Celebrate the Babes! Stretching my deadline for baking Rgaif from the Bread Baking Babes!

Blame it on the non-existing winterdays here in the Netherlands but I completely missed that our posting date was this weekend. It didn't help that I was partnered to throw a birthday party for my sister's oldest boy this weekend as well, O...my...gosh... the noise 6 over-excited 5yr olds make.... I really needed my husband to remind me that some time ago our boys had been 5 as well but still I can't believe they were that loud!

Sunday was spent nestled in the couch, baking a couple of loaves, handquilting a bit, drinking a cup of tea, watching the Olympics not for one moment realising that after 15 comes 16 and my post was due!

The Babes are celebrating their 6th birthday!! No really! We make noise as well, making waves and baking bread for 6 years now. We also welcome two new Babes to the block! So happy to announce that we found Aparna from My Diverse Kitchen to join us, and also Cathy from Bread Experience.

Welcome girls! 

Then our bread for this month is Rgaïf, chosen by Lien of Notitie van Lien.

That girl knows how to scare a Babe! This is a flat bread that needs stretching and stretching and then some more.... until you get a very thin sheet of dough that is then folded and baked in a skillet on the stove.

I can make dough, I stretch, I fold and I'm not afraid to use the stove... but that thin!! Seriously? I crumbled and read all I could to help me get through this but in the end I procrastrinating out of sheer fear pushed me over the deadline and I didn't make it. Yet.

However... Howwwww Evaaah... There is a pot of pumpkin-rutabaga soup on the counter for tonight and I figure this bread is the perfect companion. So yes, I will do it. Today!!

For the recipe and the information on how to be a Buddy please head over to Lien at Lien's Notes. She will provide you with everything you need to know and offer encouragement that yes, it can be done!

This is what she says:

Bread Baking Buddy, be a Buddy and let us know all about it, by sending your details and results to Lien (as she is kitchen of the month this time). Mail her your name, blog url, post url and attach your favorite picture of the recipe. Send it to notitievanlien(at)gmail(polkadot)com. Deadline is the 29th of this month.

Bread Baking Babes get cracking

Or maybe this Babe cracks it a bit too much...
warned by one Babe that the baking time resulted in softish crackers I decided to up the baking time by ten minutes.... and oh boy did I get crackling crackers!

Toothbreakingly so.. Such a shame because they smelled so good. And looked really good too.

I used a majority of whole wheat with just a little white, and combined a topping with what I had on hand which was blond sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, almond slivers and a sprinkling of Ancho Chili pepper.. Rolling out proved not too difficult at all; an easy job. I cut the dough sheet with a pizza cutter but left them attached with the idea of breaking them on the cut line after baking. Ah the smell of these crackers... but despite their yummy looks they were largely inedible they were so so very hard. Will try again because the bits and pieces tried were really tasting very good.

I used the remainder of the topping on the sauteed green beans for dinner last night. Not a bad idea at all I can tell you!

Tanna as our hosting Kitchen performed her duties in a packed kitchen (not packed with Babes mind you but packed as in put in boxes!) with the added hurdles she still managed to produce an array of crackers worthy of a Babe!
Now that I read her post I realise I forgot to prick the dough!

Now then, if or rather when you would like to bake with us and earn your Buddy Badge listen to what Tanna says on the matter:

If you’d like to be a buddy with us this month, I will be delighted to have you in the Cracker round up to be posed on the 29th September.  To be a Bread Baking Buddy, just make the crackers, take some photos, write up your post – tell us your experience with the dough – and send an email to ~ comments my kitchen at mac dot com ~ you know to take out all those spaces ~ PLEASE PUT “Cracker Buddy” as your subject line and get those mails to me by no later than the 28th.  I’ll send you the buddy badge and get you in the round up.

Then, if you would like to see how our other Babes get their crackers on make sure to click this:

The Bread Baking Babes:

Bitchin' Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire - Katie
blog from OUR kitchen - Elizabeth
Feeding my enthusiasms - Pat
girlichef - Heather
Life's A Feast - Jamie
Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
Lucullian Delights - Ilva
My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna
Notitie Van Lien - Lien
Paulchens Foodblog - Astrid
Provecho Peru - Gretchen

Naked pizza

This is a naked pizza.

