cookies

 

 

 

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 Jam doughnut-muffins

 

 

 

 

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 Tiger Rolls

 

 

 

 

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 Gingerbread Biscotti

 

 

 

 

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Creamy Baked CheeseCake

 

 

 

 

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Rubik's Cube Cake

 

 

 

 

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Soft and fluffy Challahs and Rolls - lightly sweetened

 

 

 

 


Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot made a wonderful assortment of vegetarian delights. Everything sounds wonderful! I’m amazed at what she comes up with!

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 Caramel Peanut Squares

 

 

 

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 Chinese Steamed Buns

 

 

 

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  Litti

 

 

 

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 Mexican Wedding Cakes

 

 

 

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 Pumpkin Scones

 

 

 

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 Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake

 

 

 

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 Eggless Bakewell Tarts

 

 

 

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 Eggless Thumbprint Cookies

 

 

 

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 Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

 

 

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 French Country Bread with Sourdough Starter

 

 

 

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 Eggless Bread Pudding

 

 

 

 


Pam of Pam’s Bread enjoyed her baking traditions this month.  She made scones and clotted cream with her daughter and whole wheat banana bread for a treat.  Then her husband ground the emmer grains for some delicious rolls.  Sounds like a fun time was had by all.

 

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 Eggnog Scones and Clotted Cream

 

 

 

 

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 Whole Grain Banana Nut Bread

 

 

 

 

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 Emmer, White Whole Wheat, & Soy Rolls with Seeds & Nuts

 

 

 

 

 


Kathy in Derwood, Maryland made an assortment of loaves and rolls this month.  Here is her list of breads:

  • Sourdough Baguettes (6 baguettes)
  • Rye Bread with Beer (4 loaves)
  • Farmstead White Bread (4 loaves)
  • Sourdough Dinner Rolls
  • Refrigerator Dinner Rolls
  • Marble Rye Bread
  • Panetonne (3 different recipes, 12 loaves)
  • Pandoro (4 loaves)
  • Buttermilk biscuits, and far too many coffee cakes and muffins to count.

 

 


I focused on Sourdough this month. Here are some of the breads I made.

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 Sourdough Seed Bread

 

 

 

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 Vanocka Christmas Braid

 

 

 

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 66 Percent Sourdough Rye

 

 

 

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 Hutzelbrot with Dried Fruit (made with the 66 Percent Sourdough Rye)

 

 

 

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 Our Favorite Yeast Rolls

 

 

 

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed hosting these roundups for the past year or so.  I look forward to what 2012 will bring. 

Now, it’s time for me to pass the bread basket to Heather of Girlichef.  Heather, thank you for picking up the basket and continuing the tradition.

BYOB!

Cathy

 

Happy New Year!!!

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Sourdough Pretzels

I just love pretzels, especially the soft and chewy ones you get from the mall or a street vendor.  I’ve made soft pretzels a few times, and I always enjoy them. I also enjoy working with sourdough.  So when I saw this recipe for Sourdough Pretzels in a recent email from King Arthur Flour, I thought it was the perfect combination: soft pretzels made with sourdough.  What’s not to love about that?

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If you’re like me and have a hard time discarding a cup of sourdough starter every time you feed your starter, this is a great way to put it to use.  This recipe calls for unfed sourdough starter straight from the refrigerator.  So instead of discarding the cup of sourdough, use it in this recipe, then feed your starter as you normally would.  I used my apple starter for this recipe.  It’s become my favorite starter simply because it’s so cool.

Another thing I like about this recipe is that it doesn’t require any lye.  I’ve looked at a few authentic soft pretzel recipes and they require the use of food grade rye to achieve the shiny effect on the crust.  At the same time, they include a disclaimer that you should wear long gloves and protective eye wear when working with the lye.  I don’t know about you, but the thought of using lye (even food grade lye) doesn’t particularly appeal to me. Plus, that sounds like a lot of trouble just to make a snack, even pretzels.  Well, no worries, this recipe uses a solution of malt powder and water to achieve the same effect. 

 

Sourdough Pretzels

Makes: 12 Pretzels

Adapted from: King Arthur Flour Sourdough Pretzel Recipe

These pretzels are really easy to make.  You don’t even have to boil them in a pot before baking them.

Ingredients:

  • 170g lukewarm water
  • 227g unfed sourdough starter
  • 361g High Gluten Flour
  • 35g nonfat dry milk
  • 14g diastatic malt powder (the original recipe called for non-diastatic malt powder, but I didn’t have any so I substituted diastatic malt powder and it seemed to do okay.)
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons instant yeast

 

Glaze

  • 1 tablespoon diastatic malt powder
  • 28g water
  • kosher salt
  • 28g melted butter, optional

 

Directions:

Mix and knead the dough ingredients to make a cohesive, fairly smooth dough. It should be slightly sticky; if it seems dry, knead in an additional tablespoon or two of water.

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Cover the dough and let it rest for 45 minutes. It will rise minimally. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

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Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased work surface, fold it over a few times to gently deflate it.

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Divide it into 12 pieces, each weighing about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 ounces. I divided mine into 13 pieces, about 2 1/4 ounces each.

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Roll each piece of dough into an 18" rope.

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Shape each rope into a pretzel.

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Place the pretzels on a baking sheet.

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Dissolve the malt in the water.

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Brush the pretzels with the solution, and sprinkle lightly with coarse pretzel salt.

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Bake the pretzels for 25 to 30 minutes, until they're a light golden brown.

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Remove the pretzels from the oven, and brush with melted butter, if desired.

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These pretzels tasted good.  They made a great New Year’s Eve snack. 

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy