Baking comes to an end...

The baker comes back in Sunday night and I told him before he left that he doesn't have to come in to work till Tuesday so he would have Monday to rest so I may get to bake a little more on Monday BUT...

In my two weeks of being able to cover that 'baking' side of things I managed to bake quite a lot while also getting my other responsibilities done as the galley manager.  I still took weekends off because I had baked enough bread to carry me through Saturday & Sunday.  I enjoyed myself.

In the last 2 weeks in bakery:

• Baked approximately 1200 loaves of bread (white & wheat combined total)
• Biscotti 300-400 pieces
• Dinner Rolls 400
• Herb & Olive Rolls 400
• Focaccia 400+ pieces
• Jalapeno Cheddar Bread 400+ slices
• Cinnamon Rolls 700+ (Twice @ 350 average)
• Brownies 350
• Pieces/slices of Pizza 1100

Back to cracking the whip next week and maybe working on some new recipes for the menu.  It was a good time to renew in my mind the possibilities of what can and could be done in the bakery...maybe in the future I can get around to a few things I was thinking of but didn't have time for such as:  coffee cake, muffins, breakfast breads, garlic cheese biscuits, breakfast biscuits, etc.  Just to name a few things I was considering.

Jalapeno Cheddar Bread

For this bread you want to actually add the jalapeno's into the flour/dough...but add the cheese later when tri-folding and rolling the loaves of bread up.  Kind of like when I talked about making the cinnamon rolls except with cheddar, not a cinnamon-sugar mixture.

In this one, we see the bits of Jalapeno...

Ingredients ~ the rolling pin is just for looks, I just smashed this one out with my hands as well, notice no flour everywhere...I like to work 'clean'.  Cornmeal in the bowl is to lay down on trays so loaves do not stick as bad.  Usually, they never stick especially with well-seasoned trays, but some of that cheese melting out of the bread makes a difference.

They 'sprang' a little more than I expected from the oven so I have MONSTER BREAD but you know nobody was complaining.

See that cheddar and Jalapeno goodness oozing at you...

The cheddar is trying for an escape...

Yeah, I had a good time and got carried away...but they didn't leave any leftovers.

Just a good ole rolled ugly home loaf with easy ingredients: cheddar, jalapeno, flour, salt, sugar, yeast, water.  Yep, that's it.

Biscotti

Biscotti
The word "biscotti" in Italian is the plural form of biscotto, which applies to any type of biscuit, and originates from the medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-baked": it defined biscuits baked twice in the oven, so they could be stored for long periods of time, which was particularly useful during journeys and wars. Through Middle French, the word was imported into the English language as "biscuit".
American biscotti are indeed crisp cookies often containing nuts or flavored with anise. Traditionally, biscotti are made by baking cookie dough in two long slabs, cutting these into slices, and reheating them to dry them out. A basic recipe is a mix two parts flour with one part sugar with enough eggs to create a stiff batter. To the mixture baking powder and flavorings such as anise, chocolate, or nuts are added. The slabs are baked once for about twenty-five minutes. They are then cut up into individual cookies and baked again for a shorter period. The longer this second baking is, the harder the cookies will be. In contrast to the Italian version paired with wine, American biscotti more frequently accompany Italian-style coffee- and espresso-based beverages, including cappuccinos and lattes.

Well, I guess you could say that I made my biscotti with nuts, coconut!  Below is my coconut and orange biscotti.  Using desiccated coconut (extremely dried out) and orange oil, extract, and/or peel.  Again, I needed about 300 to 400.  Gone quick.
Below is a simple process of how it's done, first bake is approximately 25 minutes at 350 F, second bake for 15 minutes at 325 F.

Now enjoy with coffee, espresso, tea, hot chocolate, milk...

Stephanie took some of them, melted chocolate chips in the microwave then slathered them on one side with the chocolate and waited for them to cool again.  Try doing this with a lot of chocolate (semi-sweet, dark, milk, or white chocolate) or any other melt-able addition that tastes yummy and dips, drizzle, and/or both for a more 'gourmet/fancy looking' delicious biscotti.

My heart...

There are our lovely Bible study girls from Mama Victoria's orphanage. They came to ship yesterday and we had so much fun. They are so funny and they find humor in EVERYTHING!!! We gave them a tour around the ship and they were most enthralled by the kitchen and the laundry room. They could not get over the idea of putting your clothes in a box, adding soap, walking away, and coming back to clean clothes. They thought it was silly and that we should just do it the right way and scrub our clothes with our hands. They also hated the idea of the kitchen with no open fire.

I wish you could know them, I wish you could hear them laugh and sing. They do both wholeheartedly with smiles that make my heart melt.



