Double Batch of French Bread

Tanith here again! This time with a kitchen update. It's coming up to the end of the break, (Colin and I fly back to Saskatchewan on Monday, weather providing), and something I wanted to do while I was home was make a huge batch of French bread with Mom :) So, the other day, that was what we did. Colin bought me a breadmaker for my birthday (thanks dear!) and I've been on the breadmaking fanatic train recently. I thought it would be nice to get back to the traditional side of breakmaking while I was home. Learn from the masters, if you will, and bring so more skills back with me to Saskatchewan.

I will add a copy of the recipe we used at the bottom, but you can follow along with my extensive and highly-flattering photos detailing our baking adventure.

This is what we were working with: The Lake Ainslie Heritage Cookbook, a well-worn and used version of it for sure. The measurements for doubling the recipe are already written in too, which (thankfully) meant that Mom and I had minimal math to complete. This is the recipe that I grew up with eating. As a kid, my involvement was limited to punching the dough down after the first rise. Now, I get to do that AND all the other steps.
Okay.... I'll admit.... Mom still did the dishes. #shamed.

Mom! Measuring!

 Speaking of Mom.... here she is starting to measure out the yeast. Now, we should have done the yeast and sugar and water after we mixed the sugar, boiling water and salt, so this mixture would be cool enough and not kill the yeast... But we forgot. It worked out alright in the end. Thankfully.

So, future reference... Mix the sugar, salt, lard and boiling water in a boil. Dissolve the lard, sugar and salt. Mix with a whisk to aid in cooling. This mixture should be tepid.

After getting these ingredients mixed up, set aside. In another bowl (a smaller one than the huge one you will need for the other mixture) add the sugar and warm water. Mix the sugar a little bit to dissolve, then add the yeast, mix very briefly and then set aside for ten minutes until the mixture is frothy. 

On the right is the yeast mixture. We let is sit for a little bit longer than the ten minutes because we were waiting for the lard/sugar/salt/water mixture to be a bit cooler, but I don't think it was detrimental at all. It always freaks me out a little bit at how much bigger the yeast gets after sitting.... And it just looks so weirddddd....

Below that picture, you can see Mom still whisking. And to the left of the yeast mixture, you can see my cat wandering in to the kitchen. And also my yogurt apparently. I forgot about that.

 Add the yeast mixture in to the larger bowl. Make sure to get all the frothy bits in to the larger bowl.



Then it is time to add the flour. Lots and lots of flour. The doubled recipe (to get four loaves) calls for fourteen (FOURTEEN!) cups of flour. Plus, there is more added in when you start kneading.

And kneading is what you are going to do next. Don't skimp out on that part. My 97-year-old grandmother knows how important it is, and she has made a mighty number of French bread loaves in her past.

Add more flour as necessary for you to not stick to the flour ball. Nannie also recommends adding the new flour underneath. I don't know exactly why we do it that way, but I'm not going to argue there. I think at the beginning of kneading I had enough extra dough stuck to my fingers to make an entire loaf of bread... If this happens, peel it off as best as possible, aaaand add more flour.

Ten minutes of kneading will take you from the mess on the left to the relatively neat looking dough ball that you see below you. Your arms should be at least a little tired at the end of it.


Then comes the hard part, you have to let it rise. Well, first, you have to grease a bowl with flour or oil, and then add the dough. Cover the dough, and put in a warm spot. Not hot, because then you'll bake the dough in your bowl and that is NOT a fun time. Trust me. We put our dough in the oven with the light on for an hour and a half. At the end of that time, your dough should be doubled in size and have a good amount of resistance when you touch it. That's all that gluten, good structure, great bread.

Next comes the best part of making bread. The punch! Complete with sound effects. Though, those didn't come across super well in the photograph. Sorry, you'll have to use your imagination.

Leave the bread to rest again after punching. And as tempting as it is, you only need to punch the dough down once. After punching it and letting it rest for a bit, it should look like what we have below.



