What's cooking?

...I've been a little bit obsessed with baking bread, lately. Starting to get the hang of it I think... By the time my sourdough starter grows up and is ready to be used, I hope to be ready to try to use it... :)

Breakfast of Champions! :) Definitely my most sucessful crumb so far - more open and airy than the others, reasonable distribution of holes; not *quite* as open in the center, but not too dense either. (not counting #0 (on sooooo many levels ;) ), i've been using the same recipe/techniques on all of these; the only real variable is me getting more experience with (and a better understanding of) handling and reading the dough. There's a box of books on the way, and i've started growing my sourdough starter; by the time the starter is ready and i've read (and processed) the books, I should be able to get bread like this reasonably consistently, and will be ready to experiment. :D

Pan de Yuca experiment #2 was definitely more successful... :)

pan de yuca. getting closer - just need to tweak the cheese blend. :)

Got lots of baking practice over the last few days, in preparation for tonight's blood-moon-viewing party - i've got three sourdough starters going, trying to see how/if the different starters affect the flavor of the bread, and the party provided me with a nice group of testers. :D

Today’s bread experiment: flavored breads. The base was the same for all - 10% whole wheat, 90% AP, spelt-fed sourdough starter. Clockwise from top-left, spicy hot chocolate (because i didn’t have any baking cocoa); pistachio/cranberry/cherry/blueberry; olive/garlic/za’atar; and plain.

Blueberry dough, ready for baking... Scored a bag of powdered blueberries yesterday, decided to experiment. :) (my usual[0] sourdough base with blueberry powder, dried cranberry/blueberry/cherry (blend i got at the local farmers market), pomegranate molasses, cinnamon, and "Cinnamon Bird" spice blend (from Curio Spice Co: pink peppercorns, sesame, coriander, cinnamon, orange, mace, mint)) [0] mostly - i've been feeding my starter spelt flour, and ran out; so i fed the starter ~40% spelt/60% white flour. we'll see how that affects the flavor of the bread (i also did a batch of plain); the texture of the starter was much better - spelt alone is really liquidy - so if it still tastes ok i may switch from 100% spelt to a 50/50 blend going forward.

Blueberry bread. My house smells soooooo good right now - must resist the urge to tear into it before it cools! :)

Inside of the blueberry bread. Will definitely be making this one again! :)

Starting a new sourdough after the tragic death of my last one... 24 hours in, and it's already fermenting away nicely. :D

Starting a new sourdough after the tragic death of my last one... 24 hours in, and it's already fermenting away nicely. :D

My new favorite summer soup: kabocha squash/ginger/turmeric/garlic, with lots of cumin and cilantro. :) (this time around, i also added some urfa and aleppo chiles, and lots of pink peppercorns, and i managed to split the pumpkins open cleanly, without destroying the cutting board and sending exploded pumpkin bits flying all over the kitchen... ;) )

My new favorite summer soup: kabocha squash/ginger/turmeric/garlic, with lots of cumin and cilantro. :)