One of the main questions that I get asked about the blog is whether it feels like a chore. Not “how do you get such great photos?” or “why are you so funny?” or anything else vaguely flattering. I’ve previously explained that while I do feel a sense of oblogation* it’s generally one of those … Continue reading Task 19: Cheesy Pesto Pull-Apart Bread
Growing up my mother did the bulk of the cooking. My father’s efforts can be summarised as follows: Sunday waffles, Thursday frozen curries, weekend BBQs (meat only, BYO sides) and a year long love affair with making bagels. Bagels have been on my blog hit list for a while, and I thought that this weekend was … Continue reading Task 18: Bagels
And also cheesy-mite scrolls. I went for the double down this week because we had people over for the classic afternoon tea combination of a focus group followed by a royal wedding viewing. What do you serve guests who are going to first share their thoughts on behavioural archetypes and then critique wedding arrangements at … Continue reading Task 17: Sticky Pecan Buns
The real blog is back! After three fabulous weeks pretending that I am a travel writer and not a middling home baker it is time to return to bread-making reality. Before I launch into this week’s masterpiece – raisin toast – I need to provide a few updates. On the subject of Pides. During my … Continue reading Task 16: Raisin Toast
I want to call Tokyo a superlative city, but what I really mean is that Tokyo is a city of superlatives. It is the most populous, loudest, most vertical, most miniaturised, most queue loving, weirdest, architecturally surprisingest city I have ever been to. It provided some of my best food experiences (of my entire life, … Continue reading Tokyo
It is possible probable highly likely that the whole reason we are in Japan is for Naoshima. Naoshima is also known as the ‘art island’ and sits off the shore of Okayama in the south-east of Honshu (Japan’s main island), apparently in an inland sea. I don’t exactly know how I learned about Naoshima, but … Continue reading Okayama/Naoshima/Hiroshima
Well. This has certainly taken a turn. When I strayed from my strict rules and did the yeastless Matzah who could have predicted that we would end up here? For clarity, here is a place where instead of detailing a bread endeavour for the week I will instead write about the trip I’m on in … Continue reading Kyoto
Full disclosure: this one is kind of boring. It’s boring because it was straight forward and it turned out fine and I didn’t lose my phone or wrangle family into helping or add twice the amount of flour or any of my usual melodramas. The closest I came to a misstep was trying to twist … Continue reading Task 15: Pretzels
A good friend of mine (Tali) proposed this as a joint venture. Diehard fans may remember Tali from my European blogging days. She and I have an extremely dubious co-baking track record, but my strong sense of oblogation (a word I have invented meaning feelings of duty to this specific blog, obviously) meant those historic … Continue reading Task 14: Monkey Bread
I don’t even know where to begin with this one, there are so many sidebars and back stories I can distract myself with. I guess I’ll just ramble through them all and get to the baking when it suits me, this is MY blog after all. Before anything I need to set the scene. Matzah, … Continue reading Task 13: Matzah
Bready Set Dough 