Remy's Party

Yesterday morning our daughter woke up and said : "Today is Remy day!" She told us that she wanted to do something special. She asked me if I could bake a cake for Remy's birthday. Well, baking a cake was going to be difficult, because I wasn't exactly prepared to do it, also it would take too much time.

Then I had an idea! What if I used this cake mix that we got a while back for free and was sitting there in my storage closet anyway taking up space.
Our daughter liked the idea. We would do our best to make the cakes real beautiful with cream and some chocolate and sugar pearls.

One thing I have to get of my chest is the fact that I hate these mixes. I am an artisan baker and believe that using honest ingredients gives superior results. I don't like artificial flavor, sugar, and all the other chemical additives you often find in these products. The taste is most of the time flat and all the same. I don't like it at all! If I did not have this cake mix, I would have baked cakes just using butter, flour, eggs and sugar. The way my mum used to do it, the way I learned it in culinary school.

We had a great time making the cakes, actually I just had to add some milk and shake to finish the batter. Then fill the bake pan and bake it.

Decorating the cakes with whipped cream and sugar pearls was actually the funnest thing to do, especially for the smallest member of this household, who managed to drop a bunch of them on our kitchen flour. :-)
I personally went on an adventure by removing a cylinder in the center of the chocolate cake and filling it with egg-nog liquor.
Eating them was even more fun, lot's of stuffed animals were invited!
One of the best b-day parties ever!

Pane Siciliano - Peter Reinhart

Mmmmm, Pane Siciliano made with a pre ferment and semolina flour. This is a golden, sweet, very tasty loaf!!! It took 3 days to finish but the result was awesome. You will like this, that is a promise.

Was there anything I did not like about this loaf? Well, staying overnight in the fridge benefits the taste, but I have to be very careful : the plastic that I use to wrap the dough in always sticks to the top of the loaves. That is why you will see flour on top of the Pane Siciliano, it has sesame seeds also (which are awesome on top of this loaf.) But like I mentioned, I need to use flour to avoid the plastic sticking too much to possibly deflate the loaves when I remove it.

I did enjoy making these, I guess I haven't made that many loaves that take 3 days from start to finish before, but it was worth it.

Paris

So I was in Paris yesterday once again. I love it! We checked out the first arrondissement and visited some cool stores. If you find yourself being in Paris and love to bake - and chances are you might, because you are reading this blog- :-) make sure to visit :

G. Detou, 58 rue Tiquetonne, 75001 Paris
It's a store where you will find a ton of professional baking supplies available.
Very cool!

Also Dehillerin. If you are looking for anything to use in your kitchen, or baking equipment make sure to visit this store, it has a huge selection and left a deep impression on me.

I love Paris, because we always seem to stumble upon something we did not know was there, or even existed. I can't wait for my next travel to Paris again.

Hope you all enjoy the pics.

Bake Marathon

I have been extremely busy! I baked a ton of stuff yesterday. I made :

Two Finnish Rye breads.
A batch of Bialys.
A batch of rolls.
A batch of rolls filled with pastry cream.
A cluster of rolls.
A flan tart.
and choux pastry.

The Finnish Rye breads were perfect! Also the choux pastry was delicious!!
Enjoy the picture!

Pain a L'ancienne - Peter Reinhart

Pain a l'ancienne : the dough was kinda too wet to shape in a decent baguette style, so I made it more like a ciabatta style bread. I did not use 100% white flour though, I added some whole wheat. I do like just plain white bread, but I love some bite/crunch in it, so that is the reason why I altered the recipe. Also, it is way better for your health.

No large holes in the crumb here. I still need to manage to get a decent crumb with these flat breads, but the whole wheat might also be the reason why there are no large holes in the crumb. I do like the taste though, overnight retarding is always beneficial to the flavor.
I ate waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too much of it today. I ate one loaf myself... I know, too much, but so delicious!

Hope you'll enjoy the pic, I am off working out now, that is the downside of eating too much, need to burn all those calories right now!

"Ana, damn 'er!" Anadama bread - Peter Reinhart

This bread has a very strong flavor, my household did not dig it at all. I kinda did, but I must say the bread has an outspoken taste because of the black molasses I used.
Peter Reinhart suggests using the lightest you can find.
Interesting bread, because I never used cornmeal. If I ever find Golden Molasses I will make this one again.