De Baking Psychopath

I have been diligently feeding Gus, my sourdough starter, every one or two weeks, and thus I am always trying to think of what to do with the ripe starter that must be removed to make room for new feedings. We finally finished the last batch of bread awhile back, so I was again ready to try a bread recipe.  I tried this one from Williams-Sonoma , which was made popular through a few high-profile bloggers' sites. As you can see, it turned out wonderfully. The crust "sang" and crackled when it came out of the oven, which is always an auspicious sign of good bread eating to come. The crust is crispy, and the bread crumb is soft and light and great for sandwiches.  I also have been making sourdough naan , pancakes and waffles , and of course our standby crumpets when I don't have too much time but want to feed Gus. Yay Gus! He has given sustenance to our family in so many different ways, and hopefully for years to come!

This bread is probably the best of both the quick bread and yeast bread worlds: quick and easy to throw together, but with just long enough of a rise to develop a nice yeasty flavor and lightness in the bread. All in all, this loaf was fast, fragrant, tasty, and satisfying to make as well as eat. It is named after and billed to be similar to English muffins, with the craggly holes and crisp exterior. We definitely found that to be the case, and it was even sturdy enough to be used as sandwich bread, which I was worried it might not be suited for due to its tender and porous qualities. If you're worried about yeast breads, this is a good primer because there's no kneading or worrying about correct hydration/gluten development prior to the rise since the dough is more akin to a batter. Mix, pour into loaf pan, let rise, and bake! Try it for your next rainy Saturday afternoon baking project! Then cut a thick slice, toast it, spread it thickly with Nutella ...

I am not quite sure why I made these, other than that I hadn't made any sort of cookies for awhile, and I needed to get rid of old Rolos. That and these popped up on no less than 3 different blogs in quick succession after the original recipe was posted on Two Peas and their Pod. These were intense! I liked the edge pieces the best because the texture of the cookie portion resembled more of a normal cookie, while the middle portions were more akin to eating solidified chocolate chip cookie dough. I probably could have let it bake a little bit longer to get the middle to cook better. I liked using the Rolos for this rather than normal caramels because of the added chocolate component. The salt is very important to balance out all the sweet in this! You can find the recipe here ; the only changes I made were that I used 10 ounces of Rolos instead of caramel candies, and also I ended up using a 9x9 inch square baking pan lined with parchment.

We were invited over for a lovely sit-down steak dinner at our friends' awhile back, and I took the opportunity to try a recipe for steakhouse-style dinner rolls as an accompaniment for the meal. These did not turn out to be the crusty sort of rolls one might get at certain chain steakhouses, but they are a wonderful example of the sweet soft dinner rolls you might well get at a restaurant of similar caliber. The recipe itself calls for caramel color powder to create the dark color, but since I had none and had no intention of acquiring any, I opted for a few teaspoons of cocoa powder instead. It seemed to do the trick, as you see. We devoured them with butter (plain salted or honey butter), but they would be excellent with soup or stew as well, or just plain. They are sweet and darkly fragrant, so soft and with that enviable tears-apart-in-long-shreds quality that I always seek in soft breads.  The recipe is here , and the only changes I made are that I used 2...