Anna N

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.

I don't think you're really missing anything. These were shoulder chops and I have often cooked them in the past on the grill or on the stove top and found them to be adequately tender. My last two times doing them sous vide, I've had less success. I've gone anywhere now from 1 1/2 to about six hours at a temperature of anywhere from 54.5° to, I think, 58°C. I suspect they need closer to 24 hours. But I also think it must have a great deal to do with the age of the lamb!

You two are amazing!

Well thank you. Are they quarter sheet pans that it is served on?

I'm still waiting for lunch can't believe you just had a drink and nothing else.

When I was growing up I hated gingerbread. I suspect because it was about as good as it got in terms of dessert and was perhaps served far too often. But I have grown into it. And last night the cupboard was bare of anything that might finish off a dinner. Today I was reminded of the book How to Eat Supper (Here). I remembered that I owned the book and that there was a recipe for gingerbread in it. So I roused myself from my torpor and made it. Don't remember the last time I baked for myself. Waiting for it to cool so I can try it. It certainly smelled awfully good while it was baking.

Whew.

But, but...

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. We do have road food in Canada and we do have it in Ontario. On our various trips north to Manitoulin either using the ferry or going through Sudbury we have stopped at various little roadside cafés and eateries and run into some amazing food. I remember one shabby place attached to a gas station where they were serving the most amazing homemade bacon. The small house in Espanola, now gone, where an aging woman did all the baking and all the cooking and the food was to die for. We've had fry bread tacos on Manitoulin Island. There are others that are not immediately coming to mind. Most structures are lacking in decor and even their structural integrity is sometimes questionable but the food they serve is made with the kind of love you don't find anywhere else but on the road.

Mini Basque cheese and some onion jam. The cheese was a gift brought back from Buffalo.

I once owned and used Peg Bracken!

Sous vide lamb shoulder chops and broccoli cooked in the Thermomix. Still not happy with the lamb chops and next time will go for 24 hours. The broccoli however is extremely good. This is the second time I have cooked it in the Thermomix.

Yes I certainly did. It's still annoys me immensely that one needs to do that.

I find them all over the Internet. Here is the buttermilk recipe but I replaced the buttermilk with yogurt and some additional water to bring it up to 180 g and a reasonable level of liquidity. I just use Google and type in "bread in Thermomix". I like sites where the recipes have a review of some sort but I also read over the recipe and ask myself if it makes sense. Not all of them do. I find the Australian Thermomix sites to be the most useful to me.

I used the bread function at 400°F.

Was given some farm-fresh double yolkers so felt the need to showcase one of them. Simply fried in butter with toast and a sliced up tomato.

No. It's a new recipe for me altogether.

If you head over to the bread topic you will see that I finally had some level of success doing bread in the CSO.