 

It didn’t start life as one…

 

Nooooo, it started life as a pepperoni cheese pizza and happily stayed in the oven for a while.

 

Then a teenager armed with a wobbly cutting mat and not entirely heat proof fingers came along.

 

I heard a scream and a curse… and something like “SHPLLATT!!”

 

Enter naked pizza and dressed floor.

I’m not sure who was more surprised. The pizza? The recently cleaned floor? The teenager with a horrified look on his face watching his mom storming the kitchen. Don’t know what he was expecting. Surely not a mom who doubled over holding her sides laughing so so hard.

ABC Bakers: Blender Emergency cupcakes

This is worrying! I am not even close to the deadline, or maybe I’m just early for the next? Yes, let’s keep it at that.
It is just that life is happening and sometimes life is happening quite forcefully. Oh well.

One could wish cupcakes could cure each and every bump in the road, even the biggest ones. Alas I don’t think they do and … I’m afraid these wouldn’t come even close!

Not sure what’s wrong with them because I read my fellow ABC bakers’ stories and they were happy. Well the choco-monster boys in my house will eat anything chocolate and they did initially. The next day four cupcakes were still standing and wouldn’t be touched. A sure sign. Above and below are pictures of the very first batch, used a minty buttercream frosting with a tiny chocolate flavoured buttercream tip on top.

{mad piping skills!}

Made this recipe three times. First time I used Dutched cocoa, using a whisk and a bowl, long time ago so I can’t remember precisely what I did, I do remember we weren’t fond of it but I credited that to the hurry in which I made them at the time. Second batch I tried adding a little lemon juice to make up for the Dutch processed cocoa. Third batch was made using baking powder instead of baking soda to make up for the Dutch processed cocoa and dutifully used the blender as per the recipe.

We all missed creaminess, soft crumb and depth of flavour, instead  we found dense, tight crumbed and moist? almost wet cake. I admit that I probably underbaked the last batch hence the lava center.

Not one to repeat for us. Up to the next!

Now who calls me tiny?

Or how a very small car trumps men at a DIY-store.

I had my eye on this eh rack? bookstand? accessory-ladder thingy? for some time already. But… too expensive for what it was, did I really need it, the husband wouldn’t understand, should I fill all that lovely space we created etc etc..

But.. on my way back from the hairdresser I walked in the DIY-store to check some paint-colors and there it was again! This time with a 50% price-off tag and already assembled I gave in. Schlepped it all the way through the store to the cashier and paid.

In a skirt, high heels and my hair freshly cut.
Driving my new teeny tiny car.
Never thinking about the size of that tiny car.
Because I am still not used to having a new car.

That realization only came when I walked up to my car and stopped. You see my old –very old as in 17 yr old- car was a little bigger than this one and had fold flat back seats and a fold flat passenger seat because it was a 3-door one.
This new car however is small and has the 5-doors I wanted. Which means that the passenger seat will not fold down anymore. Which means less space.

Enter the damsel in distress. Remember the skirt and the high heels and the DIY-store? Ok.
I stood there for a couple of minutes contemplating how to get the stupid thing home in one piece IN my car. Mind you, I was fairly certain I could do it. The men that passed me by on their way into the store were not so sure.

One grinned in passing and called out: that is not going to work!

One came up to me, sized the car, the rack, me, then shook his head and went on his merry way.

A pair of two walked by laughing and told me: “Now you’ve got a problem Hon!”

Another one took the time to come up to me (thank you sir, you were really nice!) and tried to think of various ways of fitting the thing into my car, even asking me where I had to go. On the brink of offering to take it but when he heard where I was headed he too shook his head, warning me that he wouldn’t take the risk.

Now THAT was all wrong you see? I mean I AM an ace-packer, the one that fits 3 weeks worth of clothes for 5 persons in two bags and always always packs the car and tent trailer. So don’t mess with my skills guys!

