Nick

I have been making sour dough bread for awhile now. Kind of a serious hobby. Means that you need to maintain a sourdough culture which you refresh every day with flour and water. The yeast is a natural wild yeast present in the flour but also using the organisms present in the Karori air where I live. I bake every weekend and sell my loaves to locals. Great fun. I have just bought a commerical oven which I hope will increase my output and produce a better loaf. This is a picture of one of my loaves just out of the oven. The lines are from a banneton - basket that I rose the bread in. Came across the Manchester sound (only about 15-20 years after the event) introduced to me by my 14 year old son. One track that struck me like a freight train was the one below which also featured in the excellent movie [|24 hour party people] media type="file" key="05 Hallelujah [Club Mix].wma" width="300" height="45" I have uploaded one of my favourite chocolate cake recipes - a sure fire winner. I got this recipe from Helen when I was teaching in Dargaville many years ago. I remember she made it for every party I went to. I liked it so much I asked her for the recipe - am I glad I did. You can see my chocolate smudges on the heavily used recipe. Strange post note - many years later someone gave me a recipe from the newspaper I recognised it immediately as the same one. The recipe was attributed to a high society caterer [|Serena Bass] in New York - the only difference was she used buttermilk instead of milk. Having tried both I think milk has the edge. Made me wonder though how do recipes travel the world. How did Helen in Dargaville get that recipe ? Where did Serena get it? Did she get it from Helen? Hmmmm??? This is a photo of one of the main chocolate cake eaters. My daughter Lily in the Karori snow. I saw a pastry cutter in an op shop recently and always wondered how to use it. I checked out the fabulous baker Rose Levy Beranbaum on You tube using a pastry cutter to make pastry. She is wonderfully scientific about her baking. media type="youtube" key="84e71BdlfoQ" height="344" width="425" My Mum in the Italian Alps about 1950 ish. Mummy I miss you.