Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Cocottes and Loaves


One of the pleasures of cooking is when attempting new things results in a successful meal, versus the ambitious projects that end up as duds (check back in the future for the Quinoa Cookie Failure).

Steve wanted to try making something in his new Mini Stoneware Cocottes from Sur La Table, which appear to be ramekins with mini handles and lids.

I wanted to try baking bread on the new baking stone.

Both projects turned out well, though the timing was a little off (or a little European), as we dined on salad and cocotte casseroles with pine nuts and basil, then desserted with freshly baked bread and cheese an hour later.



BREAD ADVENTURE #1:

As this was my first attempt with yeast-rising breads, I tried to start off with a very basic (generic) recipe from the Fresh Loaf tutorial.



I amended the recipe slightly along the way, substituting half of the flour with oats and adding honey.


Overall, a successful venture, albeit on the dense and salty side. I will definitely need to pursue this recipe to see if I can't make it more perfectly fit my palate.

2 comments:

  1. the adventure of homemade bread baking is so fun. i definitely recommend trying no knead bread, it's so easy.. will be blogging about this myself soon.

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  2. No knead bread, huh? I've never heard of that... so far I think the kneading is part of the fun, but that'll probably wear off when the novelty is over and I just want fresh bread now. Looking forward to your posts!

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