Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This month, Sue of  Palatable Pastime  told the Baking Bloggers that for November we were to share our "favorite yeast bread recipe. Any type of bread using yeast is fair game. Loaves, rolls, quick breads, flatbreads, you name  it." Here's the #BakingBloggers yeasty baking party... Bagels from Sneha's Recipe Connie's Swedish Rye from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Crunchy Herbed Whole Wheat Breadsticks from Cook with Renu Crusty No-Knead Oatmeal Bread from Making Miracles Hearty Slow Fermented Rustic Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories Hveteboller (Norwegian Cardamom Buns) from Tara's Multicultural Table Overnight Yeasted Cheese Scones from Food Lust People Love Pizza Focaccia from Palatable Pastime Sourdough Rolls from A Day in the Life on the Farm Connie's Swedish Rye Back at the beginning of our shelter-in-place, a friend gave me a loaf of Swedish rye bread that I left on the breakfast table before I lef...

If you read my blog regularly, you'll know that this shelter-in-place order inspired me to buckle down and actually learn how to make sourdough bread. You can learn more about that in my Dough-Ba Fett's Sourdough Adventures tab, but basically, I baked a bunch of doorstoppers, then I started to get the hang of it, then I went off the deep end with variations and had to go back to the basics. And, now, after coming up with my standard loaf - Ten-Percent Rye Sourdough Boules - I am easing back into small changes. My biggest variations have come with using craft salts from Big Sur Salts . Carlo Overhulser is a local-to-me salt artisan who sources his salt from Big Sur pools and blends them with hyper-local ingredients. I have several on my counter at the moment, but it was his Morada Salt that inspired this set of boules. The Morada Salt blend include elderberry syrup wild salt from another local purveyor - Carmel Berry Co. -, Pico Blanco sea salt, hibiscus, rose bud,...

When this sourdough adventure of mine began, at the beginning of the coronoavirus pandemic, I was determined to master a sourdough recipe and, then, begin to experiment with variations. As the weeks turned into months, I have settled on a standard. I usually make and shape four at a time, then bake them at various stages of ferment throughout the next several days. So, even though these are all different boules - the batches are clearly different in the photos - they are all the same recipe. Some bear the floured stripes of my banneton, others are simply placed in a bowl with a floured tea towel. Ten-Percent Rye Sourdough Boules For years - I mean years! - I have avoided making sourdough bread. Something about the whole harvesting native bacteria from the air to create the starter just made me start twitching with anxiety. Then a friend gifted me some starter. So, if this shelter-in-place has taught me anything, it's that I  can  bake sourdough bread. Don't g...

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our  Pinterest board  right here. Links are also updated after each event on the  Bread Bakers home page .  Today, the Bread Bakers, hosted by Karen's Kitchen Stories , are baking breads with rye. I'm excited to see everyone's rye breads! I had initially wanted to replicate a Swedish Rye Bread that a friend gave me a couple of weeks ago; I even had her recipe. But it didn't turn out the way I wanted. Probably because I was trying to substitute too many things: sourdough starter for yeast and butter for shortening. I'll get around to making it as written, but this month is not that time. In the meantime, check out this rye bread line-up from the #BreadBakers... Black Pepper Rye from A Messy Kitchen Coffee Scones with Maple, Raisins, and Rye from Palatable Pastime Everyday Multig...

While April was a ridiculously unproductive month for me in regards to the  Foodie Reads 2016 Challenge , I have carved out full afternoons to read this month. I had started The Restaurant Critic's Wife by Elizabeth LaBan* earlier this week. But, this afternoon, I curled up under a blanket - while Jake worked on the 8th grade graduation video and the boys did homework - and read the rest of it. I love losing myself in the pages of an entertaining read. On the Page... I had initially thought this novel would be a breezy read about a series of restaurant reviews. It was much more than that. Lila is the restaurant critic's wife and they have recently relocated from New Orleans to Philadelphia. Sam, her restaurant critic husband, is obsessed with anonymity and wants her to stay out of the public's eye. That means he doesn't want he to socialize with her friend from college who has recently opened a restaurant; he doesn't even want her to get to know their new n...

Bye, bye Miss American Pie Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye Singin' this'll be the day that I die This'll be the day that I die ~Don McLean, American Pie You would think that I would know the difference between whiskey and rye by now, right? To avoid any embarrassment of mixing them up, I just combine them!  I had attempted to make "plain chocolate chip cookies" for the guys at work. But, when I had all the ingredients on the counter, they just look so, well, plain. I don't do plain. So, I thought I'd add some whiskey and rye to the cookies. They aren't the prettiest, but they are delicious. We have a new favorite chocolate chip cookie! Ingredients 1½ C semisweet chocolate chunks 2 C flour ½ C dark rye flour ½ t baking soda ¾ C butter, room temperature 1 C organic dark brown sugar ½ C organic granulated sugar 1 large egg 1 T whiskey ...

I suppose these could have been 'The Catcher in the Rye' rolls, but I liked 'Rye and Prejudice'. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is another book I haven't read in awhile, but - honestly - it was never one of my favorites. I much prefer her Mansfield Park . But this post isn't a commentary on Austen's works, it's a recipe for some soft, tasty rolls that are a fabulous addition to your holiday table. And they're easy to boot! Ingredients 2 T dry, active yeast 1/2 C warm water 2 C plain Greek yogurt 4 eggs 1/4 C unsulphered molasses 2 T olive oil 1/2 t baking soda 2 C white whole wheat flour 2 C flour 2 C dark rye flour sage leaves, to garnish fleur de sel, to garnish za'atar, to garnish butter for rubbing Procedure Dissolve yeast in warm water. Let bloom for 10 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the egg and yogurt until smooth. Add olive oil, molasses and yeast mixture. Add baking soda and f...

To go with our Thanksgivukkah feast, R made a Rye Pumpkin Pie! Ingredients Crust 1-1/2 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 C dark rye flour 1 T caraway seeds, lightly crushed in a mortar and pestle 1/2 C powdered sugar 3/4 C butter Pie 2 C  pumpkin puree 1 C Hachiya persimmon puree 1 C heavy cream 3 eggs 1/3 cup ginger syrup 3 T organic brown sugar ground cinnamon ground cloves ground nutmeg pure vanilla extract Mix the flours, sugar and caraway seeds; rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in 1 teaspoon of water with a fork until the mixture forms a ball. Roll out between two pieces of parchment paper. Press gently into a pie pan. Chill in the freezer until ready to bake. Whisk all of that together and place in the crust. Bake in a 350 degree oven for an hour or until the filling is set. It will be firm to the touch and the crust will be lightly browned. Let it cool slightly befo...