I’ve had a song stuck in my head for a day now. Do you like Piña Coladas? Getting caught in the rain…. Yup, all because of these here Pineapple Coconut Crumble Bars, I have been humming those two lines of The Piña Colada Song (mainly because I only know those two lines 🙂 ). It turned unexpectedly tropical this weekend in Greater Boston, so it was more or less appropriate eh?
And here is something different: have you ever tried *sweet* Focaccia? Normally it’s savory, with rosemary or garlic or olives or just as a rustic accompaniment to Italian food, but I decided to make some with honey, oranges and hazelnuts. Wow! Simply phenomenal. I could see this along side a salad for brunch or even as a breakfast bread. It’s bursting with flavor, light, sweet and delicious. And it was another excuse to experiment with my sourdough.
Plain ol’ boring white bread: Country White Sourdough Loaf
OK, so it isn’t really that boring. It’s got a nice crust, an airy (though not much of an open structure) crumb and the taste is great, but I am still experimenting with the sourdough loaves. I prefer to make multigrains and mixes, but I suppose that I should get the standard breads down too. This bread did make a spectacular turkey, spinach and harvarti panini for dinner last night though.
This week, in my ingredient challenge game, we’re doing things with peppers and chilis and I remembered that I had a whole lot of Thai Bird Chilis dried from last summer, so I decided to make some chili oil. It’s pretty hot, so definitely designed as a finishing oil. It’s got a bit of sesame seeds and sesame oil in it as well. Spicy, but not blow your head off spicy!
Brötchen/Brötle, Semmel, Weck/Weckle/Wecken, Bömmel, Schrippe, Rundstück, Laible, Weggen … and I am sure that I am missing some! Germans and their regional words for “bread roll” … English speakers aren’t much better, but when it comes to Germans and their love of the bread roll, it goes to a whole new level. These rolls even reference that Germanic culture in that they are Kaiser Rolls, with their distinct markings. I used a roll press to imprint them and they sort of stayed imprinted — I think my baker’s ratio made a little bit too lose of a dough (and I have to admit, Alice, my starter, was especially bubbly yesterday afternoon). These are delicious and light and perfect for breakfast with butter and jam, or a lunch sandwich. Just the perfect amount of crunch. Pleased with the result. You can also make them with poppy seeds or sesame seeds.