Little breads for breakfast

There is nothing as such as a good breakfast, prepared just in time and served just when it’s done. In particular, I can’t help but love bread that is just out from the oven, with a good cup of a hot drink and a fresh fruit (from the garden any time it’s possible). It makes the perfect start. Of course baking requires a bit of organization and time but in the end it’s not so difficult and incomparable with anything else you can buy the day before!

As you may have noticed I bske pretty much anything. Even if I am not master in making croissants yet and naad to work on that, I start to be pretty confident on making rye and whole wheat breads. So here is an other variation of the basic recipe, where I mixed 250g of flour: half rye and half whole wheat flours, 120g of water, 14g of sourdough, 3g of yeast, 6g of salt, knead until soft and smooth, then added dry raisins and chocolate chips in part of the dough only. Waited until it has almost doubled, then shaped it and leave all night in a cool place. Before going to bed I scedule a delayed start of the oven so that In the morning I just have to bake them for 10-12min and breakfast is ready!!! Have a nice weekend!

March 5, 2016

Breakfast time

When we were in Karuizawa, they would serve delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast, so this morning when I asked A. What he wanted to eat he asked for creamy scrambled eggs to accompany the dried tomatoes fougasse I was making. Perfect since I just bought fresh eggs. For the fougasse I used my classic recipe, just add Sicilian dried tomatoes. For the eggs, simple, pre-heat a small pan and grease it a bit, keep a low heat during the whole process, add 2 eggs per personne in the pan, and with cooking chopstick start to mix gently, to obtain an homogenous batter. Then anytime the bottom and the edges start to harden mix again and again until the eggs have the consistency you like. Serve immediately, add a bit of salt and pepper on top. Have a good Sunday!!!

February 21, 2016

The avocado curse

This morning I went back to work. I hate when the clock rings, but when it rang this morning I was dreaming that it would rang as many times as there are fountains in Rome, and I just didn’t bother… But after a while I had to go back to real life… to open the curtains and see a beautiful blue sky and mount Fuji in the background. Hum… Not too bad after 17 days of the same weather to have another one. In the train, surprisingly empty I was thinking about writing something about Sicily, or about Rome, and share some of these beautiful things we’ve seen and amazing places we’ve been, but I quickly got immersed in my emails and forget to write anything. When the train arrived in Koganei, I got off mechanically and headed to the supermarket to grad something for my lunch later. That’s when I got stricken by the fact that really in winter the only thing I find suitable enough to eat is the sandwiches I make with wholewheat and seeds bread, cream cheese and avocado. I got a bonus apple for my snack and then I realized that I AM going back to work and that I NEED to break this avocado-sandwich routine to something else, but right now I’m unable to figure out which substitute could work for me and I have the impression to be under the avocado curse (like in Kid Icarus, a game I used to play on my gameboy when I was a kid where you get cursed by an eggplant!!) … What do you have for lunch at work? I’m open to ideas… Pleazzzz

January 4, 2016

First bread of the year

When we left Japan in December it was still the end of autumn, in our garden the Japanese mapple trees were all red, the gingko had just lost all its leaves, the camelias were starting to bloom. 15 days later, the mapple leaves have all fallen, at first sight only the camelias haven’t changed, but with a closer look, the daffodils are blooming, the magnolias and the plum trees are full of buds already big, and the garden is metamorphosing slowly towards spring. From now on it’s going to be the coldest days, but the garden needs a lot of attention to get ready for spring: tree treaming, weed removing, cutting, grooming, planting… So we spend a lot of time outside in the cold, and there’s nothing better to start such days with a warm energizing rustic bread for breakfast. My recipe is simple: 50g of rye flour, 200g of white flour, 170g of water, 14g of sordough, 4g of natural dry yeast, 6g of salt. 20min cooking at 230deg, plus 5min in the oven cooling down. Perfect with jam, honey, butter or whatever pleases you!!!

January 2, 2016

Baking bread again!

I’ve the impression that I haven’t baked bread too often recently, and I was happy to kneal again this weekend. Because I wanted both a bread for breakfast and to accompany our lunch I decided to prepare a half-half rye-white flour. I ise now a pretty simple and standard procedure for my bread: 250g of flour (whatever you like or mix), 14g of dry sourdough, 3g of natural yeast, 6g of salt, 150g of water. Though my bread don’t have giant bubbles forming, probably of a too low temperature, I love them for the delicious taste, the crunchy and soft combination, and the smell in the house!

December 13, 2015

Sesame fougasse

Oil base breads are probably what I am best at and what I enjoy the most to knead. After I’ve through the classis foccacia, fougasses etc, I wanted to invent my own recipes. My first one is a sesame fougasse. I used 250g of flour, 120g of water, 14g of sordough, 3g of dry natural yeast, 50g of sesame (grilled and soaked in water), 5g of salt, 10g of sesame oil, 10g of olive oil. I proceed exctly as for regular fougasse. And once baked I applied sesame oil instead of olive oil. Delicious with pretty much anything, sesame suits well cheese like brie, and salads.

November 23, 2015

Wholewheat and seeds bread

As I told you, I back on baking breads and I am verry happy with the results I am obtaining, so I just don’t follow any tecipe anymore and use my experience from all the bread I baked to create my own recipes, and I have plenty in mind!!! This time it’s more a classic since it is a wholewheat bread with a mix of seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, barley… And this time I did it properly with grilled the seeds and then rehydrate them in water. A simple and delicious bread, easy to use anytime.

November 19, 2015

Orange and chocolate sweet bread

For a rainy morning there is nothing better than a hot sweet bread just out of the oven. It’s been some time since I haven’t baked, but this rainy weekend was just the perfect moment to start again and go with some new originsl recipes. I also bought some new sourdough and natural yeast and I’m really happy with the result.

So for this first bread I wanted something sweet and fruity for breakfast so I used candied orange peels (recipe tomorrow!) and dark chocolate chips. For one bread I used 170g of whole wheat flour, 110g of water, 3g of natural yeast, 8g of dry sordough, 4g of salt, 40g of brown caster sugar, half a cup of candied orange peel and one table spoon of dark chocolate chips. I kneaded well until soft and smooth, then let it prove for 5hours (temperature is not really high in the house now). I then made two long sticks that I rolled together, I wanted to make breeds with it but reslized that 3 sticks wouldn’t be good. Then it prove the rest of the night and I baked it jn the morning, 10min at 230deg, then 20min at 210deg. I like to eat bread right out from the oven, so we had our breakfast right away.

And you know what?! The Parisian sister is back on tracks! Yeah!

November 16, 2015

My first original recipe for bread

It’s been some time now that I’m baking bread following thoroughly recipes from books, but this time I felt like I can change that and start thinking about my own mix and recipes without opening a book. once you’ve learned the basic proportions and you know what kind of texture you need to achieve after kneading it’s not difficult at all.

So my first original recipe is a warming whole wheat and rye bread. I used 160g of rye flour, 90g of whole wheat flour, 180g of water, 12g of sourdough, 5g of salt, 3g of yeast, knead until smooth and soft. After the dough has taken enough volume I shaped it, leave again a few hours, and finally baked it at 235deg for 10min, then at 220deg for 20min.

October 19, 2015