Apple chips

Hokay, so. At pike place market there are these people that sell apple chips. They claim that they are 100% apple with nothing added. They're supposedly just baked. Those things are amazing. I love them so much I want to cry. Sooo I decided to try it out for myself. I used my mandolin to cut some gala apples and bake them at about 275 for around 2 hours I think. The outcome was terrific!! I loved it!! It tasted like the pike place market people!! Sooooo good. I am in love. Such an awesome snack. The chips are completely crisp, and they produce such a satisfying crunch when you bite into them. The only problem with these guys is they take a long time to bake (about 2 hours) and you can't make a lot at a time, since they probably can't be layered on top of each other on the baking sheet.

Here's the before pic:


And another after shot:


Check out this cool chip with the star:

Ciabatta

Happy holidays! Last week my older sister and I made ciabatta, again from this book. It was amaaaaazing. Definitely my favorite bread from the book so far. The bubbles in the bread were so big and awesome looking. The bread was amazing as toast. One recipe made 3 ciabattas. Mmm. Definitely will make again.

And now, some more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

BUBBLES!!!


TOAST!!


TOAST WITH GOAT CHEESE!!! This seems like it'd be good with some sun dried tomatoes on top iykwis. Riyeeeet.


...next up, focaccia!

Classic french bread

Oh hi. I made the second recipe in this book. It came out delicious. Tasted like real bread. One thing I did wrong was make the cuts in the dough too deep, as you can see in the pictures. Also, apparently the baguettes were supposed to be half the size. I was supposed to make 4 instead of 2. Whoops! Anyway, here are a few pictures from along the way:





And then here they are:


I also brought them to work:


Some people at work seemed indifferent about the bread and some said it was good. No one had the guts to say it was bad. Next up, ciabatta!

"Lean Bread" from Peter Reinhart

Oh hello there. I made the first recipe from Peter Reinhart's new book.

It is called "Lean Bread". I don't know why though. It probably explains in the description. The bread came out awesome.

Here's a picture of the final product:


The recipe made enough to produce two of them:


I made the dough, which was pretty painless, and then let it sit in my refrigerator for 2 to 3 days (but you don't have to leave it in there that long). Then, day of, you have to shape the dough and then let it rise for 1 hour, covered:


Then, let the dough rise for another hour, uncovered:


Then, I managed to blow all the fuses in my house other than the oven, before actually putting the bread in the oven. I still baked the bread, using candle light to see:


I still got a shot of the babies in the oven:


Since my refrigerator wasn't working (as there was no power in my place), I decided to put my refrigerated goods in bags and hang them outside my window:


And 2 more windows:


Hopefully there is power when I get home but I'm not getting my hopes up. Didn't hear back from my landlord yet.