Cortu is 16 and has been raised by the Suzanna (Mama Victoria's daughter) and has a wisdom that goes far beyond her years. When she speaks she does so with confidence. She reads the chapter that we study every night for the 7 nights that we are gone and writes down what she learned, then she shares her best insight with the group. I often find myself taking notes when she shares. I love Cortu, and I find myself drawn to her.



Regina is a HAM! She is about 4'8" and has this explosive energy. Anytime there is a camera she is in front of it posing. She is the one out of the group that makes them laugh so hard that they literally fall over. When she was on the ship she used the bathroom and it has a vacuum flush that is quite loud.  Apparently it scared her and she came flying out of the bathroom and proceeded to laugh so hard we thought she might suffocate.



Alice is quiet and a little reserved. She is one of the younger girls and listens intently in Bible study but does not say much. She has a sweet spirit about her.



Mary is a unique blend of being motherly yet very playful. She listens intently when you talk and truly wants to know us. She is conservative but yet is in the middle of the whooping and hollering when they all get riled up (which is often).



Ruth is the seamstress of the orphanage and loves to cook.  She really wants to go to school to be a caterer. Ruth does not say much during Bible study, she usually is catching up on her reading.



Annie is the oldest of the girls and definitely the big sister of the group. She is very sassy and definitely sets the tone for the group. She is taking her entrance exam for nursing school on August 30th. Annie always knows her memory verse perfectly and she contributes with her own life experience, even the hard parts.



Betty is one of the younger girls, she usually doesn't know the memory verse and is a typical teenager that is very chatty. Her energy is contagious and she gives the best hugs.



Gerilyn has been the hardest for me to get to know. She is an observer by nature and doesn't compete for attention like some of the other girls. The more I get to know Gerilyn the more I see her authenticity. She told me yesterday that she wants to be nurse like Jenn, Jeanne, Becky, Sarah and I.

Cinnamon Rolls, Cinnamon Buns, Sticky Buns

Whatever you like to call them, just make sure there good & fresh preferably.

I make cinnamon rolls freestyle.  That means I make the dough, a cinnamon-sugar mix (just to clarify I like to use 2/3 brown sugar and 1/3 white sugar and as much or little cinnamon as you like, no cinnamon creates caramel tasting rolls/buns), and melt some butter then just start making them!

This site from King Arthur Flour has good pictures and recipes for doing them at home, I do them in bulk, you know 300 or 400 at a time!

King Arthur Blog - Cinnamon Rolls

I don't use flour to form, roll, or flatten the dough.  Just a little oil or no-stick spray on my hands.  Then I beat the dough down after it has risen double in size.  Smash it out (flatten it) with your hands until it resembles a rectangle.  Pour a little melted butter and squeegee it all around the rectangle then sprinkle your cinnamon & sugar mixture around on top of that.  Yes, it will be messy but who cares?  Its a cinnamon roll!!!

Roll it up and start cutting your cinnamon rolls out of it... Make sure to roll them real tight but don't worry about how much the mess on your hands is sticking to the dough.  That's trivial.

If you want to be more precise (but why?  The dough is going to swell and rise again so who cares if the cinnamon roll is not perfectly round?) you can use thread or floss to slide under the log of rolled-up dough then pull the strings together on top until it cuts everything between the circle of string.  (kind of like choking somebody from behind with rope on a scary movie except that you carry all the way thru with pulling the string till the formed cinnamon roll pops off the end of the log!).

They make them pretty close to the way I do, using a soft white bread dough recipe.  Where they use milk to spread on the dough for the cinnamon-sugar mixture I use melted butter, which makes it more caramel-y. (yeah, that's not a real word)

Use parchment paper for easier clean-up in your pan, pyrex, or glassware.  Yes, it's available in your 'home' size at the grocery store along the same aisle as plastic wrap and foil.

Well here are pictures of the ones I make, hope they make you hungry and inspire you to try your own.  Quit buying those ones at the grocery store and get over your fear of yeast!

This chafing dish - 2.5" steam table pan holds approximately 24 rolls, I made about 15 of these pans.  None came back.



As you can see there is a good color on the cinnamon roll sides and easy cleanup with the parchment paper



Pull one out to reveal the soft bread and see the dough has cooked



Do you want to keep that thick rich creamy white look to your glaze?  Add in some cream cheese to your basic powdered sugar, milk, vanilla extract recipe.

Another trick is to NOT glaze them but put pecans (or nuts of your choice) in the bottom of the pan before putting cinnamon rolls in, then after baking flip them over on a plate or tray and have pecan covered sticky buns with the caramel tasting syrup running over the 'bottom' now turned top.

These are from scratch cinnamon rolls folks, please, please do not go trying to make a 'diet' or non-fat version of these or making them with wheat flour, there are CINNAMON ROLLS for crying out loud!

*(actually besides the butter that adheres to the cinnamon-sugar mixture -which is also substituted by milk sometimes- and maybe a small amount of oil in the bread dough, there is no fat just loads of sugar in the icing!)