A good book + procrastination + laziness = a good day to bake bread Sometimes, math isn't so hard to understand, is it. Let's start with the first variable: a good book. I am seldom without a book. In fact, I commonly start a sentence with, "I was just reading...." Lately, however, it seems like I've been subjected to a string of mediocre books. I'm happy to report that I am currently reading a good... Continue reading

It's not really a hike if you don't fear for your life, right? Oh, maybe that's a better definition of a death march. Or, in my case, either. The two often seem to be one and the same. After a failed attempt to find Marshall Pass with Don several days ago due to excessive (in my opinion) vertical bushwhacking, Scout demanded a mulligan. Who am I to say no do such a sweet dog? I... Continue reading

Fine, fine, I confess: I've been a bad blog writer. It's been 18 days since my last post and I haven't told you anything about the last four recipes I've baked from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. Please forgive me. Honestly, while I'm still enjoying baking all the recipes, I start to wonder how much I can really say about baking water, flour, salt, and yeast. And then a recipe like Weissbrot Mit... Continue reading

Oil tankers loading at the Valdez Marine Terminal Dang, I didn't realize it had been almost a month since I last wrote. I'm such a slacker. I do have one excuse. For the past 12 days we've been out on our fishing boat working on the response to a small oil spill at the Valdez Marine Terminal. What that's meant is that we've been driving back and forth along a mile of shoreline dragging one... Continue reading

No Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Bread recipe today. Instead, since I'd offered to share my sourdough starter with a young friend, I thought I'd experiment with it. On the plus side, this means that you can access the recipe yourself without having to buy a baking tome. For some reason, I had scones on my brain this morning. I have a recipe I've used before and like, but since I had the sourdough... Continue reading

I was tempted to never move past Sister Virginia's Daily Loaf after making it a week or so ago. The loaves I made were as close to perfection as I ever hope to get. And I just realized, after going back to find the link to that post so I could included it here, that I never wrote about it. Oh, dear. I'm slipping already. So, a few quick words about Sister Virginia's Daily Loaf... Continue reading

For starters, let me be clear right up front that it's not about the yeast. My most recent bread failure, that is. I say "most recent" because it was by no means my first, and I'm equally sure it won't be my last. I speculated the other day that perhaps the reason I baked a brick was because my new jar of yeast was not viable. I have now demonstrated that the yeast was not... Continue reading

It is only right that I present a fair and unbiased view of my baking abilities, as difficult as that may be. Like all of us, I want to be seen as a success, but alas, that is not always the case. Yesterday, I baked a brick. Since I started this little bread baking adventure two months (!) ago, I've baked at least two dozen loaves of bread from nine of Bernard Clayton's recipes in... Continue reading

I had to embark on an odd, albeit short, research project last week. I was trying to figure out how the volume of dried hops compared to the volume of hops pellets. Hops are the flower buds of the female Humulus lupulus plant. Most of us know them as the ingredient in beer that makes it bitter. The "hoppier" a beer is, the more bitter it is. I'm not a fan of bitter things and... Continue reading

I miss bundt cakes. Are you old enough to remember these dessert staples from the 1970s and 80s? My dad had a real sweet tooth when I was growing up, so I baked a lot of cakes and cookies. Bundt cakes were one of the few we always made from mixes, and my favorite was a chocolate cake with coconut center and glaze. You'd put the chocolate cake batter in a bundt pan and layer... Continue reading

I just made the mistake of checking the stats for my blog. Based on the number of page views I've had over the past week or so, I'm writing these posts for the pleasure of the ether, but I will persevere. I'm having a masochistic sort of fun with this project, and it means I get to eat yummy bread. I felt a little less guilty with today's recipe than I did with the Frisian... Continue reading

You ever have one of those days where you feel like nothing you do is enough? Today was one of those days. I didn't do enough work on my paying job, but when I was spending time on that I felt guilty for not creating fused glass artwork for the two shows I have coming up this fall, and when I finally spent some time in my studio I felt guilty for not getting outside... Continue reading

Since yesterday's Scottish Buttermilk Bread didn't meet our bread needs for the week, and since I haven't used my sourdough sponge (starter) in a month, I decided to make some sourdough bread today. Actually, I made that decision late last night and added two cups of white flour and two cups of water to the cup of sponge I had in the refrigerator. It needed to sit on the counter overnight to get well activated... Continue reading

My adventures with Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads continued yesterday with the making of Scottish Buttermilk Bread. With this loaf I was forced to acknowledge that if I'm going to work my way through all of the recipes in the book, I'm going to make loaves that don't suit my needs, that is, aren't standard loaves of bread appropriate for toast, sandwiches, etc. Clayton describes Scottish Buttermilk Bread as being "closely akin to... Continue reading

I checked the clock and added time carefully before I tackled the next recipe in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. It was nearly 4:30 when I started, and since the recipe said the dough required five risings, I wasn't sure it would be done in time for dinner. It took my fingers and toes to calculate, but I decided all would be well if we didn't eat early. I was wrong. We finished... Continue reading

As I type, a bowl of warm bread dough is rising in my oven. It is a miracle. Every loaf of bread is a miracle. A few years ago, I purchased Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads,revised and expanded, mind you. It has sat on my cookbook shelf, like most of my cookbooks, completely ignored. Occasionally I'd glance at it and think that I should methodically for my way through all of its 748... Continue reading

At some point in time as we chatted while hiking Crow Pass, I mentioned to Jenny that I hadn’t been active for all that many years. It was only as a middle-aged adult that I started being more athletic. I knew what event precipitated the whole odyssey, but I wasn’t sure exactly when. This evening, I was sorting through some old journals, which I really only keep when I’m traveling, and found the one for... Continue reading

After a completely sleepless night on the gravel near Icicle Creek, I was ready to be up at 5:00 and on the trail. With oatmeal and coffee to sustain us, Jenny and I were off before 7:00 to complete the last six miles to the Eagle River Nature Center and the end of the trail. Within half a mile we figured out that we could have had a comfy campsite at Heritage Falls. If we’d... Continue reading