HAH!

Granted, it took some time and various ways of trying but after 10 minutes of trying it fitted like this in my car. Back seats folded flat, front seats pushed all the way up, a shopping bag as protection and the chain lock we use to lock our gate looped through the back door and around the rack locked shut to keep it in place and prevent it from sliding out. I didn’t exactly come prepared but used what was in my car.
It took some sort of restraint to not go back into the store and show them that I did it. Yeah that’s me, pathetic.

(The Husband likes it but still feels it should be properly hanged on the wall. It shouldn’t. It is not meant to hang. It is supposed to stand like that. Honestly. All the magazines show it this way honey. Really. See? (Me showing him pictures in various magazines until he is really really bored).

When you feel like this:

You probably don't want to attempt this:

Mission impossible. 'Nuff said.

Why moose have green feet (and other cookies)

13-yr old and me decorating cookies.

Mom, wouldn't it be fun if we had green icing? Or red? It's Christmas... White is boring. The green I had wasn't exactly the Christmas kind of green but let's pretend. It's green and he was happy. How happy I found out in an instant.

Getting another batch from the oven, I turned and saw moose with green feet.

Me: What? But.. why? Why moose with green feet?

13: Sure they have green feet, figures

Me: "?"

13: Well. Like. They happen to live in swamps right? Well Dûh...

Me: "?!"

13: (sighs) Hence the green feet...tssk

Ooookaaay fast forward. There's another 13yr-old in this house and he enters the building:

13 #2: Hey, moose with green feet. That's fun! (chews and swallows) And good!

Me: would you believe your brother gave the moose green feet?

13 #2: Have you ever seen a moose upside down in a swamp?

Me: No!!

13#2: Ha, see? Now you know why!

13#1 and 13#2 make a high five and leave the kitchen.....

I didn't invite Murphy for dinner did I?

Throwing a party, listening to advice to not make everything from scratch and for once order everything. Make it easy on yourself, just do it. Well after looking at different catering businesses and their lists of food/prices I threw caution to the wind and decided to do it myself anyway. But... I did order dinner!

I ordered Thai food (pat on the shoulder to not make dinner for 10 myself). Yes tiny town has a Thai lady married to a local boy. Placed the order a week ago, set the time for yesterday night at 6. Went to get it.

Thai lady who cooks from her house opens the door at a crack and looks at me inquiringly. I beam back a smile, faint alarmbells ringing in the back of my head, Conversation as follows:

lady asks: yes, you just phoned? Is dinner at 8? Not ready yet.

-I say, no. I ordered a week ago, dinner for 10 at 6

Thai lady says: nooooo

-(Alarmbells get louder) and I say: Yeeeeessss!

Thai lady: no, you rang. 8 o'clock

- smile wavers a bit and I insist, shaking my head: I'm sorry but I ordered last week, here at your house and your mother in law took the order, I saw her write it down.

Door opens a bit wider and the lady disappears in the house, I follow her into the kitchen. Over the noise of the alarmbells now ringing at full force I can see it coming. Her eyes widen, hand up to her mouth: Nooo, not possible! Haven't seen the ordersheet. How? I'm so sorry...

There's 10 hungry people in my house, waiting for dinner and I know that there are 20 more coming in like 2 hours to surprise my husband and celebrate his 50th birthday.... All pre-party stress floats away in that same instant. Pfff, never mind, I'll think of something else. Shit happens.

Then she asks while firing up the enormous stove, and clanks pots and pans on the counter: can you wait? Just 1 hour? I'll bring the food to you, promise. 1 hour? Yes?

I grin back and nod: Sure, we'll wait, have another drink. Sounds great. Sure you don't want me to get it? No? Ok, see you then! Turn around and drive back home, radio on 10.

