Anna N

Not especially.

Looks very nice. Did you have to protect it with foil?

Wow. I looked up the recipe and it is certainly very strange for bread. Seems to have almost enough milk, cream, butter and eggs to be a cake. I'm not surprised the texture was a little odd. And it certainly has enough honey to be problematic in how brown the crust is likely to get even in a regular oven. Would you make it again?

My daughter, seeing it installed and operative, now loves the faucet.

A la Voltaggio. See here.

This one has been on my wish list for a long time. This is the Kindle edition on the Amazon.ca site. I am not a prime member. Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking.

Just saying...

Just curious, Chris. Did you make the full recipe? This is a new one to me and it looks really good but it makes an awful lot of bread for somebody who lives alone and has no freezer space.

Ah you are understanding the TRUE nature of this affliction!

Loved him. Loved him. Loved him. Even my husband who had no interest in what happened in the kitchen watched him. I think my first small step into serious cooking was his prune stuffed pork roast. Doesn't sound revolutionary now but it did to me back then. I liked him better as a drunk than as a goody-two-shoes also.

Home-baked bread brushed with olive oil and pan grilled before being scrubbed with garlic and tomato. A large basil leaf and some shredded rotisserie chicken piled on and finally some diced tomato flesh and some more chopped basil to complete the construction.

Inspired by this from @blue_dolphin I opted for chipotle ketchup over sriracha ketchup.

I would hope you are right. I know how to use a couche as an aid to supporting a rising dough and if the author had only once said anything about baking in the couche I might take it as a failure of communication. But in the second quote he never once mentions how you move the bread from the floured cloth to a bare baking surface. But further reading in the book provides this quote: "Couche A couche is a heavy sheet of flax linen cloth used to provide support for soft bread doughs during the proof stage (such as An Everyday Loaf)." So apparently he can describe the proper use of a couche. It may always remain a mystery. I hope nobody is foolish enough to attempt baking in a couche.

Exactly. Yet there is no doubt in my mind that he is instructing one to bake the bread in the couche.

Well I know the Mandelbrot set is not even distantly related to Mangle-wurzel so you'll have to enlighten me as to what comprises your beautiful dish.

How nice of you! Mind you it would probably be wasted on this peasant who drinks Peller Estates dry white table wine from a box.

Now we're talking.

Not initially but by the time I baked the third loaf I'm sure it was well preheated. All were baked on the bread setting. Two were baked at 400°F. One was baked at 400 reduced to 350 because I happened to remember to do that-- once.

Had to be something simple tonight. Just-baked bread spread with Hellmann's mayonnaise mixed with taco sauce and some rotisserie chicken from Costco. Pickled green beans on the side. I might give my eyeteeth for a glass of wine but the "wine cellar" is bare.

Three rather poorly shaped batards from Uri Scheft's Breaking Breads. Baked in the CSO ( Cuisinart steam oven) on a cast aluminum plate from a now defunct Griddler.

BEAUTIFUL.

I still think they should have made the interior space much higher so there is not a constant worry about the crust burning. I don't think I should have to use foil to protect a loaf of bread in an oven designed to bake bread. I just don't think it does as well at bread as one should expect. End of my rant (for now).

Bread in the Cuisinart steam oven. It is baking on one of the plates from my now FUBARed Cuisinart Griller. I believe they are cast aluminum rather than cast-iron but I needed a flat surface that would fit in the oven and this seems to do it.

So I am making some bread from Breaking Breads by Uri Scheft. I have often made a couche from well-floured dish towels to support a dough on its final rise. It has never occurred to me to put the couche in the oven. I am quoting two passages from this recipe so that you can see this is not my imagination. I have read it over and over and I don't think there is any doubt that he puts the couche in the oven with the risen dough enfolded in it. "I bake this in a couche, a folded and floured heavy-duty cloth, to help loosely guide the shape and create a more voluminous loaf. .......... Place the dough on a lightly floured cloth (if using) and place in a lightly floured rimmed sheet pan, cover with a kitchen towel, and set aside at room temperature until it has doubled in volume and jiggles when the pan is tapped, 2 to 3 hours. Set a rimmed sheet pan on the floor of the oven (or if not possible, on the lowest oven rack) and preheat the oven to 400 ° F. Use a razor or sharp paring knife to make 3 diagonal slashes in the top of each bâtarde. Set the sheet with the bâtardes in the oven and immediately add ¼ cup of water to the hot baking sheet on the oven floor." It is put into a preheated 400°F oven. Anyone familiar with this technique? Fires?

These were cooked from frozen at 56°C for between five and six hours and were quite tough and lacking in flavour too.