Whew that right there looks like a righteous meal! I love the fact you use cast iron pans. As of this week we do not have any non stick pots or pans in the house and have went 100%cast iron. We had two non stick that were sitting in the basement for about a year and finally gave them away.
It's an Oster we got on a clearance sale at Meijer's for $30 a couple years ago. It works well for our needs and though not perfect it is very good and there is nothing like the smell of fresh bread! My niece came over a few weeks back and had no idea you could even make bread at home oven, bread maker or otherwise... So we made bread and she was totally blown away by the smell and taste. We love that machine. http://www.amazon.com/Oster-5838-58...391542324&sr=8-3&keywords=oster+bread+machine
I am teaching my wife slowly how to use the pans. The other night she said what are the black flecks in the pasta? Turns out it was the oil floating and some oil flaking off the pan a little so no biggie but she isn't completely sold yet. I on the other hand haven't used any of our steel pans or non stick since we bought these pans! I do the majority of the cooking...
Personally I love cast iron cooking. I find the best pans are the ones you find at estate and garage sales that are generations old. I have a one small pan from my grandmother that was given to her from her mother's collection when my grandmother moved away from home. That pan must be well over a hundred years old. It is light weight and is so smooth nothing sticks to it. Years ago I go over to my dad's when he was having a garage sale. There on a table was our old camping dutch oven. I said, what you selling that for, can I have it? Of course he told me to take it. Again inside is so smooth it's like glass. My favorite to make in it is my Shepard's Pie. Pete, you sure there's not a baker inside you somewhere? I have given a lot of thought if it would be possible to bake a No Knead Bread in my fireplace. They need a lot of heat but I think the box would still be just too hot for that. Pete, have you ever tried a No Knead Bread. If you like the old world crisp crust and wide open texture in a bread you ought to give it a try. You'll need about 12-18 hours to do it right though, a good heavy dutch oven and hot hot super hot oven.
Funny thing is I love to cook! My next project was gonna be a breakfast caserol this morning but I didn't get home till really late due to weather so I forgot to stop and buy the ingredients of course... O well blueberrie pancakes it is. I have made bread from scratch a lot ( good at it ) as well as tried a no knead bread and it was an abysmal failure still haven't figured out what I did wrong there. The bread maker is fantastic and easy to use because we are gone 12 to 13 hours a day most of the time. I just ordered a new bread recipe book too. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558672966/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's awesome bro!
I bet you could do up some fine breakfast coffeecakes in that thing too. What I'm best known for is a Polish Coffee Cake. The first pic is a shot of one of mine and the second one is a couple sitting in my old oven.
Just told my wife she needs to break out the breadmaker after seeing your post.. Love the smell of fresh baked breads..
Hmmm, I'm the breadmaker. I used one of those that mixes and bakes all in, but once I started making by hand........no comparison. IMHO Andy, may I please have the recipe for the Polish Coffee Cake? I promise not to post it on the internet. Pete, no-knead is probably one of my favorites, but you can't rush it much. Takes very little yeast. Last one I did, I used a bunch of my sourdough starter and even less "other" yeast. Had a nice taste. I start mine in the evening, then bake mid-morning the following day. Easy.
Here's the link to the no-knead, if you don't already have it......http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=0 I love this Honey Whole Wheat recipe. Only about 4 hours from start to finish IMG_20140206_0001.pdf ETA: click the pdf.....surprised it even showed. Oh yeah, I always double.
man that stuff looks good, all of it! Around Christmas time in years past, I used our Rival bread machine to make swirled cinnamon bread. after the final "punch-down", I'd pull out the sweet bread mix (which was a homemade dough I cannot find the recipe for), then roll it out on the counter and put a cinnamon/sugar/syrup concoction on the rolled out dough, roll it up and put it back in the bread machine to rise and cook....talk about an AMAZING, doughy, delicious dessert bread.,...WOW.... SORRY, no pics to prove it. It's been around 8 years since I've made that stuff. Yet another reason I want to get a stone oven built outside sometime soon.....to start making these old-fashioned breads, bagels, muffins, pizza, 'bolis,......OK I'M DONE NOW......
I don't have a recipe/formula I can share with anyone for a Polish Coffee Cake. That one is a closely kept family secret since it is our bread and butter item. Besides, I make them anywhere from 90 to 180 of them at a time. I could help formulate your own though. Making Breads or Sweet Doughs is all about experimenting, observation and identifying certain rules of formulation. OH, and very important to understand the actual function of ingredients. Blend all those things together and you can create and discover your own recipes. I do this all the time anyway to my formulas. So they are changing anyway as products evolve or disappear from the market as times pass. I would have to play around in the kitchen to even begin to figure out how to mix and bake using all the measuring devices used in a home. I use all pounds and ounces. It would be easy if home measuring had a standard, say like the metric system, then simply using Bakers Math or Indirect Proportion, it could be applied to the recipe to make it into what ever size desired. If you try something and want it to perform differently let me know and I'll help you fix it, well, at least suggest some things.