You can plan everything to the nine but something, somewhere always goes a little different than you think. Not necessarily wrong or bad. Just different. Never mind.
Exactly one hour later we were having a wonderful Thai dinner, super fresh, loads of lovely food, a great mix of flavours, spicy and mellow, fish, various kinds of meat dishes, vegetables and lovely thai rice. Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.
No time for leasurely after dinner talk/dessert, dove straight into pulling out all stops to get everything ready for the guests, in the meantime weather turned, wind was down, temperature just right and we poured out into the garden for coffee and cake and the guests arriving.

I think/know Hubby had a great evening, we sat outside until late with candles and drinks and little bites. Maybe we should turn this into an annual thing. Celebrate life with friends and family!

Work in progress.... It's me!! **waves**

Some people plan.

Some people think things over.

Some people have a vision.

Some people follow through on that.

Others (I'm sure there must be others no?) don't.

They sit around one Saturday night, browse blogs, one eye on the tele, participating in family conversation, sip a glass of wine, thinking of the sour cream in the fridge and what kind of cake to bake....

and almost as an afterthought looks at new designs for her boring blog. Free templates. Googles. Can't decide. I really want one designed just for me... Copies old template (hey I might be very impulse driven but not crazy!), lalalaaaa, copies new one. Have another glass of wine water. 

That's why it's 1.20 now. Family has gone off to sleep. Long time ago. She is still awake. Red eyes. No sour cream cake baked. 

That's why my blog name is somewhere in the cherries. It will get better. Promise! 

If not (hah, easy way out) I will return to the old boring one.

Maybe I will even allot more time for writing posts.... answering mail.... making decent pics 

 

Bread Baking Babes bake Croissants

Do they? This Babe had her panties twisted, not her croissants! Our Kitchen of the Month is situated in France this time, Katie invited us to her place, the warmth coming not from a stove/oven but she managed to light up the room with her wit and charm while providing us with a very daunting task; create croissants!

I will tell you right away: I failed. Miserably. So you can stop reading now if you like. Instead I'll show you a before and after post. Let me lead you through the steps, one by one:

Before on the left, and after on the right (yes, after baking):

Now, there's a significant change as you can

 see. I  can't either. Not puffed, not flaked, just baked. I don't think I can blame the recipe alone, my mind wasn't entirely on the task. The dough was very very dry, I

quickly consulted some other recipes, added some melted butter and milk but it still had a weird feel. Then I had it in the fridge for longer than it said in the recipe so I threw it out to start over again.

And that my dear readers, that just didn't happen.

You see, I was and still am trying to conquer this before and after show: 

the change in the pictures is not as glorious as in real life but let me tell you, this hallway changed

 from cappucino beige (yeah I don't know what I

was thinking then) to bright white. I'll show you what happened in that room in the back...





From this on the left to that on the right

: again from -a lighter shade- caffe latte to bright white.

And... the new room on the

 other side of the hall: removing another chimney, building to create this wonderful room on the right:

Now you will understand that these croissants need a make-over. I can think of another much needed make-over as well:

It might not have read this way but I did enjoy the break from painting and baking with my two other Babes, Tanna and Ilva! I had fun, they had croissants! Please go and see what beauties my other Babes all created! 

Edit: I forgot to add our Baking Babes label and the pics and text are all crooked... don't feel up to try and correct this now, sorry!

Need you!! Fill these with Greek Fish Soup?

Next time I talk before I think please remind me to do some research first!
Short story: I need a recipe for authentic Greek fish soup (Psarosoupa?) preferrably rather uncomplicated to make and palatable for 25-odd teenagers and a teacher. Soup's up for a grade.

Situation is this:
My handsome, very friendly, easy going, 15yr old firstborn also known as Son nr. 1 is currently in his 5th year of our Dutch highschool. One year to go before embarking to University... (yikes, but that's a whole other chapter). Anyway, he is taking Greek and one of the highlights of this 5th year in school is the trip to Greece, to see for themselves what they've been studying. He had a great time, but it wasn't only fun and freedom; they are required to do a project which besides translating enormous bodies of Greek texts also has to include a paper about one of the sites they visited, eventually leading to a presentation for class and teacher. Grade will count with his final exams.

