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"Baking With Julia" by Julia Child (2004)


SethG

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Kudos to everyone. It all looks delicious!!!

(anyone care to send me a care package? :laugh:)

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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I have had BWJ for some time and have read it cover to cover. Inspired by this thread I decided to try the Rustic Potato Loaf.

I used quick rise yeast instead of the traditional, because that is what I had in the house. Overall I was pleased with the results. Next time I would make sure that the seam was more in the middle of the dough before cooking, so the finished product would look at bit better. Also I would cut down on the salt a bit - either in the cooking water for the potatoes, or the bread, as I found it a tad salty for my taste.

It is a very soft. easy dough to work with that produced a fine loaf in a very short time.

Thanks for starting this thread and thanks to gsquared for the lesson in how to post pictures in the Tips and Techiques thread.

Here is the bread after the rise, but before baking

i3957.jpg

Here is the bread after baking:

i3958.jpg

Cut open:

i3959.jpg

Life is short, eat dessert first

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This is one of the most exciting eGullet discussions ever!

The photos are so over-the-top gorgeous.

I made the brownies from BWJ on Saturday -- eGullet's Lesley C recommended them long long ago in some other discussion and they have been my default brownies ever since. Superultrafudgey, definitely for fudgey-brownie fans only (as the brownie eaters in my house are), rather than cakey-brownie fans.

The PBS Baking with Julia show was hugely inspiring (like this thread!) ... I could hardly stay in my seat through the 30 minutes for wanting to run to the kitchen and get started on whatever that week's chef was demonstrating for Julia. Wonder if it's available for purchase.

Priscilla

Writer, cook, & c. ●  Twitter

 

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I just looked at amazon.com and pbs.org, and it seems the shows are not for sale. :sad:

Brownies sound good to me. Should that be next? Maybe brownies and X cookies? Arbuclo's picture makes me really want to try them out.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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Everybody's bread looks beautiful. The loaves in our house got gobbled almost right out of the oven with butter smeared over everybody's faces. (I think they got some on the bread too.)

Brownies sound good this week. I have meetings every night so I may not get to do both brownies and x cookies but I am trying to keep up.

This is fun. Thanks Seth for starting this thread.

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Brownies and X-Cookies sound great! I want to leave work right now and start baking! :biggrin:

Edited by mdt (log)
Wearing jeans to the best restaurants in town.
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I'm up for doing the brownies, I think. I'm on vacation next week so I'll just have to see if I have time to make the brownies. They'd be a good pressie for my cat/house sitter who is a uni student, so I'd definitely like to get them done.

Next weekend, though, I'll be in...Fiji! :cool: So I won't be able to do whatever you're gonna cook next week, though I could always do it later. I have a lot of recipes to catch up on, though!

The X cookies are yummy. Hope you guys like the too. Looking forward to hearing your posts about them. :biggrin:

A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness. – Elsa Schiaparelli, 1890-1973, Italian Designer

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Didn't bake the potato bread this weekend, but I've made them before. Your efforts are all much better than my first time making the potato bread. I had underproofed the loaves then placed them too close together in the oven. Each loaf opened up and stuck to each other. I ate some and made the rest into delicious bread crumbs and croutons.

This past week, I baked a loaf of Nancy Silverton's walnut bread and the carrot cake from the last issue of Fine Cooking magazine. I overproofed the Walnut Bread, so it was a bit flat and the crumb ended up too tight and dense. It had great flavour though, so I may try again this weekend. The carrot cake was excellent: very light, not too sweet, satiny cream cheese frosting.

Brownies and X cookies sound good for this weekend.

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Just to double check...we're talking about the fudgy brownie recipe aren't we?

A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness. – Elsa Schiaparelli, 1890-1973, Italian Designer

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I made the brownies last night and they are wonderful. I did not take any pictures, hopefully I will remember to before they vanish.

The X-Cookies will be sometime tomorrow.

Wearing jeans to the best restaurants in town.
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Just to double check...we're talking about the fudgy brownie recipe aren't we?

I think it's the only brownie recipe in the book, right? Best Brownies Ever, or something like that?

If I can get some dried figs today, I'll be trying to knock out some cookies this evening. Not sure when I'll do the brownies.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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Ugh, I don't think I'm a cookie kind of guy.

