Carrot Cake Cupcakes

There are times, increasingly numerous just lately, when I wonder why I am driven to do what I do. Why is it that the thought of a pound of carrots in the refrigerator won't leave me alone? Why must they absolutely be turned into cupcakes? Why do I always have to make things into other things?

I'm sure the answer is neurochemical in origin, and I'll probably never know it. In the meantime, these are remarkably good. I used Maida Heatter's recipes for cake and frosting, deviating from them only to decrease the sugar in the cake by half a cup, and whip the frosting in my mixer to make it airy. I also dug up my giant icing tip and it does make for a pretty and easy cupcake top.

Why are cupcakes suddenly the thing? I'll bet money there is a single PR agency somewhere responsible for the craze.

Buckwheat Rye

This is an example of a bread that looked really unpromising at every stage and has turned out to be one of the most delicious I've ever made. In shape it is much more like a pancake than a loaf, but it is chewy and crusty and has a deep, complex, slightly smoky flavor. The flour is 350g white (including the starter), 200g buckwheat (all of which fermented overnight) and 50g rye. I added commercial yeast in the morning when I mixed the final dough because I wanted to bake early. I also added way too much water, which probably accounts for the massive spread, but in my opinion if you don't care too much about shape too much water is not a problem. Too little and you get a tight dough that is (to me) repellent to work with; too much and you end up with a nice chewy interior.

Breakfast of Champions

Nothing beats a Hello Kitty waffle. The flour mix in these is whole wheat and teff, with a dash of coconut. The jam is raspberry cardamom, and it takes the full weight of my conditioning to keep me from eating it from the jar with a spoon.

Chai Spice Mini Cupcakes

with chocolate cinnamon ganache icing. You know how sometimes an idea will take root in your mind and flourish there without reference to observable reason? That's what happened to me in November. I was in a bakery in Victoria, BC, and had a little chai-spice cupcake. Ever since then I have wanted to make them, though I generally have no special interest in cupcakes or fancy baking per se. Today I found myself with the ingredients and the time, so I went for it, using these recipes. I overbeat my icing (despite the recipe's warning) and experienced a total failure of my decorating equipment, but they are nonetheless delicious. I went whole hog, with cake flour and full sugar. If I do it again I'll cut the sugar by a quarter, and add some vanilla. My teaspoon-size cookie scoop filled the mini-papers perfectly.

Chia Seed Banana Bread

I read somewhere that if you include chia seed in your baking you can cut down on the fat. I'm normally pro-fat and not interested in cutting down on it, but I decided to try it in this case; I made my usual whole wheat banana bread but used about 3/4 the normal amount of butter, and included half a cup of gelled chia seed. And it's delicious! Even better than usual! I know because I ate about a third of the loaf just to be sure.

When the Bread Doesn't Rise

I don't understand bread. This dough had so much rising power in the bucket it almost burst the lid. And yet, in the oven, almost nothing. A modest puffiness at best. Why? I'm sure there are answers, but I don't know them. The good thing is that, impressive rise or no, this is one of the tastiest loaves I've made in a while (100 g white, 100g sprouted spelt, 400g whole wheat).

Clamshell Bread

I think it looks like a clamshell or like a French macaron. Either way it's delicious; half white, half sprouted spelt flour. I'm thinking my ideal flour to water ratio is 2:1. I'm also learning that in addition to making bread palatable (to me) salt makes the crust color and crisp properly.

Sourdough

Here is the latest in my Anarchiste series of loaves. This is delicious, with a wonderful chewy crumb and a distinct sour tang. I attribute the latter to making the sponge with half white, half sprouted spelt flour; I find the more whole grain in the part of the dough that ferments overnight, the more sour flavor. In the end this loaf was composed of about 400g white flour (100 of which were the starter), 100g sprouted spelt flour, and 100g rye flour. I don't know how much water I used, but it was enough to make the dough impossible to work with, and beautifully textured once baked.

Auction Bread

A number of months ago I offered to include some bread in an auction for a local literary magazine. I never heard that it was included, and forgot all about it, until a few weeks ago when a colleague of mine came to my office and (in the kindest, least demanding way possible) told me he had bid on and won it. So when I made this loaf (half white, half whole wheat) I gave it away without tasting a crumb, a first for me. Hope it tasted as good as it smelled.