He and a friend chose to highlight the Greek god of the sea and oceans; the sanctuary of Poseidon at Cape Sounion; narrowing it down to his wifes, mistresses and his children. Hmm, boys will be boys.

Dining table discussion of said project presentation:
Son: Mam, we need something to stand out, something that will add a touch of uniqueness.
Silly me: well, dress in toga and trident, do your talk while offering samples of Greek fish soup... Poseidon = water + fish = soup?

They ditched the toga and trident (why? I wonder) but kept the fish soup idea, even mentioning it in their paper.... which got a rave review from their teacher. Teacher even highlighted the recipe and doodled a charicature of himself drooling over fish soup...

Handsome, Friendly, Easygoing Son nr. 1: Mam, you'll make the soup?

SIGH!

I happen to have an assortment of white fish in the freezer, found recipes on the internet using more or less similar ingredients. One serves the soup pureed and uses half of the fish/vegetables as an aside dressed with lemon/olive oil. The other is a clear soup with vegetables and fish, using lemon juice in the stock.

What to do? Anyone a great authentic recipe to be served in paper cups? Help?!

Turkish lessons and Apfel Strudel

Taken in that order might save you from a weird experience. Let's say I'm a sucker for any food item I don't know. Show me something that is not at all or maybe remotely familiar and I'm tempted to buy or try. (Apart from items that should be left under the stone they crawled out under or hidden by the body where they have a function.) That being said, present it to me in a exotic language and you never know what happens...

Turkish. Yes. If I had any prior knowledge of the turkish language maybe I might have seen that the filo dough I bought in huge sheets was salted. Salted a lot. In fact, so much so that the first tentative bite of my apfelstrudel went straight into the bin. To be followed by the rest. Any idea how "heavily salted dough" spells in Turkish? Because I have another two packages of dough sheets in my pantry, one triangle filo and one durum tortilla.... or so I think....

The filling however was great. Try it. Use filo. Any kind. Unsalted.

Apfelstrudel Filling:

3 large eating apples (Jonagold, Golden delicious, Cox), peeled, cored and cubed

60 gr sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1.1/2 tbs rum

60 gr raisins (cranberries!)

60 gr currants (dried figs!)

1 tbs custard powder/corn starch / tapioca

40 gr toasted walnut pieces / hazelnuts / pine nuts

2 heaped tbs abricot jam

75 gr butter, melted

breadcrumbs

Combine apple, cinnamon, sugar, dried fruit, nuts and jam in a small sauce pan and let sweat for a couple of minutes. Off the heat, add your choice of starch to thicken the juices and stir to combine.

Use this filling in large sheets of buttered filo dough, and roll up jelly-roll fashion. Bake in a moderate oven 350F / 175C until golden brown, brush with left over butter and sprinkle with -powdered- sugar.

Zandzakken voor de deur!

Wat ik zoal gedaan heb gisteren?

Onder andere.... kennis gemaakt met onze nieuwe bijna-buren in de zijstraat. Prettige mensen, in het bezit van goede ideeen, een kruiwagen en tot dan toe overbodige grasplaggen....

Kijk, dit is zoon nr 2 op zijn nieuwe fiets; de situatie bij ons voor de deur een uur eerder.

En dit is een uur later.... Wat begon in een linnen jurkje, schattige schoentjes en een beschaafd kopje koffie met mijn ouders, eindigde onverwacht op kaplaarzen en het bouwen van een dijk. De Hollandse genen zitten diep!

Toen we hier mee klaar waren en het ergste overstromingsgevaar (mijn kelder!!) gekeerd zei ik: ontzettend bedankt, ik ben zo blij met u, maar eh... wie bent u eigenlijk en waar komt u zo vlug vandaan?

De nieuwe buurman dus, net bezig om zijn tuin op te knappen, vandaar de plaggen en de kruiwagen.

Achteraf gereconstrueerd: de waterleiding onder onze oprit besloot -letterlijk- met een knal de geest te geven. De jongens waren buiten aan het voetballen en kwamen in paniek naar binnen. De één met een kat in zijn armen: Mam, Mam, haal de katten naar binnen, er is een ontploffing!!