These cookies came out fine, but God what a pain. Rolling, shaping, cutting, section after section, cookie after cookie, I couldn't take it any more! Into the freezer went slightly less than half the dough and the filling.

i4104.jpg

They taste good.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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Yeah, SethG, fair enough. I was thrilled to be finished with the cookies, but I was definitely in the mood to do something fiddly when I started them. The feeling wore off by the time I finished! I'd be lucky to make them once a year but I enjoyed trying a new technique. Hope you have more fun with the brownies.

A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness. – Elsa Schiaparelli, 1890-1973, Italian Designer

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Oh, I'm not sorry I tried them! One of the fun things abut this little project is that you get turned on to things you might never try on your own.

I tried vainly to emulate your cookie presentation, arbuclo.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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These cookies came out fine, but God what a pain.  Rolling, shaping, cutting, section after section, cookie after cookie,  I couldn't take it any more!  Into the freezer went slightly less than half the dough and the filling.

That's why I've never tried these cookies. I like fiddly pastries(decorated cakes, marzipan flowers, etc.), but I rarely have patience for fancy cookies. The end products don't often seem to justify all the work. I'm just as happy with drop and bar cookies. I even have problems with icebox cookies. I can't get the darned tube of cookies to be round, or stay round or together when I slice. Any tips in that area are greatly appreciated. I made Herme's korova cookies the other night and was cursing the whole time, but they were yummy. Then, there's sugar cookies. Rolling out, cutting out, repeat, yuck! Oddly enough, I don't mind when I cut out leaves, fruit and other shapes to decorate pies. Anyway, I'll give the x cookies a try, but I'll probably do exactly what you did, Seth. Yours look very good.

P.S. I'm attaching a photo of my walnut bread from last weekend.

i4105.jpg

Edited by Rhea_S (log)
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i made the rustic potato loaves yesterday - they had a very nice crust because i baked on fire bricks, good crumb and looked quite attractive, it was easy and fun to make. we ate it warm with butter within an hour out of the oven but the the taste was just "average white bread". my question is did i expect too much (after all it only took a few hours to make) or is it the taste of potato bread, or am i spoiled by bying from top bakeries, or all of the above?

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my question is did i expect too much (after all it only took a few hours to make) or is it the taste of potato bread, or am i spoiled by bying from top bakeries, or all of the above?

Probably all of the above; however, didn't you think the crumb had a nice creamy, potato flavour? That's what I like about the BWJ recipe. I can really taste the potato and, if you don't peel the potatoes, there's also a nutty flavour. I think I've always made that recipe using yukon golds, so that may also make a difference.

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the crumb was very nice to look at, as described in the book both open and tightly grained, but i find the taste a bit odd - i love potatoes of every kind and was sure they would enhance the bread, but... how does the walnut taste? i am going to make steve sullivan's mixed starter, may be i will do a small walnut and some baguettes with it. i love sour walnut, never had it sweet.

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Cookie update: these cookies are really very tasty. We had some friends over this morning, and we've been devouring them. Last night, I was thinking that glorified Fig Newtons ain't worth the trouble, but today I'm wishing I had the fortitude to see all 5 dozen cookies through to completion. Maybe I'll make the rest in a few weeks.

Edit: we've been devouring the cookies, not the friends!

Edited by SethG (log)

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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Made the X-Cookies this morning and have been enjoying them all day. Took some to friends and family and they all enjoyed them. They were a bit of work, but worth it in my book.

So what is up for next weekend? Bread?

Please excuse the paper plate as all my serving platters and plates are light in color and I wanted some contrast. :shock: I guess I need to make a trip to the store...

xcookies.jpg

Wearing jeans to the best restaurants in town.
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Those look great on the blue plate. I still haven't made mine because I couldn't find candied orange peel anywhere and I really wanted that slight citrus hit. I am currently at the final stages of candying some ortanique peels. My first time candying citrus peels; it takes a long time.

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mdt, your cookies look great! I made the brownies and boy are they wonderful. Hope my house sitter likes them as much as we did! The recipe is similar in ingredients to some Kahlua brownies that I make. The technique here differs by only whipping part of the sugar and eggs not the whole thing. I think fluffing all the eggs makes my Kahlua brownies puff up then fall and have a bit of a crust to them. Both are yummo! :-)

A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness. – Elsa Schiaparelli, 1890-1973, Italian Designer

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