 Then it's time to cut, roll and shape your loaves. You can do what we did, and just take the chunks out as you go... We ended up with two awesomely huge loaves and three smaller ones. Or you could do the mathematically sensible thing and divide it up in to the amount of loaves that you want. Four would be reasonable for the amount of dough that you have.
Roll the sections out to about a 1 inch thickness. Lightly flour the surface you are using to roll as well as the rolling pin. Otherwise your dough will stick a little bit.
It is amusing to roll out the dough at this stage because there is so much air left in the dough and the air bubbles pop as you roll. Go easy on the dough though, because you do want there to be some of that air left when you roll it up and bake 'em.

 Roll the sections up like a jelly roll and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
They have to rise, again.
The waiting is the hardest part.

 Mom rolled one loaf out, and I did the other four. I got better at it as I went along. Though my brother begs to differ.
Imma just let the following pictures speak for themselves. Mostly because they just look awesome. And also because you don't need me to comment on too much else.
The loaves WERE Nannie approved, and we went through one of the larger loaves in less than half an hour. So I think it is safe to say that the bread turned out well. :)
Actual recipe at the bottom of the post!

Three out of five!

The finished product!

Easy French Bread (4 loaves!)

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup lard
• 3 tsp salt
• 4 cups boiling water
• 1 cup cold water
• 3 pkg dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 14 cups flour

1. Combine 1/4 cup sugar, fat, salt and boiling water; cool to lukewarm. (Ten minutes) Whisk to dissolve lard. Add cold water after the ten minutes. 
2. While this is cooling, add 1 tsp sugar and 1 cup warm water to bowl. Then add yeast. Let rise ten minutes.
3. Add yeast mixture to sugar/lard/water mixture. 
4. Stir in flour and knead for ten minutes. Add flour underneath as needed while kneading so it is not sticky.
5. Place in to greased bowl and let rise until double (approximately 1.5 - 2 hours).
6. Punch down and let rest for 30 minutes. 
7. Divide dough on floured board. Roll each piece to (approximate...) 12 x 15-inch rectangle. 
8. Roll up, starting at the 15-inch side. 
9. Place on greased baking sheet, or one covered with parchment paper.  Slash diagonal lines on top with a sharp knife. Three is sufficient.
10. Let rise until double. 
11. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F. 
12. For a crustier loaf, place a pan of hot water on bottom rack of oven.

Optional: mix 1 egg (beaten) with 2 tbsp milk. Brush on loaves before baking

Optional: sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds before baking.

Turning Pens!

Tanith here! Sorry for the hiatus... I don't really have any good excuse for it either. But, I'm here now, and I have some pictures to show of our latest endeavor - pen making! Or turning, to be more accurate.

The first round of pens. Zebrawood, umm something and maple burl.

Colin can tell you about more of the technical aspects of it. And eventually, we will actually have some pictures of us turning the pens and putting them together. But it is still pretty cool to see the different types that you can make and what you end up with. The ones here are, I believe, all Baron Fountain pen kits. We buy the majority of our supplies through Lee Valley in Saskatoon. (Link to Lee Valley).
They have all the different kits so you can make the different types of pens.

After you pick the type of pen you want to make, you get to choose they type of wood you turn. Other than the specification that it reallllly needs to be a hardwood, there is really no other limitations. We've used maple, olive wood, zebra wood, yellow heart, purple heart, bubinga, and tulip wood. Some, of course, work better than others. The stabilized maple burl was probably the hardest to work with. Hardest in two ways. Hard as in the most dense, and hard as in it took FOREVER for it to turn. Colin had to sharpen the chisels twice while I was turning the one pen. I kid you not. The stabilized maple burl turned (ha, TURNED) out really nicely though. It's cool because they take one of those weird bulges from the side of a tree, fill all the nooks and crannies with plastic and then chop it in to smaller pieces that you can put on the lathe. Anyway.

The entire process of making a pen (providing everything goes smoothly...) can take no time at all. If you already have your pen blank drilled out, then you're pretty much golden, as that is the part that generally messes me up every time. If you're on a roll you can probably knock a pen out, start to finish, in an hour and a half. And that is assuming you take your time in sanding.

