Thursday, December 16, 2010

Somebody Aced His Finals-and His Mother Baked

Eggs, butter, sugar...
Dried fruit, fennel, more sugar...

19 weeks later, we conclude our first semester of homeschooling. The kiddo is taking a well-earned break before we start the new unit.

The panettones came up beautiful, though they sunk a bit (there's a technique you can do that involves skewers and hanging the breads inverted over poles...yeah, I'll take a little sinking, thanks). They should make magnificent toast all week.

The cibatta (how the hell do you spell that anyway? I'm too lazy to google it) is remarkable. It took three days between sponges, soakers, and fermentation-but look at them! I've started lightly brushing my loaves with salt water before baking, which along with steam in the oven seems to create the crackly type of crust I've been aiming for. The starter just keeps getting stronger and stronger with fantastic results.

Completely unrelated-they're in the other room arguing over whether a tune is Marseilles, or Internationale. I guess I should go set them straight, but listing to Mr. ETB completely make up bogus lyrics is kind of funny (I don't think either song mentions heads rolling in the streets, at least not literally). OK, now they're whistling.

OK, comrades, I'm off to bed.

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