I like to make food, especially baked treats. It’s play time. I start off with an idea of what I want the end product to be, then I might grab a base recipe and muck around with the ingredients and process.
More often than not it doesn’t come out the way I envisioned. If at all! Which is fine, because the fun is from that excitement of trying new things and seeing what ways I can make it better the next time! Also, sugar + butter is usually tasty, irrespective of the outcome.
I’ve been experimenting with bread. First I wanted one with lots of seeds that looked like one I got at the grocery store.
I discovered that two tablespoons of sesame seeds to a white bread recipe makes them really savoury. (Recipe: 3 cups unbleached flour, 1 1/4 cup water, 2 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp instant yeast, 2 tbsp sesame seeds, 1 tsp salt.)
Adding a tablespoon of flax seeds and substituting half a cup of the unbleached flour for whole wheat will give it a more distinct look, at the expense of a dryer texture and weaker taste.
Next up was maple-flavoured bread. Two attempts, neither of which had a hint of maple – even when I had a third of a cup of maple syrup and 1 tsp of maple extract mixed into the water (Recipe: 3 cups unbleached flour, 1 cup water mixed with 1 tsp maple extract, 1/3 cup maple syrup, 1 tbsp instant yeast, 1 tsp salt.) For my third attempt I’ll up that to 2 tsp of maple extract, add 2 tbsp oil, and cut the salt by half. If that doesn’t work, I’ll make maple bread pudding with it.
I’ve also been making meals with the bread and playing around there too. The one below worked real well. Sesame bread topped with Greek yoghurt, grilled asparagus, and Italian veggie dogs. Dressed with maple barbecue sauce and pepper.
Another thing I tried to make was morning buns like they have at Bridgehead. If you’re not familiar with the concept, they look like cinnamon rolls. Only they’re made of puff pastry (what croissants are made of) and sprinkled with a cinnamon sugar mix instead of a glaze.
I bought the puff pastry for the first round of experimentation. I found that I couldn’t get them to rise all that well and the end result was under-baked. More tests needed! Still yummy. How can you go wrong with dough loaded in butter.
I went back to the tried-and-true vegan cinnamon roll doughnut recipe for a bit more success. Tasty, as ever. It too was the result of playing around.
A delicious month indeed.