Snowflakes

These are not edible and yes they are crochet projects, I figure since I'm taking a short bread break since it's almost Thanksgiving and I'm heading home that I could start posting other "creative" projects.

Made 3 snowflakes- they all have tiny mistakes, but I figured no 2 snowflakes are alike so it's ok!

Found the patterns for the first 3 here

Pattern 1- I added the corrections

Chain Loop Snowflake

Ch 8; join with sl st to form ring.

Rnd 1: Ch 1, sc in ring; (ch 12, sc in ring) 11 times; ch 5, yo hook 4 times, insert hook in first sc and draw lp through (yo and draw through 2 lps on hook) 5 times -- trtr made and 12 ch-12 lps counting trtr as lp.

BBA 1. Anadama challenge

Starting up the Bread Baking Apprentice Challenge, here's the first one Anadama Bread.

This recipe makes 2 loaves in 9x5 pans.

If you'd like the recipe you can find it here

Day 1
One. Make the starter
I weighed the cornmeal- 6oz and used my Pyrex beaker cup for 8 oz of water

**Note to all other bakers- do not use Pan cornmeal for arepas... doesn't work!**

Here's the cornmeal and water- liquid!

Day 2
Two. Added the flour, water and yeast, got it to bubble!

Three. Next was adding the molasses, room temperature butter, salt and flour.

Four. Then the kneading, my dough was super sticky, so I kept adding flour, and kneading, however I never got to the windowpane test. My arms were too tired to keep going after kneading for almost 20 minutes. So instead of continuing I decided to put it in the oiled bowl and let it rise for 90 minutes.

Five. Once the dough doubled I cut it in half and shaped it into loafs. I put them in two 9x5 oiled pans and let them rise for 90 mins, long enough for it to get over the ridges

Six. Bake for 20 mins at 350F, then switch places, bake for another 20-30 minutes
Seven. Fresh loaves out of the oven... now wait 1 hour before slicing

Verdict: Freaking fantastic!!!!! inside was uber soft and had a great molasses undertone. However I'll probably slice and freeze the second loaf. It's a heavy bread and with just the two of us I'm afraid the second loaf won't make it without preservatives. Definitely gonna make chili to accompany this one!

Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge

After scrolling around the web looking for bread recipes I came across The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. The boy being awesome decided to get me a copy :) Many bloggers across the web decided to start up a challenge of baking all the recipes. The challenge has long ended but regardless I figured that I could start it up for myself.
I'll be recording my attempts at baking all the recipes. I won't be including the recipes since it's definitely worth the buy plus I don't exactly have permission either!

I've technically already started using the book, we just ate the loaf so fast I didn't have time to take pictures :P

I'll be trying to keep a continuous record of my attempts. The first one being Anadama bread. Come back tomorrow for more bread baking!