Saturday, August 27, 2011

Next week's flavors!

Orange cardamom
Focaccia (one pesto, one tomato)
Teff sourdough

Place your orders by MONDAY at 5 pm (an extra day to order this week)

Thanks!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

leftover bread, 2

Now that your bread loaf is aging, here's something you can do to still
enjoy every bit.

Slice your bread thinly, and toast in a toaster or on an oven rack until
the outside is crispy, 5-10 minutes.

Top with bruschetta, pesto, nut butter or whatever else you have lying
around for a comforting afternoon snack.

Inspired by this morning's batch of tomato sauce.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

bread day 2

What a day! I made 26 loaves (including 7 loaves worth of english
muffins! pictured below) of awesome bread. Everything went well,
I only acquired 2 burns, both conveniently in the same spot, and
the pickup was quite a party. Thanks again to all who ordered breads
this week!


Jesse helped me get a better setup for dough proofing, which was way
more confidence-inspiring than the rickety pan-stacking of last bread day.


After more than 6 hours in the kitchen, the breads were ready to go into
their bags...


...and be picked up by happy customers!




Thursday, August 18, 2011

leftover bread, 1

Do you have a bunch of bread leftover? Gluten free breads, having a
different sugar structure than normal wheat breads, will start to stale
almost immediately after being baked. If you can gobble down your
loaf when it is still warm, it will be quite delicious and crusty. But two
days later it can often be a little hard to swallow. I'll be posting a series
of recipes for your leftover bread!

Bread Pudding


Preheat your oven to 350.

Cut your leftover loaf into little cubes, and cover with a mixture of
cinnamon, milk or rice milk, and honey or agave. Let this soak while
you do everything else.

Slice whatever fruit you have around and arrange it on the bottom of a
loaf pan. Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and pour in the bread and milk mixture.
If you want an extra sweet crust, sprinkle some sugar on the top of the
bread. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Serve warm.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Next week's flavors!

Place your orders by Sunday at 5!

Soda Bread (with blueberries if I can find some!)
English Muffins (comes with 5 muffins)
Savory Rosemary


bread day 1


Went swimmingly! I made 13 beautiful loaves (and heated my house
sufficiently with the oven blasting for 2 hours). My temporary cooling
setup:


Loaves bagged for pickup:


And happy customers!



Thanks to everyone who ordered bread this week! Now it's time to
place another flour order, and get recipe testing for the next go around!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

srs experiments


Last night's loaf was an olive and cheesey experiment, and resulted
in delicious snacking today. (Jesse's waiting anxiously for a hot slice
of it, which he received post-photo!) It looks like the cheese in the
center of the loaf created a big old air pocket, and the loaf is dense and
hearty except for the hollow middle. Now I'm excited about a loaf with
cheese mixed into the dough. Will it create lots of little voids to make
my breads lighter? I'll find out soon!

In the mean time, I have a fast-rise and a slow-rise loaf proofing on the
stovetop, and the fast one's winning. It's a cinnamon raisin made with
apple juice instead of water and sugar. It's already doubled in size in
only 40 minutes. The slow-rise is a caraway ryeless rye. It's looking
pretty mature as far as flavor development goes, and I'm psyched to
try it in the morning!


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Time to pick your breads!

Order day is just around the corner, and the oven's been working overtime.
Do you want your own wonderful loaf of gluten free bread? Respond to this
post, or send me an email directly with your order by Sunday at 5pm!

This week's flavors:

Straight up white bread
Caraway ryeless rye
Cinnamon raisin

All loaves will be made on Tuesday the 16th and will be ready for pickup between
5 and 9 pm in Cole Valley. Please let me know what you'd like!

In the meantime, this loaf is getting eaten with some heirloom tomato soup from
last night's farmers market.




Thursday, August 4, 2011

the rules

Bread will be baked each Tuesday, excepting the first Tuesday of the
month, and will be available for pickup between 5 and 9 pm in Cole
Valley.

Members of the CSB will preorder their loaves by 5pm on Sunday, and
will have a choice of 3 different loaves. Loaves will be $8 each or can be
purchased in advance in batches of 3 loaves for $20. Transactions will be
in cash (please)!


All loaves will be free of gluten, using only certified gluten-free flours, or
flours free of cross-contamination. Local ingredients will be used
whenever possible. Most loaves will be free of both dairy and eggs. All
dairy and eggs used will be from local companies (Strauss, Clover, and
several small egg producers and cheese makers).


If you would like to buy 5 or more loaves to distribute in your area, you
will get your loaf for free. You can pick up the loaves in Cole Valley.
Your neighbors will pick up their loaves from you at a place of your
choosing and will pay you for them directly.


If you preorder a loaf and cannot pick it up, please call and make
arrangements for a dropoff. Your loaf can also be sliced and frozen for a
later pickup if you’d prefer.



Wednesday, August 3, 2011

the learning curve

May I present to you the first of the teff sourdough loaves! This one was a
rush job (I was late for a movie and wanted a sandwich for dinner) and so,
did not have enough time to proof before getting its oven rise. I learned
from my incredible book of bread that this is why the cracks in the bread
are so huge.


Anyway, the sandwiches were fantastic, the whole loaf made 3 large
sandwiches, which is to say, there was a lot of food in that food. One side
had fresh pesto with basil from Serendipity Farms and a really nutty aged
goat cheese from Achadinha Cheese Company. The other had a tart cherry
apricot jam from We Love Jam. In the middle were thick slices of a chicken
I roasted from Soul Food Farm in Vacaville, and thin pieces of crispy lemon
cucumbers from Happy Boy Farms down South.

I did some reading this morning on proper uses of yeast and fermentation
sponges, so the experiments will keep coming as we approach bread day! Stay
tuned for some Milk breads and sponge breads, the next to go into the oven!