Last week, police at London's Gatwick Airport turned up a suitcase filled with bags of white powder. Further testing revealed that the pile of evidence was actually vegan cake mix on its way to a restaurant in Brighton.
According to a statement from the British Transport Police, the bags "were soon reunited with the owner, who has promised officers and staff a slice of cake in return."
(CNN)
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I bought a bread lame.
A friend of mine is doing all sorts of fancy scoring to his bread. Mine just tastes good.
I will try to make some fancy cuts in some bread soon, it will probably taste the same. This lame is as cheap as I could find, as I do not think they make much difference. I have seen some fancy stuff tho. I think I have had and lost other lames, so I am going cheap.
Premium Hand Crafted Bread Lame Included 5 Blades and Leather Protective Cover via Amazon Read the rest
Sourdough is not the complicated, finicky bread baking technique some folks might like you to believe. Sourdough baking takes very little effort and is mostly an art of patience.
This loaf is an example of what you can achieve by barely paying attention to your starter. I left mine in the fridge for months, and then forgot it on the kitchen counter.
Here is the dough after its first rise, and before I spread it out for folding.
Here is the loaf in its proofing basket. It was VERY wet and took a lot of the flour out of the basket.
Here is the finished second loaf, baked from a starter that had been left on my kitchen counter, unfed, for over a week. Previous to ignoring the starter on my counter, I had left it in my fridge for well over 6 months.
Here are some details on preparation of a basic sourdough loaf. Read the rest
Unlike all the breadcore pals I have baking loaves with hand-ground sorghum and Bolivian yeast strains kept at 75% hydration, I left my sourdough starter on the kitchen counter for a week and didn't bother feeding it.
After another midafternoon phone call from a friend who newly discovered baking as a relaxing and delicious artform asking for recommendations on baking something crisp-but-gooey, I looked at the live starter I keep on my counter. I transplanted it from the sleeping mass of junk a week or so back, baked a few great loaves of bread, and then kinda forgot about it. I had other stuff on my mind. The phone conversation led me to desire bread.
Intending to put up a loaf later in the afternoon, I fed the room temperature but dormant starter. First, I mixed all the hooch back into the starter. I then discarded a cup of starter and added 1/2 cup each of warm water and flour. Then I stirred, covered and gave it 4 hours.
I used the starter to prepare my go-to no-knead loaf of bread, flour and whole wheat. Said dough was permit to rise overnight. Pretty much everything looked like dough normally does on a first rise. I then folded the blob! The dough was pretty wet, I left it to proof in its basket.
I had a hard time deciding when it was ready for the oven. After 90 minutes I could see some large bubbles had formed in the dough, and a poke-with-index-finger test was getting what I thought were correct springing back results, but something looked off. Read the rest
This enameled cast iron dutch oven should last longer than we do.
I use a dutch oven for baking sourdough bread and cooking with my sous vide circulator. It is also wonderful for cassoulet, which I have been challenged to prepare by a young lady this week...
Second or third in-line behind my cast iron skillet, the enameled Dutch oven is one of my most-used kitchen tools.
The lid is only rated to 450F because of the button-style handle on top. Replace it with a stainless one and the whole deal is good to go at 500F.
Vremi Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven Pot with Lid - 6 Quart Capacity Deep Large Ovenproof - Red via Amazon Read the rest
The biggest single improvement to my sourdough baking hobby has been using a pre-heated dutch oven. Read the rest
Awesome baking project for Halloween. Read the rest
Konel Bread specializes in bread that depicts animals, cartoon characters, and other fun stuff when it's sliced. Read the rest
Lauren Ko of LOKOKITCHEN in Seattle bakes up pies and tarts that are so creative that fans might feel bad slicing into them. Read the rest
Inspired by the Purple One himself, this cookbook is the work of Cat Food, a "super small, super busy, super tiny bakery" in South East London. Inside its pages you'll find Prince-ly recipes for Purple Rain ombre cakes, Raspberry Beret tarts, Darling Stikki toffee puddings, Most Beautiful Swirl in the World brownies, and more.
The book is available to preorder now for £9.00 from Belly Kids. It's set to ship in March.
I have to wonder though, as cute as this is, how long it will be before the Prince estate shuts it down?
Purple Rain ombre cake
Little Red Velvette cupcakes
Previously: Prince and his purple piano inspired this new Pantone Color
(Nerdist) Read the rest
I love bagels. I wanted to learn to make delicious ones at home. I was surprised at how simple it really is. Read the rest
Instructables member Tye Rannosaurus has baked something special for Halloween, blood-red-on-the-inside and black-as-soot-on-the-outside Brimstone Bread:
Rumor has it, when demons in Hell make this bread, they roll the dough in the deep pits of sulfur and soul dust and cook them in the hot brimstone vents. Unfortunately, as you are mortal and have neither access to soul dust or brimstone vents, I’ve had to make a few adjustments to the recipe for you.
While these rolls aren’t actually “Hell Authentic,” they’re close enough to get the job done.
More of Tye's horrible Halloween recipes can be found at Necro Nom-nom-nomicon. Read the rest
Do you like brownies with crispy edges all around? Gooey in the middle? This is the brownie making pan for you!
My daughter continues to point out things that must be perfected with what I cook. She is, in her own words, "very particular." Brownies, she told me, would be so much better if every tasty bite was like a treat cut from the corner of the pan. So, we found a pan that is all corners!
Kinda like a cupcake pan for brownies, this one comes kid endorsed.
Chicago Metallic Professional Slice Solutions Brownie Pan, 9-Inch-by-13-Inch via Amazon Read the rest
El Bolillo's late shift bakers found Houston's streets impassable during the hurricane, but since the power was still on, they got to work turning two tons of flour into pan dulce for the two days they were stuck inside. Read the rest
When life hands you shit, make poop emoji brownies. YouTuber Rosanna Pansino shows you how.
First you're going to need one (or more) of her 6-cavity poop swirl treat molds.
Then you'll need to follow the recipe, which is here:
"Ta-Doo-Doo! Poo never smelled so good!"
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A German start-up has prototyped a bread oven that operated in microgravity that may someday enable astronauts to enjoy fresh-baked goods in space. Currently, astronauts eat tortillas because they aren't crumbly and have a long shelf-life. (See the below photo of a rather unappetizing tortilla cheeseburger on the International Space Station.) From Space.com:
On Earth, bread needs to be baked at a temperature of about 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Once it’s done, the bakers remove it from the heated oven. But that would not be possible in space. Processes such as thermal convection, which helps to mix up air on Earth, don't work in space. If a bubble of air that hot were to escape from the oven in orbit, it could stay floating inside the station for quite a while, posing a serious health risk to the astronauts, (Bake In Space CEO Sebastian) Marcu said.
Marcu said the team has found a way to overcome this challenge.
"We basically put the baking product, the dough, inside the cold oven and start heating it up," he said. "Once it's almost done, we start cooling it down. But at that time, any product will start to get dry, and that's why we need to design the oven so that some water is added during the baking process."
The oven also needs to be able to operate with only 270 watts of power — about one-tenth the power used by conventional ovens on Earth. Marcu said the team hopes to have a prototype ready by the end of this year.
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