Finished fountain pens

Below I've included links to various kits and woods types on the Lee Valley site. If you are interested in pen turning, check these out - thought they are by no means the only options out there for purchasing materials.

Personally, I'm a fan of pen turning (except the drilling out the middle part...) because it is easy, and it turns out to be something extremely useful. They also make great gifts! I spent a day (cursing and swearing and) turning two fountain pens for my Mom and Dad for Christmas this year. They were quite impressed. I will try and get some pictures of those up as well, because I am quite


proud of how they look. Both were made with bubinga wood. A nice to turn hard wood with a rich red tone. Very pretty. ;)

Finished fountain pens for Mom and Papa

Useful Links:

• Ballpoint Twist pen hardware
• European Style pen hardware
• Flat Top Rollerball and Fountain pen hardware
• Streamline pen hardware
• Baron Rollerball and Fountain pen hardware
• Wood Blanks
• Stabilized Maple Burl blanks
• Complete Guide to Turning Pens

Winter in Saskatchewan

This was the first snow that we had this year

It's been quite a while since either of us has written. With the start of the school year and all the hectic activities that come along with it this blog got put on the backburner. Hopefully, at least one of us will have time to keep it updated.

It's officially wintertime in Saskatchewan. So far we have much less snow than we did this time last winter (it was near apocalyptic levels by the end of last winter) and the weather's been mostly mild.

Tanith and I did a fair bit of goose/duck hunting over the Fall. This is something that I haven't gotten the chance to do since I was a boy. We were fortunate to be able to go out with some friends and wound up having a great time. Tanith is still a bit shy of the shotgun, but now that we have all the gear for it I'm sure I'll get her blasting away next season.

Tanith's favourite part of one of our trips was taking
 "selfies" in the blind

A "Blue Goose" - Cross between a Canada and a Snow Goose

While I did a fair bit of deer hunting last Fall/Winter, I just don't think it's in the cards for me right now. School's been pretty hectic as of late - I've taken on some responsibilities with the drama  group, coaching Jr. Girls Basketball, 4H Archery will be starting soon,the Fire Department, and all the general rigamarole that comes with keeping an wood shop up and running as well as teaching History, Science, and Music.

We have been busy with woodworking projects though. So far this year my students have made some picnic tables, some duck decoys, various welding projects, candle boxes, wooden spoons (using the new lathe!), intarsia, birdhouses, toolboxes, and various other things. Now that I've fixed the thickness planer in the school it really opens up a whole lot of possibilities for what we can do. With that in mind I've found a cool plan for a simple wall shelf that I'd like my older students to build in the New Year. Naturally, I decided I had to make one myself - just to test the plans out y'know?

Some pictures of the project are below - the plans come from an excellent book that I picked up at the Canadian Woodworker in Saskatoon called "Country Pine Furniture Projects" by Bill Hylton.

Tanith with her painting gear on

I built the shelf out of some old boards from an outdoor skating rink. They were quite beat up but since all the wood needs to be planed down to 5/8 or 7/16 I was able to salvage enough to make this project. Joinery is simple, shelves are dadoed into the sides and the back is rabbeted so that you can panel it over. The trim around the top could be hit with a molding bit - maybe a French Provincial - but I don't have one so it's just left plain. "Country Pine" doesn't exactly denote complexity and extravagance.

I actually built two of these cabinets. The twin of the one below is above the lathe in the I.A. Lab. I use it to hold my waxes and finishes for wood turning projects as well as some files, rasps, and the faceplate for the lathe.

Tanith used milk paint on the one we have in our place. We used the same type of milk paint that we did on the chimney cabinet and were equally as impressed. The colors are beautiful and the paint is fun to work with - check it out at: http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=65208&cat=1,190,42942

The finished project is currently on the wall of our entryway.

