Sharry Miller

Caraway, Orange, and Bread - Oh, My

For starters, let me be clear right up front that it's not about the yeast. My most recent bread failure, that is. I say "most recent" because it was by no means my first, and I'm equally sure it won't be my last. I speculated the other day that perhaps the reason I baked a brick was because my new jar of yeast was not viable. I have now demonstrated that the yeast was not... Read more →

I Baked a Brick

It is only right that I present a fair and unbiased view of my baking abilities, as difficult as that may be. Like all of us, I want to be seen as a success, but alas, that is not always the case. Yesterday, I baked a brick. Since I started this little bread baking adventure two months (!) ago, I've baked at least two dozen loaves of bread from nine of Bernard Clayton's recipes in... Read more →

Hops - It's Not Just for Beer

I had to embark on an odd, albeit short, research project last week. I was trying to figure out how the volume of dried hops compared to the volume of hops pellets. Hops are the flower buds of the female Humulus lupulus plant. Most of us know them as the ingredient in beer that makes it bitter. The "hoppier" a beer is, the more bitter it is. I'm not a fan of bitter things and... Read more →

A Two-Batch Day

I miss bundt cakes. Are you old enough to remember these dessert staples from the 1970s and 80s? My dad had a real sweet tooth when I was growing up, so I baked a lot of cakes and cookies. Bundt cakes were one of the few we always made from mixes, and my favorite was a chocolate cake with coconut center and glaze. You'd put the chocolate cake batter in a bundt pan and layer... Read more →

English Muffin Bread

I just made the mistake of checking the stats for my blog. Based on the number of page views I've had over the past week or so, I'm writing these posts for the pleasure of the ether, but I will persevere. I'm having a masochistic sort of fun with this project, and it means I get to eat yummy bread. I felt a little less guilty with today's recipe than I did with the Frisian... Read more →

Frisian Sugar Loaf

You ever have one of those days where you feel like nothing you do is enough? Today was one of those days. I didn't do enough work on my paying job, but when I was spending time on that I felt guilty for not creating fused glass artwork for the two shows I have coming up this fall, and when I finally spent some time in my studio I felt guilty for not getting outside... Read more →

Sourdough Musings

Since yesterday's Scottish Buttermilk Bread didn't meet our bread needs for the week, and since I haven't used my sourdough sponge (starter) in a month, I decided to make some sourdough bread today. Actually, I made that decision late last night and added two cups of white flour and two cups of water to the cup of sponge I had in the refrigerator. It needed to sit on the counter overnight to get well activated... Read more →

Scottish Buttermilk Bread

My adventures with Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads continued yesterday with the making of Scottish Buttermilk Bread. With this loaf I was forced to acknowledge that if I'm going to work my way through all of the recipes in the book, I'm going to make loaves that don't suit my needs, that is, aren't standard loaves of bread appropriate for toast, sandwiches, etc. Clayton describes Scottish Buttermilk Bread as being "closely akin to... Read more →

Bread of Five Risings

I checked the clock and added time carefully before I tackled the next recipe in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. It was nearly 4:30 when I started, and since the recipe said the dough required five risings, I wasn't sure it would be done in time for dinner. It took my fingers and toes to calculate, but I decided all would be well if we didn't eat early. I was wrong. We finished... Read more →

Baking Bread

As I type, a bowl of warm bread dough is rising in my oven. It is a miracle. Every loaf of bread is a miracle. A few years ago, I purchased Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads,revised and expanded, mind you. It has sat on my cookbook shelf, like most of my cookbooks, completely ignored. Occasionally I'd glance at it and think that I should methodically for my way through all of its 748... Read more →