Here’s what I’m baking with the kids this morning: Chocolate-Chip Cookies (henceforth, ccc’s!)! Yeah, yeah, this blog is supposed to be for breads and cakes only. But it’s baking, and I haven’t posted here all week, so forgive me. These may not be as delicious as butter ones, but with the oil, they are fast, easy and delicious. Pics to follow! Step by Step! Mix the cookie dough – quick n’ easy Roll in two identical logs, inside parchment and tinfoil – and freeze at least 1-2 hours. Remove one log from freezer and unwrap. Slice half the log thinly into 12 cookies. Place on baking sheet and bake 12-14 minutes at 350°. Repeat with the second half of the dough! Shiputzim Cookies Recipe borrowed from the teenagers at http://ourshiputzim.blogspot.com/2010/07/freshly-baked-friday-chocolate-chip.html Cookies 2/3 cup oil 1½ cups brown sugar 2 eggs plus 1 yolk 1 TBSP vanilla 2½ cups flour 2 tsp baking powder (i.e. one envelope for my Israeli readers) ½ tsp baking soda ...

Why the weird dates? Click here to find out! Blueberry, almond, lemon:  not my favourite… These Blueberry Almond Bars are from the Odense (marzipan & almond past products) website.  They are exactly as promised, but just as in the Lemon and Blueberry Upside-Down Cake , which I’ve now tried twice (once pareve, once with butter), the combo enthralls me in the description, yet evades charm in the execution. Maybe there’s something wrong with my tastebuds…?

No, not ME (for once!)! Just annoyed at the propensity of bakers to brag about their sourdough.  It comes up everywhere, like on this page I was just reading through, where somebody “complains” modestly that “I'm beggining to suspect my starter is a very hyper active one; my loaves are always beating the given times.” Yeah, well, I am beginning to suspect that you need to go back to tenth grade and take a spelling course.  And grammar.  And, well, snootiness.  Yeah; a snootiness course. Me, I’m proud to have an underperforming starter.  I think.  Off to go feed the beast!

Well, for me, anyway. Here’s my menu/sign.  Very windy day; the sign kept blowing over: These signs just make me happy to look at, for some reason.  Maybe it’s Elisheva’s hand-painted magen david happy faces! I managed to sell out all the beer bread mix I made, 10 bags, I think, at $3 a bag.  Plus the entire loaf of beer bread, at 75 cents a slice. Absolutely the world’s BEST pletzl ever!  Here’s a picture of the two I made before baking; I took one with Ted’s camera, I think, afterwards.  They were golden and beautiful and rich and savoury and slightly sweet and ever so amazing.  I used the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Master Dough instead of any kind of enriched dough.  The only special thing I did was mix it on Thursday night so it had three days to retard in the fridge. Muffins!  Blueberry, strawberry – both frozen because I didn’t have fresh-picked this time.  About three dozen, a giveaway at 50 cents each!   ...

Okay, so if anyone knows what could cause Maggie Glezer’s sourdough challahs to lose the definition of their braids between rising and baking, please let me know!!!  (p.s.  this also happened the last time I baked this recipe – photos here and here ) Continuing the sourdough experiment yesterday afternoon, after five hours’ rise time, we brushed the loaves with egg and sprinkled with sesame.  Naomi did the brushing.  We sprinkled the “quick-rise” same-day challahs for our neighbours with poppy seeds because they’re water challahs.  Don’t ask me why:  egg challah = sesame; water challah = poppy. Brushing on the egg:   Sprinkling the seeds:   Look how loose the braids are already, after brushing and sprinkling.  The dough looks quite slack to me now.  Overrisen, maybe???  That’s certainly never happened to my sourdough before…   After baking, quick-rise same-day challahs, nicely done: Maggie Glezer sourdough ...

Why the weird dates? Click here to find out!   Beer bread mix!  Comin’… get it! This is for tomorrow’s FunFair bake sale .  And yes, I know it ought to be “come n’ get it.”  But that would be SEVEN words, which is a whole ‘nother meme.  :-)))

On Wednesday, I set about reviving a VERY old sourdough starter , and I am VERY pleased to report that the experiment was a success. So I decided to jump right in with both feet and attempt, once again , to make Maggie Glezer’s sourdough challah.  Last time, they didn’t rise well and turned out dense and weird… let’s see how it goes this time. Starter – last night, I took some of the revived starter and mixed it with some bread flour and water to make the quantity of starter required for the recipe.  It was actually below the level of the bottom line when first mixed (don’t you love these containers?!); I took this picture before bedtime, two hours later, and it had already puffed significantly. And by morning… here’s what it looked like!  An easy quadruple in volume, I’d say.  Pretty impressive for a starter many people would have thrown out.     Here’s the finished dough, sitting, well, like a lump of dough.  She says in the recipe that i...