Chimney Cabinet with Milk Paint

Me with the finished product

   Hey all! This is Colin, Tanith's sometimes better (but mostly worse) half. I am a high school Industrial Arts, History, Science, and Music teacher. In my spare time (hah) I enjoy building things, blacksmithing, fishing, hunting, and being outdoors..I've been lucky enough to come all the way out here to teach in a good little community. Along the way I've gotten to see and do some pretty cool things which I hope to share via this blog.

...now that the preliminaries are out of the way, the real reason I'm posting this  is to show off a chimney cabinet that Tanith and I built over the past spring/this summer. This actually came up when a colleague of mine showed me the June 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking which featured this beautiful Chimney Cabinet from Logan's Cabinet Shoppe (http://www.logancabinetshoppe.com/index.php). I was quite taken with it and decided that it would be my next project in the shop.

                                               
I followed the plan nearly exactly. The only changes that  I have made were the following:

No toggles - the doors shut tightly enough that they do not need them. I may regret this in the winter, though humidity is not as much of a factor in the Prairies as it is on the East Coast; we will see.

I used half lap joints for the face frame instead of mortises and tenons.

The rest is built pretty simply, shelves are dadoed into the case, the back is rabbeted to accept tongue and groove cedar paneling, and the raised panel doors are put together with standard frame and panel joints.

I might add that I used a full compliment of power tools to accomplish this. The original maker did all of this by hand - which is admirable - but I lack the tools and the time to do so.

We painted this particular creation with milk paint which we procured at Lee Valley in Saskatoon. We found it very easy to work. I enjoyed using it as it creates a very nice finish and is quite unlike modern paints. Also, it is organic, chemical free, and contains no oil by products or any toxins.

We painted this with an initial coat of "Lexington Green" which we then covered with three coats of "Marigold Yellow" which Tanith sanded away to reveal the initial coat - giving the impression of years of use.

The first coat is shown above

After the yellow was applied the cabinet looked something along these lines:

Tanith decided that she really liked this project

                                          
Finally we applied some beeswax polish to give this an authentic look and to protect the milk paint from water spotting. The wax darkened the finish somewhat and enhanced the amount of Lexington Green that showed through. We buffed the polish and once it dries we'll be ready to bring it home.

...A little bit of product placement...

                                               
That was the project, I hope that you enjoyed reading about it and that it gives you ideas or inspiration for your next project! Thanks for reading!


           -C.

Writing Revival

Well, it's been a year since we arrived in Saskatchewan, and about a year since we last updated our blog. We still have our blog on Wordpress... but after struggling with the layout, I thought I would try another blogging option before giving up on this completely. Because where's the fun in that?

School is starting up again, we had our first day back with the teaching staff today and spent it planning. Alright, everyone else spent it planning, I spent it cleaning up the disaster that was my room, as when everyone else was cleaning up their rooms in June, I was feverishly working away on the yearbook. Anyway. It's better now.

(Colin and I)

For anyone new joining us on this merry adventure, my name is Tanith, and my partner in crime is Colin. He might post here as well. You'll likely see a pretty immediate difference in writing style. I'm the rambling one. Though I like to think of it as more imaginative. And usually on track.

The two of us are teachers in the prairies, in Saskatchewan. Colin teaches Industrial Arts, and a slew of other subjects this year including Psychology, Canadian History, Science and Music. I'm teaching Home Economics and Health.

That brings us to the subject of this new blog, the adventures that we've had in the flatlands since we've gotten here, and the super awesome stuff that we've made between the two of us. And another method of helping me actually bake/make/create all of the things that I find on Pinterest. I might have a slight addiction. Colin doesn't mind so much (in fact, I think he is an enabler because he never complains when I try a new cookie or cake recipe...). We build things, and make things, and generally always have a number of projects on the go.

Now that's not to say that anyone out in internet land with be unduly interested in what we're doing, but maybe someone out there will be inspired by our little projects and stories. And it's a good writing exercise for me. And maybe, just maybe, along the way I'll figure out this blogging process.

So do-it-yourselfers, and closet Pinterest addicts, and even general mayhem lovers... this is for you.

"It's sanding time!"

~ t