Banana Bread

As always I used Nigella Lawson's recipe as a template, and also as always I tinkered: I used half spelt, half whole wheat flour, cut the sugar in half, and added a quarter cup of chia seeds. Do you know about chia seeds? You can Google and read about their being the next wonder food, but for cooking purposes they are fun because they absorb water like nobody's business, turning into a strong gel within minutes of adding water. I can't detect their presence in the banana bread, which is delicious (whether because of the chia or despite it I don't know).

Here We Go

All better. This has 500g of flour: 50g rye, 225g white, 225g spelt; about half a cup of starter; maybe half a pack of yeast; and 10g salt. It's delicious, and as you can see shaped itself beautifully without slashing or any fancy business on my part.

The horror...the horror...

It looks good, doesn't it? I was so proud when I took it out of the oven; nicely risen, interesting cracking along the surface, beautiful color—what could be wrong? I found out the next morning when I took my first chewy bite. I had *forgotten to add the salt.* For me taking a bite of a baked good that's missing salt is like trying to move a limb that has fallen asleep: the shock of the dead where one expected warm life. I'm starting over tonight. Let us never speak of this loaf again.

Purists Will Object

I resuscitated my poor neglected starter a couple of days ago, a process that was much easier than I expected: two feedings and it was chipper and ready to go. I planned to make a loaf of bread and got out the Bread Bible for my usual French Country Boule recipe when something came over me: a weariness of careful percentages and a deep desire to wing it. So I did: I threw some liquid-ish starter in a bowl with rye and white bread flour, let it bubble away all day and rest in the fridge over night. This morning I let it warm up on the counter for a few hours, then added a packet of yeast, a few cups of half bread/half whole wheat flour, and 15 grams of salt. After a rise I shaped it into a boule, let it rise again, and voila: the mongrel you see. It is very delicious. We had it for dinner with scrambled eggs and roasted cauliflower and shiitakes.

Pancake Au Levain

So...what happened here? The levain was nice and peppy, so I think it must be the high percentage of non-glutinous flour I used; lots of buckwheat, rye, and whole wheat. It certainly smells good, though, so all may yet be well. If you're wondering why I didn't slash it it's because I am tired of disappointing slashes.

Pane di Altamura

This bread was well underway before I read around on the internet and discovered that I, like many others who tried it, had done almost everything wrong. Most importantly I used readily available semolina flour, when apparently what one wants is a much finer grind available only in Italy, or at least not readily here. Nothing daunted, I went ahead and baked. I haven't tasted it yet, but feel in any case that it is no small thing to have produced a loaf that looks as nice and smells as heavenly as this one does.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Miche

Delicious, delicious bread. But I confess to tearing up when I took it out of the oven because I can't, no matter what I try, get it to burst and split in the oven like I see other people's loaves doing. Eating a few pieces of it cheered me up a bit.

For dinner last night we had lamb chops, okra, and curried (disgusting, watery, flavorless) acorn squash.

Scrappy Sourdough

I planned to make my usual whole wheat version, but realized I was low on whole wheat. Instead I ended up with 200g whole wheat, 100g rye, and 200g bread flour. Delicious, and not so different from what I planned, as it turns out. I was without oven power for about a week, and I really missed the bread. Thank goodness everything's working again.

Chocolate Sour Cherry Bread

For the record: we had a brussels sprout and potato frittata for dinner. The real story, however, is clearly the pictured bread, which is from a recipe in Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery. It's really just a normal sourdough, with the addition of cocoa, chocolate, dried cherries, and a little butter. It's delicious, and will, I predict, be better in a few days when the chocolate has bloomed. I like Silverton's book a lot, but wish she'd given measurements in grams rather than ounces. Bakers go metric for the same reason drug dealers do: when accuracy matters, it's the only way to fly.

Sesame Seed Kamut Levain

This loaf has 50% kamut flour, 45% bread flour, 5% whole wheat, and is filled with sesame seeds inside and out. It is extremely good today, and I think will be better tomorrow and the day after. I dearly love sesame seeds. I also love kamut flour, and don't understand why the recipes I read call for (in my opinion) cautious amounts of it. Berenbaum recommends 6% (!!!). I'm sure she has her reasons, and they probably have to do with maintaining authenticity in her recipe for pain au levain, but luckily for me I don't care about authenticity. I care about using lots of kamut. This is a good way to do it.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Miche

This is a really reliable loaf. I love the way the crust darkens, and then darkens again when I toast it.