Baking

We were recently given a copy of a wonderful book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and since I made the first batch of dough, the dough bucket has not been empty — as soon as I finish one batch I am instantly making another in without even washing it, scraping the remnants of the last dough down into the new dough so it has a head start on getting a delicious yeasty sourdough-ish flavor. So far I have made several baguettes for breakfasts and dinners, and today a loaf of crusty sandwich bread, which turned out pretty well. I’m a huge evangelist for this book now. Thank you Trent & Melinda! Everyone else, check this book out from the library (then buy it).

Also we tested out a recipe tonight that we will be making for our new parent friends this weekend: chicken, leek and apple soup, with apple juice (we used applesauce since we have that) and apple cider vinegar as well as chunks of apple. It was VERY tasty. I think I need to start putting a dollop of vinegar in soups and other things.

And then, while watching streaming Iron Chef America (scroll down for goodness), I was overwhelmed with the need to bake brownies. I had to search around a bit to find a recipe for brownies from scratch that had only 2 eggs, since that’s all I could spare, but soon enough I found this 101cookbooks forum post with the following recipe at my preferred level of recipe specificity:

The recipe:

Melt 1 stick of butter – add 1/2 c cocoa, 1 cup sugar and mix. Add 2 egss 1 at a time- mix – add vanilla and walnuts if you like. Add 1/2 cup of flour and stir to combine. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes. Batter fits in a 8″ square pan.
ENJOY!

I added lots of chocolate chips and also some chopped up 57% chocolate bar that I found in the cupboard. Very successful thick, rich, fudgy brownies. Nom.