BBB: Bee Keeper's Pain de Mie

The Kitchen of the Month for June is Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups.  Tanna chose Bee Keeper’s Pain de Mie, adapted from Martin Philip’s Breaking Bread.  The recipe calls for a Pullman pan, which I don’t have, so I used a 9x5” loaf pan and halved the recipe.  The one ingredient I was lacking was the wildflower tea.  I substituted some rose/hibiscus tea, although there was no evidence of that flavor in the final bread.

The bread, itself, had a nice crumb and good flavor.  I would make it again and leave out the tea, since it didn’t add anything to the final bread.  It’s also worth remembering that this is a two-day process, making the biga on the first day, and the bread on the second day.  Not difficult at all, but time management is key.

Hope you bake along with us.  Send Tanna your results before the end of the month to be included in the Buddy roundup.  You can find the recipe on her blog. 

Check out the other Bread Baking Babes:

• Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth 
• A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
• My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna 
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie
• My Kitchen in Half Cups – Tanna  (Kitchen of the Month)
• Feeding My Enthusiasms – Elle

Early American Cottage Loaf

As the saying goes, we are living in interesting times.  As a baker, finding flour and yeast has been challenging, and I’ve resorted to bartering and using unconventional sources.  I did find a 16-ounce package of yeast buried in my pantry, which was a plus.  And, I have an order placed with a local bakery for a 16-ounce package of instant yeast along with some bread flour.

This month’s BBB bread, Easy American Cottage Loaf, from Kitchen of the Month, Cathy, calls for a variety of dry ingredients, all of which I had!  Yay!  I did revert to the original recipe, and used the bread machine option as well as my 1 ½ quart soufflé dish.  The bread turned out well and has a great flavor and texture.  Wonderful toasted.

Don’t miss out on this easy and delicious bread.  As a Buddy, share your experience and photographs with Cathy before the end of the month.  The recipe can be found either on Cathy’swebsite or the Red Star Yeast website.

I’m too busy baking to say much more!

Stop by the websites of the other Babes to see how they did.

• Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth 
• A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
• My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna 
• Bread Experience – Cathy (Kitchen of the Month)
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie
• My Kitchen in Half Cups - Tanna
• Feeding My Enthusiasms - Elle

Hungarian Chimney Cakes

I started fretting about this recipe as soon as I saw it.  What would I use for molds?  Yesterday (the 15^th  and the day before posting), inspiration smacked me in the head.  With a bit of research, I managed to create my own molds from a heavy paper covered with non-stick foil. 

This morning I did the baking.  It took somewhat longer for the initial proof since it is an enriched dough, but after an extra hour, it was finally ready.  The experiment began.  I pretty much followed the recipe from this point on.  The first batch was a little too crispy, so I reduced the baking time by about 5 minutes.  The second batch was better.  (And the molds didn’t even ignite and burn up!  Guess that’s 451 F. for you.)

These are sort of crisp, crunchy, and soft, all at the same time, and the outer coating of butter and cinnamon sugar is delicious, but then, I am a sucker for cinnamon.

Hope you all will bake with us this month.  Our Kitchen of the Month is Aparna at My Diverse Kitchen.  She will have the recipe posted on her website. 

Also, check out the baking efforts of the other Babes.

• Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth 
• A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
• My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna  (Kitchen of the Month)
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie
• My Kitchen in Half Cups - Tanna
• Feeding My Enthusiasms - Elle

 
These remind me of Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico, one of my favorite places.