Do you know the muffin man? Don’t bother in this case, he’s on the wrong side of the story. Classically, he’s seen as walking the streets of London hawking his wares, which are a yeast based, disk shaped, and soft bread dish. In fact, the name is a derivation of the French word moufflet meaning soft, and that version was a UK peasant food starting about a thousand years … [Read more...]
Kitchens Were Made for Fun
A retired restaurateur, not quite ready to stop playing in the kitchen.
I have had the pleasure of watching amazing high end chefs, and classic American style diner cooking, creating a very diverse background with food. Add both parents teaching English, watching Julia Childs and Graham Kerr as a child, and learning to bake bread from my Finnish great grandma, and you get a decent recipe for a knowledgeable voice to write about food.
From recipe design to equipment testing, there is a broad spectrum of entertaining aspects of food and how we do what we do every day to feed our loved ones!
—Allen Bixby
No Knead Milk Bread
This is an extremely easy yeast bread that gives fun results to enjoy with a meal, or toasted the next day. It is true no kneading needed, however, it does take time. Yeast breads in general need the time to develop, this is no different. We do put it through a rise and then a proof stage, totaling a couple hours. As the chef’s adage goes; good food takes time. However, in … [Read more...]
Beer bread
This is a heavy dark peasant bread, sort of a mock rye bread. You could push it closer to rye if you want to add caraway seeds to it. It has a coarser texture, in part because of being a single rise, and a high percentage of whole wheat flour. The coloration comes from the things you see in eastern European breads; cocoa, coffee, and of course beer. To make it quicker there … [Read more...]
Whole Wheat Pullman Loaf
Pullman pans are just fun to use, and they make for a pretty impressive loaf when you bring one to the table. The pan is nearly twice as long as a normal pan, slightly narrower with taller very straight sides. It makes great sandwich bread and toast with the nice uniform shape. You can also get a lid for it, making Texas Toast, or any squared off bread you want. Using a lid … [Read more...]
Focaccia Bread
Focaccia is probably the most forgiving bread to make, and therefore great starting point if you are new to yeast baking. The texture will be slightly coarse by its nature, so if your kneading isn’t perfect or whatever, it likely won’t matter. One of the keys to this bread’s deliciousness is olive oil. It gives the crust an incredible crispness and rich flavors. It comes … [Read more...]
Finnish Sweet Bread
The wonderful aroma of this bread being toasted carries a wealth of memories of Christmas. As a young teenager learning from Mummu (a Finnish term of endearment for grandma, great grandma in this case) how to grind the cardamom seed with the back of a spoon in a wooden bowl, then building the dough and bread; these are all part of the tapestry of family cooking … [Read more...]
Chinese Bao Bread
Chinese bao are a staple, and fun, dish at most dim sum meals. Ranging between steamed or baked, and from sweet plum filling to savory spicy pork, and everything in between, they’re a very versatile dish. We slap anything between two slices of bread, and almost all European countries have a meat filled dough dish of some kind, and that doesn’t even begin to bring in pastries. … [Read more...]
Basics of Making Bread
Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods: and good bread with fresh butter the greatest of all feasts – James Beard Starting the day with toast or perfecting a dinner when you bring a hot loaf of bread to the table, there are few things as universal as bread. By the same token, there are as many kinds and types of bread as there are cultures around the … [Read more...]