bread maker machines

I agree. I think these are among the appliance of the century, up there with personal computers and mobile telephony.

DS1 has created a Christmas tradition in our home. Every year since he was about 16, he has made croissants from scratch. It which starts with a kitchen full of butter and airborne flour on Christmas Eve, and ends with opening Christmas presents over coffee and fresh croissants about 9.30am Christmas morning.

I dread the mess, but it is such a lovely gift, apart from being excellent theatre!

Is cultured, non-salted butter the secret of the perfect croissant?

One of his other specialties is hot cross buns for Good Friday. It is so hard to buy a good hottie! We don't bother any more.

DH's bread, straight out of his breadmaker, is just wonderful. As he is professionally involved in the grain industry he is very technical about his flour quality. He gets right into it. I am dying to get my grain mill and tip his world upside down! I used to make bread by hand many years ago, but with my little balding kitchen genie and his magic machine, why bother? I just rub the breadmaker with a damp cloth while I am washing up, and eventually a loaf of bread pops out of it, preceded by wonderful hot-bread smells. The other good thing about the breadmaker is that it doesn't make much heat in the kitchen, unlike the oven. This is really important to us during the summer, when the house is closed up during our very hot days.

Christine, I am just dying to make bread your way, but I need the mill first, and a good set of sifters.

Why do you sell the Hawos mill in preference to other mills? What makes it your favourite mill?

Louise

Oh, Louise, let me count the ways. It has that German precision about it that I haven’t seen in other mills I’ve handled. Several years ago we bought my son a cheaper model that looked something like the Hawos, but turned out to be rickety with low production value.

In order to have room for the “set” we had to take out my hand flour grinder. Just as well. It was very beautiful and made the finest flour, but I kid you not I would work off and on for hours to get barely enough flour for a small loaf of bread. The exercise was great, but after the novelty wore off it just wasn’t practical. I do like having it in storage tho, just in case we ever go (or are pushed!) off the grid.

I love the connection of my laptop, the access of my iPod and the convenience of my flour mill, but the older I get the more my simple soul shines thru - especially in the kitchen. I rarely use my blender anymore (dh uses the Vitamix every morning to make our blessed “drinkie”), or my food processor, or anything else with an electric cord. I have bought several hand grinders that I just love. I make loaves using the biggest one, grinding together brown rice, onions, carrots, walnuts and herbs. It had to be bolted to the table so it wouldn’t move, but I can fit my hand all the way inside to clean it and since we don’t use it for meat, it cleans up easily. I have a hand grinder for my barley juice that I like because it’s so easy and quick. We also have a plastic one that’s so complicated it came with an instructional CD, but dh likes it better than the metal one.

Oh yeah, back to bread. Unlike other flour grinders that use metal blades, Hawos actually grinds with high tech “stone” discs. There is a tremendous amount of power in the beautiful wooden box that houses the unit. Just flip the switch and out flows fine, slightly warm, wonderful stoneground flour.

Liv - I think that flour sifter was made near your neck of the woods...see if you can source them for us - lol.

I wish I could inspire you to knead bread. Maybe my sourdough video will help. With sourdough, the batter step is always completed, so you just take out what you need and move on to kneading and last rising. I put it into a big wooden rising bowl that never has to be washed. I love wild yeast and lactobacilli!!

I hear you about hot ovens in summer. This is where English muffins, dumplings and chapatis come in handy. I just had a chapati filled with chickpeas, mixed lettuces, local tomatoes and organic sour cream for lunch. Another favorite is broccoli, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes, and simply the best is a bit of cheese and lots of fire-roasted salsa. When the flour is fresh-ground, the oils make the tortillas (same thing) light and fluffy. I barely cook them on both sides and roll them up quickly to melt the cheese. You can become quite a connoisseur of cheeses this way (and several pounds heavier if you’re not careful!)

I really, really, really love food. Not only for the sake of eating, but growing, gathering and working with it too.

We’re filming about the mechanics of squatting tomorrow - soon to be up in the WWVCenter. Hopefully I can work the sour cream off before then. :-/

Louise, Lanny would probably give an arm and a leg for those croissants. Really, they are his favorite and I could almost smell and pull apart your Christmas ones.

Cheers,

Christine

Hi Gardengirl

Goodonya! I think that's one of the reasons why women enjoy quilting so much. They all have their eyes on what they are doing, and their minds in free space. It is amazing how many conversations happen while people are diligently doing something else.

I have been told that teenaged boys will talk while they are doing things like kicking a footy with you, or driving with you, or the two of you digging a hole, cooperative-type activities. I have found it to be true. Washing and wiping dishes was where I have all my good conversations with my Mum. It is just a bit difficult to arrange for family members to be in the same space as me, and a tub of hot water and a tea towel, all at the same time.

You have a Whisper Mill, don't you? What do you like about it?

And how were the chapattis???

Louise