15 March 2010  |  Food

Some Recent Testing

Recipe testing, of course.

Salt and pepper bread.  Ok, it sounds a little weird, but it was tasty.  I just put cracked black pepper inside and some fancy flaky sea salt on top- a big hit with Dusty and good for dipping.

My first attempt at a “breakfast bread.”  I don’t know why I am calling it that- I just was in the mood for a bread with a lot of stuff in it without it being too crunchy or grainy and dry.  I used shredded apples, carrots, some wheat bran, almond butter and raisins (which i didn’t mix in well enough so they sunk to the bottom…).  It was moist, had a great texture and was still nice and fluffy, but I was looking for something a little more flavorful and maybe a little denser.  Back to the drawing board.

Breakfast bread #2 turned out a lot better.  I used 100% whole wheat flour, wheat bran, carrot juice instead of water, upped the amount of carrots, apple and almond butter, threw in some coconut and sunflower seeds.  Ok, and a dash of molasses for good measure.  This one had the hearty flavor i was looking for without being sweet.  Bread was moist and dense. Yum.

Ginger beer!  In my many travels through the depths of cooking websites, I came across a recipe for ginger beer, and I thought, “I like ginger beer!”  Then I read the recipe and thought, “that looks easy!”  So I tried it, and…it worked ok.  I might have fermented it a bit too long, and I think it could have used a little more gingery “bite,” but it was a good first try.  Dusty was a little creeped out by the stuff at the bottom- even though it was just tiny pieces of lemon and ginger.  (Ok, I admit just saying “stuff at the bottom” sounds kind of gross.)