Banana Muffins.

On a rainy day, nothing beats a warm banana muffin and hot coffee. :)

I made these tasty muffins for my little business but never had the chance to taste it and really feel it... Today was an exception to my no sweets-anymore rule. I had one half for breakfast and I couldn't believe how good it was. :)

Happy Thursday everyone! :)

Wonder Bread. Finally.

So, finally after much anticipation because I was playing smart like a scientist before, I now successfully made a French Baguette, right to it's size, texture and even taste. I am so proud of myself. It literally made me jump for joy. I made my Wonder Bread!!!

Waiting for it again. It normally should bake at 45 minutes to an hour. I made a small one for tasting purposes.

Voila! I love my own. It's wonderful! Everybody loves it too. :)

Here's my recipe...

Paris Bread (French Bread)

Ingredients:

• 1,620 ml Water

• 100 grams Instant Yeast

• 30 grams Malt Concentrate (Karo Corn Syrup or Pancake Syrup will do)

• 50 grams Salt

• 2,400 grams Bread Flour or All-Purpose Flour

*This recipe has a yield of 4,205 grams. Better yet to divide the recipe in half for home cooking, just like what I did. *

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220 to 230 Celsius (430 to 445 Fahrenheit).
2. Grease tray or prepare French Bread molds, set aside.
3. Sift Flour and salt.
4. Dissolve yeast in water.
5. Add all ingredients and knead in low speed for 5 minutes and 10 minutes on medium speed. Dough should be elastic and smooth as a sign of good gluten development.
6. Bulk Fermentation: 1 hour, punch down after 30 minutes. (You will have to literally punch the center of the dough after 30 minutes.)
7. Scaling: 450 grams and shape to a small rope.
8. Rest for 25 minutes.
9. Shaping, roll out to a strand but do not force them too quickly. Roll the dough with a rolling pin then roll the dough inwards.
   
10. Place them on a tray or on French Bread molds with the seam on the bottom.
    
11. When half proof (meaning it has doubled up its shape), score or cut 5 diagonal lines down the center, overlapping each cut by 1 inch.
12. Bake with steam until golden brown approximately 45 minutes to an hour. (As I don;t have a convection oven that bakes steam with it, I took a stainless deep tray and half-filled it with water and placed it in the bottom part of the oven, as the oven warms to its designated temperature, steam forms from the tray filled with water.)
13. Cool completely on wire racks.
    
14. Slice and enjoy while it's warm.

Wonder Bread.

Why Wonder Bread? Because it's wonderful. No. It's not really. As I finished reading the book of Nicholas Sparks "The Wedding", I kept going back to the Wonder Bread and how famous it is because it was that bread that Noah kept feeding the Swan that was on the pond of Creekside. So, voila! My Wonder Bread. :) It's actually a recipe of Paris Bread (French Bread) or commonly known as "Baguette" in France. What I did was I made it into small but long pieces because I have this vision inside my head of those movies I saw, girls bringing paper bags fillled with baguettes and some of their groceries in tow. For me it was wonderful to look at.

Anticipating, waiting for the top to crack a bit and to turn into golden brown.

I made quite a number of bread but because I was playing smart, I managed to brush Egg Wash (Egg yolk + Milk + Little Water), hoping it would give the end result a golden brown color. But sad to say, it did but it made the crust extremely hard, and when I say hard, really hard like a stone. But the inside was tasty and right. Up to now, I still laugh about how my family ate it.

So, today, exactly 4 days after my first Baguette, I will try again. I will post pictures if they appear right. :)