Dan loop je naar buiten, ongelovig, doe niet zo gek zeg je nog. En dan zie je dit:
Geloof me, het ging hard! Het water spoot op het moment dat ik buiten kwam in een zuil omhoog. Zo hoog als je hier op de foto het slot ziet hangen. De tegels op de oprit zijn niet misselijk; vierkante stenen van 15 cm dik.... flink aangestampt doordat er al jaren auto's overheen rijden... Die lagen los en omhoog alsof er een aardbeving geweest was. (Nou ja, dat was natuurlijk ook het geval eigenlijk).

Tja en dan... dan ga je een beetje het verkeer regelen. De straat afzetten. Natuurlijk heb je de gemeente al láng gebeld, maar dat duurt even... het is tenslotte vrijdagmiddag 15.00 uur...

Beetje de toegestroomde menigte vermaken. Het werd bijna gezellig. Het zonnetje scheen, het water stroomde, kindjes op laarsjes ..

Eindelijk arriveerden de hulptroepen, in de vorm van 1 man met een telefoon. Dat helpt! Toen iemand met een hek om de straat af te zetten. Dat helpt ook. En het water stroomde voort. Ah.. en toen het grove geschut. Een graafmachine, en een pomp. Kijk, dát helpt!!

Overleggen tussen Water en Grond; jawel dat zijn twee verschillende disciplines binnen de gemeente en dan moet er overlegd worden wie waar verantwoordelijk voor is....

Vaststellen dat dit toch echt gemeentegrond is (Pfff... gelukkig!) Dat de bomen van de gemeente zijn, nou dat wisten we gelukkig al! Misschien moet er een boom om... misschien heeft het water de wortels ontspoeld, hoe ver loopt de scheur in de leiding..
De mannen hebben hard gewerkt, zo rond half 8 was de leiding gerepareerd, het inmiddels 6 meter brede gat provisorisch gedicht, de straat weer open voor verkeer en droog.

Inmiddels water geleend, want dat hadden we niet ::grijns:: Iemand nog koffie?

Rye-soup; a SWOT-analyses. Nederlandse uitgave "Deeg" Richard Bertinet?!

Ik heb de Nederlandse versie van dit boek; "Deeg" van Richard Bertinet, en daar staat in ieder geval 1 fout in. Mocht je meer informatie in het Nederlands willen, laat het me even weten? Adres staat in de kolom rechts.

(SWOT acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). Strategic planning translated to dough.

The weakness (or threat if you like) in this case the Dutch translation in the Richard Bertinet book "Dough". I successfully made the white bread recipe several times in different shapes and flavourings. Attempted the puff dough ball, not exactly a success but that might be due to rolling the dough not thin enough. Only 2 out of 20 actually puffed. (I had better results with my pita recipe). Was underwhelmed by the whole wheat recipe.

A couple of days ago I tackled the rye dough recipe. A mixed recipe, wheat flour and rye meal. Let me show you the recipe first:

200 gr flour
100 gr rye meal
10 gr. yeast (preferably fresh)*
10 gr salt
350 gr water
As you can see this is going to be muddy waters in every imaginable way, we're talking 116% hydration here. (Croc visions anyone?). Still, with that croc fresh in my mind I proceeded to make the dough as was stated. Didn't alter water/flour content. Just went ahead with what was written, conditioned as I am by being a Daring Baker ánd a Baking Babe, with a predictable rye soup as a result. To make matters worse I made a double batch.
Yikes!

Cursed the book, the translation, and myself for doggedly following a recipe while I knew it was wrong. (the English original states 400 grams of flour vs my Dutch 200 gr.!). I wasn't going to trow away a bucket of rye-soup so went ahead and treated it as a kind of starter.

