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Basil sourdough bread

This is an incredible bread ! What an aroma! What a taste! What a raise! Never thought that a herb bread could turn out so well. I am actually in love with this bread and I can only recommend it.

The Sunday 75% Whole Wheat Bread

Again I am doing a Saturday bread on a Sunday. It seems that my preferred day to bake the bread is Sunday and this is correct. On Saturday I need to make all the food shopping and other small activities and bread is usually not on this day to do list.
So, almost the same recipe as the white version except the fact that 75% of the flour is whole wheat not white. To make it grow more, I have added 5g of extra gluten powder. (thank you, Rick for the present ;) )
There is a change from the original recipe and this is the type of yeast. The author specifies 3g of instant dried yeast which normally should be translated as 6g of fresh yeast. But I tried this version  and worked perfectly well.

Passion fruit ice cream

I know, summer is gone, but can you resist to a passion fruit ice cream? I cannot, sorry.

Caramel yogurt

I made them with jam, I made them with fruits, with nuts, with chocolate and the possibilities are endless. This time is with caramel. You can use instead any concentrated fruit juice. But this caramel flavor reminds me of the famous cake caramel, although we are talking here only about a yogurt.

Ciabatta with sunflower seeds

A round ciabatta for a sunny day of autumn.

Twisted baguettes with no salt

If you are wondering how come that I baked a bread with no salt, the answer is simple ... I simply for forgot to put it :D. But what I obtained in the end made me to think if the success was not coming from this little mistake... I'll probably need to bake again another bread without salt to test my theory.
These twisted breads have not been scored, and there was no need to do it. The twisted shapes give a good opportunity for the crust to go up by itself without the baker intervention. Just look how the parts were lifted up by themselves exactly like a roof.
Very nice dough ... a real pleasure to work with it and I didn't even used high proteins flours. Also I did not add extra gluten powder to the bread. I have used a simple bread flour with no enrichment that you can easily buy in a supermarket. So no fancy ingredients, just basic flour.
The result was amazingly superior than any bread I baked before and believe me that I use the same ingredients for a long time. The secret comes from the rather long fermentation of the dough with no additional yeast as the original recipe required. In fact, if I have to compare, I have deviated quite a lot from the original recipe that you cannot actually say that is the same. More sourdough, a bit more flour, no salt, no yeast. Maybe only the shape is the same. And, what makes me even more proud, is that my bread turned out even better than the photo of the author. Yess!
The only thing that I would change next time for this recipe would be to put less dough in each baguette slot on the tray. The quantity made was a bit too much for just 3 baguettes.
Anyway, who cares... these baguettes were incredibly tasty even without salt !

Ciabatta with pumpkin seeds

I made 2 ciabattas recipes, one with sunflower seeds and this one with pumpkin seeds. When shaping, I left aside 2 small pieces for my daughter to play with. When she was bored playing with the dough, we shaped them together and sprinkled them with pumpkin seeds. I do not have to tell that my daughter little breads turned out better than mines so they were meant to be photographed.

Sunday white bread

 It is probably funny, but this bread was called Saturday bread :D but as I did it on a Sunday how could I have called it Saturday. There is something special with Ken Forkish recipess. There is a special connection between me and his recipes. They all turn into a success. This is what motivated me to bake more from his book even if this was not a recipe with sourdough. This one is a straight bread so there is no preferment to do in advance.
When baked, this bread sang to me. A lot of noise when cooling down even more than any bread I cooked before. And also at the cooling phase started to give me nice cracks.
But the most special for me, was the dough. It was so easy to work with it even shaping it. It was not sticking bad and had a nice texture.
The photo I made it 3 days after the bread was baked and I kept it in a plastic bag to prevent drying.

Traditional flan

 A flan, a normal flan, a traditional vanilla one - this is what I was looking for. This was for a special occasion for a friend who I know he likes flans.
So, I found the perfect recipe. Done. As simple as that. When my husband tasted it, he immediately made the remark that I have prepared his favorite childhood dessert, what we call "colarez" (I doubt there is a translation for this as it is really a regional name). It is actually made by milk, flour and sugar and looks like a pudding). I had to disappoint my husband  but no, this was not what he had in mind. However it had a similar texture and a vanilla flavor. And the good thing was that both my special guest and my husband loved it. But there was one person more who got crazy after it, my daughter. She loved it so much that the left over I packed it as a snack for her next day at school.
Lovely taste and a recipe to remember.

Blueberry and almond tart


As my daughter was so in love lately with blueberries, I had to buy more. But suddenly, not necessary unexpected, she said no to fresh blueberries. Then I had to quickly find a solution to use the remaining ones. The best option was of course to make a tart with them. I do not usually make tarts with berries as I find them better to be eaten fresh, so rarely I bake them. But then, it was my moment. Quickly, easy, delicious, this is my motto for any recipe I make. And it is the case for this tart as well. As a plus, doesn't it look so inviting a tart with blueberries inside?
What can I ask more... even the school teacher of my daughter remarked it.

Apple and coconut tart

I made this tart for the birthday party of my daughter. Near the birthday doll cake I needed to serve some other sweets as well. Tart was an excellent option as it was easy to make. Also, having a lot of apples from down the hill near my house, it was a perfect combination to make an apple tart.
This one is not just a simple apple tart but is in addition with coconut. This gives a specific flavor that you won't find in simple apple cakes. And the combination was a success.

Tinkerbell doll cake


There has been 3 years. 3 years of joy and happiness, 3 years of having the most beautiful feeling in life. 3 years since my beautiful daughter saw the light of this world. Happy birthday my love, Irina.

Baguettes with poolish


I am planning a birthday party soon. As all preparations should be done just before the party, bread is something that I can do in advance. And freeze. And then unfreeze just the day before the party. As simple as that.
Baguettes are perfect for starters as their slices are small, so this is the recipe I used for this.

Poolish is nothing else than a preferment in which the quantity of water and flour are equal. With this, you get a kind of dough at 100% hydration. Kept overnight on the counter top of your kitchen will become spongy. The name came from the Polish bakers who brought the method in France, back in the mid 19th century.