I have taken one giant step forward in my Ongoing Quest to create the perfect round and malty bread, which will sustain me through the winter!  And I also got to test-drive the newly-toivelled Pyrex Bake-a-Round baking “pan.”  (which is really just a tube in a rack) Here’s the Bake-a-Round, all greased up (with shortening, per the instructions, NOT Pam, though I don’t know why) and ready for action. I decided to use this British Malt Loaf Recipe , for authenticity.  I figured it’s from the Flour Advisory Bureau.  Even their name is FAB; how bad could the bread be?  I liked the fact that most of the ingredients were scaled, and quickly switched my scale to pounds and ounces so I wouldn’t have to convert.  I also appreciate its use of the word “whilst.” (I doubled everything, because it didn’t sound like very much.) Ingredients for Malt Loaf (bastardizations of the original, for necessity or preference, shown with strikeout below) 75ml (2 ...

Actually, this is more than a New Baking Toy – it’s Step 1 in a however-many step plan to bake the perfect Malt Bread, exactly as I remember it from childhood, or as near as makes no nevermind. Here’s the toy… Bought new in box on etsy for not too much money, and shipped BEAUTIFULLY packed – I’m very impressed. The actual malt bread I’m thinking of is NOT the “malt loaf” popularly known by the name Soreen in the U.K.  That looks icky; it’s full of fruits and whatnot.  What I’m searching for is authentic Canadian malt bread, such as that turned out every day in the Dempster’s factory and sold without a hechsher in supermarkets very near my home. The bread itself is sweet, but not too sweet.  It has a definite malt taste, and – I’m thinking now – perhaps some molasses as well.  It has a dark colour, but that could easily just be caramel colour… which I don’t have.  Definitely no fruit, no puréed dates or raisins or whatever else British people think bel...

But isn’t this a beautiful braiding pattern for a round loaf??? Definitely something to try next Rosh Hashanah!

Yay!  You may remember this photo from my Rosh Hashanah sourdough Pan de Calabazas this past year. Well, I sold my editor at the Canadian Jewish News on an article about “kosher sourdough baking” – in which I reveal the stunning truth that “kosher sourdough baking” is pretty much the same as any other sourdough baking. Read it here.

Forgive me, I know it’s not bread, but it’s that time of year again, when I bake up a storm for the sake of in-laws far and wide – hopefully wide, once they’ve tasted my yummy bakies! So last year’s shortbreads were GOOD, but I wanted to kick them up a notch. And, at the recommendation of Shoshana at Couldn’t be Pareve , I invested last week in a little bottle of LorAnn’s Buttery Sweet Dough bakery emulsion .  (What a cute store, by the way; they’re on the Internet, but they’re right here in Mississauga, only about 25 minutes away when it’s not rush hour.  I wouldn’t say this is the best baking store in the GTA, but I had a great time browsing when I went in to pick up my emulsions.  Oh, yeah… I also bought some of this Princess Cake & Cookie bakery emulsion .  Oh, and on an impulse, a bottle of this Red Velvet emulsion , which includes the deepest, darkest red food colouring you could possibly imagine, with which I baked the most wonderful pure-buttermilk...