French in Japan!

Homemade cereals bread and artisanal natural cheese from Komagata cheese factory in Isumi.

There is a cheese factory very close to our house in Ohara. Yes yes! a cheese factory in Japan! and not in Hokkaido!  But, sadly it is impossible to just go there and buy cheese... At least all my trials didn't success.
But, at last, I have found a place where to get some: Na no hana local products shop!!!

They have a selection of cheeses from Komagata and so far what I've tried was really good. A perfect match to my cereal favorite homemade bread!
A French girl, even in Japan is still French!!!

Breakfast with twisted orange bread, whole grain bread and smoothie

With Prunellia and Aurore visiting us I'm preparing a few samples of what we like to eat. The rice bowl with salad-acocado-tuna topping (see Prunellia's post), nabe, cookies, smoothie, breads...

For breakfast I asked them to pick one bread they wanted to eat and they decided for a twisted orange bread. Excellent pick for breakfast!

This bread is a little sweet, with orange peels and orange blossom water. (250g of flour; 155g of water; 12g of dry sourdough; 2g of yeast; 20g of sugar; 5g of salt; 12g of butter; 12g of orange blossom water; 45g sugared orange peels. Mix everything together, until smooth, then prepare like regular bread, only in the end you twist the dough and bake in a buttered pan with a lid for 30min at 220deg.)

I also made a whole grain bread too (see previous post), and a green melon-pineapple-strawberry smoothie.

We ate the breads just out from the oven with homemade marmalade and butter. Deliciously warming on a rainy Sunday morning! 

Sunday breakfast

For Sunday morning breakfast I like to eat homemade freshly baked bread, pancakes, crumpets, or anything alike, and fresh fruits in salad or smoothie. It's a good start before spending the day out.

This weekend I prepared sugar bread, the recipe comes from Erik Kayser's book, my reference for bread making (in French). 

It's basically bread base in which a little sugar has been added, and the final shaping is slightly different. After baking it it is also finished with sugar sirup.

Perfect with butter, jam or just nothing.

Spelt baguette

I wanted to make some baguette but realized I was running out of white flour, so I replaced it by spelt flour. The result was really tasty and I managed, despite the cold temperature in the house in that season, to obtain a very soft crumb in a relatively short time. 

First bread of the year

About a year ago I've started to bake my own bread on week-ends. Not for being snobbish but because in Ohara there is no good bread, and there is nothing better than a homemade breakfast!

Using a lot Eric Kayser's book on bread making in the past 12 months I really learned a lot and manage to make some good breads, brioches, etc...

In 2015 I'm well decided to continue and learn more.

So here are my first two breads in 2015:

Rye bread and Orange bread.