A Threat turned into an Opportunity, we're going to have a poolish/biga derivate. Set it to ferment for 4 hours. Punched it down, sort of pulled it together with the help of a bench scraper, and again fermented it for a couple of hours. Boom, rye starters are very rewarding! Up, up and away it went, all the way to the top of the bucket! Punched it down again to a bare minimum and left it overnight in the fridge.
Next morning, made a dough and used beer as my liquid of choice:
500 gr starter
650 gr bread flour
1.1/4 tsp instant yeast
1.1/2 tsp salt
360 gr white beer

Cut the starter into pieces and roll them in some flour to separate, alternately scoop flour and starter pieces in the bowl of a stand mixer, add yeast and salt and all of the beer, holding back on a little of the flour to adjust the dough if necessary. (Depending on the wetness of the starter). Above mentioned quantities are what I effectively used.

Mix to form a cohesive mass (approx. 4 minutes) and let rest for approx. 10 to 20 minutes (auto-lyse). This is a sturdy dough, and the rye starter was still cold and thus uncooperative. All in all a strain on your mixer. Please check if your mixer is handling it well, the auto-lyse will make it easier on your mixer. Otherwise I'd advise you to knead by hand, use the "slap your dough-method". (Although I am disappointed about the Dutch translation**, I am very enthusiastic about this kneading method!!).
Mix the dough until it clears the bowl, I pulled it out before that and finished kneading by hand to get a feel for the dough. Slapping dough is a great anger-management tool! Okay, so, what we have now is a big smooth ball of dough, sticky to the touch (think post-it notes), nice strong and elastic, blistering on the skin.

Cover and let ferment in a well oiled bowl for 1 hour-1.1/2 hour. Turn out on a very lightly floured surface (or a light coating of oil), push down lightly and form into a tight ball. Again, back in the bowl, cover and rise for a second time, 45 minutes. We're building Strength here!

Turn out on a very lightly oiled worksurface, divide in two and shape. I made two batards and let them rise for a third and final time in a well-floured couche, covered with linen and plastic, approx. 45 minutes or until notably puffy. Transfer to a baking sheet, or on a baking stone with the use of a peel or a cutting board dusted with semolina. Bake in a preheated oven 250C for 10 minutes. Lower temperature to 200 after 10 minutes and bake for another 35-45 minutes.

Et voila, success!! Which is the ultimate goal in a SWOT-analysis! Face your Weaknesses, analyse Threats, treat them as an Opportunity and turn them into a Strength! Lovely loaves of bread, a distinquished earthy flavour from the rye and beer. Great with cheese or Hungarian salami, or buttered with a sprinkling of sea salt... Yum!

* There is a difference in using fresh or dry yeast, you use one third of the amount of fresh yeast for dried.
** I've contacted the publisher since and asked about the translation, they confirmed receiving my mail and promised to get back to me, we'll wait and see!

Edit: The publisher did reply within a week (kudos!) but got entangled in my spam folder. Although I am happy with the fact that he did answer, I am not entirely satisfied with the outcome:

"We strive to make a perfect cookbook, or deliver a perfect translation. Usually we succeed but in this book a couple of things went wrong. Quantities in the recipe you mentioned have been miscalculated, ("") and obviously fresh yeast isn't used in the same proportion as dried. We've purposefully stated fresh yeast only because the author prefers fresh over dried, and he tells his readers not to use dried yeast. Probably this will reduce your "misfortune". I do hope so!"

Note: Translation from Dutch to English is mine, and any errors made translating are mine as well). He goes on to explain that they will correct these mistakes in the next reprint and pay special attention to quantities.

Now... where does that leave me? Besides the fact that the original English copy does state fresh ánd dried yeast indeed (dûh!) I can't help feeling that this is the easy way out; so sorry you bought a book with mistakes and paid 26 euros for it...too bad, but thanks anyway?
I'm happy that they took my remark seriously and that any errors will be corrected. Future buyers of this book can be satisfied. But....my copy? Is this recipe the only one that is faulted? I'm not willing to try out all recipes anymore. Am I right in feeling a bit left out in the rain? Or just badgering.... What's next? What would you do? I think I'd like to return my book and get my money back or an English copy of same book.
I'd love to hear from you!

This Blundering Babe is Bitten By a Croc!

