Breads

Nice quick batch of breads. Foccacia style, mini loaf, flat bread and oven bottom rolls. The last two were "baked" in a dry frying pan; I was feeling adventurous :-) All from the same initial dough, which was a basic white bread recipe with a few oats and stuff. And some gran padano cheese grated in. Probably why the crusts came out so brown.


The flat bread and little roll above it were done in a dry frying pan. Took just a few minutes on a medium heat...

Mmm salty

Few grilled courgettes with garlic, served with the foccacia style bread.

A good day

I've been putting a lot more focus on riding and running as of late. After going for a bit of a loosener yesterday (40km?), I went for a nice 50k ride along a canal today to a place called Dunham Massey Hall:
All that riding left me a little peckish so I made this:


Hand made dough topped with hand made ragu, tomatoes, mushrooms, ham, mozzerella and cheddar... and fresh basil.

Not bad for one of the hottest days this year... it's a few hours later and I'm still burning up!

Stones

Some of you have been enquiring about my absence - fear not I'm still here, just a lot thinner and able to run 10 kilometres... who'd have thunk it?!

This was all due to being away from the cakes for quite some time. Well, that and lots of running and mountain biking - but mainly the staying away from the cakes and chocolate... the running and cycling were the easy parts!

I'll be back soon, though the Daring Bakers seem to have vacated their old premises and my key doesn't work any more... I think they escaped while they could!

see you soon!

Mark

American Pie

Well it is isn't?! But don't worry all political comments on America have been surgically removed!

Now I didn't have much time this month, I like to do by baking at the weekends and I had several things on. Therefore I only got one chance to pull this off, and no time to prepare. Rushed it the keyword.

As a Daring Baker I have every right to make every recipe as hard as it possibly could. So I don't own any nice tart dishes or loose bottom thingamabobs. Or measuring cups for that matter.

I assembled the dough. Guessing that a cup of solid butter was a certain weight. Why would you measure a solid in mls? baffling! Once it'd been made to work and chilled I put the dough into a square steep sided dish, stuffed in the (mainly guestimated amounts of) filling and topped it with meringue. I know what you're thinking "that'd never work for me, he must be a genius!".

But I'm a skilled eater and I'll eat anything (see the battered haggis, and battered Mars I had up in Scotland this weekend!). So when mine eventually was sliced (dug out) the runny lemon filling is no problem at all ;-)

You might be able to tell I'm not a big fan of this American mainstay; I think it lacks depth and just doesn't sit on the tongue nicely. Maybe it tastes better when done properly...

But I bet it doesn't.