The Secret is Mine!

My journey along the path of mastering baking has taken a further step today for I have the secret of making Tiger bread! Not as difficult as I first thought, as you will see it turned out rather well.

Not bad huh? I have to say I sat and watched it bake through the glass door of the oven, I was a bit afraid that the white bits would colour up and spoil the look. One of the best loaves I've baked. Also on the production line today were some doughnuts, fun to make and they didn't turn out too bad.

Ermm Okay

Well, yes I know I said I would post some pics of the biscuits I baked earlier in the week but I'm not too sure about them, the taste is okay but the mouth feel as you eat them is odd, very dry and crumbly. The cardamon taste is subtle to begin with but persists for some time afterwards, not unpleasant, just odd. I think I'll stick to chocolate chip in future. Back to browsing the books again.

What Next?

Good question, well apart from working full time, trying to re-construct a crumbling house, building a mini-bakery, oh and having a few days off ill, nothing much. I'm trying to find a positive to the being ill part of my life and one thing occurs to me is that it has given me the opportunity to sit (or in my case lay) down and read some of the many books on baking that I seem to have acquired over the last few years, one a fairly recent acquisition is "Cookies, a fine selection of sweet treats"  and a fine selection there is too. The only downside to the book is that it is published by Murdoch Books, why did I buy it? All I can say in my defense is " I don't Know".  Anyway I have decided to start working my way through the recipes starting with "Pistachio and Cardamom Cookies" and will let you know how I get on, I have all the ingredients apart from the pistachio nuts, easily obtained. There will be pictures, you have been warned.

Mini-Bakery

Over the last year I have been toying with the idea of making a mini bakery out of the ramshackle conservatory and two utility rooms at the back of my house. It has been pointed out that I have been talking about it for too long without actually doing anything, something I dispute. It takes time to turn a dream into a wish list and then into a reality, something I think some people don't appreciate, anyway I have drawn up some plans and am now putting them into action. I'm not certain how long it's all going to take as my working days start at six in the morning and I'm not home until gone eight most evenings, this doesn't leave a lot of time to do much apart from weekends. Hmmm I think it will be awhile before it's all up and running. So plans made, time to action them. wish me luck!