organic food

Top 10 Breads of the World

May 1, 2012 By bigfatbaker 3 Comments

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Across the globe, breads of all shapes and sizes are a staple part of cultural cuisine. Traceable back to pre-historic times, bread is one of the oldest forms of fare, and to this day is one of the most comforting. We take a culinary journey round the world to discover some of the best breads the planet has to offer.

Bagel

A dense and doughy, ring-shaped snack that is said to originate from 16th Century Poland. Boiled and then baked, these wheat-based bread products were often given as a gift to women in childbirth. Since the middle of the 19th Century, they’ve been sold in the Brick Lane area of London, and they were brought to the US by Polish-Jewish migrants. Traditionally served with cream cheese and lox, or salt beef and mustard, a shipment was even taken into space on the 2008 shuttle!

Brioche

A rich and buttery Viennoiserie, this Gallic delicacy is light and pillowy, with a fine, shiny crust. Often embellished with fruit or chocolate chips, this flexible foodstuff is great at breakfast or as dessert, but can also be served toasted to accompany foie gras or soup. Hailing from Norman origins, a region famous for the quality of its butter, its name derives from the French verb broyer, which means to break or grind.

Watermelon Soup

April 18, 2012 By bigfatbaker 27 Comments

Before you click away because this is something so completely unheard of on a sweets website, hear me out!

My friend Keely over at Gormandize with A-dizzle and K-bobo is hosting a vegan soup hop this week and I thought that sounded like the perfect challenge for a sweet baker.

In my daily life I’m pretty much as far as I can be from vegan – eggs and bacon for breakfast, turkey sandwiches or ramen for lunch, meat and potato type dinners….and of course baked good after baked good.

But all of us need some balance in our lives so I figured this was a good place to start.

Watermelon is one of my favorite fruits. I love it. It totally reminds me of being 5 and having seed spitting contests in the summer.

After a bit of consulting with friends on Twitter I was inspired to make a soup with gazpacho type flavors. After ripping through all my cupboards I realized I didn’t have anything gazpacho like!

So I stuck to what I know – sweets.

Arugula Pesto Bread for #greenslove

March 3, 2012 By bigfatbaker 34 Comments

This month’s theme for the #lovebloghop was leafy greens! That’s right, March is #greenslove. Be sure to add any of your March 2012 recipes that include leafy greens to the hop!

I must admit, when I first saw that the theme for this month was leafy greens I was stumped.

Desserts don’t usually have leafy greens in them.

That thought got me to bread. Bread would be more likely to have a leafy green in it somewhere.

And then it struck me, pesto! I once made an arugula pesto in high school. This was the perfect time to retest that recipe and use it as a bread filling!

This bread even pleased the previously pesto hating boyfriend.

I recommend it toasted for breakfast with eggs. Or as the bread in a grilled chicken panini.

What would you eat with this pesto swirled bread?

Valentine’s Day Recipe Roundup

February 9, 2012 By bigfatbaker 2 Comments

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and I still haven’t decided on what dessert I want to make.

I’ve looked through all my cookbooks and all over Pinterest…still nothing has really struck me.

So instead of looking for something new, why not take a look back at some past favorites?

Organic Raspberry Curd – perfect as a macaron filling, cake filing, cupcake filling, over ice cream…the possibilities are endless!

Heart Shaped Chocolate Cake with Blackberry Buttercream — what better way to celebrate love with hearts and chocolate….and purplish pink frosting!

Pink Velvet Cheesecake — silky smooth with an oreo cookie crust and vanilla cream frosting (it uses the frosting from the oreos!!)

Mini Red Velvet Whoopie Pies — the classic cake in a mini handheld form. Wouldn’t these make the cutest present for your Valentine?

Strawberry Cupcakes — you can’t have Valentine’s Day with out strawberries! These cupcakes are delicious with the strawberry frosting, but would also be tasty with a silky chocolate buttercream.

What are some of your favorite things to eat or make on Valentine’s Day?

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Carrot Cake Truffles {Milk Bar Monday}

February 6, 2012 By bigfatbaker 29 Comments

Okay friends I am going to keep this short!

This Monday is the first of many very exciting Monday’s to come. I have joined forces with a group of 6 lovely ladies to make a recipes from Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook.

Every few weeks we all are going to pick a recipe, make and post it together! Feel free to bake a long with us. We want to hear your success, failures and everything in between.

Audra rallied us all to come together to make the Carrot Cake Truffles this week.

I have to admit, I was pretty nervous to jump into this book. It’s very different than anything I’ve attempted before.

First of all she does everything in weight. Which is a good thing, if you have a scale!

Luckily I invested in one a while ago. If you don’t own one yet, pick it up here really quick! It makes measuring much easier and more consistent. (Stella of BraveTart recently wrote a post about this!)

Secondly, Christina has a series of “mother recipes” she uses to create everything in the book. So once you have the mother recipes down, you can make anything in the book.

This recipe called for the milk crumbs and liquid cheesecake to transform her delicious carrot cake into ball form.

Despite the long process, the truffles were amazing. So don’t be afraid! Pick up your own copy of the book and join in on the fun!

Don’t forget to stop by the other Milk Bar Monday girls to see how amazing their truffles turned out!

Audra from The Baker Chick

Krissy from Krissy’s Creations

Meagan from Scarletta Bakes

Cassie from Bake Your Day

Nicole from Sweet Peony

And Jaqueline from Dusty Baker (our gluten & dairy free baker!)

You can also follow our group on Twitter! [Read more...]