For perseverance and endurance, beautiful breads and stamina, please go and visit my Bread Baking Babe Sister. What I show you here is just a mediocre miserable excuse of a bread.

We all headed for coffee and chats to the lovely and talented Lien in her Kitchen of the Month. Boy, did she pick the perfect recipe for us. A bread to gnaw at our nerve ends, a dough to wrestle and conquer in the broadest sense of the word. We were going Wet and Wild this month. A recipe from Carole Fields the Italian Baker, the wettest of the wet, a nice 107% liquid ratio;

Crocodile Bread

And Carole, bless her white cotton socks, says the following:

"This bread, named for its shape, was dreamed up about thirty years ago by Gianfranco Anelli, a baker in Rome. It is his favorite bread and, judging from the numbers of people who come from all over the city to buy it, it may be his most popular as well. At the bakery it takes two days to make; I suggest that you start it in the morning, work at it again for ten minutes in the evening, and finish the next day. I actually prefer to stretch the process over three days because the flavor is even better. Three days may seem formidable, but the working time of the first two days is only 5 to 10 minutes.

This is one dough that you will find difficult to make without an electric mixer, for it requires thirty minutes of continuous stirring for the final dough-of course you could enlist help. The result is an extremely light bread with a crunchy dark-speckled crust and a very chewy interior. The bread stays fresh for an amazing number of days."

Wasn't shocked by the mentioned three days, not intimidated by the two separate starters, not even terrified by the thirty (30!) minutes stirring by hand (less when you use a stand mixer, but O.M.G... this was no dough, it was soup, the blobbiest of blobs, impossible to shape and fit to be tackled by Uri Geller I think. A mentalist good do some healthy work here to keep this monster at bay! (I do hope Lien is showing her hand magic with two bench scrapers). You can find the recipe in Dutch and in English in her Kitchen.

All I have to show you are these two pics, it disappeared too quickly to take anymore. Besides, I wanted to make it again, thinking I had thoroughly ruined this bread. See, I made the first starter, incorporated the first into the second starter the next day. Building confidence to tackle the dough on the third day. Put it to proof.

And forgot about it.

For several hours.

Only to be reminded by the big bowl in a warm spot in the kitchen at 11 pm! Pyjama-clad all ready for a nice last read in bed.... No way I was going to shape, rise and bake that monster blob that night.

I dumped it rather unceremoniously on a well floured lined baking sheet, performed miracles with two bench scrapers and my hands. (Yuck!!), divided in half and flipped each half over to one side. Then searched for the biggest plastic bag I could find and tented the whole thing. Shoved it in a corner, kissed it goodnight and went to bed..... Knowing all too well that this was going to be a large sticky failure. Already prepping myself I had to do this one again.

So..the next morning I silently tiptoed into the kitchen as to not disturb my croc. Fully expecting it to leash out at me, punishment for severe neglect. What I found was a even larger blob, spread out a bit, but altogether not too bad. Decided to bake it anyway.

Somehow between that first bread, and the hilarious exchanging of mails and forbidden words (do you know how many names this bread got called the past weeks?) I never got around to baking one again. Something got in the way, life perhaps or maybe I just didn't feel capable enough to tackle a croc. Call myself Sheila and get a proper Aussie hat first maybe. For now I feel I'm a Joey.

Oh and I did use my regular bread flour and some durum flour although the recipe asked for high protein flours from hard wheat. I guess I was a bit like Katie; if it can't be baked with what I have...too bad. After all; considering how I mishandled the dough, viewing the gorgeous breads my fellow bakers turned out and seeing what this bread is supposed to look like, I don't think it is too bad.

Please check our Crocodille hunters this month: A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna), Bake My Day (Karen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), I Like to Cook (Sara), Living on Bread and Water (Monique), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna), Grain Doe (Gorel), Notitie van Lien (Lien), The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick), Thyme of Cooking (Katie), and What Did You Eat (Sher)

Don't forget, you can become a Bread Baking Buddy again this month! How? Read all about it here, or in Dutch here.

To end this -late- post with a bang, let me show you my back side, (sometimes bread does imitate real life):