Good Eats?

No longer naked! The cupcakes were a big hit at the cohort party and for the kitchen crew at work on Sunday. Not complete with out some Halloween candy....

No new crafts as I just finished ironing for my new quilt, but how about some more eats:

One of my amazing instructors (Chef Hitz) from school recently published his first bread baking book. Now for those of you out there you have wanted to try and make your own bread, this is the book to use. He has master recipes and then he shows you how to build on those with all kinds of combinations. I highly recommend this book not just because I know him, but because I have used it and it is perfect for the home cook. He even has a recipe for croissant dough and how to make home made buttery tasty croissants and pain de chocolate. He explains it all and helps you to make wonderful home made (tastes like bakery) fresh bread. Go to his website if you are interested - and yes you will pay a bit more at his site, but hey you get it autographed. Today I made Focaccia! It began on Monday night when I made the poolish (to the right).

Here is the finished mixed dough. Ciabatta is s super wet dough so although it may not look like any dough you have ever seen - I promise it does turn into yummy bread. This dough requires 4 stretch and folds to give it strength and structure. It is also a bread that has lots of open air pockets.



Here is the pre baked focaccia. I caramelized onions to put on top.


All baked and ready to eat. Tomorrow it will be used for tuna fish sandwiches, yummy. It was a great day and the wonderful thing about bread is that you can be doing all kinds of other things while you wait. I did laundry, dishes, and ironing. All I had to do was do my stretch and folds when the timer went off and then I could go back to my other tasks.

Here is a picture of the insides. Nice open crumb.

And now for some knitting - about 2 months ago I finished a baby bonnet for an old colleague of Jason's and we recently received a photo of the cute little one with my very own hand knit hat on. Perfectly girly colors and cuteness.