How is it possible that I missed out on this incredible film until now.

Project finished: 1920s apron.

I discovered the muslin for this project in my fabric stash box and, 2 years later, finally finished this apron. Not much to say, really. The cotton fabric was bought on the cheap, as were the vintage celluloid coat buttons.



I made a paper pattern from the muslin, cut out 2 pieces of fabric and with right sides together, sewed it together all the way around leaving an opening to turn right side out. Press, understitch all the way around, add 2 pockets, make 2 gigantic buttonholes for the coat buttons and that's it.

It's really comfortable and I like that it covers the entire front of me because I tend to make a mess in the kitchen.

Chocolate Sourdough Bread.

100% hydration starter



doubled in 3-4 hours



My formula is a combination of this one and a few tips from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice, which was recommended to us at bread school. This means I had to do my own baker's math. I don't want to tell you how long it took me to figure it all out.

Formula:

12.00 oz Bread Flour [100%]
4.23 oz Starter [35%]
.18 oz Salt [1.5%]
7.41 oz Water [60%]
4.81 oz Chocolate [40%]
.38 oz Cocoa Powder [3%]
.88 oz Sugar [7%]

I ended up using only 3.81 oz of the chocolate and I needed to add a bit more water.


The dough doubled in 12-14 hours on top of my fridge.



Nice and gassy and it smelled so good!



Turn the dough out onto floured surface



Stretch it into a rectangle and add the chopped chocolate in a series of folds (4 folds total)



Shape into a boule and place in a mixing bowl lined with a well-floured couche. Proof at room temperature about 4 hours. Heat the stone in the oven to 450 deg.



I got a lame from Breadtopia (great price and they shipped really fast), but unfortunately, you won't be seeing how much better my scoring is this time around. Even though I floured the couche really well, the boule stuck to it anyway and I had to pry a big chunk off the cloth which messed up the top and deflated the loaf. Sigh.



I baked it off anyway with a steam pan and spraying the walls with a mister for the first 3 minutes of baking.



And even though it's missing some off the top, I still think it's gorgeous with its dark, chewy, floury crust. I've never had chocolate sourdough before now, and it's a winning combination. The 2 flavors go together so perfectly. I'm definitely going to do this bread again and work on perfecting my technique for getting the boule out of the bowl.

First sourdough bake off.

I feel pretty good about the results, although I'm already contemplating next steps and how to improve going forward. For one thing, I really blew it with the scores. Scoring the dough before it hits the oven directly relates to how the loaf is going to expand in the oven. The sharpest blade in my kitchen is an Xacto knife and it wasn't sharp enough to do the job properly. I need to get a proper lame.

But my starters are definitely on their way. The crumb was really tender albeit not hole-y enough yet. The crust was chewy and the taste was medium-sour and yeasty. All in all, really good.

The first sourdough loaves.

I've been nudging my sourdough starters along for the last month or so. It was a little touch and go there between week 2 and 3 because I didn't see much growth. They were, however, bubbling away and smelling very yeasty and sour.

They get fed twice a day and because my kitchen is quite chilly, I started putting the jars on a heating pad with towels around them for about 2 hours after their feedings and then sticking them on top of the refrigerator after that where there is a little more warmth than my counter. This week I finally saw about 1/2" of climb on the walls of the glass jars and while it's not exactly bubbling over, I decided to try to make a couple of loaves with it and see what happens.

Here's the proofed starter, ready to go into the dough mix-



Mixed with the rest of the ingredients until shaggy. This is allowed to rest for 30 minutes before kneading-



Here's the dough after about 10-15 minutes of kneading with a dough hook. It will get another 45 minutes of resting-



And here's one of the shaped loaves, ready for a night in the fridge-



Tomorrow I'll pull them out of the fridge and let them rise. Hopefully they will, and I'll have something to bake.

soy votive candles (basil, sage & mint).

Melt the soy wax in a double boiler.



First pour.



Adding the wicks.



Expected sinkage.



Second pour, capping them off.




Finished candles.

So glad I joined the crowd on this one.

Downton Abbey

sourdough starter.

Despite the fact that our bread instructor at SFBI told us not to forget our sourdough starters in the chiller when the 2-week class series ended, I left my sourdough starter in the chiller. That was about 7 years ago.

Last weekend in one of those -I need to do this random thing that occurred to me right now- moments, I decided to get a sourdough starter going to replace the one I left at the school.

I made 2 starters - whole wheat and rye.

Day 1 (whole wheat)



Day 6 (whole wheat)



One week later

whole wheat



rye



They really do have their own personalities. The whole wheat took off immediately, doing its thing and eating me out of house and home and unbleached white flour. The rye started very slowly. At one point I thought it was dead, but on day 6 it sprung to life and now appears to be slightly more active than its whole wheat partner. They're both very healthy and smell like sourdough, which makes me really happy because I have a backup in case one of them goes in the crapper.

At this point, I'm just maintaining them at room temperature with twice-a-day feedings, and I'll keep doing this for another week, at which point they'll go in the fridge for long-term storage.

to hell in a handbasket.

Back at the sewing machine: Knitting Project Bag.

Fabric from my stash, pattern: Grab Bags by allpeoplequilt..

Red beret, blue hair, fabulous.

Vintage Cardigan - front finished.

Toasted Coconut Shortbread

recipe by Smitten Kitchen

I made these for a dinner party and they were super easy and delicious.

To save even more time, I put the dough in a large ziplock bag and flattened it out with a rolling pin until it was an even 1/4" thick. Then you just zip up the bag, put it on a baking sheet and chill overnight in the refrigerator.

To bake - cut open the ziplock bag, turn the dough out and cut it into squares with a knife. Use a fork to pierce the tops of each cookie a couple of times.

Vintage Cardigan - Right Front Panel.