Thursday, 5 March 2020

Tartine variation: light rye with red miso (bookmarked)

summary: adding rye flour and miso to Chad Robertson’s Tartine bread; recipe for light rye with red miso, inspired by Gontran Cherrier’s Pain au Seigle et Miso; converting recipes; how long to preheat with our new (to us) oven

Bookmarked Recipe: Miso-Rye Bread

Not long ago, in the BBBabes’ FB group, Scott D mentioned that one of the breads he really likes to make is miso-rye. He wrote, “It’s my favorite toast!”

The mere mention of Miso Rye bread in David Lebovitz’s February 2012 blog entry, Pear-Fennel Soup, got me excited. David linked to Gontran Cherrier’s website, which was where the bread was purchased. Even switching into English on the site didn’t give me much of a clue about what’s in this bread other than the obvious. […] In the end I kind of had to invent my own recipe, taking a little from here and there and settling on a recipe that uses the sourdough starter and yeast. The miso-rye combination is delicious, especially as toast.

– Scott D, Scott_D.com: Miso Rye Bread
I made it a lot over a year. It makes the most delicious toast in the morning.

– Scott D, FB | Bread Baking Babes and Friends, Miso Rye
I’ve been making this bread for a year and a half now and have made a couple of minor changes to the recipe for more consistent results. They are the kind of adjustments a seasoned bread baker would make because they know the consistency that bread should have at the different stages. The metric measurements are all by weight.

– Scott D, Scott_D.com: Miso Rye Bread Updated

We have red miso in the fridge!

Immediately intrigued by the idea of adding miso to bread dough, I started to convert Scott’s updated recipe. (continue reading →)

Tuesday, 3 March 2020

Sweeeet! …this Chicken is a Keeper!

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summary: Roast Chicken with Red Grapes and Vermouth, based on Sweet Chicken Surprise with Vermouth & Tarragon in Jamie Oliver’s “5 Ingredients – Quick & Easy Food”; it’s not cloying sweet at all, not even remotely; green beans with almonds; oven-roasted potatoes; 2015 Castelforte Amarone della Valpolicella;

The other day, our brilliant neighbours phoned to ask us if we would like the half a bottle of 2015 Castelforte Amarone della Valpolicella – left over from the evening before – that they weren’t going to drink.

Us? Drink red wine? Naaaah! But, just to do them a favour, we said yes.

We decided we’d serve it with roast chicken. Then, yesterday, after T had just watched Jamie Oliver’s “Quick and Easy Food” (Series Two, Episode Three: Sea Bass & Chicken Surprise), he announced that we had to go out to get some red and green grapes, and a bottle of vermouth for making last night’s roast chicken dinner. (continue reading →)

Monday, 2 March 2020

Can this be true?!

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summary: breaking down; saying goodbye to an old friend;

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye
I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye
Goodbye!

Look! It’s a miracle!!

We LOVED our vintage (1970? 1965??) McClary stove that came with the house when we bought it – way back in the last century. It served us very well for years. Very well.

But in the recent past, after months of struggling with the oven door closing properly, only if I held my mouth a certain way, as well as having only three burners working (and no way to replace them), then weeks with just two working burners and fear of the other two suddenly and not very inexplicably clapping out, we broke down. (continue reading →)

Sunday, 16 February 2020

Pain Tordu as made by the Great Lakes (BBB February 2020)

6 responses

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BBB: Let's Keep Baking summary: recipe for Pain Tordu, based on Mouette Barboff’s recipes for Pain Tordu as made in the Ger, and as made in the Lot-et-Garonne; almost, but not quite, lost in translation; twisting and turning on how to twist; BBBabes’ 12th anniversary; information about Bread Baking Babes;

Bread Baking Babes (BBB): Pain Tordu – 12th Anniversary!

We’ve been baking together for 12 years!!

We began when blogging was fashionable – before FB, instagram, and twitter took over the internet world. There is only one original BBBabe still actively baking and blogging, and our little group has been reduced from a baker’s dozen to just eight. Or is it nine?

But, once a BBBabe, always a BBBabe….

To celebrate our anniversary, Elle chose the recipe for Pain Tordu, which means literally: Twisted Bread.

To paraphrase Chubby Checker,

Come on, BBBabes | Let’s do the twist (continue reading →)

Wednesday, 5 February 2020

Rum Babas

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summary: Rum Babas; recipe for Savarin Dough and Rum Babas; classic cookbooks; remembering to add important details when transcribing recipes; going through our photo archives;

January 2020

I cannot believe that I have never raved here about Rum Babas! T made them for his birthday last year. I meant to rave out loud in here about them then. We even took pictures! (Well, actually, we didn’t manage to take pictures of them served last year. I guess we were too busy stuffing our faces… this year, I made sure to snap the above photo before we took the bowls to the table.)

I was so certain that I had already blogged about rum babas that when T went looking for the recipe to make Rum Babas again a couple of weeks ago, I told him to look here first for the recipe. But no. I’m wrong again – the BBBabes’ Champagne Babas are as close as I got.

I remember the first time I tasted Rum Babas was when I was about 14. Mum made them for their New Year’s Eve dinner party. The same 3 couples always got together, switching houses from year to year. None of us children were invited to those dinner parties, but we got to taste little samples of some of the things that were to be served whenever the party was at our house.

On the Rum Baba occasion, Mum used her wonderful Dinner Party Cookbook (Sunset Books 1962), following the recipes in ‘Dinner Party for Ten’. The menu included Veal Birds. I LOVED them. I remember being amazed and thrilled at the flavour of tarragon. That’s right. I had never tasted tarragon before that. And after that first taste, I wanted to have tarragon in everything from then on! And it was dried tarragon! (We really should try making veal birds, shouldn’t we? I wonder if they will be as fabulous as I remember. Hmmm. I wonder if we should use fresh or dried tarragon?)

But I’m getting off track – back to the babas…. As I recall, I didn’t really like Rum Babas. I wasn’t so keen on the rum. Silly young me. I have grown up now – j’adore Rum Babas…. (continue reading →)