Family traditions counter alienation and confusion. They help us define who we are; they provide something steady, reliable and safe in a confusing world. Susan Libberman ,New Traditions Until I got down to baking this month’s bread, Bialy to me, was the mighty Bagel’s fancy cousin – stuffed with toppings and looking all pretty. It’s only when I started to read more on the bread & the history of Bialystok Kucken, that I started to admire and respect the human spirit and family traditions with a much greater zeal than I already did. To be able to recreate a home …
Hokkaido Milk Bread with Tangzhong
The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight… – M.F.K. Fisher, from The Art of Eating I think when MFK fisher said that she was thinking about the Hokkaido bread made with the Tangzong method. Well may be not really, but a girl can hope, especially when these were the exact feelings I had when baking this bread. The amazing tangzhong or water-roux method was introduced to the rest of the world by Yvonne Chen who wrote the book “Bread Doctor” in which she reveals her “secret” …
Nan-e-Barbari – Persian Bread
I have been missing home, a lot, lately. That is one of the reasons why you are and will be seeing a lot of bread / Naan/ Indian bread related posts on Spiceroots. There is something in those not so distant mountains that I see from my kitchen window that speaks of home to me. Its almost hypnotic. How they change from the time the first rays of sun touch them to the time the sun hides behind them almost feels like a conversation. I do feel very blessed to live in Colorado. It feels like home and yet makes …
Banana Bread with Pecans and Hemp seeds
It’s the 38 Power Foods Blog Friday and our ingredient for today is the Pecans. A daily handful of pecans is said to reduce the overall risk of heart disease. The unsaturated fats in pecans help lower the LDL cholesterol. Pecan nuts are rich source of many phyto-chemical substances that may contribute to their overall antioxidant activity, including polyphenolic antioxidant ellagic acid, vitamin E, beta-carotene, lutein and zea-xanthin. Research studies have been suggestive of that these compounds help the body remove toxic oxygen-free radicals and thus, protect the body from diseases, cancers, as well as infections. The nuts are very rich …
Sun Dried Tomatoes and Gruyere Pull Apart Bread
I learned the joy of eating home made bread from my daughter. It started with the butternut Squash rolls that I made in a bread baking session with a friend and brought some home. After having tasted those, each fall she would merrily point to the butternut squash and look at me with a twinkle in her eyes and ask me if we could buy it. Despite knowing why she wanted it, I would still ask her, “ Hmm! I wonder what we can make with that!” And she would always reply with a gleeful smile and a dimple on …
Fougasse with Herbes de Provence
[Breadbaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells…there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.” M. F. K. Fisher, ‘The Art of Eating’ When we were young girls, a little younger than my daughter is right now, my sister and I used to take turns buying the morning bread from the neighborhood baker. It wasn’t something I looked forward …