ayonecan-cook

What is large, fat, soft, huggable and can be eaten? A look alike teddy bear with its arms and legs crossed.  This Challah turned out so huge that Z was constantly exclaiming as I cajoled it from the oven. This is the hugest braided bread I've made. It sat diagonally on my largest jelly roll tray and it just grew and grew. I created a beast. Then with a brush wielding hand (if you have read my earlier posts you'll know I'm on a bread painting binge) I painted it and I thought it looked all right until I saw the photos. The design was inspired by the two pots of ferns that stand guard on each side of our front door. The longer I stared at the photos the more frightened I became. It looked reptile-ish because of the glaze-y and shiny finish. Oww. It's a Frankenstein. (I told you I preferred rustic ). But I'm still posting this because  I'm not going to make another one so soon. It's huge! I don't think painted bread look too good glazed. Dusted with flou...

This post was in the Top 9 of Foodbuzz on May 11th 2010. Happy Buzz Day! Be warned of future and probably successive posts of wildly painted bread in all flavours, shapes and sizes. I'm on an un restrained bread painting binge. But painting aside, these are truly one of the best ever sandwich buns. They have been circulating several blogs and have been raved over each time. I had to make them and true enough they are so so so good. Soft, substantial and full of flavour. Perfect burger buns that excel shop bought ones by light years. These homemade highly recommended buns have been featured on Cathy's Wives With Knives , Mari's Once Upon a Plate , Linda's How to Cook a Wolf and Lori's All That  Splatters . And probably many more!  Needing to be kneaded (yea I know.....don't we all feel that way) only once, left to rise and then baked, it's easy and quick to make as well. Maybe I've gone a little overboard with the painting but if it adds a little pers...

I never did enjoy watching tatoo reality shows on tv because I never could understand the joys of tatooing. But now I know. Painting on an object is quite different from the painting of an object. Putting in all those intricate details on skin is very much like putting in all those intricate details on crust. Like graffiti on walls. Minus the pain of your subject. And minus the authorities. But total satisfaction. So I decided to make baguettes as a canvas. For 2 reasons. I was intrigued by the way they were shaped and to feed my family. The recipe for the baguettes comes from a blog of a young chef in training, Dylan, on his blog, From Cook to Chef . The post came with a wonderful you tube video which I have downloaded as well.  It is not simply the rolling and rolling that gives the baguettes their perfectly cylindrical shape but the building up of a 'backbone', sealing it, flapping the dough and repeating the process at least 3 times before finally rolling the dough in...